(MIAMI) — The Miami-Dade County School board voted against recognizing October as LGBTQ history month in a 1-8 vote, as the effects of the Parental Rights in Education law continue to trickle down.
H-11, a resolution for Miami-Dade schools to formally recognize LGBTQ history month, stated that the month “has been established to remind all cultures within our wider community of the important roles that LGBTQ people have taken in shaping the social, historical, legal, and political worlds we live in today.” It was voted down on Wednesday.
This year, it included providing resources for 12th grade teachers to teach about major Supreme Court cases on same-sex marriage and anti-discrimination protections such as Obergefell v. Hodges and Bostock v. Clayton County.
In 2021, Miami school board members voted overwhelmingly to recognize the month — 7-1. Just one year later, the board took a different route. Board members expressed confusion over whether the initiative would break the classroom restrictions set by the Parental Rights in Education law.
The law, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by LGBTQ activists, bans classroom instruction on “sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through grade 3 or “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
It went into effect in July.
Critics say that the law will silence LGBTQ people, as well as ignore the history of LGBTQ people in the U.S. Supporters say the law gives more power to the parents.
The meeting took a rowdy turn during the public comment portion of the night, with more than 100 people speaking that night, according to School Board vice chair Steve Gallon III. Debate over H-11 lasted more than five hours.
Andrea S. Pita Mendez, the 17-year-old school board’s student advisor, said after weeks of speaking to students, to teachers and others, she hoped the board would pass the initiative.
“Our students want this to pass,” said Mendez, who is not a voting member of the board. In an impassioned speech that stoked both applause and upset, Mendez told the board that LGBTQ history plays an important role in U.S. history.
“I heard many of you speak of the fact that in your generations this wasn’t seen, this wasn’t heard – you grew up in a very different time than we are,” she said.
Though the country is highly polarized, she said it “does not take away from the fact that we are the ones that sit in those classrooms, that we embrace diversity and inclusivity because we do love each other and we do support each other and we do want to see each other go very far in the world.”
Christi Fraga, who represents District 5, voted against the recognition both years, saying that H-11 creates a “hostile” environment.
“If we are going to allow the teachers to decide what will be taught in classrooms during this time, that concerns me,” Fraga said.
(NEW YORK) — In August 2020, hundreds of thousands of Californians briefly lost power in rolling blackouts amid a heat wave, marking the first time outages were ordered in the state due to insufficient energy supplies in nearly 20 years.
The state has been working to avoid a similar scenario as California is in the midst of an unprecedented heat wave that officials said is on track to be the state’s hottest and longest for September.
For more than a week, the California Independent System Operator (ISO) — which oversees the electrical grid serving 80% of the state — has been calling on residents to conserve their energy use in the later afternoon and evening amid extreme temperatures that have sent electric demand on the grid to record levels.
Thanks to those efforts, the company has so far avoided having to order an outage to reduce demand and stabilize the system even in the face of record demand. The power grid saw a record demand of 52,061 MW on Tuesday, as the ISO warned that power outages were imminently possible “as electricity supplies run low in the face of record heat and demand.” Prior to this current heat wave, the previous record was 50,270 MW in 2006.
California ISO power grid peak demand hit 52,061 MW, a new all-time record. Still holding in EEA3 – no load shed. Conservation is making a difference. https://t.co/9gv5TqmPuQ
Had reserve supplies been exhausted, the ISO would have ordered utilities to begin rolling power outages to bring demand within available supplies and avoid cascading blackouts.
“Outages are a significant inconvenience to those affected, but it’s preferable to manage emergencies in a controlled manner rather than let it cause a wider spread, longer lasting disruption,” the ISO said in a statement.
Factors impacting the grid
Several factors impact the capacity and function of the power grid.
Increased demand and extreme heat: The power grid is being strained amid what California officials have called an unprecedented prolonged heat wave.
“California and many other western states are experiencing simply unprecedented temperatures,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said this week. “These triple-digit temperatures throughout much of our state are leading, not surprisingly, to record demand on the energy grid.”
— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) September 7, 2022
Heat waves drive up demand due to increased air-conditioning use.
“Typical summer peak load in CAISO is 30 GW, but super-hot day can be nearly 50 GW. That 60%+ increase is virtually all air-conditioning,” Severin Borenstein, a renewable energy expert at the University of California, Berkeley, and an ISO board member, said on Twitter.
Californians have been urged to raise their thermostats in the afternoon and evening hours, when demand on the grid is greatest, among other actions to reduce their energy use at night.
California buys electricity from other states to boost its supply, but during a widespread heat wave, there’s less energy for other states to sell. Rising temperatures due to climate change are expected to drive up air-conditioning demand across the country, according to Climate Central.
Renewable energy supply: The state’s grid is powered, in part, by renewable energy, including solar power and hydropower.
The solar supply decreases toward the end of the day, prompting the calls to reduce energy use after 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. There can also be uncertainty with solar supply due to factors such as cloud cover and smoke from wildfires, as the state battles several blazes.
“We’ve seen situations where smoke and cloud cover can have an effect. If it’s over a populated area, it could have more effect of reducing demand, where if the smoke and cloud cover is over the solar fields, it can have an effect on the availability of supply,” Mark Rothleder, the ISO’s senior vice president and chief operating officer, told reporters during a press briefing Thursday.
Prolonged drought and wildfires, which are becoming more prevalent and severe due to climate change, can also cut into power supplies. The U.S. Energy Information Administration had forecast that California could lose half its normal hydroelectric generation this summer due to drought. Wildfires can also trip off transmission lines, limiting the flow of electricity.
The current heat wave “is just the latest reminder of how real the climate crisis is, and how it is impacting the everyday lives of Californians,” Newsom said in a statement. “While we are taking steps to get us through the immediate crisis, this reinforces the need for urgent action to end our dependence on fossil fuels that are destroying our climate and making these heat waves hotter and more common.”
Breakdowns and human error: The state also uses natural gas to power its grid.
Multiple generators also have been “forced out of service due to the extreme heat, making energy supplies tighter,” the ISO said.
Human error may also play a part in power supplies. Though the ISO has not issued them, several Northern California cities did see rolling blackouts this week due to a “communication breakdown” between the grid operator and local power authority, The Sacramento Bee reported.
“I think every time you go through a period where you’re where your grid and both your human and physical infrastructure gets stretched right to the edge, you can look back and learn from that,” Eliot Mainzer, president and chief executive officer of the ISO, told reporters Thursday.
Mainzer said the latest heat wave has shown the importance of procuring new clean energy resources, ensuring backup generation and having a sophisticated alert system that can help cut down on energy use in real-time.
“We’re seeing really the onset of what [is] now a new normal of heat and volatility and uncertainty in the system,” he said.
(CINCINNATI) — A convicted sex offender has been arrested after authorities received over two dozen tips from the public identifying him as a man who was peering into people’s homes.
The alleged peeping Tom — identified as 36-year-old Kevin Michael Ayers of Hamilton, Ohio — was caught looking into the windows of people’s homes in Liberty Township, a suburb of Cincinnati located approximately 28 miles north of the city.
“Detectives received over 25 tips from the public identifying Mr. Ayers, along with information from other law enforcement agencies that are familiar with him due to similar incidents, read a statement from the Butler County Sheriff’s Office that was posted on social media.
Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones posted a tweet on Sept. 6 of surveillance footage of the alleged prowler peering into somebody’s home on Aug. 22 at approximately 1:23 a.m.
Jones also reported that the suspect was filmed doing the same thing again on Sept. 5 at 10:50 p.m. Jones did not say whether the suspect was caught on the same camera in each of these instances.
But on Sept. 8, the Butler County Sheriff’s Office announced that the suspect was arrested and charged on one count of criminal trespass, which is a misdemeanor in the fourth degree in the state of Ohio.
Ayers is a registered sex offender who has previous convictions for voyeurism, authorities say.
“Thanks to the help of the public, we were able to identify the suspect quickly. This could have escalated into something much more severe”, said Sheriff Richard K. Jones following Ayers’ arrest.
(LANSING, Mich.) — Michigan voters will decide in November whether to codify abortion rights in the state’s constitution after the Michigan Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of adding a proposed amendment to the ballot.
The initiative, if passed, would amend Michigan’s constitution to establish “a fundamental individual right to reproductive freedom” that includes abortion access, contraception, miscarriage management and more.
The amendment would also allow allow the state to regulate abortion after fetal viability “provided that in no circumstance shall the state prohibit an abortion that, in the professional judgement of an attending health care professional, is medically indicated to protect the life of physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”
The court’s ruling comes one day before the deadline for completing the ballot for this fall’s elections — and just a day after a Michigan Court of Claims judge ruled that the state’s 1931 abortion ban violates the state constitution.
The Michigan Board of State Canvassers had earlier deadlocked on whether the ballot initiative should move forward, leading to the appeal before the state’s high court.
The two Republicans on the state board cited formatting and spacing issues in the initiative’s text as reasons not to approve the proposal.
Five of the seven justices on the Michigan Supreme Court criticized that reasoning in their 23-page ruling on Thursday.
“Seven hundred fifty three thousand and seven hundred fifty nine Michiganders signed this proposal—more than have ever signed any proposal in Michigan’s history,” wrote Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack, a Democratic-nominated judge. “The challengers have not produced a single signer who claims to have been confused by the limited-spacing sections in the full text portion of the proposal.”
“They would disenfranchise millions of Michiganders not because they believe the many thousands of Michiganders who signed the proposal were confused by it, but because they think they have identified a technicality that allows them to do so, a game of gotcha gone very bad,” McCormack continued. “What a sad marker of the times.”
Reproductive Freedom for All, the group behind the ballot initiative, said Thursday that they were “glad that the Court affirmed the will of the people.”
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Brian Zahra, a Republican nominee, said he had “doubts that the form and content of the petition comply with Michigan law.”
Abortion rights has become a major issue in the lead up to the midterm elections after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling legalizing abortion nationwide for the past 50 years.
Democrats celebrated a win on the issue during the primary elections in Kansas, when voters in the traditionally conservative state overwhelmingly rejected a measure to remove the right to abortion from the state constitution.
Four other states — California, Kentucky, Montana and Vermont — will have abortion-related initiatives on the ballot before voters in November.
(LAS VEGAS) — A Nevada county official has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the death of a Las Vegas investigative journalist, according to authorities.
Robert Telles, 45, was arrested Wednesday night following a SWAT operation at his home, officials said, after DNA evidence was found in his home that linked him to the crime scene.
Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German was found stabbed to death outside his home on Sept. 3, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Telles, who served as the Clark County public administrator, blamed German for ruining his career in politics and his marriage, prosecutors said Thursday.
Telles made his first court appearance on Thursday, where a judge granted the prosecution’s request that he be held without bail.
The judge ordered Telles, who did not speak during his court appearance, detained after noting the steps Telles allegedly took to cover up his crimes, including casing the neighborhood for over an hour, leaving his cellphone at home and dressing in disguise.
Telles was booked into Clark County Jail on a murder charge, according to inmate records. He did not enter a please on Thursday.
Police said the day before German’s murder, Telles was seen approaching German’s home, where he allegedly had an altercation with him.
Telles, police said, then left his phone at home before heading to German’s home last Saturday. Dressed in disguise, which police described him as wearing a straw hat and reflective vest, Telles allegedly stabbed the reporter seven times.
On the second day of the investigation, police got video of the suspect’s maroon GMC vehicle, which police said was the break in the case.
Police focused on Telles because of his anger over stories written by German, officials said at a press conference Thursday. Then they found a vehicle outside Telles’ home that matched the suspect’s vehicle.
In the search warrant execution at Telles’ home, they found a pair of shoes that matched the suspect’s shoes, police said. There was blood on the shoes, which police said were cut up to destroy evidence. They said they also found the straw hat cut up to allegedly destroy evidence.
Police got positive DNA results from Telles from the murder scene and they moved in to make the arrest on Wednesday. Prosecutors said that Telles’ DNA was found on German’s hands and fingernails.
Telles was taken into custody with non-life-threatening, self-inflicted stab wounds, police said.
Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said this has been an “unusual” case, and that “the killing of a journalist is particularly troublesome.”
“It is troublesome because it is a journalist. And we expect journalism to be open and transparent and the watchdog for government,” Lombardo said Thursday. “And when people take it upon themselves to create harm associated with that profession, I think it’s very important we put all eyes on and address the case appropriately such as we did in this case.”
Telles’ next hearing is set for Tuesday.
ABC News’ Connor Burton, Melissa Gaffney, Teddy Grant and Alex Presha contributed to this report.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Two victims have been air-lifted to San Antonio Memorial Hospital following a shooting Thursday in Uvalde, Texas, police said.
The Uvalde Police Department said it responded to a shooting “with injured victims” at Uvalde Memorial Park around 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
This was a suspected gang-related shooting, the Texas Department of Public Safety said, adding that it was working with the police department and sheriff’s office.
“This information is preliminary, as the situation develops we will work with local law enforcement to provide updates,” DPS said.
San Antonio ABC affiliate KSAT reported that police said two juveniles have been hospitalized following the shooting, and authorities are looking for a juvenile suspect.
Authorities said it’s “not a dangerous situation for the general public,” KSAT reported.
Uvalde police advised residents to avoid the area.
More than three months ago, on May 24, 19 students and two teachers were killed in a shooting massacre at Robb Elementary School. Just this week, on Tuesday, students returned to the classroom for the school year.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Kate Holland and Matthew Fuhrman contributed to this report.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — A young man who went on an hourslong shooting rampage around Memphis, Tennessee, gunning down at least four people, was arrested on Wednesday night, police said.
Ezekiel Dejuan Kelly, 19, was taken into custody without incident in the Memphis neighborhood of Whitehaven at around 9 p.m. local time after a high-speed chase, according to Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis.
The deadly rampage began early Wednesday at 12:56 a.m. and continued to about 8:30 p.m. In total, at least four people were killed and three others were wounded in seven shootings across the city, Davis said.
After the shootings, the suspect carjacked a driver at gunpoint Southaven, Mississippi, just south of Memphis, speeding off in the victim’s Dodge Challenger and leaving behind an SUV stolen from a woman he had shot to death earlier that night, according to the police chief. The carjacking victim was uninjured, Davis said.
“The homicide division and other investigative units are actively working these crime scenes now, and numerous felony charges are pending,” Davis told reporters at a press conference early Thursday.
“It’s at least eight [crime scenes],” he added. ” We are still in the throes of the investigation. There could potentially be other locations. There could potentially be other damage in other places.”
Court records obtained by Memphis ABC affiliate WATN-TV indicate that an arrest warrant on the charge of first-degree murder was issued for Kelly on Wednesday, before the shooting spree happened.
The police chief said Kelly recorded at least some of his actions on Facebook Live, including when he opened fire inside a store on Jackson Avenue just before 6 p.m. A spokesperson for Facebook’s parent company, Meta, told ABC News that the content was identified and removed prior to the Memphis Police Department’s initial public alert about the incident. Meta was also “in direct touch with the Memphis Police Department shortly after they issued their initial public alert,” the spokesperson said.
Police had launched a citywide search for the suspect and advised members of the public to shelter in place, according to Davis.
“We extend our sincere condolences to all the victims who have been affected in this sequence of violent acts today,” the police chief said. “We want to express our sincere appreciation to our citizens who provided numerous tips throughout this ordeal.”
As the gunman terrorized the city, the Memphis Area Transit Authority temporarily suspended trolley and bus services out of “an abundance of caution and care for the safety of its drivers and riders.”
Police did not discuss a possible motive or release the identities of the victims. It was also unclear how the suspect obtained the guns.
The rampage was the latest in a string of violence to hit Memphis in recent days and weeks, including the killing of a woman who was abducted last Friday while she was on a pre-dawn jog.
“This has been a horrific week for the city of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department,” Davis told reporters.
Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner added: “I want to assure the public that we’re all going to be working together to try to curb this senseless violence here in Memphis and Shelby County.”
In February 2020, Kelly, who was 17 at the time, was charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault, using a firearm to commit a dangerous felony and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, according to court records. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced in April 2021 to three years behind bars. He was released from prison 11 months later, in March, according to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland.
“I want to I want to first express my deepest sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families who are suffering from this senseless murder rampage,” Strickland told reporters. “I am angry for them. And I’m angry for our citizens who had to shelter in place for their own safety until this suspect was caught. This is no way for us to live and it is not acceptable.”
(NEW YORK) — The number of suicides committed with firearms increased 11% over the past decade and was driven primarily by deaths in cities with more relaxed gun policies, according to new research first obtained by ABC News.
Researchers from New York University and Everytown for Gun Safety, a leading gun control advocacy organization, released a report Thursday tracking the growing rate of suicides by firearm, which already make up the bulk of gun deaths in the United States.
Everytown said the statistics support its argument for gun control. (Opponents of such restrictions say they’re unconstitutional and ineffective.)
“We know that stronger gun laws save lives,” Everytown’s deputy research director, Megan O’Toole, told ABC News. “And this data demonstrates the importance of local legislation in preventing gun violence in cities specifically through addressing them suicides.”
In addition to areas with less strict gun laws, cities with fewer walkable areas where residents are more isolated are more prone to higher rates of gun suicide, according to the report.
While much public attention has focused on gun homicides, the rate of suicides has also grown throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Data inaccessibility in the past was really what was preventing us from recognizing the scope of this problem,” O’Toole said.
The report relies on data at the city level collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which provides accredited researchers like those at NYU with special access to analyze trends. The correlation between gun policy and higher gun suicide rates was made based on Everytown’s ranking of states with varying degrees of gun laws.
Everytown’s ranking focuses on how states enacted a list of 50 laws encompassing a swath of gun measures — including storage requirements; regulations for permits and background checks; variations on “red flag” laws, which make it easier for authorities to temporarily restrict firearm purchases for those deemed to be a potential threat to themselves or others; and more.
Gun shop owners can also have a role in curbing the number of firearm suicides, O’Toole told ABC, by engaging in educational campaigns and learning to identify certain signs of mental distress.
“Another thing that we point to is the role of other community leaders like barbers and beauticians, who can be credible messengers in recognizing and preventing gun suicides as well,” O’Toole said.
Free support to those facing a suicidal crisis is available by calling the newly recreated three-digit National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
(LAS VEGAS) — A county official has been arrested in connection with the murder of a Las Vegas investigative journalist, ABC News has confirmed.
Robert Telles was arrested Wednesday night during a SWAT operation at his home, ABC News confirmed.
Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German was found dead outside his home stabbed to death. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has said it was the result of an altercation he had a day earlier with somebody. German was well-known in Las Vegas as an investigative journalist.
Telles has non-life-threatening self-inflicted stab wounds, and his arrest came after a standoff with police. He was booked into Clark County Jail on a murder charge, according to inmate records.
Police swarmed in earlier Wednesday, searching his home with a warrant and taking his vehicle.
LVMPD Sheriff Joseph Lombardo and LVMPD Homicide and Sex Crimes Bureau Capt. Dori Koren are expected to hold a press conference on Thursday at 1 p.m. ET.
“We take this case very seriously and our investigators have been working non-stop to identify and apprehend the suspect,” Koren had said. “We enacted our Major Case Protocol immediately following our initial response and are using all LVMPD resources to maximize the progress of this investigation.”
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — As Memphis, Tennessee authorities released new details in the kidnapping of jogger Eliza Fletcher, the suspect in the fatal abduction appeared in court Wednesday to face murder charges.
The suspect, Cleotha Abston Henderson, 38, appeared in Shelby County Criminal Court to answer to charges of first-degree murder, premeditated murder and first-degree perpetration of kidnapping. A judge ordered him to be held without bail, pending a bond hearing.
Henderson did not enter a plea in the case.
Attorney Jennifer Case of the Shelby County Public Defender’s Office informed the court that while Henderson confirmed he would like her office to defend him, she filed a motion raising issues about that representation, which were not made public in court.
Judge Louis J. Montesi Jr. ordered the defendant to return to court on Thursday while he works to resolve the issue of his representation.
“In light of Ms. Case’s issues, which I’ll not go into until I can resolve them hopefully by tomorrow and see about another lawyer for you if necessary,” Montesi told Henderson, who appeared in court handcuffed and under heavy guard.
Montesi also said he would refer to the defendant as Cleotha Henderson moving forward based on the defendant’s statement confirming his real name. Police and prosecutors previously referred to the suspect as Cleotha Abston.
It was the second court appearance for Henderson. On Tuesday, he was arraigned on charges of especially aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence in connection with Fletcher’s disappearance, said Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy. Henderson was also charged over the weekend with counts unrelated to Fletcher’s abduction, including identity theft, theft of property valued at $1,000 or less and fraudulent use of a credit card.
The murder charges were filed against him after police identified a body discovered at the rear of a vacant South Memphis duplex on Tuesday as Fletcher. The remains were found by police several miles from where the married mother of two was abducted early Friday while she was out jogging.
New Memphis jogger details revealed
A new affidavit of complaint filed by investigators in the case, and made public Tuesday evening, details how police discovered Fletcher’s remains during a four-day search for her.
Members of several law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, were going door-to-door on Monday afternoon searching for Fletcher in a South Memphis residential neighborhood when officers noticed fresh tire tracks in an area with high grass adjacent to the driveway of a vacant residence, according to the affidavit.
“Officers panned out and walked to the rear of the location,” where they were drawn to a set of steps just north of the rear driveway, according to the affidavit. “Immediately to the right of the steps, (an officer) located an unresponsive female lying on the ground and notified his search team members.”
The remains matched the description of Fletcher, according to the affidavit.
Further forensic analysis confirmed the remains to be those of Fletcher, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis said at a news conference Tuesday.
Meanwhile, other investigators near the location where the body was found discovered a discarded trash bag, according to the affidavit. The bag was found near the residence of Henderson’s brother, where witnesses told investigators the suspect was seen several hours after Friday’s kidnapping “acting very strangely” and allegedly cleaning the inside of a black GMC Terrain that surveillance video showed was used in the kidnapping, the affidavit said.
“The bag contained purple Lululemon running shorts that were consistent with the ones Eliza Fletcher was last seen wearing,” according to the affidavit.
An earlier affidavit filed in the case described surveillance video that captured the kidnapping as it was occurring.
“A male exited the black GMC Terrain, ran aggressively toward the victim, and then forced the victim Eliza Fletcher into the passenger’s side of the vehicle. During this abduction, there appeared to be a struggle,” the affidavit states.
Citing the video, investigators said the SUV sat in a parking lot with the victim inside for about four minutes before it drove off, according to the affidavit.
U.S. Marshals arrested Henderson on Saturday after learning that the registered owner of the GMC Terrain lived at the same residence as Henderson, according to the affidavit. As the U.S. Marshals Service moved in to make the arrests, Henderson allegedly tried to flee in the SUV but was quickly taken into custody.
During questioning, Henderson, who works at a dry cleaner, refused to tell investigators anything about Fletcher’s whereabouts, according to the affidavit. On Tuesday, Davis said, “We have not gotten very much information from that individual (Henderson).”
Finishing Fletcher’s run
Friends and strangers have been dropping off flowers and balloons at makeshift memorials at the location where police said Fletcher was kidnapped and at the vacant home where her body was found.
Danielle Heineman, an avid runner in Memphis, said she is organizing a 10-mile run on Friday called “Let’s Finish Liza’s Run.”
Heineman told ABC affiliate station WATN-TV in Memphis that the response to her Facebook post announcing the run has been overwhelming. She said the initial plan was to begin the run near Fletcher’s home to where she was abducted and back.
“However, it blew up from my original Facebook post,” said Heineman, adding that she has now changed the run’s starting location out of respect for the Fletcher family’s request for privacy “so as not to have a crowd near her home.”
Memphis resident Chris Rudy, who is also a runner, stopped by the memorial at the site where Fletcher was kidnapped, telling WATN that she used to run in the area while she was a college student. She said she was “shaken” by the fatal kidnapping of Fletcher.
“I think I can speak for every woman in Memphis right now,” Rudy said, “it’s just gut-wrenching, heartbreaking and no one deserves this.”
