(DETROIT) — Saniyah “Niyah” Pugh, 11, was sleeping over at her grandmother’s Detroit home this weekend when gunfire erupted outside. Bullets penetrated the house, striking and killing Saniyah, who was in a bedroom.
“I heard two pop sounds … then I heard my daughter scream, ‘Niyah got shot!'” Saniyah’s grandmother, Lawanda Melton, told ABC News.
“I put a towel over her back to cover her bullet hole. And she was just bleeding so badly out her mouth and nose, but she was still trying to breathe,” she said.
When police arrived, “Niyah’s hand went limp and she was gone,” Melton said.
“My children and my grandson had to step over Saniyah’s deceased body,” she said.
No one else was hurt in the shooting, which took place around 10:15 p.m. Saturday at Melton’s home, Detroit police said. Two people are in custody: one adult and one minor, police said.
Saniyah loved cheerleading, gymnastics and TikTok.
“Saniyah was a very, very beautiful, talented little girl,” Melton said.
Melton is now planning her granddaughter’s funeral to help Saniyah’s distraught mother. The grieving grandmother said the unrelenting gun violence must stop.
“This is my home. This is somewhere that all my kids and myself should always feel safe,” Melton said. “There’s no safety in these schools for these children, there’s no safety in their own homes.”
Detroit Police Chief James White spoke out on the case Monday, saying the 11-year-old was “making TikTok videos and laughing one minute and being shot in the back … the next.”
The police chief blamed “irresponsible gun ownership” and “irresponsible use of a weapon.”
“It is of epidemic proportions right now in our country and in our city,” he told reporters.
Melton said, “I feel very broken. I feel very empty. I feel like I was supposed to be able to save her.”
“If I could take that bullet a million times over, I would, just for my daughter to still have her daughter, her only child,” she said.
(TARRANT COUNTY, Texas) — An Arizona man sued American Airlines this week after, he claims, the carrier wrongfully identified him as a suspect in an airport burglary — leading to his arrest and what he called a harrowing 17-day stint in jail.
Michael Lowe filed his lawsuit on Monday in Tarrant County, Texas, after he says he was arrested last July for a crime he didn’t commit.
According to the lawsuit, a duty-free shop at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Tarrant County was burglarized in May 2020. Surveillance footage of the incident showed the culprit was a passenger of American flight 2248, and investigators obtained a search warrant ordering the airline to produce “any and all recorded travel data for all individuals” on that flight, the suit stated.
Instead, Lowe said, American only produced identification for one passenger — him.
“That was a hasty decision on behalf of American Airlines to offer up one suspect and one suspect only, and without that we wouldn’t be talking. This wouldn’t have happened,” Lowe’s attorney, Scott Palmer, told ABC News in a phone interview.
Palmer said his client looks nothing like the man suspected of committing the airport burglary.
“I am faulting American Airlines for outing one of their own passengers,” he said.
Lowe was arrested more than a year after the incident while he was in New Mexico — where he was held in jail for more than two weeks.
“The terror Mr. Lowe experienced while imprisoned in Quay County for the next 17 days was existential,” his lawsuit stated. He was made to sleep on the concrete floor and the jail did not have proper COVID-19 protocols, according to the complaint.
He was subsequently released with no explanation, his suit said.
“He shouldn’t have been in jail. He didn’t commit a crime,” Palmer said.
Lowe was subjected to a strip search while he was detained and was told very little information about why he was behind bars, according to his lawsuit.
“It could’ve been you or me,” Palmer said. “I’ve never seen a fact pattern like this.”
The suit further alleges that the Dallas-Fort Worth airport police detective who was handling the case initially expressed “disappointment” that Lowe was released and had missed a court appearance in Texas the same morning — because, according to the suit, the detective still mistakenly thought he was the suspect.
The detective eventually compared Lowe’s mug shot to the suspect surveillance photo from the burglary and realized it was not him, according to the suit.
Palmer told ABC News that, to his knowledge, the actual suspect has still not been caught.
Dallas-Fort Worth airport police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
American Airlines said it was “reviewing the lawsuit.”
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is in active discussions with former White House counsel Pat Cipollone regarding a potential public appearance in one of their upcoming hearings, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Cipollone and former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin previously met with committee investigators for an informal interview in April.
Cipollone was one of the few aides who was with then-President Donald Trump in the West Wing on Jan. 6. ABC News previously reported that in the days following the attack on the Capitol, he advised Trump that Trump could potentially face civil liability in connection with his role encouraging supporters to march on the Capitol.
According to sources, there are a number of circumstances that could serve to complicate any eventual appearance by Cipollone — including the issue of who questions him and for how long; whether there are any ongoing issues of privilege; and whether Trump would approve of his appearance.
Michael Purpura, the former deputy White House counsel who was part of the legal team defending Trump during his first Senate impeachment trial, is representing Cipollone in his discussions with committee investigators, sources said.
Cipollone has also made clear that his testimony would be restricted to the effort undertaken by former top Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark to use the powers of the DOJ to further Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, sources familiar with the deliberations said.
Representatives for Cipollone did not respond to ABC’s request for comment. A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment.
The committee hopes to secure Cipollone’s public testimony on a panel with former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and his then-deputy Richard Donoghue, along with one of DOJ’s former top attorneys, Steve Engel, sources said. Both Rosen and Donoghue have received formal invitations from the committee to appear.
Both Cipollone and Philbin were part of a Jan. 3 Oval Office meeting where Trump insisted on replacing Rosen with Clark, a Trump loyalist who had vowed to use the Department of Justice to investigate the election.
The officials in that meeting also debated a proposal by Clark to send a letter to state officials in Georgia urging officials in the state to investigate unfounded claims of fraud with an eye toward overturning President Joe Biden’s victory in the state.
According to Donoghue, Cipollone and Philbin made it clear to Trump that they would resign if Clark were installed, with Cipollone describing the Georgia letter as a “murder-suicide pact” that would “damage anyone and anything that it touches,” according to a Senate committee report released last year that detailed instances where Trump and his allies sought to use the DOJ to overturn the election.
ABC News previously obtained and published emails dated Dec. 28, 2020, showing Clark circulating that draft letter, which he wanted Rosen and Donoghue to sign off on.
(NEW LISBON, Wisc.) — A man who allegedly killed a retired Wisconsin judge in a “targeted act” has died from what authorities described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Douglas Uhde, 56, was pronounced dead on Thursday when he was taken off life support and his organs were harvested for donation, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
Uhde was declared brain dead on Saturday, one day after police found him gravely wounded in the home of slain retired Judge John Roemer, 68, in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, officials said.
The suspected killer was discovered in the basement of Roemer’s home suffering from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
Uhde allegedly shot and killed Roemer on Friday morning after he showed up at the judge’s home, according Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul.
Uhde had a hit list that included U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
Police responded to Roemer’s home around 6:30 a.m. Friday after a 911 caller, who fled the home after shots were fired, reported that an armed man was in the judge’s home and had fired two shots, Kaul said.
The Juneau County Special Tactics and Response Team responded and attempted to negotiate with the alleged shooter before entering the home. Inside, they found Roemer dead and zip-tied to a chair, and the mortally wounded suspect in the basement, officials said.
“This does appear to be a targeted act,” Kaul told reporters during a news conference Friday. “The individual who is the suspect appears to have had other targets as well. It appears to be related to the judicial system.”
Wisconsin court records show that Roemer was involved in Uhde’s sentencing for a 2002 criminal conviction. In 2005, he sentenced Uhde to six years in state prison and nine years extended supervision for armed burglary, a felony, with concurrent sentences for three lesser counts. Uhde had pleaded no contest to the charges.
Uhde’s alleged hit list had more than a dozen names and was found inside his car outside Roemer’s home. In addition to McConnell and Whitmer, the hit list included Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, the source told ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — The Food and Drug Administration’s independent panel of advisers has voted in favor of the FDA authorizing Novavax, a protein-based vaccine, which could soon be the fourth vaccine for COVID-19 authorized in the U.S.
Although the U.S. already has three other COVID vaccines, some experts are excited about the Novavax vaccine because it is the first COVID-19 vaccine of its kind to be considered for authorization.
Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine is a more traditional protein-based vaccine, given as two shots. Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccine platforms use more modern advances in genetic technology.
The FDA can now issue its authorization for Novavax and then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will review the vaccine before giving its recommendation. Novavax is not expected to roll out as quickly as the other vaccines have and instead will take weeks after authorization to get out to the public.
The company asked for authorization for adults over 18 and has yet to ask for authorization for boosters.
During the review on Tuesday, the FDA’s advisers pushed Novavax representatives on multiple points.
Members asked whether there was data to back up the hope that this vaccine will win over people who have been vaccine-hesitant until now.
Novavax didn’t have specific data on acceptance among unvaccinated people, but said it was focused on getting through to them.
FDA leadership signaled that it was open to any vaccine that made a dent in the nation’s vaccine rates.
“I will use this as a moment on the bully pulpit to say that we do have a problem with vaccine uptake that is very serious in the United States,” Dr. Peter Marks, leader of the FDA’s vaccine division, told the panel.
“And anything we can do to get people more comfortable to be able to accept these potentially life-saving medical products is something that we feel we are compelled to do,” he said.
Multiple advisory committee members also harped on the fact Novavax only had data on how its vaccine held up to earlier strains of the virus, but not the omicron variant.
“It is disappointing, and we’ve discussed this already, that we don’t have more updated information because we’re looking at the efficacy against strains that don’t exist any longer,” Dr. Eric Rubin, a member of the committee and professor at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said during the meeting.
“Nevertheless … if there really is a population of patients who are willing to take this and not only existing vaccines, I think it’s pretty compelling,” he said.
Filip Dubovsky, chief medical officer of Novavax, said the company was confident the vaccine was still protective against omicron.
“Overall, it’s factual that we don’t have efficacy data against omicron. But, what we do have is a technology that we think generates a broad immune response, demonstrated against a broad array of variants,” he said Tuesday.
And there were also concerns over myocarditis cases seen after the Novavax series.
Out of 40,000 vaccine participants to date, there were five cases of myocarditis occurring within 20 days of getting the shots — a very small number but still a concern.
Myocarditis, which is the inflammation of the heart muscle, has also happened to people who got the other authorized vaccines, particularly mRNA vaccines Moderna and Pfizer. Like those cases, these cases were largely among young men.
Many members pointed out that there’s no reason to think myocarditis is more common from Novavax than any other vaccine already out there, but the committee still ultimately concluded that more research was needed on a broader group of Americans to better understand how big the risk is.
“I think we need more data from post-authorization use in larger numbers of individuals to really get at what the rate of myocarditis associated with this vaccine is and what exactly the risk is,” an FDA representative told the panel.
(NEW YORK) — TiJae Baker, 23, took a train from New York City to Washington, D.C., on May 1 and has yet to return to home.
Her mother, Toquanna Baker, is desperate to find her daughter. She told ABC News that the details of TiJae Baker’s disappearance have led her to believe she may have been dragged into a human trafficking scheme.
“After this rally, I’m going right back out there, because I’m going to find my daughter,” Toquanna Baker said at a rally Monday, according to New York ABC station WABC.
TiJae is an up-and-coming artist in Brooklyn and a student in her final year of college. She went to D.C. to apparently make posters for a woman she met online, her mother said.
Toquanna Baker said her daughter got off at Washington Union Station and was supposed to return the next day. When she did not, Toquanna Baker filed a police report with the New York Police Department a few days later.
After a few weeks of silence, TiJae Baker called home June 1 and begged to be rescued by her mother. Toquanna Baker immediately traveled to the D.C. area, but has yet to find her daughter. She hasn’t spoken to her since.
Toquanna Baker said she fears for her daughter, saying the disappearance is not getting much attention because TiJae is a Black woman.
“I haven’t slept at all,” Toquanna Baker told WABC.
Toquanna Baker said she provided the identity of the girl TiJae Baker went to visit to police.
She is 5-foot-7 and 130 pounds. She was last seen wearing a black sweater, gray shorts and a white top, according to the NYPD.
The NYPD asks that anyone with information on her disappearance or whereabouts call 800-577-TIPS.
(WASHINGTON) — New details are emerging about how the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol plans to begin presenting its findings to the American people this Thursday, June 9.
The prime-time hearing, kicking off at 8 p.m. EDT, will feature never-before-seen footage, including a dramatic 10-minute video, and witness testimony as lawmakers aim to explain what they say was a “coordinated, multi-step effort” to undermine democracy and overturn results of the 2020 presidential election.
It was revealed this week that the panel brought in a seasoned television executive, former ABC News President James Goldston, to help produce the hearing and capture public attention after nearly a year’s worth of work conducted behind the scenes, a development first reported by Axios and confirmed to ABC News by congressional sources. Goldston, who left ABC News last year, started working with the committee several weeks ago.
One of the witnesses planned for Thursday’s hearing is documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who was embedded with the extremist far-right group the Proud Boys during the assault on the Capitol, ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl reported.
The hearing will be the first time Quested shares his story publicly. Lawmakers are also expected to air material captured by Quested and his crew. While his documentary has not been released, some of his footage has been used in a Department of Justice case related to Jan. 6.
Earlier this week, Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio and four other members were indicted on seditious conspiracy charges. They all were previously indicted on less serious conspiracy charges related to their involvement in what transpired on Jan. 6. All previously pleaded not guilty and there is a hearing scheduled in their case for later this week.
Another expected witness is Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a head injury in the attack. She told ABC News last October that she was still struggling months after the incident.
“You kind of have this, this guilt of like, ‘Am I, am I making this up?’ — because I can’t tell you know I can’t show in a tangible way that I’m injured, but you know I really have to tell people I’m not feeling good today,” Edwards said.
The Jan. 6 committee’s presentation will be the culmination of more than 11 months of work including more than 1,000 interviews and over 140,000 documents.
The panel — including seven Democrats and two Republicans — has talked to Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner as they investigate former President Donald Trump’s role in efforts to subvert the election outcome. Trump has consistently attacked the panel, calling it the “Unselect Committee.”
Committee members have also interviewed former Attorney General Bill Barr; former national security adviser Michael Fynn; Trump’s former personal assistant Nick Luna; former aide to Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson; and Stephanie Grisham, the former White House press secretary and chief of staff to Melania Trump.
Most major news networks are expected to carry Thursday’s hearing live in their prime-time slot, with the exception of Fox News.
The conservative outlet announced Tuesday that their prime-time programs will cover the hearings “as news warrants.” At 11 p.m. EDT, “Fox News @ Night” anchor Shannon Bream will host a two-hour live special analyzing the hearings.
Instead, Fox Business will be covering the hearings live, with Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum as anchors. Local Fox affiliates around the country, the Fox website and Fox Nation app will also be able to air the Fox Business feed.
The Jan. 6 committee’s second hearing is slated for June 13 at 10:00 a.m. The dates of the other hearings have not been released.
The committee has set a fall deadline to share its complete findings, a release that would coincide with the 2022 midterm elections.
The committee can refer cases for prosecution, but only the Justice Department can decide whether to file any charges.
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.
(HOUSTON) — Texas prison officials have suspended inmate transports after a convicted murderer allegedly killed a man and his four grandchildren after escaping from custody.
Gonzalo Lopez, 46, escaped a prison bus after stabbing the driver in the hand and chest on May 12. Lopez was serving a life sentence for capital murder in Hidalgo County and an attempted capital murder in Webb County.
“TDCJ has temporarily suspended the transport of inmates as the agency conducts a comprehensive review of its transportation procedures. If it becomes necessary to do a transport such as releasing or an emergency medical appointment, additional security measures will be implemented,” the TDCJ wrote in a statement to ABC News Houston station KTRK. “The agency is conducting an internal Serious Incident Review and also intends to bring in an outside firm to conduct an independent review to identify factors that may have lad to the escape of (Gonzalo) Lopez.”
State Sen. John Whitmire, chair of the Texas Senate’s Criminal Justice Committee, said the Texas Department of Justice should suspend transports until safeguards are in place.
Whitmire is calling for the requirement of three armed correctional officers on a bus that carries violent offenders with a trailing vehicle behind.
Currently, the state only requires two officers on the bus and there are no requirements for a car following the transport.
“While the investigation continues into exactly what happened with the recent escape and tragic murder of 5 members of the Collins family, we must act swiftly to ensure no other Texan is in danger of losing their life or being harmed by an escaped inmate being transported on Texas roads,” Whitmire said in a statement prior to the decision to suspend transports.
Lopez escaped from a prison bus on May 12 after breaking out of a cage structure and stabbing the driver. Lopez was being transported from Gatesville to Huntsville for a medical appointment.
Lopez, the driver and a second officer all exited the bus before Lopez got back in and drove away in the vehicle.
Lopez remained on the run until June 2, when he is believed to have murdered five other people before being shot and killed by authorities in a shootout.
Officials allege Lopez entered Mark Collins’ home in Leon County and murdered Collins and his four grandchildren, whose ages range from 11 to 18.
Authorities have alleged that Lopez stole clothes, firearms and a 1999 white Chevrolet Silverado from the residence.
The victims were seen on the morning of June 2 and found murdered that evening around 6 p.m., according to authorities.
Deputies from the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office spotted the suspected stolen vehicle later that night and followed it until officials were able to lay out spike strips that flattened the truck’s four tires in Jourdanton, almost 250 miles from Leon County.
According to authorities, Lopez fired the first shots with a rifle aimed out of the truck’s window. The deputies returned fire, killing Lopez.
Prior to the shootout, Lopez was added to Texas’ 10 Most Wanted Fugitives List and officials issued a $50,000 reward for his capture.
Gabe Ginsberg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The economic recovery from a pandemic-induced downturn has prompted a surge in worker pay, especially in some low-wage sectors like leisure and hospitality, leading to pronouncements of a shift in leverage between workers and management.
Despite a pandemic-era boom for low-wage workers, the hike in pay last year for a typical worker at the nation’s lowest-paying companies failed to keep up with the raises enjoyed by the chief executives at their firms, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning think tank.
Moreover, at more than a third of the lowest-paying companies, the pay hike last year for a typical worker fell short of inflation, effectively amounting to a pay cut, the report said.
The 30-page report — which examines the 300 U.S. corporations that provided the lowest median pay in 2020, including large corporations such as Amazon and Starbucks — found that the CEO-to-worker pay gap at those companies grew wider last year compared with the year prior.
The average gap between CEO and median worker pay among those 300 low-paying companies rose last year to 670-to-1, up from 604-to-1 in 2020, the report said. Forty-nine firms had ratios above 1,000-to-1 last year, the study showed.
“Instead of using 2021 as an opportunity to reward low-wage workers, many of whom did work to keep the economy going during the crisis, we saw gaps further widening and companies focusing on keeping their CEOs happy,” Sarah Anderson, the director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and a co-author of the report, told ABC News.
Andy Jassy, the Amazon CEO, received compensation totaling $213 million last year, resulting in a pay ratio of 6,474 to 1, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, who retired in March, received total compensation of $20.4 million last year, which amounted to 1,579 times the pay of a typical worker at the company, a SEC filing showed.
The increased wage gap between CEOs and median workers at Amazon and Starbucks last year coincided with a surge in unionization at the companies. A nationwide labor campaign at Starbucks, which began with a victory at a store in Buffalo, New York, in December, has achieved union representation at 72 stores, the National Labor Relations Board said last Tuesday.
“We’re seeing more and more workers turning to unionization and other ways to try to stand up and demand their fair share,” Anderson said.
But the increased gap between CEOs and median workers may reflect the heightened need for capable leadership during the economic crisis brought about by the pandemic, said Rachel Greszler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
“It could’ve made sense for companies to increase compensation to keep people they had on board or to attract people to get them through difficult times,” Greszler said.
In addition to Amazon and Starbucks, the report examined major corporations such as McDonald’s, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Nike and The Home Depot, among many other companies.
(NEW YORK) — A mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas last week — which left 19 children and two teachers dead — has prompted outcry from figures across public life.
President Joe Biden and Sen. Mitch McConnell. R-Ky., usually political opponents, both expressed horror at the shooting and McConnell okayed negotiations with Democrats on potential legislation to address the issue.
Actor and Uvalde native Matthew McConaughey described the incident as “devastating.”
Some of the nation’s most prominent chief executives have joined the chorus, such as Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.
But many CEOs at the largest U.S. companies — which wield significant influence and can often change the direction of political debate — have remained silent on the tragedy and what should be done about it.
ABC News contacted the top 20 companies on the Fortune 500 list for comment on the recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde as well as on the larger issue of gun violence. Nearly all of the companies did not respond, except Microsoft and Walgreens Boots Alliance, which responded but declined comment.
Disney, the parent company of ABC News, also did not respond to a request for comment.
Some experts believe the business leaders have not directly addressed the recent shootings or potential gun violence solutions for fear of the potential backlash from employees, shareholders, business partners and customers, who may hold opposing views.
The companies and executives that have spoken out are predominantly those with a track record of having done so before or those with amenable stakeholders, the experts said.
“At the moment, most chief executives are deer in the headlights,” said James O’Rourke, a professor of management at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “They see the risk of taking a position as exceeding the return.”
Speaking out in the past
A number of leading companies on the Fortune 500, including companies contacted by ABC News for this story, have spoken out or taken action on gun violence in prior years.
In September 2019, weeks after two shootings at Walmart stores, company CEO Doug McMillan issued a public memo discontinuing the sale of handguns in Alaska, the last state where the company carried the firearms, as well as some forms of ammunition. He also called on national leaders to strengthen background checks.
Walmart, one of the companies that did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News, still sells some types of guns and ammunition at many of its stores.
Also in 2019, Walmart, CVS Health, and Walgreens asked customers to no longer openly carry firearms in their stores. “We support the efforts of individuals and groups working to prevent gun violence,” CVS Health, another one of the companies contacted by ABC News, said in a statement at the time.
And Dick’s Sporting Goods, which was not one of the companies contacted by ABC News, in recent years has taken a series of steps to remove guns from its stores. In February 2018, days after a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, the company announced that it would stop selling semi-automatic weapons similar to the one used in the incident.
“We were so disturbed and saddened, we felt we really needed to do something,” CEO Edward Stack told Good Morning America at the time. Since then, Dick’s has discontinued the sale of guns entirely at hundreds of stores as part of a multi-year reduction.
Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling, who runs the largest healthcare provider in New York state (but not part of the Fortune 500), in an interview with ABC News condemned gun violence and called for policy solutions such as universal background checks.
Dowling acknowledged to ABC that the pro-gun control political landscape in New York makes it easier for him to speak out, and encouraged his peers to do likewise.
“I know a lot of CEOs around the country. I’ve had discussions with them,” he said. “I know many of them are nervous about going public because of the political circumstances they’re in.”
“When I ask them if they think it’s okay that there are so many mass shootings, especially with kids. They’ll say, ‘It’s horrific.’ They’ll admit that. Then I say, ‘Say something about it — be courageous.’”
Contrast with other activism
The corporate silence on gun violence in the wake of the recent mass shootings stands in stark contrast with the recent widespread exit of U.S. companies from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, O’Rourke, the business management professor, said.
“Executives decided the reputational risk of staying in Russia is far greater than any revenue I could extract,” O’Rourke said. “In domestic issues it’s complicated because lawmaking is mostly done at the local and state level, and executives must operate across state lines. If they take a position on every issue, it is likely key stake holders will abandon them.”
One notable example is Disney, which first remained silent and then came out strongly against what many perceive to be anti-LGBTQ legislation.
In recent months, Disney sparked ire from prominent national voices and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis when the company publicly opposed the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay Bill,” which prohibits public school teachers from providing instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for some of the youngest students and what opponents say is age-inappropriate material. In April, the state moved to dissolve a special tax district enjoyed by Disney. The special district is a private government run by Disney World that allows it to offer services such as zoning and fire protection.
In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, speaking out was a gamble some top companies decided to take nonetheless.
“All of us at Goldman Sachs express our deepest sorrow over the recent tragic and senseless acts of violence in America, which have resulted in the deaths of friends, neighbors, co-workers, children, and other loved ones,” Solomon, the chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, told ABC News in a statement.
Solomon met last Wednesday with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other private sector leaders to discuss the issue, he said in the statement. “I urge our elected officials to come together to enact policy initiatives to make our communities safer,” he added.
Jassy, the Amazon CEO, expressed similar sentiment a day after the mass shooting in Uvalde last week.
“Deeply sad about the shootings in Texas yesterday and Buffalo 11 days ago. My heart breaks for those families,” Jassy tweeted. “This endless cycle is maddening…terrible pain and suffering. I can only hope that we come together as a country to find a way to stop this kind of tragic violence.”
AT&T, one of the Fortune 500 companies that did not respond to a request for comment, donated $50,000 to support the Robb School Memorial Fund, a collection of resources for the families and communities impacted by the Uvalde shooting.
Notable corporate activism has emerged in professional sports. In baseball, the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays coordinated recently with a series of social media posts that offered statements and information on gun violence
The advocacy continues a trend of rising activism among professional sports leagues, teams, and players in recent years on issues like police brutality and racial justice.
Divergent responses and possible action
The divergent response among major companies after recent mass shootings marks the latest moment of decision making for corporations as a political response embroiled the country. Similarly, large companies have remained mostly quiet in response to the leak last month of a draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.
Three years ago, the CEOs at 145 companies — including Airbnb and Yelp — sent a letter to members of the U.S. Senate calling for new gun safety laws that would require background checks for all gun sales.
In the days following the death of George Floyd, in May 2020, companies across corporate America put out statements in support of racial justice and made donations to advocacy organizations that fight racial inequality.
Last April, as state legislatures pursued restrictive voting laws, hundreds of companies and executives signed a letter opposing “any discriminatory legislation” that limits access to the ballot box.
Carol Bevins, a professor of business communication at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, said that most major companies will ultimately address the issue of gun violence.
“Eventually, it’ll be inevitable that companies have to respond,” she said. “You cannot not communicate.”
