(LIVERMORE, Calif.) — A 26-year-old was shot outside a Tesla Distribution Center in Livermore, California, on Friday, according to police.
Livermore Police responded to a report of a shooting on the roadway outside of a Tesla Distribution Center. When they arrived on scene, officers found one victim shot.
The suspect fled the area. The victim was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
An investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
Tesla did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(TATE COUNTY, Miss.) — Six people are dead after a “series of shootings” in Tate County, Mississippi, on Friday, authorities said.
A suspect has been taken into custody, the governor said.
The shootings occurred at three different locations in Arkabutla — outside a convenience store and in two homes — according to Tate County Sheriff Brad Lance.
The gunman first entered the store, then fatally shot a man in a vehicle outside in what appears to be a random attack, Lance said.
A woman was fatally shot inside a home about two to three miles away from the store, Lance said. Her husband was struck with a weapon but survived, the sheriff said.
The third scene was behind the suspect’s house, at a home down an access road, according to Lance. Two people were found dead in the house and two more were found dead on the access road outside the residence, Lance said.
The suspect — identified as Richard Dale Crum, 52, of Arkabutla — was arrested outside his home without incident, Lance said. He allegedly had two handguns and a shotgun.
Crum has been charged with one count of first-degree murder, with additional charges for the other victims expected to be filed in the coming days, the sheriff’s office said.
Crum is being held without bond in the Tate County Jail. It is unclear if he has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
The sheriff’s office said it is in the “very early stages” of the investigation.
Investigators believe the suspect has no connection to the victim at the convenience store and are working to determine if he was related to or knew any of the other five victims, Lance said.
(BURLINGTON COUNTY, N.J.) — A man accused of holding a woman hostage for nearly a year was arrested and charged with kidnapping after the alleged victim managed to flee their residence to a gas station, authorities said.
James Parrillo Jr., 57, was arrested on Feb. 7 in Burlington County after the woman he allegedly kidnapped escaped from the residence they shared, according to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office and New Jersey State Police.
The woman reportedly told police she first met Parrillo — whom she knew by the name Brett Parker — at a gas station in New Mexico in February 2022 and agreed to give him a ride to Arizona, prosecutors said. She reportedly said she was in a voluntary relationship with the man for about a month when he allegedly physically assaulted her while they were in California, “at which point she felt unable to leave the relationship,” the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
Parrillo allegedly took the woman’s phone and debit cards and “isolated her from her family,” the attorney general’s office said.
The two arrived in New Jersey sometime in December and were staying in a rented room in Bass River for about two weeks when she managed to escape following an argument with Parrillo, during which he allegedly beat and choked her, authorities said.
The woman bolted the door to the gas station and reportedly told the gas station attendant she had been kidnapped for approximately a year, authorities said.
“Footage from the station’s security camera shows Parrillo following the woman to the gas station and attempting to open the door, then leaving when he found it locked,” the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said.
The gas station attendant called state police, who apprehended Parrillo a short time later as he walked down County Road 542, authorities said.
Parrillo has been charged with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree strangulation and aggravated assault and third-degree criminal restraint, authorities said. He also faces charges of third-degree hindering apprehension, fourth-degree obstruction and refusing to provide a DNA sample.
He was ordered detained at the Burlington County Jail while awaiting trial during a hearing on Wednesday. ABC News was unable to reach his attorney for comment.
Information provided by the alleged victim and found on social media indicate that Parrillo “may have engaged in similar predatory conduct with individuals in other states,” prosecutors said.
“We are reaching out to law enforcement across jurisdictions to identify other people who may have additional information on the defendant,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement, calling the case “deeply disturbing.”
A spokesperson for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said they have no further comment when asked about Parrillo’s history.
Parrillo is known to go by different names, authorities said. New Jersey State Police are leading the ongoing investigation and have urged anyone with information to call 855-363-6548.
(NEW YORK) — When Lindsey Spero, 25, approached the podium at a Feb. 10 public hearing of the Florida medical board on a gender-affirming youth trans care ban, they used their allotted 2 minutes, 30 seconds to inject testosterone in front of board members and the audience.
The tension in the room was palpable, Spero said.
“I considered, going into it, all the things that I could write … all the things that I could say” to the medical board, said Spero, who is nonbinary, in an interview with ABC News. “I felt as though action is necessary because historically speaking, queer freedom and liberation has never been won through words alone.”
In some states, being able to take hormone therapies may soon become banned or restricted for adults like Spero.
Though Spero was protesting a ban against care for minors, they know they’re not in the clear. They believe their access to care in adulthood also could be restricted or limited.
Across the country, Republican-led efforts include seeking to ban or restrict gender-affirming care for people into adulthood or placing barriers for adults trying to access such care.
Research, including a study in JAMA Surgery, consistently finds that gender-affirming care reduces the risk of mental health problems and suicidal thoughts.
“It’s necessary that – as trans people – even though this might not be immediately taking away my access to medication, I am still going to fight for each of my siblings. Because I know that this is my life on the line as well,” Spero said.
In Spero’s home state of Florida, adults are banned from using Medicaid to receive gender-affirming care.
Some states have gone further.
In Oklahoma, a proposed bill would make it a felony for anyone under the age of 26 to access gender-affirming care in the state.
The legislation, introduced by Republican state Sen. David Bullard, was met with protests from hundreds of opponents outside the Oklahoma state capitol building.
Bullard’s office has not responded to requests for comment by ABC News.
In Virginia, a proposed bill would ban gender-affirming surgeries for people under the age of 21. The legislation was amended to remove bans on hormone therapies.
It also states that in order for someone over the age of 21 “to receive gender transition procedures, he must first obtain a referral from his primary care physician and a referral from a licensed psychiatrist.”
State Sen. Mark J. Peake, who is behind the bill, told ABC News that he wants to restrict gender-affirming surgeries until patients are 21 because “juvenile brains really are not developed as a teen.”
Because of this, he believes people should have to wait for surgery until they are older.
“I think making a decision to permanently alter your body to remove a healthy body part is much more serious than buying a beer,” said Peake, a Republican.
He later continued, “There have been a lot of people who have come out who have had these surgeries and have indicated that they regret it.”
Research shows that rates of regret for gender-affirming procedures are extremely low — estimates are around 1%. Rates of regret for knee and hip replacement surgeries are much higher than gender affirmation surgery, according to studies.
A bill in South Carolina is identical to the original Virginia bill in that it bans gender-affirming procedures for people under 21 and makes it harder for people to access that care when they’re over 21.
“We have trans people who are under 21, but they’re adults. Why do they not have their own bodily autonomy?” Zoë Glass, an LGBTQ advocate from South Carolina, told ABC News.
Republican state Sen. Daniel B. Verdin III, who is behind the South Carolina bill, has not responded to requests for comment by ABC News.
Advocates argue that lawmakers are slowly trying to legislate trans people out of existence.
“The existence of trans people under 21 [is] being criminalized in South Carolina and it’s extremely frightening – extraordinarily frightening.”
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, there are roughly 275 anti-LGBTQ bills that are currently in state legislatures or have been passed in the United States this year. Many of these include banning transgender care for minors and criminalizing people who provide such care, banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams, discussing or teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, and more.
Glass, who works with the LGBTQ advocacy group Harriet Hancock Center Foundation, said trans people in the state of South Carolina are preparing for the worst.
“Make sure all of our medical ducks are in a row. Make sure all of our paperwork is in a row. Our birth certificates are taken care of, our identification is taken care of,” Glass said. “So hopefully those things don’t revert back if they decide to turn gender in South Carolina, constitutionally, back to what you’re assigned at birth.”
Transgender activists want people to focus on the lives saved by gender-affirming care, which has been proven to improve mental health.
Spero said they had experienced barriers to accessing such care in their younger years and they believe gender-affirming care can be lifesaving.
“As somebody who felt acutely suicidal … who was placed through multiple rounds of conversion therapy, I can tell you that it is incredibly hard to stay alive as a young trans person,” Spero said.
“[Bans] will impact the lives of trans youth … will cause mental distress and will cause, unfortunately, a lot of negative effects in the lives of these youth because they’re not able to access life-affirming care.”
(LOS ANGELES) — Federal hate crime charges have been filed in the shootings of two Jewish men in Los Angeles this week, according to a criminal complaint.
Jaime Tran, 28, has been charged with hate crimes in the separate shootings of two Jewish men as they were leaving religious services in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, according to the complaint.
The shootings occurred within 24 hours on Wednesday and Thursday mornings as the victims left different synagogues within two blocks of each other, authorities said.
Both men were shot “at close range,” Martin Estrada, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said during a press briefing Friday announcing the charges.
“The complaint alleges that Tran, motivated by hate, targeted the two victims because they were Jewish, or he believes them to be Jewish,” Estrada said, who noted that the victims were wearing clothing that “visibly identified their Jewish faith.”
The first victim was shot in the lower back, while the second was shot in the upper arm, Estrada said. Both are in stable condition, authorities said.
If convicted, Tran faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, Estrada said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — As the cleanup and investigation continues into the freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, concerned residents have been pushing government officials for more answers on the state of the surrounding environment.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan spoke with GMA 3 about the latest updates Friday.
GMA3: We have a lot to talk about, so let’s get right into it. Why are you so confident that it’s safe for residents to go back to their homes? And what do you tell people who are still skeptical?
MICHAEL REGAN: First of all, I tell them I’m thankful for state, local and federal coordination and our emergency responders. There have been no loss of life or serious injuries because of this derailment. I understand people’s anxiety. I’ve spent time on the ground with families just yesterday and in the community. And I’m confident because we’ve deployed some of the highest technologies we have to monitor the air. We have mobile vans in and out of the community. We have stationary air monitors and we’ve been in nearly 500 homes testing the indoor air quality. So for homes that have been tested, we are confident that if your home has been tested and you’ve been given the green light, the air is safe. The state is leading on the testing of the water quality. And I trust what Gov. [Mike] DeWine is saying, which is if the state has tested your water and you’ve been given the green light, then that water is safe. But if the state has not tested your water, he is advising and the state is advising that the residents continue to use bottled water.
GMA 3: So, Mr.Administrator, you were in East Palestine yesterday. You say that you trust the science here, but as a father, would you keep your family there if this was your town? And what were you hearing from residents yesterday?
REGAN: I spent time in [a resident’s] home yesterday listening to her talk about her experience. And she has aging parents that she’s taking care of as well. I understand the concerns as a father, as a husband, as a son who has parents over the age of 70. All families should feel that their water is safe to drink and the air is clean and breathable in the homes that have been tested. And looking at the data of our advanced technology in terms of air quality monitoring, if I were in the community, I would return if state, local and federal government had cleared me to do so. I would not drink the water if the water had not been tested. But if the water has been tested, I trust what the science is saying.
GMA 3: Sir, let’s talk about some numbers here. This train had 141 freight cars with some carrying, of course, those extremely hazardous materials. It had three people on board. You had two rail workers and one trainee. Do you believe that’s enough when you’re transporting toxic chemicals?
REGAN: I don’t want to get out in front of a very serious investigation by NTSB and the Department of Transportation. But I think there are a lot of folks asking that question. I know D.O.T. is leading a very thorough investigation, and I know Congress is reevaluating that as well. What we want to stress is that we’ve been there since Day One. The president has talked to the governor, and the White House has been in constant contact with the governor, offering resources that span HUD, HHS, EPA [and] D.O.T. And so while this investigation continues, I think we all have to be there for the residents and assure them that the air is safe and the water is safe.
GMA3: And we know the investigation is happening now, but I think a lot of people want to know how will the rail company, Norfolk Southern, be held accountable and what can the federal government do?
REGAN: I’ve said it a couple of times and I’ll say it again: We will use all of our oversight and enforcement authority to be sure that Norfolk Southern is on the hook for the full cleanup and reimbursement of this community. I’m not the only one that feels that way. You know, the governor of Ohio feels that way. I was on the ground with Congressman [Bill] Johnson, whose district this occurred in and Sen. Sherrod Brown. There is state, local and federal unanimity here in terms of Norfolk Southern will be held accountable for this disaster.
GMA3: Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said in a statement yesterday that, quote, “While I am glad EPA Administrator Regan will visit the site today, it is unacceptable that it took nearly two weeks for a senior administration official to show up.” Mr. Administrator, why did it take so long?
REGAN: I have to say that again, the emergency responders have done an excellent job, including my EPA staff, who have been on site since Day One, just hours after this disaster occurred. I think we have to be responsible here. And any time you send a senior official into a disaster area like this one, you take away resources from the emergency responders. You take away resources from the state highway patrol. You take away resources from state government. So we wanted to be sure that emergency responders stay focused on the task and ensure that no lives were lost and no serious injury occurred. And that’s what happened. And I was glad to be on the ground yesterday.
(NEW YORK) — Last month outgoing Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan issued a full pardon to John Huffington, who spent years in prison for a murder that he didn’t commit.
Huffington and his attorneys worked for years to get his conviction overturned, especially after DNA evidence exonerated him. In 2013 he took an “Alford plea,” which is a special type of plea by which the defendant asserts his innocence and does not admit to the charged act while acknowledging that a plea is in his best interest, according to his attorneys.
Huffington and his attorney Chong Park spoke with ABC News Live Thursday about the governor’s pardon.
ABC NEWS LIVE: John, you were released back in 2013 on a plea agreement, but that agreement still left a felony conviction on your record. At long last, your record is now clear. How has that changed your life from a practical standpoint and also emotionally?
JOHN HUFFINGTON: Well, from a practical standpoint, it sort of removes the neon sign above my head. There’s a full declaration of innocence pardon the governor, Larry Hogan of Maryland, gave me. [It] was a long journey to get to that point.
It’s definitely changed, and I’m still sort of absorbing it right now, how to, how it affects me personally.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Understood. Tell us what you’re doing right now and how you are coping.
HUFFINGTON: Work-wise, I work for a construction company, Holdings Management Company, and I basically do business development for that. And we have our own community foundation, the Kinetic Capital Community Foundation. I guess my career pathway since I’ve come home has always been in the nonprofit arena. I work with returning citizens. I do a lot in the realm of workforce development and job training. And then with the Kinetic Capital Community Foundation, I’m able to do more and work with marginalized communities and try to deal with financial inequities and things like that. So it’s been my passion. I’ve been fortunate enough to find a career that lets me give back and have some impact, I guess you could say. And so that’s what I enjoy doing.
ABC NEWS LIVE: And Chong would like to bring you in here briefly. Give our viewers some background on John’s case. He was tried and wrongfully convicted on two counts of first-degree murder back in 1981. A year later, a Maryland court of appeals reversed his conviction. And then what happened?
CHONG PARK: And then he was tried a second time. And unfortunately, he was convicted, put on death row. He spent 10 years on death row. He was re-sentenced to life. And then what happened was, in 1999, the prosecutor received a memo from the Department of Justice talking about one of the key pieces of evidence that was used to convict John, which was the expert testimony of FBI analysts that had done what he called microscopic hair analysis that said the hair that linked John to the crime scene, to the murders was a 99.9% match. But then main justice sent this prosecutor a memo in 1999 saying there are some serious deficiencies and that the FBI expert had testified beyond his expertise. And what did the prosecutor do with that memo? Nothing. It wasn’t until 2011 that a Washington Post reporter sent that memo to us at Ropes and Gray.
ABC NEWS LIVE: And John’s pardon ultimately took more than 40 years, more than 160 attorneys dedicated to overturning his conviction and proving his innocence. Do you have a message for others who are dealing with wrongful convictions?
PARK: Fight. Fight for people and fight to do the right thing. In this case, the prosecutor did not do the right thing. It took legions, as you said, 13,000 pro-bono [attorneys], free legal hours dedicated to getting John the justice he needed. It took the attorney grievance commission to take our ethics complaint and to prosecute the prosecutor for ethics violations. The highest court in Maryland now, the Maryland Supreme Court, then the Court of Appeals, unanimously set forth a decision barring Joseph Castelli, the prosecutor, only the fifth prosecutor in U.S. history, to be disbarred. And then finally, in January of this year, Gov. Larry Hogan gave John a full innocent pardon. And so it took a long time and it finally took people doing the right thing to achieve justice for John.
ABC NEWS LIVE: And John, just want to give you the last word here. We just heard from Chong and the perspective from an attorney as far as what one should do. But for the many people who are behind bars, who said, like you, they could go free if they just admitted to guilt. But then they’re saying, “Look, I actually didn’t do this, and so I’d rather fight my way out.” What would you recommend to that person behind bars?
HUFFINGTON: Well, to keep fighting, I mean, you know, you have to stand on your truth. That’s all we have. And my battle, you know, I could have taken the plead guilty deal and it would have been over. I could have let it stay with the [2013] plea, and it would have been over. But my quest was for my name. That was it’s kind of unfathomable to explain that to somebody that hasn’t experienced it. But when they take your name, they take everything. And I just, I had to keep fighting.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — Tyre Nichols’ mother vowed to attend every court date for the five former Memphis police officers accused of murder in connection to the traffic stop beating of her son at a press conference Friday as the officers pleaded not guilty in their first court appearance.
“I want each and every one of those police officers to be able to look me in the face. They haven’t done that yet. They couldn’t even do that today,” Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, told reporters after the arraignment. “They didn’t even have the courage to look at me in my face after what they did to my son. So they’re gonna see me at every court date.”
Nichols’ parents and their attorney, Ben Crump, were in the courtroom as the five former officers made their brief appearance. None of the former officers spoke.
The five officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — were fired and arrested on charges including second-degree murder following Nichols’ beating during a Jan. 7 traffic stop.
Nichols, 29, was hospitalized and died three days later.
Graphic footage of the traffic stop was released to the public last month and sparked nationwide outrage.
A sixth officer was fired and a seventh has been relieved of duty in the wake of Nichols’ death. More officers could receive administrative discipline and the district attorney said additional charges could be filed.
At Nichols’ funeral, family attorney Crump said that Nichols’ legacy “will be one of equal justice.”
“It will be the blueprint going forward, because we have to remember that in less than 20 days … they were terminated, they were arrested and they were charged,” he said of the officers.
Nichols’ family is now urging Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would mandate accountability for police misconduct, address racial profiling and limit use of force for police officers.
The five former officers are set to return to court on May 1.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — All five former Memphis police officers accused of murder in connection to the traffic stop beating of Tyre Nichols entered not guilty pleas on Friday morning.
Nichols’ parents and their attorney, Ben Crump, were in the courtroom.
The former officers are set to return to court on May 1. None of the officers spoke in the brief court appearance Friday.
The five officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — were fired and arrested on charges including second-degree murder following Nichols’ beating during a Jan. 7 traffic stop.
Nichols, 29, was hospitalized and died three days later.
Graphic footage of the traffic stop was released to the public last month and sparked nationwide outrage.
A sixth officer was fired and a seventh has been relieved of duty in the wake of Nichols’ death. More officers could receive administrative discipline and the district attorney said additional charges could be filed.
At Nichols’ funeral, family attorney Ben Crump said that Nichols’ legacy “will be one of equal justice.”
“It will be the blueprint going forward, because we have to remember that in less than 20 days … they were terminated, they were arrested and they were charged,” he said of the officers.
Nichols’ family is now urging Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would mandate accountability for police misconduct, address racial profiling and limit use of force for police officers.
Rebecca Kiger for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said the agency “is working vigorously to understand what caused” the Feb. 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
In a rare series of posts on Twitter on Thursday evening, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy issued “a message to the community” as well as “a plea to those spreading misinformation.”
“To everyone affected: know that @NTSB is working vigorously to understand what caused this train derailment — so it never happens again,” Homendy tweeted. “You have my personal commitment that the NTSB will CONTINUE to share all information publicly as soon as possible following our analysis.”
“Next: NTSB investigators will thoroughly examine the tank cars once decontaminated. As always, we’ll issue urgent safety recommendations as needed,” she continued. “Urgent safety recommendations may be issued at any time; meaning, we don’t wait until the end of our investigation if immediate safety action is warranted.”
She added: “Nothing…nothing is more important than accuracy at a moment like this, which is why the NTSB is deliberate in our approach to investigations. Credibility is ESSENTIAL to our lifesaving mission. The NTSB process WORKS.
Homendy then tweeted: “That leads me to my last point: anyone speculating about what happened, didn’t happen, or should’ve happened is misleading a suffering community — PLEASE STOP SPREADING MISINFORMATION.”
The NTSB chair addressed speculation that a rule on electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) breaks — if implemented — would have prevented the train derailment, which she said was “FALSE.”
“The ECP braking rule would’ve applied ONLY to HIGH HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAINS. The train that derailed in East Palestine was a MIXED FREIGHT TRAIN containing only 3 placarded Class 3 flammable liquids cars,” she tweeted. “This means even if the rule had gone into effect, this train wouldn’t have had ECP brakes.”
Finally, Homendy urged members of the public to let her agency lead the investigation.
“Anything else is harmful — and adding pain to a community that’s been through enough,” she tweeted. “But…if this derailment has moved you to want to become a safety investigator, we’d love to have you at the NTSB.”
Earlier this week, the NTSB shared an update on its ongoing probe into the incident, saying “investigators have identified and examined the rail car that initiated the derailment.”
“Surveillance video from a residence showed what appears to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment,” the NTSB said in the investigative update on Tuesday. “The wheelset from the suspected railcar has been collected as evidence for metallurgical examination. The suspected overheated wheel bearing has been collected and will be examined by engineers from the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington, D.C.”
On the night of Feb. 3, about 50 cars of a freight train operated by Norfolk Southern Railway derailed in a fiery crash on the outskirts of East Palestine, a tiny village in northeastern Ohio, nestled near the state line with Pennsylvania. Ten of the derailed cars were transporting hazardous materials, five of which contained vinyl chloride, a highly volatile colorless gas produced for commercial uses. There were no injuries reported from the accident, officials said.
Efforts to contain a fire at the derailment site stalled the following night, as firefighters withdrew from the blaze due to concerns about air quality and explosions. About half of East Palestine’s roughly 4,700 residents were warned to leave before officials decided on Feb. 6 to conduct a controlled release and burn of the toxic vinyl chloride from the five tanker cars, which were in danger of exploding. A large ball of fire and a plume of black smoke filled with contaminants could be seen billowing high into the sky from the smoldering derailment site as the controlled burn took place that afternoon, prompting concerns from residents about the potential effects.
A mandatory evacuation order for homes and businesses within a 1-mile radius of the derailment site was lifted on Feb. 8, after air and water samples taken the day before were deemed safe, officials said.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources director Mary Mertz said during a press conference on Tuesday that four tributaries over a space of 7.5 miles along the Ohio River are contaminated, but officials are confident that those waterways are contained and not affecting water supplies. Nevertheless, the contaminated waterways have led to the deaths of some 3,500 fish. None of the 12 different species of dead fish that were detected are considered threatened or endangered, and there was no evidence that non-aquatic life has been impacted, according to Mertz.
Tiffani Kavalec, chief of the Ohio EPA’s surface water division, told reporters on Tuesday that no vinyl chloride or pre-product has been detected in the water. The contamination mostly consists of fire contaminant combustion materials, according to Kavalec.
The office of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Wednesday that the latest tests conducted by the state’s Environmental Protection Agency show five wells feeding into East Palestine’s municipal water system are free from contaminants. But residents with private wells are encouraged to drink from bottled water instead, until their well water has been tested and cleared for consumption, according to the governor’s office.
“With these tests results, Ohio EPA is confident that the municipal water is safe to drink,” DeWine’s office said in a statement. “Because private water wells may be closer to the surface than the municipal water wells, the Ohio EPA recommends that those who receive drinking water from private water wells schedule an appointment for well water testing by an independent consultant.”
During a visit to East Palestine on Thursday, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan emphasized that residents should trust the testing if they’re told it’s safe to move back home. But he said individual families could make different decisions based on their health concerns and that families who haven’t had their homes tested yet should stay away.
“If those homes have been tested and if those homes have been tested by the state and given a clean bill of health, yes, as a father, I trust the science,” Regan told reporters. “I trust the methodology that the state is using. And as a parent, I would.”
“I would encourage every family in this community to reach out to the state or EPA to get their home air quality tested and their water system,” he added. “We have the resources to do it. We want to do it and want people to feel secure and safe in their own homes.”
Regan said the EPA has assisted with the screening of more than 480 homes in East Palestine under the voluntary screening program offered to residents, with no vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride detected. But he also said that he understands why some residents are questioning the information they’re being provided, while still asking them to “trust” the EPA and reach out to get their residence tested if they have any concerns.
“But for those who can’t,” he added, “I am asking that they trust the government. And that’s hard. We know that there is a lack of trust, which is why the state and the federal government have pledged to be very transparent.”
The EPA administrator also vowed to hold Norfolk Southern Railway accountable.
In an open letter released Thursday, Norfolk Southern Railway President and CEO Alan Shaw stated that the Atlanta-based rail operator has not abandoned East Palestine residents and is committing $1 million to a community support fund as a “down payment” on their contribution in rebuilding the village. He noted the work the company has already started, including cleaning up the derailment site and working to facilitate testing on the water, air and soil in East Palestine.
Earlier this week, Norfolk Southern Railway announced in a statement that it has helped 1,000 families as well as a number of businesses in East Palestine since the Feb. 3 train derailment. The company said it has also distributed $1.2 million to families to cover costs related to the evacuation.
“I hear you, we hear you,” Shaw said in the open letter. “My simple answer is that we are here and will stay here for as long as it takes to ensure your safety and to help East Palestine recover and thrive.”
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio, Peter Charalambous, Brandon Chase, Stephanie Ebbs, Alexandra Faul, Julia Jacobo, Isabella Murray and Alex Presha contributed to this report.
