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Idaho stabbing victim Ethan Chapin ‘lived his best life’ at college

November 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(MOSCOW, Idaho) — University of Idaho student Ethan Chapin was “one of the most incredible people you’ll ever know,” his mother said before his memorial service.

Chapin, from Conway, Washington, was among four Idaho students stabbed to death in an off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13. Chapin didn’t live in the house but was sleeping over with his girlfriend, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle, who was also among the victims. No arrests have been made.

Chapin, a triplet, was born right before his sister and brother, who also attend the University of Idaho.

“We’re here to honor the life and legacy of our son and brother,” his mother, Stacy Chapin, told reporters before Monday’s memorial service, with her family standing by her side.

At Idaho, Ethan Chapin was in the Sigma Chi fraternity and was majoring in recreation, sport and tourism management, university president Scott Green said.

The 20-year-old “lived his best life” at college, his obituary said. “He loved the social life, intramurals and tolerated the academics.”

He loved sports, from golf to basketball to surfing to pickleball, his family said.

“He laughed continuously. He smiled when he woke up and was still smiling when he went to bed,” his obituary said. “He was kind to all and a friend to all.”

The murders of Ethan Chapin, Kernodle and two of Kernodle’s roommates remain a mystery.

On the night of Nov. 12, Ethan Chapin and Kernodle went to the Sigma Chi house, while the other two victims, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, went to a bar downtown, according to police. All four were home around 1:45 a.m., police said.

Two other roommates — who survived the attack and are not considered suspects — also went out that night and returned home by 1 a.m., police said.

It’s believed the four students were killed between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Nov. 13, according to Moscow Mayor Art Bettge.

The two surviving roommates were in the basement and slept through the murders, police said. On the morning of Nov. 13, the roommates called friends over to their house because they thought one of the victims on the second floor had passed out and wasn’t waking up, police said.

At 11:58 a.m., a 911 call from one of the roommate’s phones requested help for an unconscious person, according to police. The 911 caller’s identity has not been released but police said “multiple people talked with the 911 dispatcher.”

Officers responded and found the four victims on the second and third floors, police said.

Authorities said they do not believe anyone at the house at the time of the 911 call was involved in the murders.

Police urge anyone with information, or anyone who saw anything suspicious on the night of Nov. 12, to call the tip line at 208-883-7180 or send an email to tipline@ci.moscow.id.us.

Buffalo supermarket shooting suspect expected to plead guilty in court next Monday

November 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Alleged Buffalo supermarket shooter Payton Gendron is due in an Erie County courtroom Monday morning for an appearance during which he is expected to plead guilty to state charges.

An initial hearing for Gendron’s anticipated change of plea was canceled because of the storm that dropped multiple feet of snow on parts of western New York.

Gendron is charged in a 25-count indictment with carrying out a “domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate” along with 10 counts of murder in the first degree, 10 counts of murder in the second degree as a hate crime, three counts of attempted murder as a hate crime and one count of criminal possession of a weapon.

Gendron fatally shot 10 Black people at the Topps supermarket “because of the perceived race and/or color” of the victims, the indictment said.

Gendron became the first defendant to be charged under the state’s relatively new statute domestic terrorism motivated by hate, which was adopted in 2020 by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It followed the El Paso Walmart shooting that targeted Latinos. The statute is named for Josef Neumann, who was stabbed to death at a rabbi’s home during Hanukkah of 2020.

“That charge only has one sentence if the defendant is found guilty of that charge: life in prison without parole,” Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said at the time the indictment was unsealed.

The charge against Gendron reflects the white supremacist rhetoric and invective that was found on social media posts linked to him, including a belief in the racist conspiracy theory known as replacement.

Colorado LGBTQ club shooting: Suspect held on murder, hate crime charges

November 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — The man suspected of gunning down multiple people at a LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado’s second-largest city over the weekend could face murder and hate crime charges.

The suspect — identified as Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, of Colorado Springs — is currently being held without bond on 10 “arrest only” charges — five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, according to online court records for Colorado’s El Paso County.

However, those charges “are only preliminary,” according to Colorado’s Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen, who serves El Paso and Teller counties.

“There have been reports that charges have been filed. That is not true,” Allen said at a press conference in Colorado Springs on Monday afternoon. “Any case like this, an arrest warrant will be written up that is supported by probable cause affidavit and that will be submitted to a judge for approval of the arrest of a suspect. That has occurred here in this case.”

“Any charges associated with an arrest warrant are only preliminary charges,” he added. “Very customary that final charges may be different than what’s in the arrest affidavit. Typically, there will be more charges than what is listed in the arrest affidavit. So don’t be surprised when you see a different list of charges when we finally file formal charges with the court.”

Aldrich allegedly began shooting a long gun as soon as he entered Club Q in Colorado Springs late Saturday night. At least five people were killed and 17 others were wounded by the gunshots, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department, which named the deceased victims as Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, Derrick Rump and Raymond Green Vance.

Police said “two heroes” — identified as Thomas James and Richard Fierro — confronted Aldrich and fought with him, stopping him from shooting more people. Officers responded to the scene and detained Aldrich just after midnight, less than six minutes after the first 911 call came in, according to police.

Aldrich was injured in the alleged incident and remains hospitalized. Once medical personnel determine he can be released to authorities, Aldrich’s first court appearance will be scheduled, which Allen said he expects to happen “in the next few days.” That appearance will be done via video link from jail, according to the district attorney.

“We will advise the suspect at that time of arrest charges and his bond status,” Allen told reporters. “He is being held without bond, so he will not have the opportunity to be bonded out.”

“Within a few days of that first appearance is when we will return to the courtroom and file formal charges with the court,” he added.

The El Paso County district court has sealed the arrest warrant and supporting documentation connected with Aldrich’s arrest. According to the motion by prosecutors, if the records were “released, it could jeopardize the ongoing case investigation.”

In June 2021, Aldrich was arrested in an alleged bomb threat incident after his mother alerted authorities that he was “threatening to cause harm to her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition,” according to a press release posted online last year by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. While no explosives were found in his possession, Aldrich was booked into the El Paso County Jail on two counts of felony menacing and three counts of first-degree kidnapping, according to the sheriff’s office.

Aldrich’s 2021 arrest may not have appeared on background checks because the case does not appear to have been adjudicated, officials briefed on the investigation told ABC News.

ABC News and other news organizations have petitioned the court in Colorado to unseal the records regarding Aldrich’s 2021 arrest.

Colorado’s red flag law, which went into effect in 2020, allows relatives, household members and law enforcement to ask a judge to order the seizure of a gun owner’s weapons if that owner is believed to be a risk to themself or others. It’s unclear whether that law would have stopped the suspect from targeting Club Q, according to El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder, who did not recall the circumstances surrounding Aldrich’s 2021 arrest when asked by ABC News.

Club Q has been serving the Colorado Springs community for two decades and was considered a safe haven for LGBTQ people. The nightspot hosts a weekly drag show and live DJ on Saturday nights, according to its website.

Club Q co-owner Nic Grzecka told ABC News that Aldrich was a stranger to their long-established venue.

“He’s never spent money on a credit card or ID ever scanned in our business that we know of,” Grzecka said in an interview on Sunday. “I think this was a community of target for him.”

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told ABC News that the suspect “had considerable ammo” and “was extremely well armed” when he allegedly walked in to Club Q. While a motive remains under investigation, Suthers said “it has the trappings of a hate crime.”

“But we’re going to have to see what the investigation shows in terms of, you know, social media and things like that to make a clear determination exactly what the motive was,” the mayor said in an interview on Monday.

How a Colorado Springs hospital treated victims of the Club Q shooting

November 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — Dr. Laura Trujillo was asleep early Sunday morning when she got the call to go into work at Centura Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

At least five people were killed in a mass shooting at nearby Club Q, a nightclub that primarily serves the LGBTQ community.

Of the additional 19 people injured, in what police are investigating as a hate crime, seven were transported to Centura Penrose.

“Because it was the middle of the night and I was on call the 24 hours before, I was actually asleep when my partner called me,” Trujillo, a trauma surgeon at the hospital, told ABC News. “I got the first call a little after midnight. That’s when the word was coming into our systems that it might be possibly more than a few patients.”

Trujillo said there’s a 30-minute grace period from the time backup hospital staff are called to when they arrived, but she said it only took her 15 to 20 minutes to get to Centura Penrose.

“By that time, it was just a few minutes after EMS and the police had dropped off the patients kind of all at once, actually,” Trujillo said. “And so, we had some in the hallway who were more stable and some in the rooms.”

With an event like this, Trujillo said the first step is an assessment to make sure a patient’s breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and circulation are stable and to check the extent of the injuries.

Among patients with gunshot wounds, injuries to the arms and legs are typically less severe than injuries to the chest or abdomen, she said.

After scans to make sure there are few to no internal injuries, patients who are more stable will typically receive bedside care while those who are in critical condition will be rushed to the operating room.

“There were definitely a lot of bodies, a lot of people present, a lot of people working,” Trujillo said. “It was chaotic, but well controlled. Everyone had a role.”

She continued, “Our role as trauma surgeons is to kind of coordinate and oversee all of it. So, my partner and I were kind of spinning through rooms just sort of checking on everybody, making sure people’s vitals were stable, figuring out what imaging they needed met, or where they would be going after the ER.”

Trujillo declined to elaborate more on the injuries the Club Q victims had to prevent identifying patients but said the extent “ran from more worrisome to less.”

As of Monday morning, of the seven patients who initially were taken to Centura Penrose, four have been discharged and three remain hospitalized in stable condition.

To be declared eligible for discharge, Trujillo said patients will get evaluated, if needed, by physical and occupational therapists, to see if they need equipment to leave the hospital or enter short-term rehabilitation.

Additionally, hospital staff will make sure patients’ vitals are stable and their pain is under control.

Trujillo said although she has been trained to respond to patients who are victims of a mass shooting, it’s the first time she’s ever had to do so.

“This is the first mass casualty assistance that my partner and I have needed to be a part of,” she said. “Obviously, we’re used to taking care of a lot of patients at once but it’s something very sobering about it and sad when it happens.”

“You’re always hoping you never have to use these skills. We hate when this happens, but we’re here to serve everybody, and to make sure that everyone’s safe and protected,” she added.

Food donations to help feed families this Thanksgiving

November 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As Americans get ready for the holiday season, millions will turn to food donations and assistance from organizations to help get meals on the table.

Over 33 million Americans lived in food-insecure households last year, with 8.6 million adults living in very low food security households, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition data. According to the agency, food-insecure households are defined as households that are “uncertain of having or unable to acquire enough food to meet the needs of all their members because they had insufficient money or other resources for food.”

How to help fight food insecurity this Thanksgiving

Nonprofits like Feeding America, which works with a network of food banks and food programs nationwide, offer lots of free resources for people who want to help tackle food insecurity, especially during the holidays.

Start by locating a nearby food bank to donate Thanksgiving essentials, such as canned goods or other non-perishable foods, for a great way to help neighbors in need.

Foods to donate for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of the busiest times of the year for food banks looking to add healthy, non-perishable items to their already in-demand essentials.

Feeding America suggests adding the following items to your donation lists and grocery carts: boxed stuffing, instant mashed potatoes, canned vegetables, dry macaroni, cranberry sauce and canned pumpkin.

Although it’s the main dish of a Thanksgiving table, Feeding America reminded interested donors to hold off on including turkey. The Feeding America network collaborates with restaurants, caterers and manufacturers to donate leftover foods like turkey, which are guaranteed to be fresh and safe for families in need.

Similarly, skip sending in any fresh fruits or vegetables since those are highly perishable items. Many food banks work with farmers and corporate partners to help bring fresh produce to families before it goes bad, the organization said.

How to volunteer for food banks this Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a perfect opportunity to volunteer at a local soup kitchen, food pantry or food bank.

Between assembling Thanksgiving meal boxes or serving food at a Thanksgiving dinner, there are a lot of ways to help families in need make the holiday special.

Click here to locate volunteer opportunities through one of the many partners with Feeding America.

Delphi murder case in court over whether documents should be unsealed

November 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(DELPHI, Ind.) — A judge presiding over the Delphi, Indiana, double murder case will hear arguments Tuesday on whether the probable cause affidavit and other documents related to the suspect’s arrest should be unsealed.

Richard Allen of Delphi was arrested last month for the 2017 murders of best friends Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14. The eighth graders were on a hiking trail in rural Delphi when they were killed.

At an Oct. 31 news conference announcing the arrest, Carroll County prosecutor Nicholas McLeland would not say when Allen, 50, became a suspect or if he knew Abby or Libby.

“Per the court order, we cannot talk about the evidence that’s in the probable cause [affidavit],” McLeland said.

Police also have not released how Abby and Libby were killed.

“There’s a lot of questions we have that are unanswered … but all in due time that will come,” Libby’s grandfather and guardian, Mike Patty, told ABC News after the arrest.

Allen, who was taken into custody on Oct. 26 and charged with two counts of murder, has entered a not guilty plea, according to prosecutors.

Police still ask anyone with information about the case to submit a tip at abbyandlibbytip@cacoshrf.com or 765-822-3535.

DOJ, Trump lawyers set to clash before appeals court over seized documents

November 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Officials from the Justice Department and lawyers for former President Donald Trump are set to clash in front of an appeals court panel Tuesday over the appointment of a special master that was tasked by a lower district court judge with reviewing thousands of documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago this summer.

The DOJ is urging the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn special master Raymond Dearie’s appointment and have the roughly 13,000 documents returned to investigators examining whether Trump unlawfully retained highly sensitive documents involving national defense information after leaving the presidency, and potentially obstructed justice in resisting the government’s efforts to retrieve them.

The appeals court previously granted a request from the DOJ to stay portions of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that had blocked the government from using roughly 100 documents with classification markings recovered from Mar-a-Lago in its investigation and demanded they be handed over to special master Dearie.

The Justice Department then moved for an expedited appeal to end Dearie’s review in its entirety, saying its inability to access the non-classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago was also significantly hampering its ongoing criminal investigation.

It’s the first in-person meeting between top department officials and Trump’s legal team since Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith last Friday, which Garland said was warranted in part because of Trump’s announcement he would again run for president in 2024.

Smith has been tasked with overseeing the continuing criminal investigation of classified records seized from Trump’s estate in August as well as the separate probe into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden.

In a filing Monday afternoon, the Justice Department formally notified the court of Smith’s appointment and stated he had reviewed the filings in the DOJ’s case and that he “approves all of the arguments that have been presented in the briefs and will be discussed at the oral argument.”

Last week, officials said Smith was preparing to make his return to the U.S. from the Netherlands where he was serving as a chief prosecutor of war crimes at the Hague.

In a filing last week, officials from the department accused Trump and his legal team of engaging in “gamesmanship” in their fight to retain the roughly 13,000 documents in Dearie’s possession by asserting that when he ordered the packing of materials in the White House that were then transported to Mar-a-Lago, they were in effect automatically designated as his own “personal” records.

But at the same time, his attorneys said if Dearie rejected that argument for certain documents, they should have the opportunity to claim they are covered by executive privilege and should be shielded from the government.

They argued Trump’s legal team has put forward a “sweeping and baseless theory” to support their claims over the documents under a reading of the Presidential Records Act, saying Trump “appears to be claiming that he can unilaterally ‘deem’ otherwise Presidential records to be personal records by fiat.”

And even if Trump were correct in his claims, the DOJ says, it would amount to a “red herring” regarding their right to access the documents as part of their ongoing criminal investigation.

“Documents commingled or collectively stored with the classified materials located at Plaintiff’s premises were lawfully seized by the FBI in accordance with the terms of the court-authorized search warrant because of their relevance to the government’s ongoing investigation,” top DOJ counterintelligence official Jay Bratt said. “That relevance exists irrespective of whether they were personal papers or government records. In the absence of a valid and substantiated claim of privilege, all such documents must now be made available to the investigative team.”

Fauci to brief reporters for last time before leaving government after 50 years

November 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, is scheduled to brief reporters from the White House on Tuesday in what is likely to be his final briefing before leaving the government at the end of the year.

Fauci was expected to press the idea that Americans should get up-to-date on their COVID and flu shots ahead of winter.

As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci has been a near-constant presence at White House briefings throughout the two years of the COVID pandemic.

In 2020, he served as a scientific check to then-President Donald Trump’s musings on the virus.

He stayed on after the election of President Joe Biden, who elevated Fauci into a top personal adviser on the pandemic.

On Tuesday, he was expected to join Biden’s other top adviser — Dr. Ashish Jha — to discuss the need for Americans to get the bivalent COVID shot.

Fauci is scheduled to retire from the government next month after more than five decades of service.

“While I am moving on from my current positions, I am not retiring,” Fauci said in a statement this fall announcing his departure from the government.

“After more than 50 years of government service, I plan to pursue the next phase of my career while I still have so much energy and passion for my field,” he added.

He spoke about his decision in an interview with ABC New Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl for This Week in October.

It is possible Fauci will be called to testify before Congress despite leaving government.

Republicans, who took control of the House in the midterm elections, have signaled they want to investigate his role in overseeing the government’s response to COVID.

Fauci has said that, amid all the attacks on him, he and his family have faced death threats.

As he begins 2024 run, Trump faces legal challenges in four courtrooms in one day

November 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Cases involving former President Donald Trump are playing out in four different courtrooms Tuesday, underscoring the legal challenges he faces as he mounts a third run for the White House.

Four days after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee the entirety of the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified materials after leaving office, the Justice Department was expected Tuesday to ask a federal appeals court in Atlanta to remove the special master — the independent arbiter appointed to review the materials — from the case.

The special master had been appointed by a federal judge in Florida to review materials seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate to determine which, if any, were protected by executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.

The Justice Department already succeeded in extracting documents with classified markings from the review, but now the DOJ is seeking unfettered access to everything taken from Mar-a-Lago in their August raid of the property. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

In New York City Tuesday, the prosecution was expected to rest its criminal case against the Trump Organization. Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, who in August pleaded guilty to skirting nearly $2 million in income taxes, testified last week that it was his decision alone to commit tax fraud by paying no taxes on the fringe benefits he received from the Trump Organization, including rent paid on his Manhattan apartment.

Prosecutors say Weisselberg’s actions implicate the company because he was a “high managerial agent” entrusted to act on its behalf. The Trump Organization has denied wrongdoing.

The defense was to present a short list of witnesses, including the company’s outside accountant from Mazars USA, after which closing arguments will take place after Thanksgiving.

Also on Tuesday, attorneys representing Trump were scheduled to appear in New York State Supreme Court at a hearing in the state attorney general’s civil lawsuit against Trump, his children and his company. In September, after a 17-month investigation, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a $250 million civil suit against the Trumps for allegedly “grossly” inflating the former president’s net worth by billions of dollars and cheating lenders and others with false and misleading financial statements.

James subsequently installed a court-appointed monitor to oversee parts of the Trump Organization while the trial proceeds. Trump, who has denied wrongdoing, has called James’ investigation a politically motivated “witch hunt.”

Finally, former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll was scheduled to appear Tuesday in federal court in New York City for a hearing in her defamation lawsuit against Trump. Carroll sued him in November 2019 after Trump denied raping her by questioning her credibility and saying that she was “not my type.” Trump has denied the charges.

A trial is scheduled for February. Carroll says she is also planning to file a separate claim for battery under a New York law that goes into effect on Thanksgiving, allowing alleged sex assault victims to sue regardless of timeframe.

Colorado club shooting: ‘Hero’ Army veteran who stopped suspected gunman says he feels ‘no joy’

November 22, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — A U.S. Army veteran who stopped a suspected gunman from fatally shooting more people after he allegedly killed five people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado says he isn’t a hero, and he’s mourning the people who died, including his daughter’s boyfriend.

“There are five people I could not help, one of which was family to me,” Richard Fierro said during a press conference outside his home Monday night.

“I feel no joy. That guy is still alive… and my family is not,” he said, referring to his daughter’s boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance, who was among those killed in the shooting.

Five people were killed and 17 others were injured from gunshot wounds after a suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, allegedly began shooting as soon as he walked into Club Q in Colorado Springs on Saturday night, according to police. Aldrich is facing five counts of murder and five counts of bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, which is Colorado’s hate crime law.

Fierro and another person, Thomas James — both of whom authorities have described as heroes — confronted Aldrich and fought with him, ultimately saving more lives, police said.

Fierro told reporters that he and his family were at Club Q to watch his daughter’s junior prom date perform in the drag show that night.

He said he grabbed the suspect’s pistol from him and began “wailing” on him and beating him while telling a bystander to get the gun the suspect had been using. The suspect used a legally purchased assault-style rifle, according to officials briefed on the investigation

“I told him I was going to kill him,” Fierro said.

He asked a drag performer to kick the suspect, he said, adding that she stomped the suspect’s face with her high heel.

“I tried to finish him,” Fierro said.

According to the Colorado Springs Police Department and the mayor’s office, the suspect was beaten so severely that he remains hospitalized as of Monday night.

While Fierro may reject the hero label, others have praised his “heroic actions.”

“Richard actually was able to take a handgun from the waist of the suspect and use that to hit him and immobilize him and disable him,” Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told ABC News Live Prime’s Linsey Davis on Monday. “And in doing that, I am absolutely confident, and I think most people so familiar with this incident are confident that he saved numerous lives.”

Fierro said his daughter was injured in the incident and is recovering from her injuries while grieving for Vance.

Fierro was in the U.S. Army for 14 years and served in Iraq three times and Afghanistan once, Army spokesperson Sgt. Pablo Saez told ABC News.

Fierro said he left the military because he was “physically broken,” but that his Army training kicked in when the shooting began.

“I got into [a] mode and I needed to save my family,” he said. “It’s the reflex. Go to the fight. Stop the action. Stop the activity. Don’t let no one get hurt.”

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