(LONDON) — A tourist bus fell off a cliff in Peru on Sunday night, killing four people and injuring 16, authorities said.
The bus was traveling in the Abra Málaga sector on the Cusco-Quillabamba road network when it plunged 328 feet around 7 p.m. local time, Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism said.
Three Colombians and one Peruvian were among the dead, according to the ministry. No U.S. citizens were injured in the wreck.
People injured in the crash are from Canada, Israel, France, Argentina, Greece, Peru, Spain and the Netherlands, the ministry said, adding that one Canadian is in the intensive care unit.
Those who were injured were transported to two clinics in Cusco, Peru. Peruvian President Pedro Castillo Terrones said they’re monitoring their condition.
The National Police of Peru is investigating what caused the crash, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism said in a news release.
(NEW YORK) — A sheriff’s deputy has died after being shot while serving a lockout order at a home, the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.
One deputy was shot and a second deputy was hit while trying to get the first out of the way of gunfire, an emotional Sheriff Tommie Johnson III said during a press conference.
The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office identified Sgt. Bobby Swartz as the officer who was killed.
“Today, the Oklahoma County Sheriffs Office mourns the loss of a good man. Two of our deputies were shot while serving a lock out order. One deputy succumbed to his injuries; the other is in stable condition. We plan to release more details soon. Until then please keep us in your prayers,” the sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook.
The suspect took off on a pursuit and was taken into custody at the entrance of Tinker Air Force Base.
The other deputy is in the hospital and sustained serious injuries.
ABC News’ Matthew Fuhrman and Teddy Grant contributed to this report.
Albuquerque Police Department via AFP/Getty Images
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M) — The man charged in the killings of at least three of the four Muslim men killed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in recent months has a history of arrests for domestic violence, police said.
Muhammad Syed, 51, is charged with murder in the shooting deaths of 25-year-old Naeem Hussain on Aug. 5, 41-year-old Aftab Hussein on July 26 and now the Aug. 1 murder of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, according to the Albuquerque Police Department. Syed denied being involved in the deaths of the men after he was arrested, according to police.
Investigators said they are working with the district attorney’s office on potential charges for the murder of the other man who was killed within months of the others.
Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, was killed last November outside a business he ran with his brother, police said.
The victims of the shootings in August and July were from Pakistan. Ahmadi was from Afghanistan.
Syed moved to the U.S. from Afghanistan several years ago and has since been arrested at least twice on misdemeanor domestic violence charges, police said.
According to a criminal complaint from May 2018, Syed and his wife had an argument that turned physical while in a state Department of Human Services office.
Syed claimed his wife slapped him while they were arguing in the car and kicked him while in the waiting room of the office, the complaint says. His wife told police Syed pulled her by the hair and kicked her out of the vehicle, forcing her to walk for almost two hours to the office. When she arrived, the argument continued and she claimed Syed grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the ground, according to the complaint.
An employee at the office told police that she found Syed’s wife on the floor with a large piece of hair that had fallen to the ground, the complaint says. Employees stated that Syed arrived about an hour and a half before his wife arrived, according to the complaint.
He was placed under arrest for battery on a household member, but his wife did not want to pursue charges or participate in prosecution, which led to the dismissal of the case, according to a spokesperson from the Office of the Second Judicial District Attorney.
In December 2018, Syed’s son called officers to the home, and claimed that the father was “striking” the mother and son, according to a criminal complaint. The son had locked himself in his room after the son had been hit by his father with a metal spoon, which drew blood on the back of his head, the complaint says.
The son advised officers that Syed had routinely beaten him and his mother in the past. Syed denied any violence, the criminal complaint showed. Victims were again unwilling to pursue charges or cooperate with police.
An attorney for Syed did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The string of slayings had left Muslim communities across the country shaken.
“I hope that our community can breathe a sigh of relief and be assured about safety and security that our main suspect has been put behind bars and that’s where he belongs,” Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said at a press conference Aug. 10.
(WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.) — Former President Donald Trump filed a motion in federal court in Florida on Monday seeking the appointment of a special master to review materials seized by the Justice Department from his Mar-a-Lago estate in a raid earlier this month.
The motion from Trump seeks an injunction that would bar the government from any further review of the seized materials until the appointment of a special master, and also requests a “more detailed” receipt from the government of items that were seized.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(DALLAS) — Officials have announced one fatality after three months’ worth of rain pounded the Dallas area overnight.
A 60-year-old woman was killed when her vehicle was swept away by flood waters, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins announced on Twitter Monday afternoon.
Clay did not release the woman’s identity.
Eastern Dallas saw a whopping 15.16 inches of rainfall — a one-in-a-thousand-year flood.
During an average summer, Dallas sees a total of 8 inches of rain.
At one point overnight, the rainfall rate climbed to 3 inches per hour, forcing drivers to abandon their cars on roads.
The Fort Worth Fire Department said it responded to 133 high water calls. Dallas Fire-Rescue said it responded to 186 high water incidents and 314 car crashes.
Jenkins declared a state of disaster in the county Monday night.
“Based on preliminary damage assessments, I am declaring a state of disaster in Dallas County and requesting state and federal assistance for affected individuals,” Jenkins tweeted.
This comes after the Dallas area faced an exceptional drought, the highest category assigned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The rain is now shifting east and will reach eastern Texas, northern Louisiana and central Mississippi by Monday evening.
Louisiana and Mississippi are forecast to get hit with 6 inches of rain in just one or two days, which could cause flooding Tuesday and Wednesday.
ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke and Melissa Griffin contributed to this report.
(PARKLAND, Fla.) — The attorney for Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz presented her opening statement to the jury on Monday, arguing for Cruz’s life to be spared during the penalty phase of his trial.
The jury will determine if Cruz will be sentenced to death for shooting and killing 14 students and three staff members at his former South Florida school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, on Feb. 14, 2018. The jury’s decision must be unanimous for the death penalty. Cruz pleaded guilty last year to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Defense attorney said in her opening statement that Cruz is responsible for the massacre, adding that “there is no defense to these crimes.”
However, she said, “We must understand the person behind the crime.”
“Some people say that the crime itself is enough to impose sentence. You are not those people. Those people that said the sentence can be imposed based solely on the crime were excused [during jury selection],” she told the jurors. “Each one of you said that life without the possibility of parole could be a severe enough punishment for those crimes.”
McNeill alleged that Cruz suffered lifelong developmental delays that traced back to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
Cruz’s birth mother was a drug and alcohol addict who drank and used drugs up until six weeks before Cruz was born, McNeill said. Cruz was “poisoned in the womb” and his “brain was irretrievably broken,” she said.
Cruz was adopted at birth by Linda Cruz, a 48-year-old Parkland woman. Cruz’s adoptive father was 62 years old, McNeill said.
Nikolas Cruz saw a psychiatrist for the first time at age 3 and the doctor called him a challenging child, McNeill said.
The Broward County School Board classified Nikolas Cruz as “developmentally delayed in all areas” and said he had “a language impairment,” McNeill noted. The district classified him as an “ESE” student, or a special needs child, she said.
“We don’t excuse the horrific acts of damaged and wounded people — we punish them,” McNeill said. “But we take into consideration their damage when we impose sentence.”
Victims’ parents, including Fred Guttenberg and Max Schachter, sat in court as McNeill spoke.
In prosecutor Mike Satz’s opening statement last month, he described the shooting as a “planned, systematic … mass murder.”
Satz said, “Three days before the massacre, Cruz made a video saying, ‘My name is Nik. I’m going to be the next school shooter of 2018. My goal is at least 20 people with an AR-15 and some tracer rounds. It’s gonna be a big event and when you see me on the news you’ll know who I am. You’re all gonna die. … I can’t wait.'”
The victims’ families took the stand earlier this month to provide victim impact statements.
Dr. Ilan Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter Alyssa was among the 17 killed, said a piece of his heart was “ripped out of my damn chest.”
“I get to watch my friends, my neighbors, colleagues, spend time enjoying their daughters, all the normal milestones,” he said. “I can only watch videos or go to the cemetery to see my daughter.”
“To me, it was yesterday,” Ilan Alhadeff said of his daughter’s death. “Alyssa will always be 14.”
(NEW YORK) — Cervical cancer is usually caused by human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted infection so common nearly all sexually active men and women will get the virus in their lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Despite a widely available vaccine that prevents most types of HPV and available screening that allows early detection and treatment, rates of advanced cervical cancer have increased over the last two decades, according to a new study from the University of California Los Angeles.
The CDC reports that 13,000 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed annually in the U.S., taking 4,000 lives a year. Though advanced cervical cancer is a rare form of this disease, it has a five-year survival rate of only 17%.
Researchers at UCLA analyzed data from 2001 to 2018 using the United States Cancer Statistics program and showed that late-stage cervical cancer is more prevalent in Black and Hispanic women, compared to their white peers. White women, however, have seen the steepest annual rise in rates of this advanced cancer and the lowest rates of HPV vaccinations were found among white teens.
Specifically, white women in the South ages 40-44 have the highest rise in advanced cervical cancer rates (4.5%) per year and were also found to be significantly less likely to have cervical cancer screening done on time.
Dr. Jessica Shepherd, board-certified OBGYN and chief medical officer of Verywell Health, told ABC News these findings are “a bit shocking.” She pointed to the need for more cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccinations, saying men and women have a shared responsibility to get vaccinated and stop the spread of HPV.
“I think for women, you know, we are all in this together. Our goal really should be to fortify the health of every woman,” said Shepherd.
Two doses of the HPV vaccine separated by six to 12 months can be given to kids starting at age 9, long before encountering the virus, according to the CDC. Both safe and effective, HPV vaccines were first used in the U.S. in 2006. Since then, the CDC says infections and HPV types that cause genital warts and cancer have dropped 88%.
“Men are actually going to be very, a very big part of how that virus is transmitted and sexually transmitted. So, I think that they are a very big part of the vaccination process in order to decrease it across the board,” said Shepherd.
Women should have cervical cancer screening using a PAP test that is done in a clinical setting in routine intervals starting at age 21 that may be coupled with HPV testing, according to the CDC.
Shepherd added, “I believe that this is a moment where there should be a call to action to really drive the importance of regular screening, testing.”
Jade A Cobern, MD, board-eligible in pediatrics and MPH candidate, is a part of the ABC News Medical Unit and general preventive medicine resident at Johns Hopkins.
(ATLANTA) — Three people have been shot in an “active situation” in Atlanta’s Midtown neighborhood, Atlanta police said.
Officers are searching for the shooter, police said.
Police advised residents to stay off the streets in Midtown, specifically near 12th Street and Peachtree Street NE and 15th Street and W. Peachtree Street NW.
Additional information was not immediately available.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(MIAMI) — U.S. authorities in South Florida are stepping up efforts to crackdown on a recent surge in weapons smuggling to Haiti and the Caribbean, according to Homeland Security officials.
An unusual uptick in the number of high-caliber weapons coming out of the U.S. is believed to be connected with spikes in violence driven by transnational criminal organizations.
“It’s been alarming and disturbing to see the spike of violence coincide with a spike in weapons trafficking out of Miami towards Haiti,” Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations Miami, told ABC News.
HSI is actively pursuing dozens of open investigations in the region related to smuggling. Officials are hesitant to release exact numbers and specifics to avoid compromising prosecutions.
“We will push these investigations as far as we can,” Salisbury said. “It’s not just the people buying guns, it’s not just the people shipping guns — we will go after and, if we can, prosecute the individuals who are receiving the guns out of these countries. That does include both trying to extradite them back to the United States in some cases and working our foreign offices and our foreign counterparts to help prosecute them down in these countries.”
The enforcement crackdown has been coordinated through multiple federal agencies that are part of specialized teams including Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Department of Commerce.
One area of particular focus is the Miami river, home to one of the most unique ports of entry in the United States due to the distance it spans into the interior of the United States.
The Haitian freighters that dock along the 3-4 mile stretch of river are different than the hyper-organized container ships typically seen at large ports. These smaller vessels that dock along the Miami river are more like giant tugboats. Individual packages are often loaded by hand, making it a prime situation for smuggling.
“We’re not going to tolerate this activity,” Salisbury said. “We’re not going to let South Florida willingly be a launching pad for weapons heading down to these countries.”
Last month marked one year since the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse which led to a scourge of gang violence that persists today.
Hurricane season, which runs from June to November in the Caribbean, also threatens to further destabilized the island nation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecasted an increased likelihood of tropical storms turning into major hurricanes.
ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — The Columbus teachers union in Ohio is on strike after a vote on Sunday, just days away from the district’s first day of school on Wednesday.
Teachers began picketing outside over a dozen of the district’s schools on Monday morning. The union said it will gather outside schools from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day until a deal is reached.
The Columbus Education Association, with 4,000 members, reached a 94% majority on the vote Sunday.
“It is with a full understanding of the sacrifices that students, parents, and teachers will make together to win the schools Columbus Students Deserve that CEA members overwhelmingly rejected the Board’s last, best and final offer tonight and voted to strike,” Columbus Education Association spokesperson Regina Fuentes said on Sunday in statement.
The Columbus Board of Education called the decision to strike “incredibly disappointing” in a statement on Sunday.
Fuentes said Sunday the board has “tried desperately” to make the compromise about teacher salary, teacher professional development and teacher leaves.
“Let me be clear,” Fuentes said. “This strike is about our students who deserve a commitment to modern schools with heating and air conditioning, smaller class sizes, and a well-rounded curriculum that includes art, music and P.E.”
Jennifer Adair, Columbus Board of Education President, said in a statement on Sunday the board’s offer “put children first and prioritized their education and their growth.”
Adair said the board offered a generous compensation package for teachers and responded to the concerns raised by the teacher’s union during the negotiations process.
The union and board last met in a mediated discussion on Aug. 18, where the board offered guaranteed raises of 3% annually for three years and $2,000 per CEA member in retention and recruitment bonuses.
According to the board, by the end of the contract, a teacher with a current average salary of $74,000 will earn more than $91,000.
The board’s last offer also stated that it committed funds to install air conditioning in every school, with the exception of one that already has central air in about 50% of the building and is slated to be replaced by a new school in a proposed facilities master plan, the board said.
With the 2022-2023 school year scheduled to begin on Wednesday, the board has decided to make back-to-school virtual, led by substitute teachers, in order to begin instruction on time, according to their statement on Sunday.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said in a statement Sunday night that there needs to be another negotiation, in order to get students back in the classroom.
Ginther said the past few years have “underscored the value of our teachers, the resiliency of our kids and the need for Columbus City Schools to position itself for the future.”
He added the pandemic, “more than anything,” made clear that it is essential to get students back into the physical classroom.
“A responsible solution is within reach, but only if negotiations restart now,” Ginther said.
