(NEW YORK) — New York City police are no longer asking for help finding a woman who was seen being carried into a minivan, now announcing that the woman was not kidnapped and knew the man she was with.
“The male and female depicted in the video were both found,” the NYPD said. “Both parties were known to each other and it was deemed to have not been a crime.”
Police said earlier that the unknown woman was kidnapped around 1:45 a.m. Friday in Brooklyn.
“The unknown male placed the victim into a minivan before fleeing northbound on Stillwell Avenue,” the NYPD said in its earlier statement.
(CLIVE, Iowa) — Multiple 2024 Republican presidential candidates and those continuing to mull a bid for the White House pitched their platforms on Saturday to hundreds of Christian conservatives at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual spring kickoff in Clive.
The back-to-back candidate forum allowed speakers to court a vital voting bloc in Iowa, which will host the first nominating contest for Republican hopefuls next February.
The topic of abortion took center stage as GOP politicians continue to stake out their own stances on the issue.
Saturday’s event was held one day after the Supreme Court paused a lower court’s ruling to restrict access to the widely used abortion pill mifepristone while legal battles over the FDA’s approval of the drug play out in court.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and other Republicans emphasized their backing for limits on abortion access, opposition to transgender rights and the importance of school choice.
Also speaking on Saturday were lesser-known presidential candidates Larry Elder, Perry Johnson and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Former President Donald Trump addressed the crowd virtually. Below are highlights from the forum.
Donald Trump
Facing criticism from some abortion opponents over his position that abortion access should be decided at the state level, Trump defended his stance on restrictions by focusing on his judicial appointments while in office — including successfully naming three Supreme Court justices, all of whom helped reverse the Roe v. Wade decision last year.
“Nobody thought it was gonna happen, they thought it would be another 50 years. Because Republicans had been trying to do it for that period of time,” Trump said in his pre-taped remarks.
“I appointed over 300 judges to fill the federal bench with constitutional warriors who interpret the laws as written. I faced down vile attacks to confirm our three Supreme Court justices: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett,” Trump said.
He said he would continue to “stand in defense of life” and, if elected to a second term, he promised to work to curb transgender rights — which conservatives claim harm society, drawing fierce outcry from LGBTQ advocates — while attacking the U.S. Department of Education.
“We will reassert the Judeo-Christian values of our nation’s founding. We will protect our heritage and traditions,” he said.
Mike Pence
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision on mifepristone on Friday, Pence said he wanted to see the justices ban chemical abortions, labeling the FDA-approved drug as “a dangerous medication,” though doctors and the U.S. government say it is safe.
“I think that chemical abortions, mail-order abortions that the Biden administration has now allowed should be banned,” Pence told ABC News after his speech.
He broke with the former president, his former boss, saying he disagreed with Trump’s view that abortion is a state-level matter even though “I do think it’s more likely that this issue is resolved at the state level.”
“We’ve been given a new beginning for life in this country,” Pence said. I think we have an opportunity to advance the sanctity of life.”
Asa Hutchinson
Hutchinson, Arkansas’ most recent former governor, centered his speech around faith, arguing that “our leadership in the public arena should reflect our as well.” Like others, he stressed his opposition to abortion while addressing Iowans.
“As governor I was proud of the fact that we were the most pro-life state. I signed 30 pro-life bills over my eight years as governor,” he said.
Asked about his presidential priorities, Hutchinson discussed eliminating “wokeness” in schools, which Republicans describe as a left-wing movement wrongly emphasizing identity politics, and advocating for parental rights.
“The most important way to push back is by parents being engaged in our schools,” he said.
Tim Scott
Scott discussed the topic of life — not solely by focusing on abortion but through his view of American exceptionalism as it relates to race.
“We have the ultimate responsibility to protect the future of this nation not for ourselves but for Americans unborn. I would simply say, the lies of the left have been disproven by my life,” he said, reiterating what has been a key part of his persona on the political stage.
Scott said that while “the radical left are selling a drug of victimhood,” he advocated that people could achieve whatever they work toward despite their racial identity or upbringing.
“We have to tell them the whole story, the story of truth and redemption, that America is the freest, fairest land in the history of the world,” Scott said. “I will say this: With a praying mama, all things are possible.”
Vivek Ramaswamy
Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur, also focused on race during his remarks, stating he would end affirmative action and shut down the U.S. Department of Education if he were elected. “Do you know what it means to be an American? It means you believe in the ideals that set this country into motion,” he said.
Ramaswamy told ABC News before he spoke that he was “unapologetically pro-life” in response to being asked about the legal battles surrounding access to mifepristone.
“The scope of the administrative state has reached far too broad we need to constrain it,” he said.
Elder, a popular commentator, and businessman Johnson, who recently announced their own long shot presidential bids, also took the stage Saturday.
“The reason I ran for office is because I felt like I had an obligation, a moral obligation and a religious obligation. Our family, our country, is moving away from the Judeo-Christian values that founded this country,” said Elder, who unsuccessfully challenged California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall race in 2021.
Johnson opened his remarks by saying he was probably “too conservative” for the Iowa group before criticizing Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s decision to repeal the state’s abortion ban.
“I say, let’s stop all of this and go on the offensive on the subject,” he said.
One notable politician missing in Iowa was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was at the Utah GOP’s state convention on Saturday.
Some locals remain undecided on 2024 pick
Several Iowans attending Saturday’s event told ABC News they were largely undecided about their candidate choice, emphasizing the importance of forums ahead of the 2024 nominating process.
“We take our job seriously and I love it. And we’ve been living in Iowa a long time. And we get out and see the candidates,” said George Wood, a retired businessman.
“You listen and ask questions. This is the only place in the country you can do that,” he said.
Becky McKibben, a retired school nurse, said she was “not yet 100%” on her choice.
“I think it’s good to hear what other people have to say and hear lots of different ideas and what their thoughts are on what they see as the vision for our country,” she said.
Others said they already know who they want and are using every opportunity to see their candidate speak.
“I would like Trump to be the president again,” Juanita Blonigan, an IT worker said. “That’s what I want. But I don’t know if the country is going to allow that.”
Blonigan said Trump’s recent indictment in New York related to hush money payments made her feel “frustrated and annoyed” but her support of the former president has only strengthened since his recent court appearance, where he pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
“You know, I’m hoping that whatever it takes, people will swing his way and make America great again,” she said.
(KHARTOUM, Sudan) — Under pitch black conditions and amid fighting, U.S. military forces swooped into war-torn Sudan in two Chinook helicopters and evacuated the American embassy in a “fast and clean” operation, military officials said late Saturday evening.
President Joe Biden confirmed the evacuation of U.S. government personnel from Khartoum under his orders and said the administration would continue to assist Americans in Sudan. Biden praised embassy staff, saying ina statement they “embodied America’s friendship and connection with the people of Sudan.”
“I am grateful for the unmatched skill of our service members who successfully brought them to safety,” he said. “And I thank Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia, which were critical to the success of our operation.”
Biden said the embassy had been temporarily closed but “our commitment to the Sudanese people and the future they want for themselves is unending.”
Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described evacuation operation as being “fast and clean.”
Sims said at a briefing that the mission got underway at 9 a.m. ET on Saturday, when two MH-47 Chinook helicopters took off from Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, refueled in Ethiopia and flew into the Sudanese capital of Khartoum to evacuate the U.S. embassy. He said the special forces team was on the ground in Khartoum for less than an hour.
Sims said that “under” 100 people, including Americans from the embassy and other personnel from unidentified embassies, were evacuated, including all U.S. Marines who were providing security at the embassy.
Overall, the rescue helicopters flew 1,600 miles from Djibouti to Khartoum and back.
Sims said that for much of their transit, the helicopters flew in at 100 knots and low to the ground in pitch black conditions. He said the helicopters did not take any ground fire on their way in and out of Khartoum.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the suspensions of operations at the embassy in Khartoum were due to the growing security risk and ensuring the safety of personnel.
“The widespread fighting has caused significant numbers of civilian deaths and injuries and damage to essential infrastructure and posed an unacceptable risk to our Embassy personnel,” Blinken said in a statement.
The State Department updated its travel advisory for Sudan to reflect that the U.S. embassy in Khartoum had suspended operations. The department’s advisory for Sudan remains at its highest warning level — where it has been since August of 2021.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noted the successful evacuation operation was conducted at Biden’s direction. He also highlighted the countries that assisted the operation.
“We also thank our allies and partners, including Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia, which were critical to the success of this operation,” Austin said in a statement.
The Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese paramilitary group battling Sudan’s army, issued a statement claiming to have aided in the U.S. evacuation.
“Today, Sunday, the Rapid Support Forces, in coordination with the US forces mission consisting of 6 planes for the purpose of evacuating diplomats and their families, supervised the necessary arrangements that preceded the evacuation process,” the statement read.
State Department Under Secretary for Management John Bass refuted those claims.
“That was not the case. They cooperated to the extent that they did not fire on our service members in the course of the operation,” he said. “I would submit that was as much in their self-interest as anything else.”
The Sudanese army said Saturday that evacuations of foreign diplomatic staff from the U.S., U.K., France and China will begin in the coming hours on military airplanes, as fighting persisted in the capital, including at its main airport. Their evacuation will be by air in military transport aircrafts belonging to their armed forces, the army said.
The Saudi Arabian mission was earlier evacuated by land to Port Sudan then by air to Saudi Arabia, Sudan’s army said. A similar evacuation plan will be secured for the Jordanian mission at a later time.
The rescue mission is the product of days of preparation across the administration and comes as the violent power struggle for control of Sudan that has already claimed almost 100 lives enters its second week.
On Friday, Austin told reporters U.S. forces had deployed to Africa to assist with a possible evacuation of U.S. embassy personnel.
“We’ve deployed some forces into theater to ensure that we provide as many options as possible if we are called on to do something,” he said during a news conference in Ramstein, Germany.
Austin and other senior administration officials said at that time that no final call had been made to evacuate the embassy.
Speaking late Saturday, Bass said the quickly deteriorating situation in recent days left the administration with no other option other than to turn to the military to rescue embassy personnel. But he said private U.S. citizens in the country should not expect similar assistance
“We certainly continue to be in close touch with many American citizen residents in Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan to give them our best assessment of the security environment and to encourage them to take appropriate precautions to the best of their ability in and around that environment,” he said.
National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby emphasized the challenges in conducting even a limited military operation in Sudan during a press briefing on Friday, remarking that it was “not as simple as jumping in a taxicab” and that at the time, all U.S. government personnel had not yet been consolidated in a single location.
Despite a 72-hour ceasefire agreed upon to coincide with the religious holiday of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, deadly clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group continued through the weekend.
In a statement on Friday, Blinken urged both sides to uphold the truce.
“I reiterate my call on both sides to pause the fighting to allow civilians to take care of themselves and their families, to permit full and unimpeded humanitarian access, and to enable all civilians, including diplomatic personnel, to reach safety,” he said.
But both sides show little interest in laying down arms, and the violence seems poised to continue. An estimated 16,000 Americans are still in Sudan, but despite the ongoing danger, the Biden administration has repeatedly declared they should not expect a government-led mass evacuation.
“It is not our standard procedure to evacuate American citizens living abroad,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a White House press briefing on Friday.
The U.S. Embassy in Sudan reiterated this saying, “Due to the uncertain security situation in Khartoum and closure of the airport, it is not currently safe to undertake a U.S. government-coordinated evacuation of private U.S. citizens,” in a statement Saturday.
Principal Deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said that officials had been in touch with several hundred U.S. citizens in Sudan concerning “security measures and other precautions they can take on their own.”
But during the press briefing Saturday night on the evacuation operation, Chris Maier, assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, said the U.S. military is working on ways to help American citizens who make it to Port Sudan via an overland route get out of the country.
“In the coming days, we will continue to work with the State Department to help American citizens who may want to leave Sudan,” said Maier, adding that one way was to make the overland route out of Sudan “potentially more viable.”
“So DoD is at present considering actions that may include use of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to be able to observe routes and detect threats,” Maier said. “Secondly, the employment of Naval assets outside the Port of Sudan to potentially help Americans who arrive at the port.”
The State Department has confirmed that one American citizen has been killed through the course of the conflict, but the limited information flow in Sudan could mean there are other victims not yet accounted for.
At the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Francis called for the resumption of talks to end the fighting in Sudan and offered a special prayer for “our Sudanese brothers and sisters.”
“Unfortunately, the situation in Sudan remains grave,” Francis told worshipers gathered in St. Peter’s Square. “Thus, I am renewing my appeal so that violence ceases as soon as possible and that the path of dialogue resumes.”
ABC News’ Morgan Windsor, Matt Seyler, Josh Margolin and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner on Sunday said the online leaks of classified U.S. military and intelligence documents — allegedly by an airman working in IT at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts — weren’t completely unexpected but underscored how the process for secret-keeping needs to be reformed.
“This is a problem that we shouldn’t be totally surprised at,” Warner, D-Va., told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
“We’ve known this has been a problem. We actually have to have, I believe, Congress intervene,” Warner went on to say. “And we have to do a better job.”
He said there were multiple larger issues, including the over-classification of documents; the lack of a single authority overseeing the system who could enforce uniform regulations such as restrictions on how many copies someone can make; and the ability of too many people with clearances to access documents unnecessarily.
“We way over-classify documents. … Once we get to that highest level of classification, we maybe have too many folks taking a look at them. Over 4 million people with clearances. So, let’s classify less,” Warner said, while still calling for less access to the “most-classified documents.”
Another solution he suggested was oversight: “I believe we need somebody fully in charge of the classification process.”
The Air National Guardsman who is suspected in the leaks, 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, was arrested on April 13 and has been charged with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and willful retention of classified documents.
Teixeira has not yet entered a plea. Reports have indicated he was driven by a desire to impress friends online.
“This individual was literally just an IT tech. There’s no reason that that person should be able to see the full document,” Warner said on Sunday. “You may have to see the header, but the actual contents — there’s ways to make this safer.”
If Teixeira is “proven to be … the leader, he needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Warner said.
He urged “continuous vetting” of those with clearances, which he indicated could include review of ongoing social media activity. The more troubling complication in these leaks, he said, was the apparent use of the digital platform Discord, which is used for popular but private chat rooms.
“That raises a whole series of other questions I don’t think we’ve sorted through enough,” he said.
Raddatz also pressed Warner about the prolonged absence on Capitol Hill of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is currently recovering at home after she was diagnosed with shingles in February and briefly hospitalized.
Feinstein, the oldest member in Congress, serves with Warner on the Senate Intelligence Committee and is a key vote for Democrats on the Judiciary Committee as well. Some lawmakers have called on her to step down in recent weeks, given that her absence has stalled the process to confirm President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees.
“Should she resign?” Raddatz asked Warner.
“I’m hopeful that Dianne will return as soon as possible,” he responded. “She’s been a great senator, but my hope is she’ll get back to work as soon as possible.”
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace on Sunday warned her conservative colleagues that they would “lose huge” with voters if they continue pursuing strict abortion bans at the state level rather than finding what she called a “middle ground” on the issue.
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week” two days after the Supreme Court paused a federal judge’s ruling to restrict access to the widely used abortion pill mifepristone, Mace told co-anchor Martha Raddatz she agreed with that move and urged others in the GOP to avoid extremes.
Mace referenced a bill signed into law in Florida earlier this month banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and another bill introduced in her home state that could impose the death penalty on women who have abortions.
Mace, a “constitutional conservative who’s pro-life,” called those efforts “the wrong message heading into ’24.”
“We’re going to lose huge if we continue down this path of extremities and finding that middle ground — the vast majority of people want some sort of gestational limits, not at nine months but somewhere in the middle,” Mace said. “They want exceptions for rape and incest, they want women to have access to birth control.”
“These are all very commonsense positions that we can take and still be pro-life,” she said.
Mace’s comments highlighted the ongoing Republican Party divisions over abortion bans, which have long been a central issue for the GOP.
However, since the Supreme Court reversed its landmark Roe v. Wade decision last year, voters across the country have largely rejected efforts to restrict abortion and said in polling that ensuring abortion access has motivated them to turn out in elections.
“I saw what happened after Roe v. Wade because I represent a very purple district, as purple as this dress, and I saw the sentiment change dramatically,” Mace said. “And as Republicans, we need to read the room on this issue.”
Despite Mace’s position, Raddatz noted GOP leaders like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence feel differently, with Pence saying Saturday in Iowa, “I think we have an opportunity to advance the sanctity of life, move it ever closer to the center of American law.”
“There’s not a lot of discussion about finding a middle ground in the Republican Party. In fact, there’s not a lot of discussion about abortion in general,” Raddatz said on “This Week.”
That is a mistake, Mace argued.
“We’ve buried our head in the sand. We’re afraid to talk about it. Because we’re afraid, we want to go to the extreme corners of this issue. But that’s not where the vast majority of Americans are right now. And we’ve got to show compassion, especially to victims who’ve been raped,” Mace, who has been candid about her own experience being sexually assaulted, told Raddatz.
Raddatz also pressed Mace on her support last week for legislation barring transgender girls from competing in female sports, a vote Mace cast as a necessary defense in the “left’s new war on women.”
“These are biological men. They’re much stronger. They shouldn’t be in a locker rooms. And you hear these stories, and they’re real. It’s not a fantasy. It’s not a conspiracy theory,” she contended.
Some athletes disagree, Raddatz said, citing 40 of them who signed a letter criticizing the Republican ban.
But Mace suggested allowing transgender women in women’s sports was an attack on women’s safety and achievements.
She also rejected concerns that such legislation alienates transgender people, who as a community can suffer higher rates of suicide, after Raddatz quoted Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s decision last year to unsuccessfully veto a ban in his state on transgender girls competing in the sport that matches their gender.
Cox, a Republican, said then that there were only four transgender athletes competing in high schools in Utah, only one of whom was a transgender girl.
“Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few,” he said.
“I’m a pro-LGBTQ Republican. That’s not what this is about,” Mace said in response. “We don’t want anyone committing suicide because we’ve taken this position. To conflate the two is a radical and extreme position to take. What we do want to do is protect women and girls.”
(KOSTYANTYNIVKA, UKRAINE) — Alina Ivanchenko and her 9-year-old daughter, Zlata, waited as long as they could before leaving the city of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine. Preparing to leave the relative safety of the central city of Dnipro along with a dozen other locals, the overriding emotion is bittersweet.
“We were postponing till the last minute,” Alina, 40, told ABC News. “We are leaving because of the child. She is afraid of the explosions.”
Zlata’s friends have already left, and many of their neighbors have long fled abroad.
The city, less than 20 miles from the frontline battleground of Bakhmut, has been on the receiving end of near daily shelling from Russian forces for the past two months, she said. Yet the instinct to stay close to their roots stopped them leaving until now.
“I don’t know [why it took so long],” Alina said. “We were thinking: later, later, because we don’t want to leave our home.”
Across the street from the bus stop, the reasons for their departure could not be more evident. In a Soviet-era residential area targeted by Russian shelling at the beginning of April, a destroyed house and a damaged apartment building stand as testament to what the city has endured. Six people were killed and more than 20 residential buildings in the series of Russian strikes on the city, according to the local administration.
Even so, Liubov Zaikina, 72, continues to pick litter from the streets in the heavy rain, the debris sunk into the pools of collecting water. She says she has no choice but to stay in the city.
“Where can I go?” she told ABC News. “I don’t have money to pay rent. There is nothing good I can say now about how it is in the city.”
The main civilian hospital in Kostyantynivka has been treating the wounded from Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar, the cities further east where the daily shelling is even more intense.
Dennis Borshov, 50, a resident of Bakhmut who was a farmer before the full-scale invasion, is recovering at the hospital. Earlier this month he was helping evacuate civilians from the city along with his wife and three other volunteers, when a Russian mortar exploded near their vehicle.
“There was fear,” he told ABC News. “Because just in one moment we all could have died. Thanks to the soldiers, they helped us and pulled us out of there in time. If not for them, we would have been left there. That’s it.”
Borshov now moves with a walker, and the scars on his leg show the area where shrapnel pierced his thigh. Luckily, he said, the shrapnel missed the bone, and the group survived, though one other was seriously injured. But his elderly mother is still in the city, he said, and because there is no cell signal, he has no way to contact her.
The months-long battle for Bakhmut has become the latest byword of destruction in the conflict. Heavy shelling has transformed the landscape, and Borshov’s hometown is now unrecognizable, he said.
“The city has been razed from the face of the earth,” he said. “It basically doesn’t exist anymore.”
Many of the doctors here have left, but crucially all of the surgeons have remained in their posts, tending to the complex wounds of those injured under the bombardment.
The hospital receives patients from the surrounding areas, and while many have been injured in by Russian shelling, the stress of living under the looming threat of the war has had an impact on the health of the elderly and pregnant women, Olena Fillipova, the hospital’s medical director, said. The maternity ward is in the hospital’s basement, and there Fillipova has observed an increased number of complications at birth.
But for the staff remaining there is a job to do, and the work continues — despite the daily challenges of living so close to the frontline.
“It’s hard to say, but I’m coping with this,” she said. “I’ve managed to hold on. We are all holding on. Our team are holding on. We have a faith that all of this will stay Ukrainian territory. And we deeply believe in Ukrainian victory. And this gives us hope for hold on.”
ABC News Uliana Lototska, Natalia Popova and Scott Munro contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Bed Bath & Beyond filed on Sunday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The company’s 360 stores — along with its 120 buybuy BABY stores — are expected to remain open as the retailer begins its bankruptcy restructuring, according to a statement released Sunday. Online sales are also expected to continue.
Sue Gove, president & CEO, said the company would work “diligently to maximize value for the benefit of all stakeholders.”
“We deeply appreciate our associates, customers, partners, and the communities we serve, and we remain steadfastly determined to serve them throughout this process,” Gove said.
In a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of New Jersey, the company said its liabilities totalled more than $1 billion. The company said in a release it had secured financing of $240 million from Sixth Street Specialty Lending to support its operations during the turnaround process.
The New Jersey-based company listed debt, including long-term liabilities, totalling about $5.2 billion in its most recent quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Its assets were about $4.4 billion, including about $153 million in cash or equivalents.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds contributed to this story.
(LOS ANGELES) — Elaine Gilmer has seen the performance of “Fantasmic!” at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, over 100 times, but Saturday evening’s show was one to remember.
“The dragon’s head started to glow, and I see fire and kind of smoke coming out,” she said with hesitation. “I was like, ‘Oh … they added some new stuff because that didn’t didn’t happen like that before.'”
However, Gilmer’s daughter Elyssa began to realize that the fire from the animatronic dragon’s mouth appeared to spread to the body of the 45-foot creature, which is styled after the storybook villain of Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent.
“We saw some small explosions coming out of the head, and then, all of a sudden, the whole dragon was just engulfed, and then, all of a sudden, the worker started coming around escorting everybody out for safety,” Elaine said.
Videos of the incident quickly circulated online, showing the massive dragon wholly engulfed in flames — an uncharacteristically chaotic ending for the show that usually climaxes with Mickey Mouse casting a spell to defeat Maleficent.
All cast members were evacuated from Tom Sawyer Island, where the show is staged, due to the fire, according to a Disneyland official. The Anaheim Fire Department reported no injuries related to the incident, according to ABC News affiliate KABC.
“The cause of the fire remains under investigation at this time,” wrote the official.
Dark plumes of smoke emanated from the dragon and impacted nearby attractions, prompting Disneyland to clear some guests from the area.
“I would love to say that I was cool for the whole thing, but obviously there comes a little moment where it’s worrisome because it starts to spread a lot,” said Brenda Coutiño, who was visiting Disneyland from Tucson, Arizona. “I thought it was gonna cut into the buildings, and since there’s so much connected to that little island — I was just a little scared that it would spread out.”
Park guests reported that the incident was shocking initially, but the response, including moving some guests from impacted regions, went relatively smoothly.
Videos of the incident show guests watching and recording the show’s unplanned conclusion while a loudspeaker informs them that the “performance cannot continue due to unforeseen circumstances.”
The live show uses water and fire special effects to tell the story of Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, interspersed with clips from classic Disney movies.
Disneyland describes the show as “Daring heroes and epic villains do battle on a grand scale in an incredible nighttime show — starring Mickey Mouse.”
The fire cut off the show as it neared its conclusion. Recently refurbished, the show typically concludes with fireworks and visit from a steamboat full of dancing Disney characters and fireworks.
“The dragon is usually the highlight — that’s what most people look forward to,” Elyssa Gilmer said. “We always love that part, so it’s exciting to watch; it’s kind of sad knowing that [the fire] happened.”
Disney has not released a timeline for reopening “Fantasmic!”
ABC News’ Flor Tolentino contributed to this report.
The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — A woman was allegedly kidnapped off a New York City street by a suspect who drove her away in a minivan, police said.
The incident occurred around 1:45 a.m. on Friday in Brooklyn, the New York City Police Department said.
An “unknown female victim was kidnapped by an unknown male individual at the intersection of Avenue W and Stillwell Avenue,” the NYPD said in a statement. “The unknown male placed the victim into a minivan before fleeing northbound on Stillwell Avenue.”
The vehicle was described by police as a late-model Toyota minivan. The registration is not known. Police are seeking the public’s help in locating the minivan.
The victim is a woman in her 20s with a light complexion and long hair, approximately 5 feet tall and 120 pounds, police said. She was last seen wearing a striped shirt, blue skirt and white sneakers.
Police described the suspect as a man in his 30s with a light complexion and facial hair who is approximately 5’10” and 175 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black shirt, dark pants and black sneakers.
Anyone with information is asked to submit tips to the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-8477, online or on Twitter.
(INDIANA) — A loud boom heard across Central Indiana Friday night reportedly shook some homes and left residents wondering what exactly just happened.
There were also reports of a light streaking across the sky and a “possible explosion,” the Hamilton County Emergency Management said, as the source of the activity was under investigation.
“It may have been a sonic boom,” Hamilton County Emergency Management tweeted Friday night. “Police and fire continue to investigate.”
A National Weather Service lightning detection system picked up “something over Carroll County,” Hamilton County Emergency Management said.
Experts soon surmised that the sonic boom was from a suspected meteor. The National Weather Service’s Indianapolis office said its Geostationary Lightning Mapper detected a “likey fireball meteor” over Carroll County.
A home security camera in Greenwood, Indiana, picked up a loud boom and streaks in the sky accompanied by a fireball at 8:47 p.m. local time.
The suspected meteor could be seen by pilots in Kentucky, according to Hamilton County Emergency Management.
The American Meteor Society received multiple reports of a fireball in Indiana Friday night, including in Indianapolis, Bloomingdale, Lafayette, South Bend, Covington and Albany.
Fireball reports also came in to the American Meteor Society Friday from parts of Michigan, including Kalamazoo, and Illinois, including Chicago and Danville.
The reports come as the Lyrids meteor shower is occurring across the United States. The shower occurs every year in mid-April, when Earth crosses the trail of debris left by the Comet Thatcher, according to NASA.
“These bits of comet burn up when they hit Earth’s atmosphere and produce this shower of shooting stars,” NASA said.
For prime watching, the Lyrids are set to peak Saturday night.
