(OKLAHOMA CITY) — Two boys have died after they were swept away by waters from an open dam in Oklahoma City, officials say.
The incident occurred late in the afternoon on Monday when officials from the Oklahoma City Fire Department were needed for a water rescue emergency near the backside of Lake Overholser Dam, a large reservoir located within the city limits in the northwest Oklahoma City.
“With the water gates open, the water currents were extremely strong,” said the Oklahoma City Fire Department on social media detailing their rescue efforts. “Four boys were fishing in the area and entered the water. The strong water currents pulled two boys under water while the other two safely made it to a concrete ledge.”
Firefighters confirm that they were able to rescue the two boys from the ledge before beginning their search for the other two missing victims who were pulled under in the heavy currents.
A short time later, firefighters were able to locate one of the boys but said he did not survive. The Oklahoma City Fire Department and Oklahoma City Police Department continued searching for the other missing boy for several hours before confirming just before 1 a.m. on Tuesday that they had found him and he did not survive either.
According to ABC News’ Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO-TV, the boys who died were aged 10 and 11 years old.
The identity of the victims have not yet been released and the investigation is currently ongoing.
(NEW YORK) — Six people, including a Nepalese pilot, were killed in a helicopter crash near Mount Everest on Tuesday, local officials said.
Five tourists — all Mexican nationals — were onboard a sightseeing aircraft when it crashed near Lamjura Pass in the Solukhumbu District, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said.
“Locals and the police who reached the crashed site reported all 6 persons including Pilot dead,” the authority said in a statement.
The helicopter lost contact with the ground at about 10:13 a.m., moments after it took off from Surke on its way to Kathmandu, officials said.
A search-and-rescue helicopter departed from Kathmandu, but couldn’t land at the crash site because of “adverse weather,” aviation authorities said.
“Efforts are being made to carry the dead bodies by ground transportation to the helicopter landing area and further to Kathmandu,” authorities said.
(NEW YORK) — The husband of a woman who was found dead by the side of a road last month has been arrested for the alleged hit-and-run murder of his wife, police say.
The body of Angela Marie McClelland, a 49-year-old woman from Fort Ripley, Minnesota — approximately 110 miles northwest of Minneapolis — was found in the early hours of Sunday, June 25, near the intersection of Legend Road and Killian Road in Fort Ripley after having “died as a result of being struck by a vehicle,” according to the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff’s investigators along with the State Patrol spent the past two weeks following up on leads before finally arresting her husband, 47-year-old Tony James McClelland, for her alleged vehicular homicide.
“On July 10, 2023, at 8:30pm Crow Wing County Deputies arrested the husband 47 year old Tony James McClelland of Fort Ripley for the woman found deceased along the roadway in Fort Ripley Township near the intersection of Legend Rd and Killian Rd,” said the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Department announcing the break in the case. “The death occurred about two weeks ago and investigators have been working on the case putting the pieces together to the fatal events leading up to the death of the victim, 49 year old Angela Marie McClelland of Fort Ripley.”
Police did not disclose a potential motive for the alleged murder but did say that both the victim and the suspect lived together at the time of Angela McClelland’s death.
“Investigators from Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office, BCA and the State Patrol began developing leads and worked throughout the last two weeks following up on interviews and gathering pieces of evidence to bring this arrest today,” authorities said.
Following his arrest, Tony McClelland was transported to the Crow Wing County Jail where he was booked on second degree murder and criminal vehicular homicide charges.
Police said more information about their investigation will be released in the coming days and the investigation is currently ongoing.
(WASHINGTON) — In a court filing late Monday night, lawyers for former President Donald Trump called for a lengthy delay of his federal trial on charges related to his handling of classified documents, suggesting it would not be possible to try the case prior to the 2024 election.
Trump’s attorneys argue that the extraordinary nature of the case means there should be no reason to expedite the trial.
“Thus, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3161(h)(7)(A), based on the extraordinary nature of this action, there is most assuredly no reason for any expedited trial, and the ends of justice are best served by a continuance,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
As a result, the attorneys wrote, “the Court should, respectfully, before establishing any trial date, allow time for development of further clarity as to the full nature and scope of the motions that will be filed, a better understanding of a realistic discovery and pre-trial timeline, and the completion of the security clearance process.”
Special council Jack Smith, who is prosecuting the case, has not yet responded to the filing.
Trump pleaded not guilty last month to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities.
Last week, Trump’s co-defendant, longtime aide Walt Nauta, also pleaded not guilty to six counts related to the case, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.
Trump has denied all charges and denounced Smith’s probe as a political witch hunt.
(NEW YORK) — The Powerball jackpot for Monday’s drawing rose to $675 million after no one won on Saturday.
A single winner would have taken home an estimated $340.9 million cash option before taxes — the ninth largest Powerball jackpot on record and the second largest Powerball jackpot of 2023. Officials, however, announced early Tuesday morning ET there had been no winner.
The lucky numbers in Monday’s drawing were 2, 24, 34, 53 and 58, with 13 as the Powerball.
The prize for Wednesday’s drawing is now an estimated $725 million.
The April 19 drawing was the last time the Powerball was won, with an Ohio ticket taking a grand prize worth $252.6 million. The following 34 drawings didn’t have any winners, the lottery said.
A single ticket won a $2.04 billion jackpot in November 2022, marking the largest-ever jackpot in the Powerball’s history.
(NEW YORK) — A suspect in a cold-case murder who escaped while being taken to Michigan to face charges has been found following a massive manhunt in Montana, authorities said.
Fugitive Chadwick Shane Mobley, 42, was arrested and taken back into custody on Monday night after being spotted in Plains, Montana, the Sanders County Sheriff’s Office said.
Mobley is alleged to have absconded from authorities in Montana on Sunday while being taken to Michigan to face charges in the 2011 slaying of a 20-year-old woman, who was found fatally shot in the basement of a relative’s home, according to officials.
Employees of a private transport company contracted by the U.S. Marshals Service were driving Mobley from the Lincoln County Jail in Libby, Montana, to Michigan on Sunday when he managed to slip out of his handcuffs and ankle shackles and bolt from custody around 10 a.m. local time at a gas station in Plains, Montana, according to the Sanders County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff’s officials had described Mobley as dangerous and warned residents of Plains, a small town of about 1,100 people, to keep the doors of their homes and vehicles locked and to immediately call 911 if they spotted the fugitive.
The sheriff’s office said Mobley was spotted by citizens who “made the call and helped watch.”
Mobley was initially arrested on June 28 in Lincoln County following a nationwide manhunt.
Mobley was one of three murder suspects who escaped from custody in separate incidents over a four-day period, each prompting separate large-scale manhunts in different parts of the country.
Eric Abril, a suspect in a Northern California hostage-taking homicide and shootout with police, escaped just after 3 a.m. Sunday from a medical facility in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, where he was supposed to be under 24-hour surveillance, Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said at a news conference. The 35-year-old fugitive was captured Monday after being spotted in a residential area in Rocklin, California, roughly 6 miles from where he escaped, law enforcement sources told ABC affiliate station KXTV in Sacramento.
Michael Burham, a suspect in homicide and rape cases in Jamestown, New York, escaped from the Warren County, Pennsylvania, Jail late Thursday night, according to the Pennsylvania State Police. He was described by officials as a “self-taught survivalist” with military experience. He remains at large and authorities are focusing their search for him on the Northern Pennsylvania woods.
(NEW YORK) — A Maine father drowned while attempting to rescue his two daughters who were struggling in a deep water current, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife.
Henry Brooks was with his family at Seven Tree Pond in Union, Maine, Saturday afternoon, watching his daughters swim when one of the girls fell into a deeper part of the water where the river enters the pond, state wildlife officials said.
While attempting to save her sister, both girls — ages 12 and 13 — were swept out by the currents to a portion of the pond with even deeper water. Brooks jumped into the pond to save his children after they shouted for help, according to officials.
Officials said Brooks’ 27-year-old son grabbed a life jacket and also dove into the water. He swam to his sisters and rescued them, bringing them back to the dock, but then noticed that his father did not emerge from the water.
Game Wardens, Union Fire and Rescue and Knox County Sheriff’s Office called to the scene searched the area by boat and foot and couldn’t find the father, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife said.
Maine Warden Service divers were called to the area and found and recovered Brooks’ body nearly three hours after he drowned, officials said. Divers located his body 50 feet from the shore and not far from the dock where his son found his daughters.
Officials took the man’s body to a funeral home in Waldoboro. His daughters were taken to PenBay Medical Center, officials said.
(WASHINGTON) — Politicians in the nation’s capital are expected on Tuesday to pass what is being called an emergency public safety bill to address rising crime rates in the city.
As of Monday, homicide in Washington was up 17% year-to-date compared to 2022, while reported robberies were up 52% and motor vehicle thefts were up 117%, according to police statistics.
“We are in a state of emergency right now. … And like in any emergency, we have to act like it and we have to act urgently as a government to address the problem that we’re seeing,” Councilmember Brooke Pinto told reporters on Monday.
Pinto, who chairs the council’s judiciary and public safety committee, said that “when we have members of our community being shot and killed at rates that we haven’t seen for 20 years, that’s an emergency. Period. That was an emergency several months ago. That’s an emergency today.”
Some of the proposed emergency laws include removing requirements for a person to be held for a dangerous crime — such as carjacking, kidnapping, felony assault with a knife or other weapons — and for juveniles to be held whether or not they were armed if they are suspected of committing a dangerous crime.
Mayor Muriel Bowser said on Monday that she believes if the new bill passes, “I think we’re going to be safer, because people who are committing violent crime won’t be on the street to commit more violent crime.”
The district’s public safety laws have not been comprehensively updated since 1901. The most recent effort was rejected by Congress earlier this year, in a highly unusual use of the federal government’s authority over local regulations.
At a Monday press conference, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson reversed an earlier assessment he gave Congress during testimony at a March hearing about D.C.’s public safety.
Criminals, he said on Monday, “can get away with murder in this city.”
During the earlier March hearing on Capitol Hill, Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx noted that “on average, any given homicide suspect in D.C. has already been arrested 11 times before he or she actually commits homicide,” a statistic many officials, including former Police Chief Robert Contee, have shared.
Councilmember Pinto echoed that on Monday, telling reporters that within the first three months of 2023, the city “had over 100 cases where people were charged with a crime of violence, released pretrial and recommitted another violent offense.”
At the March hearing, Mendelson had said, “While perception is important, the reality is less concerning. Let me be clear: People should feel safe, and it is a problem that many residents of the district don’t.”
On Monday, he explained that his remarks to Congress were, he said, because Republicans had tried to interject themselves into local affairs while claiming there was a crime crisis.
Although Mendelson said he will vote in favor of the new crime bill, he told reporters, “Folks are looking at the council to solve this. I don’t have a badge to make arrests. I don’t have a badge to investigate. But what will make a difference is increasing the closure rate and what also will make a difference is more aggressive prosecutions.”
Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images
(LOS ANGELES) — A dozen homes in a Southern California community were evacuated over the weekend after the ground beneath them shifted, putting them at risk of a collision course into a nearby canyon, according to Los Angeles County officials.
Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACFD) officials red-tagged and evacuated homes in the Peartree Lane neighborhood in the Rolling Hills Estates Saturday, which displaced 16 people, the city said.
In a video shared on Twitter by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, homes are seen partially collapsed and the ground cracked, exhibiting significant damage.
Rolling Hills Estates is working with Los Angeles County agencies and the Red Cross to provide shelter for the displaced residents, the city said in a statement on its website.
The city said it’s also working with the LACFD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to monitor the situation in the impacted area.
“Homes have been pulled off their foundations,” Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Janice Hahn tweeted on Sunday. The land is continuing to move, but the evacuation order continues to be limited to these 12 homes.”
The landslide caused the ground to move around 20 feet since she was in the area the day before when there were only a “few cracks” and the garages were bent, Hahn said at a press conference on Monday.
Hahn said garages and back decks were “gone” and had fallen into the ravine.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. They’re completely uninhabitable,” Hahn said, adding that officials are waiting for the homes to fall into the ravine to figure out what caused the incident.
Southern California is prone to landslides because of its location on a major tectonic plate boundary and geological complexity, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the California Geological Survey.
The area experiences different types of landslides, including rapid debris flows caused by heavy rainfall, USGS said in its report.
Hahn said the landslide could be attributed to heavy rainfall, leading to underground water to cause a fissure, resulting in the homes falling into the canyon.
Rolling Hills Estates sits on the north side of Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, Google Maps data shows.
A landslide in 1956 destroyed 140 homes in the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, and the land still moves in the area, according to The Associated Press.
“Luckily, we got everybody out, people were given 20 minutes to get their belongings,” she said. “Everyone was coopering. We’re now here kind of in a recovery mode eventually to see what we can do to help people.”
Peartree Lane is closed to the public and only available to residents, city officials and public safety staff, the city said.
City officials and their partners are investigating the incident, according to Rolling Hills Estates.
“The outpouring of support from our community has been amazing over these past few days. Not just from within Rolling Hills Estates, but from our neighboring cities and our elected officials at the County and State levels,” Mayor Britt Huff said in a statement on the city’s website. “It has been truly inspiring to see how everyone is pulling together to offer assistance, especially to our displaced residents and their families.”
(WASHINGTON) — Republican presidential candidate and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy on Monday launched a commission-based fundraising program called “Vivek Kitchen Cabinet,” which one campaign finance expert said appears to be the first of its kind.
In a tweet, Ramaswamy wrote that “starting today, *anyone* can fundraise for the Vivek 2024 campaign & make a 10% commission.”
He said in a video announcing the initiative that it came out of a desire to “democratize the ability to make money,” casting the traditional system of campaign fundraising as an “oligopoly” of the managerial class.
“If somebody … is going to make 10% of the money they would raise for me or other candidates, it might as well be you,” he said. “Let’s decentralize that.”
That language echoes Ramaswamy’s broader pitch to GOP voters, including a pledge to boost the economy by upending bureaucracy (which he blends with a Trump-style attack on “woke” values compared to “American national identity”).
Ramaswamy’s campaign CEO, Ben Yoho, said in an interview with ABC News that they hope to reach their first thousand applications for the program on Monday after receiving around 300 applications within the first several hours of the launch.
Applicants accepted after a background check will be considered freelance contractors for the campaign and paid their commission on total funds raised, Yoho said.
The announcement drew some negative reactions on social media, with users likening the “kitchen cabinet” to a multi-level marketing scheme, in which participants receive a commission for recruiting others.
Yoho defended the initiative as standard practice, saying, “This is a flat-base commission, just like we pay our political fundraiser who’s on staff here. … This just expands that opportunity to our grassroots supporters.”
Campaign finance attorney and former Democratic National Committee Chief Counsel Joe Birkenstock said that while the concept of commission-based fundraising is not entirely new, he has not seen anyone execute it before involving their supporters.
“As is not uncommon, you see ‘outsider’ candidates tend to be the ones who pursue these kind of novel strategies,” he said. “I think they’re gonna find that the juice really isn’t worth the squeeze. But it’s not something I can point to other examples having already gone wrong. I just think they’re kind of tackling a little bit of uncharted territory. And I think they need to be ready for a lot of surprises.”
“That’s less for specific legal reasons than for kind of overall compliance strategy, and, you know, to some extent, just for optics reasons,” he said.
Ramaswamy, with an estimated net worth of at least $630 million, according to Forbes, has said he’s contributed $15 million to his own campaign and has already surpassed the 40,000-donor threshold to make the first Republican primary debate stage in August — if he also continues to get at least 1% support in national voter surveys.
FiveThirtyEight’s polling average currently has him at about 4%.
Given this, when asked about the reasoning behind the new program, Yoho said that while Ramaswamy will continue to invest in his campaign, uncertainty about future debate thresholds and future expenses were considerable factors.
“We have to build the ground team, both in regards to volunteer activities, but also the grassroots army small-dollar donors that will be able to lift this campaign up … and we need a quick surge of resources to defeat Joe Biden,” he said.
Ramaswamy isn’t the only White House hopeful employing unusual strategies to increase donations: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is offering $20 gift cards for supporters who donate at least $1.
ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
