(KYIV, Ukraine) — Hollywood actor and director Ben Stiller heaped praise on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Monday to mark World Refugee Day as Russia’s ongoing invasion there forces millions to flee.
Stiller, who was visiting Ukraine and Poland as a goodwill ambassador of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) gave a rushed walk and extended his hands to meet Zelenskyy, an actor and stand-up comedian before he was elected president in 2019.
Both men said they were honored to meet each other.
“You’re my hero,” Stiller told Zelenskyy inside the presidential palace. “You’re amazing. You quit a great acting career for this.”
“Not so great as yours,” Zelenskyy said back with a smile.
“No, but pretty great,” Stiller joked, putting his hand over his heart at times. “But what you’ve done and the way that you’ve rallied the country and for the world, it’s really inspiring.”
Zelenskyy gushed at the compliment, saying, “It’s too much for me.”
Stiller traveled to Ukraine “to see the scale of destruction and hear firsthand from people who have directly experienced the impact of the war,” the UNHCR said in a release, adding, “These personal stories will enable Mr. Stiller to communicate the need for continued and increased support to the humanitarian response in Ukraine.”
Ahead of his meeting with Zelenskyy and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Stiller visited occupied settlements around Kyiv and stopped earlier Monday in Irpin — a town next to the capital that witnessed intense fighting early during the invasion. He and Karolina Lindholm Billing, the UNHCR representative in Ukraine, met with survivors of that occupation, according to a press release from Zelenskyy’s office.
“It’s one thing to see this destruction on TV or on social networks. Another thing is to see it all with your own eyes. That’s a lot more shocking,” Stiller told Zelenskyy.
“What you saw in Irpin is definitely dreadful,” the Ukrainian president replied. “But it is even worse to just imagine what is happening in the settlements that are still under temporary occupation in the east.”
In Irpin, the bodies of 290 victims, with a disproportionate number of women, were recovered after Russian forces inflicted a month of terror, the BBC reported.
And in the east, Russian forces have used long-range artillery to assail cities in the Donbas region, which Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to control.
Since Putin launched his invasion in late February, between 8 and 12 million people have fled their homes in Ukraine, according to data from the UNHCR. Roughly half have fled to neighboring Poland, which Stiller visited Sunday, seeking to spread awareness of the needs of the refugee crisis.
ABC News’ Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A family barbecue, a park gathering and a nightclub were among the settings for at least nine mass shootings that broke out across the country between Friday and early Monday, marking the fourth consecutive weekend U.S. law enforcement officers have responded to multiple incidents, each involving four or more victims shot.
The shootings this weekend have left at least six people dead and 42 injured in nine cities, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a site that tracks shootings across the country. The website defines a mass shooting as a single incident involving four or more victims, which differs from the FBI’s definition as a single incident in which four or more people, not including the suspect, are killed.
The string of consecutive weekend mass-casualty incidents began over the Memorial Day holiday, when at least 17 shootings left a total of 13 dead and 79 injured in cities across the country. The three-day holiday was followed by a weekend that saw at least 11 mass-casualty shootings that left 17 dead and 62 injured across the nation.
Last weekend, at least 10 mass-casualty shootings nationwide killed 10 people and injured 42.
The string of deadly weekends comes in the wake of a May 14 mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket that left 10 people dead and three wounded and the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
As of Monday, there have been 277 mass shootings in the U.S. this year, according to Gun Violence Archive.
1 killed, 8 injured in East Harlem, New York
Gunfire erupted early Monday at a park in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, where police said a group of people were having a barbecue when multiple shooters opened fire.
A 21-year-old man — identified as Darius Lee, a former New York high school basketball standout and college player — was fatally shot, according to ABC New York station WABC. The New York Police Department said six additional men and two women suffered non-life-threatening wounds in the barrage of gunfire that broke out along the city’s East River at about 12:35 a.m.
Authorities believe multiple guns were used in the shooting based on the shell casings homicide detectives found at the scene. Police said one handgun was also recovered from the scene.
No arrests were immediately announced and a motive remains under investigation, although authorities said they suspect the shooting was gang-related.
Lee was a member of the Houston Baptist University basketball team.
“The loss of anyone in the HBU family is a cause for grief, but it’s especially painful when we see the death of a student, particularly when so much promise is cut off in such a violent, senseless way. We offer our prayers for Darius’s family and closest friends,” HBU President Robert B. Sloan wrote in a post on Twitter.
Teenager killed, 3 people injured in nation’s capital
A 15-year-old boy was fatally shot and three adults, including a police officer, were injured in a shooting in Washington, D.C., Sunday night, officials said.
The shooting unfolded in the Cardozo neighborhood of downtown Washington, D.C. — a popular area filled with stores, restaurants and bars.
Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said at a news conference the shooting erupted after police officers responded to the area to break up a fight and disperse a crowd of several hundred people gathered at what he said was an “unpermitted” Juneteenth event and music festival called “Moechella.” He said prior to the shooting, a panicked crowd began to scatter and several people were trampled.
The subsequent shooting left two adult victims and the police officer with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, police said.
The name of the teenager who was killed was not immediately released.
No arrests were announced. Police said one handgun was recovered at the scene.
South Carolina nightclub shooting leaves 2 dead, 2 injured
Two men were killed and two other people were injured when a shooting occurred early Sunday at a nightclub in Walterboro, South Carolina, police said.
The shooting broke out about 2:40 a.m. at the High Time Night Club, according to the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office.
“Arriving deputies secured the scene and began rendering aid to the two male victims suffering from critical gunshot wounds,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The mortally wounded men were taken to Colleton Medical Center in Walterboro, where they were both pronounced dead, according to the sheriff’s office.
Two other victims who suffered non-life-threatening injuries arrived at the hospital in private vehicles, authorities said.
The names of the men killed were not immediately released.
A motive for the shooting is under investigation and no arrests have been announced.
Freeway shooting in Miami injures 5
Five people were shot and wounded early Sunday when the car they were riding in on a highway in Miami was fired on at by occupants of another vehicle, according to the Miami Police Department.
Police said six people were traveling on U.S. Route 1 at about 2:30 a.m. in a four-door Nissan Altima when a vehicle pulled up alongside them and gunfire rang out, police said.
Five of the six people in the Nissan suffered gunshot wounds, police said. The victims, two males and four females, ranged in age from 16 and 22, police said.
Police said a motive for the shooting remains under investigation and no arrests have been announced.
5 shot at intersection in Grand Rapids, Michigan
At least five people were injured early Sunday when a shooting erupted at an intersection in Grand Rapids, Michigan, police said.
The shooting happened around 2:45 a.m. and police found multiple shell casings in the area and several cars struck by bullets, Jennifer Kalczuk, a spokesperson for the Grand Rapids Police Department, told ABC News on Monday.
Kalczuk said officers responded to a report of shots fired and found one of the victims suffering from a gunshot wound. She said four other victims, three suffering from gunshot wounds and one believed to have been hit by flying glass, were taken to a hospital in private vehicles. She said all the victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
No suspects have been arrested and a motive is under investigation.
7 shot, 2 fatally, at family barbecue in San Antonio, Texas
Two men were killed and five other people were wounded Saturday night in San Antonio, Texas, when a car drove by and at least one occupant opened fire on a group of people gathered outside a home for a family barbecue, police said.
The drive-by shooting unfolded at about 10 p.m.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said at a news conference that 20 to 30 shots were fired in the attack.
He said the injured victims, including two women, ranged in age from 20 to mid-40s.
“A family was barbecuing out front of the house. People drove by and unloaded on them,” McManus said.
McManus said at the time of the shooting, six children were inside of the house and avoided injury.
“Fortunately, they weren’t out front,” McManus said.
He said police had responded to the same home in May when another drive-by shooting occurred there.
No arrests have been announced and a motive remains under investigation.
4 people, including a woman driving by, shot in Baltimore
Four people were injured Saturday night when a gunman walked up to them on a street and opened fire, police said.
The shooting happened around 11 p.m. in the Harlem Park neighborhood of West Baltimore, according to police.
One of the shooting victims was a 21-year-old woman who was driving by when gunfire erupted, police said.
The victims, who range in age from 21 to 50, were all treated at hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
No arrests have been announced.
Shooting at Pensacola, Florida, bar leaves 5 injured
Five people were injured when a shooting occurred at a downtown Pensacola, Florida, bar early Saturday.
The shooting erupted around 12:30 a.m. at The Pelican’s Nest bar.
“It is believed the shooting was a targeted incident, and there is no safety concerns toward the public,” the Pensacola Police Department said in a statement.
Officers responded to the bar and found three people suffering from gunshot wounds in the parking lot, police said. Two other shooting victims, a man and a woman, later showed up at the hospital in private vehicles.
A handgun was found by police inside the bar, but it was unclear if it was used in the shooting.
Police suspect one gunman was involved but no arrests have been made and a motive is under investigation.
5 shot in Chicago Parking lot
Five people were injured in a shooting that occurred in a parking lot in Chicago, police said.
It was the fourth straight weekend that Chicago police have responded to a mass-casualty shooting involving four or more victims.
The episode occurred around 11:45 p.m. in the Lake Meadows neighborhood on Chicago’s Southside. The victims ranged in age from 18 to 27 and all suffered non-life-threatening injuries, including one man who was shot in the chin, police said.
No arrests have been announced.
The mass-casualty shooting came amid a violent weekend in Chicago. The Chicago Police Department reported that a total of 39 people were shot in the city over the weekend, four fatally, according to ABC Chicago station WLS-TV.
(SAN DIEGO) — The FBI is looking for a man wanted in the disappearance of a woman whose remains were found in her vehicle in Tijuana last month.
The Bureau’s San Diego office asked for the public’s help on Sunday in finding 50-year-old Tyler Adams in connection to Racquel Sabean’s death.
Following an Amber Alert for Sabean’s missing 7-month-old daughter, local Mexican police detained and questioned Adams on Wednesday, but he was “uncooperative,” the FBI said in a press release.
Texas parents grateful daughter is alive after she vanished at NBA game
Sabean’s daughter was found safe and is in protective custody in Mexico. According to ABC affiliate KHON2, Adams and Sabean were in a relationship.
Adams is said to have entered the U.S. on Thursday at the San Ysidro Port of Entry under the alias “Aaron Bain.” The FBI said Adams has over a dozen aliases, including Paul Wilson Phipps, David Smith and Dominic Braun.
Immigration officials in Mexico reportedly handed Adams over to Customer and Border Protection officers at the border, according to the Baja California attorney general.
No information was provided as to how Adams escaped CBP, but the FBI was not present when the handoff between authorities happened, FBI San Diego’s Public Affairs Officer William McNamara said, according to ABC affiliate KGTV.
According to the FBI, Adams is also a fugitive out of Hawaii for escape in the second degree. The FBI describes Adams as white, 5 feet, 9 inches and weighs around 175 pounds, and has brown hair and possible swelling under his eyes.
“He should be considered dangerous; he has an extensive criminal history as it relates to fraud, multiple identities, multiple fake and stolen identities,” McNamara said.
(NEW YORK) — The summer season is in full swing as sweltering temperatures are expected to continue for millions around the country over the next several days.
On the heels of a record-breaking heat wave that brought dangerous temperatures to more than 100 million Americans, another round of scorching weather will also affect a large swath of the country this week.
The brunt of the heat will be affecting the central U.S. Monday afternoon, especially the upper Midwest, where an excessive heat warning is in effect for cities like Minneapolis and Fargo, North Dakota, and a heat advisory is in effect for regions surrounding Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Omaha, Nebraska, and Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Highs Monday afternoon will reach 100 degrees as far north as Minnesota, with widespread temperatures soaring into the 90s across the central U.S. Several daily record highs will be challenged in the upper Midwest, forecasts show.
On Tuesday, the solstice will mark the official start of the summer, and it will feel like it in many places throughout the country. The heat will shift farther east, with widespread highs in the 90s are expected from the South into the Midwest and some cities hitting triple digits.
Humidity is not expected to be as intense as last week’s heat wave, but heat index values will still be a few degrees higher than the air temperature, hitting the triple digits in many Midwest and Southern cities Tuesday afternoon.
After Tuesday, the heat will continue to move toward the eastern seaboard. Temperatures from Memphis to Atlanta will be near 100 degrees from the middle to end of the week.
And the blistering temperatures are likely here to stay. Forecasts indicate that above-average temperatures are favored across the southern U.S. through the end of June, meaning more heat waves are likely on the way.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff made a surprise visit to schoolchildren at the National Museum of African American History and Culture to talk about the meaning of Juneteenth as the nation observed the new federal holiday on Monday.
Children and their families greeted Harris, the first Black woman to serve as the nation’s second-highest executive, with cheers as she entered the room.
“Happy Juneteenth, young leaders,” a smiling Harris told the children.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, were the last to learn President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier, freeing them from slavery. The date achieved federal holiday status last June, when President Joe Biden signed into law the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act.
“Today is a day to celebrate the principle of freedom,” Harris told the children ages 4 to 10, “and think about it in terms of the context of history, knowing that Black people in America were not free for 400 years of slavery, but then at the end of slavery — right? … when the Emancipation Proclamation happened, that America had to really think about defining freedom …”
“I would argue, it is our God-given right to have freedom,” she added. “It is your birthright to have freedom, and then during slavery freedom was taken. And so we’re not going to celebrate being given back what God gave us anyway” as the group voiced agreement, one person saying, “Amen.”
She continued, “let this be a day that is a day to celebrate the principle of freedom, but to speak about it honestly and accurately, both in the context of history, and current application. That’s what I’m thinking about today.”
The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in 2016, when it became “the 19th museum of the Smithsonian Institution,” according to the museum’s website.
After their remarks, the second couple talked with children as they worked on coloring books.
The surprise appearance on Monday follows Harris and Emhoff hosting the first-ever Juneteenth celebration at the vice president’s residence, she tweeted on Sunday.
“I can think of no better way to celebrate Juneteenth than by spending time with the community,” Harris said, sharing a photo of R&B duo sisters Chloe and Halle Bailey, who spoke at the event.
Biden released a statement on Sunday afternoon calling Juneteenth “a day of profound weight and power that reminds us of our extraordinary capacity to heal, hope, and emerge from our most painful moments into a better version of ourselves.”
He added, “This is a day to celebrate, to educate, and to act.”
Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation to recognize Juneteenth as a paid state holiday.
(NEW YORK) — More than 1 million Americans have died from COVID-19, but recent data shows that deaths and severe disease are not increasing with the same vigor despite a surge in infections.
The U.S. has reported more than 700,000 new cases in the last week, but experts say totals are likely significantly undercounted as states shutter public testing sites and more Americans use at-home COVID-19 tests.
The number of virus-positive patients currently receiving care in hospitals across the country remains around 30,000 Americans, and on average, more than 4,200 virus-positive Americans are entering the hospital each day.
Although the number of people requiring hospitalization has doubled in the last two months, the total has plateaued in recent weeks, rather than surging significantly as they did in early January, when there were more than 160,000 patients receiving care.
Thus, even with infection rates surging, hospitalization and death rates have not seen a substantial increase, which experts say is likely the result of COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots blunting the impact of severe disease.
“What has been remarkable in the latest increase in infections we’re seeing is how steady serious illness and particularly deaths are eight weeks into this,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, told The Associated Press late last month. “COVID-19 is no longer the killer that it was even a year ago.”
Approximately 300 COVID-19-related deaths are currently reported each day, and about 1,800 Americans have been reported lost to the virus in the last week.
In the Northeast, which experienced a significant viral surge throughout the spring, there has yet to be a subsequent increase in COVID-19 deaths.
Even with undercounting, death rates are currently nowhere near where they stood at their peak in January 2021, when there were more than 3,400 deaths reported each day, or during the omicron peak in February, when the U.S. was reporting about 2,700 deaths every day.
Although an ABC News analysis of federal data shows that there has been an increase in breakthrough infections and deaths, the unvaccinated still remain at higher risk for severe disease compared to the vaccinated and boosted.
In April, unvaccinated adults were six times more likely to die of COVID-19 compared to vaccinated individuals and, in May, two times more likely to test positive, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Similarly, among Americans over the age of 50, the unvaccinated had a risk of dying that was 42 times higher than people who had been fully vaccinated and double boosted.
Even with encouraging news, health experts stressed that every death is still a tragedy, and Americans must continue to consider ways to protect themselves and the most vulnerable as they learn to live with the virus.
“We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to these numbers,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week. “There is no acceptable level of deaths from COVID-19 when we have the tools to prevent, detect and treat this disease.”
(WASHINGTON) — The clock is ticking for Senate negotiators working to reach a final agreement on an anti-gun violence package before the Fourth of July recess.
After agreeing earlier this month on a framework for the deal — including enhanced background checks for those ages 18-21 and funding for mental health and school safety programs — negotiators trying to turn the agreement into legislative text left Washington over the weekend without a clear path forward on two outstanding elements: “red flag” laws and closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole” by expanding a ban on domestic abusers owning firearms.
Republican Sens. John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, have been huddled with Democratic colleagues Chris Murphy, of Connecticut, and Kyrsten Sinema, of Arizona, in efforts to turn their broad consensus into an actual piece of legislation that can be considered and taken up for a vote on the Senate floor.
Though tensions ran high at the close of last week, a source close to the negotiations told ABC News on Sunday that discussions were back on track and that they were “moving in the right direction.”
But time is running out for quick action, which many in Congress would prefer.
The Senate is set to depart for a two-week recess at the close of business this week. Pushing a vote on the legislation until after the break threatens to slow momentum for a package already struggling to find a home in the Republican conference.
A senior Democratic leadership aide told ABC that bipartisan negotiators must produce bill text by Tuesday, at the latest, to keep the upper chamber on track for a vote this week.
President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Monday, would not say whether he thought negotiators would have the legislative text finalized by later that day. But he expressed some optimism about the state of the talks.
“I’m confident that … there’s a serious, serious negotiation that’s getting close to becoming fruition,” Biden said. He pointed to the success of some state laws in controlling gun violence but ultimately added that “it’ll be better if we had better regulation of sale of firearms, nationally and nationally mandated.”
Biden won’t get the assault weapons ban he called for in an address to the nation after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last month left 19 elementary school students and two teachers dead — days after a separate shooting in a Buffalo, New York, grocery store killed 10. Still, lawmakers working on the package in the Senate hope their proposal, if passed, could make an impact on the high tide of gun violence.
But two outstanding topics have plagued bipartisan negotiators.
The framework, announced on June 12 with the filibuster-proof support of 10 Senate Republicans, included funding to incentivize states to implement “red flag” laws to remove firearms from people who are a danger to themselves and others. Lawmakers have struggled, in recent days, to define what sort of programs would qualify for that funding.
According to Cornyn, the chief Republican working on the deal, negotiators were struggling last week over whether monies made available to states to support such programs should also be available to states with other types of violence prevention, like veterans’ courts, mental health courts and assisted outpatient treatment programs.
Some Republicans have long struggled with “red flag” programs out of concern that those provisions violate the due process rights of those accused of being a threat.
Cornyn told reporters Thursday that he and the other senators were still “grappling with the contours” of the laws but assured, as he has in floor speeches, that states who qualify for funding under the proposed legislation would be held to “the most rigorous due process standards that exist.”
The group has also stumbled over how to draft legislative text aimed at closing the “boyfriend loophole.” Under current law, those convicted of domestic violence against their married partner or against those with whom they have a child are prohibited from purchasing guns. Democrats want to expand that language to include other kinds of dating partners.
But the group working on the Senate bill has had trouble agreeing upon a legal definition of a “boyfriend,” and Cornyn has expressed concerns about how such a change might be implemented.
“We’ve got to come up with a good definition of what that actually means, because what this does is it would add a category to a bar for people being able to purchase a firearm if they fall in that category,” Cornyn said last week. “So it’s got to be clear and it’s got to be something that can actually be applied, because we are talking about pretty serious consequences.”
The difficulty finalizing these outstanding topics emphasizes the pinch that many Republicans are feeling as they weigh supporting the first significant gun reform legislation in nearly 30 years.
Cornyn said, upon announcement of the original framework, that he hoped more than the 10 original GOP senators would ultimately back the finalized legislation. But as Republicans involved have tried to drum up additional support from their conference, they faced yet another warning of the potential political consequences on Friday when Texas Republicans at the state’s party convention booed Cornyn as he tried to defend the package.
“I will not, under any circumstance, support new restrictions for law-abiding gun owners,” Cornyn told the audience. “That will always be my red line. And despite what some of you may have heard, the framework that we are working on is consistent with that red line.”
The anger from the crowd was clear — though crossing the GOP base may not ultimately sway the crucial block of 10 Republicans. Cornyn would not go up for reelection until 2026. None of the other conservatives who signed onto the initial framework will face voters during the 2022 midterm races in November.
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell last week signaled willingness to support new gun legislation if it mirrored the proposals outlined in the group’s framework.
“My view of the framework if it leads to a piece of legislation I intend to support it I think it is progress for the country and I think the bipartisan group has done the best they can to get total support and the background check enhancement for that age group I think is a step in the right direction,” McConnell said Tuesday.
Other Republicans have also said they’re amenable to the broad details. But they’ll need to see text before they can make a determination.
ABC News’ Trish Turner and Rachel Scott and Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report
(WASHINGTON) — Police are asking for the public’s help after a mass shooting broke out in Washington, D.C., killing a 15-year-old boy.
The Sunday night shooting took place during a festival called “Moechella,” which was celebrating Juneteenth, officials said.
The 15-year-old boy, identified by his first name Chase, was killed and three people, including a D.C. Metropolitan police officer, were injured, Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said.
The officer is expected to be OK and the two civilians were listed in stable condition, officials said Sunday night.
No suspects are in custody, authorities said.
Police are collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses, Contee said in a statement Monday.
A reward up to $25,000 has been offered for information leading to the gunman’s arrest and conviction.
“The person who took Chase’s life and brought this violence to our community must be held accountable,” Contee said.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Metropolitan Police Department at 202-727-9099.
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Traci Arway, a special education coordinator within the public school system in Columbus, Ohio, has had nightmares about having guns in her classroom.
Arway works in multiple different schools across the district, helping students with special needs, and her nightmare has just become closer to reality, she said.
Earlier this week, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine passed a law that makes it easier for teachers to carry guns within schools. House Bill 99 reduces the hours of training required for teachers to carry guns from 700 to less than 24.
Her response to this decision is disgust and anger, she told ABC’s “Start Here.”
“I am having a hard time connecting the dots of how arming untrained people are going to keep people safe,” Arway said.
Governor DeWine succeeded in making it easier for teachers to carry guns in classrooms, effectively weakening the impact of a 2021 state Supreme Court ruling requiring teachers to receive extensive training.
Although the majority of states prohibit firearms in K-12 schools, teachers are currently exempt in at least nine states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Arway, who has had a history of gun violence in her family, says she chooses to keep her household “gun free.”
In regards to her classroom, “I would leave the profession if I was told I had to carry,” she said.
Working at different schools and in different classrooms on a regular basis, Arway says she takes extra precautions because she is fearful of a school shooting.
“I don’t go into a building without thinking of my exit plan,” she said. “I make sure I tell at least three different people that I’m in their building and where I’ll be in the building.”
Federally, a bipartisan group of lawmakers are moving closer to an agreement that would require enhanced states’ background checks and provide states grants to encourage the creation of ‘red flag’ laws that are triggered when supposedly dangerous individuals try to purchase guns, although the negotiations are currently stalled over a few provisions.
The policy of arming teachers has resurfaced in debates surrounding gun legislation after the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, which left 21 dead, and Buffalo, New York, which left 10 dead.
The first weekend of June saw at least 11 mass shootings across the country, leaving 17 dead and 62 injured.
“Why are we resorting to arming teachers?” said Arway. “We need to put money, resources and effort into being proactive and not reactive.”
(UVALDE, Texas) — ABC News pieced together what happened the day Salvador Ramos allegedly killed 21 people at Robb Elementary School, using maps, video evidence and information from law enforcement.
Nearly a month after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers inside Robb Elementary School, shattering a West Texas community, a litany of key questions about the police response remain unanswered — and some experts say the shifting narrative from state and local leaders in the massacre’s aftermath could threaten to exacerbate the trauma for those affected.
“These types of tragedies can tear communities apart,” said John Cohen, a former senior Homeland Security official who is now an ABC News contributor. “One of the ways the healing process can begin is for the community to have a clear understanding of what happened, and of what will be done to prevent something similar from happening again.”
As families of the victims lay their loved ones to rest, residents of Uvalde continue to hope for answers. They may start to get some on Tuesday, when a Texas House panel convenes to hear testimony regarding the shooting.
Here are five questions that remain unanswered:
1) Was the door to the classroom locked?
Since the very first days after the attack, law enforcement officials have said their response was stymied by the very measure enacted to keep children safe during an active shooter event: a locked door. Officials have said that the gunman entered into the classroom and immediately locked the door behind him, keeping officers outside of the room while they waited for backup, supplies, and a key that could open the “hardened” door that was unable to be kicked in.
The gunman was left inside the classroom for 77 minutes as 19 officers waited in the hallway — and many more waited outside the building — after the incident commander wrongly believed the situation had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject, law enforcement has said.
The incident commander, Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, said in an interview that he waited in the hallway as a janitor brought dozens of keys, which he tried on an adjacent classroom door in search of a master key — but none worked. Eventually a working one came.
But now surveillance video shows that police never tried to open the door to the classroom the gunman was in, according to a report from the San Antonio Express News that has been confirmed by sources to ABC News, although ABC News did not review the footage. While the classroom doors at the school are designed to lock automatically when they close, according to the report, new evidence suggests that the door may have been unlocked the entire time, despite the police assuming it was locked.
Officers in the hallway also had access to a “crowbar-like tool” which could have opened the door regardless of whether it was locked or not, the report said.
2) Did an active shooter alert reach the Robb community?
In recent decades, with mass shootings on the rise and advances being made in technology, school administrators and law enforcement across the country have scrambled to put in place safety protocols meant to alert staff and students in real time to a possible threat.
At Robb Elementary, shortly before the gunman entered the building on the day of the shooting, a teacher used their smart phone to trigger an alert through the school’s emergency response app — called Raptor — according to the company that makes the alert system.
But whether the alert successfully reached the Robb community remains unclear. Arnulfo Reyes, a teacher inside one of the classrooms attacked by the gunman, said sometimes his Raptor app pings with alerts about nearby incidents — but that no alert came on the day of the attack.
“You could hear the gunshots, but there was no announcement,” Reyes told ABC News in an exclusive interview this month. “I didn’t get anything, and I didn’t hear anything.”
At 11:43 a.m. — ten minutes after the rampage began — Robb Elementary School posted to Facebook that the campus had gone under lockdown “due to gunshots in the area.”
3) Were officers informed of the 911 calls coming from children inside the classroom?
While officers waited outside of the classroom for 77 minutes, children who were still alive inside the adjoining classrooms the gunman had attacked were repeatedly calling 911 pleading for help, officials have said. There were multiple 911 calls made from children inside, officials have said, including one plea to “please send police now.”
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McGraw said it appeared that information may not have been relayed to officers on the ground, and Arredondo said in an interview that he was not aware of 911 calls while he waited in the hallway outside the classroom because he did not have his radio — which he said he intentionally left behind because he thought it would slow him down.
“That question will be answered,” McGraw said in the days after the shooting when asked directly if the incident commander on the ground received the 911 information. “I’m not going to share the information we have right now. Because I don’t have — I don’t have the detailed interview right now.”
Video obtained by ABC News last month taken outside Robb Elementary School as the massacre was unfolding appeared to capture a 911 dispatcher alerting officers on scene of 911 calls they had received from children inside the classroom.
4) Were responding officers appropriately trained?
Seventy-seven minutes passed from the time the gunman entered Robb Elementary until officers breached the classroom and ended his deadly siege. Law enforcement officials have since faced intense scrutiny for their failure to act faster, prompting questions about their level of preparedness.
Two months before the mass shooting, the Uvalde school district hosted an all-day training session for local police and other school-based law enforcement officers that was focused on “active shooter response.” But basic training protocols — including those involving communication channels and chain of command — went unheeded, law enforcement officials later said. A failure to secure important equipment, including shields and high-powered weapons, may have also contributed to delays.
Eventually, officers on the scene used a key retrieved from a janitor to unlock the door to the classroom where the gunman had barricaded himself. Cohen, the former Homeland Security official, said the fact that officers had to resort to such a simple method of breaching the classroom after such a long period of time reflects poorly on the officers’ planning.
“When developing an emergency response plan, it is deeply troubling that basic equipment — such as keys or other breaching devices — seemed to be unavailable,” Cohen said.
5) Are law enforcement officials cooperating with the investigation?
As the probes into the police response continue, questions have arisen about whether or not Arredondo — who has emerged as a key figure in the police response — is cooperating.
Texas House Committee chair Dustin Burrows said on Friday that Arredondo had not yet agreed to testify before the committee, but on Monday he said that all law enforcement agencies have been cooperating.
“The Uvalde Police Department has been cooperative,” said Burrows. Regarding Tuesday’s hearing, he said, “We’re going to hear from another officer with the Uvalde ISD [school district]. We’re going to hear from a member of the Department of Public Safety on the ground.”
“I want to at least compliment all the law enforcement agencies for being cooperative and providing witnesses that we have asked for,” Burrows said.
On May 31, in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, The Texas Department of Public Safety said that Arredondo had not responded “for days to a request for a follow up interview” as part of that agency’s investigation into police response to the massacre.
Arredondo’s attorney disputed that characterization, telling the Texas Tribune that Arredondo had participated in multiple interviews with DPS in the days following the shooting, but could not come in for another interview when they requested because he was covering shifts for other officers.
“At no time did he communicate his unwillingness to cooperate with the investigation,” Hyde said in the interview with the Texas Tribune. “His phone was flooded with calls and messages from numbers he didn’t recognize, and it’s possible he missed calls from DPS, but still maintained daily interaction by phone with DPS assisting with logistics as requested.”
