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(NEW YORK) — Since November, at least four school shootings had an alarming connection to law enforcement and activists alike; the suspected shooters used a “ghost gun.”

A “ghost gun” is a firearm that comes packaged in parts, can be bought online and assembled without much of a trace, which experts warn are becoming increasingly dangerous.

“When we first heard about these weapons, we thought anyone can get them, even a kid. It’s not a hypothetical anymore,” Alex McCourt, an assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy, told ABC News.

McCourt, law enforcement offices and other experts who have been studying the proliferation of “ghost guns” told ABC News this trend is likely to continue beyond the school setting unless policymakers take action.

There are two types of weapons that fall under the ghost gun moniker, according to McCourt.

The first is a plastic gun that can be made with a 3D printer and usually fires one bullet.

The second version, which he said has been increasingly found at crime scenes, is do-it-yourself gun assembly kits that include all the parts of a gun, but without serial numbers or specific components. McCourt said these homemade guns bypass federal laws requiring registration and tracing.

Due to loopholes in federal gun laws, the kits are not considered firearms because they are missing specific completed components. In addition, under current laws, users aren’t allowed to register their constructed weapons with the federal government.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told ABC News that the number of “privately made firearms” or PMF recovered from crime scenes by law enforcement has increased over the years. In 2016, law enforcement agencies across the country confiscated 1,750 PMFs from crime scenes, and the number jumped to 8,712 in 2020, according to the agency.

“From Jan. 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2020, there were approximately 23,906 suspected PMFs reported to ATF as having been recovered by law enforcement from potential crime scenes, including 325 homicides or attempted homicides,” ATF spokeswoman Carolyn Gwathmey said in a statement.

Gwathmey said the data might be undercounted as not all law enforcement agencies have submitted their PMF and “ghost gun” numbers to the federal government.

Legal loopholes allow the “ghost gun” kits to be sold online, and all it takes is common house tools to construct in under half an hour, McCourt said.

“It’s much less complicated than you might think,” he said. “If you can put together IKEA furniture, you can assemble these weapons.”

Rob Wilcox, the federal legal director at Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit gun safety organization, told ABC News there are several online sites that not only sell the “ghost gun” kits but also provide step-by-step instructions to customers of any age without any oversight or background check. Wilcox said even though the federal government has limited data on these online marketplaces, his group’s research has found that the number of Internet-based “ghost gun” retailers has been increasing over the years.

“You can ship it to a place where there is no watchful eye,” he said.

The weapons have recently made their way into school grounds.

On Nov. 29, a 15-year-old student allegedly shot and wounded a 16-year-old classmate with a “ghost gun” at Cesar Chavez High School in Phoenix, according to the Phoenix Police Department. The investigation is ongoing, a police spokeswoman told ABC News.

Steven Alston Jr., a 17-year-old student at Magruder High School in Rockville, Maryland, allegedly shot and critically wounded a 15-year-old classmate on Jan. 21, during a dispute, police said. Investigators said Alston, who is being tried as an adult with attempted second-degree murder, allegedly used a “ghost gun.”

“Three different parts were literally delivered to his home,” Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones told reporters at a news conference days after the shooting.

Albuquerque, New Mexico, police said on Feb. 25, 14-year-old Marcos Trejo shot his classmate outside West Mesa High School during a fight over a ghost gun. Trejo has been charged with murder, police said.

The most recent incident took place on March 4, when an 18-year-old suspect used a “ghost gun” to wound two teachers and a student at Olathe East High School in Kansas, according to prosecutors. Jaylon Desean Elmore has been charged with attempted capital murder, according to Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe.

In all of the investigations, police and prosecutors told ABC News they are still looking into how the guns got into the hands of the teen suspects and have been warning about their spread in their communities.

A spokeswoman for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, which is investigating the Magruder High School shooting, told ABC News in a statement that “ghost guns have been recovered from five county schools since the start of the school year.”

Some states have taken legislative action against “ghost guns in light of these incidents.”

Nine states, including New York and California, have responded to the growth of “ghost guns” with laws that regulate the sales of them by requiring background checks and serial numbers for all of the components in the kits, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

New York state’s “ghost gun” regulations went into effect this fall after legislators said it saw a 479% increase in “ghost gun” seizures across the state over the last three years.

“If you can’t pass a background check to get a gun, then you shouldn’t be able to get a gun–period,” State Sen. Anna Kaplan, who introduced one of the New York bills, said in a statement last year.

Cities like Denver, San Francisco and Philadelphia have also adopted similar laws.

Some states are also considering similar legislation. For example, Maryland state lawmakers are debating a bill, SB 387, which would prohibit “a person from purchasing, receiving, selling, offering to sell, or transferring an unfinished frame or receiver.”

During a hearing last month, law enforcement groups and district attorney offices, including Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy, pushed Maryland legislators to pass the bill.

“If you’re looking at an increase in violent crime across the country and in my county in particular, ghost guns are involved,” McCarthy told ABC News. “The real danger of ghost guns is really two-fold. Number one, prohibited persons, who we in Maryland have decided should not have guns, can get these guns- and number two, we’re finding increasingly they fall into the hands of children.”

Maryland Sen. Justin Ready told the Baltimore Sun before the Jan. 25 hearing that he didn’t think banning “ghost guns” would be effective because criminals would still find a way to obtain a weapon.

“I would have a lot more respect for these gun control groups if they came in strong supporting the bills cracking down on the people that commit violent acts,” Ready told the Baltimore Sun.

McCourt said lawmakers have constantly played catch up with evolving technology and these bills are a good first start, but because of the reach of online sales, the federal government needs to step in.

“Having a patchwork of state laws doesn’t do much,” he said.

Last year, the Biden administration and Justice Department proposed a new rule that would allow the ATF to redefine “firearm frame or receiver” and “frame or receiver” so the agency can regulate “ghost guns.”

The ATF is currently reviewing public comments for the proposal, according to the White House.

Wilcox said Biden’s proposal would effectively cripple the sale of “ghost guns” online and make it easier for law enforcement agencies to track the kits.

In the meantime, Wilcox said parents and caregivers need to be in frequent conversation with their children about the homemade gun kits.

“You have to know if your child is in crisis, you have to limit their access to guns,” he said. “That includes access to the sites that sell those ghost guns.”

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(KENOSHA, Wis.) — The father of a 12-year-old girl called for charges to be filed against an off-duty police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who appeared to kneel on his daughter’s neck while trying to stop a fight.

“She’s humiliated, she’s traumatized. Every day I gotta hear, ‘Daddy, I don’t wanna go to school,'” the father, Jerrel Perez, said during a press conference in Kenosha Wednesday.

“It breaks me because I wasn’t there to help her,” he added. “I felt helpless.”

Videos of the incident, which took place at Lincoln Middle School in Kenosha on March 4, were captured by students and went viral.

Perez said that after the incident took place, he thought that his daughter was trying to get out of her punishment when she complained about pain in her neck, but said that hours later he watched the video.

“I want to see this officer get charged,” Perez said, adding that his daughter is in therapy and seeing a doctor due to a neck injury.

The Kenosha Police Department and the Kenosha Unified School District announced earlier this month that they have launched an investigation into the incident.

A video taken by one of the students at the school was obtained by ABC News and shows the officer responding to a reported fight between two students.

The 12-year-old girl, who is in the sixth grade, appears to push the officer and then he pins her to the ground and appears to kneel on her neck, according to the video. It is unclear what happened before or after.

The Kenosha Police Department released a statement on March 7 addressing the incident.

According to KPD, after a fight broke out between two students in the cafeteria during lunch, Kenosha Unified School District employees, including the off-duty officer, intervened and one staff member was injured.

“K.P.D. has watched the video clip and has seen the photo which has been widely shared on social media over the weekend. We are keenly aware of the significant sensitivity surrounding the photo. K.P.D., together with K.U.S.D. is investigating the incident in its entirety while being cautious not to make conclusions based off of a small piece of information shared on social media,” police said. “Both agencies will look to our respective policies and procedures for guidance in this circumstance. It is the highest priority of those officers who work in our schools to provide a safe and secure learning environment for our children and staff.”

The officer is a 37-year-old male with four years of service at KPD, police said, but when asked by ABC News whether the officer’s identity will be revealed, a KPD spokesman declined to comment.

Tanya Ruder, chief communications officer for the Kenosha Unified School District, told ABC News on March 8 that the officer is a “part-time KUSD employee, who was hired as an off-duty Kenosha police officer,” and is “currently on a paid leave from the district.”

“We appreciate your patience as we work with the Kenosha Police Department to investigate the facts surrounding this incident,” she added.

Police did not immediately respond to a request for updates on the investigation.

Family attorney Drew DeVinney said during the press conference Wednesday that the family is going to take legal action against police and the school soon.

DeVinney disputed the allegation that the girl pushed the officer and said that she was charged with “disorderly conduct.”

Asked if the girl is facing any charges, police declined to comment.

Perez expressed outrage over the police officer’s tactics, comparing the image to George Floyd — the Minnesota man who was killed in May 2020 after a police officer placed a knee on his neck for nine minutes.

Amid a national push for police reform after Floyd’s death, Wisconsin banned the use of police chokeholds in June 2021 except in life-threatening situations or when a police officer has to defend themselves. Chokeholds include various neck restraints.

DeVinney said Wednesday that the police and the school have refused to share video captured on security cameras of the incident with the family.

Ruder told ABC News last week that they cannot release the footage as this is a pending investigation.

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(ATLANTA) — In the year since a gunman killed eight people at three Atlanta-based Asian-owned or operated spas, family members who lost a loved one say the pain is still fresh.

Robert Peterson, whose mother, Yong Ae Yue, 63, was the last person killed in the shooting spree while she was working at Aromatherapy Spa told ABC’s “Nightline” that he still can’t get that day out of his head, but he continues to push through.

“I have no choice but to heal,” he said.

Peterson and others in the AAPI community said their anguish has only been compounded with the rise in anti-Asian crimes and rhetoric taking place across the country. Advocates said these incidents are becoming a wake-up call to the community to make a stand against racism.

Watch “Nightline’s” full episode on the anniversary of the Atlanta spa shooting Wednesday night at 12:35 a.m. ET on ABC.

On March 16, 2021, Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54, were killed at Young’s Asian Massage near the Atlanta suburb of Woodstock in Cherokee County, police said. Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yue were shot and killed a short time later at Gold Spa and Aromatherapy Spa in Fulton County, according to police.

Police arrested Robert Aaron Long shortly after the shootings. He claimed he didn’t target his victims based on their race, but instead said he was dealing with sex addiction. Capt. Jay Baker, a spokesperson for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, came under fire after he claimed Long had a “really bad day” during a news conference following his arrest. Baker was soon replaced as the police spokesperson for the case.

Peterson said he was hurt when the authorities downplayed the race of the victims even though six out of the eight people killed were Asian women.

“He got the benefit of the doubt when these victims did not. They were persecuted. They were negatively judged. They were stigmatized,” Peterson said.

Randy Park, Grant’s son, told ABC’s “Nightline” that his mother rarely talked about her job at Gold Spa because of the stigma.

Park, 23, said Grant worked long hours to provide for him and his brother Eric, 21, and always made sure that they were safe. Park said he still misses his mother’s nightly check-ins.

“Around 9 to midnight rolls around, when we would get those calls,” Park told ABC News, “my soul feels just kind of silent, because I know I’m supposed to get that, but I can’t anymore.”

Long pleaded guilty to the four murders that took place in Cherokee County and will serve life in prison. Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said that their investigation found no evidence of racial bias.

He is awaiting trial in Fulton County on murder charges, which he plead not guilty to in the fall. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said she’d seek the death penalty and hate crime charges against Long.

Even though major cities saw a 261% increase of alleged hate crimes last year, according to a report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, very few hate crime charges are handed out by prosecutors. Law enforcement members and prosecutors have said getting key evidence that shows a suspect was motivated by racial bias is difficult.

Peterson said he believes Long has shown bias, and he hopes that prosecutors can find a way to convict him on hate crime charges.

“Before we could end racism, we have to be able to see it. We have to be able to call it out. We have to be able to label it,” he said. “If we don’t, then we allow the perpetrator to get away, absolving himself of accountability and responsibility.”

Peterson isn’t alone in this call for action. The spa murders sparked rallies, protests and calls for actions by lawmakers to crack down on anti-Asian crimes and the perpetrators.

Cam Ashling, the co-founder and chairwoman of the Atlanta-based non-profit Asian American Action Fund, told ABC News that the spa shootings were the tipping point of rising anti-Asian attacks, and many in the community began to rethink their initial reluctance to speak out.

“Asian people are not into, ‘Let’s all shine national media on my tragedy.’ We don’t want our suffering and our tragedy on video forever,” she said. “New immigrants don’t want to have attention on them. They feel like they’re supposed to hide and kind of let it pass.”

She added that Asians are still fighting an uphill battle as more Asian Americans have become targets of assaults and killings.

Last month, Christina Yuna Lee was stabbed to death in her Manhattan apartment after a suspect followed her home, police said. The city has seen other Asian women pushed in subways and assaulted in the street, according to police.

Special agent Jimena Noonan with the FBI’s Newark office has been investigating burglary rings that target Asian businesses and homeowners since 2019. She told ABC News that these types of crimes are also on the rise, adding that criminals are going as far as to stake out their victims’ businesses and homes, watching to see the homeowner is not home before breaking in.

She advised that concerned Asian business owners need to make sure the doors to their homes, businesses and cars are locked, and they should have security cameras installed on their properties.

“In addition to that, I recommend license plate recognition cameras, which help law enforcement tremendously in obtaining a better description of suspect vehicles that are used by these burglaries,” Noonan told ABC News.

In the meantime, elected officials have scrambled to address the rise in anti-Asian harassment and crimes. Last year, President Joe Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law.

The law directs the Justice Department to designate a point person to assist with expedited review of COVID-19 hate crimes, provided guidance for state and local law enforcement agencies to establish online reporting of hate crimes in multiple languages and expanded “linguistically appropriate” public education campaigns.

Ashling said the political actions are a good start, but she believes it’s going to take more work before the Asian American community will feel safe. She urged more people to speak out and call on their lawmakers to enact change.

“If you do not get yourself together and become more outspoken and advocate for yourself, your family [and] your community, we will not have a community,” she said.

The Atlanta spa shooting victims’ families said at this point, they have no choice but to carry on and honor the memories of their loved ones.

Park, who said he’s received messages of support from people around the world, said he feels his mother’s spirit is still watching over him and his brother.

“It just feels like she’s basically pushing Eric and I along,” Park said.

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(NEW YORK) — Throughout the pandemic, several professional and collegiate sports leagues cancelled major events and seasons, in part to slow the spread of COVID-19, but also due to alarming reports of athletes developing a syndrome called myocarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle — following a COVID-19 infection.

After two years of research, the American College of Cardiology released guidance Tuesday that states the incidence of heart inflammation among athletes after COVID-19 is lower than originally thought, but they still suggest a step-by-step plan to help competitive athletes and weekend warriors alike that will help them safely return to their activities.

“For athletes recovering from COVID-19 with ongoing cardiopulmonary symptoms … further evaluation should be performed before resuming exercise,” the ACC Expert Consensus Decision Pathway, which was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, states. “For all others who are asymptomatic or with symptoms less suggestive of a cardiopulmonary etiology … additional cardiac testing is not recommended.”

Evolving science

Doctors were performing “very rigorous testing searching for myocarditis” early in the pandemic, Dr. Tamanna Singh, co-director of the Cleveland Clinic Sports Cardiology Center, who was not involved in the new guidance, told ABC News, noting that, at the time, they were worried that the incidence of myocarditis “was going to be much higher than it actually was.”

Back in September 2020, when much was still unknown about COVID-19, researchers at Ohio State University examined 26 athletes following a mild COVID-19 infection that did not require hospitalization. Myocarditis was found in 15% of the athletes, while 30% had developed a scar on their heart, raising a sense of uncertainty surrounding the safety of athletes returning to play following an infection.

“While the data on cardiomyopathy is preliminary and incomplete, the uncertain risk was unacceptable at this time,” Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren wrote in an August 2020 open letter on the decision to cancel the college conference’s 2020-2021 fall sports season.

But over time, it was discovered that the incidence appears to be much lower than first thought.

“Many conferences, including the Big Ten, were doing cardiac MRIs on every athlete who recovered from COVID, and what they found was that the incidence of serious MRI abnormalities was very low, on the order of 1 to 2%,” said Dr. Nicole Bhave, a cardiologist and echocardiographer at the University of Michigan and a co-chair of the committee that released this new guidance.

Typical rates for myocarditis involvement in athletes is “very low, with rates typically being around 0.6 to 0.7%,” Singh said.

While experts’ understanding of COVID-19 evolves, it is clear that many patients continue to have symptoms, obvious or subtle, following infection. And while not every athlete with COVID-19 will experience myocarditis, it’s dangerous enough to make doctors take notice.

“Myocarditis is a very rare but serious complication of COVID,” Bhave said. “Patients with COVID myocarditis really should be managed at a high-level center [with the proper equipment], because these patients can go south fast.”

Guidance for athletes

The new ACC guidance suggests that it is safe for athletes with no symptoms from COVID-19 to return to exercise three days following self-isolation. For those with mild symptoms not involving the heart or lungs, it is safe to return to exercise once symptoms resolve.

Athletes suffering from persistent chest pain, palpitations or passing out require further cardiac testing. If the findings are concerning for myocarditis, the ACC recommends abstinence from exercise for three to six months.

“We don’t think that a routine MRI is needed for everyone who has had COVID before they start exercising again,” Bhave said.

If an athlete has persistent symptoms, Bhave said, “One of the recommendations that we’re making in the document is that people engage in recumbent exercise, so rather than trying to walk, doing something where they’re actually sitting down, so that orthostatic intolerance [the inability to tolerate quick movements] isn’t a big deal.”

For athletes who experience long-haul COVID-19 symptoms, the recovery process can be frustrating.

“You’re essentially seeing someone who has had a decade and a half, maybe even two decades, of unrestricted sports participation and unlimited exercise capacity who now has severe limitations,” Singh said. “They’re losing not only their physical connection to self, but also their social connection to their community, which can be really mentally devastating.”

Singh and Bhave both said that re-introduction of exercise following infection should be gradual, starting with small amounts and increasing frequency, duration and intensity as tolerated.

“It’s important as physicians to say, ‘Hey, I’m here with you, and I know you’re still not back to where you were. I share your frustration and I’m not going to abandon you,'” Bhave said. “We still have a lot to learn, and I think that’s a message that is very helpful to patients who are feeling frustrated.”

Nicholas P. Kondoleon, M.D., is an internal medicine resident at Cleveland Clinic and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(NEW YORK) — A suspect remains at large nearly a week after an 87-year-old woman was shoved to the ground in an unprovoked attack on a New York City street, subsequently dying from her injuries, police said.

The victim was walking in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood on Thursday at around 8:25 p.m. when the assailant crossed the street, approached her from behind and pushed her, “causing her to fall and hit her head,” New York City police said. She was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.

The suspect, described as a woman with long, dark hair wearing a black jacket, black leggings, white skirt or dress and dark shoes, fled the scene and remains at large, police said.

The victim, who was identified by officials as Barbara Maier Gustern, died from her injuries on Tuesday, police said.

“We’re asking the public’s health in solving this disgusting, disgraceful offense committed against a vulnerable, elderly female who was doing nothing but walking down the streets of New York City,” New York Police Department Chief of Detectives James Essig said during a briefing Tuesday.

The NYPD released a surveillance video of the suspect as the search continues.

Barbara Maier Gustern, an 87-year old Chelsea resident, was attacked on West 28th Street on Thursday at around 9:30 pm. The suspect is a woman with long dark hair who remains at large.

If you have information call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-8477 (TIPS)pic.twitter.com/WtDp0bLGv0

— Senator Brad Hoylman (@bradhoylman) March 14, 2022

New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman said he was “devastated” to learn of Gustern’s death.

“Her assailant, who is still at large, must be apprehended and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he said on Twitter.

Gustern was a well-known and beloved member of the city’s cabaret scene and a vocal coach.

Her friend, Barbara Bleier, was rehearsing with her for a cabaret show before last week’s attack.

“She is one of the most inspirational women I have ever met,” Bleier told ABC affiliate WABC on Monday.

Gustern’s grandson, AJ Gustern, said he had flown to New York to be by his grandmother’s side while she was in the hospital,

“She’s the light of my life,” he told WABC on Monday. “I’m angry at the state of the world. I’m angry at the state of the city.”

Condolences have poured in in the wake of Gustern’s passing.

“God bless the memory of this woman who defined extraordinary,” opera singer Stephanie Blythe said on Twitter. “That she should pass from this life as a result of violence after the incredible and generous life she lived is past all understanding.”

Police are asking anyone with information to call 1-800-577-8477 or go to crimestoppers.nypdonline.org to report confidential tips.

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(WASHINGTON) — In his first court appearance on Wednesday, a judge denied the release of the suspect accused of a series of shootings targeting homeless people in Washington, D.C., and New York.

30-year-old Gerald Brevard III appeared in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia where he is facing charges stemming from three attacks on homeless people in D.C., including one murder.

Brevard is accused of five shootings of people experiencing homelessness, two of which were fatal, in New York and D.C. this month.

In D.C., Brevard is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with intent to kill and first-degree murder while armed.

According to investigators, the same firearm was used in the D.C. shootings and firearm casings from the New York shootings have been preliminarily linked to the same gun, court filings show.

Attorneys for Brevard claimed prosecutors did not prove probable cause and requested his release.

Attorneys for Brevard listed inconsistencies in some of the witness descriptions, claiming Brevard did not meet the descriptions of the shooter, and requested that he be released, but the judge sided with prosecutors, saying they had established probable cause.

Prosecutors said that cellphone evidence places Brevard in D.C. and New York at the times of the shootings and that the incidents were unprovoked attacks against vulnerable people, some of whom were sleeping when they were shot.

Prosecutors also noted that the attacks were all committed within a short period of time, with all five shootings happening between March 3 and March 12.

The judge found probable cause, saying the inconsistencies in the case against Brevard does not defeat the probable cause.

Brevard is set to appear again in court in April.

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(MIDLAND, Texas) — The head coach and six members of the University of the Southwest men’s and women’s golf teams were among nine people killed in a head-on vehicle crash in Texas, authorities said.

The crash occurred Tuesday night near Midland, Texas, and only two people aboard the college team’s van survived, according to a statement from the University of the Southwest in Hobbs, New Mexico.

The college confirmed that Tyler James, the head coach of both the men’s and women’s golf teams, was among those killed. The coach and his teams were returning home from a tournament in Midland when the crash occurred, according to the school’s statement.

“The USW campus community is shocked and saddened today as we mourn the loss of members of our university family,” school officials said in the statement to ABC affiliate station KMID in Midland.

The names of the students killed were not immediately released.

Two passengers in the team van who survived the wreck were in critical condition Wednesday at a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, the school’s statement said.

“We would ask for prayers for their recovery and for comfort and strength for all of families and friends and students of those whose lives have been lost,” school officials said in the statement.

Sgt. Steven Blanco of the Texas Department of Public Safety said the crash happened around 8:17 p.m. Tuesday on a two-lane road about nine miles east of Andrews, Texas, when the 17-seat passenger van carrying the golf teams collided with a pickup truck.

Two people in the pickup truck were killed, authorities said.

A preliminary investigation indicates that the driver of the southbound pickup truck for unknown reasons veered into the northbound lanes, colliding with the van, the Department of Public Safety said Wednesday. The agency said both vehicles caught fire following the crash.

Blanco said the cause of the crash remains under investigation by the Texas Highway Patrol’s West Texas Region.

“It’s a very tragic scene. Very very tragic,” said Blanco, describing the crash when officers first arrived.

University officials confirmed that James was driving the vehicle when the collision happened.

James was in his first year as head coach of both the women’s and men’s golf teams, school officials said.

School officials said they were working Wednesday to notify the families of all those involved in the crash and to provide counseling and religious services to all students, faculty and staff on campus.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott released a statement Wednesday asking Texans to join in praying for the families of those whose lives were lost and for the recovery of two critically injured students.

“We grieve with the loved ones of the individuals whose lives were horrifically taken too soon in this fatal vehicle crash near Andrews last night,” Abbott said.

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(NEW YORK) — Teachers in Florida and around the country are speaking out as the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill heads to the governor’s desk.

The controversial bill bans discussion “on sexual orientation or gender identity” in Florida’s K-3 classrooms. Officially known as the “Parental Rights in Education” bill (HB 1557), it is scheduled to go into effect on July 1, if Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has indicated his support for the bill, signs it into state law.

One of the stipulations in HB 1557 states that “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

House Rep. Joe Harding, who sponsored the bill in the Florida House, spoke to ABC News after the bill passed.

“What we’re preventing is a school district deciding they’re going to create a curriculum to insert themselves,” he said in an interview with ABC News’ “Start Here” podcast. “The school district doesn’t need to insert themselves at that point when children are still learning how to read and do basic math.”

High school students, especially LGBTQ youth have been protesting the bill, saying the pending legislation will be harmful to students who are already at higher risk for abuse and mental health conditions.

Some teachers and their unions are also calling out the bill, saying it’s politicizing the classroom and warning that the legislation could lead to bullying.

Karla Hernández-Mats, the president of United Teachers of Dade, a local union that represents 30,000 employees of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, told GMA she has heard from both teachers and parents about the “Parental Rights in Education” bill.

“Teachers find it ludicrous that we’re being used as scapegoats because, first of all, teachers don’t teach children to be gay. That’s absurd,” Hernández-Mats said, pointing out that sexual education is not a part of the existing K-3 curriculum in the state.

She went on, “We know that the curriculum for every school in Florida is set by the Florida Department of Education. So we understand that this is an attack on teachers, an attack on students, an attack on their freedom. Despite these attacks, we’re gonna keep on pushing forward.”

Hernández-Mats said parents are being misled about what is actually being taught in K-3 classrooms. She also argued that teachers should have the ability to guide students when new ideas and concepts are brought up by students themselves.

“The reality is that if there is a child that has something that they want to say that maybe they only feel safe in our school district, then we should be able as educators not only to embrace them and listen to what it is that they’re saying but provide them the resources also so that they can get the help that they need,” said Hernández-Mats, who has also worked as a middle school special education science teacher.

Some educators are also voicing their support for LGBTQ students and speaking out on social media and using the hashtags #dontsaygay and #dontsaygaybill on platforms like TikTok and Twitter.

Meghan Mayer, a public school teacher in North Port, Florida, shared a TikTok video with her perspective, saying in part, “Public education in America is under attack … we’re now going after our most vulnerable student population, or LGBTQ+ students. These students already face a higher rate of bullying and are at higher risk of suicide as compared to their straight cisgender peers.”

“As a Florida educator and honestly as a parent in Florida, I’m feeling pretty helpless,” Mayer said, before telling viewers to vote with their wallets and boycott corporations that have donated to lawmakers behind the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

The middle school reading teacher, who is considering switching to the elementary level, told “GMA” she is concerned about its real-world impact on students, some of whom have come to her asking for more information about the bill.

“It’s something that definitely concerns me, making that transition from middle to elementary because I want all of my students to feel loved and to feel seen and heard and valued and it’s gonna be really difficult to tell a student, ‘No, you can’t talk about your family. No, we’re not allowed to do that,'” she said. “I mean, how do you say that to a kindergartener or a first grader?”

Mayer said she read the text of the bill and found its language “so vague.”

“I just feel like it is really going to open the door for just a lot of discrimination. I think it’s going to do a lot of harm to a lot of our students,” she said.

Mayer also said it’s not just students who might be affected but her fellow teachers as well.

“When teachers have been through so much already, just like a lot of other essential workers have, a bill like this just continues to invalidate us as educators, like we don’t know what’s best,” she said. “I think that’s the thing that bothers me the most is that, ‘Do you think so little of us that you really think that we don’t know what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate to talk about with students in our classroom?’ Once again, we’re just not respected as educators.”

“This bill worries me for educators too, who are LGBTQ,” Mayer continued. “Because does that mean that they can’t have a picture of them and their spouse on their desk for fear that somebody might ask about it and then that’s going to lead to some sort of conversation? I feel like it specifically targets LGBTQ students and teachers.”

President Biden has called the bill “hateful” and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said his department opposes the state bill.

“Leaders in Florida are prioritizing hateful bills that hurt some of the students most in need,” he said in a statement. “The Department of Education has made clear that all schools receiving federal funding must follow federal civil rights law, including Title IX’s protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We stand with our LGBTQ+ students in Florida and across the country, and urge Florida leaders to make sure all their students are protected and supported.”

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(NEW YORK) — Authorities will not bring any charges against the man accused of fatally shooting Jamaican immigrant Peter Spencer nine times on a camping trip in western Pennsylvania last December.

“We believe in this case that there is enough evidence presented for self-defense that we are not going to be able to overcome our burden and show this was not self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt, and for that reason, there will be no charges filed against the suspect in this case,” District Attorney Shawn White told reporters Tuesday.

“This is my call,” he added. “I believe it’s the right one.”

Spencer who is Black, went on a camping trip with a co-worker, who is white, in Rockland Township, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 11, 2021. A few hours after going on the trip, in the early hours of Dec. 12, Pennsylvania State Police were called to the scene and Spencer was found on the front lawn of the rural cabin with nine bullet wounds in his body, including six in his chest.

White said Spencer was using hallucinogenic mushrooms and started “acting crazy” as he fired multiple rounds from an AK-47 he had brought with him. White said Spencer was “not ambushed” and that he began firing the gun and ordered other campers to stay at gunpoint. Spencer’s co-worker then shot him.

Police said they found multiple firearms, “ballistic evidence” and controlled substances at the cabin.

The case was brought to the Heritage Affairs Team, which investigates hate crimes, but Corp. Aaron Allen, the liaison for the office, said he also will not be bringing charges.

“We also have been making sure that there isn’t any hate and/or bias detected throughout this investigation, and I can tell you right now that there’s not been any sort of hate and/or bias detected,” Allen said.

The Spencer family said it is not giving up despite the announcement charges will not be filed.

“We are not surprised by it, this is the type of behavior we have seen from the PA State Police and Venango County District Attorney from the outset,” Paul Jubas, the attorney for Peter Spencer’s family, said in a statement.

While state charges will not be filed, it is possible that there could be federal hate crime charges brought. Cindy Chung, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, will make that decision.

“If you want to know from a federal standpoint whether there’s any hate crime, I’m not competent to testify to that or give you an answer,” White said. “That’s her jurisdiction, she’s aware of the facts. Give her office a call.”

Spencer’s family said it will host a press conference next week with independent forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht to discuss their next steps.

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(SEATTLE) — Three people who were injured and the families of two people killed after a crane collapsed on a Seattle construction site in 2019, will receive $112 million in a settlement, David Beninger, a lawyer for one of the victims told ABC News Tuesday.

The crane fell from the construction site which included a Google office building in the South Lake Union neighborhood in April 2019 as it was being dismantled, killing four people.

Lawsuits filed by families of two of the victims killed in the collapse and three who were injured, were consolidated into one case in the King County Superior Court, involving multiple firms involved in the construction site where the crane collapsed.

In the Monday verdict, a jury found four of the construction companies negligent, but only three of the companies’ negligence resulted in the death of Sarah Wong and Alan Justad, and injury of Brittany Cadelina, Ali Edriss and Sally Beaven.

While the jury found GLY Construction, the company that leased the crane, negligent, it was not found responsible for the deaths and injuries.

The other companies named in the lawsuit are Morrow Equipment, which owned and leased the crane to the construction project and provided expertise for the building and dismantling of the crane; Northwest Tower Crane Service, which was in charge of setting up and dismantling the crane; and Omega Morgan, a mobile crane subcontractor.

The jury attributed 45% of the negligence to Northwest Tower Crane, 30% to Omega Morgan and 25% to Morrow Equipment.

The jury awarded the victims more than $150 million in damages, but Morrow Equipment Company did not participate in the trial as it is in discussions regarding other agreements with the victims, according to Beninger.

Wong’s estate, her parents and sibling are to receive a combined $54.15 million. Nineteen-year-old Wong, a student at Seattle Pacific University, was a passenger in a car when parts of the crane struck it causing her fatal injuries.

Justad’s estate and his three daughters will receive a combined $39.15 million. Seventy-one-year-old Justad was in his car when parts of the crane landed on top of the vehicle.

Cadelina and Edriss will each receive $9.2 million and Beaven will receive $975,000, according to Beninger and amounts awarded by the jury.

“Northwest Tower Crane Service respects the verdict of the jury and thanks them for their service in this trial. Northwest Tower Crane changed its practices immediately after this tragic accident and continues to strive to make safety its top priority,” an attorney for Northwest Tower Crane Services said to ABC News in a statement, declining to comment any further.

Attorneys for the Wongs, Cadelina and Omega did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

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