News

(OWASSO, Okla.) — Newly released body camerage footage shows Nex Benedict, a nonbinary 16-year-old who died one day after a physical altercation with several other students in a bathroom at their Oklahoma high school, describing what led up to the fight during an interview with police from the hospital.

While lying on a gurney in the hours after the Feb. 7 fight at Owasso High School, Nex Benedict told a school resource officer, Caleb Thompson, that they had poured water on three students who were making fun of the way they and their friends laughed and dressed, the footage released Friday by the Owasso Police Department shows.

“We were laughing and they had said something like, ‘Why do they laugh like that?’ And they were talking about us in front of us,” the teen said in the 21-minute video about the students she had an altercation with. “And so I went up there and I poured water on them. And then all three of them came at me.”

The teen told the officer that they blacked out during the ensuing physical altercation.

“I threw one of them into a paper towel dispenser. And then they got my legs out from under me and got me on the ground … beating the s— out of me,” Nex Benedict said. “And then my friends tried to jump in and help but I’m not sure, I blacked out.”

Nex Benedict said that they didn’t know the names of the students but the group had been “antagonizing” them in the days leading up to the fight. When asked by Thompson why they didn’t alert school administrators, she said they “didn’t really see the point” but had told their mother.

In the video, the teen’s mother, Sue Benedict, told Thompson she was “very mad” and “wanted something done” about the altercation. The mother called 911 after taking the teen to the hospital to report that her child was attacked at school, according to newly released 911 records.

While discussing the logistics of filing a report on the fight, Thompson told the two that Nex Benedict “essentially started it” by throwing the water.

“The way the courts are going to look at it is it’s a mutual fight,” he said. “Both parties are victims, but both parties are also suspects in this.”

Thompson advised that they consider whether they want to press charges and said he would follow up the next day and proceed from there.

The teen died on Feb. 8, a day after the altercation. On a 911 call made that day around 1 p.m. local time, Sue Benedict can be heard asking for an ambulance because the teen’s hands were “posturing.” Their breathing was shallow and their eyes were “kind of rolling back,” she said.

Police have said that preliminary information shows that the teen’s death was not a result of physical trauma from the altercation. The cause of death is pending until toxicology results and other testing results are completed, police said.

A final cause and manner of death will be determined by the State Medical Examiner’s Office.

An investigation by Owasso Police is ongoing. Once concluded, the case will be forwarded to the FBI for a “complete and thorough review,” the police department said.

While awaiting the full results of the autopsy, the teen’s family is calling on “all school, local, state and national officials to join forces to determine why this happened, to hold those responsible to account and to ensure it never happens again.”

“The Benedicts know all too well the devastating effects of bullying and school violence, and pray for meaningful change, wherein bullying is taken seriously and no family has to deal with another preventable tragedy,” the Benedict family said in a statement to ABC News.

The Owasso Police Department has said Owasso High School and Owasso Public Schools have been cooperative in the investigation.

Owasso Public Schools declined to comment on the investigation into the teen’s death, but told ABC News in a statement that the “safety and security of our students is our top priority and we are committed to fostering a safe and inclusive environment for everyone.”

“Bullying in any form is unacceptable,” the statement read. “We take reports of bullying very seriously and have policies and procedures in place to address such behavior.”

The teen’s death has sparked calls against anti-LGBTQ bullying, including by Vice President Kamala Harris.

“My heart goes out to Nex Benedict’s family, friends, and their entire community,” Harris said on Friday. “To the LGBTQI+ youth who are hurting and are afraid right now: President Joe Biden and I see you, we stand with you, and you are not alone.”

The Human Rights Campaign is demanding federal investigations into whether protections for LGBTQ students were violated in the case. The organization sent letters to the Department of Education and the Department of Justice asking for a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding their death.

The incident has also struck a chord nationwide with 2SLGBTQ groups and allies who are demanding answers regarding the circumstances around Nex’s death. 2SLGBTQ includes Two Spirit, an umbrella term used to describe a third gender in Native and Indigenous communities. Sue Benedict is a registered member of the Choctaw Nation.

Local organizations — including Transgender Advocacy Coalition of Oklahoma, Freedom Oklahoma, and Oklahomans for Equality — are holding vigils across the state and country throughout the weekend so the 2SLGBTQ community can honor the teen’s memory.

A student walkout against bullying is also planned for Monday at Owasso High School.

ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseco, Tristan Maglunog and Erica Morris contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Flaco, the rare Eurasian owl that captured the attention of New York City and dubbed “the most famous owl in the world,” has died after an apparent collision with a building, the Central Park Zoo said in a statement.

“We are saddened to report that Flaco, the Eurasian eagle owl discovered missing from the Central Park Zoo after his exhibit was vandalized just over a year ago, is dead after an apparent collision with a building on West 89th Street in Manhattan,” the zoo said in a statement Friday.

The zoo said that Flaco was reported to the Wild Bird Fund (WBF) by people in the building. Staff from the WBF quickly responded, but he was non-responsive and they declared him dead shortly afterward.

“The vandal who damaged Flaco’s exhibit jeopardized the safety of the bird and is ultimately responsible for his death. We are still hopeful that the NYPD, which is investigating the vandalism, will ultimately make an arrest,” the statement continued.

Flaco unwittingly transformed from an obscure bird to a cause célèbre after being reported missing on Feb. 2, 2023, from the cramped Central Park digs that served as his home since 2010, when he arrived in the city as a fledgling from a North Carolina bird sanctuary. He had been hatched and raised in captivity for the first 12 years of his life.

Flaco had been released from captivity by Central Park vandals, police said. Despite an extensive search, Flaco was able to evade capture for an entire year—and developed a following.

Flaco immediately caused a stir on one of Manhattan’s most fashionable shopping streets, Fifth Avenue, where he landed on the sidewalk near the Bergdorf Goodman department store, drawing a crowd and the NYPD. Officers cordoned him off with yellow crime scene tape and set an open cage next to him, apparently in case he wanted to surrender. Before they could move in to catch him, the mottled-colored creature flew off to a tree in front of the Plaza Hotel.

“He’s certainly my most photographed bird of 2023,” David Barrett, the creator and manager of Manhattan Bird Alert, and encountered Flaco told ABC News last year. “He’s the most famous bird in the world.”

Flaco would continue to draw crowds and his survival skills stunned those who did not think he could survive outside the enclosure.

“Several days ago, we observed him successfully hunting, catching and consuming prey. We have seen a rapid improvement in his flight skills and ability to confidently maneuver around the park,” zoo officials said last year.

Feb. 2 marked a year since the apex predator slipped through an opening vandals cut in the stainless steel mesh of his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo and bolted into the wilds of America’s largest city, testing the limits of his six-foot wingspan for the first time in his life.

ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — A balloon intercepted by fighter aircraft over Utah on Friday was a “likely hobby balloon” and has since left United States airspace, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said Saturday.

The “small balloon” was allowed to continue to fly above the U.S. after being intercepted Friday morning at an altitude of 43,000 to 45,000 feet because it has been determined not to pose a national security threat, NORAD said.

“After yesterday’s fighter intercepts, and in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration, the North American Aerospace Defense Command monitored the likely hobby balloon via ground radars until it left US airspace overnight,” NORAD said in a statement on Saturday.

NORAD said it has no additional information on the balloon.

A U.S. official described the balloon as being 50 feet tall and carrying a payload that is the size of a two-foot cube. It is not known what the payload might be carrying, the official said.

“The balloon was intercepted by NORAD fighters over Utah, who determined it was not maneuverable and did not present a threat to national security,” NORAD said in a statement on Friday.

The balloon also posed no hazard to flight safety, NORAD said.

The development comes slightly more than a year after a Chinese spy balloon was tracked across the United States before being shot down by U.S. fighters over U.S. territorial waters east of South Carolina.

That balloon measured nearly 200 feet in height, was equipped with a payload described as being the length of three school buses that carried intelligence sensors and was capable of being maneuvered remotely.

That incident created tensions between the United States and China that have only recently improved.

NORAD subsequently made adjustments to its sensors to increase the detection of high-altitude balloons flying across the U.S. and Canada that led to the shootdown of smaller balloons over Alaska, Canada’s Yukon Territory, and Lake Huron.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(ATHENS, Ga.) — A suspect was taken into custody a day after a woman who went for a run on the University of Georgia’s Athens campus was found dead due to “foul play,” school officials said Friday.

The victim, Laken Hope Riley, 22, was found in a wooded area on campus on Thursday with “visible injuries,” the university said. She died from blunt force trauma, according to University of Georgia Police Department Chief Jeffrey Clark.

A suspect in her death, 26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra, has been charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, obstructing an emergency call and concealing the death of another. He was denied bond during an initial court appearance on Saturday and is being held at the Clarke County Jail.

Clark told reporters Friday evening they took three to four people into custody in connection with the murder but only plan to arrest Ibarra, who is from Venezuela.

“The evidence suggests that this was a solo act,” he said.

Police do not believe he knew the victim and do not have a motive, according to the chief.

“I think this was a crime of opportunity, where he saw an individual and bad things happened,” Clark said.

“Key input” from the community, physical evidence and video footage from campus security cameras helped lead investigators to the suspect, who lives in Athens, the chief said.

“There are no indications of a continuing threat to the community related to this case at this time,” Clark said.

The Justice Department said Saturday that Ibarra’s brother, Diego Ibarra, had also been arrested during the course of the investigation for presenting a fake green card after officers approached him because he matched the description of the suspect. Diego Ibarra has been charged by federal complaint with possessing a fake green card and is in state custody.

A friend reported Riley missing shortly after noon on Thursday when she failed to return home from a run at the school’s intramural fields earlier that morning, the university said.

University police officers subsequently found her behind a lake near the fields “unconscious and not breathing,” the university said. Officers attempted to provide medical aid but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Riley was a junior at the Augusta University College of Nursing who studied at its Athens campus, the school said. She had previously attended the University of Georgia.

“This sudden loss of one of our students is truly heartbreaking,” the Augusta University College of Nursing said in a statement on Friday.

She graduated from River Ridge High School in Woodstock, Georgia, in 2020, where she ran on the school’s cross-country team for four years.

“Her passion for health care science and running are to be admired,” River Ridge High School cross-country coach Keith Hooper said in a statement to ABC News. “She will always accompany us as we run.”

Classes were canceled at the nursing school on Friday, with counselors available to staff and students.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Athens-Clarke County Police Department are assisting in the homicide investigation, the university said.

“We have been fully briefed on this terrible situation,” the university said in a statement. “We want to assure you that the safety and welfare of our campus community is our top concern.”

The incident follows the “sudden death” of a student in the campus’ Brumby Hall Wednesday night, the school said. A cause of death has not been released.

Chief Clark said there is no connection between the two deaths.

Classes will resume on Monday, the school said, calling the past 24 hours a “traumatic time” for the university.

University officials recommended that students travel in groups when possible and download the school’s safety app.

Clark urged anyone with information on the incident to contact the University of Georgia Police Department.

There has not been a homicide on the campus in the past 20 years, according to Clark.

ABC News’ Luke Barr, Alyssa Gregory, Jason Volack and Nick Uff contributed to this report.
 

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — A military helicopter crashed in northeast Mississippi on Friday afternoon during a routine training flight, according to the Mississippi National Guard.

The AH-64 Apache crashed in Prentiss County around 2 p.m. Possible casualties have not been confirmed, the Mississippi National Guard said in a statement.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(BIRMINGHAM, Ala.) — Since last year, Jasmine York, 34, and her husband have been trying to have a baby. The couple, both nurses, began freezing embryos before they got married in March 2023.

York had her first embryo transfer in August 2023, but the transfer failed, she told ABC News.

Determined to grow their family, the couple tried again, and they are currently undergoing their second round of in-vitro fertilization, or IVF.

But, after the Alabama Supreme Court issued a new decision last week ruling that frozen embryos are considered children, their embryo transfer appointment scheduled for March 20 was canceled by her hospital.

“It’s obviously really nerve-racking,” York told ABC News. “Where do we go from here? What would happen? We’re in the middle of this process, I’m taking medications, I’ve already purchased all of the medications for the transfer cycle.”

“But now, it’s just devastating, honestly, that all of that has been put on hold, and we don’t know what the next steps will be for us, or if we’ll even be able to afford the transfer of them out of state,” she continued.

The couple has spent more than $20,000 trying to get pregnant, according to York. They are now in limbo, unsure when they’ll be able to get the procedure, and if the money they spent on expensive medication will go to waste.

“We’re frustrated. Now, especially that a decision has been made to put everything on pause, I’m sad. I’ve had my moments of crying throughout the whole day and I’m angry. I’m angry that other people get to make a decision about whether or not I get to grow my family. I’m mad that other people’s opinions affect medicine and the practice of it,” York said.

“None of this is intentionally going in with an intent to harm a child. This is an attempt to create a child and it’s just frustrating and it’s sad that it could impact the rest of my life,” she said.

Alabama Supreme Court rules frozen embryos are ‘children’

News that York’s appointment was canceled comes days after the state Supreme Court issued a decision saying that frozen embryos are considered children under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, opening the door to civil — and potentially even criminal — lawsuits for destroying the embryos, even if done accidentally.

The decision stemmed from a lawsuit by couples whose embryos were destroyed after a patient wandered into a fertility clinic and dropped the embryos, according to court documents. In order to remain viable, embryos are stored in subzero temperatures and handled with care to avoid contamination. When the embryos were dropped, they were no longer viable and could not be transferred to create a pregnancy.

The couples then brought civil lawsuits against the facility, but a trial court threw out their wrongful death suits.

The Alabama state Supreme Court then reversed that decision late Friday, ruling that embryos are “children.”

“Unborn children are ‘children’ … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” the Court wrote in its opinion.

Associate Justice Gregory Cook, who wrote the lone fully dissenting opinion, said it was not the Court’s decision who meets the definition of “person” under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act and that the ruling would have devastating consequences for Alabamians.

“Moreover, there are other significant reasons to be concerned about the main opinion’s holding,” he wrote. “No court — anywhere in the country — has reached the conclusion the main opinion reaches. And, the main opinion’s holding almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization (“IVF”) in Alabama.”

Patients see IVF services paused

At least three IVF providers in Alabama have indefinitely paused procedures following the Court’s decision, among them being the University of Alabama Birmingham health system, the largest in the state.

Alabama Fertility Specialists and the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Mobile – in southwest Alabama — announced Thursday they had decided to pause IVF treatments.

Meanwhile, Huntsville Reproductive Medicine, P.C., located in Madison, near the Tennessee border, told ABC News it was still proceeding with IVF treatments but pausing on discarding embryos, whether the embryos “were genetically tested and found to be abnormal or the couple has simply reached their family building goals and don’t want to donate their” embryos.

Already a mother to a 13-year-old from a previous marriage, York has since had three ectopic pregnancies, resulting the removal of one her fallopian tubes. York says IVF was her only option to get pregnant.

“I want to go forth with the IVF. The problem is that I don’t know what that looks like for us right now. I don’t know. If it’s something that will be an option for us, because of all of the factors that come into play, with the transfer in the finding of physician and in taking off work, to go do this whole procedure,” York said.

Kendall Diebold, 32, a hematology nurse practitioner from Hanceville — about 40 miles north of Birmingham — and her husband have been trying to conceive for two years.

They used two rounds of letrozole, a medication that decreases the amount of estrogen in the body to increase the odds of pregnancy. The first round resulted in a pregnancy that ended in miscarriage, the second round was unsuccessful.

The couple also went through two rounds of intrauterine insemination, which were unsuccessful. They were getting ready to begin IVF at UAB in April when the court issued its ruling and UAB shut down its IVF program.

Diebold was at work when her colleague came in and told her the program was being suspended indefinitely.

“I didn’t even stick around to hear what she said next, because I left,” Diebold said. “One of my best friends, I called her and I said, ‘Where are you because I need you to come take care of me right now.’ So, she took care of me. We went on a walk, and she quite literally held me while I cried.”

Diebold and her husband have discussed potentially going out of state to seek care in Georgia, Kentucky or Tennessee, which she described as a privilege that many other families may not have. She said she’s reached out to Emory Healthcare in Atlanta to ask about what the IVF process may look like there.

“I don’t want to transfer care because I love my physician so much and after a while you build a rapport with them,” she said. “It’s doable, but it’s likely incredibly challenging, just from a logistical standpoint.”

She described not being able to potentially get fertility care in her home state as “frustrating.”

“It’s stressful when you’re already dealing with something that is so emotional, and so, it’s absolutely frustrating, overwhelming, scary, all of the things,” Diebold said.

‘It should be my choice’

Also impacted by the decision are women who currently have embryos in storage and now may not be able to pursue IVF in Alabama or are not able to discard their embryos.

Audrey B, who asked that just the last initial of her name be used to protect her privacy, from north-central Alabama, is currently 31-weeks pregnant via IVF after she and her husband struggled to conceive for about two years.

Audrey, 35, who was being treated at UAB, still has two frozen embryos. She and her husband originally planned to wait a year or two after giving birth to try and transfer a second embryo.

“It just feels like now we do not have any control over our embryos,” she told ABC News. “Like, what does that decision do for me? Like, am I going to have to pay for storage for the rest of my life for those embryos if I don’t use them?”

“Even if I do want to use them, who is going to transfer them? My fertility clinic, they said they were stopping all IVF programs,” she added.

Audrey and her husband have talked about possibly going out of state for IVF in the future but worry about the added cost and travel expenses.

“Can we transfer or should we transfer our embryos out of state?” Audrey said. “And even though we were transferring out of state, what state? Because like are we transferring them to Georgia, which is the neighbor state, but I mean, what tells us that Georgia is not going to pass the same kind of law?”

“So [if] you have to transfer those embryos to states like Colorado, New York … how much it’s going to cost?” she said.

Taylor Cater Durham, 30, who lives in Birmingham is in a similar situation. Cater Durham and her ex-husband went through IVF for two years but were unable to conceive.

During that time, Cater Durham said she had at least two egg retrievals. The first resulted in just one viable embryo, which was transferred but she didn’t become pregnant.

The second resulted in eight eggs being retrieved, four of which led to viable embryos that could be transferred. Three were transferred but they didn’t result in pregnancy. They still have one embryo left.

“This new law, the [embryos] that they knew were inconclusive and were not viable, it states that we couldn’t donate, we couldn’t discard them, that we would have to store them or use them,” she told ABC News. “And going through IVF is already very, very heartbreaking, and to know that you’re going to have to put these embryos in or store them and know they’re not going to work. It’s just crazy.”

Cater Durham said she is paying $850 a year to store her last embryo and is worried that the price could potentially increase with all the embryos that will now have to be stored due to so many clinics stopping IVF procedures.

She added that she was not planning to discard her last embryo but she’s angry that the court took that choice away from her.

“It should be the patient’s choice,” Cater Durham said. “I’m not ready to get rid of that embryo yet [but] I feel like it should be my choice if I want to keep it, donate it, discard it. Whatever I decide I want to do, it should be my choice, not the state of Alabama’s.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.