(NEW YORK) — Some 32 million people are under heat alerts as the West experiences another record-breaking heat wave during elevated drought and fire conditions.
Heat alerts are in effect from California to Montana, with excessive heat warnings for cities including Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Sacramento, California.
Temperatures could reach as high as 130 degrees in Death Valley, California, on Saturday and Sunday, after hitting a high of 130 degrees on Friday, based on preliminary data. If Death Valley officially reaches that temperature again on Saturday, that could tie its record for most consecutive days at or above 130 degrees.
Las Vegas is forecast to be in the triple digits for the next three days, with a high of 117 degrees on Saturday. The National Weather Service office in Las Vegas predicted that some areas “may see all-time record highs challenged or exceeded” this weekend.
Salt Lake City could see triple-digit temperatures Sunday and Monday, after a forecasted high of 99 degrees on Saturday.
Sacramento is expected to reach 111 degrees Saturday, after hitting a daily high-temperature record of 109 on Friday. The National Weather Service office in Sacramento warned that the “dangerously hot temperatures” will “increase the threat for heat-related illnesses,” and advised that people stay hydrated and limit outdoor activities.
The scorching temperatures come after millions in the West endured extreme heat during a deadly heat wave late last month, and as much of the West also is battling a severe drought and elevated wildfire risk.
In California, nearly 95% of the state is in severe drought, according to the latest update from the U.S. Drought Monitor. This week, Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded the state’s drought emergency, which now includes 50 out of 58 counties. The governor also asked everyone in the state to voluntarily reduce water usage by 15%.
Several states currently are under fire danger, with red flag warnings in effect for parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado and Utah due to the combination of low humidities, warm temperatures and strong winds.
Dozens of large wildfires continue to burn in the West, including the Beckwourth Complex near the California-Nevada border. The fire grew explosively Friday, prompting evacuations. By Saturday afternoon, it had burned 55,091 acres and was only 9% contained.
(NEW YORK) — Eleven people armed with long guns and dressed in tactical gear who claimed to be a part of group called “Rise of the Moors” were arrested following an hours-long standoff with Massachusetts police over the weekend.
Police said they found heavily armed men in two vehicles near Interstate 95 around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday. A nine-hour standoff ensued before all 11 were arrested. No one was harmed in the incident.
The men arrested range in age from 17 to 40 and hailed from Rhode Island, New York and Michigan. Two of the men refused to identify themselves and a third is a 17-year-old whose name will not be released because he’s a minor, police said.
Police say the arrested are: Jamhal Tavon Sanders Latimer, 29, of Providence, Rhode Island; Robert Rodriguez, 21, of the Bronx, New York; Wilfredo Hernandez, 21, of the Bronx; Alban El Curraugh, 27, of the Bronx; Aaron Lamont Johnson, 29, of Detroit; Quinn Cumberlander, 40, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island; Lamar Dow, 34, of the Bronx; and Conrad Pierre, 29, of Baldwin, New York.
Massachusetts State Police Col. Christopher Mason said the men identified themselves as part of a group called Rise of the Moors and said they were traveling from Rhode Island to Maine for “training.” It was unclear what that training involved.
According to the group’s webite, Rise of the Moors is a group of “Moorish Americans dedicated to educating new Moors and influencing our Elders.”
The group is headquartered in Rhode Island, according to its website. The group did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The website says that Moors are not “sovereign citizens,” but argues that Moors are the “original sovereigns” of America and are therefore immune from U.S. law.
Freddy Cruz, a research analyst at Southern Poverty Law Center who tracks anti-government groups, said Rise of the Moors is classified as a sovereign citizen, antigovernment group.
He said the group draws much of their beliefs and inspirations from ancient civilizations including ties to the Aztecs, the Olmecs and other native peoples.
“They tend to reference all these past civilizations with the idea that they’re somehow entitled to, or there’s somehow a lineage there, that affords them the right to essentially disassociate themselves from the U.S. government,” Cruz said.
Because they refuse to abide by American law, group members can end up in tense situations with police, Cruz said.
“So a lot of these groups don’t tend to register their firearms, they don’t register their vehicles, that tends to be a recipe for disaster, especially if law enforcement is involved, because they tend to essentially become quite standoffish,” he said.
In the Massachusetts incident, police said they had asked the men for drivers licenses and gun licenses, but the men said they didn’t have any.
The Moorish sovereign citizen movement emerged in the early 1990s as an offshoot of the anti-government sovereign citizens movement, and more specifically, the Moorish Science Temple of America, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center..
The Moorish Science Temple of America was created in 1913, but not all MSTA are linked to sovereign citizens, according to the SPLC.
According to the Moorish Science Temple of America’s website, the temple is a “divine and national movement” that teaches about Moorish identity, which under their definition, means Black Americans. They practice Islam and denounce the sovereign citizens movement and identify as U.S. citizens.
ABC News has reached out to the Moorish Science Temple of American for comment.
Some Moorish sovereigns believe that a 1787 treaty between the U.S. and Morocco — a claim that SPLC says is “fictitious” — grants them immunity from U.S. law, the center reported. Some groups create their own birth certificates, passports, driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations, according to SPLC.
This perceived immunity from local authority is used to justify refusing to pay taxes, buy car insurance, register vehicles, and “defraud banks”, the center reported. The movement has no unified leadership and consists of small groups, most of which operate in the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest U.S., according to the SPLC.
Despite experts classifying the group as sovereign citizens and anti-government, Col. Mason said that the “self-professed leader” of the group of 11 men arrested “wanted it very much known that their ideology is not anti-government.” He noted he can’t confirm that they are “validated members” of the group.
SPLC officially listed Rise of the Moors as an anti-government organization in 2020. Cruz said the center has counted so far six organizations that are classified as Moorish sovereign anti-government groups across the country.
Ken Gray, a retired FBI special agent and professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven, told ABC News that sovereign citizens “tend to be more of a law enforcement nuisance than they seem to be a violent group.”
“They seem to be much more involved in tying people up in legal problems, making false claims on property, not paying taxes,” he said.
“This group here said that they were going up to conduct training and they were outfitted in camouflage clothing, carrying body armor, and had long guns with them. But that does not necessarily mean that they were planning to do something violent, it could very well be that they were training like that for defensive purposes,” he added.
Cruz said the SPLC has reported seeing the Rise of the Moors group participate in paramilitary training before, but the location of the training is unknown. He said it’s uncommon to see sovereign citizen groups participate in such training.
He warned the public to be wary of such groups, saying sovereign communities, “tend to prey on people who have fallen on hard times, and are not necessarily aware of what it means to be part of a sovereign nation.”
“With the Moorish groups especially, they try and tailor their message to bring in Black and brown folks with the idea that their sovereign nation will provide opportunities and a more equitable society for folks,” Cruz said. “A lot of times people get caught up in that and don’t realize that essentially what they’re espousing is illegal. You can’t just grab a car and drive it wherever you want. You can’t just squat in homes and make them your own. You can’t just carry around firearms and not have them registered.”
All 11 men arrested in Wakefield have been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, use of body armor in commission of a crime, possession of a high capacity magazine, improper storage of firearms in a vehicle and conspiracy to commit a crime, police said. Hernandez, Johnson, Dow and the unnamed teen are also being charged with providing a false name to police, authorities said.
The teenager was released to parental custody while the 10 adults are being held at the Billerica House of Correction on $100,000 cash bail, authorities said.
On Tuesday, in Malden District Court, most of the men rejected the charges against them and most said they’d represent themselves. The court entered not guilty pleas on their behalf, according to MassLive.
ABC News could not immediately contact any lawyers for the men. Further hearings will take place Friday.
Eva Marie Uzcategui Trinkl/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — As the recovery effort continues after the devastating partial collapse of a 12-story residential building in South Florida’s Miami-Dade County last month, there was a “small piece of good news” Friday, officials said, after a pet was reunited with its family.
A missing cat named Binx was found near the wreckage on Friday and reunited with its owners, who lived on the ninth floor of the tower, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said during a press briefing Friday evening.
“I’m glad that this small miracle could bring some light into the lives of a hurting family today and provide a bright spot for our whole community in the midst of this terrible tragedy,” she said.
The mayor did share any more details about the family. A volunteer who was feeding cats in the area recognized Binx and brought him to a local animal shelter, where it was identified as one of the cats missing after the disaster, she said.
At least 79 people have been confirmed dead and as many as 61 people remain missing following the collapse, officials said Friday.
Eight additional victims have been identified, the Miami Dade Police Department said Friday, including 3-year-old Luis Lopez Moreira III, the youngest so far; the boy’s father, Luis Pettengill, 36; and his mother, Sophia López Moreira, 36, the sister of Paraguay’s first lady, Silvana López Moreira. Two other children in the family remain missing.
The disaster occurred on June 24 around 1:15 a.m. local time at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed, according to officials. The rest of the building was demolished on Sunday night, due to concerns over structural integrity and an incoming tropical storm.
Meanwhile, 200 people who were living or staying in the condominium at the time of the disaster have been accounted for and are safe, according to Levine Cava, who has repeatedly stressed that the figures are “very fluid” and “continue to change.”
For over two weeks, hundreds of first responders carefully combed through the pancaked piles of debris in hopes of finding survivors. But no one has been found alive in the wreckage since the morning the building partially collapsed, and officials announced Wednesday evening that the search and rescue operation, in its 14th day, would shift to a recovery effort.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told reporters that the decision was “a result of a consensus by those closest to the rescue efforts that the possibility of someone still alive is near zero.”
To mark the somber move, a moment of silence was held Wednesday in honor of all the victims, of whom 53 have been identified. A candlelight vigil was held later that night at the memorial site for the victims.
Crews paused their work atop the piles early Thursday “for a brief moment of silence to honor the two-week mark since the collapse,” according to Levine Cava. Several families who lost loved ones were also brought to the site to pay their respects Thursday, she said.
“We have now officially transitioned from search and rescue to search and recovery,” Levine Cava said during a press conference Thursday morning. “The work continues with all speed and urgency. We are working around the clock to recover victims and bring closure to the families as fast as we possibly can.”
“We are taking as much care as ever to proceed to find victims in the rubble,” she added.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters that crews “will identify every single person” who’s found, and that officials also would continue to help the survivors and the families of the victims get back “on their feet as best as we possibly can.”
On Friday, the Broward County Medical Office started coming on-site to assist Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department personnel and help teams rotate more frequently, Levine Cava said.
“It is very, very valuable and critical that we provide some relief to those men and women working in the medical examiner’s office doing this vital work,” the mayor said during a press briefing Friday afternoon.
Crews have hauled away more than 13 million pounds of concrete and debris from the vast scene, and the pile of rubble is almost at ground level, Burkett said Friday. Some debris remains below ground level.
Officials said it could take several weeks to get to the bottom of the wreckage. Crews have been working virtually nonstop, with help from teams who came from across Florida and elsewhere in the United States as well as from abroad. However, their efforts were halted for almost an entire day last week due to safety concerns regarding the still-standing structure, prior to the demolition. Poor weather conditions have also forced them to temporarily pause working.
The cause of the partial collapse to a building that has withstood decades of hurricanes remains unknown and is under investigation. Built in the 1980s, the Champlain Towers South was up for its 40-year recertification and had been undergoing roof work — with more renovations planned — when it partially collapsed, according to officials.
(JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assigned two federal “surge team” members to Missouri this week to help fight the state’s COVID-19 surge.
Missouri is among a growing list of states that have seen rising infections, with new cases increasing 46% over the last two weeks, from June 23 to July 7, with an average of 1,111 per week, up from 759 two weeks prior, according data from the Department of Health and Human Services. Over the past five weeks, infections have risen 180%.
Missouri and neighboring Arkansas now lead the nation with the highest weekly case rates per capita, which translates into more than 100 per 100,000 residents. New COVID-19 hospital admissions also rose 30% over the same two-week span, and front-line workers say patients are becoming sicker more quickly.
The CDC surge team assigned to Missouri is an epidemiologist, deployed to do on-the-ground genetic sequencing and data analysis, and an adviser who’s working with local officials on how to address vaccine hesitancy.
Missouri’s vaccination rate trails the national average. As of Friday, 46% of residents had received at least one dose, and 40% were fully vaccinated, according to the CDC, compared with 55% of all Americans who’ve gotten at least one shot and 48% who are fully vaccinated.
State health officials said they hope more help is on the way.
“We are looking forward to collaborating with them and learning more about how the Delta variant is impacting Missouri, specifically southwest Missouri initially,” the Missouri health department said of the CDC, in a statement. “More team members will be added in the coming weeks, both remotely and in person, to assist with data and research, vaccine uptake strategies and outreach.”
Low vaccination rates are having a profound impact on hospitals, particularly in the southwestern part of the state. At Mercy Hospital in Springfield, more patients are currently hospitalized than at any point during the pandemic. More than 88% of patients in the ICU are on ventilators, and the hospital had to request additional machines from other hospitals in its network when it ran out earlier this week.
“This is the absolute worst that I’ve ever seen it,” Emily McMichael, a nurse at the hospital, told ABC News. “These patients are a lot sicker, and a lot younger, than what we saw the last go around, so it’s just really sad to see. And a lot of the population is unvaccinated.”
It’s not just Mercy. At Lake Regional Hospital, in the Lake of the Ozarks area, the health system prepared for a surge this week.
“We are experiencing a spike in COVID-19 deaths in our community,” Dane Henry, CEO of the Lake Regional Health System, wrote in a letter to the community Thursday. According to Henry, six COVID patients died in the hospital during the first week of July, compared with six deaths during all of June and only one COVID death in May.
“At Lake Regional, we are already stretched to the limit. Our hospital is very near capacity, and we are seeing exceptionally high numbers of Emergency Department patients daily,” he wrote. “I’m also very worried about the decisions we will face if COVID cases surge, as expected. Hospitals all around us are filling up, too. That means none of us have a safety valve.”
Top health officials have been warning for weeks that unvaccinated people have a high risk of contracting the delta variant of the virus, which was first identified in India and has since spread to more than 100 countries, including all 50 U.S. states. The variant is now dominant in the U.S. and is more transmissible than the original form of the virus, according to the CDC.
In Missouri, the delta variant makes up 73% of sequenced new cases, according to the CDC.
“We’re seeing the real-world impact of what’s happening across southwest Missouri and in our communities of the delta variant spreading rapidly through a largely unvaccinated population,” Dr. William Sistrunk, an infectious disease specialist at Mercy, said a Wednesday press conference. “This variant is hitting and impacting our community very hard, and bringing down younger, healthier people.”
Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University, pointed to the deep divide in hospitalization risk between vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans. “There are large swaths of the country where there are substantial numbers of communities that are under-vaccinated,” he said. If the delta variant gets into one of those communities it “has the potential, because it is so very contagious, to spread and to cause infection.”
While fully vaccinated people are fairly protected from severe disease and hospitalization from the delta variant, that’s not true for the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
“It’s very unusual for a fully vaccinated person to be admitted to the hospital,” Schaffner said. “Virtually every one of those hospitalizations could have been prevented.”
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) — Two bronze Confederate statues at the center of yearslong debate in Charlottesville, Virginia, will be removed this weekend, officials announced.
The city will remove statues of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson on Saturday.
The removal comes more than five years after the first effort to remove the Lee statue. A year later, the monument became a gathering point for white supremacists who decried the proposal at the “Unite the Right” rally in August 2017, which led to rioting and left one woman dead.
Only the statues themselves will be removed Saturday; the stone bases will be left in place temporarily and removed at a later date.
Designated public viewing areas for the removals will be set up in Market Street Park and Court Square Park, where the statues are located, officials said in a news release.
Preparations commenced Friday around Market Street Park with officials setting up protective fencing and posting notices in the area.
The removal comes following a resolution passed by the Charlottesville City Council on June 7, which authorized the city manager to remove the statues for placement in storage.
Lawsuits by the statues’ supporters were filed and halted the removals since the original city council vote in 2017 to remove them. However, in April the Virginia Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that contended state law protected the monuments.
The city council has the sole authority to determine the final disposition of the statues, officials said in the news release.
Both statues will be stored in a secure location on city property until a final decision on their fate is made.
The city has solicited museums, government branches and the military to see if they have interest in the statues. So far, the Charlottesville city manager has received 10 responses — six from out of state and four from in state and they’re all under review.
Eva Marie Uzcategui Trinkl/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — At least 78 people have been confirmed dead after 14 bodies were recovered overnight from the rubble of a 12-story residential building that partially collapsed in South Florida’s Miami-Dade County last month.
As many as 62 people remain missing, officials said Friday.
The disaster occurred on June 24 around 1:15 a.m. local time at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed, according to officials. The rest of the building was demolished on Sunday night, due to concerns over structural integrity and an incoming tropical storm.
For over two weeks, hundreds of first responders carefully combed through the pancaked piles of debris in hopes of finding survivors. But no one has been found alive in the wreckage since the morning the building partially collapsed, and officials announced Wednesday evening that the search and rescue operation, in its 14th day, would shift to a recovery effort.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told reporters that the decision was “a result of a consensus by those closest to the rescue efforts that the possibility of someone still alive is near zero.”
To mark the somber move, a moment of silence was held Wednesday in honor of all the victims, of whom 47 have been identified and their next of kin notified. A candlelight vigil was held later that night at the memorial site for the victims.
Reflecting on the transition the next day, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., told reporters: “When that happened, it took a little piece of the hearts of this community.”
Crews paused their work atop the piles early Thursday “for a brief moment of silence to honor the two-week mark since the collapse,” according to Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. Several families who lost loved ones were also brought to the site to pay their respects Thursday, she said.
“We have now officially transitioned from search and rescue to search and recovery,” Levine Cava said during a press conference Thursday morning. “The work continues with all speed and urgency. We are working around the clock to recover victims and bring closure to the families as fast as we possibly can.”
“We are taking as much care as ever to proceed to find victims in the rubble,” she added.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters that crews “will identify every single person” who’s found, and that officials also would continue to help the survivors and the families of the victims get back “on their feet as best as we possibly can.”
On Friday, the Broward County Medical Office started coming on-site to assist Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department personnel and help teams rotate more frequently, Levine Cava said.
“It is very, very valuable and critical that we provide some relief to those men and women working in the medical examiner’s office doing this vital work,” the mayor said during a press briefing Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, 200 people who were living or staying in the condominium at the time of the disaster have been accounted for and are safe, according to Levine Cava, who has repeatedly stressed that the figures are “very fluid” and “continue to change.”
Crews have hauled away more than 13 million pounds of concrete and debris from the vast scene, and the pile of rubble is almost at ground level, Burkett said Friday. Some debris remains below ground level.
Officials said it could take several weeks to get to the bottom of the wreckage. Crews have been working virtually nonstop, with help from teams who came from across Florida and elsewhere in the United States as well as from abroad. However, their efforts were halted for almost an entire day last week due to safety concerns regarding the still-standing structure, prior to the demolition. Poor weather conditions have also forced them to temporarily pause working.
The cause of the partial collapse to a building that has withstood decades of hurricanes remains unknown and is under investigation. Built in the 1980s, the Champlain Towers South was up for its 40-year recertification and had been undergoing roof work — with more renovations planned — when it partially collapsed, according to officials.
Levine Cava asked members of the public to submit any photos or videos they have related to the collapse to the National Institute of Standards and Technology here.
“The magnitude of this tragedy is growing each and every day,” Levine Cava said Friday.
(NEW YORK) — More than 50 million Americans remain under a flash flood watch on Friday as Tropical Storm Elsa moves up the East Coast, bringing heavy rain and gusty winds.
After making landfall in Florida and pummeling the southeastern United States, Elsa is heading north with the eye of the storm sweeping over the coastlines of Delaware, New Jersey and New York on Friday morning before it is expected to reach Massachusetts by the afternoon, according to the latest forecast from the National Weather Service.
As of 8 a.m. ET, Elsa was moving to the northeast at 31 miles per hour with its center located about 90 miles southwest of Montauk Point in New York. The deadly storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour.
The National Weather Service said it doesn’t anticipate a significant change in Elsa’s strength through Friday and that the storm, which has weakened from the first hurricane of the 2021 Atlantic season, is forecast to become a post-tropical cyclone by nighttime. Elsa is expected to move offshore from the northeastern U.S. coast by late Friday afternoon before heading to Canada’s Atlantic provinces by late Friday night and Saturday.
Flash flood watches are still in effect for the mid-Atlantic and northeastern regions, from Virginia to Maine. That includes several major cities, such as Philadelphia, New York City and Boston. The storm’s current track shows it hugging the northeast coastline, with those areas expected to see the heaviest rainfall.
Much of the northeast is forecast to receive 2 to 4 inches of rainfall through Friday, with up to 6 inches possible in parts of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. That could trigger “considerable flash and urban flooding,” the National Weather Service warned.
Tropical storm warnings also remain in effect for a large swath of the East Coast, from North Carolina’s Outer Banks to Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, a “tornado or two” will be possible over parts of New York’s Long Island and southeastern New England through early Friday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
Severe weather has already disrupted flight schedules at LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City’s Queens borough. New York City has also closed its mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinics through Friday due to the forecast.
New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said there were system-wide delays for buses due to Elsa and the storm could impact service along some subway and rail lines. Meanwhile, empty tractor-trailers and tandem trucks are banned on the seven bridges and two tunnels that the MTA manages until at least noon on Friday due to the weather.
(NEW YORK) — More than 50 million Americans remain under a flash flood watch on Friday as Tropical Storm Elsa moves up the East Coast, bringing heavy rain and gusty winds.
After making landfall in Florida and pummeling the southeastern United States, Elsa is heading north with the eye of the storm sweeping over the coastlines of Delaware and New Jersey early Friday morning before it is expected to hit New York later in the morning and then Massachusetts by the afternoon, according to the latest forecast from the National Weather Service.
As of 5 a.m. ET, Elsa was moving to the northeast at 31 miles per hour with its center located about 5 miles southwest of Atlantic City, New Jersey. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour.
The National Weather Service said it doesn’t anticipate a significant change in Elsa’s strength through Friday and the storm is forecast to become a post-tropical cyclone by nighttime, when it is expected to head into Nova Scotia and then out to sea.
Flash flood watches are still in effect for the mid-Atlantic and northeastern regions, from Virginia to Maine. That includes several major cities, such as Philadelphia, New York City and Boston. The storm’s current track shows it hugging the northeast coastline, with those areas expected to see the heaviest rainfall.
Much of the northeast is forecast to receive 2 to 4 inches of rainfall through Friday, with up to 6 inches possible in parts of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. That could trigger “considerable flash and urban flooding,” the National Weather Service warned.
Tropical storm warnings also remain in effect for a large swath of the East Coast, from North Carolina’s Outer Banks to Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, a “tornado or two” will be possible over parts of New York’s Long Island and southeastern New England through early Friday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
Severe weather has already disrupted flight schedules at LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City’s Queens borough. New York City has also closed its mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinics through Friday due to the forecast.
New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said there were system-wide delays for buses due to Elsa and the storm could impact service along some subway and rail lines. Meanwhile, empty tractor-trailers and tandem trucks are banned on the seven bridges and two tunnels that the MTA manages until at least noon on Friday due to the weather.
(HOUSTON) — The Houston Police Department is investigating an apparent murder-suicide that took place at the Downtown Aquarium Thursday night.
In a press conference, police said a man and a woman, who appeared to be a couple, were having dinner at a bar inside a restaurant at the Houston Downtown Aquarium around 8:10 p.m. Thursday when a suspect walked around from the other end of the bar and opened fire.
The man immediately went down when shot, and the woman was injured but not killed.
The gunman then shot himself. He and the male victim were dead when police arrived, they said.
The woman was taken to the hospital and is in stable condition.
As of now, investigators don’t know if the victims and the shooter knew each other. Police said there was little, if any, interaction between them prior to the shooting.
The investigation is ongoing, and the police department is looking for any leads on the case.
(ATLANTA) — After a statewide manhunt, a suspect has been captured and charged with murder in a triple homicide that unfolded at a country club near Atlanta last week, authorities said.
Bryan Rhoden was apprehended in Chamblee, Georgia, about a half hour from the crime scene, Thursday evening in connection with the shootings with help from the U.S. Marshals Service, the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office said.
He was charged with three counts of murder, three counts of aggravated assault and two counts of kidnapping, Cobb County Chief Tim Fox said during a press briefing Thursday night.
Rhoden was identified as a suspect in the days after the incident at the Pinetree Country Club in Kennesaw, and has ties to the metro Atlanta area, Fox said.
On July 3, a golf pro was gunned down in broad daylight at the country club’s golf course and two other men were found shot dead in the bed of pickup truck that was parked on the green, according to police.
Fox did not share details on any possible motive in the murders or how Rhoden was allegedly tied to the shootings due to the active investigation.
Eugene Siller, 46, a golf pro who worked at the course, was shot in the head on the green of the 10th hole after apparently stumbling upon a crime in progress, according to police. He was killed “because he witnessed an active crime taking place,” police said. There is no connection between Siller and the suspect, Fox said.
The two other victims — 76-year-old Paul Pierson of Kansas and 46-year-old Henry Valdez of California — were found in the bed of a white Ram 3500 pickup truck nearby. They were believed to have been killed on the golf course not long before they were found, Fox said. The chief did not share any further details on the kidnapping charge.
Police allege that Rhoden was the lone shooter in the incident.
