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(CLEVELAND) — A pair of competitive fishermen reeled in by suspicious tournament officials after allegedly putting lead weights and fish fillets in their catch pleaded not guilty to criminal charges on Wednesday.

Jacob Runyan, 42, and Chase Cominsky, 35, were indicted by a grand jury on charges including cheating, attempted grand theft and possessing criminal tools — all felonies — earlier this month, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office said.

During their arraignment in a Cleveland courthouse, both Runyan and Cominsky pleaded not guilty to the charges and were released on personal bonds of $2,500, court records show. A pre-trial hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 9.

ABC News reached out to their attorneys for comment.

According to authorities, the two men had participated in the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Tournament in Cleveland on Sept. 30, where anglers competed to see who could catch the heaviest walleye fish. The tournament’s director, Jason Fischer, became suspicious when he noticed their walleyes weighed in far more than expected, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Video of Fischer slicing open the fish shows him pulling out several round weights and fish fillets as the crowd reacts with anger. Cominsky and Runyan were disqualified and instructed to leave, and Cleveland police responded to the scene, according to the prosecutor’s office.

In total, 10 weights were found inside the walleyes — eight weighing 12 ounces and two weighing eight ounces, the prosecutor’s office said. The pair had also stuffed walleye fillets inside the fish.

Had the two men won the tournament, they would have received $28,760, prosecutors said.

“I take all crime very seriously, and I believe what these two individuals attempted to do was not only dishonorable but also criminal,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said in a statement on Oct. 12.

As part of the investigation, law enforcement officers with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Hermitage Pennsylvania Police Department on Tuesday seized Cominsky’s boat and trailer used in the tournament, the prosecutor’s office said. The indictment cites both in the possessing criminal tools charge and that they were “intended for use in the commission of a felony.”

In addition to the felony charges, both men were charged with unlawful ownership of wild animals, a misdemeanor, for the alleged possession of walleye parts on their boat, the prosecutor’s office said.

The felony charges are punishable by up to 12 months in prison, and the misdemeanor by up to 30 days in jail, the prosecutor’s office said. A conviction on the unlawful ownership of wild animals charge could also result in an indefinite suspension of their fishing licenses, it said.

In the wake of the scandal, Fischer said “this type of behavior will not be tolerated” and vowed to implement changes to the tournament to “protect the integrity” of the sport.

“[We] witnessed one of the most disgusting, dishonest acts that the fishing world has ever seen in live time,” he said in a video statement posted on Oct. 3. “There’s always been stories about dishonesty in competition, but I personally have never seen anything quite like this.”

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(ST LOUIS, Mo.) — The family of the 19-year-old suspect accused of opening fire in a St. Louis, Missouri, high school had recently removed the firearm used in the deadly school shooting from their home, but the teen somehow got ahold of it again, authorities said Wednesday.

One student and one teacher were killed in the Monday morning shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School. Several others were injured.

The suspect, Orlando Harris, who police said was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and more than 600 rounds of ammunition when he “forced entry” into the building, died during an exchange of gunfire, according to St. Louis Police Commissioner Michael Sack.

Sack told reporters during a news conference Wednesday that the family had previously contacted the department about a firearm discovered in the home.

On Oct. 15, police responded to a domestic disturbance at Harris’ home because the “suspect’s mother had located a firearm in the home and wanted it removed,” St. Louis Sgt. Charles Wall said in an update Wednesday evening.

Police determined that Harris legally possessed the gun, and a “third party known to the family” took the gun so it was no longer stored in the home, Wall said.

“While it is not yet clear when or how the suspect came to be in possession of the firearm after this incident, we can confirm that the firearm involved in this incident is the firearm used in the shooting Monday,” Wall said.

Harris — who graduated from the high school last year — had been seeing mental health professionals, Sack said Wednesday, and his family had him committed on some occasions.

Whenever Harris’ family “noticed him, kind of, stepping out of line … they always worked to try and get him back on his medication, back into therapy, whatever it is that he needed,” Sack said.

The family — who has been “fully cooperative” with police — appears to have “done everything they could have possibly done” to help Harris, Sack said, “but sometimes that’s not enough.”

Wall added that “this tragic incident occurred despite their best efforts.”

Harris “felt isolated and alone” and “there was a disconnect between him and what he felt was the school community,” Sack said.

The school “had always been the target,” he said.

Sack said Tuesday that Harris left behind a notebook with writings about his desire to “conduct this school shooting.”

According to Sack, Harris wrote: “I don’t have any friends, I don’t have any family, I’ve never had a girlfriend, I’ve never had a social life.”

Sack said Harris called himself an “isolated loner,” which Harris called a “perfect storm for a mass shooter.”

Harris’ family would search his room on occasion but the family was not aware of his notebook, Sack said.

It’s not yet clear when or how Harris bought the gun, Sack said.

ABC News’ Will Gretsky contributed to this report.

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(WAUKESHA, Wis.) — Darrell Brooks has been found guilty of intentional homicide for barreling his SUV into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Six people were killed and dozens were injured when Brooks’ car plowed into paradegoers on Nov. 21, 2021. The victims killed ranged in age from 8 to 81.

Brooks faced dozens of charges, including six counts of first-degree intentional homicide.

Witnesses took the stand for the prosecution, recounting the screaming and crying as victims were struck by the fast-moving car.

“After the vehicle had come through … I looked back and saw all the carnage behind us. My thought then was that we were involved in some sort of terrorist act,” Detective Lukas Hallark said on the stand, according to Milwaukee ABC affiliate WISN-TV. “[There was] overwhelming fear and overwhelming panic amongst everyone in downtown Waukesha.”

Brooks, 40, dismissed his public defenders during the trial and went on to represent himself.

“This incident was not planned, not intentional. This incident was never even thought about,” Brooks told the jury in his opening statement, according to WISN.

Brooks had multiple outbursts during the trial. At one point, he was moved to an auxiliary courtroom due to disruptive behavior. Judge Jennifer Dorow said Brooks was “having a stare down with me, it’s very disrespectful. He pounded his fist. Frankly, it’s making me scared,” reported WISN.

The city of Waukesha had always held its Christmas parade before Thanksgiving. But this year the parade will take place on Dec. 4.

“By adjusting the Christmas Parade date, more resources are available for staffing in cases of unplanned emergencies which includes Police and Fire Department resources, hospital staff, and many others,” the city said in a statement.

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(ST. LOUIS) — St. Louis, Missouri, is in mourning after student Alexzandria Bell and teacher Jean Kuczka were gunned down at the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School on Monday.

Several others were injured in the shooting, allegedly carried out by a former student.

Here’s what we know about the lives lost:

Jean Kuczka, 61

Jean Kuczka was a beloved physical education teacher and cross-country coach.

She was also a wife, mom of five and grandmother of seven.

She loved to bike ride and participated each year in a ride that raises money for juvenile diabetes, in honor of her son who has the disease, according to her school biography.

Her bio says she loves “guiding students to make wise decisions.”

“My mom was my best friend,” her daughter, Abbey Kuczka, told ABC News.

“I think we’re all still in shock,” she said, adding, “I think it brings peace of mind hearing all of these stories from her students, and to know how much she was loved.”

Alexzandria Bell, 15

Alexzandria Bell was a sophomore who loved to dance and planned to start culinary school while still in high school, her father, Andre Bell, told ABC Los Angeles station KABC-TV.

“She put a lot of thought into her plan, so I was behind her,” he said.

The teen, bright and charismatic, was a dance major who had also attended a performing arts middle school, Principal Kacy Seals-Shahid told the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

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(NEW YORK) — A whopping $700 million is up for grabs in the next Powerball drawing on Wednesday night, lottery officials said.

The estimated jackpot increased from $680 million after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Monday night, the 35th consecutive drawing. Wednesday’s jackpot is Powerball’s largest prize so far this year, the fifth-largest in the American lottery game’s 30-year history and the eighth-largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever, according to a press release from Powerball.

If a player wins Wednesday’s grand prize, it will be the sixth Powerball jackpot won this year. Jackpot winners can either take the money as an immediate cash lump sum or in 30 annual payments over 29 years. The cash value of Wednesday’s $700 million jackpot is $335.7 million, Powerball said.

Tickets cost $2 and are sold in 45 U.S. states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More than half of all proceeds remain in the jurisdiction where the ticket was purchased, according to Powerball.

The jackpot grows based on game sales and interest rates. But the odds of winning the big prize stays the same — 1 in 292.2 million, Powerball said.

Powerball drawings are broadcast live every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. The drawings are also live streamed online at Powerball.com.

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(SAN ANTONIO) — A Texas teenager remains on life support more than three weeks after he was shot by a now-former police officer who confronted the unarmed teen while he was eating a hamburger in his car, attorneys for his family said Tuesday.

Erik Cantu, 17, was shot at least four times during the encounter in a San Antonio McDonald’s parking lot on Oct. 2, his family said.

His mother, Victoria Casarez, said her son was shot in his diaphragm, lungs, liver and bicep — and that one of the bullets remains lodged near his heart.

“He’s just mutilated,” she said during a press briefing surrounded by their extended family and their attorneys. “It just hurts us to see our son that way.”

His father, Erik Cantu Sr., described his son’s condition as “very touch and go,” and that he developed pneumonia while in the hospital.

The family’s attorneys said they believe the teen will survive his injuries and referred to Cantu as a “fighter.”

“But what quality of life will he have once he gets through it?” civil rights attorney Ben Crump, an attorney for the family, said.

The San Antonio Police Department said on Oct. 5 that it fired the officer, James Brennand, while releasing body-camera footage that showed him shooting nearly a dozen times at the teen’s car as Cantu drove away. Brennand’s actions violated department tactics, training and procedures, according to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus.

The rookie officer, who had been on the force for seven months, was subsequently charged with two counts of aggravated assault by a public servant, according to the San Antonio Police Department Homicide Unit. He was booked on Oct. 11 and released from Bexar County Jail the following day after posting a $200,000 bond.

A hearing has been set for Nov. 23. ABC News has reached out to his attorney for comment. Neither Brennand nor his attorney, Jay Norton, have yet to release a statement or publicly comment on the case.

The San Antonio Police Officer’s Association said it is not representing Brennand because he had not completed his 1-year probationary period for new officers at the time of the shooting and was therefore not eligible for the benefit.

The family’s attorneys said they were grateful that charges were pressed, but that the family would like to see more. Casarez said she would like to see the former officer charged with two counts of attempted murder and “behind bars.”

“That being said, I pray for his family,” she said.

Crump called the use of force “excessive” and claimed that the former officer racially profiled the teen.

“He profiled this young Hispanic teenager. He profiled him, there’s no question about it,” Crump said. “If we don’t get justice for Erik Cantu, then it can happen to you.”

Crump said his office has reached out to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to review the case.

“What crime was being committed by two 17-year-old kids parked in a McDonald’s parking lot eating a cheeseburger?” Crump said.

According to police, Brennand was responding to a disturbance call when he noticed a vehicle he thought had fled from him the night before during an attempted stop. The car had no connection to the disturbance call, police said.

The footage shows the officer approaching the car and opening the door, when he sees Cantu eating a hamburger alongside a female passenger and orders him out.

Police said the officer reported the car door hit him as the unarmed teen started to reverse the car.

Body-camera footage shows the officer firing 10 times, including into the car and after Cantu started to drive away, before chasing after it on foot.

Police said that the passenger in the vehicle was not injured during the incident.

Cantu was initially charged by proxy with evading detention in a vehicle and assault on an officer, though the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney has since dismissed the charges.

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(NEW YORK) — A suspect has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly shoving a man onto the subway tracks in New York City last week.

Lamale McRae, 41, of Brooklyn, was arrested on Monday in Queens in connection with what police said was an unprovoked attack Friday afternoon at the Wyckoff Avenue and Myrtle Avenue subway station.

McRae was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on charges including attempted murder in the second degree and attempted assault in the first degree, both felonies.

He was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly pushing an 8-year-old boy to the ground as he fled the scene, causing abrasions to the child’s knee, according to the complaint.

McRae was remanded into custody and his next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 14, court records show. ABC News did not immediately receive a response to an email seeking comment from his attorney.

McRae was arrested days after the New York City Police Department released footage of the incident, while calling on the public’s help to find the suspect.

Police said a man “intentionally without being provoked charged” at the 32-year-old victim, shoving him onto the tracks, before fleeing.

McRae was arrested with help from tips by the public, police said.

The victim sustained injuries in the attack from the fall but was not hit by a train, police said.

He was treated at a local hospital for a broken collarbone and a sprained shoulder, among other injuries, according to the complaint. He has since been released.

“In the blink of an eye, I was pushed with full force into the train tracks,” the victim, David Martin, said in an interview with ABC New York station WABC-TV.

“Mentally I don’t know how to even get through this,” he told the station.

Martin, a native New Yorker who was on his way to work when he was attacked, said he always felt safe taking the train.

“Now at 32 years old, I no longer feel safe and that’s not fair, and that’s not OK,” he told WABC.

On Saturday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said they plan to add more officers at subway stations, among other measures, to address transit crime.

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(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — A 5.1-magnitude earthquake struck near San Jose, California, on Tuesday.

Santa Clara County’s Fire Department said it hasn’t received any calls for service.

Santa Cruz County officials said no schools were damaged and classes have resumed.

Cal OES is actively coordinating with local authorities in the region to evaluate any preliminary damage or issues created as a result of this earthquake and provide any assistance that is needed from the state level. https://t.co/Zq5HKbsNjV

— California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (@Cal_OES) October 25, 2022

Seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones said this was the Bay Area’s largest earthquake since the 6.0-magnitude quake in Napa in 2014.

The Bay Area earthquake was on the Calaveras fault. The largest quake in the Bay Area since the 2014 Napa quake M6.0https://t.co/nbDx242Rmv

— Dr. Lucy Jones (@DrLucyJones) October 25, 2022

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(NEW YORK) — New research from New York University found that public school curriculum is falling short in providing “culturally responsive” education, a blind spot that researchers believe could be failing students across the country.

The study was released just days after the National Assessment of Educational Progress announced that math and reading scores among fourth and eighth grade students across the country are declining.

“Culturally responsive” education infuses the backgrounds, cultures, identities, and lived experiences of the students into the instruction of a classroom. These identities inform a teacher’s communication style, the tools they use in their lessons and more, according to researchers from NYU’s Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools.

For example, educator and curriculum evaluator Sara Carroll-Muniz said in a press conference that when her students were having difficulty understanding allusion in poetry, she instead sought it out in songs they loved.

“We’re leaning on a lot of old, white poetry to try to get this message across and it just wasn’t clicking,” Carroll-Muniz said at the press conference. “Hip-hop is rife with allusion … it’s just such a wonderful source for exploring that.”

Past research from NYU, in the Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, and the Review of Educational Research has shown that this kind of education positively impacts students of all races and backgrounds, increasing students’ grades, engagement and academic success.

NYU researchers looked at three of the nation’s most widely used elementary school English Language Arts curricula used by millions of students.

It found that all three lacked cultural responsiveness — and researchers even declared some to be culturally “destructive,” by using “superficial visual representations to signify diversity,” without “meaningful cultural context, practices or traditions” and provided “one-sided storytelling that provided a single, ahistorical narrative.”

The study also found that the curricula “used language and tone that demeaned and dehumanized Black, Indigenous and characters of color, while encouraging empathy and connection with White characters.”

One example, study author Flor Khan pointed out, was that “Native Americans were described as docile, distressful, and broad and unusual and what this did was alienate and really like problematize and other BIPOC characters.”

It provided little to no guidance for teachers to engage with their student’s backgrounds, prior knowledge, cultures or opportunities for educators to reflect on their own biases or beliefs.

However, curriculum that resembles cultural responsiveness has been under attack. Legislation or policy changes have been introduced in at least 46 states to regulate how racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination are taught in K-12 classrooms.

Supporters of these laws say that some lessons on race and oppression make students feel guilty, uncomfortable or ashamed based on their race, sex or gender.

Critics say these policies censor teachers and students, and distill or erase certain perspectives from history.

In light of recent news about poor academic scores and the ongoing debate about how to teach children about race and gender, researchers argue that culturally responsive education could be the key to re-engaging with students.

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(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — Longtime relic collector Riley Bryant said he had a good hunch that he would find something interesting last weekend under the I-55 bridge in Memphis as the Mississippi River’s water levels reached record lows.

But the 21-year-old student and videographer never expected to see such a treasure trove in plain sight along the rocky shoreline Saturday.

Civil War-era bullets and a union U.S. cartridge box plate were lying around the rocks, just waiting to be picked up, he said.

“To find it there in such good condition just lying there, it almost gave me a heart attack,” Bryant told ABC News.

The location under the bridge used to be home to Fort Pickering, a base that was used for shipping first by the Confederates and later the Union after they took over the facility in 1862, according to historians. The Union army would continue to use the base until the end of the war and it was dismantled in 1866.

The bridge went up in the early part of the 20th century.

Bryant, who has discovered and collected over 75,000 historical artifacts from all over the country, posted videos of his discovery on his TikTok and Instagram pages and it quickly sparked interest from other local history buffs.

Bill Shaner, 63, a Civil War historian and lifelong Memphis resident, told ABC News that Bryant’s discovery was very rare.

“They are in exceptional condition. It’s hard to find a box plate that’s that undamaged,” Shaner told ABC News. “I couldn’t believe it was sticking up in the rocks like that.”

Shaner said other Civil War-era box plates, which were standard issue for troops, are usually discovered underground and not near river banks.

Bryant said the fort and the area near the bridge was frequently used for shipping so it was not uncommon for materials to be washed up and left behind in the water.

“The water levels being at this low level is the reason that no one has found it before,” he said.

The Memphis relic discovery is becoming a more common site around major bodies of water across the world as climate change, and droughts have brought up various rare objects and artifacts including dinosaur footprints in Texas.

The Mississippi River, following weeks of drought, hit a record low in Memphis of -10.71 feet last week, according to the National Weather Service.

Bryant said while he was excited to find the relics he also felt sad because of the state of the river.

“It’s showing how much garbage has been thrown into the river and how polluted the river really is,” he said. “The videos really show how much pollution is going on in the river along with the historical stuff.”

In the meantime, Bryant, who works as a videographer for American Digger Magazine, said he never sells any historical find and instead travels the country to display his collection to anyone interested in history.

“I try to educate people about the history behind the relics,” he said. “I try to do that in a way that has the context of where it’s from.”

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