(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department said in a brief court filing Tuesday that it will not seek the death penalty in the case against the alleged shooter who killed 19 at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart in 2019.
The Justice Department did not say why it isn’t seeking the death penalty.
Patrick Crusius allegedly killed 23 in August 2019 at an El Paso Walmart and is facing state murder charges and federal hate crime charges.
Crusius was indicted by federal prosecutors in 2019 on 90 federal charges, including 22 counts of committing a hate crime resulting in death, 22 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder, 23 counts of a hate crime involving an attempt to kill and 23 counts of use of a firearm during a crime.
He is accused of being the sole gunman to carry out the Aug. 3, 2019, killing rampage that federal authorities investigated as an act of “domestic terrorism,” meaning the suspect was allegedly intent on “coercing and intimidating a civilian population,” officials said at the time of the announcement.
Crusius allegedly told investigators following his arrest that he set out to kill as many Mexicans as he could after driving from his home in Allen, Texas, about 650 miles east of El Paso, officials said.
The Justice Department has paused carrying out the death penalty during the Biden administration after former Attorney General William Barr resumed carrying out the death penalty at the end of the Trump administration.
A lawyer for Crusius hadn’t yet responded to a request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — An Indiana man was arrested after his 4-year-old son was captured on security camera footage playing with a loaded gun in their apartment complex’s hallway alone, police said.
Shane Osborne, 45, was initially charged with neglect of a dependent following the incident on Saturday, according to the Beech Grove Police Department. Police determined that the child was holding a Smith & Wesson handgun that was loaded with 15 rounds in the magazine, but did not have a round chambered, according to the police report.
Police responded to the apartment complex in Beech Grove Saturday evening after a neighbor called 911 reporting that a young boy “wearing only a diaper had a chrome handgun and was pointing it at people,” according to the police report.
When officers knocked on the family’s apartment door, the child answered, police said. Osborne reportedly told police he was ill and had not realized his son had left the apartment, according to the police report. He “advised there was not a firearm in the home, nor did [his son] have any toy guns,” and later added that he had no guns due to a past felony conviction, according to the report.
Osborne assisted police in a “cursory search” of the apartment, which yielded no gun in plain view, and the officers left, according to the police report.
A neighbor then flagged the officers down as they were leaving the building and showed them security camera footage of the incident in which the child could be seen “walking around the upstairs landing of the apartment with a silver and black handgun,” according to the report.
The Beech Grove Police Department released the footage, which shows the child playing unsupervised in the common hallway with a handgun, pointing it at neighbors’ doors and himself, before going back into his apartment.
The officers returned to the apartment to conduct another search, during which Osborne reportedly told police that he does not have a firearm, but that a relative may have left one in the apartment, according to the police report. When an officer asked the child where he put his “pew pew,” the boy led them to a roll-top desk that contained the handgun, according to the report.
Osborne “did not know the weapon was in the apartment at this time, nor that [his son] knew where it was,” according to the report.
Osborne was arrested for neglect of a dependent and his son was transported to his mother’s home, police said. Final charges will be determined by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office. The Marion County Department of Child Services was notified about the incident and will also investigate, police said.
Osborne is scheduled to appear in court Thursday afternoon. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
The arrest “gained national attention” after it was captured on the television show “On Patrol: Live,” which the Beech Grove Police Department appears in, according to Beech Grove deputy chief of administration Robert Mercuri.
‘There’s a baby with a gun’
Nicole Summers told ABC News she called 911 after her 16-year-old son saw the child with the gun.
“When my son went to go back out, when he opened the door, he just slowly closed it and said, ‘Everybody get out of the living room, there’s a baby with a gun,'” she said.
Summers said she looked out her door and saw the boy pointing the gun toward her from the top of the stairs.
“He kind of leaned down, and that’s when he pointed the gun at me and said, ‘Look what I got’ and kind of laugh,” said Summers, who said she deals frequently with firearms in her job at a local pawn shop and knew the child was holding a real gun.
Summers said she was aware of the child holding the gun for at least five minutes and believes that he thought it was a toy.
“He is a kid, he didn’t have any clue, the severity of what he was doing,” she said. “No clue that he could have very easily taken his life or somebody else’s.”
Days later, Summers said she is haunted by what happened and questions whether she should have intervened more.
“In hindsight you think, you know, should I have just gone in the hallway? I mean, [he] was 4, I could have easily taken it,” she said. “But what if there was one in the chamber?”
Beech Grove Mayor Dennis Buckley said he was “mortified” by the incident and is “so thankful that no one was hurt, especially the young child.”
“I appreciate the quick action taken by the Beech Grove Police Department to secure the small child and the gun in question,” Buckley said in a statement to ABC Indianapolis affiliate WRTV. “I ask that the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office work tirelessly to secure charges and a conviction against the responsible parties, with maximum penalties. Society shouldn’t accept anything less.”
(WINDSOR, Va.) — A Black soldier in uniform who was pepper-sprayed in his car by Virginia police officers during a traffic stop has been awarded less than $4,000 in a million-dollar lawsuit against the two officers.
The jury awarded 2nd Lt. Caron Nazario a total of $3,685 in the lawsuit against Windsor, Virginia, police officers Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker.
The officers faced four counts: assault, battery, false imprisonment and illegal search.
Gutierrez was ordered to pay $2,685 in damages, no malice, under liability for assault. He was cleared of all other charges.
Crocker was liable for an illegal search, no malice. He was ordered to pay $1,000 in damages. He was cleared of all other charges.
Nazario’s lawyer, Tom Roberts, said it was a “sad day” and that the verdicts fail to send the message to other police officers that “this conduct is unacceptable.”
“It is open season on citizens in Virginia and across the county,” Roberts said in a statement. “Citizens will not rest assured that scenes like this are not repeated with impunity.
The officers pulled over Nazario on the evening of Dec. 5, 2020. Body-camera footage showed Gutierrez pepper spray Nazario when he would not get out of the car.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.) — Residents of one Arizona town are findings way to get creative when it comes to saving water after their supply was cut off.
On New Year’s Day, the city of Scottsdale stopped providing water to the roughly 1,000 people who live in Rio Verde Foothills — a suburb about 30 miles north of downtown — due to the historic drought.
Water haulers were allowed to fill up tanks at stations in Scottsdale and water was able to run through a standpipe because Rio Verde Foothills does not have its own water reservoir.
However, the city said because of the “unprecedented drought on the Colorado River,” the city is not allowing any water to be transported outside of city limits to conserve water for its own residents and businesses.
The decision has led to Rio Verde Foothills’ homeowners taking drastic steps, including storing water in their pools for daily activities.
“Really concerned and worried. In fact, I’m happy I have a pool because every time it rains at least I can siphon that,” resident Dee Thomas told Phoenix ABC affiliate KNXV. “We use it mostly for showering. For, you know, washing clothes, the bathroom.”
Thomas said the community well dried up several years ago and she was not able to get any water from her personal well.
Arizona is one of 33 states currently experiencing drought conditions categorized as moderate or worse, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, which is run by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The Colorado River has been affected by these conditions, with large swaths drying up. A 2017 study by the Colorado River Research Group found river flow could decrease 30% by 2050 and 55% by 2100 because of continuous emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Rio Verde Foothills homeowner Cody Reim told Good Morning America he and his family have just two weeks of water left and, if the city of Scottsdale continues to refuse to supply water, his water bill could triple from roughly $400 a month to $1,200 for the same amount of water.
“This is a human issue,” he said. “This is not something that, you know, that can be dwindled down to what we need to preserve water for what might happen.”
Water-hauling companies say they are going to have start charging more for the same amount of water due to the logistics of finding other sources.
John Hornewer, who owns Rio Verde Water, told KNXV he was charging customers 5 cents per gallon, but is now going to raise the price to as high as 10 cents.
“Huge increase in time it takes to deliver the water to the customers out here, the manpower it takes, just the wear and tear,” he said. “We can’t just use any other one municipality up. We have to take our loads from multiple areas so that we don’t degrade or overpressure anyone’s system.”
Several residents filed an injunction last week against the city, calling on officials to resume water service.
In a statement, the city of Scottsdale said because Rio Verde is a separate community, Maricopa County holds the responsibility.
“Scottsdale has warned and advised that it is not responsible for Rio Verde for many years, especially given the requirements of the City’s mandated drought plan,” a statement issued Monday read. “The city remains firm in that position, and confident it is on the right side of the law.”
“Nothing in the city’s action precludes residents in Rio Verde Foothills from purchasing water from other sources. The water haulers who have previously hauled water from Scottsdale have access to water from other jurisdictions and are still offering to haul water to serve the homes in Rio Verde,” the statement continued.
The city did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment.
(CYRIL, Okla.) — The search for a 4-year-old girl who was reported missing after a postal carrier found her sister wandering alone outside is now considered a “recovery operation,” authorities said Monday.
The update comes after one of her caregivers was arrested on a murder charge in connection with the child’s disappearance, authorities said.
Local authorities began searching for Athena Brownfield on Jan. 10, when the postal worker discovered her 5-year-old sister and notified police, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, which is also involved in the search.
Alysia Adams, 31, was arrested Thursday afternoon in Grady County, Oklahoma, on two counts of child neglect, the agency said. Her husband, Ivon Adams, 36, was taken into custody in Phoenix on Thursday on one count of murder in the first degree and one count of child neglect, it said.
The two sisters had reportedly been in the couple’s care for at least a year, before the 5-year-old was found alone outside their home in Cyril, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Alysia Adams is related to the sisters, the agency said. Authorities did not comment on how the Adams’ became the primary caregivers of the children.
The girls’ biological parents have been interviewed by agents and are “cooperating with the investigation,” the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said.
Ivon Adams is awaiting extradition to Oklahoma. During a Friday court appearance in Maricopa County, he waived his right to an extradition hearing.
“I need to get there and fight this,” he told the court.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said Monday that its agents and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol are searching areas of Caddo County for the toddler’s remains.
The recovery mission comes nearly a week after the Oklahoma Highway Patrol issued a missing and endangered person alert for Athena to people in a 15-mile radius of Cyril, located about 70 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.
Law enforcement last week conducted searches of bodies of water in and around Cyril and volunteers helped conduct a grid search, looking in vacant houses and local waterways, police said.
Authorities have been working to put together an exact timeline of when Athena was last seen, according to Brook Arbeitman, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Arbeitman said last week that authorities were finding items in town that “could be relevant” and helpful to the case, though did not elaborate.
“We are finding things that we hope might give us clues,” she said.
Trash service in the town has been suspended amid the search “in an effort to search for additional clues as to Athena’s whereabouts,” Arbeitman told reporters Thursday.
Athena’s sister did not require any medical care and currently is in protective custody with the state, Arbeitman said.
(NEW YORK) — Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have asked a judge to dismiss criminal charges against an NYPD officer and Army reservist who had been charged with being a Chinese agent.
“As a result of our continued investigation, the government obtained additional information bearing on the charges,” prosecutors said in a recent court filing, adding that it would dismiss the charges “in the interests of justice” for Baimadajie Angwang.
The filing did not provide any details on the additional information. The judge on Tuesday ordered the parties to appear Thursday morning.
Angwang was charged by the Justice Department in September 2020 with acting at the “direction and control” of officials operating out of the Chinese consulate in New York to report on Tibetans living in the United States. The indictment referred to two unnamed officials assigned to the department responsible for “neutralizing sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of China.”
The charges were based, in part, on dozens of recorded phone calls between Angwang and these officials that prosecutors said were meant to report on the activities of Tibetans in the New York area, assess potential intelligence sources and introduce the Chinese consular officials to senior NYPD officials.
At the time, Alan Kohler, the assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, wrote, “This case serves as yet another reminder that China represents the biggest counterintelligence threat to the United States and that the FBI and our partners will be aggressive in investigating and stopping such activities within our nation.”
Angwang is an ethnic Tibetan who sought asylum in the United States on the basis he had been arrested and tortured in China partly due to this ethnicity.
The defense insisted Angwang’s interactions with the two consular officials did “not involve ‘direction or control,'” but were meant to establish good relations so Angwang could receive a visa to visit his family.
“Officer Angwang was always confident that this day would come, though he and has family have suffered immeasurably for almost three years,” defense attorney John F. Carman said. “People should know that while he is an ethnic Tibetan, Mr. Angwang is first and foremost a loyal American who served honorably with the Marines and did nothing whatsoever to betray his country.”
(NEW YORK) — University of Idaho quadruple murder suspect Bryan Kohberger allegedly posted in an online forum years ago that he had “crazy thoughts” and “delusions of grandeur.”
The New York Times reported on Jan. 13 that Kohberger, 28, allegedly posted on an online message board devoted to a condition called visual snow syndrome, a disorder that causes someone to see static.
Between Nov. 6, 2009, and Feb. 20, 2012, while Kohberger was a teenager, he allegedly made 118 posts on the forum under the username “exarr.”
In January 2011 he allegedly wrote: “I have had VS [visual snow] since september 21st of 2009. Since then I have changed, mainly from the anxiety and sense of derealization and hopelessness.”
In April 2011, in a thread by another user about possible benefits of visual snow syndrome, Kohberger wrote: “I have become very deep and determined on goals. It made me smarter.”
Kohberger wrote in May 2011 that he has “depression, no interest in activity, constant thoughts of suicide, crazy thoughts, delusions of grandeur, anxiety, poor self image, poor social skills, NO EMOTION.” The post concluded: “When I get home, I am mean to my family. This started when VS did. I felt no emotion and along with the depersonalization, I can say and do whatever I want with little remorse.”
In a July 2011 post, Kohberger allegedly wrote: “I have had this horrible Depersonalization go on in my life for almost 2 years. I often find myself making simple human interactions, but it is as if I am playing a role playing game. … As I hug my family, I look into their faces, I see nothing, it is like I am looking at a video game, but less. … I am blank, I have no opinion, I have no emotion, I have nothing.”
Kohberger’s alleged last post was on Feb. 20, 2012. The post said: “I have just accepted my visual snow finally. I don’t even feel the need to stay away from the forum, it doesn’t scare me anymore! anyone else come to terms? I feel like comign [sic] to terms could be a bad thing though.”
A person who knew Kohberger at the time of the posts told ABC News he had seen the posts and was “extremely confident” they were Kohberger’s, citing Kohberger’s complaints at the time about his issues with visual snow syndrome as well as a reference in the posts to living in a house with mold problems.
Kohberger is accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in an off-campus home in the early hours of Nov. 13. The shocking murders garnered national interest as police searched for a suspect. Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30.
Kohberger was a Ph.D. student in Washington State University’s department of criminal justice and criminology at the time of the murders. Washington State is just 10 miles from the University of Idaho.
None of the posts viewed by ABC News suggested Kohberger’s alleged illness made him prone to violence. Experts caution that people with mental illness are no more likely to be violent than anybody else. In fact, they are 10 times more likely to be the victim of a violent crime. But in this case, police say Kohberger is their main suspect.
Kohberger faces first-degree murder and burglary charges. He has not yet entered a plea.
(NEW YORK) — At least eight people were shot in southeastern Florida on Monday during a massive celebration for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, authorities said.
More than 1,000 people were attending a block party with live music and a car show at Ilous Ellis Park in Fort Pierce, north of West Palm Beach, when multiple gunshots rang out at approximately 5:20 p.m. local time, just hours after an MLK Day parade had ended, according to the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office.
“It was mass chaos,” Chief Deputy Brian Hester, who took part in the parade, told reporters on Monday night. “People were running in all different directions.”
One of the eight gunshot victims, all of whom were adults, was hospitalized in critical condition. Four other individuals, including a child, were injured as they ran for safety, according to Hester and a press release from the sheriff’s office.
“There were people laying behind cars, laying behind anything they could lay behind,” Hester recalled. “It was kind of hard to tell who was a victim and who was just hiding at that point.”
Detectives believe the shooting was a result of a dispute between two parties in the park. So far, evidence suggests there were two different areas from where gunshots were fired and that there was more than one shooter, according to Hester.
“Sounds like, from our initial investigation here on scene, there was a disagreement of some sort between two parties and, unfortunately, they chose to resolve that with guns,” he said. “It’s really unfortunate and it’s sad that during a celebration of someone who represented peace and equality that a disagreement results in a use of guns and violence.”
As of Monday night, detectives were still interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence. No arrests had been made and no suspects had been named.
“We’re following up on several leads,” Hester told reporters. “We’ve got some tips from the community.”
Anyone with information on the incident is urged to call the the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office at 772-462-7300 or contact Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-273-8477.
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — A former Republican candidate for the New Mexico House of Representatives was arrested Monday for allegedly organizing men to shoot at the homes of Democrats in the state, police announced.
Four local Democratic officials in Albuquerque had their homes targeted by gunfire in four separate incidents from Dec. 4, 2022, to Jan. 3, the Albuquerque Police Department said in a press release.
Solomon Peña will be charged in connection to shootings at the homes of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa, on Dec. 4, 2022; New Mexico House Speaker Javier Martinez, on Dec. 8; then-Bernalillo Commissioner Debbie O’Malley, on Dec. 11, and state Sen. Linda Lopez on Jan. 3, according to the APD.
“APD has arrested Solomon Peña for the recent shootings at local lawmakers’ homes,” Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina tweeted. “Peña, an unsuccessful legislative candidate in the 2022 election, is accused of conspiring with, and paying four other men to shoot at the homes of 2 county commissioners and 2 state legislators.”
No one was injured in the shootings, and police expect to file charges for the other men who were allegedly involved.
Peña allegedly “paid the men cash and sent text messages with addresses where he wanted them to shoot at the homes,” the APD said in the press release.
He also allegedly “went with the men and attempted to shoot at one of the homes, but the AR handgun he was using malfunctioned. Another shooter fired more than a dozen rounds from a separate handgun,” according to police.
The county commissioners and state senator said Peña “showed up uninvited at their homes in November after the election” and “provided them with documents that he said indicated fraud in the election results,” the APD said.
Peña lost his race for state House District 14 to incumbent Rep. Miguel Garcia by more than 3,600 votes, police said.
“Garcia had sued Peña in August 2022, arguing that Peña was not eligible to serve in the legislature because he is a convicted felon and was not pardoned by the governor,” the APD said. “A judge ruled in September that Peña could remain on the ballot because the law is unconstitutional.”
Police allege that Peña hired people to shoot at their homes as a form of retribution.
“He had complaints about his election, he felt it was rigged,” Medina said. “As the mayor said, […] he doesn’t want to accept the results of the election. So he approached all of these commissioners and the senators at their home with paperwork claiming that […] there was fraud involved in those elections.”
Police said it was police work matching shell casings that connected the crimes.
A SWAT team moved in and made the arrest Monday, according to police.
Police presented a picture of the suspect in which he can be seen wearing a MAGA sweatshirt and standing in front of Trump flags.
There was no immediate contact information for Peña available.
(NEW YORK) — Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday in Brooklyn, New York federal court in the corruption trial of Genaro Garcia Luna, once head of the Mexican equivalent of the FBI, who has been accused by the United States of accepting million-dollar bribes from the cartel once controlled by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Garcia Luna, the former Mexican secretary of public security, was arrested in Dallas in 2019 and charged with narcotics trafficking conspiracy for assisting the Sinaloa cartel.
The charges resulted from the trial of El Chapo when a witness testified he had given Garcia Luna briefcases of cash.
“As alleged, for nearly two decades, Garica Luna betrayed those he was sworn to protect by accepting bribes from members of the Sinaloa cartel to facilitate their crimes and empower their criminal enterprise,” said Seth DuCharme, the acting U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn at the time the charges were announced.
According to the indictment, Garcia Luna received millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel in exchange for providing protection for its drug trafficking.
In exchange for the bribes, prosecutors said Garcia Luna abused his public position by allowing the cartel to obtain safe passage for its drug shipments, and by providing sensitive law enforcement information about investigations into the cartel and information about rival drug cartels.
Between 2002 and 2007, Garcia Luna allegedly aided at least six cocaine shipments totaling more than 50,000 kilograms, or over 110,231 pounds.
The defense cast Garcia Luna as a dedicated civil servant dedicated to fighting the drug trade, according to court filings.
