(PLANO, Texas) — Six people were rushed to a hospital on Monday after a house exploded in a Dallas suburb, officials said.
The explosion occurred at around 4:40 p.m. local time in a residential neighborhood of Plano, Texas, about 20 miles north of downtown Dallas. The blast was felt up to a mile away by residents as well as staff at a public library, and homes across the street from the exploded house had windows blown out, according to Plano Fire-Rescue.
One resident was inside the home that exploded and was transported to a local hospital for their injuries. Five people who live in the house next door were also injured and taken to the hospital. Three of the wounded were admitted to a children’s hospital, Plano Fire-Rescue said.
One person who lives in the home on the other side of the exploded house was not injured by the blast, according to Plano Fire-Rescue.
In addition to investigators from Plano Fire-Rescue, representatives from Atmos Energy and Oncor Electric along with the Plano Police Department’s bomb squad were all on scene trying to determine the cause of the explosion. The scene was later turned over to the Plano fire marshal and his investigators, with Atmos Energy remaining on site but all other agencies departing.
“At this point, they do not know the cause and do not want to speculate,” Plano Fire-Rescue said in a statement on Monday night.
Electricity and gas was shut off for the entire block until about 9:30 p.m. local time, when Atmos Energy and Oncor Electric determined it was safe to reinstate power and gas except for the exploded house and the two next door, according to Plano Fire-Rescue.
Plano Mayor John Muns said investigators were “working diligently to determine the cause of the blast.”
“We are saddened by today’s tragedy of a house explosion in our city,” Muns said in a statement on Monday evening. “Several of our residents were injured. We are keeping them and their families close to our hearts and hoping for a swift and full recovery.”
(CLEVELAND, Ohio) — Margie’s Closet opened on June 5 to help transgender, non-binary and gender-expansive people buy clothing at an affordable cost.
Located in Ohio, Margie’s Closet is the first thrift shop in the state designed to help the transgender community by offering clothing and emotional support. The store, founded by the organization Margie’s Hope, sells an extensive list of clothing, from chest binders for transgender men to $5 pairs of jeans.
Jacob Nash, co-founder of Margie’s Hope and Margie’s Closet, told “Good Morning America” that he came up with the idea for the store after listening to questions from individuals in the transgender community.
“There was some conversation, first through a friend of mine who … had some clothes that she wanted to donate to folks in the trans community, and wanted to know if I knew of any place that served the trans community specifically,” Nash said. “Then, at the support group that Margie’s Hope has [Trans Ally] … a lot of people talked about shopping online because they felt uncomfortable in the stores … and then they end up sending a lot back.”
As a response to these conversations, he opened a pop-up event where people donated clothing for transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive individuals. This event was extremely popular, Nash said, which inspired him to open up a store to sell this donated clothing.
“By the time we were done, we had so many clothes. We were like, ‘OK, so we obviously have a need here. What are we going to do?’” Nash said.
His dream became a reality when he discovered a space called Studio West 117, which was specifically created for the LGBTQ+ community, on the border between Lakewood and Cleveland that he found ideal to house the store.
“We toured the facility and realized that this would be perfect because we wanted to be able to provide folks within the transgender and nonbinary and gender-expansive community a space that they felt comfortable in [and] that they could get there everything [they] need[ed],” Nash said.
About six weeks after leasing the space, the store opened, just in time for Pride Month. So far, the turnout has been “phenomenal,” Nash said.
“We’ve had people coming in and purchasing items that are from the community, but also people that are supportive of the trans community that are coming in and saying, ‘We are coming here to shop because we want to support the community, the trans community, the nonbinary community,” Nash said. “It’s not just folks from the LGBTQ community that are coming in and shopping, or even donating, but it’s the whole community of Northeast Ohio.”
Monika Veliz, the executive manager of Margie’s Closet, agrees that the turnout has been “more than [they] could have hoped for.” She believes that the large numbers of people coming to the store can be contributed to local support and advertising.
“We realized that we can’t do this by ourselves, and the community realized that we can’t do this by ourselves, so everyone’s been really helpful,” Veliz said. “Surrounding businesses have been more than generous with welcoming us to the neighborhood. We’ve had, because of social media, and different platforms … people drive as far as from Cincinnati to Cleveland, from Bowling Green to Cleveland just to get to the store.”
This support is meaningful to Nash, but not because of the money made, making Margie’s Closet different from a typical business. In fact, the store offers opportunities for those who cannot afford the clothing to have access to $25 vouchers through community organizations or to ask for help from the store upfront. This is because Nash wants Margie’s Closet to care more about the people it helps than making a profit.
“We are trying, as our slogan goes, ‘building community one piece of clothing at a time,’ because it’s not about the clothing as much as it is building community, building family, building relationships and serving the population that is most needed,” Nash said. “If that means we give away product, then we give away product because it’s more about the people than it is about the money.”
When Veliz started working at the store, she did not realize this unique aspect of the store – that was, until she had a meaningful interaction with a transgender woman customer.
“She knew absolutely very little about women’s clothing, about her body type, her body shape, and she came into the store as we were closing. We actually stayed open an extra hour just for her so that I could help her pick up clothes and measure her and all that good stuff,” Veliz said.
“Up until that point, I thought it was just a business, if that makes sense…, but then I realized the importance we play in trans and nonbinary people who walk through our door,” Veliz added. “They’re looking for direction, they’re looking for… connection [and] community. That was the defining moment of what the store actually was for me.”
(EL PASO, Texas) — Abigail and Dominic Miramontez are thrilled to bring their son Austin home after 136 days in the NICU at an El Paso hospital.
Abigail Miramontez was 24 weeks pregnant and throwing a birthday party for her father when she felt was described as a “push” while making her dad’s cake. She quickly realized she needed to go to the hospital and found out when she got there that she was in labor.
“It was very scary,” Abigail Miramontez said. “I felt like it wasn’t real until he was born.”
Austin was born at just 2 pounds and 2 ounces. The couple was told their son would need to stay into the NICU at least until his original birth date to make sure he was healthy enough to go home with them.
At 2 weeks old, Austin had to undergo a procedure on his small intestines. From there, he was nursed to health by NICU doctors and nurses who Abigail Miramontez said she grew close to over the months of Austin’s stay.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Abigail Miramontez and Dominic Miramontez were not allowed to see their son in the NICU together — only one person could enter the room at a time. Abigail Miramontez said she drove to visit her son every day, while Dominic Miramontez, who is a truck driver, would come every chance he could when he was not working.
On July 13, 2021, the parents were finally able to take their son home after spending 136 in the NICU. Austin left the NICU weighing 9 pounds and 9 ounces.
“I was excited,” Miramontez said. “It’s actually been so much fun just having him here and being able to dress him up. When he was in the NICU, they wouldn’t even let us put clothes on him because of COVID.”
Miramontez said they’ve been able to introduce Austin to their family members safely and from a distance and that she’s excited that her son is finally home.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department said Monday it has “fundamental concerns” with Purdue Pharma’s plan to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Purdue filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2019 as it faced thousands of lawsuits across the country over its aggressive marketing of OxyContin and other opioid products.
While the department said it supports Purdue Pharma’s proposed business model of becoming a public benefit corporation and welcomes the distribution of more than $4 billion to states for opioids mitigation, it opposes shielding the heirs of founders Raymond and Mortimer Sackler from additional opioids-related litigation since they themselves are not going through bankruptcy.
“The proposed shareholder release violates due process principles,” the Justice Department statement, filed with the bankruptcy court in White Plains, New York, said.
“To be sure, many individual creditors in the Purdue bankruptcy have agreed to give this release in exchange for the payments and other benefits they will receive under the plan, and presumably find this to be a fair deal. But many others, including states who have voted against or objected to the plan, have not agreed.”
Also on Monday, the United States trustee, who supervises bankruptcy cases for the Department of Justice, took the more formal step of objecting to the plan, which requires Sackler family members to pay over $4 billion in cash and assets, but does not require any admission of wrongdoing.
U.S. Trustee William K. Harrington cited the “extraordinarily broad release of the Sackler family” from any liability for the nation’s opioids epidemic as a reason for his objection.
“The plan provides that some members of the Sackler family will ‘contribute’ more than $4.3 billion to fund opioid abatement and compensation trusts established under the plan,” Harrington said in the court filing. “But there is a catch: Payment is conditioned on every member of the Sackler family and associated parties — which total hundreds, if not thousands — receiving a release from all liability from all persons, even if they are not creditors or parties in interest, for the Sackler family’s alleged wrongdoing in concocting and perpetuating for profit one of the most severe public health crises ever experienced in the United States.”
“Although styled as a third-party release, it is nothing less than an illegal, court-ordered discharge of a potentially limitless group of non-debtors,” the trustee wrote.
The Justice Department has, in other cases, formally objected to releasing third parties who are not going through the bankruptcy process themselves from legal liability.
In a letter last month, Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to formally object to Purdue’s plan.
“Allowing the Sacklers to obtain legal immunity through Purdue’s bankruptcy would be a tragic miscarriage of justice,” Maloney said. “While the settlement will provide much-needed transparency about the Sacklers’ central role in creating, fueling, and profiting from America’s opioid epidemic, we remain troubled that the Sacklers are poised to escape accountability yet again.”
Purdue Pharma’s reorganization plan “has the potential to improve public health by speeding resources to communities and individuals affected by the opioid crisis,” Steve Miller, chairman of Purdue’s board of directors, said in a statement earlier this year. “That is what we have been working toward since the 2019 bankruptcy filing.”
The company last year pleaded guilty to three felonies — one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and two counts of conspiracy to violate the federal anti-kickback statute — as part of a settlement with the Justice Department.
A hearing to finalize Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy exit plan is scheduled for Aug. 9.
ABC News’ Celia Darrough contributed to this report.
(PHILADELPHIA) — A Philadelphia father of two is speaking out about the ongoing risk of COVID-19 for children after his son and daughter tested positive for the virus.
Adam Joseph, a meteorologist for ABC station WPVI, said his 6-year-old son Jacob and 5-year-old daughter Hannah tested positive for COVID-19 after having contact with a relative who was not vaccinated against the virus.
Joseph said the relative tested negative for COVID-19 prior to the visit with his family, but later tested positive for the virus.
In addition to his children, their nanny also contracted COVID-19, according to Joseph.
He and his husband, Karl, are both vaccinated and have so far both tested negative for COVID-19.
“We kind of feel like we failed as parents, to a degree, after protecting our children for nearly a year-and-a-half from this, and were doing so well,” Joseph said in a Facebook video.
Children under the age of 12 are currently not eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was authorized for use in children ages 12 to 15 in May by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The two other COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are currently available only for people 18 years and older in the U.S.
Joseph’s warning to parents about protecting young children from people who are not vaccinated comes as top health officials warn that COVID-19 has become a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” in the U.S.
In addition to data showing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are predominantly among unvaccinated people, the more transmissible delta variant is driving up COVID-19 cases.
In light of the delta variant, health experts are pushing back on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in May that fully vaccinated Americans can go without masks.
The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday called for schools to enforce universal masking mandates because so many children won’t be protected by fall and schools have no way of verifying COVID vaccine status yet.
People who are not vaccinated, including children between the ages of 2 and 11, should continue to wear face masks in indoor public places and practice social distancing and hand washing, according to the CDC.
Joseph’s children experienced symptoms including a fever, chills and coughing, but are now improving. The children’s nanny and relative are experiencing additional COVID-19 complications, according to Joseph.
“Please, if you are not vaccinated, do not go around children who are under 12, they are so vulnerable right now,” Joseph said on Facebook. “They do not have a choice to get the vaccine at this point.”
“We need to protect our children, and make sure they stay healthy because this delta variant is affecting kids. This new delta variant is affecting vaccinated people as well,” he said. “It’s everyone’s choice, we’re all adults, whether we want to get vaccinated or not. I’m not here to push that. I’m just asking you, begging you, if you’re not vaccinated, to wear a mask wherever you go in public, even though it’s not mandatory.”
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Hayley Arceneaux’s dreams of becoming an astronaut were crushed after being diagnosed with pediatric bone cancer at 10 years old, but now she’s set to go to space in the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit Earth.
Now, the 29-year-old St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital physician assistant is set to make history as the youngest American, first pediatric cancer survivor, and person with a prosthesis to go to space as one of the crew members in SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission.
The four-person mission will launch in September in a SpaceX rocket commanded by entrepreneur and part-time pilot Jared Isaacman.
Isaacman donated two seats to the hospital: One for Arceneaux and another that is being raffled to the public as part of a $200 million fundraiser for the hospital.
Arceneaux shared how her battle with cancer as a child prepared her for the mission into orbit and her excitement for the experience ahead.
Arceneaux told co-host Sunny Hostin that she’s “been so excited” and “so ready” for the space mission.
“I’m going to be the youngest American to go to space, but also what I’m really excited about is that I’m going to be the first pediatric cancer survivor to go to space, and the first person with an internal prosthesis,” she said.
During her one-year treatment at St. Jude for bone cancer, Arceneaux had to get surgery to replace her knee and had a metal rod put in her left thigh bone to save her leg.
“I’m really excited to show all these kids going through cancer treatment what they can do too,” Arceneaux said.
Arceneaux’s family trip to NASA’s headquarters when she was 10 years old inspired her to become an astronaut, but she said her hopes came to a halt after being diagnosed with bone cancer just a few months later.
Looking back on when the doctors told her she had cancer, Arceneaux recalled bursting into tears. “I kept saying, ‘I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die,’ because at age 10, everyone I had known with cancer had passed away.”
She added that it wasn’t until she was “walking into the doors of St. Jude’s” that she felt hope for survival.
“That year that I spent going through cancer treatment at St. Jude was actually the most important year of my life,” Arceneaux said. “It definitely made me who I am, and made me tough because of it, and I think in a way it prepared me to go to space.”
While Arceneaux beat cancer, she thought that going to space was a wish she’d never be able to fulfill. That is, until she received an “out of the blue” phone call in January from St. Jude.
“I was absolutely shocked when they asked if I wanted to go with them to space,” she said. “Immediately, I said yes, and then thought for a second. I was like, ‘Well let me check with my mom.'”
“Getting to be this first all-civilian mission to space, and what this means for everyone coming after us, it’s incredibly exciting to be part of,” she said.
Arceneaux, who’s currently an astronaut-in-training and will become a certified commercial astronaut after completing her mission, will be orbiting Earth for three to four days.
During her training, she said she’s learned the ins and outs of SpaceX’s spacecraft as well as centrifuge training and hypoxia training. Next week, the crew will learn about water survival.
Since Arceneaux is a physician assistant, she’s the designated medical officer on the mission and goes through additional training.
While they are in orbit, “going deeper, higher into space” than any space crew has in 15 years, Arceneaux and the crew will do research on the radiation profile that is seen in that level of space.
“We’re gonna be doing some cognition tests while we’re up there, taking some blood and all kinds of samples to learn any radiation exposure effects, and also testing the microbiome as we’re in this close capsule, all of us breathing the same air, seeing really what the bacteria does on our skin,” she said on “The View.”
On July 11, billionaire Sir Richard Branson flew to the lower edge of space and back to planet Earth in the first fully crewed flight from his private space tourism firm Virgin Galactic. Another billionaire, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is set to launch to the edge of space on Tuesday with the first crewed flight from his private space-faring firm Blue Origin.
Arceneaux weighed in on the billionaires blasting off into space.
“It’s so exciting that more and more people are getting to experience space,” Arceneaux said, adding that her Inspiration4 mission crew was together to watch Branson and plan to be together again to watch Bezos.
“How our mission is different is we’re going to be orbiting, and spending three days in space, participating in research and going through some really extensive training to get us there,” she continued.
“Until my mission, I could have never been a NASA astronaut with the rod that I have in my leg,” Arceneaux said. “Now that space travel is being opened up, you no longer have to be physically perfect to go to space.”
(TUCSON, Ariz.) — Several children initially missing following a deadly fire and shooting rampage that targeted multiple first responders in Tucson, Arizona, have been found alive, police said on Monday.
Tucson Police Department Sgt. Richard Gradillas told ABC News that the two or three children who resided at a home where a badly burned body was discovered in the blaze were found on Monday, but released no further details.
Gradillas said police were still conducting an investigation to determine that the children were not harmed. He said police plan to hold a news conference on Monday afternoon to update the public on the shooting spree.
A 35-year-old man allegedly launched a shooting rampage across three different crime scenes that left at least two people dead and four wounded.
The alleged gunman, whose name has yet to be released, was critically wounded in a shootout with a police officer after he allegedly rammed the officer’s squad car with his SUV, officials said.
The gunman allegedly began the deadly rampage by targeting two EMTs who were responding to a medical emergency at a park, Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus said at a news conference on Sunday.
Magnus said the suspect got out of his silver SUV, approached the ambulance and opened fire, striking the driver in the head and the passenger in the arm and chest.
The 20-year-old EMT driver remained in “extremely critical condition” on Monday, while the EMT in the passenger seat, a 21-year-old woman, is listed in stable condition.
The suspect fled the scene and allegedly drove up to the house blaze in an SUV about 3:45 p.m. local time on Sunday as fire trucks were arriving.
That’s when the suspect “arrives on the scene and starts firing at both the fire department personnel and the neighbors,” Magnus said.
Without warning, the suspect unleashed a barrage of gunfire, hitting a fire department captain in the arm and fatally striking a neighbor who was helping to put out the fire in the head, police said. A second neighbor was grazed in the head by a bullet.
At this point, firefighters called the police to say they were being shot at.
The fire captain and neighbor wounded in the incident were both in good condition on Monday.
The first police officer who arrived at the scene of the fire and shooting spotted the suspect’s vehicle in the area, officials said.
The suspect’s SUV rammed the officer’s car, disabling it, Magnus said. The officer then exited the vehicle and exchanged gunfire with the alleged suspect, striking him.
Magnus said making the incident more complex is the fact a dead body was found inside the burning residence. The fire victim was burned beyond recognition and police have not released the person’s identity. Police said it’s unclear if the person’s death is directly related to the suspect.
This is a “highly tragic, really horrific incident with many unknowns,” Magnus said Sunday night. The investigation, he said, will be “lengthy and complex.”
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero posted a message on Twitter asking residents to pray for the full recovery of the wounded first responders.
“This was a horrific and senseless act of violence,” Romero said.
(New York) — The record-breaking heat waves that have killed dozens of people in the West Coast last month have also had a dire impact on the region’s bird population, particularly its youngest members.
And wildlife experts and environmentalists are warning that this could be a dire sign of things to come as climate change continues to alter the ecosystem.
During the record-breaking heat wave at the end of June, dozens of nesting baby birds, from raptors to corvid species, have been jumping out of their nests to escape the heat and falling to the ground. The Portland Audubon Society reported that it had 100 hawks admitted to wildlife care centers during the final week of June when temperatures were as high as 116 degrees.
“As we have more heat waves and more wildfires, we’re taking away their habitat and they won’t have anywhere to nest,” Sally Compton, the executive director of Think Wild Central Oregon, a nonprofit wildlife hospital, told ABC News.
Compton said her office received triple the amount of calls of injured and separated baby birds and patients than last summer, with 60 patients at the end of June alone.
“During the busy season we have about 10 to 20 cases,” Compton said.
The patients suffered severe head trauma and other fractures, she said. Other birds have showed signs of overheating, such as mouth breathing and longer sleep periods, according to Compton.
Nesting season usually takes place between April and June in the West Coast, according to the Audubon Society. In most cases birds will build their nests in the highest locations of the forests, Compton said.
The extreme heat waves, however, made these locations more dangerous for the baby birds, she said.
“Not only are they exposed to the really high temperatures but they’re also exposed to the direct sunlight,” she said. “They have no choice that they have to flee from the nest.”
Nat Seavy, director of migration science with the Migratory Bird Initiative at the National Audubon Society, told ABC News that baby birds are the most vulnerable because they are still fledging.
“They simply don’t have the ability to move to a better place,” Seavy told ABC News.
And it’s not just the birds that are feeling the heat. Compton said she treated a golden mantle ground squirrel that suffered burns from the heat last weekend.
So far, the damage to the animals hasn’t been too harsh, according to the advocates who have been treating them.
Compton said her team has been able to heal many of the injured birds, reunite them with their families and establish nests in parts of the forests with more shade. The Portland Audubon Society also reunited some hawks that were injured.
She and other advocates warned that increased heat waves will result in long-term problems for the West Coast fauna.
Liz Hadly, a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University, told ABC News that nesting seasons tend to align with times of the year that weren’t hot.
“That mismatch of the nesting period of the bird and the rising temperatures is offset. When you factor in that developmental phase of being fed in the nest and not able to leave the nest, this makes them sitting ducks,” she said.
The ecological shift could lead to several dire outcomes including, longer fledging periods for the baby birds and a decline in the number of birds that make it to adulthood, according to Hadly.
“Their nesting success may decline,” she said.
Seavy and the other experts said that this should propel everyone to work on combating climate change because once the bird population is negatively affected, it won’t take long for other animals to suffer as well.
“Birds tell us the impacts of climate change are serious,” he said. “We have to recognize that we have to address the changes for both wildlife and people.”
(WASHINGTON) —The Capitol Police Department has a new chief, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
They confirmed to ABC News that J. Thomas Manger has been selected to be the leader of the department.
Manger has previously served as the police chief in Montgomery County, Maryland, and in Fairfax County, Virginia. He was also the president of the Major City Chiefs of Police Association.
He replaces acting Chief Yogananda Pittman.
Capitol Police referred questions from ABC News to the Capitol Police Board which picks the new chief.
This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.
(CHICAGO) — Following another violent weekend in Chicago in which 56 people were shot, 11 fatally, the Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown announced a new strategy to combat gun violence.
Brown said the department will create a team of 50 officers to target gun traffickers, straw buyers, unscrupulous licensed firearms dealers and anyone who facilitates the flow of illegal guns into the city.
“The point of this investigations team — which is new and unique, and a first in its class — is to get the gun before it hits the streets at the trafficking level,” Brown said at a news conference Monday. “These third parties need to hear me loud and clear: We’re coming for you, and we’re going to try to charge you with the highest charge we can, if not in the federal system, then at the state attorney’s office.”
The new strategy comes amid an 11% increase in shootings in Chicago this year over the same time period as last year.
Aiming his words at those who purchase illegal guns used in crimes, he said, “Do not buy guns for violent people is our message, or you will pay the price for them by doing what we hope to be serious time.”
“Whatever they’re paying you to go buy these guns … it’s blood money,” Brown said. “Blood is on your hands, and we’re coming for you.”
He said the new gun investigations team will work closely with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as well as state and federal prosecutors in an attempt to demolish any gun pipelines into the city and bring purveyors of illegal firearms to justice.
Brown said one of the major focuses of the team, which the department began assembling in the spring, will be to trace every illegal gun seized in Chicago to the person who sold the weapons to the perpetrators or those who bought the guns on their behalf.
He said the federal government will also being sending a firearms strike force to the city as early as this week to help curb the flow of illegal firearms.
The superintendent also announced that a 24-hour gun trafficking tipline is being established and will be supported by a $1 million fund allocated by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to “give Chicago residents a voice to remove these tools for violence from the streets of Chicago.” He said “significant payouts” will be made for tips that lead to arrests, indictments and convictions of gun traffickers and others that deal in illegal firearms.
“Someone in this community knows who that is, and we want to incentivize you coming forward anonymously,” Brown said. “We want to incentivize you to help the police department protect your community by giving these people up.”
Brown began the news conference by saying that over the weekend, Chicago police officers seized 113 illegal guns and that, so far this year, a total of 6,629 illegal firearms have been taken off the streets — a 26% increase from 2020.
“Every gun recovery is a potential deadly force encounter, and every gun recovery is a potential saved life,” Brown said.
The superintendent added that 3,264 people have been arrested this year on gun charges.
He also announced arrests in two homicides. In one, a 17-year-old juvenile and an 18-year-old man were arrested in the slaying of a 73-year-old Vietnam vet during a July 14 carjacking. In the other, a 31-year-old suspect was arrested in the fatal execution-style shooting of a man on July 17.
But Brown said seizing illegal guns and solving homicides has clearly not been enough to stem the tide of gun violence overwhelming the city, noting the number of shootings that occurred over the weekend.
Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said one of the shootings occurred on Saturday night at a graduation party in the Austin neighborhood on the city’s West Side and left six people injured, including four children.
“This was a group that had gotten together previously to celebrate a graduation party, and it was very successful, a really good group of kids and individuals and no issues,” Deenihan said. “So they decided since they had a successful gathering the first time, then ‘why can’t we do this again?'”
He said that during the party, a vehicle drove up, and two gunmen opened fire on the group mingling outside.
“There was no motive as to anybody in this group was involved in any criminal activity,” Deenihan said.
No arrests were made in what Deenihan described as a mass shooting.
Brown said police in Chicago and across the nation are seeing a surge in drive-by shootings rivaling a level not seen since the 1980s and 1990s.
He said that while the new gun investigations team will be “relentless” in its effort to intercept illegal firearms before they are used on the streets, he added they will need held from the community and “a lot of luck.”
“It’s always better to be lucky than good, but we’re going to be very good at this,” he said. “If we are successful, and I believe we will be, it will save untold lives getting these guns out of the hands of people in the first place instead of waiting until after they use the gun or after we make an arrest and recover the gun. We’ll be on the front end of this to get the traffickers.”
