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(SMITHSBURG, Md.) — Four people were pronounced dead following an attempted traffic stop in Maryland, as a manhunt was underway in the state for two former police officers who were considered armed and dangerous. On Thursday night, police confirmed two of the deceased were the former officers.

Three passengers were pronounced dead at the scene in Smithsburg late Thursday afternoon, including a female driver, an adult man and one child, according to Maryland State Police.

A fourth passenger, another child, was medevacked to a local hospital and pronounced dead, police said.

All four appeared to have been shot, Elena Russo, a spokesperson for Maryland State Police, said during a press briefing. The car had run off the road and hit a fence line, she said.

Maryland State Police said in a statement later Thursday that they were able to identify the deceased individuals.

The woman in the front seat of the car was Tia Bynum, 35, a former Baltimore County police officer. She was pronounced dead on the scene by emergency medical service personnel. “Bynum was wanted by the Baltimore County Police Department and considered armed and dangerous,” they said. The man in the back seat was identified as Robert Vicosa, 41, also a former police officer. He was also pronounced dead on the scene and was previously wanted for committing multiple felony crimes in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

“Police believe the two juveniles located in the back seat were Vicosa’s children,” the police department said. One was pronounced dead at the scene and the other was transported by police to Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, where she was also pronounced dead.

Both adults and both children have been transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for autopsy, police said.

“This is a complex incident. It is going to take time,” Russo said. “We are really working hard to understand what occurred.”

Russo would not confirm Thursday afternoon if the deadly incident was related to the manhunt for former Baltimore County police officers Vicosa and Bynum, who were being sought for an alleged kidnapping and armed robbery that occurred Wednesday in Baltimore County, Maryland. Vicosa has also been accused of stealing a car in York County, Pennsylvania, and fleeing with his two young daughters earlier this week.

Russo did say that investigators believe the Smithsburg incident is potentially related to two incidents in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

“The Pennsylvania State Police were attempting a traffic stop on a car that matched the description of a suspect vehicle involved in an incident in Baltimore County,” Russo said.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan appeared to reference the incident in a statement on Twitter Thursday night, calling it a “horrific tragedy.”

“We are grieving tonight over the unfathomable loss of two innocent children in what is clearly a horrific tragedy and heinous crime,” he said. “Maryland State Police have begun what will be a thorough investigation into today’s events.”

Authorities began searching for Vicosa after he allegedly held a woman at gunpoint at a home in York County, stole her car and fled with his two daughters, ages 6 and 7, police in York County said. The stolen car was found in Red Lion, Pennsylvania, police said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Vicosa and Bynum allegedly committed a kidnapping and robbery in the Cockeysville, Maryland, area, the Baltimore County Police Department said.

Vicosa was allegedly armed with a semi-automatic handgun, police said, adding that his daughters were present during the robbery.

The suspects allegedly carjacked a man and forced him to drive them, before releasing the victim unharmed, Baltimore County Police Chief Melissa Hyatt said.

Baltimore County police said Vicosa was fired in August for several disciplinary violations, according to records obtained by Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, ABC affiliate WHTM. Police said Bynum, who was in the criminal investigations bureau, is currently suspended and stripped of police powers.

Vicosa and Bynum were believed to have been “armed with at least one handgun and possibly several semi-automatic rifles,” police said in a public alert Thursday morning.

Hyatt began her remarks at a news conference Thursday morning with a personal plea to Bynum.

“Our priority is the safety and well-being of [Vicosa’s daughters] Giana and Aaminah. Please get these two innocent and precious children to a safe location,” Hyatt said. “We want to work with you on a safe and peaceful resolution.”

She urged both suspects to “peacefully surrender to authorities.”

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(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 768,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

Just 68.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.

Nov 19, 6:35 am
Austria to enter full lockdown, make vaccination mandatory

Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced Friday that the country will go into a full nationwide lockdown to curb a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections.

“We do not want a fifth wave,” Schallenberg warned.

The lockdown will begin Monday and last for at least 10 days before the situation is reassessed. If the number of new COVID-19 cases has not dropped significantly, the lockdown can be extended to a maximum of 20 days.

Under the restrictions, people will be told to work from home, non-essential shops will close and public gatherings will be canceled. Schools will remain open for students who require in-person learning, but parents have been asked to keep their children at home if possible.

COVID-19 vaccination will also become mandatory by law in Austria, starting on Feb. 1.

It’s the first country in Europe to make COVID-19 vaccines compulsory and the first to reimpose a full lockdown this winter, as the continent grapples with rising infections.

The Austrian government had initially imposed a nationwide lockdown only for the unvaccinated that began last Monday.

Nov 18, 9:11 pm
Masks cut COVID-19 incidence by 53%, new analysis finds

Mask-wearing cuts COVID-19 incidence by 53%, according to a new analysis that pooled results from multiple studies.

The analysis, published Thursday in the medical journal The BMJ, found that mask-wearing, social distancing and hand-washing were all effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19.

The bulk of the studies included in the analysis were conducted before mass vaccinations. The researchers, who were from several universities in Australia, Scotland and China, said that more studies are needed to understand the effectiveness of these public health measures in the context of widespread vaccination coverage.

-ABC News’ Guy Davies, Esra Demirel and Sony Salzman

Nov 18, 2:19 pm
Northeast, Midwest see biggest jump in cases, hospitalizations

The Northeast and Midwest are seeing the largest jump in cases and hospitalizations, according to federal data.

Twenty-seven states have seen at least a 10% jump in daily cases over the last two weeks: Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, New York City, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Eighteen states have seen at least a 10% increase in hospital admissions over the last week: Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Nov 18, 12:27 pm
Florida governor signs legislation prohibiting private employer vaccine mandates

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed legislation that prohibits private employer vaccine mandates and says employers that violate the ruling will be fined.

The legislation also states educational institutions can’t require students to be vaccinated; school districts can’t have face mask policies or quarantine healthy students; and families can “sue violating school districts.”

“Nobody should lose their job due to heavy-handed COVID mandates,” DeSantis, a Republican, said in a statement.

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(NEW YORK) — Skywatchers, the longest partial lunar eclipse since 1440 will take place Friday, and you’ll have the chance to view a historic cosmic wonder in the sky.

The partial eclipse is the longest of its kind, and NASA estimates it will not occur again for another 648 years.

This partial lunar eclipse will reach its highest point at 4:03 a.m. ET, for those on the East Coast and 1:03 a.m. PT, for those on West Coast. North America, South America, Eastern Asia, Australia and the Pacific region will be able to see at least part of it.

NASA predicts the eclipse will last for 3 hours, 28 minutes and 23 seconds.

The moon is pictured above Suva in Fiji on May 26, 2021, during a total lunar eclipse as stargazers across the Pacific casted their eyes skyward to witness a rare “Super Blood Moon.”
In a lunar eclipse, the sun, Earth and moon align, and the moon moves into Earth’s shadow.

This time, viewers can expect to see the moon turn red and about 99.1% of the moon will be in the Earth’s umbra, according to NASA.

NASA said the best way to see the eclipse is with binoculars or a telescope to bring out the color, but you can also go outside and just look up.

The longest total eclipse will take place on Nov. 8, 2022.

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(BRUNSWICK, Ga.) — Hundreds of pastors gathered and prayed Thursday outside the Georgia courthouse where the trial over Ahmaud Arbery’s killing is underway, a week after a defense attorney said there shouldn’t be “any more Black pastors” in the courtroom.

Rev. Al Sharpton, whose presence in the courtroom prompted the attorney’s denied request to prevent pastors from sitting with Arbery’s family during the trial, called on clergy “across ecumenical lines” to join him outside the Glynn County Courthouse for a “power of prayer vigil” in solidarity with the family.

“No lawyer can knock us out. Because wherever you are, God is always there,” Sharpton told the crowd. “I’m here this week. … And we’re going to keep coming until we get justice.”

Judge in trial over death of Ahmaud Arbery admonishes defense attorney over his comments about Rev. Al Sharpton’s presence in courtroom gallery, after the attorney said, “We don’t want any more black pastors coming in here.” https://t.co/XIbLQnBhwY pic.twitter.com/8NBnKzL3XP

— ABC News (@ABC) November 12, 2021

Arbery’s parents thanked the pastors for their support.

“My heart is full of just joy in the midst of this broken heart,” his mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told the crowd.

Sharpton said he was joined in Brunswick by hundreds of Black pastors from “all over the world,” shouting out Seattle, Philadelphia and New York City. Also in attendance were human rights advocate Martin Luther King III, the son of slain civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Arbery family’s attorneys.

Protesters also gathered alongside the clergy, holding signs that said “Black pastors matter” and “Justice for Ahmaud.”

The rally was announced last Friday, a day after defense attorney Kevin Gough told Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley that he took major offense over the fact that Sharpton had been in the courtroom with Arbery’s family that week. Gough called Sharpton’s presence “improper,” “intimidating to the jury” and “an attempt to influence.”

“We have all kinds of pastors in this town, over 100. And the idea that we’re going to be serially bringing these people in to sit with the victim’s family, one after another, obviously there’s only so many pastors they can have,” Gough said. “If their pastor’s Al Sharpton right now, that’s fine. But then that’s it. We don’t want any more Black pastors coming in here.”

Gough later apologized, saying in court that his statements had been “overly broad.”

“My apologies to anyone who might’ve been inadvertently offended,” he said.

In an interview with ABC News’ Linsey Davis this week, Sharpton said the comments were “one of the more outrageous things I’ve ever heard.”

“He didn’t just say, ‘We don’t want ministers,’ or, ‘We don’t want civil rights leaders’ — ‘We don’t want Black pastors,'” he said. “And I think that that is one of the most bigoted and biased things I’ve heard.”

Gough is representing William “Roddie” Bryan, who filmed Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael, chasing down Arbery while the 25-year-old Black man was out for a jog last year. Arbery was fatally shot during the confrontation.

The three defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.

The high-profile trial entered its 10th day Thursday, with Travis McMichael taking to the stand for the second time to testify as the defense’s first witness. The defense rested its case in the afternoon, and court is adjourned until Monday morning.

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(BRUNSWICK, Ga.) — Travis McMichael returned to the witness stand on Thursday and under cross-examination from the prosecutor repeated that Ahmaud Arbery never verbally threatened him or brandished a weapon during the five minutes he, his father and their neighbor chased Arbery before McMichael fatally shot him.

Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski attempted to undermind the 35-year-old McMichael’s credibility by getting him to concede to inconsistencies between what he told police the day of the shooting and what he told the Brunswick, Georgia, jury during his direct testimony on Wednesday.

“Not once in your statement to police did you say that you and your father were trying to arrest Mr. Arbery?” Dunikoski asked after inquiring about the defendant’s training on probable cause during his time in the Coast Guard.

Travis McMichael acknowledged that in none of his statements did he tell police that he and his father were attempting to make a citizens’ arrest of Arbery. He also conceded that he had suspected another individual of stealing a pistol from his truck on Jan. 1, 2020, and that he had also surmised that person, not Arbery, was the one responsible for a spike in crime in his Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick.

Dunikoski grilled Travis McMichael on why he suspected Arbery of burglarizing a home under construction on the day of the killing, writing on a flipchart a series of assumptions and statements in which he said “maybe” a neighbor had seen him in the unfinished home, “maybe” he had broken in, “maybe” he was running from a crime, “maybe” Arbery had been caught in the act.

Travis McMichael testified that he based his suspicions on a totality of circumstances, including a brief encounter at the construction site in his neighborhood he had on Feb. 11, 2020, with a man that turned out to be Arbery, whom he thought was armed because he reached into his pants.

Travis McMichael, his 65-year-old father, Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, 53, have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.

Complaint about Rev. Jesse Jackson

During Travis McMichael’s testimony on Thursday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson sat in the courtroom gallery with Arbery’s parents, raising the latest of several recent objections from Bryan’s attorney, Kevin Gough, that the presence of prominent Black ministers in the court was an attempt to intimidate the jury.

Judge Walmsley said he has already ruled twice on Gough’s motions to bar the Black ministers from the courtroom, finding that they have not been disruptive to the proceedings.

In an apparent reaction to Gough’s complaints, hundreds of Black ministers held a prayer vigil outside the courthouse on Thursday as the trial was going on.

The chase

Dunikoski directed Travis McMichael’s attention to the pursuit of Arbery that he and his father, Gregory McMichael, initiated after his dad saw Arbery running past their home on Feb. 23, 2020, causing them both to grab their guns.

During his direct testimony on Wednesday, Travis McMichael testified that he walked out of his house with his shotgun and saw a neighbor pointing in his direction as if signaling where he saw the young Black man running.

Travis McMichael testified on Thursday that at no time did he go and speak to the neighbor about what had occurred before he and his father jumped in his truck with their guns and set out after Arbery.

He testified that he drove close enough to Arbery on three separate occasions to ask him to stop running so he could speak to him, but in each instance, Arbery kept running, never said a word to him and altered his course in an apparent attempt to get away from the McMichaels.

“When you first see him, he’s not reaching into his pockets?” Dunikoski asked.

Travis McMichael answered, “No, ma’am.”

Dunikoski continued her line of questioning, saying, “And he never yelled at you guys, never threatened you at all?”

Travis McMichael responded, “Did not threaten me verbally.”

He agreed that Abery never brandished a knife, gun, or had anything in his hands at any time during the pursuit, testifying, “He was just running.”

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(NEW YORK) — One of the men convicted in connection with the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X appeared in court Thursday where a judge cleared his name.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance moved to throw out the convictions of Muhammad Aziz, 83, and Khalil Islam, who died in 2009, based on “newly discovered evidence and the failure to disclose exculpatory evidence,” according to a joint motion Vance’s office filed with the defense.

“We are moving today to vacate the convictions and dismiss the indictments,” Vance said. “I apologize for what were serious, unacceptable violations of law and the public trust.”

Aziz, previously known as Norman Butler, spent 22 years in prison before he was paroled in 1985. Confessed assassin Thomas Hagan, who served 45 years in prison, had long said neither man participated in killing the fiery civil rights leader.

Vance said that certain witnesses, acting under orders from then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, were ordered not to reveal they were FBI informants.

“Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam were wrongly convicted of this crime,” Vance said.

Aziz sat at the defense table wearing a white mask next to his attorney, David Shanies, who called Aziz and Islam “innocent young Black men” and accused the New York Police Department and the FBI of covering up evidence.

“Most of the men who murdered Malcolm X never faced justice,” Shanies said.

Aziz read from a statement in court, saying, “The events that led to my conviction and wrongful imprisonment should never have happened. Those events were the result of a process that was corrupt to its core — one that is all too familiar — even in 2021.”

“While I do not need a court, prosecutors, or a piece of paper to tell me I am innocent, I am glad that my family, my friends, and the attorneys who have worked and supported me all these years are finally seeing the truth we have all known officially recognized,” he continued.

The exoneration resulted from a nearly two-year investigation by the district attorney’s office and the Innocence Project that uncovered FBI documents that revealed a description of the killers that did not match Aziz or Islam, an admission that the only witnesses who fingered Aziz and Islam were FBI informants and a report that said sources reviewed photos of Islam and failed to place him in the Audubon Ballroom where Malcolm X was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965.

“In short, it is unknown whether the identification procedures used in this case were properly conducted,” the motion to vacate said.

The district attorney’s office stopped short of proclaiming the actual innocence of Aziz and Islam, citing the deaths of witnesses, co-conspirators and police officers, the missing identification and physical and other evidence.

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(OKLAHOMA CITY) — After spending the past 20 years fighting for his life on death row, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt commuted Julius Jones’ sentence to life without the possibility of parole the day Jones was scheduled to be executed.

“After prayerful consideration and reviewing materials presented by all sides of this case, I have determined to commute Julius Jones’ sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole,” Stitt said in a statement released Thursday.

Last week, a federal appeals court rejected Jones’ final appeal, which meant the decision to spare his life lay only with Stitt, who could have accepted the parole board’s recommendation to grant Jones clemency. Jones’ execution date was slated for Nov. 18.

In September, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended Stitt commute Jones’ sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Stitt said at the time he was waiting for a clemency hearing to make a decision.

Nearly two months later, on Nov. 1, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted to recommend clemency for Jones in a 3-1 favor.

“Nightline” spoke to Jones’ family in September following the parole board’s recommendation to commute Jones’ death sentence. Jones’ mother, Madeline Davis-Jones, said the parole board’s decision had given the family hope in the eleventh hour.

Antoinette Jones said in September that her brother was calm when he heard the parole board’s recommendation.

“He said, ‘I’m good. I’ll be even better when I get out and I can hug y’all and we can start helping change the world,'” Antoinette Jones said.

Julius Jones was 19 years old when he was arrested for the 1999 murder of Oklahoma businessman Paul Howell, and sentenced to death in 2002. What followed were decades of public scrutiny and relentless work from his legal team.

Jones, 41, has spent most of his life behind bars. Before he was in prison, friends and teachers knew him as a champion high school basketball player who attended the University of Oklahoma on an academic scholarship.

That all changed in 1999 when Howell, 45, was shot in his family’s driveway after a car-jacking in the wealthy suburb of Edmond, Oklahoma.

Howell’s GMC Suburban went missing and his sister, Megan Tobey, was the only eyewitness.

“Megan Tobey described the shooter as a young Black man wearing a red bandana, a white shirt and a stocking cap or skullcap. She was not able to identify the shooter’s face because it was covered,” Bass told ABC News in 2018.

Two days after Howell was killed, police found his Suburban parked in a grocery store parking lot. They learned later that a man named Ladell King had been offering to sell the car.

King named Chris Jordan and Julius Jones to investigators and said the two men had asked him to help them sell the stolen Suburban.

“Ladell was interviewed by the lead detectives in this case. He told the police that on the night of the crime, a guy named Chris Jordan comes to his apartment. A few minutes later, according to Ladell King, Julius Jones drives up,” attorney Dale Baich told ABC News in 2018.

King accused Jordan of being the driver and claimed that he and Jones were looking for Suburbans to steal, but it was Jones who shot Howell.

“Both Ladell King and Christopher Jordan were directing police’s attention to the home of Julius Jones’ parents as a place that would have incriminating items of evidence,” Bass said.

Investigators found a gun wrapped in a red bandana in the crawl space of Jones’ family home. The next day, Jones was arrested for capital murder.

Jones’ attorneys say the evidence police found could have been planted by Jordan. They say Jordan had stayed at Jones’ house the night after the murder, but Jordan denied those claims during the trial.

In the years since, Jones’ defense team has argued that racial bias and missteps from his then-public defense team played a role.

Jones’ team submitted files to the parole board that they said proved his innocence, including affidavits and taped video interviews with inmates who had served time in prison with Jordan. They said they allegedly heard Jordan confess to Howell’s murder.

In a statement to ABC News in September, Jordan’s attorney, Billy Bock, said: “Chris Jordan maintains his position that his role in the death of Paul Howell was as an accomplice to Julius Jones. Mr. Jordan testified truthfully in the jury trial of Mr. Jones and denies ‘confessing’ to anyone.”

Jordan served 15 years in prison before he was released.

In 2020, Jones’ story was thrown back into the spotlight when unlikely legal ally Kim Kardashian drew public attention to his case. Kardashian, who is studying to take California’s bar exam, has been vocal on the issue of the death penalty and prison reform and has campaigned to free a number of men and women who were incarcerated.

“Kim Kardashian, I felt like may be one of my sorority sisters … she was down to earth,” Davis-Jones said.

Antoinette Jones said Kardashian put in the effort to help her brother.

“She sat down and she broke down my brother’s case. That means that she actually did the work,” Jones said. “She did the work to go back and check certain things, to point out certain things.”

“The fact that she told me that she was able to go see my brother, it was almost like she took a piece of him and brought it to us and then we could feel like he was there with us,” Jones added.

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(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 767,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

Just 68.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Nov 18, 12:27 pm
Florida governor signs legislation prohibiting private employer vaccine mandates

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed legislation that prohibits private employer vaccine mandates and says employers that violate the ruling will be fined.

The legislation also states educational institutions can’t require students to be vaccinated; school districts can’t have face mask policies or quarantine healthy students; and families can “sue violating school districts.”

“Nobody should lose their job due to heavy-handed COVID mandates,” DeSantis, a Republican, said in a statement.

Nov 18, 9:58 am
New York governor calls on workers to go back to the office

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is calling on workers to head back to the office in the new year.

“How about this New Year’s resolution: that in the days after New Year’s, that we say everybody back in the office. You can have a flex time, but we need you back, at least the majority of the week,” Hochul told industry leaders at the Association for a Better New York breakfast.

Hochul also said she would be in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

Times Square is reopening this New Year’s Eve after being closed last year due to the pandemic. Revelers must bring proof of full vaccination and a photo ID.

“I can’t wait to put 2020 – 2021 behind us,” the governor said.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky

Nov 18, 9:17 am
Doctors stress importance of pediatric vaccinations, COVID ‘one of the top 10 leading causes of death in children’

COVID-19 “is one of the top ten leading causes of death in children” and vaccines are a “safe and simple intervention” to significantly lower the risk of severe illness, emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen and professor of health policy and management at GW said at a National Press Foundation briefing Wednesday.

Dr. Sean O’Leary, vice chair of the committee on infectious diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said he believes that the fear surrounding the vaccine is largely based on misinformation.

Both doctors also pointed to the problem of access to vaccines, with many Americans in rural areas living in “pharmacy deserts.”

“We should not assume that these people don’t want the vaccine. A lot of it is access,” Leary said.

Officials need to hold clinics in places like schools, Wen added.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Nov 18, 4:38 am
Disney Cruise Line to require guests ages 5 and up be vaccinated

Disney Cruise Line said it will require all passengers ages 5 and up to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 starting next year.

Guests who are not vaccine-eligible because of their age will have to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result taken between three days and 24 hours their sail date.

“We are resuming sailing in a gradual, phased approach that emphasizes multiple layers of health and safety measures, considering guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other medical experts,” Disney Cruise Line said Wednesday in an updated policy on its website. “Under this guidance, we’ve reimagined your cruise experience so we all can enjoy the magic responsibly.”

The vaccine mandate will take effect Jan. 13 and will apply to sailings both in the United States and abroad.

Currently, passengers ages 12 and older as well as all crew members must be fully vaccinated, while unvaccinated guests ages 5 to 11 must take a pre-departure COVID-19 test.

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(BALTIMORE) — Two former Maryland police officers are now the subject of a manhunt by their former boss, and police said they should be considered armed and dangerous.

The alleged crimes began at a home in York County, Pennsylvania, this week, when former Baltimore County police officer Robert Vicosa allegedly held a woman at gunpoint, stole her car and fled with his two daughters, ages 6 and 7, police in York said. The stolen car was found in Red Lion, Pennsylvania, police said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Vicosa and Baltimore County police officer Tia Bynum allegedly committed a kidnapping and robbery in the Cockeysville, Maryland, area, the Baltimore County Police Department said.

 

Vicosa was allegedly armed with a semi-automatic handgun, police said, adding that his daughters were present during the robbery.

The suspects allegedly carjacked a man and forced him to drive them, before releasing the victim unharmed, Baltimore County Police Chief Melissa Hyatt said.

Baltimore County police said Vicosa was fired in August 2021. Police said Bynum, who was in the criminal investigations bureau, is currently suspended and stripped of police powers.

Vicosa and Bynum are wanted and considered armed and dangerous, police said, adding that they’re “armed with at least one handgun and possibly several semi-automatic rifles.”

Chief Hyatt began her remarks at a news conference Thursday with a personal plea to Bynum.

“Our priority is the safety and wellbeing of [Vicosa’s daughters] Giana and Aaminah. Please get these two innocent and precious children to a safe location,” Hyatt said. “We want to work with you on a safe and peaceful resolution.”

She urged both suspects to “peacefully surrender to authorities.”

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Attorneys representing Elijah McClain’s family and the City of Aurora have reached an agreement that the city will pay out $15 million in the civil rights lawsuit filed over McClain’s violent arrest and subsequent death, an official briefed on the matter told ABC News.

This will be the highest police settlement in the history of Colorado, the official said.

The agreement comes over a year after the family filed a 106-page federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Colorado that accused several first responders involved in the incident of violating Elijah McClain’s civil rights and causing his death.

The money will be divided between Elijah McClain’s mother and father. ABC News has reached out to their attorneys for comment.

McClain, 23, was confronted by police on Aug. 24, 2019, while walking home from a convenience store after a 911 caller told authorities they had seen someone “sketchy” in the area.

McClain was unarmed and wearing a ski mask at the time. His family says he had anemia, a blood condition that can make people feel cold more easily.

According to an independent review of his death, officers placed McClain in a carotid chokehold that restricts the carotid artery and cuts off blood to the brain.

The independent review found that McClain had pleaded with officers, crying out in pain, apologizing, and attempting to explain himself.

When EMTs arrived, he was administered a shot of 500 milligrams of ketamine and placed in an ambulance where he had a heart attack, according to officials. He died on Aug. 30, three days after doctors pronounced him brain dead and he was removed from life support, officials said.

The legal battle over McClain’s death is not over: A state grand jury filed a 32-count indictment against the three officers and two paramedics in September, accusing them of several charges, including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

The defendants’ next court date is on Jan. 7, when they are expected to enter their pleas on the charges.

The Aurora Police Association Board of Directors has defended the officers, saying in a past statement: “There is no evidence that APD officers caused his death. The hysterical overreaction to this case has severely damaged the police department.”

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