Hiram Carrero, 18, accused of lighting a homeless man on fire aboard a northbound number 3 train, is taken from the New York Police Department 9th Precinct in New York, on Dec. 4, 2025. Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News via TNS via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A teenager is facing a federal arson charge for allegedly setting a sleeping homeless man on fire on a New York City subway train, officials said.
Hiram Carrero, 18, was arrested on Thursday night and appeared in Manhattan federal court on Friday, authorities said.
The 56-year-old victim was asleep on a 3 train when, around 3 a.m. Monday, the suspect walked into the car at 34th Street Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan, according to police. Surveillance images released in the federal complaint show the victim completely alone in the subway car.
Carrero allegedly approached the victim and set his legs on fire, investigators said. Carrero then allegedly fled the train right when the doors were closing, according to the complaint.
The victim was still covered in flames when he exited the subway car at Times Square, the next stop, the complaint said. Surveillance footage showed him sitting on the platform with flames rising from his upper legs.
Law enforcement responded and extinguished the blaze and then rushed the victim to a hospital in critical condition, the complaint said.
On Friday, Carrero made his initial appearance in court where a federal magistrate ordered him released. Prosectors are appealing to a district court judge.
Carrero was initially arrested on state charges including attempted murder.
The family of 18-year-old Anna Kepner, who was reported dead while aboard the Carnival Horizon cruise ship on Saturday, says they will remember her as a happy, bubbly, straight-A student with a bright future ahead. (Kepner family)
(BREVARD COUNTY, Fla.) — Weeks after 18-year-old Anna Kepner mysteriously died on a cruise ship and her stepbrother was named a “suspect” by his parents in a court filing, the stepbrother’s mom appeared at a hearing, fighting to retain custody of her younger child.
Kepner died on the Carnival Horizon in November while on a Caribbean vacation with her grandparents, father, stepmother, siblings and stepsiblings.
A copy of the death certificate provided to ABC News by Kepner’s family showed the Florida high school cheerleader “was mechanically asphyxiated by other person(s).” An autopsy report has not been released and authorities have not announced whether they believe Kepner’s death was in fact a homicide.
The FBI and medical examiner’s office haven’t commented on the case.
The stepbrother’s parents, Thomas Hudson and Shauntel Hudson, are fighting over custody, and have in court documents referred to the stepbrother — who is a minor — as a suspect in Kepner’s death.
At a hearing in Brevard County, Florida, on Friday, the judge didn’t find that the Hudsons’ youngest child is in imminent danger of harm by continuing to live with Shauntel Hudson and her husband, Chris Kepner, who is Anna Kepner’s father.
The “suspect” stepbrother has been living with Shauntel Hudson’s relatives since the family returned from the cruise.
Shauntel Hudson’s attorney said she didn’t know how long he would remain with relatives, given that the family isn’t sure what the outcome will be of the FBI’s investigation into Anna Kepner’s death. Shauntel Hudson said she’s been informed it’s possible investigators could charge her son with a crime as officials await results from toxicology tests.
Her attorney also informed the court they’re waiting on “psychological and psychiatric testing.”
Trees emerge from flood waters along the Guadalupe River on July 4, 2025 in Kerrville, Texas. (Eric Vryn/Getty Images)
(KERRVILLE, Texas) — Hundreds of 911 calls during the July 4 Texas flood that devastated the Hill Country have been released from hard-hit Kerr County.
The Kerrville Police Department released the calls late Thursday following Freedom of Information Act requests from eight media outlets.
“We want to caution the public that what you will hear on these calls is distressing. Some callers did not survive,” Kerrville Police Chief Chris McCall said in a video message on Thursday ahead of the release.
ABC News is currently reviewing the 911 calls.
The first call related to flooding in western Kerr County came in to the police department’s 911 center at 2:52 a.m. on July 4, according to McCall.
Over the next six hours, the center, which receives all 911 calls for Kerr County, answered 435 calls, he said.
Two people were working at the time, the police chief said while commending the operators for their handling of “extraordinary call volumes.”
“I’m immensely proud of our telecommunications operators,” he said. “These public safety team members showed incredible perseverance as they faced high call volumes and did their best to provide assistance and comfort to every caller.”
Some calls were transferred to neighboring dispatch centers based on the protocols regarding high volume, he said. Once they obtained critical information from callers, the operators “were faced with the difficult decision to disconnect and move on to the next call,” McCall said.
The 911 calls are being released in their entirety, without redaction.
“The recordings contain disturbing content, which our community, employees, and family and friends of loved ones lost may find highly distressing,” the police department said in a statement. “Listener and audience discretion is advised.”
Over 130 people were killed in flash flooding across the Hill Country region, including at least 117 in Kerr County, officials said. At Camp Mystic, a Christian all-girls sleepaway camp located along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, 28 people — including 25 campers, two counselors and the camp’s director — died as rapidly rising floodwaters inundated the camp.
Thursday’s release follows the release of 911 from other counties in the Hill Country, including Gillespie and Kendall counties.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. Megan Varner/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(ATLANTA) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee voted 8-3 on Friday to remove the universal recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to make vaccine recommendations based on the mother’s testing status.
The recommendations state that if a mother tests negative for hepatitis B, parents should decide, with the guidance of their health care provider, whether the shot is right for their newborn — referred to as “individual-based decision-making,” according to a document with the ACIP voting language.
The vote includes that newborns who do not receive the hepatitis B birth dose get an initial dose no earlier than 2 months old.
The voting language document emphasized there is no change to the recommendation that infants born to women who test positive or have unknown status to be vaccinated.
The language document also included a footnote that parents and health care providers should consider whether the newborn faces risks, such as a hepatitis B-positive household member or frequent contact with people who have emigrated from areas where hepatitis B is common.
In a second vote, the ACIP voted 6-4, with one abstention, that parents of older children should talk to their doctor about hepatitis B antibody testing before considering subsequent hepatitis B vaccination.
The testing would determine whether an antibody threshold was achieved and should be covered by insurance.
The CDC acting director, Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, is expected to sign off on the change.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 4, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione returns to court Friday for a fourth day of an evidence suppression hearing in the state case charging him with murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City sidewalk last year.
Testimony is expected to include two Altoona, Pennsylvania, patrolmen who were among more than a dozen officers at the McDonald’s where Mangione was arrested following the shooting.
One of them, Christy Wasser, is seen on body camera footage searching Mangione’s backpack and, later, is heard saying, “there’s a weapon.”
The defense is trying to exclude the contents of the backpack from Mangione’s trial, arguing police had no warrant and no reason to even touch it.
“He never acted belligerent, did he?” defense attorney Jacob Kaplan asked Patrolman Tyler Frye during Thursday’s proceedings. “No,” Frye answered.
“He never attempted to open is backpack at the McDonald’s, did he?” Kaplan asked. “No,” the patrolman responded.
The bag contained what prosecutors have described as the means and the motive for the alleged crime. Prosecutor says police retrieved a 3D-printed pistol used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which Mangione allegedly wrote, “The target is insurance. It checks every box.”
The hearing is expected to continue well into next week, though the judge on Thursday told both sides they were being “duplicative” and said that’s “not helping your case.”
(NEW YORK) — The coldest air of the season is invading the Midwest and Northeast as the Mid-Atlantic sees its first snow of the season.
Record low temperatures were recorded across the Midwest and Northeast on Friday morning, including: 6 degrees in Scranton, Pennsylvania; minus 4 degrees in Plattsburgh, New York, zero degrees in Springfield, Illinois; and 3 degrees in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Wind chills — what temperature it feels like — will also be a factor across the Midwest and Northeast. In Boston and Buffalo, New York, the temperature feels below zero Friday morning, while New York City woke up to wind chills in the teens.
The temperature will barely improve in the afternoon. Wind chills will only reach the mid-teens in Chicago and mid-20s in New York City/
This weekend, a blast of cold air will bring a renewed chill to Minneapolis, and then next week, another shot of arctic air will keep the Midwest and Northeast well below zero for wind chills.
Meanwhile,most of Virginia is waking up to snow on Friday, with Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., residents getting their first snowfall of the season. Richmond is forecast to get 1 to 3 inches while D.C. could see 1 inch of snow and slippery roads.
And on Saturday, a quick snowstorm will move through the Dakotas and Nebraska, dropping a few inches.
By Saturday evening, the snow will reach Iowa. Three to 7 inches of snow is possible and a winter storm watch is in place there.
Chicago could see a small amount of snow on Sunday morning.
police badge and hancuffs (amphotora/Getty Images)
(TAMPA, Fla) — Years after the bodies of a woman and her 2-year-old daughter were found on Long Island — once associated with the Gilgo Beach serial murders — the woman’s suspected killer appeared before a Florida judge on Thursday facing murder charges.
Andrew Dykes, 66, was arrested and charged with two counts of murder Wednesday near Tampa on a warrant out of Nassau County, New York, in connection with the 1997 death of Tanya Jackson, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Dykes did not enter a plea but is due back in a Florida court next week as Nassau County seeks his extradition to New York.
The Nassau County district attorney’s office declined to comment.
Jackson was 26 when she was found dismembered in Lakeview in June 1997. The body of her 2-year-old year old daughter, Tatiana, was found 14 years later near Gilgo Beach.
For years, Jackson, a U.S. Army veteran, was known only as “Peaches” because of a distinctive tattoo, and her daughter as “Baby Doe.”
In April, authorities in New York announced they had finally identified Jackson and her daughter and offered a $25,000 reward for information in the cold case.
The girl’s remains were found in 2011 close to where the remains of other women were found along the southern shore of Long Island leading to speculation the deaths were the work of the Gilgo Beach serial killer.
Long Island architect and father Rex Heuermann was arrested in 2023 in connection with several of the Gilgo Beach slayings and later charged with killing seven women.
Heuermann, who has pleaded not guilty, was never charged with the killings of Jackson or her daughter.
Zoe Rosenberg speaks at the Sonoma County Superior Court in Santa Rosa, Calif., December 3, 2025. Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
(SONOMA COUNTY, Calif.) — An animal rights activist who stole four chickens from a Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse in California will have to serve jail time.
Rosenberg was convicted in November of felony conspiracy and three misdemeanors arising from a “coordinated” incursion at the poultry facility in 2023 during which she and other members of the animal rights organization Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) “unlawfully” entered the facility, removed live chickens, stole business records and interfered with commercial operations, according to prosecutors.
“Evidence at trial established that Rosenberg and individuals associated with her coordinated a series of unlawful entries into Petaluma Poultry over the course of two months in 2023,” the DA’s statement read.
“They involved disguises, nighttime breaches through a cut fence, covert movement through secured areas, photographing and stealing internal business records, and placing tracking devices on all twelve Petaluma Poultry transport trailers,” the press release added.
Zoe Rosenberg told ABC News that she was worried about getting appropriate medical care while incarcerated.
“I’m scared that in jail I won’t have access to the specific medical equipment and care I need, but even the possibility of dying in custody is less scary than the thought of ever giving up on the animals who desperately need help. I will never stop fighting for their rights and safety,” she said in a statement from DxE.
“I am filled with remorse for every animal I have failed to save,” Rosenberg said.
In a social media video, Rosenberg said she had to turn herself into authorities Dec. 10 and may have to pay a restitution fee.
“The judge is also ordering that I pay over 100,000 dollars in restitution, but we will have a hearing to debate that further,” she said on a TikTok video.
Andrea Staub, a spokesperson for Petaluma Poultry, told ABC News that the judge’s ruling affirms the rule of law.
“This decision underscores the seriousness of Direct Action Everywhere’s actions and upholds the rule of law. It affirms a basic truth: when you break the law, you’ll be held responsible,” Staub said.
“Dxe’s actions show a reckless disregard for employee safety, animal welfare, and food security. At Petaluma Poultry, we are committed to responsible farming, rigorous animal care and biosecurity standards, and delivering the safe, healthy food our consumers and customers rely on,” she added.
According to her X account, Rosenberg has participated in many protests for animal rights that include chaining herself to an NBA basketball hoop at a playoff game in 2022, dressing up as a Chick-fil-A employee to warn customers about animal rights at one location, and leading a satire “dog BBQ” at the University of California, Berkeley, where she pretended to make dog meat and threatened to cook a chihuahua.
In an archival TEDx Talk, Rosenberg said that social causes must be progressed with public acts of protest.
“Whatever cause is important to you, isn’t going to progress or win without non-violent, consistent, and bold acts of protest,” she said.
Rosenberg named the stolen chickens Poppy, Ivy, Aster and Azalea, according to her social media.
Travis Turner is seen in an undated photo released by Virginia State Police. (Virginia State Police)
(APPALACHIA, Va.) — The wife of a Virginia high school football coach who went missing days before being wanted on charges involving child sexual abuse material and solicitation of a minor is pleading with him to “face the allegations by defending yourself in a court of law,” as he remains missing for two weeks.
Travis Turner, 46, of Appalachia, Virginia, was last seen on Nov. 20, according to the Virginia State Police. He is wanted on multiple felony charges, including five counts of possession of child pornography and five counts of using a computer to solicit a minor, according to Virginia State Police. The Union High School football coach is considered a fugitive, police said.
Turner was last seen by some family members walking into the woods with a gun, according to the coach’s family.
“While the family’s last contact with Travis causes them to have great concern for his well being, they cling to the hope he will be found and afforded the opportunity to defend himself in a court of law,” his family said in a statement released Wednesday through his wife’s attorney.
The family said they continue to cooperate with law enforcement, including having their home and properties searched “multiple times,” amid efforts to locate Turner.
Turner’s car, keys and wallet were left at home, as well as daily medications and his contact lens and glasses, according to his family.
When he did not return that evening, his wife contacted law enforcement and filed a missing person report the following day “as directed” with the Virginia State Police, his family said.
“Criminal charges were not obtained against Travis until days after he failed to return home,” the statement from his family said. “He was not a fugitive nor wanted by law enforcement at the time he went missing. His wife was not helping him escape, she was asking for help to find him.”
His wife and children are “in distress” and urged him to come home.
“Don’t leave your family to fight this battle without you,” the statement said. “They love and miss you. They want you to know they are your support.”
The U.S. Marshals Service this week announced a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to Turner’s capture.
The U.S. Marshals warned that Turner “may be armed” and to “use caution” in a wanted poster released on Monday.
Turner is a physical education teacher and head football coach at Union High School, in the Wise County public school district, according to the school’s website. Amid his disappearance, the football team has advanced to the Virginia state semifinals, scheduled for this Saturday, during a 13-0 season.
In response to a request for comment on Turner, Wise County Public Schools said Tuesday it is “aware that law enforcement has filed charges against a staff member who has been on administrative leave.”
“The individual remains on leave and is not permitted on school property or to have contact with students,” the statement continued. “The division will continue to cooperate with law enforcement as this process moves forward.”
Luigi Mangione (R) appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 01, 2025 in New York City. (Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A year to the day after Luigi Mangione allegedly stalked and gunned down United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk, the 27-year-old alleged killer was identified in court by one of the police officers who first encountered him in Altoona, Pennsylvania, following the shooting.
“He’s the gentleman right there sitting between the female and the male. Looks like he’s wearing a suit,” patrolman Tyler Frye said, pointing with his left hand.
Mangione’s lawyers are attempting to convince the judge overseeing his case to prohibit prosecutors from using critical evidence, including the alleged murder weapon and Mangione’s journal. They argue the evidence was unlawfully seized from his backpack without a warrant during his arrest.
Mangione — in court for the third day of a pretrial hearing in his state murder case — flipped a pen in his right hand and then began writing on a white lined legal pad, largely ignoring body camera footage of his arrest that played on screens around the courtroom.
Frye, 26, was still a probationary officer, on the job less than a year, when he responded to a McDonalds on E. Plank Road after the dispatcher told them a manager had called 911 to report someone who looked like the person wanted in the shooting.
On the body camera footage played in court, someone is heard directing the officers, “He’s back there.”
Frye is seen in the footage standing a few feet from Mangione while Mangione nibbled a hash brown as the officers stalled for time by engaging in small talk about the Steak McMuffin.
Another officer is heard asking Mangione, “Do you know what all this nonsense is about?” Mangione is heard replying, “We’re going to find out I guess.”
Officers subsequently informed Mangione he was under “official police investigation” and asked him his real name. Frye, on the video, is seen writing the name “Luigi Mangione” in a small notebook and providing his date of birth. At that point, Mangione is read is Miranda rights.
Defense attorneys are trying to exclude statements Mangione made and the contents of his backpack, including a 3D-printed gun and a red notebook.
“Where were you standing in relation to the backpack?” prosecutor Joel Seidemann asked. “Right near it,” Frye replied.
“Were you aware of that backpack?” Seidemann asked. “I was,” Frye said.
“When did you become aware of it?” asked Seidemann.
“About the time I walked in,” Frye replied.
The hearing has the potential to sideline what prosecutors say is some of the strongest evidence of Mangione’s guilt, and has provided the most detailed preview to date of their case against the alleged killer.
