(NEW YORK) — The jury has reached a verdict in the trial of Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, who killed four students at Oxford High School in November 2021.
Crumbley was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the shooting.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(LOS ANGELES) — A second atmospheric river storm within one week is drenching California with heavy rain and life-threatening flooding and mudslides.
Downtown Los Angeles recorded 7.03 inches of rain on Sunday and Monday, marking the wettest two days in the city since 1956.
Los Angeles averages 14.25 inches of rain for an entire year. So far this year, LA has recorded nearly 11 inches of rain, or 75% of the city’s annual rainfall.
And the rain is still falling. As of Tuesday morning, the three-day rainfall totals have climbed to: 12.2 inches in San Bernardino County; 12 inches in Bel Air in Los Angeles County; 9.4 inches in Santa Barbara County; 8.7 inches in Ventura County and 7.6 inches in downtown Los Angeles.
“We need to be prepared for the continued impacts from this atmospheric river system,” National Weather Service meteorologist Ariel Cohen warned Monday night. “The risk for additional landslides remains very high and everyone needs to remain at a high state of readiness.”
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(NEW YORK) — Americans’ credit card balances climbed to a new record high $1.13 trillion, according to data released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Credit card debt increased by $50 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023 alone, a 4.6% jump from the previous quarter.
The data on credit card debt comes as total household debt rose by $212 billion to reach $17.5 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the New York Fed’s latest “Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit.”
In a potentially concerning sign for consumers and the broader economy, the number of Americans who are late making their credit card payments is also ticking up.
Delinquencies – reflecting missed payments on credit card bills – increased across all age groups. Borrowers between the ages of 30-39 are missing their payments at especially fast rates.
“In the case of credit cards, it looks like things have reverted to a level that is worse than pre-pandemic,” New York Fed researchers told reporters on a call Tuesday.
The researchers said higher credit card debt is “not a flashing red signal” but is indicative of strain on many households’ budgets. Credit card balances first surpassed $1 trillion last August.
Americans are also taking more debt when they’re buying cars. Auto loan balances rose by $12 billion in the fourth quarter to $1.61 trillion, while delinquencies also rose.
New York Fed researchers attributed some of the rising auto debt to higher prices for new and used cars in the wake of the pandemic.
ABC News’ Taylor M. Dunn contributed to this report.
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(NEW YORK) — As many as 70 current and former New York City public housing employees were charged Tuesday with accepting kickbacks from contractors in exchange for awarding city contracts, federal prosecutors in New York said.
The charges against the New York City Housing Authority employees present the largest number of federal bribery charges brought on a single day in the history of the Department of Justice.
The investigation involves the city’s Department of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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(NEW YORK) — Meta will begin labeling images created by OpenAI, Midjourney and other artificial intelligence products, Nick Clegg, the company’s president of global affairs, announced in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday.
The labels, set to roll out in the coming months, will identify AI-generated images posted on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, Clegg said. Images created by a Meta’s own tool will also be labeled, Clegg added.
“I hope this is a big step forward in trying to make sure that people know what they’re looking at, and they know where what they’re looking at comes from,” Clegg told GMA. “As the difference between human and synthetic content gets blurred, people want to know where the boundary lies.”
The labels, however, will not be a “perfect solution,” Clegg acknowledged, citing the scale and complexity of AI-generated content on the platforms.
Meta cannot currently identify AI-generated audio and video produced using outside tech platforms, Clegg said in a blog post on Tuesday. To address this issue, Meta will add a feature that allows users to voluntarily label audio or video as AI-generated when they upload it to a platform, Clegg said.
The risks posed by AI-generated content have stoked wide concern in recent weeks.
Fake, sexually explicit AI-generated images of pop star Taylor Swift went viral on social media late last month, garnering millions of views. In response, the White House called on Congress and tech firms to take action.
“While social media companies make their own independent decisions about content management, we believe they have an important role to play in enforcing their own rules to prevent the spread of misinformation, and non-consensual, intimate imagery of real people,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told ABC News White House correspondent Karen Travers.
Another incident last month drew attention to election risks posed by AI. A fake robocall impersonating President Joe Biden’s voice discouraged individuals from voting in the New Hampshire Primary.
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, tech companies should take action to assure users that they will be able to identify whether or not online content is authentic, Clegg said.
“In an election year like this, it’s incumbent upon us as an industry to make sure we do as much as the technology allows to provide as much visibility to people so they can distinguish between what’s synthetic and what’s not synthetic,” Clegg added.
In September, a bipartisan group of senators proposed a bill that would ban the use of deceptive AI content falsely portraying candidates for federal office in political ads.
When asked whether Meta supports the bill, Clegg said he backs legislation regulating AI but did not specifically comment on the Senate measure.
“I think it’s right that you have certain guardrails in place to make sure that there’s proper transparency about how these big AI models are built, to make sure that they’re properly stress tested so they’re as safe as they can be,” Clegg said. “Yes, I think there’s definitely a role for governments.”
Meta plans to label AI-generated images through next year because “a number of important elections are taking place around the world,” Clegg said in the blog post. The extended period of time will afford Meta an opportunity to evaluate its efforts.
“What we learn will inform industry best practices and our own approach going forward,” Clegg said.
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(WASHINGTON) — Former Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, in his first interview since leaving the 2024 race last month, is addressing how a hot mic moment partially overshadowed the final moments of his campaign.
“I’ll tell you, George, it was a complete mistake,” Christie said in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos that aired on Tuesday.
Minutes before he told a room full of supporters that he was ending his bid for the White House, Christie was heard on the event’s livestream telling his New Hampshire state director that former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, one of his rivals, was “going to get smoked” and was “not up to this.”
Christie told Stephanopoulos that it was his son Andrew, who was watching from the Dominican Republic, who called and told him, “Hot mic! Hot mic! Hot mic!”
“It’s one of those moments I wish, quite frankly, hadn’t happened, just ’cause it was a distraction. But on the other hand, I didn’t say anything on the hot mic that I didn’t essentially say in the speech that I gave about 10 minutes later,” Christie said.
The next day, Haley called him, he said.
“It was a 45-second conversation. She told me, ‘I know it’s a personal decision to get in a race, and it’s a tough decision to get out. I heard everything you said last night, including the hot mic.’ And I said, ‘Uh-huh.’ And she said, ‘Well, good luck.’ And I said, ‘Good luck to you,'” Christie recounted.
“So she didn’t ask for an apology, you didn’t give one?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“No, there’s no apology warranted,” Christie said.
In his interview with ABC News, Christie, a former Trump supporter turned vocal critic, explained his decision to suspend his campaign just 13 days ahead of the primary in New Hampshire, where he had devoted all of his time and resources.
“We got to the point the Sunday before I dropped out of the race where we did our last — our last bit of polling came back. And it was clear to us that we couldn’t beat Donald Trump,” he said. “To me, once I became convinced I couldn’t beat him in New Hampshire, it was time to get out.”
Still hesitant on Haley
In his speech ending his campaign, Christie argued that Haley had been too reluctant to directly attack Trump, whom she has called an agent of chaos but also “the right president at the right time.”
But despite Haley deploying more direct attacks against Trump since he defeated her in New Hampshire, Christie said he doesn’t envision supporting her down the road — and risk her later endorsing Trump.
“I made a decision in 2016, the only time in my political career where I endorsed someone purely for political reasons, even though I had some misgivings, and that’s when I endorsed Donald Trump,” he said. “It was the biggest mistake I’ve made in my political career, and I’m just not gonna repeat that mistake for anybody.”
Christie said it was “hard … to say” if Haley still has a shot against Trump, but, “It doesn’t look like it,” given polling showing Trump some 30 points above her in her home state of South Carolina, which will hold the next big primary.
This, despite the fact that, according to Christie, “Trump will be more likely than not a convicted felon when he gets on the stage at the nominating convention in mid-July in Milwaukee.”
Looking back, Christie said he feels the entire primary was over the night of the first debate — last August — when the field didn’t do more to condemn that possibility.
“Because when they ask you, ‘Would you still support him if he was a convicted felon?’ — and six of the eight people raise their hands on that stage, what it says to the largest debate audience we were ever gonna have during the primary is, ‘His content is normal,'” Christie said.
Only he and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said they wouldn’t support Trump if Trump is convicted.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty in his four criminal cases.
“The biggest frustration for me is that we have so many people in our party who complain about Donald Trump [privately], but none of them are willing to do the hard work that needs to be done to rid our party,” Christie said at another point in his interview with Stephanopoulos, adding that he feels they’re “afraid of him.”
What’s next for Christie?
When Christie votes in New Jersey’s primary in June, he anticipates skipping the presidential portion of his ballot, believing Trump will be the last one standing, he said.
He plans to do the same thing come the general election.
“The one thing I can tell you for sure is I don’t know what I’m gonna do in November. But I’m not voting for Donald Trump, under any circumstances,” he said.
“Assuming it’s the two of them and a handful of third-party candidates,” said Stephanopoulos, “isn’t any vote that’s not for Joe Biden a vote for Donald Trump?”
“In my state, my vote is not gonna matter a lick, OK?” Christie said.
“I don’t know who the full field’s gonna be yet. And there might be a No Labels candidate,” he added, referring to the outside group that is considering a bipartisan “unity” ticket to run against Trump and Biden.
Christie argued a strong Republican could chip away at Trump’s support.
Asked directly if No Labels had approached him about joining a ticket, after founding chairman Joe Lieberman said last month he was going to reach out, Christie said he had not — but didn’t rule out the possibility of saying yes.
“Well, what I’ve said in the past is that I’d have to see a path for anybody — not just me — but I think anybody who would accept that would need to see a path to 270, 270 electoral votes,” he said.
“If there was ever a time in our lifetime when a third-party candidate could make a difference, I think it’s now,” he said.
And while he feels Trump is a threat to democracy, he said Biden is “passed his sell-by date.”
Asked the advice he would give to those trying to defeat Trump, Christie said: “Replace Joe Biden. I just think that Joe Biden is probably the only major Democrat who Donald Trump could beat.”
Beating Trump has been Christie’s mission throughout the 2024 cycle, but he told Stephanopoulos that he couldn’t say whether he’ll succeed.
“I don’t know, George. But it won’t be for a lack of trying,” he said. “I can guarantee you that.”
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(WASHINGTON) — The union that represents front-line Border Patrol agents supports the Senate immigration reform bill, saying the new authorities it gives agents to turn migrants away are a key step in the right direction.
That’s despite heavy opposition from House Republicans that might scuttle the effort — at least for the time being.
The National Border Patrol Council has previously endorsed Donald Trump for president and routinely takes hard-line positions on immigration enforcement.
“This is absolutely better than what we currently have,” National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd told ABC News.
When the new expulsion authorities are triggered, agents will work to quickly turn migrants back to Mexico. Judd said he was confident this new authority combined with more detention resources will reduce illegal crossings.
Further, additional resources for migrants who require processing will free up agents to remain on the front line.
“They’re able to do the job that they were supposed to do as far as protecting the American people and I think that they would feel much better about the job with this bill,” Judd said.
While supportive of the new compromise agreement, Judd said he also backs more restrictive measures.
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(NEW YORK) — A second storm within one week is pummeling nearly the entire state of California with heavy rain and life-threatening flooding.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a state of emergency for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, where floodwaters have inundated roads and high winds are knocking down power lines and trees.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 06, 7:39 AM
Southern California sees historic rainfall
As of early Tuesday, almost a foot of rain had fallen in Los Angeles’ Bel Air neighborhood over a period of less than three days, according to the National Weather Service
As of Monday, downtown Los Angeles had recorded 7.03 inches of rain in two days, making it the city’s wettest two-day period since 1956 when 7.44 inches of rain fell. It’s also the third wettest two days in Los Angeles’ history, with records dating back to 1877.
Los Angeles typically gets 14.25 inches of rain over an entire year. Since the start of 2024, the sprawling Southern California city has recorded almost 11 inches of rain — 75% of its annual average.
Feb 06, 7:06 AM
Latest forecast
A storm system continues to slam Southern California, with an atmospheric river bringing a plume of moisture all the way from the tropical Pacific Ocean.
The National Weather Service has flood watches in effect Tuesday morning for California as well as Nevada and Arizona. Winter storm warnings and snow alerts were also in effect for nine western states, from Montana to California, as this storm spreads into the Rocky Mountains.
As of early Tuesday, up to 3 feet of snow had already fallen on the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
The threat of flash floods on Tuesday will be mostly from Los Angeles to San Diego in California and from Yuma to Phoenix in Arizona. Locally, less than 1 inch of rain is in the forecast for Los Angeles, but the foothills around the city could get an additional 1 to 2 inches of rain.
On Wednesday, another storm system — much weaker — is expected to move through California from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles by the evening hours. The storm could dump an additional 1 inch of rain on southern California.
Feb 05, 10:08 PM
President Biden pledges ‘any and all federal support’ California needs
President Joe Biden told California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass he is committed to helping communities impacted by the monster storms with “any and all federal support requested.”
Feb 05, 10:17 PM
LAFD rescues man and dog from LA River
Los Angeles Fire Department personnel rescued a man and his dog from the Los Angeles River Monday.
Around 2:45 p.m. PT, authorities received a report from a bystander that a man had jumped into the water to rescue his dog. Fire crews responded and found that the dog had managed to swim to the edge and escape the rapids.
The dog was taken to a shelter for temporary care.
At a press conference Monday night, officials said LA County Fire had rescued 16 people from flooding conditions and five cats.
Feb 05, 4:50 PM
Flash flood warning in Los Angeles area extended to 6 p.m. PT
A flash flood warning that covers the Los Angeles-area cities of Glendale, Pasadena and Santa Clarita has been extended until 6 p.m. local time.
A flood advisory covering all of LA County is in effect until 3 p.m. local time.
Feb 05, 4:43 PM
3 people killed by fallen trees
Three people have been killed by fallen trees during the monster storm slamming California.
A man in Carmichael died after a tree fell on him, a Sacramento County spokesperson said Monday.
A tree fell on a house in Boulder Creek on Sunday, killing one resident inside, according to the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Department. A second person managed to escape the home, authorities said.
The third fatality was recorded in Yuba City. An 82-year-old man was in his backyard on Sunday when he was killed by a falling redwood tree, Yuba City police said.
Feb 05, 3:13 PM
Flash flooding, mudslides ongoing threat from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles to San Diego
Flash flooding and mudslides are an ongoing threat from Santa Barbara to San Diego on Monday, with the Los Angeles area in the bull’s-eye, as a historic atmospheric river storm slams Southern California.
Ten inches of rain fell in some areas of Southern California. Many spots saw more than a month’s worth of rain over the last 24 hours.
Los Angeles recorded over 4 inches of rain in 24 hours, marking the city’s wettest day since December 2004.
The heavy rain and flooding will continue through Tuesday morning. Another 2 to 4 inches of rain is possible from Los Angeles to San Diego.
By Tuesday afternoon, the downpours will wind down. By Wednesday morning, the showers will linger in Southern California and most of the heavy rain will move into Arizona.
-ABC News’ Melissa Griffin
Feb 05, 2:59 PM
Over 130 flooding incidents reported in LA
Los Angeles has seen 2 to 5 inches of rain, while the Santa Monica mountains and Topanga Canyon area on the outskirts of Los Angeles are facing 5 to 10 inches of rain, Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said at a news conference Monday.
The fire department has responded to over 130 flooding incidents and 49 mudslide and debris flow incidents, and Los Angeles police recorded more than 65 traffic collisions, Crowley said.
“Overall, the county has weathered the storm well,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said.
The atmospheric river event will continue through Tuesday, bringing another 1 to 3 inches of rainfall to Los Angeles, Crowley said.
Feb 05, 1:45 PM
Cars trapped on flooded roads, drivers rescued amid extreme rainfall
Evacuation orders and evacuation warnings have been issued in some parts of Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Orange counties as life-threatening flooding hits the region, trapping people in cars and forcing residents to evacuate their homes.
In Los Angeles’ Baldwin Hills neighborhood, about six cars crashed while heading down a hill where the road was partly covered with mudslide debris, according to Los Angeles police. Multiple people were injured and one person might have suffered a broken leg, police said.
In San Bernardino County, three people were trying to drive across a flooded road when the car became submerged, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department. The three people clung to a tree and were rescued, officials said.
In Los Angeles’ Studio City neighborhood, firefighters rescued 16 residents after debris flow damaged homes, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. No one was injured, officials said.
Feb 05, 12:42 PM
2nd fatality confirmed
Two people have been killed by fallen trees during the powerful California storm.
A tree fell on a house in Boulder Creek on Sunday, killing one resident inside, according to the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Department. A second person managed to escape the home, authorities said.
The second fatality was in Yuba City. An 82-year-old man was in his backyard on Sunday when he was killed by a falling redwood tree, Yuba City police said.
Feb 05, 11:22 AM
Over 500,000 waking up without power
More than 516,000 customers in California are waking up without power Monday morning as a powerful rainstorm slams the state.
Flash flood warnings and flood advisories are in effect for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Feb 05, 9:25 AM
Latest forecast
Los Angeles recorded more than 4 inches of rain on Sunday, beating the city’s daily record of 2.55 inches set in 1927.
The relentless rainfall and life-threatening flooding are ongoing across the Los Angeles area on Monday morning and will continue throughout the day.
A flash flood warning is in effect from Malibu to Beverly Hills to Brentwood to Hollywood to Burbank.
By Tuesday morning, the heaviest rain will be targeting areas east of San Diego.
On Tuesday afternoon, scattered downpours continue throughout California, and by Wednesday, just a few light showers and sprinkles will remain.
Feb 05, 7:37 AM
4 million under flash flood warning in Southern California
The National Weather Service has a flood watch in effect Monday morning for some 40 million residents in California, where more than a month’s worth of rain has fallen in the past 24 hours.
There was also a flash flood warning in effect until at least 9 a.m. PT for more than 4 million residents in Southern California, from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Hollywood Hills and Griffith Park, including the areas of Hollywood, Malibu, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Santa Monica, Encino and Brentwood. There were reports of numerous damaging landslides, inundated roadways, submerged vehicles as well as flooded creeks and streams within the region.
Automated rain gauges indicate between 5 and 8 inches of rain have already accumulated in the warning area, with rainfall continuing. An additional 1 to 4 inches of rain was possible there.
-ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke and Morgan Winsor
Feb 05, 5:49 AM
Over 634,000 customers without power in California
Power is out for hundreds of thousands of electric customers in California amid severe weather.
As of 2:40 a.m. PT on Monday, more than 634,000 customers were without power across the Golden State, according to data collected by PowerOutage.us.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Feb 05, 5:34 AM
Man killed by falling redwood tree in Yuba City, police say
A man was killed by a falling redwood tree in his backyard in Yuba City in Northern California on Sunday, authorities said.
The Yuba City Police Department identified the victim as 82-year-old David Gomes.
A neighbor, who reported the incident, told the responding officers that they last saw Gomes at around 3 p.m. PT and believed they heard the tree fall about two hours later, according to police.
“Through the investigation, it appeared Gomes was possibly using a ladder to try and clear the tree away from his residence when it fell on him,” police said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Marilyn Heck and Morgan Winsor
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(WASHINGTON) — Former Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, in an exclusive new interview with ABC News about a month after he suspended his 2024 campaign, warned that if Donald Trump is reelected, his White House will face a “huge personnel problem” during a “vendetta presidency.”
“Let’s say that Donald Trump does win in November. What does a second term look like?” ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Christie, in the former New Jersey governor’s first interview since suspending his presidential campaign, clips of which will air Tuesday on Good Morning America, GMA3 and ABC News Live Prime.
“Mayhem. Absolute mayhem,” Christie replied. “First off, people forget that in the first term, he got a lot of good people to work for him in that administration.”
Christie ticked through names of former Trump Cabinet members who, he said, brought strong experience but were fired or quit because of Trump, including former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, former Attorney General Bill Barr and retired Gen. John Kelly, a former White House chief of staff.
“Whether you agree with their policies, these are really solid, experienced people in government,” said Christie, whose third book, What Would Reagan Do?: Life Lessons from the Last Great President, is out Tuesday.
” I cannot imagine the crew that he’ll put together [in a second term],” Christie continued. “And he will do it with an eye much different than in ’16. In ’16, he was scared. He didn’t expect to win, and he was intimidated by the presidency when he first got there. He will not be this time.”
Christie, after also running for president in 2016, led Trump’s transition team but has since called his decision to support Trump a “mistake,” citing efforts to deny the validity of the 2020 election.
The former governor is now a vocal Trump critic, drawing fire from Trump as well, who has called him a “failed” leader and candidate. Trump has likewise attacked the track records of many of his former Cabinet members and senior aides after they left.
Christie told Stephanopoulos that he thinks Trump will not seek out capable people if he wins another four years in office.
“What he wants … are people who will just nod their heads, say yes and execute whatever his next rant will be. And so, one, it’ll be a huge personnel problem of people who have no business being in senior positions in the federal government,” Christie said. “And then secondly, I think we have to take him at his word. This is gonna be the vendetta presidency. This is gonna be, ‘I am your retribution.’ And I think he will use the levers of government to punish the people who he believes have been disloyal to him or to his approach.”
Trump has often talked about targeting his political enemies in campaign speeches, promising to “root out” opponents who “live like vermin.”
More recently, however, he has said, “We’re going to make the country so successful again, I’m not going to have time for retribution. And remember this: Our ultimate retribution is success.”
Top officials from the Trump campaign, meanwhile, dismissed reports last December about possible appointments in a second Trump presidency, calling them “unwanted distractions.”
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(NEW YORK) — It was a perfect storm that confronted first responders when wildfires broke out on the Hawaiian island of Maui in August, investigators have determined.
“Severe weather” fed the flames, investigators say, and many of the already limited roads became impassable. An already understaffed police force was left to grapple with communications and equipment problems that hadn’t previously been anticipated, a preliminary after-action investigation has found.
Those are some of the findings of the probe, released Monday by the Maui Police Department. It’s the first analysis performed by any of the island’s emergency response agencies since wildfires destroyed the historic Lahaina district of the island on Aug. 8, 2023, ultimately, according to the report, killing 100 people, burning more than 6,600 acres, and leaving thousands of homes and other structures in ruins. The wind-fed blaze stands as what state officials said was the worst natural disaster in Hawaii’s history and America’s deadliest wildfire in over a century, the fifth deadliest in U.S. history.
“In policing, we respond to dynamic and evolving situations,” Maui Police Chief John Pelletier wrote in the report released Monday. “We cannot control the incidents we respond to; we can, however, control our responses in the aftermath.”
At a press briefing Monday evening, Pelletier led the room in 100 seconds of silence “to honor those we lost.”
“If it seems like that was long, realize this: for the families, the pain never ends, and the silence is deafening,” Pelletier said.
The 98-page document paints a picture of chaos on Maui as winds from a Pacific hurricane fueled a series of fires that started throughout Aug. 8 in four different locations on the 727-square-mile island. As one blaze was contained, another seemed to start. Then finally, with the ferocity of the gales of Hawaiian legend, the winds fueled a fire in Lahaina that made it impossible to see, collapsed communications systems, downed power lines and rendered evacuation routes nearly useless, according to the report.
It wasn’t just the thick smoke and rapidly spreading flames, investigators found, that made Maui officers’ jobs — and citizens’ survival — harder: A toxic haze of false information lingered in the chaos, and, the report said, fed confusion.
The police after-action review was led by Sgt. Chase Bell, who was assigned to the investigation by the chief and who interviewed every single officer and police department staffer connected to the department’s response. He said the report was to determine what was done wrong, what was done right and what needed to be done in the future for the island’s police force to be better prepared for the next natural disaster.
Among the report’s findings are:
Despite the red flag warnings of dangerously high winds days ahead of Aug. 8, Hawaiian Electric did not preemptively shut off the power, the utility’s CEO, Shelee Kimura, testified in September, with the company telling ABC News that they, “like many utilities, do not have a power shut-off program;” that “preemptive, short-notice power shutoffs have to be coordinated with first responders,” and “in Lahaina, electricity powers the pumps that provide the water needed for firefighting.”
According to Kimura, a fire at 6:30 a.m. was likely caused by power lines that fell in high winds.
The police investigation didn’t address the utility’s potential culpability for the fires, the origin of the blazes or the response by fire crews. The examination dealt exclusively with the actions of the Maui Police Department, which, in the case of fire, plays a secondary role, assisting with evacuations, communications and rescue efforts.
“Life safety is always our primary priority when responding to any incident, and especially in the incident, in an incident of this magnitude. Our officers’ efforts remain focused on this, whether it was by conducting evacuations, the facilitation of emergency traffic getting out, as well as the transport of individuals,” Bell said at Monday’s briefing. “As we all have come to know, this is an unprecedented, prolonged, constantly evolving and wildly dynamic event.”
A fire broke out in Lahaina during the early morning hours of Aug. 8 but was 90% contained by 8:19 a.m., according to the police timeline. Just over five hours later, the winds were kicking up in that same area, and power lines were coming down. By 2:55 pm, a caller reported smoke and fire spreading fast in the area of Kuialua Street and Hookahua Street, according to police. Sixteen more calls would come in within three minutes, police said.
As the fire’s rampage worsened, officers tried to manage “gridlocked” traffic on “key streets” to alleviate congestion so people could escape the famous enclave in the northwestern part of Maui, according to the report. Police used their loudspeakers to try and direct residents even as the “rapid spread of the fire and reduced visibility” made evacuation “challenging,” the report said.
The fire’s spread toward the Lahaina Civic Center prompted more than a thousand people to evacuate, “many without vehicles,” the report said — and from the onset of Lahaina’s fire and “into the morning” of Aug. 9, police and fire personnel “transported hundreds of citizens” within their own emergency vehicles out of harm’s way, according to the report.
Finding other ways meant improvising for police, the report said: One officer worked with a civilian and county employee “to unlock a series of gates and lead evacuees down a dirt road, creating a vital escape path for vehicles.” Another officer “utilized his own straps to tie to a fence and his police vehicle to pull a fence down,” according to the report.
As the fires began and police worked to get people out of their path, “not all officers had proper [personal protective equipment], especially relative to a fire of this magnitude,” the report said.
The MPD report determined officers must have the training and tools to respond even in a crisis that might be unimaginable. The report recommends equipping every police supervisor’s vehicle with a “breaching kit” to clear blocked escape routes, “to ensure lives are preserved,” and to “create go-bags of PPE for each motorized beat” for emergency events.
The MPD’s report also recommends more “real-time crime center cameras” that “would not only reduce crime and response times to crimes, but also to be able to detect smoke” from a centralized command location.
As the fire raged on Aug. 8, emergency dispatch saw an increase in calls for service that taxed a system that was already struggling to keep up with fires that came atop the normal types of police and medical calls, according to the MPD report.
The report said that, in August 2023, the police department’s staffing was 25% shy of the number of police officers it should have, and the civilian dispatch ranks were even more depleted, with fewer than half the spots filled.
As the Maui wildfires tore through paradise, fire calls were ultimately “coupled in” to the calls for service and “communications personnel were challenged to field three days’ worth of calls within a single day,” the police report said. “Never in any current emergency services dispatcher’s career have they experienced the volume of calls received on Aug. 8, 2023.”
In a crisis when fast, accurate communication is vital, it was stymied by the very elements that had conspired to cause the natural disaster, according to the report.
In the high winds, “drones and aircraft were unable to assist” with the crisis and “unable to be deployed,” according to the report. The Lahaina area was “hit with a complete failure of commercial electrical service,” leaving police to rely on two-way radios, the report said. But as wind made it impossible to hear what was being said on the radios, it “led to some misunderstandings of radio transmissions,” and with officers “actively engaged in evacuations” and the “sheer number” of circumstances before them, it was “apparent that officers may have missed certain transmissions,” according to the MPD report.
As emergency efforts in Lahaina continued, the lack of staffing at police headquarters meant that urgent radio traffic from that community was being fielded by “a single dispatcher,” the report found.
Emergency service dispatch stations “should be equipped with radio capabilities,” which would allow them to “receive and dispatch additional support and calls,” the MPD report recommends.
The county’s two communication centers typically receive roughly 360 emergency 911 calls per day, according to the report — but in the 24 hours of Aug. 8, it was 13 times that much: an “unprecedented” combined total of 4,523 calls, investigators found. The report recommends a “dedicated phone line” for disasters to streamline emergency messaging.
By the morning of Aug. 9, the first fatality was found and confirmed. It would be the first of many, the report said, and victim recovery “would take weeks.”
“An anthropologist would work oftentimes on their hands and knees in a very detailed effort to recover everything that was recoverable,” forensic pathologist Dr. Jeremy Stuelpnagel said at Monday’s press briefing. “Sometimes the fragments were as small as a quarter, or smaller.”
As “radio traffic overflowed, personnel were plentiful, however, there were not enough MPD vehicles for all personnel on duty,” the police report said.
The morgue’s facilities and storage had to expand, increasing its autopsy capacity by nearly 400% to accommodate the complex and sensitive process of identifying the many sets of charred remains, according to the report. The report recommends retrofitting the facility and preparing for possible future mass-casualty events.
In the aftermath, as families were desperate for answers, the community stood in shock and the nation watched in horror, as misinformation and disinformation spread, the police report found.
Amid what was already a chaotic and terrifying situation, artificial intelligence was “used to spread disinformation and undermine trust in the government,” feeding confusion, the report said.
“In the days and weeks that followed the fires, there was voluminous information being disseminated that was both factual and fictitious,” the report said. “There was evidence of a concentrated effort, including some by foreign governments, as well as lone wolf actors, to disrupt the integrity of first responders, the community and government.”
A memorandum later found to be bogus and purportedly from FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell was “sent to public and private entities hidden under a @proton.me email account,” the report said, and claimed to highlight “grave concerns” about the “handling” of the wildfire disaster, and “reveals serious lapses by local authorities, potential assumption of federal control and ongoing criminal investigations.” The fact that the memo was completely false didn’t mitigate the damage it did, the MPD report said.
During the process of notifying families of the dead or injured, the report said, undermined trust posed a “challenge.”
“Some of the families were uneasy with trusting government agencies as they were seeing and hearing conspiracies online, by word of mouth and in the media,” the report said, and some were “hesitant to give DNA samples to help identify family members if remains were recovered.”
“Allowing family members to participate and having the speakers, peer support and chaplains walk around and introduce themselves at the beginning of the briefing helped lower tensions and emotions,” the report said, and teams made sure families knew the DNA samples would “only be used for identification purposes and nothing more, leading more people to provide a sample after the briefing and more remains were identified.”
The final after-action report is expected in the next six to 12 months, Pelletier said.
“These were our worst hours. These were our finest moments,” Pelletier said at Monday’s briefing. “We are Maui strong.”
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