(NEW YORK) — A major storm is moving from the Rockies to the East Coast over the next two days, set to bring heavy snow to the Upper Midwest and severe thunderstorms to the east.
A winter storm warning has been issued in the Upper Midwest and the Great Lakes where snow is set to blow through South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
This will be the first major winter storm for the Minneapolis-St. Paul region this season. The Twin Cities area could see more than 1 foot of snow.
From Texas to Indiana, the threat will be strong tornadoes and damaging winds on Friday night.
Tornadoes are especially dangerous at night because residents may sleep through alerts.
Memphis to Indianapolis could see the worst of the severe weather.
Record-high temperatures are possible along the East Coast on Saturday afternoon.
Temperatures are forecast to climb to 62 degrees in Boston, 66 in New York, 71 in Washington, D.C., and 74 in Charleston and Raleigh.
Saturday night, strong thunderstorms may hit the Carolinas and the Northeast. There is a small chance of tornadoes in the Mid-Atlantic.
(OXFORD, Mich.) — More than a week after the mass shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan, the last remaining hospitalized victim has left the intensive care unit, authorities said Thursday.
The hospitalized student is one of 11 people who were shot, four fatally, at the school on Nov. 30. She has been moved to a “standard room” at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital, according to Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe. The 17-year-old student, who has not been identified, is expected to remain hospitalized for another four to six weeks during her rehabilitation, McCabe said in a statement.
Six students and a teacher were among those wounded in the shooting. Four students were killed in what prosecutors allege was a premeditated attack.
The suspected shooter, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, a sophomore at the high school, faces multiple charges, including four counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of assault with intent to murder, after allegedly pulling a semiautomatic handgun out of his backpack and firing it in the school’s hallway. His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, have also each been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the shooting. All three have pleaded not guilty to their charges.
On Thursday, the family of two students at the school, including one shot during the attack, filed a $100 million lawsuit against the Oxford Community School District and various school employees, alleging they enabled the suspected shooter in the days and hours before the shooting.
Riley Franz, a 17-year-old senior, was struck in the neck, while her sister, Bella Franz, a 14-year-old freshman, stood next to her and “narrowly escaped the bullets discharged toward her, her sister and her friends,” according to the complaint filed in Detroit federal court on behalf of the sisters.
“We’re going to hold people responsible for betraying the trust we put in them to protect our children,” the family’s attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, said during a press event announcing the lawsuit Thursday. “We’re going to hold every one of them responsible.”
The suit charges that Oxford Community Schools downplayed social media threats allegedly made by Crumbley prior to the shooting, including “countdowns and threats of bodily harm, including death … warning of violent tendencies and murderous ideology prior to actually coming to school with the handgun and ammunition to perpetuate the slaughter,” the complaint stated.
It also alleges school staff acted recklessly by letting him return to class after a meeting with his parents over violent drawings just hours before students were gunned down.
The district is not commenting on the allegations in the lawsuit at the request of the prosecutor to “avoid compromising” the court proceedings, according to a letter its attorney, Timothy Mullins, sent to Fieger on Thursday. “Furthermore, to allow the entire community the ability to heal, I have no intention of litigating this matter in the media,” Mullins wrote.
School leaders have said Crumbley’s parents refused to take him home after the meeting, and because he lacked a disciplinary record, they sent him back to class.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, who brought charges against the suspected shooter and his parents, said she has not ruled out charging school officials.
In a letter to the school community Wednesday, Oxford Community Schools Superintendent Tim Throne said the district has been “fully cooperative” with the county investigation into the school shooting.
He has also called for a third-party investigation into all of Crumbley’s communication with students and staff leading up to the shooting. In his letter Wednesday, he noted he would recommend to the district school board “a review of our entire system.”
The district plans to welcome students, except for high schoolers, back to the classroom Friday for the first time since the deadly shooting. The half-day is part of a “safe, slow and soft re-opening,” and students will be greeted by an increased law enforcement presence, therapy dogs and trauma specialists, Throne said in a letter to families on Thursday.
Backpacks will not be allowed in buildings through at least the end of the next week, the superintendent added.
(CHICAGO) — The jury has reached a verdict in the case against actor Jussie Smollett, who was charged with lying about a racist attack.
The “Empire” actor alleged he was attacked and called racist and homophobic slurs by two men in Chicago in January 2019. He has maintained it was not orchestrated by himself.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(CHICAGO) — After just 10 hours of deliberation, a Chicago jury has found actor Jussie Smollett guilty on five of six counts for filing a false police report related to the hoax racist attack he suffered at the hands of two men in January 2019.
The “Empire” actor alleged he was attacked, doused with an unknown liquid, had a noose placed around his neck and called racist and homophobic slurs by two men late at night on a Chicago street. He has maintained it was not orchestrated by himself.
He did not show any reaction as the verdicts were read.
Smollett was charged with six counts of felony disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report.
The defense rested its case on Tuesday after a week of testimony, with Smollett taking the stand in his own defense. He alleged Abimbola and Ola Osundairo, the brothers who carried out the assault, were lying when they said during the trial that they were friends of Smollett and had been paid $3,500 to carry out the attack.
Smollett, 39, received widespread support in the wake of the attack and made an emotional appearance at a concert in early February 2019, but then word emerged after authorities spoke to the Osundario brothers’ return from overseas that the attack was allegedly a hoax. Smollett was charged on Feb. 20, 2019, with Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson saying the attack was orchestrated because he was unhappy with his salary on the Fox hit show.
The charges were dropped against Smollett in March 2019, but a special prosecutor announced an indictment for the six disorderly conduct charges was handed down in February 2020. Smollett pleaded not guilty.
The jury deliberated for about three hours on Wednesday and then began again on Thursday morning.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The lack of police department participation in reporting use-of-force incidents could result in the FBI never publishing the data and the collection effort being shut down, according to a report released this week by the Government Accountability Office.
In 2019, the FBI launched a voluntary use of force reporting system, designed to create a national database for law enforcement use-of-force incidents, in an effort to provide better transparency and accountability. It was started in 2016, when then-FBI Director Jim Comey stated his intention to have the FBI capture use-of-force data.
“It is a narrative driven by video images of real and gut-wrenching misconduct, by images of possible misconduct, by images of perceived misconduct,” Comey said in 2016. “It’s a narrative given force by the awesome power of human empathy.”
Recent police use-of-force incidents have resulted in discipline or criminal charges. Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder after he put a knee on George Floyd’s neck over Memorial Day weekend in 2020. Former Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, officer Kim Potter is currently on trial for allegedly mistaking her gun for a Taser and killing Daunte Wright.
In 2019, the FBI received 44% of participation and in 2020, 55% participation, the report, released Tuesday, said.
“I think the lack of ability to have reliable and comprehensive data on police use of force is one of the biggest things that is, in my view, is hampering law enforcement’s objective, which is really to gain trust to the community,” Jason C. Johnson, President of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, told ABC News. “It’s an area that, we’re very clearly, it has struggled in recent years. And so it is critical that we have thorough, comprehensive data about police use of force.”
The Office of Budget and Management tasked the FBI with reporting out the data.
“Due to insufficient participation from law enforcement agencies, the FBI faces risks that it may not meet the participation thresholds established in OMB’s terms of clearance for publishing data from the National Use-of-Force Data Collection, and therefore may never publish use-of-force incident data from the collection,” the GAO report says.
Johnson and Sheriff Vernon Stanforth of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio agree that some local communities don’t have the staffing or funding to fulfill these voluntary data requests.
“An agency has to [sometimes] decide: ‘Do I hire a clerical person or do I hire road units to protect my communities? So, which do I spend my money on?,'” Stanforth, who serves as president of the National Sheriff’s Association, said.
The report says the data collection will be “discontinued” by the end of 2022, if more departments don’t participate.
The stipulation by the OMB says that if the FBI does not reach 60% cooperation by the end of 2022, “the FBI was to end the data collection effort and explore alternatives for collecting law enforcement use-of-force data.”
If there is 60% of cooperation by law enforcement agencies, FBI will publish “limited information.”
Amid the calls for policing reform following the Floyd killing, President Trump Donald Trump issued an executive order tying database reporting to federal funding — on top of the existing FBI program.
The order called for the database to “include a mechanism to track, as permissible, terminations or de-certifications of law enforcement officers, criminal convictions of law enforcement officers for on-duty conduct, and civil judgments against law enforcement officers for improper use of force. The database … shall account for instances where a law enforcement officer resigns or retires while under active investigation related to the use of force.”
But a Congressional Research Service report that addressed whether a potential cutoff in federal grant funding provided enough incentive for local departments to comply concluded that “it most likely accounts for a relatively small portion of any local government’s policing budget.”
(STOCKTON, Calif.) — A shirtless man screaming and wielding a handgun was fatally shot by police after he charged at several officers and refused to put down his gun outside the police headquarters building in Stockton, California, authorities said.
The police-involved shooting began around 8:30 p.m. local time Wednesday when the Stockton Police Communications Center began receiving reports that an armed assailant, who was not immediately identified, was firing a gun outside the headquarters building, Stockton police said in a statement on Thursday.
Six Stockton police officers charged out of the building’s front door and confronted the alleged shooter in the parking lot, according to the statement.
“The suspect was screaming and armed with a firearm. The officers told the suspect to get on the ground and drop the gun,” according to the police statement.
The man initially complied and got on the ground, but allegedly refused to drop his firearm, which police described as a Colt semiautomatic pistol, according to the statement.
As officers approached the man, he allegedly stood up and pointed his weapon at the officers, police said.
“Five officers fired their service weapons, shooting the man,” according to the police statement.
The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.
“For a while, before they (the officers) were forced to fire, they were ordering the person to drop the gun and it wasn’t until he charged right toward them that they opened fire,” Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones said during a news conference Wednesday night.
Jones said several civilians were in the police department parking lot at the time of the shooting.
No officers or bystanders were injured in the incident.
The officers involved in the shooting were identified as Nicole Williams, Nicholas Frayer, Hao Tran, Seth Powell and Ruben Rillon. Officials said three of the officers have been on the police force since 2019, one since 2017 and one joined the department last year.
The Stockton Police Department, the California Department of Justice and the San Joaquin district attorney’s office are conducting a joint investigation of the shooting.
“I have not seen anything like this,” Jones said. “I’ve been here nearly 30 years with Stockton PD, nearly 10 years as police chief, and for somebody to come right into the police department like this and fire the weapon, and then charge right at the officers with the weapon is very unique.”
(MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.) — Daunte Wright’s girlfriend, Alayna Albrecht-Payton, tearfully recalled his final moments on the witness stand on day two of the trial of former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter.
Albrecht-Payton was in the passenger seat of the car when Wright was pulled over by police on April 11. She and Wright had not made their relationship official, she said, but they had been dating for a few weeks before the fatal incident.
“He was really scared — I’d never seen him like that before,” Albrecht-Payton said. “If you know Daunte, he’s really happy and positive and you can’t be sad or depressed or angry around him.”
Potter is charged with first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Wright during a traffic stop. She has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Potter shot Wright in the chest after he escaped from the officers’ hold and scuffled with officers in the driver’s seat of the car. After being shot, Wright drove off. Albrecht-Payton said she did not remember Wright’s hands being on the wheel as they rode several blocks before swerving into another lane and crashing into another car.
Albrecht-Payton also testified that she does not remember some of what happened because she suffered from a concussion, a fractured jaw, a lacerated lip and had to get stitches on her ear from the car crash.
After they crashed, a video call from Wright’s mother came through and Albrecht-Payton said she picked up.
“I was delirious, I was just screaming, ‘they just shot him, they just shot him,'” Albrecht-Payton said.
On day one of the trial, Katie Bryant, also known as Katie Wright, recalled her version of the events: “She was screaming. I was like ‘what’s wrong?’ And she said that they shot him and she faced the phone towards the driver’s seat.”
Albrecht-Payton said she was sorry that she did so. She recalled the moments while sobbing, and prosecutor Erin Elridge continuously confirmed Albrecht-Payton’s statements.
“I hear you saying that no mom should see her son dead on the phone and you know that that hurt her and you apologize for that?” Elridge asked.
“Just dead, period, but yes,” Albrecht-Payton said.
She said Wright was gasping for air after they crashed the car and she begged him to talk to her, “I replay that image in my head daily,” Albrecht-Payton said.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — The trial of former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter charged in the death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was fatally shot during a traffic stop, began Wednesday.
Opening statements took place in the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis.
Potter, 49, is charged with first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in the April 11 incident. She has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Potter has said she meant to grab her stun gun, but accidentally shot her firearm instead when she and other officers were attempting to arrest Wright, who had escaped the officers’ grip and was scuffling with them when he was shot.
Wright was initially pulled over for an expired registration tag on his car, but officers discovered he had an outstanding warrant for a gross misdemeanor weapons charge and tried to detain him, according to former Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon.
The maximum sentence for first-degree manslaughter is 15 years and a $30,000 fine and for second-degree manslaughter, it’s 10 years and a $20,000 fine.
Wright’s death reignited protests against racism and police brutality across the U.S., as the killing took place just outside of Minneapolis, where the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd, was taking place.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 09, 3:09 am
Minnesota governor prepares National Guard ‘out of an abundance of caution’
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced that he is preparing the Minnesota National Guard to provide public safety assistance if necessary during Kim Potter’s trial, as requested by Hennepin County and the city of Brooklyn Center.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we are prepared to ask members of the Minnesota National Guard to be available to support local law enforcement with the mission of allowing for peaceful demonstrations, keeping the peace, and ensuring public safety,” Walz said in a statement Wednesday evening.
A press release from Walz’s press office stated that, “at this time, the Minnesota National Guard will not be proactively assuming posts throughout the Twin Cities.” Guard members will only operate in support of local law enforcement “should they be needed,” according to the press release.
Dec 08, 6:49 pm
New body-cam footage shows Potter moments after shooting Wright
New body-worn camera footage played in the courtroom while the prosecution questioned Brooklyn Center officer Anthony Luckey showed the moments after Kim Potter shot Daunte Wright.
In the video, taken from Luckey’s body-worn camera, Potter can be seen falling to the curb.
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” she said, before hyperventilating for several minutes with her face buried in the grass.
Luckey’s and Sgt. Mychal Johnson’s arms can be seen reaching down to Potter.
“Just breathe,” Luckey can be heard saying.
“I’m going to go to prison,” Potter said.
“No, you’re not,” Luckey said.
“Kim, that guy was trying to take off with me in the car!” Johnson said in the video.
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Two juveniles have been arrested in connection to a shooting at a Louisville, Kentucky, school bus stop that killed a 16-year-old.
The juveniles, whose names were not released, were taken into custody Wednesday on multiple charges including complicity to murder and complicity to first-degree assault, Louisville Metropolitan Police said.
Tyree Smith, 16, was killed in the Sept. 22 drive-by shooting and two 14-year-olds were injured. All three were waiting for the bus to go to Eastern High School.
Smith “was doing everything we ask of kids and he’s murdered while standing waiting on his school bus,” police chief Erika Shields said at a news conference Thursday.
“We simply must be do better,” she said.
To Smith’s family, the chief said, “I’m sorry we’re here, but hopefully, in some small way, the arrest of your son’s murderers will bring you a morsel of relief.”
Police said the investigation is not over and it is possible that others could be arrested.
(INDIANAPOLIS) — Police in Indiana are asking the public to help find a missing 15-year-old girl who they said may be in danger.
Cabrini Stott was last seen on Sunday, Dec. 5, in the 5800 block of Village Plaza S. Dr. in Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said.
Police said in a statement they believe Stott “may possibly be in danger,” but on Thursday a police spokesperson declined to provide more information.
Stott, a 10th grader at BELIEVE Circle City High School, was last at school on Friday, the school’s executive director, Kimberly Neal-Brannum, told ABC News.
Neal-Brannum said the teen has “a smile that’ll light up a room,” describing her as “smart, funny, charismatic, athletic, involved in school.”
“She’s a good volunteer. She does a lot of community service,” Neal-Brannum said. “She definitely is a good kid.”
Cabrini has black hair and brown eyes. She stands at 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Missing Persons detectives at 317-327-6160 or Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477.
