(RUIDOSO, N.M.) — Three people have died as a result of extreme weather that has ripped through the U.S. in recent days.
The bodies of two people were found in a home in Ruidoso, New Mexico, after the McBride Fire scorched the area, according to authorities. On Tuesday, local firefighters had responded to a home on Gavilan Canyon Road that had been overcome with flames, New Mexico State Police spokesman Dusty Francisco announced. The next day, officers from the Ruidoso Police Department located the bodies after family members noted that an elderly couple attempting to evacuate had been unaccounted for, Francisco said.
The McBride Fire has burned through 5,736 acres in the Gavilan Canyon within the Village of Ruidoso since it sparked on Wednesday and remains 0% contained, according to fire officials.
Fueled by timber, brush and dry grasses on an arid landscape, the wildfire has burned 207 primary structures and multiple outbuildings and prompted hundreds of evacuations, officials said.
The extreme fire danger on Wednesday ranged from Western Texas into Colorado, where humidity dropped to as low as 2% with wind gusts up to 70 mph. The critical fire danger continued on Thursday, with 10 states from Texas to South Dakota under a red flag warning due to humidity levels down to 4% and wind gusts between 40 and 60 mph.
About half of the continental U.S. under threat for volatile weather for much of the week, which led to more fatalities. In Rison, Arkansas, one person died Wednesday evening after a tree fell onto their mobile home, according to officials. At least one person was injured in Adair, Oklahoma, Wednesday after a reported tornado damaged homes and businesses in the area.
Nearly 600 storm reports this week across the Heartland, with more than 250 reports of damaging straight line winds on Wednesday as the severe weather blew through from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes on Wednesday alone, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 30 tornadoes were reported in 10 states over the past three days, a continuation of record-breaking tornado activity in March. The system also brought uncharacteristic winter weather to places like Portland, Montana and North and South Dakota, where some regions were piled with several feet of snow.
The storm system has now moved east and will bring damaging winds into the I-95 corridor from Maryland to Massachusetts, which will include large cities such as Philadelphia and New York City.
ABC News’ Max Golembo, Marilyn Heck, Melissa Griffin and Flor Tolentino contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Rudy Giuliani assisted federal investigators in unlocking several electronic devices that had been seized from him by the FBI — a move that could speed a decision from Southern District of New York prosecutors whether to charge the former New York City mayor and presidential candidate over his lobbying efforts in Ukraine, his attorney and sources familiar with the case told ABC News.
The FBI seized more than a dozen devices from Giuliani’s home and office during a search last April. A court-appointed special master has been reviewing the contents but had been slowed by the inability to access all of the devices, the sources said.
Giuliani either unlocked several devices himself or gave investigators a list of possible passwords, the sources said, confirming information first reported by CNN.
There has been no comment as of yet from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
ABC News previously reported prosecutors began reviewing thousands of communications from Giuliani after the special master filtered out material she deemed to be subject to the attorney-client privilege.
According to her latest report in January, the special master, retired Judge Barbara Jones, agreed about half of what Giuliani designated as privileged should be withheld from federal prosecutors who are investigating his business practices.
Jones said Giuliani previously asserted privilege over 96 chats and messages on a cellphone that contained about 25,000 chats and messages.
“Mr. Giuliani designated 96 items as privileged and/or highly personal. Of those 96 designated items, I agreed that 40 were privileged, Mr. Giuliani’s counsel withdrew the privilege designation over 19, and I found that 37 were not privileged,” Jones said in her report.
The remaining 56 items were turned over to federal prosecutors.
(GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.) — Police in Grand Rapids, Michigan, released video footage on Wednesday of the fatal police shooting of a Black man during a traffic stop April 4.
Patrick Lyoya, 26, a native of Congo, was shot by an officer following a struggle outside a house in Grand Rapids after he was pulled over for a faulty license plate, according to police.
The footage shows the white officer, whose name has not yet been released, struggling with Lyoya, eventually forcing him to the ground and shouting “stop resisting,” “let go” and “drop the Taser,” before shooting Lyoya in the head.
The city’s new police chief, Eric Winstrom, released four videos of the incident Wednesday amid pressure from the community. These include a dashcam video, body camera video, a cell phone video and surveillance video from a neighbor.
“I view it as a tragedy…It was a progression of sadness for me,” said Winstrom, during a press conference.
“Me being from Chicago for the last 20 years, I’ve handled many police shootings myself, so I do have a lot of experience in this,” the chief said. “I was hoping to never have to utilize that experience here.”
Winstrom said Grand Rapids Police and Michigan State Police are conducting an ongoing investigation and he would not comment further or take any action until after the investigation.
He said the officer is a seven-year veteran of the Grand Rapids Police who is currently on paid leave and “stripped of all police powers” as the investigation is ongoing.
The footage released Wednesday shows the officer shouting at Lyoya to “get back in the car” shortly after the video began. He then asked Lyoya if he spoke English and demanded he show his driver’s license. Lyoya turned to the passenger in the car and started to walk away. The officer then grabbed him, beginning an aggressive struggle.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump who is representing Lyoya’s family says the family is devastated and he is calling for the officer to be fired and prosecuted.
The Grand Rapids Police Officers Association did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
“He’s on his hands and knees facing away from the officer. There are so many other things the officer could have done instead of pulling his gun out and shooting him in the back of the head,” Crump told ABC News.
After the release of the video, businesses in Grand Rapids closed early as a precaution on Wednesday. Demonstrators gathered across the city with many convening in front of City Hall throughout the night. There have been no reports of violence during the protests.
(NEW YORK) — The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that its Black Sea Fleet flagship vessel, Moskva, sunk after losing its stability when it was towed to a port. Russia said the ship sustained damages during a fire started by the detonation of ammunition.
Ukrainian government officials, on Wednesday, claimed its armed forces fired missiles that struck the vessel, causing damage.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych and Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, said there was an explosion and that the cruiser is on fire.
The governor of Odessa Maksym Marchenko claimed on Telegram that two anti-ship cruise missiles struck the cruiser in the Black Sea, causing “very serious damage.”
Russia earlier said the ship was seriously damaged, but did not confirm that was due to Ukrainian strikes. Russia claimed a fire abroad the ship forced all 510 members of the crew to evacuate.
“As a result of a fire, ammunition has detonated on the Moskva missile cruiser. The ship was seriously damaged. The crew was completely evacuated,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“The cause of the fire is under investigation,” the statement said.
Russia later said the fire aboard the ship was contained and that the Moskva will be towed to a port. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the main missile weapons on board were not damaged, but made no mention of missile strikes in its statement.
A senior U.S. defense official told reporters the U.S. assesses that the crew of the Moskva is still battling a fire aboard the ship.
About a half-dozen other ships that had been close to the Moskva have now moved further away from the coast into the Black Sea, the official also said.
The Pentagon said it can not confirm or deny whether the ship was hit by a missile.
“We cannot confirm the Ukrainian reports that it was hit by a missile but we are also not in a position to refute that it could have been a Ukrainian missile which struck the ship,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters at a briefing on Thursday.
Noting that the U.S. does not have perfect visibility into the situation, Kirby said, “we do believe that there was a significant explosion on this cruiser the Moskva of a Slava class of cruisers in the Russian Navy. We do believe that that that explosion caused a significant fire, which as of this morning was still raging aboard the ship.”
Kirby said “at least some” of the Moskva’s crew had evacuated to other Russian Navy ships but he couldn’t say it was the entire crew. He added that the U.S. doesn’t have “a better, clearer sense of the damage done” and whether the ship could be repaired.
In an interview on MSNBC Thursday, Kirby said there wasn’t enough information to determine if the explosion was in fact caused by a Ukrainian missile strike, though it can’t be ruled out.
Despite the Russian Defense Ministry claiming the ship was being towed, Kirby said it was under its own power and looked to be headed east toward Sevastopol in Crimea.
“She was operating about 60 miles or so south of Odessa and we know she suffered an explosion,” Kirby said on MSNBC. “It looks like from the images that we’ve been able to look at it looks like there’s a pretty sizable explosion too.”
Kirby later told reporters the U.S.’s assessment is now more uncertain that was now the case.
“While we had assessed that the ship was underway under its own power, we are no longer able to make that certainty today, this afternoon,” he said. “We’re not exactly sure that the ship is actually still able to make its own way.
Kirby told reporters that so far Russia’s Navy has been limited to launching cruise missile strikes inside Ukraine and resupply efforts.
“It remains to be seen exactly what the major impact is going to be,” said Kirby.
On CNN, Kirby said the U.S. is unaware what caused at least one explosion abroad the ship, describing the explosion as “a fairly major one at that, that has caused extensive damage to the ship.”
-ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko, Luis Martinez, Oleksiy Pshemyskyi and Yulia Drozd contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The man accused of opening fire on a subway train in Brooklyn may have rushed the attack and had more weapons available to possibly commit other shootings, prosecutors revealed Thursday.
As Frank Robert James faced a federal judge for the first time, other revelations into his alleged plot to shoot subway riders were shown, including that he may have been rushed into his action, according to law enforcement sources.
James, 62, was arrested in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said, more than 24 hours into an intense manhunt that began after 10 people were shot on a crowded subway car in Brooklyn.
Police have determined James rode the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan, law enforcement sources told ABC News. Detectives are going through hours of footage to piece together the entire timeline of his movements.
James was charged in a criminal complaint with committing a terrorist act on a mass transportation vehicle and was subsequently transferred to federal custody. James faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted, said Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
James didn’t enter a plea during his first court hearing Thursday and only answered a few yes or no questions. U.S. Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann ordered him held without bail but did not rule out a future bail application.
Investigators believe James may have rushed the attack, and are working to determine whether James intended to carry out the attack as the train pulled into the 36th Street Station, or whether he set off his smoke grenades sooner than intended, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
As the subway car filled with smoke, it’s believed James knelt on one knee to avoid the rising smoke, and opened fire from that crouched position, sources said. Investigators believe that’s why most of the gunshot wounds were to the legs or hands.
The shooting unfolded on a Manhattan-bound N subway car during the Tuesday morning commute, just before 8:30 a.m. ET, as the train approached the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.
A man witnessed mumbling to himself on the subway car donned a gas mask and detonated a smoke canister before pulling out a handgun and firing a barrage of 33 bullets, hitting 10 people, a police official told ABC News.
The gun jammed during the incident, which is believed to have saved lives, a law enforcement official told ABC News.
Smoke poured out of the subway car as the doors opened and screaming riders ran out onto the platform of the station. Bloodied people were seen lying on the floor of the train and the platform.
A total of 29 people were injured, according to hospital officials.
In a court filing, federal prosecutors called the shooting calculated and “entirely premeditated.” They noted James wore a hard hat and construction worker-style jacket as a disguise and then shed them after the gunfire to avoid recognition.
Prosecutors suggested James had the means to carry out more attacks, noting that he had ammunition and other gun-related items in a Philadelphia storage unit.
“The defendant, terrifyingly, opened fire on passengers on a crowded subway train, interrupting their morning commute in a way this city hasn’t seen in more than 20 years,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Winik said in court Thursday. “The defendant’s attack was premeditated; it was carefully planned; and it caused terror among the victims and our entire city. The defendant’s mere presence outside federal custody presents a serious risk of danger to the community and he should be detained pending trial.”
James’ defense attorney Mia Eisner-Grynberg called the subway shooting a tragedy but pointed out that initial information can often be wrong. She also lauded James’ actions after the shooting.
“Yesterday Mr. James saw his photograph on the news,” Eisner-Grynberg said. “He called crime stoppers. He told them where he was.”
The lawyer said her client deserves a fair trial like all other defendants.
In court, she asked the judge to order James to undergo psychiatric treatment while in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Brooklyn.
The judge did not immediately respond to the request for psychiatric treatment.
According to the criminal complaint, police recovered two bags from the scene containing, among other items, a Glock 17 pistol, a key to a U-Haul rental vehicle and multiple bank cards, including a debit card with the name Frank James. They also discovered a jacket with reflective tape near the two bags that had a receipt for a storage unit in Philadelphia, which records provided by the facility showed was registered to James, the complaint said.
James was born in New York City and has lived in Philadelphia and Milwaukee in recent years, according to Peace.
The Glock recovered from the scene was lawfully purchased by James in Ohio, according to the complaint.
Records provided by U-Haul showed James rented a white Chevrolet van from the company in Philadelphia on Monday, according to the complaint. The U-Haul vehicle crossed states lines from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and then to New York, the complaint said. Surveillance cameras recorded the van driving over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge before dawn Tuesday and entering Brooklyn, according to the complaint.
At approximately 6:12 a.m. ET, another surveillance camera recorded an individual wearing a yellow hard hat, orange working jacket with reflective tape, carrying a backpack in his right hand and dragging a rolling bag in his left hand, leaving the U-Haul van on foot near West 7th Street and Kings Highway in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood, according to the complaint.
Police later located the vehicle parked on Kings Highway, about two blocks from a subway stop for the N-train, where investigators believe James entered the mass transit system.
“Based on the preliminary investigation, we believe he was alone,” Mayor Eric Adams told “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.
Senior law enforcement officials told ABC News they also uncovered a number of social media posts and videos tied to James, including, police said, “race-based grievances and conspiracy theory narratives.”
Police added, “James made several statements indicating that he suffers from a deteriorated mental and emotional state, including claims of severe post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as at least one video that includes a potential indicator of his intent to conduct an act of violence.”
The investigation was complicated by the fact that none of the surveillance cameras inside the 36th Street subway station were working at the time of the attack, a police official told ABC News. The cameras, which are aimed at turnstiles, didn’t transmit in real-time due to a computer malfunction, a source said. The same glitch impacted cameras at the stops before and after 36th Street. Investigators said they are looking into how this malfunction happened.
MTA chief Janno Lieberman confirmed that a failed internet connection prevented cameras at three Brooklyn stations, including 36th street, from properly transmitting images. Lieber reiterated James was caught on other subway station cameras, contributing to the successful apprehension.
James was ultimately apprehended after police received a tip that he was in a McDonald’s near 6th Street and 1st Avenue. When responding officers didn’t see James at the fast-food restaurant, they drove around the area and spotted him near St. Marks Place and First Avenue, where he was taken into custody at around 1:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to police.
Sources told ABC News that James may have called police on himself. Among the calls to NYPD Crime Stoppers was reportedly someone who said: “I think you’re looking for me. I’m seeing my picture all over the news, and I’ll be around this McDonalds.”
James allegedly gave his name and a description of what he was wearing, according to sources. He said his phone battery was dying and he would be either in the McDonald’s charging his phone or out front, according to sources. A New York City Police Department official told ABC News investigators are reviewing the 911 call.
When officers didn’t find the suspect in the McDonald’s, a block away they encountered pedestrians who told officers they found James, sources said. James was found standing at a kiosk charging his phone, according to sources.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Mark Crudele, Alex Hosenball, Joshua Hoyos, Soo Rin Kim, Josh Margolin, Christopher Looft and Pierre Thomas contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in D.C. on Thursday delivered a scathing rebuke of former President Donald Trump and expressed dismay over the state of American politics just moments after a jury found a defendant charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot guilty on all charges.
“You know, I think our democracy is in trouble,” Judge Reggie Walton said at the conclusion of the third jury trial for a defendant charged in the Capitol assault. “Because unfortunately, we have charlatans like our former president, who doesn’t in my view really care about democracy, but only about power. And as a result of that, it’s tearing this country apart.”
Walton, an appointee of former President George W. Bush and one of the most senior judges on the D.C. court, said that he’s received letters from people around the country expressing concern the justice system isn’t confronting Jan. 6 — which he called an “insurgency,” with the seriousness it deserves.
“I have a concern that we have, unfortunately, American citizens who were so gullible that they were willing to accept what was being said without any proof that the allegations about the election had any merit whatsoever,” Walton said. “People are just outraged at how they feel our system is not taking seriously what happened on that day because of their fear of the future of this country.”
His remarks came after a jury delivered a guilty verdict for an Ohio man charged in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol who sought to defend himself by claiming he was following former Trump’s “orders.”
Dustin Thompson, 38, is the third defendant charged in connection with the Capitol attack to take their case before a jury. The six charges against him included one felony count of obstruction of Congress.
Rather than seeking to dispute the allegations against him — that he joined the pro-Trump mob in storming the Capitol and stole a bottle of bourbon and a coat rack from the Senate parliamentarian’s office, Thompson instead sought to place responsibility for his actions on Trump and his speech on the Ellipse where he urged his followers to march on the Capitol.
Dozens of others among the nearly 800 people charged thus far in the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigation have sought to make similar arguments, putting the onus on the former president and his allies who tricked them into believing baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election.
That Thompson’s defense fell flat with a jury could have an influence on other alleged rioters holding out hopes they could adopt a similar strategy in their cases.
“Defense counsel wants you to focus so much on what President Trump said on the morning of Jan. 6, he wants you to forget what his client did on the afternoon of Jan. 6,” assistant US attorney Bill Dreher said in closing arguments Thursday. “Ladies and gentlemen, you don’t have to choose. This is not President Trump’s criminal trial.”
Speaking directly to the jury, Dreher said, “you can be mad about what happened that day, you can think what President Trump did was wrong, you can think that what he said that day led them to go do what they did.”
“That doesn’t matter,” he continued. “As long as you find — if you find, that Mr. Thompson knew that what he was doing was unlawful. He was 36 years old on Jan. 6 … an adult, not a child. President Trump didn’t hold his hand as he walked down to the Capitol to loot and defile the Senate Parliamentarian’s office.”
Dreher said that Thompson’s effort to put the blame on Trump’s words was not only irrelevant, but misleading — because it doesn’t appear based on data obtained from Thompson’s Uber account that he was even present at Trump’s Ellipse speech.
“It’s a story that is not true and that does not hold up,” Dreher said.
Following the reading of the verdict, Judge Walton ordered Thompson to remain in custody pending his sentencing and slammed him for his testimony in the trial, which Walton said he found “totally disingenuous” and “not truthful.”
“I just don’t think you can do what he did and what the other folks did if you’re convicted and expect to be free,” Walton said. “It’s a consequence — as my mother once told me, ‘you make your bed you gotta lie in it.'”
(NEW YORK) — The man accused of opening fire on a rush-hour subway train in Brooklyn was ordered to be held without bail following his first court appearance Thursday.
Frank Robert James, 62, was arrested in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said, more than 24 hours into an intense manhunt that began after 10 people were shot on a crowded subway car in Brooklyn.
James was charged in a criminal complaint with committing a terrorist act on a mass transportation vehicle and was subsequently transferred to federal custody. James faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted, said Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
James didn’t enter a plea during the court hearing and only answered a few yes or no questions. U.S. Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann did not rule out a future bail application.
James was born in New York City and has lived in Philadelphia and Milwaukee in recent years, according to Peace.
“As alleged, the defendant committed a heinous and premeditated attack on ordinary New Yorkers during their morning subway commute,” Peace said in a statement Wednesday. “All New Yorkers have the right to expect that they will be safe as they travel throughout our great city and use our vital transportation systems.”
The shooting unfolded on a Manhattan-bound N subway car during the Tuesday morning commute, just before 8:30 a.m. ET, as the train approached the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.
A man witnessed mumbling to himself on the subway car donned a gas mask and detonated a smoke canister before pulling out a handgun and firing a barrage of 33 bullets, hitting 10 people, a police official told ABC News.
The gun jammed during the incident, which is believed to have saved lives, a law enforcement official told ABC News.
Smoke poured out of the subway car as the doors opened and screaming riders ran out onto the platform of the station. Bloodied people were seen lying on the floor of the train and the platform.
A total of 29 people were injured, according to hospital officials.
In a court filing, federal prosecutors called the shooting calculated and “entirely premeditated.” They noted James wore a hard hat and construction worker-style jacket as a disguise and then shed them after the gunfire to avoid recognition.
Prosecutors suggested James had the means to carry out more attacks, noting that he had ammunition and other gun-related items in a Philadelphia storage unit.
“The defendant, terrifyingly, opened fire on passengers on a crowded subway train, interrupting their morning commute in a way this city hasn’t seen in more than 20 years,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Winik said in court Thursday. “The defendant’s attack was premeditated; it was carefully planned; and it caused terror among the victims and our entire city. The defendant’s mere presence outside federal custody presents a serious risk of danger to the community and he should be detained pending trial.”
James’ defense attorney Mia Eisner-Grynberg called the subway shooting a tragedy but pointed out that initial information can often be wrong. She also lauded James’ actions after the shooting.
“Yesterday Mr. James saw his photograph on the news,” Eisner-Grynberg said. “He called crime stoppers. He told them where he was.”
The lawyer said her client deserves a fair trial like all other defendants.
In court, she asked the judge to order James to undergo psychiatric treatment while in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Brooklyn.
The judge did not immediately respond to the request for psychiatric treatment.
According to the criminal complaint, police recovered two bags from the scene containing, among other items, a Glock 17 pistol, a key to a U-Haul rental vehicle and multiple bank cards, including a debit card with the name Frank James. They also discovered a jacket with reflective tape near the two bags that had a receipt for a storage unit in Philadelphia, which records provided by the facility showed was registered to James, the complaint said.
The Glock recovered from the scene was lawfully purchased by James in Ohio, according to the complaint.
Records provided by U-Haul showed James rented a white Chevrolet van from the company in Philadelphia on Monday, according to the complaint. The U-Haul vehicle crossed states lines from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and then to New York, the complaint said. Surveillance cameras recorded the van driving over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge before dawn Tuesday and entering Brooklyn, according to the complaint.
At approximately 6:12 a.m. ET, another surveillance camera recorded an individual wearing a yellow hard hat, orange working jacket with reflective tape, carrying a backpack in his right hand and dragging a rolling bag in his left hand, leaving the U-Haul van on foot near West 7th Street and Kings Highway in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood, according to the complaint.
Police later located the vehicle parked on Kings Highway, about two blocks from a subway stop for the N-train, where investigators believe James entered the mass transit system.
“Based on the preliminary investigation, we believe he was alone,” Mayor Eric Adams told “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.
Senior law enforcement officials told ABC News they also uncovered a number of social media posts and videos tied to James, including, police said, “race-based grievances and conspiracy theory narratives.”
Police added, “James made several statements indicating that he suffers from a deteriorated mental and emotional state, including claims of severe post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as at least one video that includes a potential indicator of his intent to conduct an act of violence.”
The investigation was complicated by the fact that none of the surveillance cameras inside the 36th Street subway station were working at the time of the attack, a police official told ABC News. The cameras, which are aimed at turnstiles, didn’t transmit in real-time due to a computer malfunction, a source said. The same glitch impacted cameras at the stops before and after 36th Street. Investigators said they are looking into how this malfunction happened.
James was ultimately apprehended after police received a tip that he was in a McDonald’s near 6th Street and 1st Avenue. When responding officers didn’t see James at the fast-food restaurant, they drove around the area and spotted him near St. Marks Place and First Avenue, where he was taken into custody at around 1:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to police.
Sources told ABC News that James may have called police on himself. Among the calls to NYPD Crime Stoppers was reportedly someone who said: “I think you’re looking for me. I’m seeing my picture all over the news, and I’ll be around this McDonalds.”
James allegedly gave his name and a description of what he was wearing, according to sources. He said his phone battery was dying and he would be either in the McDonald’s charging his phone or out front, according to sources. A New York City Police Department official told ABC News investigators are reviewing the 911 call.
When officers didn’t find the suspect in the McDonald’s, a block away they encountered pedestrians who told officers they found James, sources said. James was found standing at a kiosk charging his phone, according to sources.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Mark Crudele, Alex Hosenball, Joshua Hoyos, Soo Rin Kim, Josh Margolin, Christopher Looft and Pierre Thomas contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The man accused of opening fire on a rush-hour subway train in Brooklyn was ordered to be held on a permanent order of detention following his first court appearance Thursday.
Frank Robert James, 62, was arrested in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said, more than 24 hours into an intense manhunt that began after 10 people were shot on a crowded subway car in Brooklyn.
James was charged in a criminal complaint with committing a terrorist act on a mass transportation vehicle and was subsequently transferred to federal custody. James faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted, said Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
James didn’t enter a plea during the court hearing and only answered a few yes or no questions. U.S. Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann did not rule out a future bail application.
James was born in New York City and has lived in Philadelphia and Milwaukee in recent years, according to Peace.
“As alleged, the defendant committed a heinous and premeditated attack on ordinary New Yorkers during their morning subway commute,” Peace said in a statement Wednesday. “All New Yorkers have the right to expect that they will be safe as they travel throughout our great city and use our vital transportation systems.”
The shooting unfolded on a Manhattan-bound N subway car during the Tuesday morning commute, just before 8:30 a.m. ET, as the train approached the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.
A man witnessed mumbling to himself on the subway car donned a gas mask and detonated a smoke canister before pulling out a handgun and firing a barrage of 33 bullets, hitting 10 people, a police official told ABC News.
The gun jammed during the incident, which is believed to have saved lives, a law enforcement official told ABC News.
Smoke poured out of the subway car as the doors opened and screaming riders ran out onto the platform of the station. Bloodied people were seen lying on the floor of the train and the platform.
A total of 29 people were injured, according to hospital officials.
“The defendant, terrifyingly, opened fire on passengers on a crowded subway train, interrupting their morning commute in a way this city hasn’t seen in more than 20 years,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Winik said in court Thursday. “The defendant’s attack was premeditated; it was carefully planned; and it caused terror among the victims and our entire city. The defendant’s mere presence outside federal custody presents a serious risk of danger to the community and he should be detained pending trial.”
James’ defense attorney Mia Eisner-Grynberg called the subway shooting a tragedy but pointed out that initial information can often be wrong. She also lauded James’ actions after the shooting.
“Yesterday Mr. James saw his photograph on the news,” Eisner-Grynberg said. “He called crime stoppers. He told them where he was.”
The lawyer said her client deserves a fair trial like all other defendants.
In court, she asked the judge to order James to undergo psychiatric treatment while in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Brooklyn.
According to the criminal complaint, police recovered two bags from the scene containing, among other items, a Glock 17 pistol, a key to a U-Haul rental vehicle and multiple bank cards, including a debit card with the name Frank James. They also discovered a jacket with reflective tape near the two bags that had a receipt for a storage unit in Philadelphia, which records provided by the facility showed was registered to James, the complaint said.
The Glock recovered from the scene was lawfully purchased by James in Ohio, according to the complaint.
Records provided by U-Haul showed James rented a white Chevrolet van from the company in Philadelphia on Monday, according to the complaint. The U-Haul vehicle crossed states lines from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and then to New York, the complaint said. Surveillance cameras recorded the van driving over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge before dawn Tuesday and entering Brooklyn, according to the complaint.
At approximately 6:12 a.m. ET, another surveillance camera recorded an individual wearing a yellow hard hat, orange working jacket with reflective tape, carrying a backpack in his right hand and dragging a rolling bag in his left hand, leaving the U-Haul van on foot near West 7th Street and Kings Highway in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood, according to the complaint.
Police later located the vehicle parked on Kings Highway, about two blocks from a subway stop for the N-train, where investigators believe James entered the mass transit system.
“Based on the preliminary investigation, we believe he was alone,” Mayor Eric Adams told “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.
Senior law enforcement officials told ABC News they also uncovered a number of social media posts and videos tied to James, including, police said, “race-based grievances and conspiracy theory narratives.”
Police added, “James made several statements indicating that he suffers from a deteriorated mental and emotional state, including claims of severe post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as at least one video that includes a potential indicator of his intent to conduct an act of violence.”
The investigation was complicated by the fact that none of the surveillance cameras inside the 36th Street subway station were working at the time of the attack, a police official told ABC News. The cameras, which are aimed at turnstiles, didn’t transmit in real-time due to a computer malfunction, a source said. The same glitch impacted cameras at the stops before and after 36th Street. Investigators said they are looking into how this malfunction happened.
James was ultimately apprehended after police received a tip that he was in a McDonald’s near 6th Street and 1st Avenue. When responding officers didn’t see James at the fast-food restaurant, they drove around the area and spotted him near St. Marks Place and First Avenue, where he was taken into custody at around 1:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to police.
Sources told ABC News that James may have called police on himself. Among the calls to NYPD Crime Stoppers was reportedly someone who said: “I think you’re looking for me. I’m seeing my picture all over the news, and I’ll be around this McDonalds.”
James allegedly gave his name and a description of what he was wearing, according to sources. He said his phone battery was dying and he would be either in the McDonald’s charging his phone or out front, according to sources. A New York City Police Department official told ABC News investigators are reviewing the 911 call.
When officers didn’t find the suspect in the McDonald’s, a block away they encountered pedestrians who told officers they found James, sources said. James was found standing at a kiosk charging his phone, according to sources.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Mark Crudele, Alex Hosenball, Joshua Hoyos, Soo Rin Kim, Josh Margolin, Christopher Looft and Pierre Thomas contributed to this report.
(KISSIMMEE, Fla.) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed into law a bill that bans nearly all abortions after 15 weeks, the same gestational limit currently being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The new law, which passed the state Senate in March, will go into effect July 1.
Under the law, there are no exceptions for abortion in the case of rape or incest, but it does allow for exceptions if the fetus has a fatal abnormality or in cases when the mother is at risk of death or “substantial or irreversible physical impairment.”
Those exceptions would require written certification from two physicians.
Physicians who perform abortions must submit monthly reports to the state health department with details about each procedure, including the reasons for performing them and the number of infants born alive after attempted abortions.
“We’re here today to protect life. We’re here today to defend those who can’t defend themselves,” DeSantis said Thursday in Kissimmee before signing the bill.
Abortion rights advocates argue that banning abortion after 15 weeks will further harm patients who need care the most, including people of color, people of limited economic means and people who lack health insurance.
“Nobody should be forced to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles for essential health care — but in signing this bill, Gov. DeSantis will be forcing Floridians seeking abortion to do just that,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement. “Floridians want to be able to make decisions about their health and their families, without interference from politicians. They want the protections guaranteed by their state’s constitution. This ban runs counter to all of these goals. Planned Parenthood pledges to stand with patients and fight this until people can get the care they deserve.”
Dr. Sujatha Prabhakaran, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, told ABC News in March that doctors like herself are “scared and sad” about the legislation’s potential impact.
“The biggest impact of the bill is going to be hurting our patients’ access to the care that they need,” said Prabhakaran, also a practicing OB-GYN in Sarasota, Florida. “We know that when there are these restrictions, it doesn’t mean that the need for the care goes away, it just means that it makes it even harder for patients to access the care.”
The new law in Florida comes at the same time that legislators in Oklahoma and Kentucky have also taken action to limit abortion access.
Under a bill signed into law Tuesday by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, any medical provider who performs an abortion will face a fine of $100,000 and up to 10 years in prison. The only exceptions for performing an abortion would be if the mother’s life is in danger.
On Wednesday, the Kentucky state legislature overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill banning abortion after 15 weeks, along with several other abortion restrictions. Under the bill, any physician that performs an abortion after 15 weeks would lose their license for at least six months.
The state-level actions come as the Supreme Court is reviewing a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks.
In the case, Mississippi, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the state of Mississippi is arguing to uphold a law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, while Jackson Women’s Health, Mississippi’s lone abortion clinic, argues the Supreme Court’s protection of a woman’s right to choose the procedure is clear, well-established and should be respected.
Since the Roe v. Wade ruling and the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling that affirmed the decision, the court has never allowed states to prohibit the termination of pregnancies prior to fetal viability outside the womb, roughly 24 weeks, according to medical experts.
If the Supreme Court rules in Mississippi’s favor and upholds the law — as is expected because of the court’s current conservative makeup — the focus will turn to states, more than half of which are prepared to ban abortion if Roe is overturned, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights organization.
Prabhakaran said in March that she and other doctors in Florida were already seeing patients from states as far away as Texas, which last year enacted a law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
As of 2017, abortions in Florida represent just over 8% of all abortions in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute.
According to Prabhakaran, a 15-week ban in Florida has the potential to force pregnant people to travel as far as North Carolina and Washington, D.C., for care.
“While abortion is very safe, the the higher the gestational age, the more risk there is potentially to patients who have a complication,” she said, adding that the lack of access also means some patients will continue with high-risk pregnancies while others will seek other care. “What I worry is going to start to happen again is that patients will be taking care from unqualified providers, and that that will put them at risk.”
ABC News’ Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(BOSTON) — Boston public health officials are urging residents to take extra precautions as COVID-19 cases tick up ahead of the upcoming holiday weekend.
In a blog post Wednesday, the Boston Public Health Commission said the city’s test positivity rate currently sits at 6.2%, which is above the agency’s “threshold of concern” of 5%.
It’s also nearly three times higher than the 2.2% test positivity rate recorded one month ago.
Additionally, data shows young adults between ages 20 and 30 are driving the increase and have the highest case rate in Boston.
Ahead of several holidays — including Passover, Easter and Ramadan — and the 126th running of the Boston Marathon Monday, the BPHC recommended wearing a well-fitting mask, getting tested before attending indoors gatherings, and getting vaccinated or boosted.
“Celebrating with family and friends is an important and treasured time and, as cases increase, we must remain vigilant so we can be together safely,” Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, Commissioner of Public Health and Executive Director of the BPHC, said in a statement. “We have the tools … to stay safe and lower the risk of COVID-19 infection and severe illness.”
Experts said the increase in Boston is mostly due to the spread of BA.2, a highly infectious subvariant of the original BA.1 omicron variant.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, BA.2 makes up more than 90% of cases that have undergone genome sequencing in New England.
“It’s nothing compared to what we saw in terms of the huge and dramatic spike when BA.1 was in the process of replacing the delta variant,” Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, told ABC News. “It’s an uptick, it’s not what we want, but it’s much less significant than BA.1.”
Dr. Paul Sax, clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said health officials had been preparing for an increase in the city after seeing cases rise in Western Europe due to BA.2 a few weeks ago.
“Whatever happens in Western Europe [with COVID-19] has been a harbinger of what’s going to come in the United States,” he told ABC News. “You can almost set your calendar by it.”
However, there may be some positive signs that this increase in cases will not lead to another wave.
At Tufts Medical Center, Doron said there are more people seeking COVID-19 treatment at outpatient facilities compared to a few weeks ago, but there has not been an increase in hospitalizations.
She added that there has also been a small increase of employees testing positive every day, but it’s not causing staffing shortages.
“It’s not straining our ability to properly staff, it’s not straining our ability to get people in for monoclonal antibodies if they need it,” Doron said.
Experts suggested one reason why COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations may not be surging as they did during the winter is because so many people were infected during the omicron wave that they may have boosted their immunity.
“So many people came down with COVID during the last wave … that they either knew someone who had it, or they had it themselves” Sax said.
Both doctors recommended similar precautions to the BPHC over the holiday weekend including getting tested before gathering with family and friends and taking measures, such as masking indoors, especially if someone is immunocompromised.
Sax also recommended anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing symptoms contact their doctor to see if they’re eligible for Paxlovid, Pfizer’s antiviral pill.
“Unlike our previous waves, we are lucky enough to have an antiviral treatment,” Sax said. “The key is to take it quickly so, as soon as they get diagnosed, they should see if they are eligible because it could really help prevent the most dreaded complications of COVID-19.”
