Atatiana Jefferson death: Jury begins deliberations in murder trial

December 14, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(FORT WORTH, Texas) — After just five days of testimony, the jury has begun deliberations in the murder trial of former Fort Worth, Texas, police officer Aaron Dean.

Dean is accused of fatally shooting Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, at her Fort Worth home.

Dean was responding to a call to check on Jefferson’s home on Oct. 12, 2019, around 2:30 a.m. because a door was left open to the house.

According to body camera footage and Dean’s testimony, he did not park near the home, knock at the door or announce police presence at any time while on the scene.

Dean testified that he suspected a burglary in progress due to the messiness inside the home. When Dean entered the backyard, body camera footage shows Dean looking into one of the windows of the home.

Jefferson and her now-11-year-old nephew, Zion, were playing video games when they heard a noise, according to Zion, who testified in the case. Jefferson grabbed her gun before approaching the window, Zion testified. Police officials have said Jefferson was within her rights to protect herself.

In body camera footage, Dean can be heard shouting, “Put your hands up, show me your hands,” and firing one shot through the window.

According to the prosecution, it was one minute and 17 seconds between when Dean arrived on the scene to when he fatally shot Jefferson. A forensics video expert testified that it was half a second between the start of Dean’s commands and when he shot Jefferson.

Dean resigned from the police department before his arrest. Fort Worth Chief of Police Ed Kraus has said Dean was about to be fired for allegedly violating multiple department policies.

For prosecutors, at the core of the trial were questions about whether Dean saw a gun in Jefferson’s hand, thought he was in a life or death situation or could have done something differently in the moments leading up to the shooting.

In closing statements, prosecutors focused on Jefferson’s innocence as a person defending her nephew and home.

“You can be in your own home, owning a weapon, owning a gun and you can protect yourself in your home. That’s one of the most fundamental rights. That’s the reason we all feel so safe,” said prosecutor Ashlea Deener. “Atatiana Jefferson didn’t commit any criminal acts by walking up to the window with her gun thinking someone was outside. It’s what many of us would do if we were in our house in the middle of the night in the back bedroom and we hear somebody outside.”

Defense attorney Bob Gill fought back against Deener’s claims in his closing arguments.

“She had those rights up until the moment she pointed the firearm at a Fort Worth police officer,” Gill said. “It’s a crime and it’s an unlawful act.”

Prosecutor Dale Smith responded by reminding the jury that Dean said on the stand that his actions that night were “bad police work” in a final statement to the jury. During his testimony, Dean agreed there were things he could have done differently.

Dean had testified that he did not tell his partner, officer Carol Darch, about a gun in the house until he found it inside. Darch had run into the home to help those inside, Darch and Dean testified.

“If there was a real threat inside that window, do you think he would have just sat by the window?” said Smith. “Do you think he might have pushed Darch out of the way, got back, retreated to another position? No, he’s standing there because he wasn’t sure what was on the other side where he just shot.”

“What officer would allow one of his partners to run into the house where they thought a burglary was happening without saying there’s a gun in there?” Smith continued.

Throughout the trial, the defense focused on Dean’s emotions and perception of danger.

Dean also testified on the stand in his own defense, describing the moments leading to the fatal shooting, as well as his thoughts during it.

Earth had its fifth warmest fall on record: NOAA

December 14, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Rising temperatures are continuing to set alarming trends around the world, according to new data released Wednesday by climate scientists.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that temperatures in September, October and November reached new highs, as global land and ocean temps were 1.51 degrees Fahrenheit greater than the 20th century average of 57.1 degrees.

Last month was the ninth-warmest November in NOAA’s 143-year history, with global temperatures 1.37 degrees above the 20th century average of 55.2 degrees, according to the agency’s monthly report.

NOAA said this year’s global surface temperature is now the sixth warmest on record and this warming trend shows no signs of slowing down.

“There is a greater than 99% chance that 2022 will rank among the 10-warmest years on record,” the agency said in a statement.

The report highlighted some new records in different parts of the globe.

Europe tied for its third-warmest September-November on record, with temperatures 3.33 degrees above the autumn average, according to NOAA. The U.K. recorded its third warmest November on record, the report said.

While North America recorded its fifth warmest autumn on record, the continental U.S. experienced a cooling trend in November, according to NOAA.

Specifically, parts of the Pacific Northwest recorded temperatures that were between 2 to 5 degrees lower than the average, the report said.

“Parts of western North America had their coldest November in nearly 40 years,” NOAA said.

As the year draws to a close, the report said several parts of the globe could see new record-high temperatures.

“Europe and Asia each had their second-warmest January–November period on record after 2020. The Gulf of Mexico had its sixth-warmest year-to-date and the Caribbean Islands had their seventh-warmest year-to-date,” NOAA said.

Senators slam FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried and back crypto regulation

December 14, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Senators across both major parties on Wednesday sharply criticized bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, while advocating for regulation of the digital currency sector.

Lawmakers on the chamber’s banking committee differed significantly, however, on whether FTX exemplified wider industry dangers or merely a run-of-the-mill fraud that could occur at any business. In turn, they indicated a range of opinions on the type and extent of crypto regulation.

Democrats expressed concern about systemic flaws in the crypto industry raised by the FTX debacle, while some Republicans characterized the corporate collapse as a one-off instance of fraud divorced from the promising financial technology that enabled it.

Sam Bankman-Fried is ‘the villain’

“The myth of Sam Bankman-Fried and his crypto trading success was supposed to impress us,” Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said. “In this story, Bankman-Fried was the shiny object. Now he’s the villain.”

“But this story is bigger than one person and one firm,” he added.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., also skewered the mismanagement of FTX but said its corporate collapse does not reflect negatively on the potential economic value of cryptocurrency.

“We owe it to each customer to get to the bottom of the FTX implosion,” Toomey said. “While all the facts have not yet come to light, we’ve clearly witnessed wrongdoing that was almost certainly illegal.”

“The wrongful behavior that occurred here is not specific to the underlying asset,” he added. “FTX and cryptocurrencies are not the same thing.”

‘Good old-fashioned fraud’

FTX, previously valued at $32 billion, declared bankruptcy in November, within weeks of a customer sell-off totaling billions of dollars.

Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested Monday in the Bahamas after federal prosecutors in New York filed an eight-count indictment including allegations of fraud and conspiracy, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, Mark S. Cohen, offered his first comments on the arrest of his client Tuesday morning.

“Mr. Bankman-Fried is reviewing the charges with his legal team and considering all of his legal options,” Cohen said in a statement.

Bankman-Fried’s application for bail was denied on Tuesday after a judge determined he was too much of a flight risk. He will be remanded until Feb. 8, 2023, to the Bahamas Department of Corrections.

There are more than $8 billion in customer losses, said Gretchen Lowe of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal agency.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., characterized the collapse of FTX as “good old-fashioned fraud,” but defended the innovative potential of cryptocurrency.

“FTX is a failure of people, safeguards and regulation — it’s not a failure of technology,” she said, adding that the cryptocurrency industry requires regulation.

Potential regulation of cryptocurrency

Bipartisan legislation introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Ky., on Wednesday aims to address the use of cryptocurrency for illicit activities by applying a current set of anti-money laundering rules to digital currency, including Know Your Customer requirements — rules that require banks and other financial institutions to understand the profile of and risks posed by a customer.

“Crypto has become the preferred tool for terrorists, for ransomware gangs, for drug dealers and for rogue states that want to launder money,” Warren said.

Hilary J. Allen, a professor at American University Washington College of Law and a witness at the hearing, proposed an outright ban on cryptocurrency in the U.S.

“A ban on crypto would be the most straightforward way of protecting both investors and the financial system,” she said. “It would end the uncontrolled creation of crypto assets and also ensure that crypto assets never require a bailout.”

Other witnesses supported regulation but indicated that cryptocurrency technology offers significant value for the nation’s economy, cautioning against aggressive action that could hinder the value generated by the sector.

Kevin O’Leary, an entrepreneur and host of the television show “Shark Tank,” who previously endorsed FTX as a paid promoter, said the downfall of the company would ultimately highlight the transparency delivered by cryptocurrency, as customers seek to recover lost funds.

“I think what’s going to happen as we peel the onion on FTX over the next year or two is the shining outcome of the success of the blockchain to track these assets will become the focus of everybody,” he said.

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., sought to to bring attention to the FTX customers who stand to lose their investments on the platform after its collapse.

“We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that millions of dollars disappeared overnight,” she said. “This is money that belonged to people who couldn’t afford to lose their money.”

Fetuses can be vulnerable to climate change, air pollution exposure, says researcher

December 14, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Jennifer Cantley at home with her children. – ABC News

(NEW YORK) — In Carson City, Nevada, one family is choosing to spend more time indoors because they said smoke from wildfires and soaring temperatures caused by climate change are sometimes making it difficult for them to breathe outside.

Jennifer Cantley, who is a mother of three, told ABC News that she checks the air quality outside before she lets her children go out and play. Cantley said she and two of her children have asthma, which she said makes the conditions more dangerous for them.

“When the smoke comes in and we start seeing these beautiful Sierra mountains behind me disappearing, it’s first of all, it’s really hard because we’re having our beautiful view taken away from us,” she said. “But at the same time, now that means we’re going to be back indoors and we can’t leave for sometimes it’s a whole month.”

Cantley is part of “Moms Clean Air Force,” a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization made up of more than 1 million parents. Cantley helped push local legislators to install an air quality monitor in her community.

56% of U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 45 say they are worried about the effects of climate change on children’s physical health, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll. In a separate question, 71% of parents with children under the age of 18 say they are concerned about the impact that climate change will have on their children. This number rises to 79% of parents living in the western U.S.

“As a result of climate change, children are suffering more heat related illness, more asthma attacks from breathing forest fire smoke,” Frederica Perera, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University, told ABC News. Perera is also the author of the recent book “Children’s Health and the Peril of Climate Change.”

“They’re suffering more physical injury and psychological trauma from severe storms and floods,” she said. “Also, we’re seeing more infectious diseases that are carried by ticks and malaria that have moved to new areas due to climate change and also from air pollution.”

In one study published this year, Perera and her co-authors wrote fetuses, infants and children “can be vulnerable to exposure to air pollution and climate change.”

“We used to think the placenta was a perfect barrier and the baby was literally in a cocoon, protecting them from the factors that the mother might experience in her environment,” she said. “And that’s not true. Air pollution is capable of reversing, moving across the placenta into the fetus.”

“My number one goal is making sure now my children, but the future generations have clean air, clean water and public lands,” Cantley said.

This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted using Ipsos Public Affairs’ KnowledgePanel® November 14-16, 2022, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,328 adults ages 18-45. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.0 points, including the design effect. See the poll’s topline results and details on the methodology here.

Two-year-old hospitalized with RSV spent eight days on ventilator

December 14, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — A mother is speaking out about how dangerous respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, can be as her 2-year-old battles the disease.

Jazlynmae Gonzalez just spent her birthday in the pediatric ICU at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque and has been trying to fight off the virus for the last two weeks.

Her mother, Melissa, told ABC News that Jazlynmae was having such trouble breathing that she was intubated and had to spend eight days on a ventilator.

Now, her family and her doctors hope she’s slowly on the mend, though still on oxygen, working to breathe on her own.

“You could see like her ribs, like her skin sucking through like her ribs,” Melissa told Faith Abubey Wednesday afternoon. “She had a lot of shoulder breathing, nose flaring and just like if somebody was running a marathon and just breathing you know hard and fast.”

She called seeing her daughter get so sick the “scariest thing” she’s seen.

“Knowing I can’t do anything to make it better, and just do ‘mommy’s little quick fix,’ and just wake her up, and tell her, it’s okay,” Melissa said. “That’s been the hardest thing.”

Over the past several weeks, pediatric hospitals have been reporting they are at capacity or near capacity due to an early surge of RSV cases.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, RSV is particularly dangerous among infants and young children, including those with weakened immune systems, have chronic lung or heart conditions or have neuromuscular disorders.

Every year, between 58,000 and 80,000 children younger than age 5 are hospitalized every year and between 100 and 500 children die from the condition.

Also complicating matters is an early flu season and COVID-19 cases ticking up after holding steady for months,

UNMH staff said the hospital has been struggling to deal with the “tripledemic” and is currently well over 100% capacity.

“It’s hard. Our ERs are full, our waiting rooms are full,” lead pediatrician Dr. Anna Duran told ABC News. “Our physicians are having to examine patients in the waiting room, you know, and we’ve run out of space.”

She continued, “We just have to continue seeing each and every patient, because they will continue to come.”

UNMH said it put up a tent outside of its emergency department on Friday to help relieve some of the strain.

The hospital is in its eighth straight week of the children’s hospital being above capacity — and in recent weeks, it has now seen the same exact thing happen on the adult side, spokesperson Chris Ramirez told ABC News.

However, data from the CDC shows RSV cases may be receding after peaking in mid-November.

Weekly cases have declined from 15,188 the week ending Nov. 26 to 12,571 the week ending Dec. 3, according to an ABC News analysis of the data.

Melissa said she hopes Jazlynmae is home by Christmas and that by sharing her daughter’s stories, other parents can watch for the signs of RSV before it progresses to a serious condition.

“I don’t want another mom, another dad, another sibling to go through what we went through,” Melissa said. “It’s the most heart-wrenching thing to watch your baby go through…and it’s not just a little cold. Because that little cold? I could have lost my baby.”

American Suedi Murekezi freed from Russian-controlled territory by Ukrainian military intelligence

December 14, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — American Suedi Murekezi has just been freed from Russian-controlled territory by a team from Ukraine’s military intelligence and is now being driven to Kyiv.

ABC News followed a military convoy into the war’s grey zone just outside Zaphorizhia in southern Ukraine. A two-hour ceasefire was agreed to in the area, starting at midday local time, so that a swap involving dozens of prisoners of war could go ahead. Murekezi was brought out of Russian-controlled territory as part of that exchange.

Suedi had been arrested by the Russian-controlled authorities and spent weeks in a basement, where he said he was tortured. He also spent three months in a prison in Donetsk city. He was later released by the Russians, but he was without his U.S. passport and was effectively trapped in Russian-controlled territory, living in the main city of Donetsk.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News in the grey zone, just after he was brought out of Russian-controlled territory, Murekezi said he felt “trapped” in Donetsk and lived under intense uncertainty about his future and what would happen to him.

He said he was relieved and happy to be back in Ukrainian-controlled territory, a free man in the country where he has lived for years.

Clutching a Ukrainian flag, which he was gifted by military intelligence officers, Suedi said he had been subject to electric shocks and beaten by his captors earlier in the war, when he was held in a basement, which he described as a “torture chamber.”

He said the Russians accused him of being a member of the CIA. He said he and the other Americans with whom he was held were given only minimal food and water.

When asked what he was looking forward to most when he gets back to his home in Minnesota, Murekezi said “a peanut butter sandwich.”

Two dead as tornado hits Louisiana town

December 14, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A woman and her son were killed after a tornado swept through a Louisiana town, officials said.

“A young boy was found deceased in a wooded area of Pecan Farms where his home was destroyed,” the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s office said in a statement.

The boy’s mother was later found a street away from the family’s home in Keithville, Louisiana, officials said. She was “located under debris caused by a tornado,” according to a statement.

The victims were not identified.

The tornado was one of at least 13 that touched down in four states — Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and Mississippi — overnight into Wednesday morning. At least five tornadoes were confirmed in north Texas.

More tornadoes were expected throughout the South on Wednesday, as the storm moves east.

First responders in Louisiana said they were continuing to search for other victims, although nobody else had been reported missing.

A man was also transported to a local hospital with injuries, officials said.

States that banned abortion already had high maternal death rates and fewer doctors: Study

December 14, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — States that imposed strict abortion laws this year were already more likely to have significantly higher maternal and infant death rates as well as fewer doctors providing care to women, according to an analysis released Wednesday by an influential nonprofit research group.

In 2020, for example, maternal death rates were 62% higher in the states that later passed or implemented abortion restrictions compared to the states where abortion remains accessible, the study by the Commonwealth Fund, which aims to address gaps in health care, found.

Those conclusions are likely to be cited by abortion rights advocates who have long argued that states leading the charge on abortion bans are also the least equipped to care for women giving birth.

“Compared with their counterparts in other states, women of reproductive age and birthing people in states with current or proposed abortion bans have more limited access to affordable health insurance coverage, worse health outcomes, and lower access to maternity care providers,” according to the study.

The study did not look at the impact on the abortion bans specifically — a much tougher metric that could take years to analyze. Still, the researchers warn that, according to their findings, abortion restrictions risk widening the existing disparities between states.

“The result is a deepening of fractures in the maternal health system and a compounding of inequities by race, ethnicity, and geography,” the researchers conclude.

Republicans including Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, whose state successfully challenged Roe v. Wade — the Supreme Court case that guaranteed national abortion access — have argued that it’s possible to restrict the procedure while also improving care for pregnant women.

Earlier this year, Reeves said his state plans to improve its care system for pregnant women and infants.

“The pro-life movement must dedicate itself to ensuring mothers and their babies receive the support they both need during pregnancy and after,” he said in June.

So far though, such a system hasn’t fully materialized: Mississippi is among a dozen states that have declined to expand Medicaid, the government’s health care for poor and disabled Americans. Of those 12 states, 10 of them have also imposed strict abortion laws.

Republicans in those states contend that expanding Medicaid might not be financially sustainable. But Medicaid, its supporters say, expands health care access for struggling Americans who might otherwise forgo care entirely, including women who might not see a doctor until months into a pregnancy.

In an interview with ABC News, the lead researcher on the Commonwealth Fund study, Dr. Gene Declercq, said that lack of health coverage is a big reason why women living in certain states struggle with pregnancies and birth.

Declercq, a professor at Boston University, said his study found that many areas with abortion restrictions also had few or no providers caring for women.

“If you have a whole policy that’s geared toward not really taking care of women’s health, except when they might be pregnant and you want to support the health of a baby, we shouldn’t be surprised when we find out that there’s problems with women’s health,” he said.

The question for politicians, Declercq said, is whether or not a state’s health care system is set up to protect women and children — or if that’s just campaign rhetoric.

“And the answer remains to be seen,” he said.

‘One chance to get it right’: Memorial honors Sandy Hook shooting victims after decade-long effort

December 14, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEWTON, Conn.) — Two days after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, then-President Barack Obama approached a podium to speak. Before him was a room of people in shock over what had occurred in their quiet Connecticut town.

On Dec. 14, 2012, a 20-year-old gunman walked into the school in Newtown and fatally shot 20 young students and six educators.

“Here in Newtown, I come to offer the love and prayers of a nation,” the president told the families and community members gathered.

Now, those precise words stand etched in stone, welcoming visitors to the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial, created in memory of those who lost their lives 10 years ago in the nation’s worst mass shooting at an elementary school.

The memorial took a decade to achieve, in part because of the meticulous process the memorial’s planning committee took to honor the victims and their families.

“We had one chance to get it right,” said Alan Martin, vice chairman of Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission. “So, we labored over the process of site selection and labored over the process of design selection. And we knew it had to be both a natural feeling, a gentle feeling, and it had to give people an opportunity to grieve.”

The memorial opened in November in advance of the anniversary. Planners and community leaders hope the site will commemorate the lives lost even as the debate over gun violence continues across the nation.

“We thought after Sandy Hook, this would make a difference in terms of responsible and reasonable gun control,” said Martin. “We really had hope that the world might change, the country might change.”

In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, hundreds of temporary memorials sprung up all over town, flooding it with candles, flowers, teddy bears, toys and pictures. But town leaders decided the memorials couldn’t remain forever and decided to clear them by the end of 2013.

Recognizing the significance of those mementos, they chose to incinerate them into “sacred soil.” Today, that soil lives at the memorial beneath the plaque and granite stone marked with Obama’s words.

That year, the town’s council — known as the Board of Selectmen — decided to appoint a commission to figure out how best to design and build a permanent memorial to honor the lives lost. Twelve community members were appointed, including three parents who lost children, forming the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission.

Daniel Krauss, chairman of the commission, told ABC News the first question they were tasked with was, “Should a permanent memorial exist?”

After community conversations involving victims’ families, teachers, parents of students, paramedics and the general public, the answer was yes.

Krauss, along with the commission’s vice chairman Martin, said they tried to make decisions through consensus. Family input, Krauss said, was paramount but would not be the only aspect taken into consideration — they also needed a town vote to approve the $3.7 million project. Later, the State of Connecticut Bond Commission approved a $2.5 million grant which covered about 70% of costs.

After five years of site proposals and rejections, the trustees of the Boys Social and Athletic Club of Sandy Hook donated the current five-acre site, less than a mile away from the new Sandy Hook Elementary, which reopened in a brand-new building on the original property.

“You could hear them laughing and running and jumping,” Martin said, pointing out how close the memorial grounds are to the school’s playground. “When you hear the kids running…right through the trees, it’s amazing. And that’s part of the beauty of such a site.”

The commission selected a concept by Dan Affleck and Ben Waldo of SWA Design out of 188 submissions, determining that the designers’ concept fit in with their own. The planning guide stipulated “the memorial should not be physically imposing or ideologically overbearing, but through its simplicity should communicate the great depth of our loss.”

Affleck and Waldo envisioned a space that would grow with visitors over time, focusing on three primary features — a circle, path and tree — according to SWA. At the center of the memorial sits a granite basin with water, where a young sycamore was planted to symbolize the youth of children killed. Each victim’s name is engraved to the granite basin, where the water’s motions reflect a continuous energy between the living and the deceased. The paths surrounding allow visitors to choose their own route — symbolic for the journey of grief.

A mother of one of the victims visits daily, Martin said. Other family members of the victims attended the private dedication ceremony. And still, some are not comfortable visiting the memorial.

“We know some of the families would never come there,” said Martin. “Many will come here once, and many will come here whenever it is personal to them.”

Martin said the extensive process that led to the memorial holds lessons for communities in other places, such as Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two of their teachers were killed during a shooting at Robb Elementary School nearly seven months ago.

“We have gotten so many calls from people, from communities, that have had loss,” said Martin, “and people wanted to know our process. It was a slow, deliberate process. Every step of the way, we consulted with the families and we knew of sensitivity and deference.”

In Sandy Hook, as visitors depart the memorial on the same path they entered, they are once again reminded of the former president’s words from that Dec. 10 years ago: “I can only hope it helps for you to know that you’re not alone in your grief; that our world too has been torn apart; that all across this land of ours, we have wept with you.”

Colorado Springs shooting survivors to speak before Congress about anti-LGBTQ violence

December 14, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Photo by Mike Kline (notkalvin)/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — Survivors of last month’s Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, will provide testimony on Wednesday at a House Oversight Committee hearing regarding anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, extremism and violence.

The hearing, according to organizers, will address the ways in which anti-LGBTQ legislation and rhetoric is rising — and may be fueling a rise in violence against LGBTQ Americans.

This year, Pride events, drag shows, LGBTQ-friendly medical institutions and more have all become prominent targets of violence, threats and protests.

Michael Anderson, the only Club Q bartender to survive the shooting, is expected to speak at the hearing along with injured club patron James Slaugh and his boyfriend, Jancarlos Dell Valle, and Mark Slaugh, James Slaugh’s brother who was also at the club that night.

“From Colorado Springs to my own district in New York City, communities across the country are facing a terrifying rise of anti-LGBTQI+ violence and extremism,” House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., said in a statement.

Maloney continued, “Make no mistake, the rise in anti-LGBTQI+ extremism and the despicable policies that Republicans at every level of government are advancing to attack the health and safety of LGBTQI+ people are harming the LGBTQI+ community and contributing to tragedies like what we saw at Club Q.”

More than 300 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced at the state level in the last year, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

The suspect accused of killing five people in a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs is facing 305 charges, including first-degree murder, attempted murder and bias-motivated crimes. The suspect has not yet entered a plea.

Investigators and witnesses at the club have said the shooter opened fire as soon as they walked into Club Q around midnight on Nov. 19. Patrons at the venue then tackled and subdued them until police arrived, according to witnesses.

The mass shooting was being investigated as a hate crime.

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