(GADSDEN CITY, Al.) — A police officer shot and killed a man who allegedly tried to enter an elementary school in northeast Alabama Thursday morning, authorities said.
Gadsden City Schools Superintendent Tony Reddick told reporters that a “potential intruder” tried to open several doors at Walnut Park Elementary School, which had students and staff inside for summer school.
A school resource officer with the Rainbow City Police Department came outside to “engage the guy in conversation” before the interaction began to escalate, Etowah County Sheriff Jonathon Horton told ABC News.
The SRO called for backup from the Gadsden Police Department. Responding officers found the SRO in a “physical altercation” with the suspect on the school’s lawn, the sheriff said. After multiple attempts to subdue the suspect, a Gadsden officer fatally shot the suspect, according to Horton.
Horton said he did not know whether the suspect was armed. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which is investigating the shooting, said in a press release that the subject allegedly tried to take the SRO’s gun.
ALEA did not say that the suspect tried to enter the school, but that he allegedly tried to “make forcible entry” into a Rainbow City patrol car. ABC News has asked the agency for clarity.
“The incident occurred near Walnut Park Elementary School in Gadsden; however, no children were involved or harmed over the course of the incident,” ALEA said in a statement.
ALEA identified the suspect as Robert Tyler White, 32, of Bunnlevel, North Carolina.
According to Horton, the doors to the school were locked after “everything nationally” — citing last month’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman entered the building through an unlocked door.
The Etowah County Sheriff’s Office sent an alert shortly after 10 a.m. urging people to avoid the area around the school due to an “ongoing police incident.”
The suspect never entered the school and police relocated students to another location, authorities said.
ALEA said it will turn over the results of its investigation to the Etowah County District Attorney’s Office.
(WASHINGTON) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first prime-time hearing on Thursday at 8 p.m.
The hearing will feature never-before-seen video footage and witness testimony as lawmakers aim to explain what they call a “coordinated, multi-step effort” by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn results of the 2020 presidential election.
Jun 09, 8:01 pm
Historic hearing underway
Chairman Bennie Thompson has gaveled in the committee’s first prime-time hearing intended to “remind you of the reality of what happened that day.”
“But our work must do much more than just look backwards. Because our democracy remains in danger,” Thompson will say in his opening statement, according to an excerpt released by the committee. “The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over.”
Americans will hear live testimony from a Capitol Police officer and documentarian who were on the scene of the attack and watch never-before-seen video footage in a rare congressional hearing made for television.
Jun 09, 7:50 pm
Cheney arrives on Capitol Hill
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair of the select committee, was the first member to arrive on Capitol Hill through the member entrance, according to an NBC pool reporter.
Asked how she was feeling, Cheney said, “Good, thank you,” as she walked inside.
Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., the only other House Republican to accept a seat on the panel, have faced relentless attacks from within their caucus for their participation. Cheney was removed from her No. 3 House GOP leadership post last year, and both were formally censured by the Republican National Committee for choosing to investigate what it controversially called “legitimate political discourse.”
Jun 09, 7:49 pm
Demonstrators rally outside Capitol
Demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday ahead of the House select committee’s first prime-time hearing of its Jan. 6 investigation.
Participants held signs reading, “Not above the law.”
The panel is looking to explain what it calls a “coordinated, multi-step effort” by Trump and his supporters to overturn his 2020 election loss.
From legal action to name-calling, Trump continues to try to discredit the House select committee as the panel prepares to go public with its findings in prime time.
“January 6th was not simply a protest, it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a string of posts hours ahead of the hearing on Truth Social, the social media platform his team launched after Twitter permanently suspended him in the wake of the Capitol siege “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Jun 09, 7:22 pm
Just before hearing, 3 Capitol rioters express regret in federal court
Three rioters convicted on federal charges for participating in the Capitol attack appeared in court just hours ahead of the prime-time event and asked for mercy before federal judges deciding their punishments.
“I made one mistake in my life and I have immediately took responsibility for it,” said Michael Daughtry, a gun store owner and former police officer who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge this past March. “I apologize to the court for my indiscretion. But does a person not get to make at least one mistake in their entire life?”
The sentencing hearings just blocks away from the Capitol offer a noteworthy split-screen as lawmakers and their staff are in the midst of final preparations to put their investigation’s findings on full display for the American people. Click here for more.
-ABC News’ Alexander Mallin
Jun 09, 7:00 pm
‘Our democracy remains in danger’: Opening statement excerpt
Chairman Bennie Thompson will warn the American public of the ongoing threat from “those in this country who thirst for power” when the Jan. 6 committee soon kicks off a series of public hearings laying out its investigation, according to an opening statement released by the committee.
“So tonight, and over the next few weeks, we’re going to remind you of the reality of what happened that day. But our work must do much more than just look backwards. Because our democracy remains in danger,” Thompson is expected to say. “The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over.”
“January 6th and the lies that led to insurrection have put two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk. The world is watching what we do here,” read the excerpt.
Jun 09, 6:57 pm
Officers and widows plan to attend hearing
Several police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and widows of law enforcement members who died in the aftermath will be present at the hearing.
Among them are Erin Smith, the widow of Metropolitan Police Department officer Jeffrey Smith; Serena Liebengood, the widow of Capitol Police officer Howie Liebengood; Sandra Garza, partner of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick; Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn; Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell; and Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges.
Dunn told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott the hearing will be “triggering.”
“I think about Jan. 6 daily and tonight we are going to find out stuff we didn’t know,” he said.
Garza told Scott she’s preparing to painfully “relive the nightmare of the day.” Her longtime partner, Officer Sicknick, suffered two strokes and died of natural causes one day after engaging with rioters.
“Everybody should watch the hearings because they need the truth of what happened that day,” Garza said. “These are the facts — it’s important for them not to only hear the witnesses but see it again.” She added, “There has to be some accountability, people are dead because of what happened.”
Jun 09, 5:45 pm
Capitol Police officer, documentarian to testify
One of the first officers injured on Jan. 6, U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after she was thrown to the ground by rioters pushing bike racks, will deliver her firsthand account before the committee in a matter of hours.
Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who followed the Proud Boys through Washington as members of the extremist group marched on the Capitol and clashed with law enforcement, is also scheduled to testify live.
ABC News exclusively obtained some of Quested’s extraordinary material, showing how a group of Trump supporters at a presidential rally transformed into an angry mob that broke into the Capitol. Click here for more.
Jun 09, 5:22 pm
McCarthy dodges questions on legitimacy of 2020 election
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wouldn’t say Thursday if President Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.
ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl pressed McCarthy on the matter four times during a news conference where House Republicans preemptively slammed tonight’s hearing, calling the Jan. 6 panel “the most political and least legitimate committee in American history.”
McCarthy said Biden is the president, but declined to address the legitimacy aspect and declined to say Trump was wrong when he baselessly claimed the election was fraudulent.
Watch the full exchange here:
Ahead of the Jan. 6 committee’s presentation alleging former Pres. Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy dodges when pressed four times by @jonkarl on whether he believes Pres. Biden was the legitimate winner. https://t.co/7x9xFOiAeUpic.twitter.com/xqqDpFGoFU
The select committee has promised never-before-seen videotaped depositions from some of Trump’s closest aides and family members after Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. all sat for interviews earlier this year.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — who turned over thousands of text messages to the committee — has been described by congressional sources as an “MVP” of the hearings, as his messages have provided somewhat of a roadmap for investigators.
Jun 09, 4:35 pm
Biden calls Jan. 6 ‘flagrant violation of the Constitution’
President Joe Biden said a lot of Americans will learn new details about the Jan. 6 attack as lawmakers begin to reveal the findings of their 11-month investigation.
“One of the things that’s gonna occupy my country tonight, I suspect, is the first open hearings on January the 6th,” Biden said as he sat down with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Summit of the Americas on Thursday afternoon.
“And as I said when it was occurring and subsequent, I think it was a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution,” Biden continued. “I think these guys and women broke the law, tried to turn around the result of an election. And there’s a lot of questions: who’s responsible, who’s involved?”
Jun 09, 4:11 pm
Hearing kicks off at 8 p.m.
Thursday’s hearing, the first of six scheduled in June, is the culmination of an 11-month-long investigation by the House select committee.
The nine-member panel has collected more than 140,000 documents and 1,000 witness interviews throughout the course of the investigation, and members have promised to introduce never-before-seen videos and exhibits they say will shock the public.
ABC News Television Network will air special coverage of the hearing at 8 p.m. and ABC News Live will carry gavel-to-gavel coverage.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday gave the green light to counting undated mail-in ballots in a contested Pennsylvania local election, a move with potentially broader implications for close races in November’s midterm elections.
Over the objection of three justices, the Court restored a federal appeals court ruling that said disqualifying ballots received on time but lacking a handwritten date on the return envelope would violate federal voting rights.
Pennsylvania state law requires that voters include a date next to the signature, even though mail ballots are typically postmarked and dated again by election officials when they are received. The appeals court concluded the absence of the handwritten date was an “immaterial” error.
The Supreme Court did not elaborate on its decision to allow counting to proceed, and it is not binding precedent. But it does suggest that a majority of justices support the view that discarding ballots over small administrative errors or omissions would harm the franchise.
Justice Samuel Alito, in a dissent joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, said he would have stayed the appeals court ruling in order to review the merits of the dispute, which he said “could well affect the outcome of the fall elections.”
Alito wrote that he believes the Third Circuit opinion is “very likely wrong.”
“When a mail-in ballot is not counted because it was not filled out correctly, the voter is not denied ‘the right to vote.’ Rather, that individual’s vote is not counted because he or she did not follow the rules for casting a ballot,” Alito wrote.
Pennsylvania has famously had a number of very close elections in recent years, in several cases decided by the counting of mail-in ballots with varying degrees of compliance with state voting regulations.
GOP Senate candidate David McCormick, who conceded to rival Dr. Mehmet Oz in his closely-watched Pennsylvania primary race last week, may have benefitted from the counting of undated mail-in ballots, which were ultimately discarded. He lost by 900 votes.
The court’s decision most immediately benefits the Democratic candidate in a 2021 race for a seat on the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas, Zachary Cohen. He trails David Ritter, a Republican, by 71 votes. State election officials say there are 257 undated mail-in ballots that will soon be counted to finalize results in the race.
The Supreme Court has been deeply divided over election disputes and voting rights in recent years, with today’s decision highlighting differences among the justices and the kinds of political fights the court will likely face during a high-stakes election year.
(TEL AVIV, Israel) — When Nurit Argov-Argaman was raising three young children while trying to advance in her career, she was struggling with time-management issues involving baby formula versus breast milk.
“Infant formula was one of the best options that I had,” said Argov-Argaman, the chief technology officer of the Israeli dairy alternative startup Wilk.
Argov-Argaman, who is a lactation scientist by training, decided she could “help bridge the gap” between baby formula and breastmilk by making a product that more closely resembled the latter.
The majority of women in the U.S. bottle-feed their children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although both the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatricians recommend women exclusively breastfeed their babies for the first six months.
Three startups, Wilk, Biomilq and Haliana, are using bioengineering to create new baby formula products that scientists hope will be a better substitute for breastmilk in the future.
Wilk and Biomilq use human breast cells as their starting point, coaxing the cells to produce milk on their own in a lab, while Haliana uses yeast to produce the proteins found in human breast milk.
Wilk, which has its lab outside of Tel Aviv, has been using breast milk and mammary cells that have been removed during breast reduction surgeries and provided by a local hospital.
“Basically we are enabling them to do the same thing they do naturally in the breast,” Argov-Argaman told ABC News reporter Maggi Rulli, “just in a plastic vessel and later on in a bioreactor.”
Just like Wilk, U.S.-based startup Biomilq grew out of a mother’s desire to create an alternative baby formula product when founder Leila Strickland realized the products on the market were “not meeting what she wanted to feed her children,” says co-founder Michelle Egger.
“Formula really hasn’t changed much since about the 1950s,” says Egger, “and we’ve just continued to see consolidation in the supply chain that, as we saw with the shortage, really does harm to families and parents.”
More than 40% of baby formula was out of stock in the United States in May, according to a report by the data firm Datassembly. The shortages, which are being caused by a mixture of supply chain issues and the fact that the market is concentrated among three major producers, have meant parents are being forced to pay higher prices, travel long distances for formula or simply go without.
This current crisis is so severe – and unique with a major producer shut down for possible contamination and supply chain constraints because of a global pandemic – that it has led to the activation of the Defense Production Act by the Biden Administration, which provides the president with additional powers to increase domestic manufacturing capacity during emergencies.
The White House states Operation Fly Formula will mobilize over 300,000 pounds of formula from overseas to try and meet the needs families are currently facing.
Although alternative baby formula products have been cast into the spotlight by a national baby formula shortage, the products being created are still multiple years from the market, so they cannot alleviate the strain of the current crisis, and they will eventually need to be scrutinized by the FDA before having a chance of being approved for use in the U.S.
One factories’ shutdown in Michigan, due to a possible bacterial contamination that was suspected of killing two babies, threw the entire industry into disarray. The factory belonged to Abbott Nutrition, a company that controls nearly half of the baby formula market in the U.S., and only opened last week after being closed for more than three months.
Abbott has announced that after an investigation, “there is no conclusive evidence to link Abbott’s formulas to these infant illnesses.”
Haliana, which uses a different technique based on a process of fermentation, is hoping to get to “commercial scale over the course of this year,” says founder Laura Katz.
The company is attempting to recreate the proteins found in breastmilk by “training” yeast using the same DNA code that makes breast milk proteins. Katz says these proteins could have the added benefit of immunities typically present in breastmilk, which traditional baby formulas don’t have.
Sarah Fleet, a pediatric gastroenterologist and director of the Growth and Nutrition Program at Boston Children’s Hospital says that nutritionally, traditional baby formula and breastmilk are “generally thought to be pretty equivalent.”
Yet Fleet sees many different valuable aspects of alternative breast milk. First and foremost, the majority of baby formula on the market is derived from cow milk, which can cause severe intestinal disease that affects “a large number of babies” in her practice, she says. Cow’s milk protein allergy is estimated to occur in 2-3% of children under 4 years old.
Second, formula products synthesized from breast cells could have “immune system properties,” she says, adding an additional benefit to the child’s health.
Neither Wilk or Biomilq discussed potential immune system benefits of their products during interviews with ABC News.
And finally, given the recent national shortage, it is an example of putting more options on the market for parents, babies, and for doctors.
“Having more tools in our toolbox,” she says, “is never a bad thing.”
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (Age Progression)
(HOUSTON) — The family of a couple murdered more than four decades ago finally has some answers about what happened to their baby daughter, who was not found among the remains of her parents.
Authorities were previously unable to determine the identities of two people found dead in a wooded area in Houston in 1981, according to a statement from the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. They were likely murdered between December 1980 and January 1981, Brent Webster, Texas first assistant attorney general, said during a press conference Thursday afternoon.
That changed last year, when investigators used genetic genealogy to positively identify the bodies as Florida couple Tina Gail Linn Clouse and Harold Dean Clouse Jr., according to Paxton.
The couple’s family members had not heard from them since October 1980, according to the statement, while Baby Holly was left at a church in Arizona, Webster said.
Two women who identified themselves as members of a nomadic religious group brought Holly to that church, Webster said. They were wearing white robes and were barefoot and said their religious beliefs included separating male and female members and practicing vegetarian habits and not using or wearing leather goods.
The women also indicated they had given up a baby before at a laundromat, Webster said. Investigators believe the group traveled around the Southwest U.S., including in Arizona, California and Texas, and had been seen in the region asking for food, Webster said.
Around the time of their murders, the families of Baby Holly received a call from someone identifying herself as Sister Susan, who said she wanted to return their car to them in exchange for money, Webster said. The woman said that the couple had joined their religious group and no longer wanted contact with their families and were giving up all of their possessions.
The family agreed and contacted local authorities, Webster said. When they met at a racetrack in Daytona, several people — two to three women and possibly a man — showed up, Webster said. Police officers purportedly took the women into custody, but there is no record of a police report on file that has been found yet, something Webster described as “common” for the time.
The family that raised Baby Holly are not suspects in the murder of her biological parents, Webster said.
Once the bodies were identified, the family began searching for Baby Holly, who was recently reunited with the family after many years, Paxton said. On Tuesday, Baby Holly met some members of her parents’ family virtually, Webster said.
Holly is 42 years old and “alive and well,” living in Houston, Paxton said. She has already been reunited with some of her biological family, who provided statements describing the reunion.
Baby Holly’s grandmother, Donna Casasanta, said in a statement that finding her granddaughter was “a birthday present from heaven,” since she was found on her father’s birthday.
“I prayed for more than 40 years for answers and the Lord has revealed some of it,” Casasanta said.
Cheryl Clouse, Holly’s aunt, said it was “so exciting” to meet her for the first time.
“It is such a blessing to be reassured that she is alright and has had a good life,” Cheryl Clouse said. “The whole family slept well last night.”
Sherry Linn Green, another one of Holly’s aunts, said she dreamed about her sister, Tina, after reuniting with her niece.
“In my dream, Tina was laying on the floor rolling around and laughing and playing with Holly like I saw them do many times before when they lived with me prior to moving to Texas,” Sherry Linn Green said. “I believe Tina’s finally resting in peace knowing Holly is reuniting with her family.”
Les Linn, Holly’s uncle, said he met Holly about eight months after learning she was alive.
“To go from hoping to find her to suddenly meeting her less than 8 months later — how miraculous is that?” Linn said. “All of the detectives involved…They all expressed such fortitude to get to the bottom of this case.”
Authorities did not reveal the new identity of Baby Holly but stated that she has been notified of the identities of her biological parents and has been in contact with her extended biological families.
“They hope to meet in person soon,” the statement read.
Paxton commended his office’s newly formed cold case and missing persons unit on the work done to bring answers to the Linn and Clouse families.
“My office diligently worked across state lines to uncover the mystery surrounding Holly’s disappearance,” Paxton said. “We were successful in our efforts to locate her and reunite her with her biological family.”
The Texas Office of the Attorney General collaborated with the Lewisville Police Department, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to close the case.
“We are thrilled that Holly will now have the chance to connect with her biological family who has been searching for her for so long,” said John Bischoff, vice president of the missing children division at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “We hope that this is source of encouragement for other families who have missing loved ones and reminds us all to never give up.”
The investigation into the murders of Tina Gail Linn Clouse and Harold Dean Clouse Jr. is ongoing, Paxton said.
Officials are expected to hold a news conference Thursday afternoon to provide details on the case.
ABC News’ Gina Sunseri contributed to this report.
(UVALDE, Texas) — According to a preliminary assessment of the Robb Elementary School shooting, state investigators believe the decision to delay police entry into the classroom was made in order to allow time for protective gear to arrive on scene, an official briefed on a closed-door presentation by the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety tells ABC News.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Cases of monkeypox are continuing to crop up around the globe as the outbreak of the rare disease keeps spreading.
As of Thursday, at least 1,260 cases have been detected in countries where the virus is not endemic, with the overwhelming majority reported in North America and Europe.
São Paulo authorities confirmed to ABC News Wednesday that the first case of monkeypox has been confirmed in Brazil in a 41-year-old man who recently traveled to Spain.
In the United States, 40 infections are suspected or confirmed in 14 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New York has the most cases at nine, followed by California with eight, Florida with four, and Illinois and Colorado with three each.
During a briefing Wednesday, World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the window of opportunity to contain the outbreak is closing.
“The risk of monkeypox becoming established in non-endemic countries is real,” he said. “But that scenario can be prevented. WHO urges the affected countries to make every effort to identify all cases and contacts to control this outbreak and prevent onward monkeypox spread.”
Public health experts currently do not expect the virus to become a major health threat, but are concerned about the recent spread.
“I think any time there’s an outbreak that is ongoing with no evidence of control, I think we should be concerned,” Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York, told ABC News. “I think that’s different from being panic-stricken. But I think the continued increase in numbers of cases of monkeypox and continued increase in countries reporting cases is certainly of concern.”
If the outbreak isn’t contained, this means the virus could be ever-present in a community, circulating at low levels.
But Dr. Scott Roberts, an assistant professor and the associate medical director of infection prevention at Yale School of Medicine, said he does not envision the outbreak as being similar to the COVID-19 pandemic because of the different mechanisms of spread.
COVID-19 generally spreads through the air via tiny droplets and can require as little as 15 minutes of face-to-face contact. In the current outbreak, most of the spread has come from coming into contact with infected people’s lesions.
“It’s not like you’ll pass someone in the elevator, and you’ll get monkeypox,” Roberts told ABC News. “That’s pretty unlikely. The classic COVID definition was within six feet for 15 minutes. This one is more like within six feet for three hours, is what the CDC has said, or contact with the infected lesions.”
Many cases have been reported among men who identify as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men, but there is currently no evidence monkeypox is a sexually transmitted infection — and the experts emphasize anyone can be infected.
But, most importantly, they said the virus is not spreading uncontrollably yet.
“The important thing to keep in mind is that it’s a containable outbreak,” Dr. Mark Dworkin, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois Chicago, told ABC News. “There have been outbreaks and they have been successfully controlled.”
Dworkin referenced a 2003 outbreak in which 47 confirmed and probable cases were reported among six U.S. states, the first human cases reported outside of Africa.
All the infections occurred after coming into contact with pet prairie dogs, which became infected “after being housed near imported small mammals from Ghana,” according to the CDC.
“We have a relatively strong public health system for dealing with this kind of problem,” Dworkin said. “We had a monkeypox outbreak that was multi-state and successfully controlled without the use of a vaccine but through contact tracing and isolation so I’m optimistic.”
Currently, there are two smallpox vaccines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that people who have been exposed to monkeypox can take to reduce their risk of infection.
“The thing with monkeypox is it’s a very long incubation period,” said Roberts. “It’s usually one to two weeks, but it can be up to three weeks between getting exposed and having symptoms.”
He continued, “So that actually gives you a window to vaccinate after you’ve been exposed to ramp up your immunity and really get rid of the virus before it becomes a true blow infection.”
The CDC has previously said the federal government has enough vaccines and treatments for anyone who is exposed but is not recommending a mass vaccination campaign at this time.
ABC News’ Aicha Elhammer contributed to this report.
(SMITHSBURG, Md.) — Three people are dead and one critically injured after a shooting at a factory in Smithsburg, Maryland, Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
The alleged gunman was wounded in an ensuing shootout with state police, authorities said.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said it responded to reports of an active shooter at Columbia Machine at around 2:30 p.m. and found the victims.
The alleged shooter had fled the scene and was apprehended by Maryland State Police in nearby Hagerstown based on a description of the suspect, the sheriff’s office said.
The suspect and a state trooper exchanged gunfire, and both were injured and transported for medical treatment, the sheriff’s office said.
“There is no confirmed active threat to the community in relation to this incident,” the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said.
The FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting in the investigation.
Washington County Sheriff spokesperson Sgt. Carly Hose said the alleged shooter is a man, though no additional information on the suspect or a possible motive was released.
Hose could not confirm the employment status of the suspect or victims.
Columbia Machine manufactures concrete products equipment. Smithsburg is about 70 miles northwest of Washington, D.C.
(WASHINGTON) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first prime-time hearing on Thursday at 8 p.m.
The hearing will feature never-before-seen video footage and witness testimony as lawmakers aim to explain what they call a “coordinated, multi-step effort” by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn results of the 2020 presidential election.
Jun 09, 5:45 pm
Capitol Police officer, documentarian to testify
One of the first officers injured on Jan. 6, U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after she was thrown to the ground by rioters pushing bike racks, will deliver her firsthand account before the committee in a matter of hours.
Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who followed the Proud Boys through Washington as members of the extremist group marched on the Capitol and clashed with law enforcement, is also scheduled to testify live.
ABC News exclusively obtained some of Quested’s extraordinary material, showing how a group of Trump supporters at a presidential rally transformed into an angry mob that broke into the Capitol. Click here for more.
Jun 09, 5:22 pm
McCarthy dodges questions on legitimacy of 2020 election
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wouldn’t say Thursday if President Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.
ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl pressed McCarthy on the matter four times during a news conference where House Republicans preemptively slammed tonight’s hearing, calling the Jan. 6 panel “the most political and least legitimate committee in American history.”
McCarthy said Biden is the president, but declined to address the legitimacy aspect and declined to say Trump was wrong when he baselessly claimed the election was fraudulent.
Watch the full exchange here:
Ahead of the Jan. 6 committee’s presentation alleging former Pres. Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy dodges when pressed four times by @jonkarl on whether he believes Pres. Biden was the legitimate winner. https://t.co/7x9xFOiAeUpic.twitter.com/xqqDpFGoFU
The select committee has promised never-before-seen videotaped depositions from some of Trump’s closest aides and family members after Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. all sat for interviews earlier this year.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — who turned over thousands of text messages to the committee — has been described by congressional sources as an “MVP” of the hearings, as his messages have provided somewhat of a roadmap for investigators.
Jun 09, 4:35 pm
Biden calls Jan. 6 ‘flagrant violation of the Constitution’
President Joe Biden said a lot of Americans will learn new details about the Jan. 6 attack as lawmakers begin to reveal the findings of their 11-month investigation.
“One of the things that’s gonna occupy my country tonight, I suspect, is the first open hearings on January the 6th,” Biden said as he sat down with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Summit of the Americas on Thursday afternoon.
“And as I said when it was occurring and subsequent, I think it was a clear, flagrant violation of the Constitution,” Biden continued. “I think these guys and women broke the law, tried to turn around the result of an election. And there’s a lot of questions: who’s responsible, who’s involved?”
Jun 09, 4:11 pm
Hearing kicks off at 8 p.m.
Thursday’s hearing, the first of six scheduled in June, is the culmination of an 11-month-long investigation by the House select committee.
The nine-member panel has collected more than 140,000 documents and 1,000 witness interviews throughout the course of the investigation, and members have promised to introduce never-before-seen videos and exhibits they say will shock the public.
ABC News Television Network will air special coverage of the hearing at 8 p.m. and ABC News Live will carry gavel-to-gavel coverage.
