(BLACKSBURG, Va.) — One person was killed and four others were injured at a shooting in Blacksburg, Virginia, near Virginia Tech on Friday, according to Blacksburg Police.
Police responded to reports of shots fired at the Melody Hookah Lounge in downtown Blacksburg at 11:53 p.m. on Friday, police said in a statement, and found five injured people.
They were all taken to local hospitals where one died, police said. Conditions of the remaining four are currently unknown, according to police.
“This incident continues to be a complex, ongoing case that has shifted to a homicide investigation,” Blacksburg police said in a statement.
One of the injured was a Virginia Tech student, Virginia Tech President Tim Sands said in a letter to members of the university community.
“Our condolences go out to the family and friends of the deceased and we extend our support to those who were injured,” Sands said.
The names of the victims have not been released.
Virginia Tech did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — The parents of Amir Locke spoke out at a press conference Friday alongside civil rights attorneys Ben Crump, Jeff Storms and Antonio Romanucci following the killing of the 22-year-old earlier this week.
Locke was fatally shot by Minneapolis police officers in an apartment early Wednesday morning. Body camera footage released on Thursday shows officers executing a “no-knock” search warrant before coming across Locke, who had been sleeping under a blanket on the couch. He is seen holding a gun as he begins to sit up, still covered with the blanket, before he is shot less than 10 seconds after officers entered the room.
Locke was not named in the “no-knock” warrant, Crump said at the press conference. The warrant was being executed on behalf of St. Paul police, who were searching for a homicide suspect.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner has ruled Locke’s death a homicide.
“My son Amir was a law-abiding citizen who did not have a criminal history,” his father, Andre Locke, said at the press conference. “My son Amir was loved by many of us, by our family and many people, everyone that he came in touch with. My son Amir did what was right. He did all the things that he was supposed to do.”
Locke’s parents became emotional discussing their son’s killing, saying that he was a good kid working in the music industry and an entrepreneur who wanted to help the youth.
His mother, Karen Wells, said she struggled to watch the body camera footage.
“I could not watch it,” she said. “But when I finally was able to see parts of that video when they released it yesterday — a mother should never have to see her child executed in that type of manner.”
The officer who shot and killed Locke was identified by police as Mark Hanneman. In accordance with policy, he’s been place on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation into the incident.
Crump, who is representing the Locke family with Storms and Romanucci, said that he was “shocked,” as he reflected on Locke’s death. According to MinnPost, Minneapolis announced that it had changed its policy on “no-knock” search warrants and restricted their use after Breonna Taylor was killed in a similar situation in 2020. Minneapolis was one of several cities to make the change.
Minneapolis police still use “no-knock” search warrants in limited cases. Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman said at a Thursday press conference that “both a no-knock and a knock search warrant were obtained … so that the SWAT team could assess the circumstances and make the best possible decision.”
“If we learned anything from Breonna Taylor, it is that ‘no-knock’ warrants have deadly consequences for innocent, law-abiding Black citizens,” Crump said.
“We have a city that just refuses to learn,” Storms added, referring to George Floyd’s 2020 murder in Minneapolis and David Smith’s 10 years earlier.
Romanucci said that Locke was “doomed to die,” because of the way that the police department carried out the raid.
“Had they announced who they were and why they were there, this tragedy could have been averted,” he said at the press conference. “But because they executed in the manner in which they did, Amir was doomed to die.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey issued a moratorium on “no knock” warrants late Friday.
“No matter what information comes to light, it won’t change the fact that Amir Locke’s life was cut short,” Frey said in a statement. “To ensure safety of both the public and officers until a new policy is crafted, I’m issuing a moratorium on both the request and execution of such warrants in Minneapolis.”
Locke’s family said at the press conference that he had a license to carry the gun in his possession on Wednesday, though this has not been confirmed by ABC News. His father also said he was mentored by relatives who had a background in law enforcement.
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus issued a statement on Friday addressing the shooting, saying that it was “completely avoidable.”
“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,” said Chair Bryan Strawser. The organization called for an independent investigation into the circumstances around Locke’s death.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison will work with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office to review Locke’s death, the office said in a press release Friday.
Locke’s parents are committed to getting justice for their son.
“As his mother, I will make sure that as long as I’m on this side of this world, I’m going to fight every day, throughout the day, 365 days, to make sure that Amir Rahkare Locke gets justice for being executed by the MPD,” Wells said.
“We know that we are not going to let them sweep Amir’s death under the rug, as they attempted to initially. His family, led by his mother and father, are gonna fight to say that Amir Locke’s life matters,” Crump added.
The Minneapolis Police Department declined to provide comment.
ABC News’ Miles Cohen and Whitney Lloyd contributed to this report
(ATLANTA) — Travis McMichael withdrew on Friday his guilty plea in the federal case against him in the death of Ahmaud Arbery. The trial goes forward on Monday.
Gregory McMichael, Travis’ father, informed a federal court Thursday evening that he was withdrawing his guilty plea to federal hate crime charges connected to Arbery’s death after a federal judge this week rejected the terms of a plea agreement reached with the Justice Department.
A lawyer for Gregory McMichael, the father of Travis McMichael, who shot Arbery in February 2020 three times at close range, informed U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Wood in a filing that he was ready to stand trial.
Wood rejected a plea deal in which federal prosecutors guaranteed the men would be able to serve the first 30 years of confinement in federal prison. She told the men she wanted an answer by Friday.
They will go to trial next week with their co-defendant William “Roddie” Bryan, who was not offered the same plea deal.
In accepting the change, the court agreed not to allow the statements made by the men last Monday in association with the plea, where they had admitted to targeting Arbery because he was Black.
Gregory McMichael, 66, and his 36-year-old son were convicted of state murder charges last year along with Bryan, 52, and were all sentenced to life in prison, the McMichaels without the possibility of parole.
The McMichaels and Bryan will be required to serve their state sentence before they serve a federal sentence, if they are convicted.
During a hearing on Monday in U.S. District Court in Brunswick, Georgia, Wood said she felt “uncomfortable” approving a plea deal that locked her into giving the McMichaels a three-decade sentence in a federal penitentiary. She noted that the case was in its early stages and said, “I can’t say that 360 months is the precise, fair sentence in this case.”
The federal trial will include evidence of the McMichaels’ prior racist behavior, which was excluded from the state trial.
Wood’s decision came on the heels of Arbery’s parents, Wanda Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery, giving impassioned statements in court. They asked the judge to deny the men their wish to go to federal prison, which is safer and better funded than most state prisons, according to legal experts.
“Granting these men their preferred conditions of confinement would defeat me,” Cooper-Jones told Wood. “It gives them one last chance to spit in my face after murdering my son.”
At Monday’s hearing, assistant U.S. attorney Tara Lyons said Travis and Gregory McMichael agreed to plead guilty to count one of a multi-count indictment alleging they interfered with Arbery’s right to enjoy the use of a public road he was jogging on “because of Arbery’s race and color.” Lyons said the agreement called for other charges to be dismissed, including attempted kidnapping and discharging a firearm during a violent crime.
The agreement also called for the McMichaels to waive their right to appeal in both the federal and state cases.
Arbery, 25, was fatally shot after the McMichaels saw him jogging in their Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia. They said they assumed Arbery was a burglar, armed themselves and chased him in their pickup truck. The McMichaels’ neighbor, Bryan, joined the pursuit, blocking the victim’s escape path with his truck.
Bryan also used his cellphone to record Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery with a shotgun, video that became integral to their state murder convictions.
(HOUSTON) — The winter storm that’s hitting the country with frigid temperatures and icy precipitation caused two major highway crashes in Texas Thursday night.
Ten cars were involved in the pileup at Westpark Toll Road, just outside of Houston, the police said. The cars hit a patch of ice on the westbound lanes, according to the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s office.
There were no major injuries reported in this crash, and the scene was cleared by the morning rush hour, police said.
Around the same time, a 14-car pile-up took place on I-35 near Austin.
Icy conditions were also behind this crash, investigators said.
One motorist suffered minor injuries and refused to be transported for treatment, Austin-Travis County EMS tweeted later in the night.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has warned residents to stay off the roads as the storm has caused damage to roads, power lines and other services.
(RICHFIELD, Minn) — Police released more details about the shooting outside a Minnesota school Tuesday that left a student dead and another critically injured.
Jay Henthorne, the chief of Richfield Police, told reporters Wednesday that the incident outside the South Education Center started as a fight among five students.
During the scuffle, a gun was produced and fired, according to Henthorne. An unidentified15-year-old was shot and killed and an unidentified 17-year-old was shot and was listed in critical condition.
A third victim, an unidentified 19-year-old, suffered minor injuries, the police said.
Henthorne said the two suspects, Fernando Valdez-Alvarez, 18, and Alfredo Rosario Solis, 19, allegedly fled the scene, but they were apprehended later in the day at two separate addresses. A gun was recovered from one of the locations, Henthorne said.
Valdez-Alvarez and Solis were arraigned Friday on several counts of second-degree murder, according to court documents.
The investigation is ongoing and the FBI and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting, according to police.
Henthorne said there are no other threats against the school.
A makeshift memorial for the slain students has been constructed outside the school.
“Their lives were just beginning,” Sandy Lewandowski, the superintendent for School District 278, said of the victims. “I am devastated. We are all devastated.”
(NEW YORK) — A month into his tenure, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Friday sought to clarify some of his prosecutorial policies that fueled criticism he is soft on crime.
Bragg’s letter to his staff, obtained by ABC News, came the same week the NYPD finished burying two police officers shot in the line of duty.
The widow of officer Jason Rivera, Dominique Luzuriaga, received a standing ovation during her husband’s funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral when she called out Bragg and his approach to law enforcement.
“The system continues to fail us” she said. “We’re not safe anymore. I know you were tired of these laws, especially the ones from the new DA. I hope he’s watching you speak through me right now.”
Bragg’s “Day One” memorandum said the district attorney’s office would not prosecute fare beating, resisting arrest and other nonviolent crimes in an attempt to decriminalize poverty and mental illness and balance fairness and safety.
It also said prosecutors should treat armed robbery in commercial settings as misdemeanor petit larceny if there is no genuine risk of physical harm and disallowed bail conditions for pre-trial cases except for “very serious cases.” The policies, he wrote, “will make us safer.”
The memo prompted a scathing review from the city’s new police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, who feared Bragg’s policies “will invite violence against police officers and will have deleterious effects on our relationship with the communities we protect,” she said the day after the memo was issued.
Bragg conceded the “Day One” memo that outlined his approach “has been a source of confusion, rather than clarity,” according the letter to his staff sent Friday.
“Violence against police officers will not be tolerated. We will prosecute any person who harms or attempts to harm a police officer,” Bragg’s letter said.
Bragg backtracked on how the office will prosecute commercial robbery.
“A commercial robbery with a gun will be charged as a felony, whether or not the gun is operable, loaded, or a realistic imitation. A commercial robbery at knifepoint, or by other weapon that creates a risk of physical harm, will be charged as a felony,” the letter said. “In retail thefts that do not involve a risk of physical harm, the Office will continue to assess the charges based on all of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances presented.”
Bragg also sought to reassure assistant district attorneys they retained discretion in the way they handle cases after his initial memo required them to “obtain the approval” of a supervisor to deviate from his policies.
“You were hired for your keen judgment, and I want you to use that judgment – and experience – in every case,” Bragg said.
(JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.) — To address the lack of diversity in law enforcement, Lincoln University, in Jefferson City, Missouri, has opened the first police academy at a historically Black college or university (HBCU).
Today, 71.5% of U.S. police officers are white and police departments are struggling to recruit new officers and retain veterans, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Retirements nationwide are up 45% in policing, resignations have risen 18% and recruitment is down 5%, according to the Police Executive Research Forum.
For law enforcement to better reflect America’s diversity, Lincoln University started the new policing program in January of 2021, graduating its first group of recruits six months later.
“Law enforcement agencies across the nation have been pulling their hair out trying to figure out a way to recruit more minorities. And this has never been tried,” Gary Hill, the co-founder and principal instructor of the program, told ABC News. “I would love to see where we can go from here.”
The majority of Lincoln’s first class are college students. The nine recruits spent 32 hours a week in firearm training and physical conditioning courses. The recruits consist of two Black women, four Black men and three white men.
Hill hopes the success of this academy could change the fate of policing and inspire other HBCUs to follow suit.
College sophomore Ti Aja Fairlee, 21, is the youngest in the class and told “Nightline” she never saw Black women represented among the ranks in law enforcement as a child.
Black women are among the most underrepresented groups in police, making up just 2.7% of the force nationally, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
“I am kind of proud of myself actually that I can be the face and the voice for girls like me,” Fairlee said. “Yes, you can do this. Don’t let the race thing stop you from anything. The race thing already pushed us back enough. We’ve just got to push forward and do what we want to do, like, don’t let nobody stop us.”
Fairlee, however, said there’s a lot of pressure in being one of a few.
“That’s where a lot of my doubts came from because I’m like, ‘Can I be a good police officer? I don’t know nobody to look up to,'” she said. “I’ve got to be my own role model, really.”
Tyrese Davis, 22, said the message was clear in Baltimore where he grew up: Don’t become a cop if you’re Black or a person of color.
He’s the first in his family to go to college and pays for tuition and the police academy by working the night shift at a local book factory.
Investing in recruits like Fairlee and Davis is central to Hill’s mission.
“What you all have to do is be the change that you want to see,” Hill said. “You have to be.”
Hill, a 26-year veteran in of law enforcement, also heads up Lincoln University’s police department, where he oversees 22 officers while still taking time to patrol the campus himself.
But close to the chief’s heart is the belief that higher education in police leadership makes for competent and diverse leaders. Hill holds a master’s in administration of criminal justice agencies and is currently working toward a doctorate in criminal justice with an emphasis on homeland security.
“I’m able to see things from different perspectives because of my education,” he said, “and so a lot of us chiefs and sheriffs, and other administrators, see the value in that.”
Hill said he’s inspired by African American Civil War soldiers who pooled their money to help create HBCUs in the 1800s.
“I look back and I say, ‘you know, if they could do it back in 1866, we can do it now,'” Hill said. “Lincoln University is probably one of the most diverse schools in the country. Our population is half Black and half white. And what better place to have an academy or to start one but here?”
Eight members of the inaugural class now work in law enforcement. Lincoln University’s program has also broadened its reach, opening a second training site in St. Louis, Missouri, with 25 recruits currently enrolled.
“I will measure success in three years to see how many of those recruits are still in law enforcement, and the things that they’ve experienced, and how they feel about law enforcement after those three years,” said Hill.
Watch the full story on “Nightline” TONIGHT at 12:35 a.m. ET on ABC.
(HOUSTON) — An 11-year-old boy was shot on Thursday in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Harris County, Texas, while walking to get something from his mother’s car, according to police.
Deputies and EMS found the boy with at least one gunshot wound to the chest and aid being administered by his family. He was transported to the hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead there, according to Harris County police.
Harris County deputies responded to an apartment complex just before 7 p.m. after receiving reports of a shooting. Multiple shots were fired, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office Homicide and Crime Scene Units are conducting an investigation, police said.
Early stages of the investigation indicated that gunshots were heard shortly after the boy walked to the parking lot to retrieve something from his mother’s car, according to police.
Witnesses said they saw a teenage black male fleeing the scene on foot. He ran through the complex and jumped over a wooden fence to exit the complex, police said.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — The monster storm that dumped more than 1 foot of snow from Missouri to the Northeast is continuing its push east, bringing ice to the Northeast and freezing temperatures to Texas.
With 5,210 flights canceled Thursday nationwide, including over 1,400 in Dallas, the day marked the highest number of weather-related cancellations since March 14, 2017.
The latest
The heavy snow is stretching from western Pennsylvania to Maine Friday afternoon, bringing over 1 foot of snow to some areas.
Icy conditions are spreading across eastern Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey, New York’s Hudson Valley and parts of New England, including Boston.
The storm is dropping rain from Washington, D.C., to New York City.
The storm moves out of the Northeast Friday night. But temperatures will continue to plummet in the Northeast Friday night, so whatever rain or freezing rain falls will freeze on any untreated roads during the evening commute.
Those in the Northeast will wake up to freezing temperatures Saturday, with the wind chill forecast to plunge to 4 degrees in Boston, 6 degrees in New York City and 9 degrees in Washington, D.C.
Texas faces a freeze
The storm dumped 1.7 inches of snow in Dallas — more than the city usually sees in an entire year.
The storm even brought freezing rain down to Texas’ Gulf Coast. Police in Houston are urging drivers to stay off the roads due to ice, and Houston schools are closed Friday.
This storm comes one year after Texas’ power grid disaster, when back-to-back winter storms left more than 4 million people without heat and safe water. It took days for power to be restored, and more than 100 people died because of subsequent blackouts. Months later, Abbott signed a bill to reform the state’s power grid.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott assured residents Friday, “The power grid continues to perform well at peak demand during this winter storm. … The Texas electric grid is more reliable and more resilient than has ever been.”
But Texans are still feeling the freeze with the wind chill — what temperature it feels like — hitting about 8 degrees in Dallas, 7 degrees in Austin and 1 degree in Lubbock on Friday morning.
Saturday morning the wind chills will fall to the teens from Texas to Georgia.
Heading into Friday night, Abbott warned, “It is anticipated that the entire state will be in a freezing or below freezing temperature situation.”
(NEW YORK) — Disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti was convicted Friday of stealing from the client that helped him flirt with fame.
He was found guilty of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after he surreptitiously diverted $300,000 that rightfully belonged to Stormy Daniels, the pornographic performer who hired Avenatti to represent her in litigation against former President Trump.
Avenatti had pleaded not guilty and argued the evidence against him was insufficient but the jury sided with federal prosecutors who said Avenatti convinced Daniels her book publisher was late with payments owed to her for her memoir, “Full Disclosure,” when he already had the money in an account he controlled. He will be sentenced on May 24.
“The defendant was a lawyer who stole from his own client. She thought he was her advocate, but he betrayed her,” assistant U.S. attorney Robert Sobelman said. “He told lies to cover it all up, lies he told to try to get away with it.”
The jury deliberated over three days and twice, before rendering a verdict, indicated it was having trouble. A few hours after deliberations began, the jury sent a note saying, “We are unable to come to a consensus on Count One. What are our next steps?”
A subsequent note indicated a single juror “is refusing to look at evidence and is acting on a feeling.” In both instances the judge ordered the jury to keep trying.
Avenatti, who represented himself during the trial, argued he was entitled to a portion of Daniels’ book advance even though she paid him an agreed-upon retainer of $100.
“Ms. Daniels was about to embark on a fight against the president of the United States, the most powerful person on the planet. And the evidence shows that I agreed to take on that fight for Ms. Daniels. But I didn’t agree to do it for free,” Avenatti said.
At one point during trial Avenatti cross-examined his former client about her belief in the paranormal in an attempt to attack her credibility.
“She claims to have the ability to talk to the dead. She claims to have a doll who talks, plays the piano, and calls her mommy,” Avenatti said. “Does this sound like someone the government should be using as their star witness in a criminal case?”
The remark during closing statements drew a sustained objection and a response during the government’s rebuttal.
“I don’t know what you all believe, whether you think it’s kooky to believe in the paranormal, whether you believe it’s weird, whether you have beliefs in the paranormal. No idea. What matters here has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with that at all. She can believe whatever she wants and still be stolen from, from the defendant, and still deserves not to be,” assistant U.S. attorney Matthew Podolsky said.
Daniels became a household name after she received $130,000 in hush money from Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. She said the payment was meant to keep her quiet about an alleged affair she said she had with Trump, who has denied it.
Daniels’ attorney Clark Brewster released a statement following the jury’s verdict, saying, “Stormy is relieved this nightmare is over. The text communications between Stormy and Mr. Avenatti in real time was overwhelming proof of his deceit and embezzlement. The forgery of her name and his concealed directive to wire the money to him was irrefutable. Still, Mr. Avenatti possessed the uncanny ability to steadfastly deny the crimes and persuade others he was entitled to the embezzled funds. Stormy is pleased that the justice system worked.”
Avenatti’s conviction is his second in recent months. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for extorting Nike and he faces a retrial in California on charges that he cheated clients other than Daniels.
