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(NEW YORK) — A $60,000 reward is being offered in the search for the suspect identified in the fatal ambush shooting of a Texas constable deputy during a traffic stop on Sunday.

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner named 51-year-old Oscar Rosales as the suspect who allegedly gunned down Cpl. Charles Galloway of the Harris County Precinct 5 office.

“We have video evidence of him shooting our constable,” said Finner, who released a photo of Rosales and pleaded for the public to share any information they had about the suspect.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Rosales has been charged with capital murder in Galloways’ death. Ogg described Rosales as “a bold and incredibly dangerous fugitive.”

“Mr. Rosales, you can run but you cannot hide,” said Ogg, adding that the search for the suspect is now nationwide.

Galloway, 47, was shot multiple times while still seated in his patrol car and reportedly had no time to defend himself when the motorist he stopped got out of his car and opened fire without warning, authorities said.

“We will not stop until this individual is apprehended,” Precinct 5 Constable Ted Heap said during Monday’s news conference. “This is a murderer. This is a ruthless, savage execution and somebody like this needs to be removed from the streets quickly.”

The shooting started at about 12:45 a.m. Sunday when Galloway, a training officer, pulled over a newer-model white Toyota Avalon in a residential neighborhood of southwest Houston, according to Finner.

Finner said the suspect immediately got out of the car and began firing at Galloway multiple times with an assault-type rifle, before driving off. He said Galloway did not have an opportunity to defend himself.

Ogg said Rosales’ wife, Reina Marquez, and her brother, Henri Mauricio Pereira-Marquez, have both been arrested on charges of tampering with evidence.

Finner said Reina Marquez and her brother are alleged to have tampered with the Toyota Avalon, which has since been recovered by police.

He said the reward being offered for information leading to the capture and prosecution of Rosales came from donations from Crime Stoppers of Houston, the Fallen Heroes Fund 100 Club and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, who put up $50,000.

The deadly episode came during a string of law enforcement officer deaths in-the-line duty nationwide. On Friday night, a 22-year-old rookie New York City police officer was fatally shot and his partner was critically wounded when they responded to a domestic incident in Harlem.

On Dec. 29, Bradley, Illinois, Police Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic, 49, was fatally shot and her partner was wounded when they responded to a barking dog complaint at a hotel. Two people arrested in the case, including one who allegedly shot Rittmanic with her own gun, were arrested and are facing the death penalty if convicted.

Galloway’s death comes about three months after Harris County Constable Precinct 4 deputy Kareem Atkins, 30, was shot to death in an ambush outside a Houston sports bar that left Atkins’ partner wounded. A 19-year-old suspect was arrested in December and charged with capital murder.

“These are not assaults, these are not attacks, these are brutal, brutal murders. We have to put an end to this,” Heap said. “We cannot have people like this on our streets. I don’t want to raise my family, my grandchildren in a county where this type of crime is running rampant.”

Heap nor Finner would comment on why Galloway, who was assigned to the toll road enforcement division, initiated the traffic stop.

Finner said his departments investigative and homicide units are leading the investigation.

Heap said Galloway is survived by a daughter and a sister. He said Galloway was a 12 1/2-year veteran of Precinct 5 and had voluntarily switched to a night shift position to become a training officer.

“There are a lot of very broken up officers who he (Galloway) meant a lot in their lives because he was the one sitting in the front seat with them,” Heap said. “He was the one who was teaching them what to do and how to get home safely to their families.”

 

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(NEW YORK) — Opening statements got underway Monday in the federal trial of three former Minnesota police officers charged in the death of George Floyd with a prosecutor telling the jury the defendants “made the conscious choice over and over again” not to protect the 46-year-old Black man.

Fired Minneapolis police officers J. Alexander Kueng, 28, Thomas Lane, 38, and Tou Thao, 35, are fighting charges stemming from their alleged roles in the deadly confrontation with Floyd who their one-time senior officer, Derek Chauvin, was convicted of murdering.

The trial, expected to last two to four weeks, is being held at the Warren E. Burger Federal Building in St. Paul.

The trial got underway just after 10 a.m. with U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson swearing in the jury before calling on a federal prosecutor to give the first opening statement.

“In your custody, in your care,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Samantha Trepel told the jury, reading from the Minneapolis Police Department’s policy on how officers should treat people once taken to custody. The prosecutor added that it’s “not just a moral responsibility, it’s what the law requires under the U.S. Constitution.”

Trepel said the defendants were all trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, yet took no action to help save Floyd’s life as he claimed at least 25 times that he could not breathe, was rendered unconscious and lost a pulse.

“Here on May 25, 2020, for second after second, minute after minute, these three CPR-trained defendants stood or knelt next to Officer Chauvin as he slowly killed George Floyd right in front of them,” Trepel said.

She added that the officers each made the “conscious choice over and over again” not to act to protect a man they had in handcuffs and pinned to the pavement.

Trepel noted that in one of the videos of the episode, Tao, who was trying to keep a crowd at bay, was standing next to Chauvin but failed to stop the excessive force, rather telling witnesses, “This is why you don’t do drugs, kids.”

The prosecutor said Keung was kneeling on Floyd’s back the whole time and did nothing to stop Chauvin’s excessive use of force, even two minutes after he could not find Floyd’s pulse and after an ambulance crew arrived and could not detect a heartbeat.

Trepel said that despite being rookie cops, Lane and Keung had been extensively trained for 1 1/2 years, both being taught at the police academy many times to turn a subject onto their side when they are having trouble breathing.

“We will ask you to hold these men accountable for choosing to do nothing and watch a man die,” Trepel told the jury

Attorneys for each of the defendants are expected to follow with their own opening statements to the jury.

Following Trepel’s statement, Kueng’s attorney, Thomas Plunkett, made a motion for a mistrial, arguing that some of what Trepel’s told the jury was more argumentative than a preview of the evidence the prosecutors intend to present over the course of the trial.

Magnuson denied the motion.

Thao’s attorney, Robert Paule, acknowledged in his opening statement that Floyd’s death was a tragedy, but added, “a tragedy is not a crime.”

Paule told the jury that he expects the prosecution to lean heavily on the video evidence in the case, including footage taken by witness Darnella Fraizer, the then 17-year-old, who began recording when the officers already had Floyd handcuffed and prone on the ground. Paule told the jury that the video doesn’t tell the whole story and noted that Floyd was struggling and resisting the officers prior to Fraizer and other witnesses filming the encounter.

Paule told the jury that after hearing the evidence, the only verdict justified will be not guilty on all counts.

Keung’s attorney, Tom Plunkett, said Keung and Lane had only completed five shifts on the job by the time they became involved in Floyd’s fatal arrest and deferred to Chauvin, their field training officer with 19 years of law enforcement experience under his belt.

Plunkett said a field training officer “has great control over a young officer’s future in the Minneapolis Police Department.”

He said Chauvin was clearly in charge of the incident even though Lane should have been because he was the senior officer in the first squad car to arrive at the scene.

Lane’s attorney, Earl Gray, called the government’s case against his client a “perversion of justice.”

Gray said Floyd measured 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds and put the officer in a “scary” scenario when he struggled with them.

“He was all muscle,” Gray said of Floyd.

He said Lane “was totally concerned and did everything he could possibly do to help George Floyd.” He said Lane asked Chauvin and Kueng if they should turn the man on his side to help him breathe, but his suggestions were rejected.

“Not deliberatively indifferent about his health at all,” Gray said of Lane’s reactions during the episode.

Gray told the jury that Lane will testify during the trial.

Attorneys for the Floyd family released a statement earlier saying the trial is “another milestone in the long, slow journey to justice for George Floyd and his family.”

“This trial will be another painful experience for the Floyd family, who must once more relive his grueling death in excruciating detail,” the statement from the family’s attorneys said.

The 18-member jury, including six alternates, was impaneled in just one day, chosen on Thursday from a pool of 256 potential jurors. The jury is comprised of 11 women and seven men, none of whom are Black.

All three defendants are charged with using the “color of the law,” or their positions as police officers, to deprive Floyd of his civil rights by allegedly showing deliberate indifference to his medical needs as Chauvin dug his knee in the back of a handcuffed man’s neck for more than 9 minutes, ultimately killing him.

Kueng and Thao both face an additional charge alleging they knew Chauvin was kneeling on Floyd’s neck but did nothing to intervene to stop him. Lane, who was heard on police body camera footage asking if they should roll Floyd on his side to help ease his breathing, does not face that charge.

Kueng, Lane and Thao have pleaded not guilty.

Opening statements in the trial commenced a little over a month after Chauvin, 45, a former Minneapolis police officer, pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges stemming from Floyd’s death and the abuse of a 14-year-old boy he bashed in the head with a flashlight in 2017. He admitted in the signed plea agreement with federal prosecutors that he knelt on the back of Floyd’s neck even as Floyd complained he could not breathe, fell unconscious and lost a pulse.

The guilty plea came after Chauvin was convicted in Minnesota state court in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison in the state case and is facing an even stiffer sentence in the federal case.

Kueng and Lane were rookies being trained by Chauvin at the time of Floyd’s fatal arrest.

The May 25, 2020, police encounter with Floyd, who was accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes at a convenience store, was recorded on video from start to finish and included multiple angles taken by bystanders with cellphones, police body cameras and surveillance cameras.

The footage showed Chauvin grinding his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds while Kueng helped keep Floyd down even after he stopped resisting by placing his knee on the man’s back and holding and lifting one of his handcuffed hands. Lane, according to the videos, held down Floyd’s feet.

Thao, according to footage, stood a few feet away, ordering a crowd to stand back despite several witnesses, including an off-duty firefighter, expressing concern for Floyd’s well-being.

Following the federal trial, Lane, Keung and Thao are facing a state trial on charges arising from Floyd’s death of aiding and abetting second-degree murder, and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

The three defendants have pleaded not guilty to the state charges.

ABC News’ Janel Klein contributed to this report.

 

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(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 866,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 63.4% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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

Jan 24, 7:45 am
Scale of education lost ‘nearly insurmountable,’ UNICEF warns

More than 635 million students around the world remain affected by full or partial school closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), which described the scale of education lost as “nearly insurmountable.”

“In March, we will mark two years of COVID-19-related disruptions to global education. Quite simply, we are looking at a nearly insurmountable scale of loss to children’s schooling,” Robert Jenkins, UNICEF chief of education, said in a statement Monday. “While the disruptions to learning must end, just reopening schools is not enough. Students need intensive support to recover lost education. Schools must also go beyond places of learning to rebuild children’s mental and physical health, social development and nutrition.”

As Monday marks the International Day of Education, UNICEF warned that many schoolchildren, especially the younger and more marginalized, have lost basic numeracy and literacy skills since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. In low- and middle-income countries, learning losses to school closures have left up to 70% of 10-year-olds unable to read or understand a simple text, up from 53% prior to the pandemic, according to UNICEF.

In Ethiopia, primary school children are estimated to have learned between 30% to 40% of the math they would have acquired if it had been a normal school year, UNICEF said.

In South Africa, schoolchildren are between 75% and a full school year behind where they should be. Some 400,000 to 500,000 students reportedly dropped out of school altogether between March 2020 and July 2021, according to UNICEF.

Across Brazil, one in 10 students aged 10 to 15 reported they are not planning to return to classrooms once schools reopen. In several Brazilian states, around three in four children in second grade are off-track in reading, up from one in two children prior to the pandemic, UNICEF said.

Meanwhile, learning losses have also been observed across the United States. In Texas, for example, two-thirds of children in third grade tested below their grade level in math in 2021, compared to half of children in 2019, according to UNICEF.

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(BALTIMORE) — A man who worked on the front lines of preventing gun violence in Baltimore, Maryland, was shot and killed on Wednesday night in a quadruple shooting on E. Monument Street, in the McElderry Park neighborhood.

Baltimore native DaShawn McGrier, 29, worked as a violence interrupter for Safe Streets and is the third member of the organization to be shot and killed in the last year.

“[DaShawn] was passionate about his community, and was working hard to make that community safer for his family, friends and neighbors,” said Meg Ward, Vice President of Strategic Growth and Community Partnerships at Living Classrooms — a nonprofit that operates two of the 10 Safe Streets sites in the city, including McElderry Park. “He was a son, he was a father, he was a partner. He was a brother, he was a devoted and present father to his child.”

According to Ward, McGrier was having a conversation with the other two victims while working at his post on Monument Street when the shooting occurred.

“Apparently, a tow truck came around the corner and they just shot up the block,” Ward said.

BPD identified the other victims as 28-year-old Tyrone Allen and 24-year-old Hassan Smith. A spokesperson told ABC News Friday that “no arrests have been made at this time.”

“We are dedicating every available resource to finding and apprehending the cowardly perpetrators of this act,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said in a statement Wednesday.

When asked if this was a targeted shooting, police said the investigation is ongoing.

There have been more than 300 homicides in Baltimore each year for the past five years, with 338 in 2021 and 335 in 2020, BPD data shows.

Community members and Safe Streets workers gathered on E. Monument Street Saturday afternoon to honor McGrier and other victims of gun violence.

“What choices are we going to make? This is our community,” said Safe Streets violence interrupter Alex Long in a passionate speech at the event. “These shootings gotta stop.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott also attended the event and said that the city is “determined to honor DaShawn’s legacy in the best way we can — by expanding community violence interventions across the city.”

“[Safe Streets Baltimore] is not just an organization, but a calling. DaShawn believed that we could build a better Baltimore. Let’s show him that we can,” Scott tweeted, along with photos of the event.

Ward said Safe Streets organizes shooting response events to “denormalize” gun violence — especially in neighborhoods where shootings are common — by creating an opportunity for the community to come together to honor the victims and send the message that, “This is not OK.” And on Saturday, they honored one of their own.

Violence interrupters also connect individuals with resources such as job placement opportunities and financial support.

Ward said that McGrier had been working as a violence interrupter for a little over a month, but had been a part of the Safe Streets community for a long time. He was a “hard worker,” she said, who was a welding student at the North American Trade School during the day and worked at the Safe Streets McElderry Park site at night to help mediate conflicts that could lead to shootings.

“The work that is being done to stop this from happening is really, really important. And it makes it that much more important when you lose one of your own,” she said.

McGrier’s killing came as the Safe Streets community continues to mourn the deaths of two beloved longtime members who were killed over the past year and who had dedicated their lives to reducing gun violence.

Dante Barksdale, a Safe Streets outreach coordinator, and Kenyell “Benny” Wilson, a Safe Streets violence interrupter, were shot and killed in separate incidents in January and July. Two days before McGrier was killed, the community gathered to honor Barklesdale on the anniversary of his death.

“We were devastated, it was very traumatizing. It’s very difficult to say their names or to think of them, and to not feel that consistent void in our hearts, because they were definitely individuals who impacted the community in such an incredible way,” Rashad Singletary, the associate director of gun violence prevention at MONSE told ABC News last year. “And for them to lose their lives to the same thing that we tried to save thousands of lives from, it was very, very disheartening and tragic.”

How violence interrupter programs work

Safe Streets was launched in Baltimore in 2007 in the McElderry Park neighborhood. It is one of several violence prevention programs in the country that is based on a model that started in Chicago in the mid 1990s.

Violence interrupters also connect high risk individuals with resources that the organization offers, including job placement and financial support that could help alleviate some of the suffering — conditions that lead some to resort to violence.

What the data shows

Recent studies have shown that Safe Streets programs have been effective at reducing gun violence in various neighborhoods.

A 2012 study published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that Safe Streets workers were successful at reducing gun violence in three of four neighborhoods where the initial sites were established, Director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins University Daniel Webster previously told ABC News.

Safe Streets workers mediated more than 2,300 conflicts in 2020, according to MONSE, and after gaining more funding from the city, the organization opened its tenth site in 2021.

“Safe Streets workers mediate the very types of conflicts we saw tonight,” Harrison said in a statement Wednesday. “All the Safe Streets workers are to be applauded for their work in reducing gun violence and promoting a message of redemption and peace to the many young people of our city.”

MONSE Director Shantay Jackson said that the mayor’s office will be providing support to the family of the victims and the staff, including grief counseling.

“This is a reminder of the courageous, yet dangerous job our frontline staff does each day when working with those at the highest risk of being a shooter or the victim of a shooting,” she said in a statement.

Ward said that the “tremendous loss” highlights the need for violence-prevention work in Baltimore.

“People are heartbroken,” she said, “and at the same time, [the] feeling or sense is this is the reason to double down.”

ABC News’ Abby Cruz and Kendall Ross contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — New York City dog owners are being warned after several pets may have been sickened by leptospirosis, a disease commonly associated with rats.

A city council member said this week his office had received “reports of multiple dog fatalities” in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg.

“The reports to our office indicate that dogs played at McCarren [Park] Dog Run before becoming sick,” council member Lincoln Restler said in a social media post Wednesday, which advised dog owners about the potentially deadly bacterial disease that is spread through the urine of infected animals.

In an update Friday, Restler said his office had received a report about potential cases of leptospirosis “allegedly causing the death of four dogs” that had been to the park’s dog run.

The city’s health department told ABC News Saturday it has not confirmed reports of canine leptospirosis related to McCarren Park, but it is working with the city’s parks department to inspect rat activity there.

“Dog owners who are concerned should consult their veterinarian about vaccination and seek vet care early if their dog is ill,” the health department said in a statement. “We urge veterinarians who receive positive results of leptospirosis to report it to the Health Department as required by the NYC Health Code.”

The parks department also said an “outbreak” of reported cases has been unconfirmed.

“We like our four-legged friends happy and healthy, and are sad to learn that some pups may have recently been impacted by leptospirosis,” the parks department said in a statement to ABC News. “We are actively engaged with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and exploring options to mitigate any related risks.”

On Friday, workers replaced trash cans with rat-resistant ones in the area and an exterminator conducted an inspection. Starting Monday, the park will also “work to refresh this area” including replacing wood chips.

An exterminator last treated the area for rats three weeks ago, the parks department said.

“We understand the cause for concern and urge dog owners to be vigilant and cautious when walking their pets,” it added.

Restler said the concerns highlight the need to address “the rat infestation and underlying conditions to make sure dogs & our whole community are safe.”

Dakarrie Garcia, a local dog trainer, told ABC New York station WABC he was concerned about conditions at the park.

“It’s disgusting. If you look around the park, there’s rat holes everywhere around the dog park,” Garcia said.

NYC Parks said it received two complaints regarding rodents in McCarren Park in the past year.

The health department said it investigates about 15 cases of canine leptospirosis each year and that “clusters” of the disease are “very rare.”

Symptoms of leptospirosis may include fever, chills, vomiting, muscle aches or diarrhea and usually appear one to two weeks after exposure. In some cases the disease may cause kidney or liver failure.

“Owners should not let their pets drink from puddles or other sources of water that may be contaminated with rat urine,” the health department said.

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(NEW YORK) — The southeastern United States is weathering snow and ice yet again a week after the region was slammed with hazardous winter conditions.

Two to 4.5 inches of snow have been reported from South Carolina to east Virginia, as winter weather alerts were in effect Saturday morning from Georgia to Maryland as the storm moved out of the region.

Cold temperatures throughout the weekend will continue to make for hazardous road conditions.

In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper urged people to stay at home due to dangerous road conditions and widespread power outages. The governor had issued a state of emergency ahead of the winter storm.

North Carolina Highway Patrol troopers had responded to more than 1,500 calls for service and 945 collisions in affected areas since Friday afternoon, the governor’s office said midday Saturday. Most were related to cars sliding off the roadway and becoming stuck or single-car collisions, the office said.

 

The best way to stay safe is to stay home unless you absolutely must travel. Nearly 16k power outages were reported around 4 a.m., mostly in coastal counties. Utility crews are working to quickly restore power – as of 10 a.m. about 4k outages remained.https://t.co/Pqeub3OqLr pic.twitter.com/zqUiNdPw5y

— Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) January 22, 2022

 

“With limited improvement and lows plummeting into the teens Saturday night, black ice will become a large hazard for the eastern half of the state,” North Carolina Emergency Management said. “Additional melting is expected Sunday, but below normal temperatures [will] keep the potential for black ice into early next week.”

Runways were also impacted by sleet and snow. At Raleigh-Durham International Airport, a Delta flight arriving from Washington, D.C., Friday night was taxiing off the runway when it slid into mud around 9 p.m. local time, airport officials said. There were no reported injuries, and the airfield reopened shortly following snow removal at an alternate runway.

Nearly 16,000 power outages were initially reported early Saturday in North Carolina, mostly in coastal counties, Cooper said, as utility crews were working to restore power. As of 10 a.m. some 4,000 outages remained, the governor said.

Authorities in South Carolina and Virginia also urged drivers to avoid impacted areas due to snow and ice conditions.

ABC News’ Melissa Griffin contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A rookie New York City officer is dead and another officer was in critical condition after they were shot responding to a domestic violence call in Harlem Friday night, police said.

Three officers responded to the scene of the call, West 135 Street, around 6:30 p.m., where a mother and her adult son, Lashawn McNeil, were fighting in a first-floor apartment, according to police.

The mother met police in the front of the apartment and when they went to a rear room to talk to McNeil, shots suddenly rang out, police said.

Officer Jason Rivera, 22, a rookie entered a hallway and was struck first, police officials with knowledge of the investigation told ABC News. Rivera, who was married, died from his injuries.

His partner, Officer Wilbert Mora, 27, tried to duck into the kitchen during the shooting, but was struck. Mora was listed in critical condition as of Saturday morning.

The third officer, a rookie who stayed with the mother in the front of the apartment, fired on McNeil, who was struck in the neck and shoulder, according to police sources.

The suspect was listed in critical condition as of Saturday morning.

A police body camera captured some of the shooting, police sources said.

“I am struggling to find the word to express the tragedy we are enduring,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a press conference Friday night. “We are mourning and we are angry. … Our department is hurting, our city is hurting. it is beyond comprehension.”

McNeil is believed to have had behavioral problems and posted anti-government and anti-police material on social media, according to police sources.

The suspect has five previous arrests, including one in New York City for felony narcotics possession in 2003. He was currently on probation for that arrest, police said.

Outside the city, McNeil was arrested for unlawful possession of a weapon in 1998, assaulting a police officer in 2002 and two other drug arrests in subsequent years.

He was staying with his mother to help her take care of her other son who has special needs, possibly a learning disability, the sources said.

When McNeil came up from Maryland in November, his mother ordered him not to bring guns into the house, because of his history with firearms, according to the source. She later told police she didn’t know he had the weapon, the sources said.

The mother called police Friday night asking for help with McNeil, saying that, “We’ve been having problems,” according to sources. Officers believed they were responding to a verbal domestic dispute since no weapons were mentioned, sources said.

The Glock. 45 used in the incident was reported stolen in Baltimore in 2017, police said. A licensed security guard said it was taken by her 13-year-old son, who sold it for money, according to investigators.

The teen was later arrested for the theft, but the gun was never recovered, police said.

Mayor Eric Adams called on the federal government to do more to stop the proliferation of guns in the city.

“We don’t make guns here,” Adams said Friday night. “How are we removing thousands of guns off the street and they are still finding their way into New York City?”

This has been a particularly violent week for the New York Police Department. Four NYPD officers have been shot in three incidents this week. The officers in the other shootings, which took place in the Bronx and Staten Island, did not suffer life-threatening injuries.

“It is our city against the killers,” Adams said. “This was not just an attack on three brave officers, this was an attack on the city of New York. it is an attack on the children and families of New York. We are not going to win this battle by dividing lives. We must save this city together.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland also spoke to Sewell Friday night and offered assistance from the Department of Justice or FBI if needed, according to DOJ spokesperson Anthony Coley.

“I am horrified by tonight’s tragedy in Harlem,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “My thoughts are with the family who answered the phone to receive the news they’ve always dreaded: that their loved one, who had sworn to protect and serve New Yorkers by joining @NYPDnews will not be coming home.”

President Joe Biden tweeted condolences to the NYPD officers and their families Saturday afternoon.

“We’re keeping them and their families in our prayers. Officers put on the badge and head into harm’s way every day. We’re grateful to them and their families for their extraordinary sacrifice,” he tweeted.

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(NEW YORK) — Rebeca Andrade had been waiting days for a shipment of COVID-19 rapid tests to help keep her school open. The superintendent of a school in Salinas, California, Andrade said she wanted to be testing kids once a week to slow the spread of the omicron variant and protect the community.

But even as rapid testing to keep schools open was being pushed at the highest levels of government, Andrade was coming up short.

That’s because 350 miles away, some 17 million tests — including some earmarked by the California Department of Public Health for schools like Andrade’s, plus nursing homes, homeless shelters and childcare centers — sat backlogged on giant pallets for days.

Like so many other vital goods, precious at-home rapid tests have been caught in the supply-chain snare, caused by a combination of workers calling out sick with omicron and bottlenecked warehouses that are already operating over capacity to handle the massive demand for tests.

The impacted tests are some of the test kits produced by iHealth, which are manufactured in China and have been purchased by at least 15 states.

“The delays that we’ve experienced during this time, I know that sometimes it’s out of our control, but this is something that I would say is really critical and a priority for us to continue to offer in-person learning for each and every one of our students,” Andrade told ABC News.

As of Thursday, the distribution company that handles the iHealth shipments from China, XChange Logistics, had worked through the millions of backlogged tests, only to face delays on three of iHealth’s charter planes carrying roughly 25 million tests, the company told ABC News.

At the same time, the distribution company said it’s still sending out 20 truckloads of tests per day from its Los Angeles warehouse, which is the biggest distributor of iHealth tests.

For iHealth, which received authorization for its at-home rapid tests from the Food and Drug Administration in December and can manufacture up to 200 million tests per month, producing the tests has turned out to be the easy part.

Getting them to customers is the challenge.

“I hope that one day the American people can get the test the same day,” said iHealth COO Jack Feng, referring to the timeline of shipment from China and delivery in the U.S.

XChange Logistics said their warehouses were struggling at 200-300% over capacity last week.

And the stress of moving so many goods has been compounded by workers testing positive for COVID-19 — which usually means that an additional 8-10 workers have to quarantine due to exposure, said Frank Filimaua, the company’s general manager.

Over the past month, up to 30% of XChange Logistics’ workforce has been out with COVID-19, Filimaua said.

“That certainly is impacting the lack of manpower and the shortage of the ground-handling agents,” he said.

Under normal circumstances, without worker shortages and such a high-demand product, it would take 24-48 hours to get the tests from the planes onto trucks and on their way to customers.

But it was instead taking an average of five days, said Filimaua.

He estimated that it would take the company two more weeks to get back up to speed.

The supply chain backlog is the “biggest key factor as to why there’s challenges in getting these kits to schools, to medical offices, hospitals, and to consumers,” he said.

“Everybody has just been highlighting and showcasing the congestion at the ports and the container congestion,” said Filimaua. “Nobody’s really focusing on what’s happening at the international airports. It’s the same effect, but I would even say to a higher degree of challenges and impact to the supply chain and to the consumers.”

After ABC News reached out this week to the White House about the millions of backlogged tests, iHealth said the Biden administration had stepped up its efforts to help the company, which has now also contracted with the government to supply 250 million tests to Biden’s efforts to give out 1 billion free tests to the public, Feng said.

Agencies like Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense have begun to help iHealth get its tests through customs faster using priority labels, and will help charter flights full of the tests from China beginning in the first week of February, Feng said.

“They are helping us a lot,” said Feng.

Feng also said some states have also mobilized resources by sending ground teams to the warehouses to help move tests.

A Biden administration official told ABC News that the White House “continues to actively engage with manufacturers and distributors to help them expedite their timelines and help get tests to the American people.”

The official said the government was coordinating chartered aircraft for the 250 million iHealth rapid tests it had contracted for Biden’s plan, and was also working on “breaking through bottlenecks” at Los Angeles International Airport, where most shipments from China arrive, by working with the airport and with Customs and Border Protection to get each shipment “trucked out of the airport as soon as it lands.”

The official also noted that the Biden administration had increased the monthly supply of overall at-home rapid tests in the U.S. four times over from fall through December.

Experts note that the supply chain issues facing iHealth are not unique to that testing company.

Some of the issues stem from “general supply challenges,” said Mara Aspinall, head of the National Testing Action Program at the Rockefeller Foundation, which connects testing companies with state governments.

“But increasingly we’re hearing that — like all other essential businesses — manufacturers, shipping companies and others have so many people out with COVID that they can’t fully take advantage of the technological capacity, and therefore supplies are being slowed,” she said.

While iHealth is one of the most prolific producers of rapid tests for the U.S., other companies are also critical to meeting the enormous demand. ABC News reached out to several other large suppliers of rapid tests, including Roche, Siemens, Abbott and Ellume, and those that responded said they were doing everything possible to meet demand, including opening new production lines to scale up production by tens of millions of tests per month.

“There are currently tens of millions of tests in various settings and supply chains,” said Abbott spokesperson John Koval. “We build BinaxNOW in the U.S. because it hedges against unpredictable supply chains and is what enables us to produce at massive and reliable scale, which is what we’re doing.” As a result, Koval said, the company is aiming to be able to produce 100 million tests per month.

With more and more rapid testing products on the market, there’s also more competition for distributors. That’s been a particular challenge for iHealth, a new company that didn’t have the connections of bigger pharmaceutical companies that had been around for years.

“I think it’s hard to guarantee a consistent freight supplier for so many of these companies, because there’s not a program where when you receive an EUA [emergency use authorization from the FDA], you receive immediate distribution assistance,” said Andrew Sweet, managing director of COVID-19 Response and Recovery at the Rockefeller Foundation.

“That’s in part why we’re at where we’re at,” said Sweet. “It is really dependent on the individual manufacturer to have those relationships in order to get their product to market as quickly as possible.” As a result, said Sweet, the companies that have existing relationships can “hustle.”

“They’re more successful than others,” he said.

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(NEW YORK) — The FBI said on Friday that it’s treating the recent hostage situation at a Texas synagogue as a terrorist act and hate crime.

An international federal investigation is ongoing after a rabbi and three members of his Dallas-Fort Worth-area congregation were taken hostage Saturday by an allegedly armed man who authorities said was demanding the release of a convicted terrorist.

The incident “underscores the continued threat violent extremists pose to religious institutions, particularly Jewish institutions and other Jewish targets,” Matthew DeSarno, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office, said during a press briefing.

“The FBI is and has been treating Saturday’s events as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community,” DeSarno continued. “It was committed by a terrorist exposing an antisemitic worldview.”

The suspect “repeatedly demanded the United States release a convicted al-Qaida terrorist in exchange for the safe return of the hostages,” which met the definition of terrorism under federal law, said DeSarno, adding that forcibly holding hostage the victims as they exercised their right to worship was a federal hate crime.

“We recognize that the Jewish community in particular has suffered violence and faces very real threats from across the hate spectrum, from domestic violent extremists to foreign terrorist organizations. And because of that, the FBI considers the enduring threats to the community to be among our very highest priorities,” DeSarno said.

The suspect, who died in the incident when an FBI hostage rescue team breached the synagogue, was identified by authorities as Malik Faisal Akram, 44, a British citizen.

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker was leading Shabbat services at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville on Saturday morning when, according to law enforcement officials, Akram interrupted the service and allegedly claimed he’d planted bombs in the synagogue.

Authorities believe the location was intentionally targeted because it was the closest synagogue to Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth, where the convicted terrorist is being held.

DeSarno did not identify the prisoner by name, though multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News the armed suspect was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted of assault and attempted murder of a U.S. soldier in 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison.

DeSarno said the suspect was aware that foreign terrorist organizations previously had tried to negotiate the release of the prisoner by exchanging American hostages. DeSarno said he doesn’t know of any personal connection between the suspect and the convicted terrorist.

In the days since the incident, law enforcement officials have received a “high volume of leads” and have interviewed all those they believe Akram had interacted with since arriving in the U.S. on Dec. 29, according to DeSarno, who did not elaborate if any were considered accomplices. Authorities have not detained anyone locally in connection with the incident.

Investigators have been digging into the suspect’s social media and personal devices to try and find out more about his travel and associates, as well as determine how he allegedly acquired a firearm, DeSarno said. No explosives were recovered at the scene.

The FBI is also working with international partners, including the U.K., as part of the investigation. Two men were arrested in England on Thursday morning as part of the investigation, British authorities said.

The 10-hour standoff ended with all four hostages safely escaping as the situation had gone from “bad to significantly worse,” said DeSarno.

“The professionalism and expertise in the negotiation team combined with the composure and judgment of the hostages set the conditions for a successful resolution,” he said.

Cytron-Walker said he had the cellphone number of Colleyville Police Department Chief Michael Miller and was able to text and communicate with him about the hostage situation as it unfolded.

“We were constantly looking for an opportunity to leave, and it was very, very hard to find an opportunity where we all could leave,” Cytron-Walker told reporters Friday.

Hostage negotiators successfully negotiated the release of one of the hostages. As three remained, Cytron-Walker said he threw a chair at the hostage-taker so they could make their escape.

“I stand up here before you with great gratitude just to be alive,” Cytron-Walker said. “With gratitude to God, with gratitude for all of those individual human efforts that allow us to be here today, I’m just overflowing with gratitude.”

Cytron-Walker invited all those interested to pray with the congregation Friday night and Saturday morning through its Facebook Live program as the community tries to find a “sense of peace” after the harrowing incident.

“We all desperately, desperately need that sense of peace,” he said. “And I would extend that not only to the Jewish community but extend that to all communities.”

ABC News’ Matthew Fuhrman contributed to this report.

 

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(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles community members gathered for a vigil outside the furniture store where a 24-year-old employee was killed in the middle of the afternoon.

Brianna Kupfer was attacked with a knife while she worked alone at the store on Jan. 13. Kupfer had texted a friend that afternoon saying someone in the store was giving her a “bad vibe,” Los Angeles Police Department Lt. John Radke said at a Tuesday news conference.

Community members brought flowers, candles and posters to a Thursday vigil for the slain 24-year-old, who, when not working at the Croft House furniture store, was taking design courses through UCLA Extension, a continuing education program.

“I’m the parent of a girl two years younger than her. It’s shocking to me that this happened here or anywhere in our city,” resident Sherry Gonzalez told Los Angeles ABC station KABC.

The suspect, 31-year-old Shawn Laval Smith, was apprehended in Pasadena on Wednesday. Police said the crime appeared to be random.

Smith was charged Friday afternoon with murder.

“Those who show no compassion for human life will face serious consequences,” LA District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement. “The murder of Brianna Kupfer has left Los Angeles County devastated and my office is reaching out to her family to provide any services they may need.”

 

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