Dueling Northern California wildfires, high temperatures challenge fire crews

Dueling Northern California wildfires, high temperatures challenge fire crews
Dueling Northern California wildfires, high temperatures challenge fire crews
Neal Waters/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

(WEED, Calif.) — As firefighters appeared to be getting a handle Sunday on a wildland fire that damaged or destroyed more than 100 structures in a Northern California town, another blaze burning in the same county was giving fire crews new challenges, officials said.

The Mill Fire burning near Weed, California, in Siskiyou County near the Oregon border, was 25% contained Sunday after burning 4,254 acres since igniting on Friday, according to Cal Fire officials.

Another fire burning in Siskiyou County, the Mountain Fire, is now presenting fire crews with more concerns after growing overnight from roughly 4,800 acres to 6,451 acres, according to Cal Fire. The Mountain Fire, which was only 5% contained Sunday, forced the evacuations of more than 300 people living in the remote rural area of Siskiyou County, officials said.

Winds on the ridges of the Mountain Fire were of particular concern for firefighters, who feared they could spread burning embers and ignite spot fires, according to Cal Fire’s update Sunday on the blaze.

Firefighters are battling the dueling fires amid triple-digit heat.

“Weather continues to be hot and dry with poor overnight relative humidity recoveries,” Cal Fire said Sunday.

The agency said firefighters will remain focused on defending structures and expanding containment lines around the two blazes.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in Siskiyou County to support the response to the fires.

The mayor of Weed, meanwhile, reported new details on the Mill Fire, which ravaged her town of more than 2,600 people, injuring several people as they fled the flames and damaging or destroying at least 132 structures, including many homes.

Mayor Kim Greene told ABC news the Mill Fire started Friday in an old warehouse at the town’s lumber mill, the Roseburg Forest Products, which sits near a park and a cluster of homes she said were nearly all destroyed.

“My coworker’s husband ran in and said, ‘There’s a fire,'” Greene recalled. “By the time we go out the front door to see, (there) was just a big puff of black smoke. You could hear the small explosions.”

Fanned by 30 mph winds, Greene said the blaze quickly spread, jumped a set of train tracks and swept into a neighborhood.

Green said many people had only minutes to escape. An ABC News crew observed several walkers and wheelchairs abandoned along streets as people fled for their lives. Numerous vehicles sat charred in roadways and driveways of homes completely destroyed.

The Mill Fire, according to Cal Fire, caused more than 1,000 people to be evacuated.

While firefighters got a break from the high winds on Saturday, but high temperatures continue to be a challenge, Cal Fire officials said. Temperatures are expected to dip to the low 90s on Sunday, officials said.

Capt. Robert Foxworthy of Cal Fire said the high temperatures are forcing firefighters to take precautions to protect themselves physically.

“It makes it a little bit tougher physically on those firefighters that are working on the ground,” Foxworthy told ABC News. “You have them making sure they are hydrating and making sure they are getting good rest cycles, making sure those folks are getting good meals and nutrition so when they do go and work on these fires in those conditions, they are the best they can be to deal with those conditions.”

ABC News’ Alex Presha and Alyssa Pone contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Teenager killed, 3 people wounded in 7-Eleven shooting in Maryland: Police

Teenager killed, 3 people wounded in 7-Eleven shooting in Maryland: Police
Teenager killed, 3 people wounded in 7-Eleven shooting in Maryland: Police
kali9/Getty Images

(CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md.) — A 15-year-old boy was killed and three other people were injured when at least two gunmen opened fire on them Saturday evening inside a 7-Eleven store in Capitol Heights, Maryland, officials said Sunday.

The teenager who was fatally shot was identified as De’Andre Johnson of Washington, D.C., according to the Prince George’s County Police Department.

A $25,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the killers, police officials said.

The shooting unfolded about 8 p.m. Saturday inside a 7-Eleven convenience store on Ritchie Road in Capitol Heights, police said.

he preliminary investigation revealed two suspects walked into the convenience store and opened fire before fleeing the scene,” police said in a statement released Sunday. “At this point in the investigation, this does not appear to be a robbery attempt or a random incident. Investigators are looking into whether any of the individuals in the store were targeted by the shooters.”

A reward of up to $25,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest and indictment of the killers, police said.

A second teenager, also 15 years old, was among those shot, according to police. The boy was taken to a hospital in critical condition, officials said.

The two other people shot were adults, including a store employee, police said. One of the adult victims was treated at a hospital and released while the other remained in a hospital Sunday in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.

The Prince George’s County Police shared on Twitter Saturday evening that police responded to the shooting at 8 p.m. and made the discovery of the fatal shooting.

“Once on scene they discovered multiple people at a convenience store with trauma to the body. They were all taken to a local hospital,” the statement read.

Police initially reported that an adult was killed in the shooting, but clarified Sunday that it was the teenager who died.

Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to call detectives at (301) 516-2512. Callers wanting to remain anonymous can call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477)

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Man detained in search for abducted jogger, vehicle of interest found: Police

Man detained in search for abducted jogger, vehicle of interest found: Police
Man detained in search for abducted jogger, vehicle of interest found: Police
Memphis Police Department

(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — A vehicle of interest has been located amid the search for a woman who was abducted while out for a run in Memphis, police said.

Eliza Fletcher, 34, was last seen at approximately 4:30 a.m. Friday on Central Avenue in midtown Memphis before being forced into a dark-colored GMC Terrain, the Memphis Police Department said.

Memphis police said in an update Saturday that the car has been found and a man in it has been detained.

“Eliza Fletcher has not been located. This is an ongoing investigation,” police said.

Memphis police said they were dispatched at around 7:45 a.m. to assist the University of Memphis police “regarding a missing person” in the area of Central Avenue and Zach Curlin Street.

The woman was jogging in the area when an unknown person approached her and she was “reportedly forced into an SUV and taken from the scene,” Memphis police said in a statement.

The suspect was believed to be in a dark-colored GMC Terrain traveling westbound on Central Avenue, police said.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is assisting in the search for Fletcher, said there currently is no known direction of travel for the suspect’s vehicle.

Fletcher was wearing a pink jogging top and purple running shorts at the time.

Authorities have released images of Fletcher and the SUV they believe she was forced into.

St. Mary’s Episcopal School said in a statement on social media that Fletcher is a “beloved” junior kindergarten teacher at the all-girls prep school.

Fletcher was described by police as 5 foot 6 inches and 137 pounds with brown hair and green eyes.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Memphis Police Department at 901-528-2274 or 901-545-2677, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND or 911.

ABC News’ Alexandra Faul contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

What we know about the pilot in the Tupelo airplane incident

What we know about the pilot in the Tupelo airplane incident
What we know about the pilot in the Tupelo airplane incident
Tupelo Police Department

(TUPELO, Miss.) — An incident allegedly involving a stolen plane and threats against a local Walmart ended in what one official described as the “best-case scenario,” with no injuries and an inexperienced pilot safely landing the plane.

The saga unfolded over several hours in northeast Mississippi Saturday morning. Tupelo police warned residents around 6:30 a.m. local time that a pilot was flying over the city and “is threatening to intentionally crash” into a Walmart.

The pilot was identified by Tupelo police as 29-year-old Cory Wayne Patterson, an employee of Tupelo Aviation, which provides services like fueling at the Tupelo Regional Airport. He has worked for the company for the past 10 years and works as a lineman, fueling the aircraft, according to Tupelo Police Chief John Quaka.

Shortly after 5 a.m., Patterson is alleged to have stolen from the airport a Beechcraft King Air C-90 twin-engine aircraft, which he had access to as an employee of Tupelo Aviation, then called 911 at approximately 5:23 a.m. and made his threat against the local Walmart. Police evacuated the store and surrounding area, police said.

As the plane circled over Tupelo, police were able to talk to the pilot directly, according to Quaka. Negotiators were “able to convince him to not carry out this deed and to land the aircraft at Tupelo Airport,” Quaka told reporters during a press briefing Saturday.

The stolen aircraft is a sophisticated and complicated one to fly, according to experts. Patterson has “some flight instruction,” but did not have experience landing an aircraft and is not believed to be a licensed pilot, Quaka said. According to FAA records, Patterson only held a student pilot certificate, which was issued in 2013.

“A private pilot assisted us in helping this pilot complete this” landing, Quaka said.

Though upon final approach, for some unknown reason, the pilot aborted that landing and flew north, away from Tupelo, Quaka said.

At approximately 9:30 a.m., when the plane was close to running out of fuel, Patterson posted a message on Facebook that “in essence, it said goodbye,” according to the chief.

Around 10:08 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration lost radar contact with the aircraft. When a negotiator reestablished contact at 10:12 a.m., the pilot “confirmed he had landed in a field and was uninjured,” Quaka said.

The plane landed in a soybean field in Ripley, Mississippi, located more than 40 miles north of Tupelo. The pilot was the only person on board, the FAA said.

Patterson was taken into custody and has been charged with grand larceny and making terroristic threats, Lee County Sheriff’s Department online records show. A motive is not known at this time, Quaka said.

It is unclear if Patterson has an attorney. ABC News has left messages with the Tupelo Regional Airport and Tupelo Aviation.

Tupelo Mayor Todd Jordan said he has spoken with Patterson’s family.

“I believe that after the initial threat, he did not want to hurt himself, or anyone else, and I believe that we had what you would think would be the best-case scenario,” Jordan said during the briefing.

“No one was injured. The suspect is now in custody. He will get the help he needs, as far as whatever he’s dealing with,” he continued. “I can’t thank all these organizations enough to bring him in safely.”

ABC News’ Matt Foster contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

17-year-old Ukrainian describes his experience as a prisoner of war

17-year-old Ukrainian describes his experience as a prisoner of war
17-year-old Ukrainian describes his experience as a prisoner of war
omersukrugoksu/Getty Images/Stock

(NEW YORK) — Vlad Buryak, 17, was traveling in a car on the morning of April 8 and stopped at a Russian checkpoint. Within hours, he would end up in a Russian prison.

Russian soldiers had seen his cellphone and accused him of filming him, he told ABC News’ Britt Clennett during an interview held over Zoom. They took his phone and while checking his photos and social media, they found a pro-Ukrainian Telegram group.

The soldiers were furious, he said, and threatened to kill him on the spot. Instead, he was taken to a filtration camp and then to a prison where he would spend 48 days before eventually being released.

Thousands of Ukrainians have reportedly been held as prisoners of war and hundreds of thousands have been forcibly deported from the country through so-called filtration camps.

The experience of children during the war, which has stretched over six months, has been uniquely traumatic and provides a chilling portrait into the painful reality on the ground in Ukraine.

The U.N. estimates that nearly 1,000 children have been killed or injured during the conflict and more than 5 million Ukrainian children, both inside the country and living as refugees, are in need of humanitarian aid.

The prison he was put into “so awful and so difficult,” he said, adding that hearing constant cries of “help me” and “don’t beat me” breaks you inside.

His job was to wash floors, cleaning rooms that had been used for torture “three or four days a week,” he said.

He helped pass information between prisoners, written on small bits of paper which they would try to smuggle outside the prison walls to family members.

He wasn’t beaten, but watched other gets beaten and tortured. Although he noticed everything going on around him, he tried to be invisible he said, focusing on his work. He didn’t want the Russian soldiers to know how much he was seeing.

During the interview with ABC News, he admitted that he had probably blocked out many aspects of his time in prison. “If you see awful things, your brain forgets it.” If he dwells on the past too much, “I can have problem in my head,” he said, “and I don’t want to have [that].”

So, he said, “I prefer to not think about this.”

It was very difficult to maintain his psychological health in prison, he said. If you show emotion, there was the fear of being beaten and tortured, and of never being released, he said.

“If you begin crying, if you begin to be angry with these Russian soldiers, these Russian soldiers can kill you or torture you.”

To keep himself mentally sane, he would talk to himself. “I think about what I do when I have freedom. What I do after prison, what I do with my family, how I visit my friends, how I go to the café, how I go to McDonalds,” he said.

After 48 days, he was finally reunited with his father.

“You can’t explain this emotion,” he said, displaying maturity beyond his years. “This emotion you can only feel.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Trump heads to battleground Pennsylvania to stump for GOP candidates

Trump heads to battleground Pennsylvania to stump for GOP candidates
Trump heads to battleground Pennsylvania to stump for GOP candidates
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

(WILKES-BARRE, Pa.) — Former President Donald Trump is campaigning for Republicans in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Saturday in what will be his first rally since federal agents searched his Florida home last month.

Trump will speak at the Mohegan Sun Arena in support of Doug Mastriano, who is running for governor against Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Schapiro, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is taking on Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the U.S. Senate race.

Supporters were lined up in the parking lot hours before Trump is due on stage.

Trump’s appearance in Pennsylvania comes just days after President Joe Biden’s back-to-back visits in the battleground state, during which he condemned Trump and his fellow “MAGA Republicans” as a dominant force in today’s GOP and a threat to American democracy.

“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” Biden said in a prime-time speech from Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Thursday. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”

Biden’s ramped up rhetoric comes as he seeks to recast the November elections as a choice between those who want to save the “soul of the nation” or those who he says are a danger to democracy.

Trump supporters waiting in line to see the former president give remarks criticized Biden’s rhetoric and said it has only energized them even more ahead of the midterms. Evy Mecjes, and Debbie Latsha called Biden’s speech “very divisive.”

“We’re now the bad guys. We are the terrorists of the United States of America,” Mecjes said.

Latsha said Biden’s speech showed how “afraid” Democrats were of the power Trump still has over the Republican Party.

“They’re a little afraid of all the people that are rising up and whose eyes are being opened, who are waking up to what’s truly happening in our government,” Latsha said. “So let’s see if we can smash them down a little bit more and divide people a little bit more. I mean, there was nothing unifying about that.”

They defended Trump supporters pointing to school closures during the pandemic and inflation as examples of how Democrats have hurt Americans.

“People are rising up because we’re pissed off about how our government is treating us and you know, President Biden does not speak for the people,” Mecjes remarked.

Biden will be back in Pennsylvania again on Sunday, spending part of his Labor Day weekend in Pittsburgh.

While Republicans have generally been favored to win back control of both chambers of Congress this midterm cycle, recent legislative victories for Democrats and some positive economic news has bolstered Democrats’ chances to keep their majorities.

Amid these high stakes, Trump’s rally also comes as fallout continues from the Aug. 8 FBI search at his Mar-a-Lago estate, where agents recovered classified documents as part of an investigation into his handling of presidential records after leaving office.

Lawyers for the Justice Department and for Trump faced off in court Thursday over whether there should be a judge-ordered independent review of the Mar-a-Lago documents by a special master. The judge, Aileen Cannon, has yet to make a ruling on the matter.

On Friday, Judge Cannon unsealed a detailed inventory showing what the FBI seized during the search. The list states some documents bearing classification markings ranging from confidential to top secret were found intermingled with newspaper clippings, photographs and other documents.

The inventory also revealed the government seized dozens of folders that were empty but either had “CLASSIFIED” banners on them or were labeled “Return to Staff Secretary/Military Aide.”

Trump has denied wrongdoing as he publicly fights back against the search.

Those in line to hear him speak on Saturday expressed beliefs that Trump was unfairly targeted.

“I don’t feel he did anything wrong. I think that will come out in the end, but they just want to turn people against Trump,” said Barbara, a voter from Mountain Top, Pennsylvania.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Abortion, unemployment, police shootings on Ohio young voters’ minds for midterms

Abortion, unemployment, police shootings on Ohio young voters’ minds for midterms
Abortion, unemployment, police shootings on Ohio young voters’ minds for midterms
ABC News

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — The battle over a Senate seat is hot in swing state Ohio. Democratic nominee Rep. Tim Ryan is locked in a competitive race with Republican opponent J.D. Vance, who picked up $28M in airtime funding from a PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

ABC News hit the campaign trail, asking young voters in Columbus and at Ohio State University, about the issues that matter most to them in the midterm elections.

This year’s midterms are slated to be the most consequential yet as the fate of abortion laws are now in the hands of the states after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Abortion, cost of living

“A lot of women don’t even know they’re pregnant until after six weeks. I think that is odd, cruel and it’s clearly laws made by people that have never had babies,” said Ashley McCoy of Columbus, referring to the state’s six-week abortion ban, which makes the procedure illegal after fetal cardiac activity is detected, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

“I understand pro-life and I’m all for that if that’s what you believe in, but you cannot force it upon the masses. It’s not right,” added McCoy.

Rising costs of living and unemployment rates are also prime sources of concern for voters like Kristyn Schweitzer, an Ohio native.

“My husband and I had to scale our lives back after COVID because of layoffs,” said Schweitzer. “I think it says a lot that inflation and interest rates have gone up because it’s hard to get a foothold. We’re surviving but it’s not comfortable.”

Law enforcement issues, student debt

Law enforcement’s treatment particularly of Black men is another issue that concerns some Ohioans, as the Columbus Police Department is now under fire for the fatal shooting of Donovan Lewis — a Black man fatally shot by police Tuesday, released police body camera footage showed.

Andrew Pierce, a senior and the student body president at Ohio State University, says it is time to have a conversation about what policing looks like going forward.

“How do we move with the police but also how do we just create a safe society for everybody?” said Pierce.

And President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt was also on the minds of students, who applauded the plan, but some said they also believe more could be done to alleviate the burden.

“I feel like right now $10,000 is a lot of money, but also it’s still nowhere near the amount that students here regularly accumulate,” said Zoe Lawler, a senior at Ohio State University who is majoring in genetics. “Ten thousand dollars. It’s like a drop in the bucket,” Lawler said.

Herb Asher, political science professor at Ohio State University, told ABC News that the issues Ohio’s voters cited, are no surprise.

“I think the economy has always been at the top of lists that Ohioans are concerned about, in part Ohio is a state that has lost so many well-paying manufacturing jobs,” he said.

Asher also said the issue of abortion may be a “liability” for Republicans, in part because of what various state legislatures are doing now that they have the power to determine access to the procedure, which may turn off some voters.

“Once the Supreme Court said Roe v. Wade is overturned, that didn’t ban abortion,” said Asher. “That just sent the issue back to the states. And a lot of the states are doing some really, very restrictive, very conservative and in some cases, very extreme things.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Plane down, pilot in custody after threatening to crash into Mississippi Walmart store: Police

Plane down, pilot in custody after threatening to crash into Mississippi Walmart store: Police
Plane down, pilot in custody after threatening to crash into Mississippi Walmart store: Police
avid_creative/Getty Images/STOCK

(TUPELO, Miss.) — A small plane is down and its pilot is in police custody after threatening to intentionally crash into a Walmart in Tupelo, Mississippi, the Benton County Sheriff’s office confirmed to ABC News Saturday.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to ABC News that the plane landed in a field in Ripley, Mississippi. The agency said the pilot was the only person on board.

The Tupelo Police Department identified the pilot as Cory Wayne Patterson, an employee at Tupelo Aviation. Patterson allegedly stole a Beechcraft King Air C-90 twin engine aircraft from the Tupelo Regional Airport just after 5 a.m. Patterson had access to the plane as an employee of Tupelo Aviation, which operates out of the airport.

Once the plane landed, Patterson was taken into custody. Patterson is being charged with grand larceny and making terroristic threats, and federal charges are likely as well, Tupelo Police Department Chief John Quaka said at a press conference Saturday.

Police were notified that an airplane was flying over Tupelo at around 5 a.m. local time. The plane’s pilot made contact with E911 and was threatening to crash intentionally, according to a statement from police.

Negotiators were “able to convince him to not carry out this deed and to land the aircraft at Tupelo Airport,” Quaka said.

Patterson eventually aborted that landing and flew north, away from Tupelo. At 9:30 a.m., when the plane was close to running out of fuel, Patterson posted a message on Facebook that was “in essence, a goodbye,” according to the chief.

Police worked with Walmart and a nearby Dodge’s market to evacuate those stores and disperse people as much as possible.

“Citizens are asked to avoid that area until an all clear is given. With the mobility of an airplane of that type the danger zone is much larger than even Tupelo,” police said in a statement.

Flightradar24 showed the pilot had been flying in random circles far to the northwest of Tupelo, while flying very low and changing altitudes between 500 and 1500 mean sea level.

Mississippi state law enforcement were “closely monitoring” the situation, Gov. Tate Reeves confirmed on Twitter. The FAA said it is coordinating with local law enforcement and will investigate.

The pilot’s condition is currently unknown.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

How the water crisis is impacting Jackson residents

How the water crisis is impacting Jackson residents
How the water crisis is impacting Jackson residents
Brad Vest/Getty Images

(JACKSON, Miss.) — Jackson, Mississippi, resident Velma Warner says the city’s most recent flooding brings up memories of two years past, when Pearl River floods forced many in the Canton Club neighborhood of Northeast Jackson to leave their homes.

Though Warner and her family had time to prepare their home for potential water breach, the effect flooding would have on the city’s water supply posed another–not entirely unpredictable–issue, she says. One month after the city issued a boil water notice, damage to the nearby O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant has left Jackson’s water supply contaminated and largely depleted.

“This is an ongoing issue, like years of knowing that the water plant needed a lot of work,” Warner said to ABC News. “I think our concern as citizens is even after all of this, after they put all the money into the water plant, will we have qualified staff to continue to run the plant?”

As city and state officials facilitate plant repairs and establish state-run water distribution sites throughout the city, making “significant gains”, local organizations such as Operation Good continue to work tirelessly in their efforts to get drinking water to as many as possible. Operation Good’s program manager Gino Womack says demand has even increased throughout the week, adding that the nonprofit went through hundreds of cases of water within an hour. Womack says contributions across the country have made an incredible impact on their ability to keep up and encouraged engagement in their #CureViolence program.

“It’s good to see the people, everybody, coming together, working together to get through this time that’s going on. And there’s people from outside the city…that have been very very supportive of things going on here,” Womack said to ABC News. “A lot of their support has enabled us to continue providing water to the citizens.”

Community members like Deon Thompson, a neighbor of Warner’s and an advocate for his community for the 20 years he’s lived there, has also taken it upon himself to get safe drinking water to as many people as he can. He says that for the first couple of days, water was nearly impossible to find in Jackson, but state distribution sites run by the National Guard have made it more accessible.

“There was some people that actually didn’t know about the distribution sites that [the state] had set up,” Thompson said to ABC News. “So we were able to go to those sites and get water for our communities, and then we stretch beyond our community to the others, like the elderly and those that actually couldn’t get out because we do have some disabled people in the neighborhood as well.”

Thompson, who was also affected by flooding in 2020, has lived throughout Jackson for over 50 years–his entire life. While this week’s flooding was not as severe as it has been, coupled with a failing water treatment plant and racial disparities indicate severe ongoing issues that may lead others in the neighborhood, including his elderly mother, to leave for good.

And with chances of rain on the radar this weekend, he says some residents are waiting for “a definite” before moving their belongings, paying storage fees rather than taking the risk of having to go through it all again.

“The flooding is one thing that has been going on and this water problem, with us drinking it, didn’t just start like back in July as some people say. This has been going on for the past three or four decades,” he said, adding that it reminds him of the Flint water crisis in which lead contamination in the city’s water supply hit communities of color hard.

“Race plays a very important part in this,” he said as Jackson has an 82.5% Black population according to the U.S. Census.

Thompson also voiced his concerns about how housing developments around Ross Barnett Reservoir, Jackson’s historic and current major source of potable water, have contributed to the flooding, a concern echoed by Warner. With this in mind, Thompson says he is focused on ensuring that the underlying causes of Jackson’s water emergency don’t “fall through the cracks.”

“We’re gonna assist and do whatever we can,” he said of seeing that officials make the necessary efforts to resolve the crisis.

“The progress that is being made there now as we even speak, it’s little progress, but little progress is better than no progress. And we have to kind of look at it from that standpoint and be very sure that our government officials are gonna do what they said they’re gonna do,” he added. “We’re gonna have to get through this here one day at a time. We’re gonna help one another, and we need to encourage one another because we don’t want people to leave.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Body camera footage of fatal police shooting of Donovan Lewis released by authorities

Body camera footage of fatal police shooting of Donovan Lewis released by authorities
Body camera footage of fatal police shooting of Donovan Lewis released by authorities
ilbusca/Getty Images/STOCK

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Body camera footage released by the Columbus Police Department shows events preceding the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Donovan Lewis.

“Donovan was a typical 20-year-old kid with a ton of friends,” Rex Elliott, the Lewis family attorney, said at a press conference Thursday. “Certainly, he had his challenges in life, but he was a very good person and loved very much.”

Lewis family members held each other close, some covering their ears and looking away as the body camera footage played on a screen at the press conference.

“There can be no question that excessive deadly force was recklessly used by Officer Anderson when he shot and killed an unarmed black man,” Elliott said.

Columbus police say they traveled to Lewis’ apartment located in the Columbus, Ohio, Hilltop neighborhood around 2 a.m. Tuesday morning to arrest him on three separate charges — domestic violence, assault and improper handling of a firearm.

When police arrived, they identified themselves and stood outside the apartment for approximately eight minutes asking those inside to exit, the footage shows.

Two people eventually exit the apartment and police enter with a K-9, finding Lewis in bed, the video shows.

Officer Ricky Anderson, a 30-year veteran with the Columbus Police Department and K-9 unit, appears to open fire almost immediately after police open the bedroom door to where Lewis was sleeping.

In the footage, Lewis is seen raising his hands as he lies in bed. Anderson is then seen firing the single gunshot.

“Officer Anderson opened the door and almost immediately fired a shot into the bedroom as Donovan was trying to get out of bed,” Elliot said. “Donovan was unarmed and he was abiding by police commands to come out of his room when he was shot in cold blood by Officer Anderson.”

Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said Lewis appeared to be holding something in his hand, but only a vape pen was found on his bed and that there was no sighting of a weapon, at a press conference city officials held Tuesday following the shooting.

Lewis’ family plans to file a lawsuit against Anderson and the city of Columbus, according to Elliott.

“They want this officer punished, not permitted to be out on the street again,” Elliott said.

Anderson has been placed on paid administrative leave, according to the Columbus Police Department.

Mark Collins, the attorney representing Anderson, issued a statement Thursday obtained by ABC News, calling for a “thorough investigation.”

“When we analyze police-involved shootings, we must look to the totality of the circumstances, and we are expressly forbidden from using 20/20 hindsight, because unlike all of us, officers are not afforded the luxury of armchair reflection when they are faced with rapidly evolving, volatile encounters in dangerous situations,” Collins said.

A study released in February 2021, showed Franklin County, Ohio — which encompasses Columbus — has one of the highest rates of police shootings in Ohio and in the nation.

The study, conducted by the Ohio Alliance for Innovation in Population Health, ranked Franklin County 18th among the 100 most populous counties nationally on average for annual police-related fatalities.

In Columbus, there have been 62 shootings involving Columbus police officers since 2018, including Lewis’ shooting. Of those 62 shootings, 19 have resulted in a death, according to data from Columbus police and the Columbus Dispatch.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.