(NEW YORK) — Four types of Gold Medal all-purpose flour, bleached and unbleached, have been recalled due to possible salmonella contamination.
General Mills announced a voluntary recall with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday.
According to the recall, the strain was “discovered during sampling of the five-pound bag product.”
The affected products included two date codes of Gold Medal Unbleached All Purpose Flour in 5- and 10-pound bags, as well as two date codes of Gold Medal Bleached All Purpose Flour in the 2- and 5-pound bags. The recalled bags of flour have a “better if used by” date of March 27, 2024, and March 28, 2024.
No other types of Gold Medal Flour were affected by this recall.
General Mills urged customers to check their pantries at home and asked them to discard any of the affected products.
The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned consumers to refrain from consuming any uncooked products made with Gold Medal flour.
The agency wrote, “Salmonella Infantisis [is] killed by heat through baking, frying, sautéing or boiling products made with flour. All surfaces, hands and utensils should be properly cleaned after contact with flour or dough.”
(LONDON) — Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, will attend the coronation of his father King Charles III, but travel back to the U.S. to celebrate his son’s birthday, ABC News has learned.
Harry’s trip to the United Kingdom could possibly only last about 24 hours, as he is expected to attend the coronation and then leave shortly afterward to return home to his family, according to ABC News royal contributor Omid Scobie.
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and their two children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet will not attend, according to the palace.
“Buckingham Palace is pleased to confirm that The Duke of Sussex will attend the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey on 6th May. The Duchess of Sussex will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet,” the palace previously said in a statement.
The coronation ceremony is scheduled to take place Saturday, May 6, at Westminster Abbey. The date coincides with the birthday of Archie, who will turn 4.
Harry was most recently in the U.K. in March, on a solo trip to attend court hearings in a tabloid lawsuit, but he is not believed to have met with Charles or his older brother Prince William.
Harry has described tensions with his father and brother for several years, most publicly after he and Meghan stepped down from their roles as senior working royals in 2020.
It is not known whether Harry has seen William and Charles in person since the release of his memoir “Spare” earlier this year, in which he details their family rift.
“He’s had conversations with King Charles over the months since the release of that book. And so I think for a chance to see his son, their supporting him on the day of the coronation will mean a lot. Whether that gives them any time to change how the relationship is — I don’t think so. The focus is really on the coronation weekend, but it does at least sort of build one extra step on that very long bridge to reconciliation,” Scobie added.
Harry last appeared publicly with his family in September, when he and Meghan attended the funeral of Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Despite being at odds with Charles and William, the heir to the throne, Harry has said he would like to see the monarchy continue.
He told GMA co-anchor Michael Strahan in January that in speaking out, he hoped to be able to reconcile with his family.
“If we can get to the point of reconciliation, that will have a ripple effect across the world,” Harry said in the interview. “I genuinely believe that, and that’s kind of what is pushing me. And if that doesn’t happen, then that’s very sad.”
(NEW YORK) — Before cross examination of E. Jean Carroll resumes on Monday, Donald Trump’s lawyers requested a mistrial in a letter filed at dawn.
Defense attorney Joe Tacopina said Judge Lewis Kaplan has mischaracterized elements of the case and improperly shut down certain lines of questioning during cross examination.
Carroll claims the former president attacked her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. Carroll brought the lawsuit in November, saying Trump defamed her in a 2022 Truth Social post by calling her allegations “a hoax and a lie.”
Tacopina said he should have been allowed to explore why Carroll did not pursue security camera footage from Bergdorf Goodman and why Carroll did not go to the police following the alleged rape by Trump.
“[P]roof that Plaintiff never attempted to determine if any such footage of the parties existed constitutes circumstantial evidence that her accusation is false,” the letter said.
Tacopina also questioned the judge’s admonishment of a social media post by Eric Trump that revealed LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman is funding Carroll’s case.
“Eric Trump’s tweet was either factually accurate or protected opinion,” Tacopina wrote.
The judge had appeared to include the tweet when he likened social media posts by former President Trump to jury or witness tampering. Tacopina called it evidence of “unfair treatment.”
Trump has denied all allegations that he raped Carroll or defamed her.
(NEW YORK) — Rachel Simner, the mom of a 13-year-old child in Illinois, said she took her child to a local emergency room last September at the urging of her child’s school officials, who had done a suicide risk assessment.
Simner, a mom of two, told Good Morning America that when her child was discharged from the emergency room several hours later, her only guidance was a list of pediatric mental health providers that were said to specialize in autism, a condition with which her child has been diagnosed.
“It turns out a lot of them weren’t pediatric or they didn’t deal with autism or they had waitlists, so it took a while to find anybody and this is a kid who was suicidal, so it was urgent,” Simner said. “Four or five days later I went to the mental health hospital itself instead of the ER to try to get them admitted directly, and we were turned away again.”
Simner said her child, who also uses they/them pronouns, has for the past several months relied on a patchwork of providers and an at-home tutor provided by the school district while she and her husband continue to search for a more permanent treatment plan.
“We get bad information. The providers aren’t adequately trained. There’s such a shortage of space and beds for inpatient treatment,” Simner said. “In the meantime, my child is falling through the cracks and not getting the help that they need.”
Several states away, in the Washington, D.C., area, Ann, a mom of two, estimates that she and her husband have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to get mental health care for their oldest child, a high school student.
“We’ve been paying basically out-of-pocket since she was in third grade for weekly therapy,” Ann, who asked that her last name not be used, told GMA, noting that is even with her family being lucky enough to have health insurance.
Around eighth grade, Ann said her child, who uses they/them pronouns, began to self-harm and experience suicidal thoughts, which led to years of searching for and bouncing between inpatient and outpatient treatment programs.
“At one point I switched to half-time in my job to take care of my child because we were too scared to leave them alone physically,” Ann said, adding of the financial toll, “We’ve spent anything that they had for college, and possibly everything that their sibling had for college and possibly our retirement, just so that they could do all of this so that they could survive enough to decide what they wanted to do after high school.”
In addition to the financial burden, Ann said the logistical burden of finding treatment for their child has fallen squarely on her and her husband.
After one 10-hour stay at a local emergency room following their child’s suicide threat, Ann said they left with little more than a list of mental health care providers to try to call for an appointment.
“Everyone is just trained to say, ‘Call 911,’ and then you get discharged from the hospital and you’re like, what do I do now?” Ann said. “It’s like a state of crisis for a parent to be constantly like, how do I manage that someone will be home 24/7 with my child and still work and still be able to pay our bills and still have another child who is supposed to be able to function like a normal person?”
A mental health crisis of care for kids
Mental health experts say what Simner and Ann described experiencing is part of a larger crisis across the country, where a record number of kids in need of mental health care are crashing up against a lack of access to care.
“I think out of the 100,000 psychologists [in the U.S.], there are around 4,000 adolescent clinicians, and most of those are in urban areas,” Robin Gurwitch, Ph.D. , professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, told GMA. “You tell a family, ‘Here’s what you need to do,’ but then what? If you’ve got a six-month waiting list, that isn’t helpful for a family in crisis, particularly for a child in crisis.”
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry estimates that when it comes to child and adolescent psychiatrists — medical doctors who are able to prescribe medicine — there are just over 10,000 currently practicing in the U.S., at a ratio of 14 per 100,000 children.
Two years ago, the AACAP joined with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association — which collectively represent more than 77,000 physicians and over 200 children’s hospitals — in declaring children’s mental health a “national emergency.”
Last year, a report from U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy warned of a growing mental health crisis among young people. The report, issued during the coronavirus pandemic, cited statistics including a 50%-plus-increase in emergency room visits for suspected suicide attempts among girls and a doubling of anxiety and depression symptoms reported across genders.
On Thursday, a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention painted an even starker picture: According to the agency, the number of high school female students seriously considering suicide jumped from 24% in 2019 to 30% in 2021.
The percentage of those who made a suicide plan increased from 19.9% to 23.6% in that same time frame. There was also an increase in suicide attempts, from 11% to 13.3%, according to the CDC.
“So many people that I’ve worked with have had to make the choice where they know that their child is imminently suicidal, and they just can’t afford to bring them somewhere to get treatment,” said Mitch Prinstein, Ph.D. , chief science officer for the American Psychological Association, noting that many parents struggle to find treatment at all. “So they come home every day from work, hoping and praying that their child is still alive.”
Prinstein described kids as moving targets who develop so quickly that a delay of any time in mental health treatment can set them on a different life course.
“If a kid has to wait six months until they get an evaluation or they get better, that means they’re missing, potentially, a significant portion of their school year,” Prinstein said. “When they are able to start functioning again, they’re now on a whole new trajectory and where they end up might be miles away from where they would have been had they been able to get minimal disruption where they did not lose a school year and they did not have major conflicts with teachers, parents and peers.”
Prinstein and other experts point to data showing the mental health crises among kids has been a long time coming, and was both exacerbated and highlighted by the pandemic, a time when kids faced everything from loss and isolation to economic uncertainty at home.
A new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, a policy-focused nonprofit organization, determined that in the absence of a “focused strategy” for help post-pandemic, “a generation of young people will enter adulthood with worse mental health,” particularly those in low-income communities.
“Just because [COVID] is not like it was three years ago, doesn’t mean that it has completely disappeared from the lives of our children,” said Gurwitch. “Those concerns that arose during COVID — those that were often coupled with grief and loss issues, with changes in their family due to housing or food or job insecurity — we couldn’t just turn those off and put them back into the learning environment.”
Gurwitch said a silver lining of the increased focus on mental health care post-pandemic is the expansion of the government-backed 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which people can call or text 24/7 for help. A federal funding bill passed in January included $506.1 million to support and expand services provided by the lifeline.
Both Gurwitch and Prinstein said the lasting impacts of COVID are piled on top of what is an already stressful time to be a child in America. Kids today, they said, feel the weight of school shootings, natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes, economic uncertainty, social justice, climate change and war, on top of social media and academic pressures.
At the same time, according to Prinstein, they are not prepared emotionally to cope, despite a renewed public discourse on mental health that came out of the pandemic.
“We have basically an almost complete lack of any prevention right now,” Prinstein said. “When it comes to physical health, there’s all kinds of prevention that we teach kids about — how to eat well and exercise and avoid unhealthy practices — but there’s just remarkably little prevention that’s built into the way that we raise kids or that we talk about at the family and community level.”
‘We need a mental health moonshot’
Prinstein said if the U.S. wants to make any significant progress towards ending the mental health crisis among kids, there needs to be substantial change.
“We made a big investment in building a whole mental health infrastructure in our country after World War II, for the veterans, but we’ve made no meaningful changes to the mental health infrastructure in this country since that time 70 years ago, and that system already was built for adults, not for kids,” he said. “So we’re just sitting on a whole bunch of solutions that could work if we developed a system that reflected the science.”
He added, “All of that is just going to waste because everyone is making these tiny, incremental, ultimately meaningless changes that don’t address the heart of the issue.”
Just as President Joe Biden last year outlined a new “American Moonshot ” aimed at eradicating cancer, Prinstein said the U.S. needs a “mental health moonshot.”
“We should be thinking about mental health in the exact same way we do physical health. People should be aware of their options, they should know about the scientific approaches to treatment that are likely to work and they should be able to access that treatment,” he said. “We should be building mental health resilience and competencies into every kid, K-12, in every community.”
Prinstein applauded the Biden administration’s $1 billion in funding to increase the number of school-based health professionals, but described that effort and others as “tiny band-aids” being placed on the problem, instead of a necessary “systemic fix.”
“Right now, the government pays billions of dollars every year to make sure as a national priority that we have a sufficient number of physicians with the right specialties in the right parts of the country so that everyone has access. There is no such effort being made for mental health care providers,” he said. “It really is that substantial and that big of a concern that we’re talking about the need for a major, systemic federal commitment, and we haven’t been doing that for decades.”
Last year, when the Biden administration’s funding increase was announced, Education Department Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, Roberto Rodríguez, told ABC News there’s never been an effort of this magnitude by the federal government to distribute mental health professionals to schools. The recent spending, according to Rodríguez, also helps President Biden inch closer to his goal of “doubling” school-based mental health practitioners.
“We are making a big bet on supporting, attracting, developing and retaining our school psychologists, social workers, [and] counselors to really work in support of our students,” Rodríguez said.
Anne, a mom from Rockville, Maryland, who asked that her last name not be used, said she wonders what would have happened with her own 16-year-old child if mental health was treated differently in the U.S.
In one instance, the child — whom Anne asked not be named — experienced suicidal ideation, and Anne said they waited several days in a local hospital’s emergency department trying to be admitted to a mental health treatment center.
“Immediately, you are depersonalized, put in a space that has nothing that can be used as a hazard and you sit there, and you sit there, waiting to be assessed,” Anne said of her family’s experience in the ER.
“Ultimately, the psychiatrist, in meeting with my child, she determined that there was a lot of a lot of stuff my kid was having to deal with, and the thought of suicide and the plans for suicide were the only things that my child knew to go to, to cope, because they hadn’t learned coping strategies anywhere.”
Training pediatricians to be first responders for children’s mental health
With schools also facing a stark shortage of mental health professionals — at a ratio of 1,162 to 1 compared to the 500 to 1 ratio recommended by the National Association of School Psychologists — one organization is working to train another population that reaches children daily: pediatricians.
To date, the REACH Institute, a New York-based nonprofit organization, has trained more than 6,000 pediatricians and primary care providers in delivering scientifically proven mental health care, according to Lisa Hunter Romanelli , Ph.D., CEO of REACH and a licensed clinical psychologist.
“Unfortunately, the typical pediatrician, through medical school and their training, they don’t get a lot of training on mental health, but increasingly, because of the children’s mental health crisis, that’s where families are turning,” Hunter Romanelli told GMA. “So REACH’s training program aims to increase the knowledge and comfort of pediatricians so that they are able to to spot early signs of children’s mental health illness and manage and help those kids within the scope of their pediatric practices.”
The scope of REACH’s training, according to Hunter Romanelli, extends from learning to identify mental health struggles in kids to treating them, whether by helping the patient and family learn different skills to alleviate symptoms or, if indicated, prescribing medication.
“We’re not trying to turn [pediatricians] into therapists,” Hunter Romanelli said, adding, “Our training empowers them to do something that they are already being asked to do and gives them more comfort and confidence in being able to help the kids in their practice.”
Hunter Romanelli said REACH, which is funded by donations as well as grants and fees for its training programs, estimates that training one pediatrician can help 250 kids with mental health issues, meaning the need is still great.
“Today, our impact has been that we’ve trained 6,000 pediatricians, which means they are helping 1.5 million kids, which is good, but there’s still a crisis,” Hunter Romanelli said. “We’d love to make sure that every pediatrician has gone through our training program because obviously that would make a dramatic impact on the number of kids to have access to to mental health services.”
What parents can do now
Hunter Romanelli, as well as Prinstein and Gurwitch, stressed that there are steps parents can take to try to protect their child’s mental health.
First, parents should know that they have the right to ask questions of providers about the mental health treatment their child is receiving, according to Prinstein.
“It’s really, really important that folks, when they go to get help, that they’re looking for a licensed professional and also asking, ‘Did you go to an accredited institution,?’ and, ‘What is the kind of therapy that you’re providing? Is there science to demonstrate that therapy works,?'” he said. “Parents have every right to ask.”
Second, parents should be sounding boards for their kids, and be proactive in speaking to them about mental health, including suicide, according to Prinstein.
“Talk with your kids about suicide because there is a big misconception that we’re going to somehow put an idea in our kids’ heads and it’s going to make them more likely to do something risky or bad. That is absolutely incorrect,” he said. “You’re not putting an idea in their head, but what you are doing is communicating when they talk with you about it, they’re going to feel safe and they’re going to feel like they can open up to you.”
Gurwitch echoed Prinstein’s advice, saying simply, “Talk to your kids.”
“Check in with them about how they’re doing when events happen,” she said. “Whether it is another shooting, whether it’s a disaster, whether it’s the impact of climate change, whether it’s the war in Ukraine, check with your kids about how they’re doing and they can know that you’re available to talk to about the tough things.”
Likewise, Gurwitch said parents should feel comfortable talking to their child’s pediatrician and school officials about mental health.
“You know your child better than anybody else, so if you see a change in their behaviors and their functioning and how they’re doing in school or with peers or with you, talk to somebody to see, ‘Should I be concerned?'” she said. “Children don’t come with a manual, so it’s unfair [for parents] to think, ‘I know what to do.'”
If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises please call or text 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org or dial the current toll free number 800-273-8255 [TALK].
ABC News’ Arthur Jones II and Kelly Livingston contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — First Republic Bank has become the third bank to fail in recent months and the giant JPMorgan Chase will assume all of its assets, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The FDIC said the deal avoids the agency having to use its emergency powers and would minimize disruptions for customers. It comes in the wake of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank shortly thereafter.
Under the deal JPMorgan Chase is set to take on “all of the deposits and substantially all of the assets of First Republic Bank” after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) confirmed that the troubled bank had collapsed on Monday.
“JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association submitted a bid for all of First Republic Bank’s deposits. As part of the transaction, First Republic Bank’s 84 offices in eight states will reopen as branches of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, today during normal business hours,” the FDIC said in a statement obtained by ABC News. “All depositors of First Republic Bank will become depositors of JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, and will have full access to all of their deposits.”
First Republic Bank is the third major U.S. bank to collapse in recent months.
“As of April 13, 2023, First Republic Bank had approximately $229.1 billion in total assets and $103.9 billion in total deposits,” the FDIC said. “In addition to assuming all of the deposits, JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, agreed to purchase substantially all of First Republic Bank’s assets.”
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March and Signature Bank shortly after that prompted widespread fears of a wider banking crisis that could affect the global economy.
The FDIC added that avoiding a takeover by the agency would “minimize disruptions for loan customers.”
Jonathan McKernan from the FDIC Board of Directors released a statement early Monday regarding First Republic Bank’s collapse.
“I am pleased we were able to deal with First Republic’s failure without using the FDIC’s emergency powers. It is a grave and unfortunate event when the FDIC uses these emergency powers,” said McKernan. “Any decision to use the FDIC’s emergency powers should be approached skeptically, taking into account the unique facts and circumstances of the time, and with careful attention to the implications for the future.”
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
(SEATTLE) — Two people were shot and killed at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle late Saturday, with another person transferred to a hospital in critical condition, police said.
Seattle Police Department officials said on Twitter at about 10:30 p.m. that they were investigating a shooting at the Capitol Hill park.
Officials arrived on the scene to find three people with gunshot injuries, according to a statement.
“Despite lifesaving efforts by police and Seattle Fire, one man was pronounced dead at the scene,” police said. “Medics transported the two other victims to Harborview Medical Center where one man later died, while the other remains in critical condition.”
Police said they were searching for another man “who was involved but left the scene before officers arrived.”
Seattle CSI and Homicide detectives will lead an investigation.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(KHARTOUM, Sudan) — As countries wind down mass evacuations of their nationals from war-torn Sudan and the White House warns time is running out, the United States has undertaken its first effort to move hundreds of Americans citizens out of Khartoum, the capital.
A government-organized convoy carrying U.S citizens, locally employed staff and nationals from allied and partner countries arrived at Port Sudan on Saturday, according to the State Department, which said Sunday that a second convoy had also arrived.
“We continue to assist U.S. citizens and others who are eligible with onward travel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where additional U.S. personnel are positioned to assist with consular and emergency services,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement on Sunday.
Almost 1,000 U.S. citizens have left Sudan since fighting broke out between Gens. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, Miller said Sunday.
“Fewer than 5,000 US citizens who have sought guidance from the government,” he said.
The State Department has stressed its commitment to American nationals amid the still-developing violence. According to Miller, the routes for exit have included partner-country flights and convoys as well as U.S.-organized travel and seats on departing ships.
A U.S. official confirmed on Sunday that the USNS Brunswick was in Port Sudan to help extricate Americans. The official later said the Navy vessel is expected to take them from Port Sudan to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“The U.S. government has taken extensive efforts to contact U.S. citizens in Sudan and enable the departure of those who wished to leave. We messaged every U.S. citizen in Sudan who communicated with us during the crisis and provided specific instructions about joining this convoy to those who were interested in departing via the land route,” the State Department said in a statement Saturday. “We encourage U.S. citizens who want to leave Sudan but chose not to participate in this convoy to contact the Department of State using the crisis intake form on our website.”
The evacuations have been enabled by “intensive negotiations by the United States with the support of our regional and international partners,” according to the State Department, which reiterated its warning to Americans not to travel to Sudan.
Later Saturday, the Pentagon confirmed it received a request for assistance, though it did not say whether it came from Sudan.
The Pentagon has provided intelligence and surveillance assets, including drones, a department spokesperson said.
“The Secretary of Defense approved a request for assistance from the Department of State to support the safe departure of U.S. citizens and their immediate family members via overland. The Department of Defense deployed U.S. intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets to support air and land evacuation routes, which Americans are using, and we are moving naval assets within the region to provide any necessary support along the coast. Our focus has been and remains to help as many U.S. citizens depart as safely as possible,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in a statement.
On Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre advised that Americans in Sudan who wished to leave should “take advantage of the options that are available to them in the next 24 to 48 hours.”
Although countries like Saudi Arabia and Spain started evacuating their citizens and other foreign nationals from Sudan in the early days of the week and the U.S. airlifted diplomats from Khartoum over the weekend, the administration maintained that carrying out a large-scale operation to rescue some of the thousands of American citizens residing in Sudan was not feasible.
The U.K., Germany and France have all also evacuated thousands.
But not all operations have gone smoothly. On Friday, Turkey reported that one of its aircraft had come under fire as it landed in Khartoum — underscoring the threat that ongoing fighting poses to air rescues.
Before news of the U.S.-led convoys broke, the State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, Vedant Patel, defended the administration’s posture and said it had played a hand in the mass evacuations orchestrated by other countries.
“Our allies and partners that are conducting operations that are able to also take American citizens out–we of course, are incredibly thankful and gracious for their ability to do so. But this is a collective and collaborative effort,” he said. “We are offering logistical support for some of these operations to be conducted. Whether they be overland, whether they be through the air.”
Patel also said that “only a fraction” of the thousands of U.S. citizens in Sudan had actively sought assistance to leave the country.
Other officials familiar with the situation have said it’s unclear how much demand there is from American nationals for an exit route, emphasizing that individual’s desire to leave can change on a day-by-day basis.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that the State Department was working to establish “a sustained process” through which Americans could depart Sudan.
“We believe that the best way to have an enduring capability to help people leave Sudan–if that’s what they so choose–is overland. And we’re working to establish a process that would enable people to move overland to a place where they can more easily exit the country,” Blinken said.
At least two American citizens were among the 500-plus killed in in the sectarian violence that first erupted two weeks ago, which has injured thousands more.
Although the U.S. had assisted in brokering a number of cease-fires in Sudan, their implementation has been uneven. While both sides agreed to another 72-hour truce on Friday, there’s little hope it will hold.
“It’s obvious to everybody that the ceasefires are not perfectly working,” a U.S. official said. “But we are hearing from multiple contacts on the ground, as well as our international partners, that the series of efforts to push forward ceasefires are creating meaningful periods of reduction of violence and that these periods are allowing people to move out of Khartoum.”
But as more foreign nationals leave, there’s looming concern in Sudan that the battle for control over the country will catapult to new intensity.
“There’s going to be fewer eyes on what’s happening,” said Jon Temin, vice president for policy and programs at the Truman Center for National Policy.
(CLEVELAND, Texas) — Authorities are continuing the search for the suspect connected to an “execution-style” shooting that killed five family members in Texas, including an 8-year-old boy.
The carnage began Friday night after neighbors asked the suspect, Francisco Oropesa, 38, to stop shooting his gun in the yard of his home in Cleveland, Texas, about 50 miles north of Houston, investigators said.
The San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office received a call around 11:31 p.m. Friday detailing harassment, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told reporters on Sunday. When deputies arrived at the home, they found five victims at the property, Capers said.
Three minors who were found uninjured but covered in blood were transported to a local hospital, authorities said. Two of the female victims were discovered in the bedroom lying on top of two surviving children, authorities told ABC News.
All of the victims are from Honduras, police said.
Oropesa is still on the loose and likely armed with an AR-15-style rifle. He is a “threat to the community,” FBI Houston field office agent James Smith told reporters during a press briefing on Saturday.
The FBI has “zero leads” on where Oropesa could be, Smith said Sunday while announcing an $80,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
“We do not know where he is,” Smith told reporters during a press briefing. “We don’t have any tips right now to where he may be.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a $50,000 reward later Sunday. “I continue working with state & local officials to ensure all available resources are deployed to respond,” he tweeted.
The neighbors had asked the suspect to stop shooting his gun in the front yard because there was a baby trying to sleep, Capers told ABC Houston station KTRK.
Oropesa, who allegedly had been drinking, responded, “I’ll do what I want to in my front yard,” Capers said.
The massacre went from a case of harassment to a shooting very quickly, Capers said. All of the victims were shot from the neck up, “almost execution-style,” Capers told KTRK.
The victims were identified by authorities as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman, 8. Five other people who were in the home were not harmed.
Footage from a Ring doorbell at the victims’ house shows the shooter entering the home with a weapon, Capers said.
Four of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene. The youngest, an 8-year-old boy, was declared dead after being transported to the hospital, police said.
Some of the victims were trying to shield their children from the bullets, Capers said.
Shell casings were found in Oropesa’s front yard, police said.
Wilson Garcia, who owns the home, told KTRK that the family was preparing a meal when Oropesa began shooting on his property.
Garcia told KTRK he moved in three years ago and “never had a problem” with his neighbor until Friday. Garcia’s wife and young son were among the victims killed in the shooting.
“I don’t have words to describe what happened,” Garcia said during a vigil Sunday. “It’s like we’re alive but not living. What happened was really horrible. I lived through it because I was there. I managed to escape by miracle.”
“Two people died protecting my 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter and my month-and-a-half-old son,” an emotional Garcia continued. “They protected him with a pile of clothes so the killer wouldn’t kill them, too.”
Garcia said he was in the house at the time of the shooting and escaped by climbing out of a window. Garcia said a woman in the house who told him to get out of the window was one of the people who died.
“She told me to jump through the window because my kids are now without a mother and one of us needed to stay alive to take care of them,” he said.
“What can I say, I’m trying to be strong for my kids,” Garcia said. “My daughter somewhat understands, and it’s difficult when she starts to ask for her mom and her brother.”
During Sunday’s vigil, Garcia said his son was 9 years old; authorities have said the boy was 8. Some of Garcia’s remarks also differed from his previous account when he spoke to KTRK.
Neighbor Veronica Pineda told KTRK that she had grown accustomed to neighbors shooting firearms in the area.
“There’s always shooting,” she told the station. “There’s always people calling the cops and there’s nothing being done.”
Another neighbor named Shawn told ABC News that the tight-knit neighborhood is typically “peaceful” and described the victims as “good people.”
“It is a shock that this took place in our neighborhood,” he said.
Investigators described Oropesa as a 5-foot-8 Hispanic man with a goatee and short black hair. He was last seen wearing jeans, a black shirt and work boots.
Authorities believe they have the weapon used in the attack, a .223 rifle, but do not know if Oropesa is carrying a smaller weapon, Capers said.
Investigators have found Oropesa’s abandoned cellphone and several articles of clothing, Capers said.
The San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI’s Houston Field Office are assisting in the manhunt.
ABC News’ Peter Charalambous, Nadine El-Bawab, Meredith Deliso, Jon Haworth, Nicholas Kerr, Jamie McCarty, Gina Sunseri, Armando García, Marilyn Heck, Teddy Grant and Michelle Mendez contributed to this report.
(BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss.) — Two teenagers were killed and at least four others were wounded when a gunman opened fire early Sunday at a house party in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, police said.
One suspect, identified as 19-year-old Cameron Everest Brand, was arrested on six counts of aggravated assault. Following Brand’s arrest, two of the shooting victims died, according to the Bay St. Louis Police Department.
The shooting unfolded around 12:34 a.m. Sunday at a house in the Gulf Coast town about 30 miles west of Biloxi.
“Upon arrival, multiple persons were found suffering from gunshot wounds,” Bay St. Louis Police Chief J. Toby Schwartz said in a statement.
He said two of the victims, an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old, were taken to University Medical Center in New Orleans, where they were pronounced dead. Their names were not immediately released.
Schwartz said the other victims, all between 15 and 18 years old, were taken by private cars to nearby hospitals. One victim remains in critical condition and three others are in serious condition, police said.
“Through a thorough investigation, including witness and victim statements, Cameron Brand was identified as the sole shooter,” Schwartz said.
Brand was taken into custody at his home in the nearby town of Pass Christian, Mississippi, after police obtained an arrest warrant for him, Schwartz said. Everest was jailed without bail.
A motive for the shooting was under investigation Sunday.
(KHARTOUM, Sudan) — As countries wind down mass evacuations of their nationals from war-torn Sudan and the White House warns time is running out, the United States has undertaken its first effort to move hundreds of Americans citizens out of Khartoum, the capital.
A government-organized convoy carrying U.S citizens, locally employed staff and nationals from allied and partner countries arrived at Port Sudan on Saturday, according to the State Department, which said Sunday that a second convoy had also arrived.
“We continue to assist U.S. citizens and others who are eligible with onward travel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where additional U.S. personnel are positioned to assist with consular and emergency services,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement on Sunday.
Almost 1,000 U.S. citizens have left Sudan since fighting broke out between Gens. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, Miller said Sunday.
“Fewer than 5,000 US citizens who have sought guidance from the government,” he said.
The State Department has stressed its commitment to American nationals amid the still-developing violence. According to Miller, the routes for exit have included partner-country flights and convoys as well as U.S.-organized travel and seats on departing ships.
“The U.S. government has taken extensive efforts to contact U.S. citizens in Sudan and enable the departure of those who wished to leave. We messaged every U.S. citizen in Sudan who communicated with us during the crisis and provided specific instructions about joining this convoy to those who were interested in departing via the land route,” the department said in a statement Saturday. “We encourage U.S. citizens who want to leave Sudan but chose not to participate in this convoy to contact the Department of State using the crisis intake form on our website.”
The evacuations have been enabled by “intensive negotiations by the United States with the support of our regional and international partners,” according to the State Department, which reiterated its warning to Americans not to travel to Sudan.
Later Saturday, the Pentagon confirmed it received a request for assistance, though it did not say whether it came from Sudan.
The Pentagon has provided intelligence and surveillance assets, including drones, a department spokesperson said.
“The Secretary of Defense approved a request for assistance from the Department of State to support the safe departure of U.S. citizens and their immediate family members via overland. The Department of Defense deployed U.S. intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets to support air and land evacuation routes, which Americans are using, and we are moving naval assets within the region to provide any necessary support along the coast. Our focus has been and remains to help as many U.S. citizens depart as safely as possible,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in a statement.
On Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre advised that Americans in Sudan who wished to leave should “take advantage of the options that are available to them in the next 24 to 48 hours.”
Although countries like Saudi Arabia and Spain started evacuating their citizens and other foreign nationals from Sudan in the early days of the week and the U.S. airlifted diplomats from Khartoum over the weekend, the administration maintained that carrying out a large-scale operation to rescue some of the thousands of American citizens residing in Sudan was not feasible.
The U.K., Germany and France have all also evacuated thousands.
But not all operations have gone smoothly. On Friday, Turkey reported that one of its aircraft had come under fire as it landed in Khartoum — underscoring the threat that ongoing fighting poses to air rescues.
Before news of the U.S.-led convoys broke, the State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, Vedant Patel, defended the administration’s posture and said it had played a hand in the mass evacuations orchestrated by other countries.
“Our allies and partners that are conducting operations that are able to also take American citizens out–we of course, are incredibly thankful and gracious for their ability to do so. But this is a collective and collaborative effort,” he said. “We are offering logistical support for some of these operations to be conducted. Whether they be overland, whether they be through the air.”
Patel also said that “only a fraction” of the thousands of U.S. citizens in Sudan had actively sought assistance to leave the country.
Other officials familiar with the situation have said it’s unclear how much demand there is from American nationals for an exit route, emphasizing that individual’s desire to leave can change on a day-by-day basis.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that the State Department was working to establish “a sustained process” through which Americans could depart Sudan.
“We believe that the best way to have an enduring capability to help people leave Sudan–if that’s what they so choose–is overland. And we’re working to establish a process that would enable people to move overland to a place where they can more easily exit the country,” Blinken said.
At least two American citizens were among the 500-plus killed in in the sectarian violence that first erupted two weeks ago, which has injured thousands more.
Although the U.S. had assisted in brokering a number of cease-fires in Sudan, their implementation has been uneven. While both sides agreed to another 72-hour truce on Friday, there’s little hope it will hold.
“It’s obvious to everybody that the ceasefires are not perfectly working,” a U.S. official said. “But we are hearing from multiple contacts on the ground, as well as our international partners, that the series of efforts to push forward ceasefires are creating meaningful periods of reduction of violence and that these periods are allowing people to move out of Khartoum.”
But as more foreign nationals leave, there’s looming concern in Sudan that the battle for control over the country will catapult to new intensity.
“There’s going to be fewer eyes on what’s happening,” said Jon Temin, vice president for policy and programs at the Truman Center for National Policy.
