(LANSING, Mich.) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is filing a lawsuit Thursday in an effort to protect abortion rights in the state.
“No matter what happens to Roe, I am going to fight like hell and use all the tools I have as governor to ensure reproductive freedom is a right for all women in Michigan,” she said in a statement. “If the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to protect the constitutional right to an abortion, the Michigan Supreme Court should step in. We must trust women — our family, neighbors, and friends — to make decisions that are best for them about their bodies and lives.”
Michigan is one of about 20 states where abortion could be immediately banned if Roe v. Wade were overturned because of either laws that predate Roe but were never removed from the books, so-called “trigger” laws that would go into effect in the event of the precedent being overturned, state constitutional amendments, or six- or eight-week bans that are not currently in effect but would ban nearly all abortions, according to a 2021 report by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
In Michigan’s case, abortion would be banned because of a 1931 state statute that criminalizes abortion, including in cases of rape or incest. The only exception would be in case of threat to the pregnant person’s life.
That statute has not been enforced since Roe made abortion a national right, but it could go back into effect if Roe were overturned. Whitmer filed the lawsuit, which names the elected prosecutors of 13 counties that have abortion clinics as defendants, to undo the statute.
As governor, she is utilizing the rarely used executive message power, which includes the governor’s right under the state constitution to “initiate court proceedings in the name of the state to enforce compliance with any constitutional or legislative mandate,” to push the case forward. Effectively, Whitmer is asking the Michigan Supreme Court to pick up the case directly, bypassing the time it would take in trial and appeals courts.
“This is no longer theoretical: it is reality,” Whitmer said in her statement about the possibility of Roe being overturned. “That’s why I am filing a lawsuit and using my executive authority to urge the Michigan Supreme Court to immediately resolve whether Michigan’s state constitution protects the right to abortion.”
She had previously supported an effort from the state Legislature to repeal the statute, however that effort has not moved the needle.
Whitmer’s move to protect abortion rights in this sped-up manner comes as Roe v. Wade faces its biggest challenge in its 49 years with the U.S. Supreme Court expected to hand down a decision in a case out of Mississippi early this summer.
That case revolves around a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of a pregnancy. Previous Supreme Court precedent had stipulated abortion was legal up to the point of viability, which typically happens around 24 to 28 weeks.
During oral arguments in December, the conservative justices openly raised the prospect of overturning decades of legal precedent, sending up flares around the nation that the landscape for legal abortion could be radically changed.
If abortion were made illegal in Michigan, the average Michigander’s driving distance to the nearest abortion clinic would expand from 11 miles to 261 miles, according to the Guttmacher Institute, as patients would have to travel out of state to seek an abortion.
With this, Michigan joins several states that have in recent months bulked up protections for abortion rights, apparently in response to the possibility of Roe being overturned.
“However we personally feel about abortion, a woman’s health, not politics, should drive important medical decisions,” Whitmer said in her statement. “A woman must be able to make her own medical decisions with the advice of a healthcare professional she trusts – politicians shouldn’t make that decision for her.”
This move also comes as the jury deliberates in a trial over an alleged 2020 plot to kidnap and kill Whitmer. The four men accused could face life in prison if found guilty.
(FRANKFORT, Ky.) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed a bill Wednesday that would ban transgender women and girls from playing on school sports teams that correspond with their gender identity from grades six and up into college.
Under the proposed bill, students would play on teams based on their sex assigned at birth.
Beshear, who is a Democrat, joins two Republican governors who vetoed similar bills in Utah and Indiana. In his veto letter, he said he shares their concerns that the bills could provoke lawsuits against the state and cause harm against transgender people.
“Transgender children deserve public officials’ efforts to demonstrate that they are valued members of our communities through compassion, kindness and empathy, even if not understanding,” the governor stated.
Beshear also pointed to the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s transgender participation policy, which requires that trans student-athletes undergo hormone therapy after puberty to minimize potential gender-related advantages.
The KHSAA policy states that the organization “recognizes and promotes the ability of transgender student-athletes to participate in the privilege of interscholastic sports and sport-activities free from unlawful discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
However, Senate Bill 83 — the Fairness in Womens’ Sports Act — passed Kentucky’s legislature on March 24 with a GOP majority that could override Beshear’s decision.
Those in support of these policies, like bill sponsor Sen. Robby Mills, have said that they believe transgender women have a biological advantage against cisgender women.
“It would be crushing for a young lady to train her whole career to have it end up competing against a biological male in the state tournament or state finals,” Mills said during Senate debate on the bill.
There has been “no direct or consistent research” that shows that trans people have an advantage over cisgender peers in athletics, according to a Sports Medicine journal review of several research studies on potential advantages.
LGBTQ advocates applauded Beshear’s decision, saying that legislators behind the bill are bullying transgender youth.
“From the start, this bill has been more about fear than fairness,” said Chris Hartman, the executive director of Kentucky LGBTQ+ advocacy group the Fairness Campaign.
He continued: “In Kentucky’s entire school system, there is only one openly transgender girl we know playing on a school sports team. That student started her school’s field hockey team, recruited all of the other team members, and just wants the opportunity to play with her friends her eighth-grade year.”
(WASHINGTON) — On Jan. 6, 2021, two police officers who nicknamed each other “dad” and “son” loaded their car with meals and a wooden stick, met with a neighbor and drove from Rocky Mount, Virginia, to Washington, D.C. They allegedly stormed the Capitol with gas masks, took a picture next to a statue and drove home discussing the “next civil war.”
On Wednesday afternoon, they both showed up at D.C. Federal Court, yards away from the Capitol. One took the stand as a witness for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The other was the defendant.
As part of Jacob Fracker’s plea deal for storming the Capitol, he testified on Wednesday against the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a case against his longtime friend and former colleague Thomas Robertson. He hopes to gain a more lenient sentence for cooperating with the trial, he confirmed during his testimony.
“Could you tell us how you’re feeling about being here today?” a U.S. attorney asked Fracker at the beginning of testimony.
“I absolutely hate this,” Fracker said in a shaky voice, adding he “never thought it would be like this.”
“Why did you never think this is what it would be like?” the attorney asked.
“I’ve always been on the other side of things,” Fracker responded. “The good guy side, so to speak.”
The testimony came on day two of the trial for Robertson, who faces five felonies and one misdemeanor after allegedly storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 and destroying his cellphone. Witnesses, including police officers and FBI agents, have pointed to footage from that day, at times identifying Robertson in brief skirmishes.
Robertson’s lawyer has said he was invited into the Capitol by an officer, stayed for only 10 minutes and didn’t assault anyone or cause any damage.
Fracker talked extensively about the buildup and aftermath of the trip with Robertson. Robertson, who is 17 years older, served as a mentor on the force for Fracker, both of whom had military ties.
“Is this relationship you have with him part of why you’re nervous today?” a U.S. attorney asked.
“Absolutely,” Fracker said.
The two stayed close after they were both fired from the Rocky Mount Police Department following their arrests a week after the riot.
Fracker said he gave his phone to Robertson in the days following the riot to “get rid of it.” He said Wednesday he does not know what happened to it.
Fracker identified Robertson as having a wooden stick, which has become a key component of the trial. The prosecution says that he used it as a weapon, while Robertson’s counsel has argued that he used it as a walking stick due to injuries sustained during his military duty. Video shows him using it in a “port arms” position, a military and police defensive tactic used to push past others, several witnesses said.
The two decided to go to the Capitol just a few days before after Robertson extended a “casual invite” to Fracker, he said. The two believed that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, and they wanted to mount pressure to overturn the results.
The two packed guns and their police badges in the car they drove through Virginia, but ultimately decided to leave them in the vehicle. They were wary about identifying themselves as police officers due to hostility toward those in the profession, Fracker said.
Recalling one brief interaction from Jan. 6, Fracker said he attempted to place himself in between officers that he believed were separated from their group and a crowd of rioters. One of them was missing head protection, he said, and the crowd was “wildly getting out of hand.” The attorney asked him if he tried to help police once he entered the Capitol, and he said he did not. He then walked through the Capitol, past broken glass, flipped furniture and alarms, and took pictures once he reunited with Robertson, he said during testimony.
The two both made social media posts that were used as exhibits in court.
“CNN and the Left are just mad because we attacked the government who is the problem and not some random small business,” Robertson wrote.
On Facebook, Fracker posted, “Lol to anyone who’s possibly concerned about the picture of me going around… Sorry I hate freedom? …Not like I did anything illegal…y’all do what you feel you need to…”
Referencing his social media posts, the U.S. attorney asked: Do you still feel that way today, and how do you feel sitting here?
“The person in those videos, the photos that day, at the time it was all fun and games,” Fracker said. “Here lately, I’ve had it presented to me or shown to me for what it is. That’s not the person I am. That’s not how I act.”
“I know for a fact my mom would slap me in the face if she saw what I was doing that day,” he added. “So I sit here today just ashamed of my actions. I didn’t have to do all that stuff. But I did.”
Fracker is set to be cross-examined by Robertson’s counsel on Thursday morning.
(WASHINGTON) — Four members of the United States Secret Service, including one member who was on first lady Jill Biden’s protective detail, were suspended after they allegedly associated with and were provided gifts from two men who are accused of pretending to be Homeland Security Investigations agents.
The two men, Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali, were charged with impersonating federal law enforcement officers and allegedly provided members of the Secret Service gifts such as rent-free apartments totaling $40,000, surveillance systems, a drone, law enforcement paraphernalia and more, court documents said.
“All personnel involved in this matter are on administrative leave and are restricted from accessing Secret Service facilities, equipment and systems. The Secret Service adheres to the highest levels of professional standards and conduct and will remain in active coordination with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security,” the Secret Service said in a statement Wednesday night.
Taherzadeh and Ali allegedly posed as “Special Police,” claiming “to be involved in undercover gang-related investigations as well as conducting investigations related to the violence at the United States Capitol on January 6,” according to court documents unsealed Wednesday night.
Taherzadeh went so far as to show someone who is identified in court documents as “Witness 1” an “HSI casefile” they were “working on” that was marked “confidential.” They even went so far as to have identical Chevy Tahoes fitted with police lights.
“TAHERZADEH told Witness 1 that as part of the recruiting process, TAHERZADEH would have to shoot Witness 1 with an air rifle in order to evaluate Witness 1’s reaction and pain tolerance. According to Witness 1, because he/she believed this was part of the DHS/HSI recruiting process, he/she agreed to be shot and subsequently was shot by TAHERZADEH. During the shooting, ALI was present,” court documents revealed.
Another witness who was interviewed in court documents, and is on the first lady’s detail, was told by Taherzadeh that he was on a “covert task force” and he provided many favors to residents who were members of law enforcement. He also offered to gift the unnamed witness an AR-style rifle.
Additionally, the unnamed Secret Service agent on the first lady’s detail was told by Taherzadeh that he had the same agency gun the witness did.
“TAHERZADEH came to Witness 2’s apartment carrying a Glock 19 Generation 5 in an Ayin Tactical Holster. TAHERZADEH stated that he had an extra holster and wanted to give Witness 2 the Ayin Tactical Holster for Witness 2’s newly issued Glock 19 Generation 5. Witness 2 is still in possession of this holster,” according to court documents.
Another witness, who is not named, allegedly saw Taherzadeh’s fraudulent Department of Homeland Security computer and Federal Training Center certificate.
The men told residents of the Navy Yard apartment complex where they lived that they were renting out apartments paid for by the DHS and set up a surveillance system around the apartment complex in which residents could access it at any time from their mobile device.
“These residents stated that they believe that TAHERZADEH and ALI had access to personal information of all the residents at the apartment complex,” court documents said.
One witness believed the two men had access codes to everywhere in the building due to them posing as law enforcement.
Taherzadeh allegedly walked up to another DHS employee who worked for HSI. However, when the employee looked him up in the database, he could not be found.
The investigation began when the suspects were witnesses to an assault involving a letter carrier and Postal Inspection Agents interviewed them.
“The USPIS Inspector provided this information to the DHS Office of Inspector General, which then referred the information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for further investigation. It was at this point that the FBI began its investigation, which corroborated the statements of residents obtained by the USPIS Inspector,” court documents said.
The names of the suspended Secret Service members have not been released. The court documents did not say when these alleged interactions occurred.
(NEW YORK) — At the end of this school year, a family of four from Austin, Texas, plans to uproot their lives and move over 2,000 miles away to Portland, Oregon.
The family, native Texans, say they are moving because they fear for the safety of their 10-year-old transgender daughter in the wake of Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision in February to direct the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate reports of gender-affirming care as child abuse.
“Our house is halfway packed in boxes,” said the mom, whom ABC News is identifying under the pseudonym, Marin, because she asked that her name not be used for privacy reasons. “[My kids] are sad to leave their friends … but they know where we’re moving, my daughter will be able to play on the sports team of her choice, with the girls. She will never have a problem using the girls’ restroom.”
“We want our kids to have the opportunity to grow up in a place where they can just focus on being kids, and that’s something that Portland can provide,” she said.
Marin was among a group of moms who publicly advocated for transgender rights during the Texas legislature’s last session, testifying at the Texas Capitol and ultimately helping to defeat dozens of bills targeting transgender people. When Abbott announced the directive in February, she thought her family would stay put and continue to fight in Texas, but she said the threat became too great.
“With the situation as it is, I’m not fighting effectively,” said Marin. “You can’t fight when you’re down on the ground, just trying to fend people off of your children.”
According to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, at least nine investigations have been opened on families since February, when Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton issued their opinion on transgender care, calling gender-transitioning or affirming procedures for minors “child abuse.”
The Texas Supreme Court is expected to rule soon whether the state can resume the investigations. In March, a district judge blocked state agencies from investigating gender-confirming care as child abuse, issuing a temporary injunction after hearing from the parents of a 16-year-old transgender girl who were under investigation.
Gender affirmation is when transgender people make changes to their lives in accordance with their gender identity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That can be done through a change of clothing, hairstyles, mannerisms, names and pronouns.
Gender affirmation can also come in the form of hormone therapy or surgeries to alter one’s physical characteristics.
Abbott’s directive on gender-affirming care is contrary to guidance from the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association, all of which classify gender-affirming care as medically necessary.
In anticipation of a regulation like Abbott’s, Camille Rey said she made the decision to leave Texas last summer in an effort to protect her 9-year-old son Leon, who is transgender.
During the past legislative session, Rey said both she and Leon testified against anti-transgender legislation. She said she saw Leon begin to suffer mentally and then physically, becoming withdrawn and experiencing stomachaches severe enough to go to the emergency room.
“Unfortunately, he was exposed to a lot of hate in listening to the testimony of people who were for the bills and also just hearing us talk at the dinner table like, ‘what are we going to do?'” said Rey. “The teachers from his school called me and were worried about him because they said he used to be the one who made everyone else laugh and now he doesn’t really talk.”
In August, the family moved to Maryland where Camille said Leon is “much happier.”
“Our move was all about being in a place where Leon could just be Leon, so, yeah, we feel protected because there’s laws on the books, but honestly, we just need a normal environment and that’s what we have here,” she said. “It’s not that we need anything special for him, just the absence of attack and the absence of threats to our family. That’s all we need.”
Rey said that while her family has been met with support in their new home, she worries about families still in Texas.
“I’m heartbroken over these directives coming out of Texas and I know people that I testified with and protested with last year … some of them leaving, some of them being investigated for child abuse,” she said. “And that was my nightmare.”
John Pachankis, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and professor at the Yale School of Public Health who has studied the mental health of gay and bisexual men who move from a country with high LGTBQ stigma to one more accepting, said his research shows that feeling forced to move can be traumatic, but ultimately result in improved mental health.
“Movement away from states with discriminatory laws and policies might lead to improved mental health over the long-term, but in the short term, moving can be highly stressful because of the disruptions and uncertainties associated with moving,” Pachankis told ABC News by email. “Our research conducted across 44 countries shows that for gay men who move from homophobic countries to more supportive countries, it takes at least five years before the negative mental health impact of moving from a homophobic country dissipates.”
“But thereafter, our research shows that individuals who move to a more supportive location experience lower odds of depression and suicidality because they are less likely to hide their identities and are less socially isolated,” he said.
Families staying behind in Texas
Many families of transgender children who remain in Texas may be doing so without a choice due to family or career obligations or because a move out of state is too big a financial burden.
“Most families in the U.S. don’t have the financial and job flexibility necessary to move,” said Pachankis. “Families with higher income have more ability to move, but when families do move, they likely relinquish the social capital, and possibly even some of the economic capital, that they’ve accumulated in their hometowns.”
Anne, a mom of two daughters in Austin, for whom a pseudonym is also being used because she wants her name to remain private, said she and her family plan to stay put in Texas for the time being despite their fears for their 8-year-old daughter, who is transgender.
Anne shares custody of her older daughter with her ex-husband and said that by moving for her one daughter, she would have to forgo seeing her other daughter for much of the year. A move would also be a daunting financial burden for the family, likely costing them tens of thousands of dollars in addition to she and her husband having to find new jobs and the family having to find a new, supportive community and new medical care, according to Anne.
“I’m having to balance keeping both of my kids safe and happy,” she said. “And it takes so much to even consider like, ‘Okay, let’s go do this all over again.'”
While they remain in Texas, Anne and her husband say they have retained an attorney for their family, and have prepared a safe folder, which contains their daughter’s medical records and documentation from health care professionals, family and friends, in case they would be investigated.
“I don’t know anybody in this community that’s okay right now,” Anne said of the fear she sees among friends in the transgender community.
Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas, an advocacy organization focused on LGBTQ rights, told ABC News there are additional challenges that families of transgender children who remain in Texas could face.
“For people who don’t have the means to leave, what does that mean? That they might be incurring additional costs for homeschooling; that they might have to pay more for childcare; that they may have to either quit their job or work a third-shift so that there’s always a parent or caretaker at home,” he said.
Martinez also said there is also a mental health impact that comes with the fear of investigations for parents and transgender children.
“We are talking about kids not disclosing their identities at school and navigating the world secretly, which is pushing people back into the closet, which we know isn’t really great for mental health,” he said. “These kids have heard their humanity debated every single day for almost two years.”
In Houston, Lisa Stanton, a mom of 11-year-old twins, one of whom is transgender, said she and her husband have decided to stay put for now, but at the same time they are planning an “emergency escape plan” and putting out feelers for job opportunities in states with more protections for transgender children.
“We shouldn’t have to leave. This is our home,” she said. “We have a network and have built a lot of relationships in this community and we’re established in our careers here and our children are established and have friends.”
Stanton said she and her husband are closely watching the Texas Supreme Court’s decision on the judge’s injunction before making a decision about their family’s future.
“Our hope is that we will be able to stay and not face any emergent issue where we need to go, but if things don’t go the right way with this case, then we may have to reevaluate,” she said. “It’s really hard because we are just trying to get through life and do all the things you have to do to take care of your family, and it should not be a concern of mine that I would have the government intervening or getting involved in private, personal family medical decisions.”
If Stanton and her family decide to move, one of the states they are considering is Colorado, one of the top LGBTQ-friendly states, according to the Human Rights Committee’s 2021 State Equality Index.
Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said she and other leaders are working on a resource guide for parents of transgender children in preparation for the influx of families they anticipate could move to the state.
She said that even with protections for transgender youth, there are currently not enough providers in Colorado to meet the demand of kids seeking gender-affirming care.
“That’s the other area we’re working on, to connect with those providers that are supporting transgender, non-binary and gender-expansive youth to make sure they also know they can reach out to us,” said Bridges. “Hopefully we’ll be able to find a pipeline to provide support [for parents and providers].”
In California, a major LGBTQ advocacy organization there, Equality California, is working to advance legislation that would make the state a refuge for transgender kids and families.
The legislation, which will soon be introduced, would prevent the implementation of other states’ laws and policies that “would deny trans people life-saving, gender-affirming care” within the state’s borders, according to Tony Hoang, executive director of Equality California.
“For us, California has always led the fight for LGBTQ+ equality, including ensuring that trans kids are protected from discrimination and have access to life-saving, gender-affirming care,” said Hoang. “We have served as a beacon of hope to LGBTQ+ people everywhere, and we have a responsibility to stand up to hate and injustice no matter where it occurs.”
(WASHINGTON) — Following two failed attempts, a new effort got underway on Wednesday to dislodge a 130-ton, fully-loaded cargo ship that has been mired in the mud of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland for more than three weeks.
U.S. Coast Guard officials said two large cranes and two barges were being moved to where the Ever Forward container ship ran aground in shallow water and crews are expected to begin off-loading a portion of the 5,000 cargo containers aboard, hoping that will give the vessel the buoyancy required to free it.
“They’re still staging the equipment so that they can remove the containers. It’s going to take a few days to get that set up,” Petty Officer Cynthia Oldham, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard, told ABC News on Wednesday afternoon.
She said once the cranes and barges are in place, crews could start removing containers by this weekend or early next week.
“Hopefully, it’s going to be wrapped up around April 15, but that, of course, is dependent on a lot of different variables,” Oldham said.
The 1,095-foot ship belongs to Evergreen Marine Corp., the same company that owns the Ever Given cargo ship that got stuck in Egypt’s Suez Canal in March 2021, blocking the world-famous waterway for six days and causing massive delays in global shipping.
The Coast Guard said the Ever Forward is stranded in mud in about 23 feet of water off Downs Park in Pasadena, Maryland, about 20 miles south of Baltimore. The ship is outside of the deep-water shipping channel so it’s not blocking boat traffic on the Chesapeake Bay.
“The ship is grounded from bow to stern,” Oldham said.
Two previous attempts to free the vessel were not successful. Crews tried to move the ship with multiple tugboats, but it wouldn’t budge. Crews have also dredged around the hull of the big boat, but that effort was in vain, too.
The latest plan calls for removing some of the containers, which weigh 8,000 pounds each empty, from both the starboard and port side to maintain the stability of the ship, Oldham said.
“A few hundred containers are expected to be removed, not all of them,” Oldham said.
The refloating situation has gone so bad that the Evergreen Marine has notified anyone with a container on board that they will need to share in the cost of freeing the ship under the law of general average, a principal of maritime law dating back to 1890.
“Evergreen Line urges all cargo interests involved, and joint venture slot users to provide security bonds and necessary documents according to the adjusting rules that govern GA in order to take delivery of cargo after the vessel is freed and arrives at its future ports of discharge,” the company said in a statement released this week.
John Martino of the Annapolis School of Seamanship told ABC affiliate station WMAR in Baltimore that the new plan to free the ship is fraught with danger.
“They have to be careful the order they take the containers off,” said Martino, who visited the ship on Tuesday. “So, they have to make sure everything stays balanced as they go along.”
As a precaution, the Coast Guard is only allowing the work to unload the vessel to occur during daylight hours.
The container vessel ran aground March 13 after leaving the Seagirt marine terminal in Baltimore. The Hong Kong-flagged ship was headed to Norfolk, Virginia, when the mishap occurred.
There were no reports of injuries or damage to the ship or its cargo.
Following the incident, Evergreen immediately activated its emergency response plan and appointed a salvor to conduct underwater inspections of the ship and come up with refloating plan.
Evergreen reported that an inspection showed that no fuel or pollution have leaked from the ship into the Chesapeake Bay.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Police say at least five men were involved in last weekend’s mass shooting that left six people dead and a dozen injured.
Investigators said Wednesday that number could grow as they piece together clues.
The police said in a statement that it “is increasingly clear that gang violence is at the center of this tragedy.”
“While we cannot at this time elaborate on the precise gang affiliation of individuals involved, gangs and gang violence are inseparable from the events that drove these shootings,” the police said in a statement.
A fight broke out before gunfire went off in downtown Sacramento early Sunday morning, police said.
The victims were identified by the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office on Monday as Johntaya Alexander, 21; Melinda Davis, 57; Sergio Harris, 38; Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32; Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21; and Devazia Turner, 29.
Two suspects, Smiley Martin, 27, and his brother, Dandrae Martin, 26, have been arrested in connection with the shooting. Smiley Martin was charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of a machine gun. while the younger Martin was charged with assault and possession of an illegal firearm, police said. Smiley Martin has a long criminal history and was just released from prison in January.
A third person, Daviyonne Dawson, 31, was arrested for possession of a firearm following the incident, but he is not believed to be directly related to the shooting.
The Sacramento police said it has received nearly 200 videos, photographs and other pieces of evidence from the public.
“The suffering inflicted by gang violence does not limit itself to gang members. It spills over to claim and shatter innocent lives and harm our entire community,” Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester said in a statement.
John Autey / MediaNews Group / St. Paul Pioneer Press via Getty Images
(MINNEAPOLIS) — No criminal charges will be filed in the fatal police shooting of Amir Locke, Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, announced Wednesday.
Locke was fatally shot by Minneapolis police officers in February as officers were executing a “no-knock” search warrant on the apartment he was in.
No-knock warrants allow officers to enter a private home without knocking or making their presence known.
Locke, a legal gun owner, had been sleeping under a blanket on the couch. Body camera footage shows a gun in his hand when he begins to sit up as police approach him.
An officer can be seen shooting him less than 10 seconds after entering the room.
Locke was not a suspect in the crime for which the warrant was issued and was not named in the document.
“Amir Locke’s life mattered,” read a statement from the Hennepin County Attorney. “He was a young man with plans to move to Dallas, where he would be closer to his mom and — he hoped — build a career as a hip-hop artist, following in the musical footsteps of his father.”
However, the attorney’s office stated that after a review of the case, there wasn’t enough evidence to file criminal charges.
The legal team representing Locke’s family said it was “deeply disappointed” by the decision.
“The tragic death of this young man, who was not named in the search warrant and had no criminal record, should never have happened,” the team said in a statement. “The family and its legal team are firmly committed to their continued fight for justice in the civil court system, in fiercely advocating for the passage of local and national legislation, and taking every other step necessary to ensure accountability for all those responsible for needlessly cutting Amir’s life far too short.”
His death reignited calls to end the use of “no-knock” warrants, which were sparked by the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor on March 13, 2020 after Louisville, Kentucky, officers executed a “no-knock” search warrant for Taylor’s ex-boyfriend for allegedly dealing drugs.
In his statement, Freeman also called for a reconsideration on the use of no-knock warrants: “No-knock warrants are highly risky and pose significant dangers to both law enforcement and the public, including to individuals who are not involved in any criminal activity.”
He continued: “The fact that it is standard practice for paramedics to stand by at the scene when no-knock warrants are executed speaks to the foreseeably violent nature of this law enforcement tool.”
Several states have instituted bans on such warrants. Following Locke’s death, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said his office will propose a full ban on no-knock and no-announce search warrants in the city.
“Amir Locke, a lawful gun owner, should still be alive,” said Bryan Strawser, the chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, a nonprofit gun rights advocacy group, in a statement following Locke’s death.
“Black men, like all citizens, have a right to keep and bear arms. Black men, like all citizens, have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizure,” he added.
ABC News’ Whitney Lloyd contributed to this report.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Already missing their flight to Canada, Zainab Merchant held her then 6-month-old baby inside a cold room in an airport in September of 2016 while she waited for her husband’s screening to be over after her family was detained for a random security check by Transportation Security Administration agents.
Merchant said her family was stopped for one reason; because she’s Muslim.
“At that moment, I honestly feared for us, because when I think the three-hour mark hit, you’re just sitting there waiting,” Merchant told ABC News. “We don’t know what’s going on with us. I just remember being very fearful about what was going on. It’s a few officers and yourself, and nobody is there. No other person was there with us. So just [a] very lonely, cold, dark experience.”
Merchant, an American citizen, is among the many people on America’s terrorist screening watchlist, a database containing information about individuals targeted as known or suspected of being involved in terrorist activities, according to the FBI.
The watchlist was created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, and since then, has collected over 1.6 million identities, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. There’s no due process for people added to it, nor any official way to find out who has been added, according to human rights lawyers.
The random security checks started happening more frequently after her first detainment, according to Merchant. Hourslong detentions, fear and extensive questioning have become a familiar experience for Merchant and her family when traveling.
“[Since the Canada trip], we had always been detained, we’d always been questioned and it stopped being random when you knew that every time you travel, my entire family, including the children, were asked to step aside, escorted by the TSA officers,” she said. “It just ended up becoming this traumatic thing for us to ever fly again.”
Unlike the “no-fly” list, the watchlist still allows people to fly. They are, however, subject to extra security, extensive questioning and hourslong detentions when flying or crossing the border.
Merchant said she was not aware she was added to the watchlist until the screenings and processes became even more frequent, and she knew that, regardless of where they were headed, the whole family would be pulled aside.
She said that even her three small children were being targeted and taken away from them during the screening process.
“They were being treated as criminals, no matter how little they were. It wasn’t just my husband and I. They were also screening these little children,” she said.
“I remember just guiding them through it and teaching them … ‘this is what’s going to happen. You have to cooperate, smile, just be friendly.’ Imagine teaching a young toddler this way; you don’t even know how toddlers are going to react.”
Such screenings would happen whenever the family traveled, Merchant says, but the situation became even more intense when the FBI allegedly contacted her with a proposal.
A few months after that initial detention, Merchant was allegedly contacted by FBI agents seeking information about her mosque and community. She said they offered a chance to be removed from the list if she agreed to be an informant.
“I said, ‘absolutely not. You know, I’m a mom. I’m not a spy. I don’t care if I’m going to be on this [a long time]. I’m just not going to do this,'” Merchant said.
In response to an ABC News request for comment, the FBI said the Terrorist Screening Center could neither deny nor confirm whether an individual is on the watchlist.
After the conversation, Merchant said the situation got progressively worse.
“There was a time when they took my laptop and they released the whole bomb squad on me at the airport. There was a time when dogs were unleashed on me. They took out a whole team of dogs to search me,” Merchant said.
The most traumatic and humiliating experience for Merchant, however, was at the Boston Logan International Airport — when she said she had her period and the TSA officers forced her to remove her pants during a private screening.
“That day, they were trying to strip me of my dignity when they didn’t believe that I was on my period. Even though I went on through the scan, everything was clear,” she said.
“I said my final prayers as a Muslim … I had nowhere [to go], no one to call and no one to say anything to stop feeling of utter helplessness. I was ready to die. They removed my pants and they saw the blood everywhere. And they quickly just scurried out of the closet.”
Merchant, however, is not the only one. Many others are on the watchlist without knowing the reason behind it.
Abdulkadir Nur, who goes by Eno, is a 69-year-old U.S. citizen from Somalia who said he is also on the watchlist.
Nur travels often due to his humanitarian work with the United Nations, but every time he leaves the country, he said he undergoes extensive questioning and screening.
“You know, when I fly worldwide, I’ve never had any problems,” Nur said. “Actually, I’m being respected and welcomed everywhere. But when I’m coming to my country, the U.S., I feel like I’m [a] criminal.”
While the TSA says a typical enhanced screening process takes 10 to 15 minutes, both Nur and Merchant said they had to miss multiple flights due to secondary questioning at airports.
With all of the challenges faced, Nur has filed a lawsuit against the FBI with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights group, in hopes to have his name removed from the watch list. The process, if successful, could take years, according to his lawyer.
Merchant says she was able to get her name off the list after she confronted TSA and FBI officers during a closed-door meeting she was invited to in Orlando in 2018.
Now, Merchant hopes to use her experience to help others and shine a light on the issue.
“I don’t fear this anymore,” she said. “It built me up to be that voice for people who don’t have any. Even though I might be off the system, I am not really free until every one of them gets justice.”
(ALEXANDRIA, Va.) — A British man accused of being one of the infamous quartet of ISIS terrorists nicknamed the “Beatles” by prisoners who they beat and executed was faced down in federal court this week by two of their victims’ mothers, and one man who survived their brutality.
El Shafee Elsheikh is accused of a direct role in holding hostage four Americans, several Britons, and other captives between 2013 and 2014 at several makeshift prisons in Syria.
At his trial this week in U.S. federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, prosecutors called as witnesses the mothers of two Americans who did not survive as hostages of ISIS, journalist James Foley and humanitarian aid worker Kayla Mueller.
Foley, of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, was kidnapped in Syria in 2012 along with British journalist John Cantlie, and was held for nearly two years before he was shown beheaded in a gruesome video by the ISIS Beatle dubbed “Jihadi John,” whose real name was Mohammed Emwazi.
“Incredible shock, I didn’t believe it — I didn’t want to believe it,” Foley’s mother Diane testified about learning that her son was killed.
Foley’s brother Michael testified about the horror of seeing the ISIS video that showed the remains of his brother, a 38-year old a freelance journalist for Global Post and Agence France-Presse, after the killing that stunned the world on Aug. 19, 2014.
Her head tilted up to look at the ceiling rather than at the defendant, Diane Foley spoke in a clear, strong voice about her son, who had previously survived previous captivity by other militants in Libya.
She said when President Barack Obama “announced Jim had been beheaded, it sunk in.”
The Foley family subsequently established the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation to assist hostages, their families and war journalists.
On Tuesday, it was Marsha Mueller’s turn.
She told of how her 27-year-old daughter Kayla, of Prescott, Arizona, had traveled to the Middle East and to Turkey and Syria, seeking ways to help refugees of the Syrian civil war.
Then on Aug. 4, 2013, after visiting a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria, to help her friend Omar Alkhani install satellite internet, Kayla and her colleagues were kidnapped by armed men.
Dressed in a black sweater, Marsha Mueller’s voice became stronger with each passing minute as she told of Kayla’s love for owls, music and books, and how Kayla had sought to provide aid to women and children refugees in need.
She described exchanging 27 emails with ISIS, in which they demanded the release of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqi or 5 million Euros in exchange for Kayla’s release. An ABC News investigation in 2015 found that the FBI and Obama White House had blocked the Foleys, Muellers and other families from paying ISIS’ ransom demands — though ransoms paid for European hostages had led to their release.
After U.S. special mission unit Delta Force raided a makeshift prison on Independence Day 2014, but missed rescuing the hostages by only two days because critics said the intelligence was not acted upon swiftly enough by the White House, ISIS sent an angry email about Kayla and threatened they would “put a bullet in her head.”
Her mother said they knew nothing about the U.S. raid, and reacted to the message with fear.
“They were going to kill her,” she recalled in court.
Marsha Mueller’s voice cracked when she read aloud one of three letters Kayla wrote from ISIS prisons, sending “hugs and kisses” to her niece, and signing it, “All my everything, Kayla.” The letters were addressed to her parents, her mentor the Rev. Kathleen Day, and her friends Halla and Orouba Barakat, mother-daughter journalists in Turkey who themselves were later murdered in Istanbul in 2017 and were the subject of an ABC News-Reveal investigation.
When Kayla was reported killed on Feb. 6, 2015, ISIS emailed Carl and Marsha Mueller three photos of their lifeless daughter.
“Her face looks like it is smeared with blood, her eyes are partly open, her mouth is slightly open,” Kayla’s mother told the jury.
The Muellers later learned that Kayla had stood up for and cared for other hostages, for which she had been repeatedly raped by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIS top leader and self-proclaimed “caliph” of all Muslims. Al-Baghdadi was subsequently killed by Delta Force in 2019 in a raid named “Operation Kayla Mueller” in Mueller’s honor.
After providing testimony on Tuesday, Marsha Mueller and Diane Foley held each other in comfort, beyond the eyes and ears of the jurors.
Another witness who faced Elsheikh in court was Spanish journalist Marc Marginedas, who was kidnapped in Syria and held with Mueller, Foley, Cantlie and others including American journalist Steven Sotloff, with whom Marginedas became close during their captivity.
Marginedas recounted in horrifying detail how the four “Beatles” — so named by Cantlie to keep track of their British-accented captors because their real names were unknown — inflicted savagery upon them.
As Sotloff’s parents Arthur and Shirley looked on in the courtroom, Marginedas recalled how the terrorists appeared to take particular joy in beating Sotloff, who was Jewish. Sotloff told Marginedas he believed that the beatings, some of which occurred in front of his fellow captives, had left him with broken ribs.
But the Jewish journalist never revealed his faith to his captors, and simply wore extra clothing to soften the blows.
“He was a very courageous man who didn’t complain much,” said Marginedas, who testified in the Virginia courtroom only a week after reporting from the front lines in Ukraine.
A decade after he was kidnapped, Cantlie’s whereabouts remain unknown, as do the whereabouts of New Zealand nurse Louisa Akavi, who was kidnapped by ISIS in 2013.
Other victims’ relatives who appeared in the courtroom were Paula and Ed Kassig, the parents of former U.S. Army Ranger Peter Kassig, an American aid worker who was killed by ISIS in 2014.
Elsheikh, dressed in a collared shirt and khakis, with black-framed glasses and a beard, sat motionless as each family member took the stand, slouching on his left elbow even as prosecutors played video of interviews he had voluntarily given.
In one clip filmed in 2019 in a Syrian prison where Elsheikh and fellow ISIS Beatle Alexanda Kotey were held following their capture, former ABC News contributor Sean Langan asked if Jihadi John, who the CIA later killed in a drone strike, had asked Elsheikh to get the Muellers’ contact information from their daughter to negotiate ransom.
“That was the first time I saw Kayla, I took an email from her,” he replied.
Elsheikh, who has admitted in media interviews to being an accomplice of ISIS, faces a life sentence if convicted. Prosecutors took the death penalty off the table in a deal with the British government, which opposes capital punishment.
On Tuesday, after the jury was dismissed for lunch and U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III had left the courtroom, Kayla Mueller’s friend Omar Alkhani delivered an insult in Arabic to Elsheikh while Elsheikh was being led out by a U.S. Marshal.
One day Elsheikh would meet his former ISIS bosses “in hell,” Alkhani shouted.
