(SANTA CRUZ, Calif.) — A 5-year-old girl was shot and killed on a Bay Area freeway Saturday night just before 7 p.m., the California Highway Patrol said.
The shooting on Interstate 880 near Dixon Landing Road was one of two reported in the area, Santa Cruz Police said.
Three suspects were arrested in Santa Cruz County, officials said. Santa Cruz Police said they initiated a car stop after locating a vehicle at about 9:30 p.m. that they suspected of being involved with the shootings.
“The vehicle did not yield, and a pursuit was initiated,” police said in a statement. “During the pursuit on Hwy 17, officers observed the vehicle’s occupants discarding a firearm from the car. The suspect driver stopped a short distance later.”
Police later recovered the firearm thrown from the vehicle, they said.
(NEW YORK) — A storm, for once, isn’t going to move cross-country this week, however, near-record-breaking temperatures will.
A major warming trend is expected to move across much of the country in the next few days, with temperatures coming in close to normal for the first half of the week but forecast to soar to summertime levels by Thursday and Friday.
Phoenix is expected to hit the high 90s this week, with Tuesday reaching 99 degrees and Las Vegas will reach 90 degrees on Monday.
Temperatures in Denver will hit the mid-80s on Tuesday and Wednesday. Billings, Montana, will reach 82 degrees on Tuesday, before an expected nearly 30-degree drop the following day, where the temperature is forecast to reach 55 degrees.
Meanwhile, a series of storms moving onshore in the Pacific Northwest will be dropping more rainfall.
As that storm moves eastward, the rainfall combined with above-normal temperatures will be melting much of the thick snowpack, which could contribute to flooding issues from Montana to Nevada throughout the week, with many rivers west of the continental divide likely seeing an abundance of water due to snow melt in the coming weeks.
Dozens of record-high temperatures may break across the East Coast, with cities like Philadelphia, New York and Boston heading into the 70s and 80s.
Philadelphia will reach 80 and 84 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
New York City is expected to reach 75 degrees on Wednesday, 77 on Thursday and 79 degrees on Friday.
Syracuse, New York, is forecast to hit a high of 84 degrees on Friday, while temperatures in Manchester, New Hampshire, will reach 81 degrees.
Last month, much of upstate New York and New Hampshire received heavy snow, with more than 2 feet of snow falling in several regions along the East Coast because of a nor’easter in March.
(NEW YORK) — The bodies of a father and son who went missing while on a kayaking trip in Arkansas last month have been recovered, authorities said Sunday.
The bodies of Chuck Morris, 46, and Charley Morris, 20, were recovered after 24 days of efforts, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office said in an announcement, adding: “Our heart goes out to the family of Chuck and Charley Morris, and we are thankful today that we can help bring closure.”
Jennifer Thompson had told ABC News last month that she believed her husband and son likely drowned after one fell into the cold Beaver Lake in Arkansas from a kayak and the other tried to rescue him. Lt. Shannon Jenkins of the Benton County Sheriff’s Office had confirmed at the time that the two were presumed dead.
“What saved me from the beginning of this is that they died together; they were together,” Thompson said.
Her son Charley was a sophomore at Ohio Wesleyan University where he played violin and guitar, competed as a three-season runner, led the orchestra, and aspired to be a lawyer. Her husband Chuck was a father to Charley and a 12-year-old daughter, as well as an acclaimed percussionist with the electronic-jam band Lotus.
According to Chuck’s bandmate Jesse Miller, Lotus had just finished a 25-city tour. Charley was home for vacation, and the family decided to travel from Kansas City to Beaver Lake, Arkansas to unwind.
“We thought it would be a great idea for Chuck and Charley to be able to get on the kayaks before a storm hit,” Thompson said.
While she and her daughter went into town, “the boys” went out on the kayaks on March 16, despite the cold water, strong currents and three-foot waves.
When Thompson returned, Chuck and Charley were nowhere to be found, which was not initially a cause for alarm.
“We got home, and they weren’t back yet. My husband being the adventurer that he is, we’re like, ‘oh, they must be having a great time,'” she said.
According to Thompson, “crisis mode” set in as time passed. They drove around the lake twice, scanning the water for the father-and-son kayakers. After failing to find them, Thompson called the police later that afternoon.
Rescue teams searched the area for days using helicopters, drones, sonar and dogs. Neighbors also used their boats to aid in the rescue.
On the first night, they recovered a kayak, and the next day another, Thompson said. They later found Chuck’s hat and his coat, but other than those traces, the two men disappeared.
“I guess the first couple of days I really just wanted to hold out some hope,” Miller recalled. “You know, as that dwindled, and the reality became more real, I guess the grief started to set in a little bit more.”
Looking back, Thompson said the cold and choppy conditions on the lake were “for all intents and purposes a perfect storm for drowning.”
As the rescue continued, friends of the family and fans of Lotus began an outpouring of support online, including a GoFundMe to support the family’s expenses. With the grief came memories of the father and son — musical dynamos who Thompson described as “beautifully gentle, loving men.”
“Chuck was fun and creative and funny, and Charley was pensive and serious and very much believed in the responsibility of people to be good,” she said.
Miller, who spoke to ABC on behalf of the band Lotus, said that while the group is grieving their late band member, they remember Chuck as a great musician, father and friend.
“When he was on stage, and he was playing that music, he embodied just beauty and spirit and love,” Thompson added.
(CAMERON, Wis.) — Two Wisconsin police officers were killed on Saturday following a shootout with a suspect during a traffic stop in Cameron, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI).
The officers were from two different police departments, officials said in a news release.
A Chetek Police Department officer conducted a traffic stop at 3:38 p.m., local time, in Cameron, Wisconsin, on Saturday when a shootout began between the officer and the suspect, the Wisconsin DOJ said.
The Chetek officer and an officer from the Cameron Police Department were killed at the scene, according to officials.
The suspect was also killed, the state’s justice department confirmed in the news release.
“I am deeply saddened by the tragic loss today of two officers,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul tweeted Saturday night. “I am thinking of their families and the Chetek and Cameron Police Departments at this incredibly difficult time.”
The names of the officers and the suspect have not been released.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers tweeted out his condolences on Sunday to family and friends of the two officers.
“Our hearts are heavy for the Chetek and Cameron police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty yesterday,” Evers said. “Kathy and I are praying for the officers’ families, colleagues, and the Barron County community mourning this tragic loss.”
DCI is leading the investigation into the case and is working alongside Barron County Sheriff’s Office, Rusk County Sheriff’s Office, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin State Patrol, Wisconsin State Crime Lab and a DCI Crime Response Specialist, according to the Wisconsin DOJ.
DCI will send over its findings to the Barron County District Attorney once it finishes its investigation, officials said.
“Our community is experiencing a time of great tragedy. As we continue to work through this, please respect the privacy of our law enforcement officers and their families,” Chetek Chief of Police Ron Ambrozaitis said in a statement posted on the department’s Facebook page on Sunday. “We want to thank the community for their continued support and overwhelming acts of kindness. The support has been tremendous!”
(LONDON) — The prince and princess of Wales stepped out in their Sunday best alongside their three children during a church outing at Windsor Castle to celebrate Easter.
In their first Easter outing as the prince and princess of Wales, Prince William and Kate Middleton brought Prince George, 9, Princess Charlotte, 7, and 4-year-old Prince Louis to this year’s Easter services.
The family of five color-coordinated in royal blue outfits, matching with King Charles and Queen Camilla for the celebration, which is the same color of choice for the recently released portrait of the king and queen consort ahead of coronation ceremonies next month.
Princess Kate wore a blue coat dress, a matching blue pillbox hat and a rare bold shade of red nail polish.
Princess Charlotte was dressed in a floral dress with blue tights, while Prince George matched his father Prince William in matching navy suits and ties.
Prince Louis donned powder blue shorts, typical wear for young boys in Britain, as well as navy knee socks and a blazer with a blue tie.
The family affair comes a month before the grand coronation of King Charles III on May 6. Invitations for the ceremony were recently released. It was also announced that Prince George, the second in line to the throne, will be included in the historic event as a page for the king.
(NEW YORK) — Global warming isn’t just increasing the amount of moisture in the atmosphere — it’s also capable of shifting wind patterns, which will further increase hurricane risk in the U.S., according to new research.
Heat-driven shifts in large-scale atmospheric circulation could escalate the risk of hurricanes making landfall on the Gulf Coast and southern Atlantic coast in the U.S., a study published Friday in Science Advances found.
New model-based research found that enhanced surface ocean warming in the eastern tropical Pacific could trigger large-scale shifts in upper atmosphere wind patterns, according to the study.
These shifts could help steer hurricanes closer to the Gulf Coast and lower East Coast, decreasing the vertical wind shear in those regions, which could then allow hurricanes to intensify even more and amplify risks to coastal communities, the researchers said.
“The same winds that steer storms towards the U.S. coast will also make the storms stronger near the coast, because they are lowering wind shear,” Karthik Balaguru, a climate and data scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and author of the study, told ABC News.
The model, called the Risk Analysis Framework for Tropical Cyclones and generated by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is able to generate large ensembles of tropical cyclones and hurricanes, which then allows for robust quantification, Balaguru said. This is the first research to identify the mechanisms behind increased hurricane risk in the U.S. due to climate change, Balaguru said.
Scientists expect warming in the atmosphere and upper ocean to contribute to landfalling hurricanes becoming more destructive. Warming-induced shifts in large-scale wind patterns could also cause more storms to stall or dissipate more slowly on land.
The models found that the development of large-scale cyclonic wind patterns in the upper troposphere over the western Atlantic — due to heating in the eastern tropical Pacific — caused prevailing winds in the western Atlantic to shift westward.
That westward shift then steered hurricanes closer to the U.S. coast, increasing the frequency of landfalling hurricanes in a given year, the study found.
The new findings adds to existing research that climate change is creating stronger hurricanes that contain more moisture and as well as the U.S. Atlantic Coast becoming a “breeding ground” for rapidly intensifying hurricanes.
Future research on how global warming will affect changes in sea surface warming will be necessary to enhance the confidence of scientists to accurately predict hurricane risk in the future, Balaguru said.
(NEW YORK) — With former President Donald Trump now formally charged on criminal charges, a majority of Americans (53%) believe he intentionally did something illegal, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.
An additional 11% say he acted wrongly but not intentionally. Only 20% believe Trump did not do anything wrong, and 16% say they don’t know, per the ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.
As part of the Tuesday charges against the former president, Manhattan prosecutors alleged that Trump engaged in a “scheme” to boost his election chances during the 2016 presidential race through a string of hush money payments made by others to boost his campaign, and then “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records” to conceal that criminal conduct.
A “statement of facts” paired with the 34-count indictment alleges that Trump discussed the scheme while he was in the Oval Office and made reimbursement payments to his lawyer for a year while in office.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 felony counts and has long denied any wrongdoing.
Democrats are largely convinced of Trump’s culpability, with 87% saying he intentionally did something illegal, and a majority of independents (57%) agree.
Of note, the former president is enjoying weaker-than-usual support from his own partisans with only a plurality of Republicans (45%) thinking Trump did nothing wrong, and the rest of the party split among the belief he intentionally did something illegal (19%), he was wrong but it was unintentional (18%) or they simply do not know (17%).
ABC News/Ipsos asked nearly identical questions of the American public in polling conducted last week immediately following the historic indictment and once again after the charges were made public and Trump was formally arraigned.
Between the weeks, some modest but clear trends have emerged.
The announcement of formal charges has nudged public opinion slightly against Trump, particularly among independent voters. As of April 1, exactly half of the public said the charges against Trump were either very or somewhat serious, and 36% said they were not. Now, after the indictment has been unsealed and the public has heard Trump’s condemnation of the investigation, 52% find the charges very or somewhat serious, and 39% deem the charges not too serious or not serious at all.
But either way, more Americans are making up their minds — while 14% of the public did not know how they felt about the severity of the charges as of April 1, that figure has shrunk to 8%.
Independents had an 11-point point shift in their views of the severity of the views, the polling showed. Last week, 43% of independents found the charges very or somewhat serious. This group, a critical voting bloc for the once-again presidential candidate, has swung against him, as 54% now say the same.
More Americans believe this week that Trump should have been charged with a crime, with 50% saying he should have been, 33% saying he should not, and 17% not knowing. Roughly the same percentages say that the charges are politically motivated, with 50% saying they are, 36% saying they aren’t, and 13% not knowing.
Slightly more Americans (48%) also believe Trump should suspend his bid for the White House, compared to the 43% who suggested so in the last ABC News/Ipsos poll. Again, independents were most likely to shift on this question, going from 41% saying he should suspend his campaign on April 1 to 52% now.
Views of Trump overall have taken a hit too, with only 25% thinking favorably of him, down 10 points since right before the last presidential election. In comparison, President Joe Biden’s favorability rating currently stands at 34%, according to the poll.
In a speech at his Mar-a-Lago estate Tuesday night, Trump claimed the “fake case” was brought “only to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election” and said it should be “dropped immediately.”
Joe Tacopina, a Trump attorney, said the indictment “shows that the rule of law died in this country.”
“While everyone is not above the law, no one’s below it either,” Tacopina said. “And if this man’s name was not Donald J. Trump, there is no scenario we’d all be here today.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in a press conference claimed Trump and his associates engaged in a “catch-and-kill scheme.”
“These are felony crimes in New York state, no matter who you are,” Bragg said. “We cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct.
This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted using Ipsos Public Affairs’ KnowledgePanel® April 6-7, 2023, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 566 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4.4 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 26-25-40 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents. See the poll’s topline results and details on the methodology here.
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — Three people and one suspect are dead after a suspected domestic violence incident turned deadly in Orlando, Florida, early Sunday morning, according to Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith.
Officers received calls for a domestic violence incident and arrived at a home near Parramore Avenue and Grand Street at around 2:28 a.m. Sunday. Once they arrived, they heard shots fired inside the home, Chief Smith said in a press conference.
The suspect, who was armed, later walked out of the home and started firing at responding officers, the chief said. Police then returned fire, and the suspect later died in police custody, he said.
Three people had been shot inside the home, officers said. One victim, who was a child, was transported to a hospital, but later succumbed to their injuries, said Smith. The other two victims, who were adults, also died by gunfire, he said. Their names and ages have not been released at this time.
The two officers who responded were not injured, and will be placed on administrative leave, as is protocol with officer-involved shootings, the Orlando Police Department said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — With the trial of John Carter, who’s been charged in the cold case murder of his fiancee, Katelyn Markham, scheduled to begin in the summer of 2024, the victim’s father said he hoped a conviction would close a dark chapter in his life.
“That has been a huge and very hard time of my life for 12 years,” David Markham told ABC News. “The relief that I think I am going to feel will be so welcomed and grateful.”
Carter, who is now 35, reported Katelyn’s disappearance to police in Ohio in 2011. Her remains were found in rural Indiana two years later. Carter’s trial is expected to begin next summer, with an opening date scheduled for June 24, 2024.
In an interview days after her disappearance, Carter told ABC Cincinnati affiliate WCPO-TV he hoped to see Katelyn again.
“I’m terrified, I’m absolutely terrified,” he said at the time. “I just want to find Katelyn and celebrate her birthday with her.”
Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser included in court documents a typed poem that his office said was found in Carter’s home.
“Deep down I love her. You want to kill her,” it said in part. “But I love her. She must die. I can’t kill her. Yes you can. No. Yes.”
Gmoser and his team took over the cold case two years ago and said they were able to gather enough information through interviews and documents to lead to Carter’s arrest.
Markham said he was blindsided when notified by the prosecution that Carter’s arrest was imminent.
“I had no indication that they were going to arrest him,” Markham said.
A few minutes later, he found out Carter was in police custody, he said. His phone started buzzing with messages from reporters, friends and family, he said.
“It took me a few hours to kind of let it sink in,” Markham said. “The biggest feeling was relief and it’s about time.”
Carter’s defense attorney, Chris Pagan, did not respond to ABC News’ request to comment.
Carter posted a $1 million bond, but was still being held in Butler County Jail as of Friday, according to the Sheriff’s office.
He is expected to wear a GPS monitor as he awaits his trial under Honorary Judge Daniel E. Haughey, according to Butler County Clerk online records.
A support rally for Katelyn was held at Creekside Park in Fairfield on Saturday with family and friends attending as they continue to honor her and hope for closure in this cold case.
(WASHINGTON) — Former Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson said Sunday he expects to be quickly reappointed after what he called his “unprecedented” expulsion for participating in a raucous, unrecognized gun violence protest on the Legislature floor.
“I do hope to continue to serve District 86 in the reappointment,” Pearson, a Memphis Democrat, told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “If there is a special election, I would definitely run in that special election because our voters have been disenfranchised.”
Pearson was ousted from the Tennessee House of Representatives on Thursday along with Democratic Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville. It was the first such partisan expulsion in the state’s modern history.
During protests on March 30, Jones and Pearson used a bullhorn to lead chants on the House floor, briefly disrupting legislative business. State Rep. Gloria Johnson, a fellow Democrat who also faced expulsion, was not seen using the bullhorn and was spared from removal by one vote.
Jones and Pearson are both Black; Johnson is white. All three have said they believe race was a factor.
“This is one of the greatest tactics of voter disenfranchisement and voter oppression that I’ve ever witnessed,” Pearson argued on “This Week.”
“The reality is we have a super-majority Republican legislature that doesn’t want to see progress, that prefers to listen to the NRA rather than the constituents,” he said.
Pearson said the Covenant school shooting in Nashville, which killed six before police killed the shooter, “has catalyzed the conversation about the need to end gun violence in our communities.”
“To realize that yes, it is in schools and that’s something that we need to deal with, but it is also in our communities,” Pearson said. “That’s because there’s been a proliferation of guns and also a proliferation of laws in Republican-led majority legislatures like here in Tennessee that continue to have negative consequences for our communities.”
There are two possible ways Pearson and Jones could return to the Legislature: appointment by their respective county commissioners to the vacant seats or running for reelection.
Thursday’s vote was “not only unprecedented, it is historical in nature, it is a historical abuse of power by [Speaker] Cameron Sexton and the super-majority Republican Legislature who would rather expel our voices and tried to expel our people’s voices from the people’s house, rather than address the issue of gun violence and the need for real gun safety reform legislation that could prevent people from dying in the first place.”
Tennessee state Rep. Jeremy Faison, the chair of the state House Republican Caucus, previously defended the move in an interview with CNN.
“It’s not possible for us to move forward with the way they were behaving in committee and on the House floor,” Faison said. “There’s got to be some peace.”
He also said that the expulsion proceedings included “due process.” All three members were able to speak in the chamber to defend themselves before the votes.
During Sunday’s interview with Karl, Pearson referenced Tennessee’s 2021 permitless carry law and how it affects his district, linking it to rising homicides. “Murders are up 44% relative to this point last year in our city,” he said. “There are real consequences to the decisions of people in power.”
“We can never forget that it was tragedy that has brought us to this moment,” Pearson said. “The speaker had the audacity to call some of those children and some of those parents and grandparents ‘insurrectionist,’ likening them to Jan. 6, because they’re demanding that their voices be heard in a democracy.”
It’s young people, Pearson said, that are pushing the movement forward.
“It’s children and teenagers by the thousands, who continue to protest, who continue to march, who continue to raise their voices to say, ‘We need to do something to end gun violence,'” Pearson said. “I pray to God to be able to use my voice as a member of the state Legislature to represent Memphis and Shelby County and Millington, to continue to fight to pass reasonable, sensible legislation that the majority of people in Tennessee want.”
ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.
