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(ST.LOUIS) — For more than a year, Fatima Suarez said her family’s St. Louis home was repeatedly visited by a woman who allegedly insulted her family, stole their mail and damaged their property.

Video footage captured by the family’s Ring doorbell camera allegedly shows a woman yelling into the camera, going through their mail and hurling racist remarks at them.

“It scared my family. It scared me,” she said. “I’ve cried. It was really stressful to see her keep coming back.”

Suarez, whose family is of Mexican descent, posted the footage to TikTok, where it received millions of views.

On Tuesday, the city’s Circuit Attorney’s Office said in a statement that it “elevated the warrant application related to this case.” On Wednesday, Judy Kline of St. Louis was criminally charged on three counts — burglary, property damage and unlawful use of a weapon.

According to a probable cause statement sent to ABC News by the Circuit Attorney’s Office, Ring camera video footage shows Kline “holding a hammer and yelling ‘What the hell are you doing in my home? Get out b—-! Get out! It’s my home!”

Suarez said her family doesn’t know Kline. “We’ve never seen her in our lives,” she said.

Suarez credits social media in spurring the police to take action.

“I’ve seen similar stories on TikTok going on, and I thought maybe that would help my family out as well,” she said. “But I never knew it would blow up like that, and it did. So I’m thankful for everybody that made it viral because now [there’s] going to be hopefully action taken.”

Suarez said Kline first came to her family’s home last year.

According to the probable cause statement, Kline went to the back of the house on January 5, 2022, and used a “hammer to break in through the basement door window by breaking the glass on the door.”

Suarez said her father was in the house with her sister, who was 4 years old at the time.

Kline “smashed a glass door on a drying machine,” the statement said. “The victim stated that once inside, [Kline] yelled insults at him, while holding the hammer over her head.”

A booking data report from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department showed that Kline was arrested that day and charged with aggravated burglary and property damage.

“I always call the cops, and all the times that I call them, they only kept her for like 72 hours and then she was released,” Suarez alleged. “That’s why she had the opportunity to keep coming back.”

Kline was also “served with an ex parte order of protection involving a petitioner who resides at the same address as this incident,” the probable cause statement said. “This matter is scheduled for an Adult Abuse Hearing on February 15, 2023.”

Suarez said Kline has visited the home multiple times, including last week. The probable cause statement said that she was reported to have returned to the home multiple times.

Even though Kline has charges against her, Suarez said her family still fear that she will return.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department told ABC News Thursday that Kline “is not currently in custody.”

ABC News could not reach Kline for comment.

In a statement Tuesday, the city’s Circuit Attorney’s Office said, “when cases are submitted by the police, the SLMPD [St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department] determines the public safety threat to evaluate whether the case should be reviewed within 24 hours of the application for an arrest warrant.”

“The CAO has elevated the warrant application related to this case, and is awaiting the video evidence that was not initially submitted, and that is now circulating on the Internet,” the office said.

Suarez claimed she previously sent the videos to the police.

“At one point, I wanted to become part of the justice system, like a cop or something,” she said, “but because of how they are with other people, how they treat other people, how they don’t care about cases. … I don’t really trust them as much anymore.”

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s legal team turned over a folder with classification markings found last month at his Mar-a-Lago resort to federal agents, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.

It is unclear what type of classification markings the folder had or what material had previously been inside.

Additionally, sources tell ABC News that a laptop belonging to a current aide of the former president was also provided to federal agents.

Sources said the discovery occurred in mid-January as Trump’s team was searching through additional boxes amid the Department of Justice’s ongoing efforts to have Trump’s attorneys verify that Trump no longer still has classified documents in his possession.

The material was discovered in the Mar-a-Lago complex, and not in a storage facility within the complex that housed hundreds of classified documents prior to them being seized in August 2022, the sources said.

During the August search, investigators seized 46 folders with classified banners that were empty.

Trump attorney James Trusty turned over the folder with classification markings to federal investigators, and also informed agents that it had been electronically copied to a laptop of a current Trump aide, the sources said.

ABC News has also learned that after the information was recovered, federal agents retrieved the laptop from the aide. The laptop was not retrieved on the Mar-a-Lago grounds, the sources said.

“It is customary in circumstances such as this for investigators to search the computer to see if classified material is still on that computer,” said John Cohen, former acting undersecretary for intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security and now an ABC News contributor. “They will also seek to determine if classified material was transmitted electronically to other computers or devices via that computer.”

Neither Trusty nor a spokesperson for Trump immediately responded to a request for comment from ABC News.

The special counsel’s office also did not immediately respond.

The development comes as a separate special counsel is probing the handling of classified materials by President Joe Biden after he left the vice presidency. There have subsequently been multiple recoveries of documents from various locations tied to Trump, Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Federal investigators have reported mounting frustration with Trump, who some believe could still be unlawfully holding on to classified documents even after the FBI’s unprecedented August search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.

ABC News reported in December that Trump had an outside team conduct a deeper search for any government documents at four properties, which turned up at least two more documents marked classified.

As ABC News previously reported, the Justice Department sought to hold Trump in contempt for not complying with their initial June subpoena for all documents with classification markings that were in his possession.

In December, a federal judge in Washington declined to hold Trump or his legal team in contempt of court and instead urged the Justice Department and Trump’s legal team to resolve the dispute themselves, sources told ABC News at the time.

Chief Judge Beryl Howell did not rule out the possibility that Trump could be held in contempt if their talks broke down further.

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(NEW YORK) — Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or DEI, have recently come under fire and are at the center of political battles being waged by Republican governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis.

These initiatives, seen in businesses, schools or government agencies, are intended to address inequities against historically marginalized groups that may be found within an organization.

ABC News spoke to DEI experts and consultants about what DEI is and what these initiatives look like.

What is DEI?

“Diversity” refers to the representation of people from a variety of backgrounds – particularly referring to people of different races, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, religions and more – at all levels in an organization, including the leadership level.

“Equity” focuses on fairness and justice, particularly referring to compensation and whether people are being paid or treated fairly, DEI experts told ABC News.

“Inclusion” is about whether people feel like they belong, and whether they feel heard or valued in an organization, experts say.

DEI initiatives focus on three main areas: training, organizational policies and practices, as well as organizational culture, according to Erica Foldy, a professor at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Initiatives focusing on policies, practices and culture exist to correct inequities within an organization, said Tina Opie, a DEI consultant and professor at Babson College.

This includes addressing discriminatory hiring practices, pay inequity, or rectifying issues that cause poor employee retention rates among marginalized groups.

DEI training is meant to encourage people to be more aware and reflective about inequities and discrimination on an individual level, Foldy said.

What’s DEI’s purpose?

DEI has its roots in the 1960’s anti-discrimination legislative movement when laws like the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 addressed labor issues based on protected classes.

Companies had to comply with these anti-discrimination laws, and the DEI movement stems from these efforts to continue to create equitable workplaces and schools.

“Somewhere around the late ’80s, early ’90s, people are realizing that simply trying to stop discriminating against different groups of people is not enough,” Foldy said. “The kind of ethos of those initiatives was to go beyond just avoiding discrimination and to actively changing organizations so that they were more welcoming and more inclusive.”

And though DEI is in the spotlight, Foldy says, these initiatives are efforted under a plethora of different acronyms or names.

Every DEI initiative may be run differently, experts say, but the overall goal is to make companies and leaders examine the way their company treats or serves marginalized groups.

“Historically, there have been some groups of people who have had more access and control over resources, money, time, other people and the ability to affect policies, procedures, law,” said Opie.

“Are you saying that you think across the United States … they’re the only ones who are best equipped to run these companies? Is it something about their DNA, genetics or is it something else?” she added.

Opie and Foldy say DEI makes people uncomfortable because they feel that correcting power inequities can be seen as “unfair” to the people with power or privilege.

Opie and Foldy believe critiques of DEI often frame these initiatives as unfairly giving something to marginalized people who “have not earned” it and are taking things away from people.

“Dominance and privilege – understandably, those things are hard to give up,” Foldy said. “For the greater good, of not just a workplace, but for our country, our democracy, we have to become a country that equally and passionately welcomes all the people who live in the country.”

Opie argues some critiques see diversity as not an “us” issue, but a “them” issue.

Why are conservatives attacking it?

DEI initiatives have come under attack by conservative legislators including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

In a recent memo, Abbott told state agencies that DEI initiatives are “illegal.”

The memo, sent on Sunday by Abbott’s chief of staff, Gardner Pate, said these initiatives violate the law because they “expressly favor some demographic groups to the detriment of others.”

It did not specify which groups were being harmed under such programs.

Pate claimed these programs “proactively encourage discrimination in the workplace,” and do the opposite of what they claim to do.

Renae Eze, a spokesperson for Gov. Abbott’s office, said in a statement: “The letter from the Governor’s chief of staff is a reminder that state agencies and public universities must follow federal and state law in their hiring practices.”

“The issue is not diversity—the issue is that equity is not equality. Here in Texas, we give people a chance to advance based on talent and merit,” Eze added.

The memo came days after DeSantis said he plans to bar state universities from funding DEI initiatives.

He argued that DEI is an “indoctrinating” program.

His administration requested data from colleges and universities throughout the state regarding race-related and DEI-related programs and courses, asking employees to “report the amount of money that they are using in things like DEI and [critical race theory] programs.”

“It’s a lot of money, and it’s not the best use of your money,” he said at a Jan. 31 press conference. “We are also going to eliminate all DEI and [critical race theory] bureaucracies in the state of Florida. No funding and that will wither on the vine.”

ABC News’ Armando Garcia and Max Zahn contributed to this report.

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(ROMAN FOREST, TEXAS) — A Texas mother is wanted for abandoning her two children for nearly two months late last year, according to police.

Roman Forest, Texas, police said Thursday they have issued an arrest warrant for Raven Yates for two counts of abandoning/endangering a child without intent to return.

The father of one of the children, a 12-year-old girl, reported to police on Nov. 14, 2022, that she had been left home alone with her 3-year-old brother since Sept. 28.

They allegedly did not have food or supplies for much of this time and the two children were not registered in school.

The father, who lives out of state, flew in from California in November after his former mother-in-law saw her daughter, Yates, alone in Mobile, Alabama, police said. He came to realize the two children were alone because his daughter had been asking him to send them food regularly.

He alerted police and met them at the house where the two children were staying. The father does not live at the house, but he pays the rent, Roman Forest Police Chief Stephen Carlisle told ABC News in an interview.

Police did not find any food in the cabinets or fridge, but the kids were both healthy.

“I guess the 12-year-old was very resourceful. But she shouldn’t have had to do that,” Carlisle said.

The father of the 12-year-old took the two kids to stay with their grandmother in Mobile, Alabama.

Police also discovered that a few weeks before she allegedly abandoned the children in September, Yates reported that her third child, a 14-year-old, had run away. Somehow, the child was able to make it to their grandmother’s house in Mobile as well.

The three children are now safe with their grandmother in Alabama.

Yates is believed to still be in the Mobile area, and she has been posting regularly on her social media accounts, Carlisle said.

Police have been unable to locate Yates since first issuing a warrant for her arrest on Dec. 6. Police hope members of the public will come forward with information that could help them apprehend Yates.

Mobile police did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

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(MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Pa.) — The “supposed friend” and business partner of a Pennsylvania mother found dead two weeks after he reported her missing has now been arrested for her murder, authorities said.

Jennifer Brown, 43, of Limerick Township, was reported missing on Jan. 4 by Blair Watts when she failed to pick up her 8-year-old son from the bus stop, according to Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele.

Watts, 33, reportedly told police he saw the mother the previous afternoon and had watched her son that night in a planned sleepover with his three children to “give Jennifer a break,” Steele said. However, Brown, described as an attentive and loving mother, had not sent her son’s daily medication with him for the sleepover, and her son could not reach her throughout the day on Jan. 4, which was “highly unusual,” Steele said.

Brown’s car was found parked outside her home and her keys, purse, computer tablet and work cellphone were found inside her residence, though her personal cellphone was missing and had been silent since the morning of Jan. 4, Steele said.

Brown’s body was found two weeks later, on Jan. 18, buried in a shallow grave behind a warehouse in Royersford, authorities said. The Montgomery County coroner determined the cause of death to be “homicide by unspecified means,” and that Brown had three broken ribs, according to the district attorney’s office. She appears to have died from asphyxiation, Steele said.

“While it took more than a month to arrest Watts, Montgomery County detectives and Limerick Township detectives feared and suspected early on that this devoted mother to an 8-year-old boy with special needs had either been kidnapped or killed,” Steele said during a press briefing Thursday. “And as detectives uncovered evidence piece by piece, the picture of what happened to Jennifer has become more and more clear.”

During the course of the investigation, detectives determined that Brown planned to invest in Watts’ Phoenixville restaurant, Birdies Kitchen, Steele said. Though the restaurant was slow to move forward and on Dec. 28, three months after expressing interest in a property, one of the property owners told Watts that they would not be moving forward with a lease, according to Steele.

On Jan. 3, two cash transfers totaling $17,000 were made from Brown’s computer tablet to accounts controlled by Watts, though the money was “never part of a written agreement between Brown and Watts,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement. The transfers took multiple attempts and went through after two-factor authentication was disabled, according to Steele.

On Jan. 4, Watts showed up to the Phoenixville restaurant property and allegedly told the property owner that he now had money to put down on a lease, the district attorney said.

Authorities believe Brown was murdered on Jan. 3, before the cash transfers were made, then Watts “tried to cover his tracks and get rid of her body before he reported her missing,” Steele said.

The movement of Brown’s personal cellphone and Watts’ cellphones show that Watts allegedly had her phone until it became inactive at 7 a.m. on Jan. 4, Steele said. Brown’s son also reportedly saw Watts holding his mother’s personal cellphone — identified by his school photo on its lock screen image — on Jan. 3, after Watts picked the child up from the school bus, authorities said.

Watts’ cellphone activity and surveillance footage allegedly tracked Watts to the area where Brown’s body was found buried the morning of Jan. 4, Steele said. A cadaver dog deployed to search two Jeeps known to be driven by Watts also allegedly indicated the presence of human remains in the vehicles, the district attorney said.

There was no sign of a struggle inside Brown’s home, which Watts allegedly had access to through a set of keys, according to Steele. Investigators did find pieces of plastic in the carpet that they later determined matched a plastic hair clip that was found along with her body, Steele said.

Watts, of Royersford, was arrested Thursday morning on charges of first-degree murder, third-degree murder, theft by unlawful taking and access device fraud. He was denied bail and is being held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility awaiting a preliminary hearing, online court records show.

His attorney, Christopher Mandracchia, denied the district attorney’s allegations in a video statement posted to social media on Friday.

“Yesterday the district attorney’s office made a statement. They stated that my client is a killer. He is not a killer,” Mandracchia said. “He is here presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

“Their case is circumstantial at best, and we look forward to our day in court,” he continued.

Philadelphia ABC station WPVI spoke to Watts over the phone in the days after Brown was reported missing. He told them he did not want to do an interview, but said at the time he was helping detectives and was “stunned” by her disappearance, WPVI reported. He said the two were going to open a restaurant together and that he didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary the day she disappeared, according to WPVI.

Friends of Brown were shocked by her disappearance and noted she was a devoted mother to her son.

“It’s literally like we’re living in a movie that we watch on TV, it’s so surreal and unbelievable,” Tiffany Barron, a spokesperson for the family, previously told WPVI. “Jennifer would never ever just disappear, she would never abandon her son.”

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(BALTIMORE COUNTY, ) — A 24-year-old man has been apprehended after he allegedly shot two Baltimore County, Maryland, police officers and led authorities on a multiday manhunt, officials said.

The search for David Linthicum began on Wednesday when he allegedly wounded the first officer, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said at a news conference Friday.

A second officer was shot on Thursday, Gahler said.

Baltimore County Public Schools were closed Thursday as the manhunt unfolded.

Linthicum allegedly led police on a car chase into Harford County on Thursday, the sheriff said. He then fled into the woods where he “hunkered down” overnight, Gahler said.

Linthicum was uninjured when he was taken into custody early Friday, Gahler said.

The officer injured on Wednesday was “released from the hospital and is in good spirits,” Baltimore County police said.

The officer shot on Thursday is on life support, said Dr. Thomas Scalea of the Shock Trauma Center.

“He is going to need a significant amount of reconstruction,” Scalea said.

“He’ll be with us for awhile,” he said.

ABC News’ Lauren Minore contributed to this report.

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(JERSEY CITY, N.J.) — A suspect has been arrested over the death of a beloved kindergarten teacher whose body was found in a shallow grave earlier this week.

Luz Hernandez, a 33-year-old kindergarten teacher from Jersey City, New Jersey, was first reported missing on Monday which led to the Jersey City Police Department to conduct a welfare check the following day in regards to the missing person’s report, according to Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez.

Her body was discovered in a shallow grave on Tuesday afternoon in Kearny, New Jersey — just a few miles from where she lived and worked.

Autopsy results revealed on Thursday indicate that she died of blunt force trauma to the head and compressions to the neck, according to ABC News’ New York City station WABC.

Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez announced that a suspect has been arrested but did not provide any further information on who the suspect is or what possible connection they could have had to Hernandez.

“An arrest has been made in connection with the death investigation of Luz Hernandez. More to follow,” Saurez tweeted early Friday morning.

Hernandez worked as a kindergarten teacher at BelovED Charter School in Jersey City and her death has led to an outpouring of grief within the community after the mother of three didn’t show up for work on Monday.

A makeshift memorial has appeared outside her home where people have been leaving flowers and condolence messages.

“[She was] the best sister in the world … it’s unbelievable,” Hernandez’s sister told WABC.

Hernandez is separated from her husband, Junior Santana, who was reportedly in church with their children on Sunday. The family said his whereabouts is currently unknown.

“[She was a] very pleasant woman, beautiful children. It is sad that she passed away. I feel terrible,” a neighbor identified as Monique told WABC in an interview. “She always seemed so pleasant so I really didn’t think something so severe [could happen].”

Anyone with information pertaining to this case is asked to contact the Office of the Hudson County Prosecutor at 201-915-1345 or to leave an anonymous tip. All information will be kept confidential.

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(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — The local district attorney’s office in Tennessee’s Shelby County announced Thursday that it will review all prior cases — closed and pending — of the five former Memphis police officers charged in the death of Tyre Nichols.

“This is still an active and ongoing investigation,” the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office said.

Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith were involved in the traffic stop that allegedly led to Nichols’ death last month. Nichols was arrested in Memphis on the evening of Jan. 7, after officers attempted to make a traffic stop for reckless driving near the area of Raines Road and Ross Road, according to separate press releases from the Memphis Police Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. A confrontation unfolded as the officers approached Nichols, who ran away. Another confrontation occurred when the officers pursued Nichols and ultimately apprehended him, police said.

After the incident, Nichols “complained of having a shortness of breath” and was transported by ambulance to Memphis’ St. Francis Hospital in critical condition, according to police.

Due to Nichols’ condition, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office was contacted and TBI special agents were subsequently requested to conduct a use-of-force investigation, according to the TBI.

Nichols “succumbed to his injuries” on Jan. 10, the TBI said.

Local, state and federal authorities continue to investigate the Jan. 7 traffic stop and Nichols’ death.

The Memphis Police Department announced on Jan. 21 that it had fired Bean, Haley, Martin, Mills and Smith following its administrative investigation into the incident.

On Jan. 26, all five former officers were arrested and charged with several felonies, including second-degree murder. They were booked into Shelby County Jail, with bonds set at $350,000 for Martin and Haley and $250,000 for Bean, Mills and Smith, according to a TBI press release. Online jail records show they have since been released after posting bond.

Mills’ lawyer, Blake Ballin, and the attorney for Martin, William Massey, told reporters last month that their clients were “devastated” about the charges and will be pleading not guilty. The defense attorneys representing Bean, Haley and Smith have either declined to comment or did not respond to ABC News’ previous requests for comment.

Video of the Jan. 7 traffic stop, comprised of footage from the city’s surveillance cameras and the former officers’ body-worn cameras, was made public on Jan. 27. The graphic video, which shows the officers beating Nichols, has sparked nationwide outrage.

According to a preliminary independent autopsy commissioned by Nichols’ family and released by their lawyers, he suffered from “extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating.”

Neither the independent autopsy report nor official autopsy report have been publicly released.

Bean, Haley, Martin, Mills and Smith were part of the SCORPION Unit, an acronym for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace In Our Neighborhoods launched in 2021 by the Memphis Police Department. The goal of the unit was created to address violent crimes in the city in a 50-person unit that operates seven days a week. According to the Memphis Police Department, the five former officers violated policies for use of force, duty to intervene and duty to render aid. Other officers are under investigation for department violations as well.

According to a Tennessee Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission document obtained by ABC News, Haley took two pictures on his personal cellphone of the “obviously injured” Nichols after he had been handcuffed. He admitted to sharing a photo in a text message with five people — a civilian employee, two Memphis police officers and a “female acquaintance” — while an administrative investigation uncovered that a sixth person also received the same photo, according to the document.

The actions violated a Memphis Police Department regulation regarding confidential information, which states that officers cannot share information relating to official police matters “without prior approval or subpoena, except to authorized persons,” according to the document, which was part of the process to decertify Bean, Haley, Martin, Mills and Smith.

On Jan. 30, the Memphis Police Department announced that Preston Hemphill, another officer involved in the Jan. 7 traffic stop, and one unidentified officer were relieved of duty amid the ongoing investigation into Nichols’ death. The Memphis Fire Department also announced that three of its members who were deployed in an ambulance to the scene that night — EMTs Robert Long and JaMicheal Sandridge, as well as Lt. Michelle Whitaker — have been fired for failing to properly assess Nichols as he lay beaten on the ground.

Seven additional Memphis police officers could face discipline in connection with Nichols’ death, according to the city’s chief legal officer, Jennifer Sink.

ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca, Whitney Lloyd and Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García contributed to this report.

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(MILFORD, N.J.) — New Jersey leaders are mourning the loss of a councilman who was killed in what police said was a targeted workplace shooting on Wednesday.

Russell Heller was fatally shot outside utility company PSE&G’s Somerset Central Division Headquarters in Franklin Township, where he was the senior distribution supervisor, officials said.

Heller, 51, was also a councilman in Milford, a small borough in Hunterdon County.

“The Milford Borough Council is deeply saddened by the loss and our hearts go out to his family,” Milford Mayor Henri Schepens said in a statement. “He was so full of life, it’s just unbelievable that he’s gone. Something like this has never happened in borough history. We are very shaken by this.”

Heller, a Republican, was first elected to the Milford Borough Council in 2017 and re-elected in 2020.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Russell Heller’s family and friends in the wake of this tragic act of gun violence,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted.

Franklin Township police responded to multiple 911 calls reporting a shooting victim in the parking lot of the PSE&G location around 7 a.m. Wednesday, the department said. Heller was found dead from a gunshot wound, police said.

Investigators determined that a former PSE&G employee — identified as Gary Curtis, 58, of Washington, New Jersey — allegedly approached Heller in the parking lot and shot him while he was outside his vehicle, police said.

Curtis was tracked to a parking lot in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey, within an hour of the shooting, according to police. As law enforcement officers approached they “observed him suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound” and he was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office along with Franklin Township Police are continuing to investigate the homicide.

“Preliminary investigation has revealed that the shooting was an isolated incident and Mr. Heller was the intended target,” the Franklin Township Police Department said in a statement.

A motive is under investigation. Investigators have determined that the shooting was not connected with Heller’s “elected office or political affiliation,” Deputy Chief Frank Roman Jr. with the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement Thursday.

PSE&G said it was “heartbroken” over the death of Heller, who had been a supervisor with the company for over 11 years.

“This event is tragic and disturbing, and we are offering support to our employees as they process this,” PSE&G said in a statement.

New Jersey Congressman Tom Kean said he was “shocked and saddened by the tragic murder” of Heller.

“Russell was an outstanding public servant who proudly represented the river town he loved,” Kean tweeted.

The incident comes one week after the separate, fatal shooting of another New Jersey council member.

Sayreville councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour was shot and killed on Feb. 1 while sitting inside her SUV outside her home, police said.

Dwumfour sustained multiple gunshot wounds in her SUV and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.

Dwumfour — the mother of a 12-year-old daughter and leader of her church — was elected into office in 2021 and worked as a business analyst and part-time emergency medical technician.

No arrests have been announced in the case.

ABC News’ Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report.

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(JACKSON, Miss.) — The Mississippi House passed a controversial bill that would form a court system of unelected judges and prosecutors to preside over part of the majority-Black city of Jackson.

Black residents make up 82.8% of the city’s population, according to the U.S. Census.

The bill would expand the city’s capitol complex improvement district, which “was created by the Mississippi Legislature to establish regular funding and administration of infrastructure projects within a defined area of the city of Jackson,” according to city documents.

Instead of giving the city’s majority-Black residents an opportunity to vote for judges and prosecutors in the court, the Republican-backed bill would require government officials to choose who fills those positions.

This court system would preside over the district expansion, according to one of the bill’s sponsors, Republican Sen. Trey Lamar.

The legislation would also expand the capitol police force.

The bill’s details include: the state’s supreme court chief justice wouls appoint two judges; the attorney general would appoint two prosecutors; the state public defender would appoint public defenders; and the Mississippi public safety commissioner would have authority over capitol police.

The state’s supreme court chief justice, the AG, the state public defender and the public safety commissioner currently in office are white.

Lamar, the bill’s sponsor, does not live in Jackson and represents a majority-white district in Mississippi.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba called it “the most oppressive legislation that we have seen in our city’s history.”

“It’s oppressive because it strips the right of Black folks to vote and it’s oppressive because it puts a military force over people that has no accountability to them,” he told reporters. “It’s oppressive because there will be judges who will determine sentences over people’s lives. It’s oppressive because it redirects their tax dollars to something they don’t endorse or believe in.”

Lawmakers intensely debated the bill on the House floor Tuesday.

Lamar said the effort hopes to address crime in Jackson, as well as help with “a backlog, a need for assistance in the Hinds County judiciary.”

“The people who voted for this bill are trying to make Jackson safer, that’s all they’re interested in and if you’re not committing crimes in Jackson, you really don’t have anything to worry about,” said Lamar.

Critics argued that the bill was targeting the Black community, and stripping residents of their “consitutional right” and voting power.

Several lawmakers compared the bill to Jim Crow-era laws and racist legislation of the past: “I’ve been here since — for 74 years and one thing I can do is recognize a racist when I see one,” Democratic state Rep. Solomon C. Osborne said on the House floor,

“In my humble opinion, I think that House Bill 1020 is simply a power grab,” said John G. Faulkner, another Democratic member of the Mississippi House of Representatives.

Lamar waived concerns, citing the courts lower or “inferior” status, which means that decisions will be subject to scrutiny from a higher court.

The bill will now head to the Senate floor, where the Republicans also hold the majority of seats.

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