(UVALDE, Texas) — At least two children are dead and over a dozen injured after an “active shooter” incident at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, according to hospital officials.
A suspect has been taken into custody, police said. The Uvalde Police Department did not immediately provide further information.
Uvalde Memorial Hospital confirmed to ABC News that two children had died from presumed gunshot injuries in the incident.
Additionally, 13 students were being treated in the hospital’s emergency department in the wake of the incident, the hospital said. Two patients were transferred to San Antonio for treatment, while a third was pending transfer, the hospital said. A 45-year-old was also hospitalized after getting grazed by a bullet, the hospital said.
University Health in San Antonio said it had two patients from the shooting incident — a child and an adult. The hospital did not yet have information on their conditions.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin did not confirm casualties, but told ABC News in a text message that “this is a very bad situation.” He said the office is trying to contact parents before releasing any information.
Earlier, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District had said a shooter was located at Robb Elementary School and asked people to stay away from the area.
“There is an active shooter at Robb Elementary,” the school district said on Twitter. “Law enforcement is on site. Your cooperation is needed at this time by not visiting the campus. As soon as more information is gathered it will be shared.”
A school official initially clarified to ABC News that the shooting took place off campus, and that Robb Elementary School was under lockdown.
The school informed parents shortly after 2 p.m. local time that students had been transported to the Sgt. Willie Deleon Civic Center, the reunification site, and could be picked up.
Uvalde, Texas, is located about 90 minutes west of San Antonio.
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and San Antonio Police Department are sending aid.
ABC News’ Mireya Villarreal contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Multiple people are dead, including several children, after an “active shooter” incident at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Multiple sources told ABC News the suspect is dead.
Uvalde Memorial Hospital has confirmed to ABC News that two children died from presumed gunshot injuries in the incident.
Additionally, 13 students were being treated in the hospital’s emergency department in the wake of the incident, the hospital said. Two patients were transferred to San Antonio for treatment, while a third was pending transfer, the hospital said. A 45-year-old was also hospitalized after getting grazed by a bullet, the hospital said.
University Health in San Antonio said it had two patients from the shooting incident — a child and an adult. The hospital said the adult — a 66-year-old woman — is in critical condition. It did not have an update yet on the condition of the child.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin did not confirm casualties, but told ABC News in a text message that “this is a very bad situation.” He said the office is trying to contact parents before releasing any information.
Earlier, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District had said a shooter was located at Robb Elementary School and asked people to stay away from the area.
“There is an active shooter at Robb Elementary,” the school district said on Twitter. “Law enforcement is on site. Your cooperation is needed at this time by not visiting the campus. As soon as more information is gathered it will be shared.”
A school official initially clarified to ABC News that the shooting took place off campus, and that Robb Elementary School was under lockdown.
The school informed parents shortly after 2 p.m. local time that students had been transported to the Sgt. Willie Deleon Civic Center, the reunification site, and could be picked up.
Uvalde, Texas, is located about 90 minutes west of San Antonio.
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and San Antonio Police Department are sending aid.
The Houston Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives also said it is assisting in the investigation of a school shooting.
ABC News’ Mireya Villarreal contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — An Ohio man was charged with aiding and abetting a plot to kill former President George W. Bush, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, 52, an Iraqi citizen who lived in Columbus, was arrested early Tuesday by the FBI.
Shihab allegedly exchanged money with an undercover informant working for the FBI in an attempt to bring foreign individuals into the U.S. in order to carry out the assassination. He even traveled to Dallas in February 2022 to carry out surveillance of places regularly visited by the former president, the DOJ said.
He appeared in federal court in Ohio earlier on Tuesday, according to the Justice Department.
Shihab, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday, said that he wanted to use an FBI confidential source’s service to “illegally” bring ISIS individuals to the US with the intention to murder Bush.
“Shihab told [Confidential Source 1] that the four Iraqi nationals Shihab wanted to smuggle into the United States are planning to kill former president George W. Bush,” the complaint said. “Shihab advised CS1 that former president Bush had a house and farm in Texas. Shihab twice inquired if CS1 knew what type and amount of security there was protecting former president Bush, as Shihab believed CS1 had connections in the Dallas area. Shihab asked if CS1 thought that four to six individuals were enough to kill former president Bush. CS1 stated that he/she did not know but believed former president Bush would have security.”
He repeatedly made claims to a separate confidential source that he’d be able to get a fake passport and be able to smuggle that source’s brother through the U.S.-Mexico border. He said an upfront payment between $10,000 and $40,000 was to be made in order to smuggle people in.
The U.S. Secret Service said it was prepared to handle any threat to the president.
“The U.S. Secret Service takes all threats to our protectees seriously,” it said in a statement to ABC News. “In order to maintain operational security, the Secret Service does not discuss the means and methods used to conduct our protective operations or matters of protective intelligence.”
“President Bush has all the confidence in the world in the United States Secret Service and our law enforcement and intelligence communities,” said Freddy Ford, a spokesman for Bush.
ABC News’ Mark Osborne contributed to this report.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Authorities are on scene at an “active shooter” incident at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the school district said.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District said the shooter was located at Robb Elementary and asked people to stay away from the area.
“There is an active shooter at Robb Elementary,” the school district said on Twitter. “Law enforcement is on site. Your cooperation is needed at this time by not visiting the campus. As soon as more information is gathered it will be shared.”
A school official clarified to ABC News that the shooting took place off campus, but Robb Elementary School is under lockdown.
Parents were being asked to pick up students at Sgt. Willie Deleon Civic Center, according to the Uvalde Police Department.
Uvalde, Texas, is located about 90 minutes west of San Antonio.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(UVALDE, Texas) — A suspect has been taken into custody after an “active shooter” incident at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, according to police.
The Uvalde Police Department did not immediately provide further information. It’s unclear whether anyone was injured in the shooting.
Earlier, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District had said a shooter was located at Robb Elementary School and asked people to stay away from the area.
“There is an active shooter at Robb Elementary,” the school district said on Twitter. “Law enforcement is on site. Your cooperation is needed at this time by not visiting the campus. As soon as more information is gathered it will be shared.”
A school official clarified to ABC News that the shooting took place off campus, but Robb Elementary School was under lockdown.
Students will be transported to be picked up by parents at Sgt. Willie Deleon Civic Center, according to the Uvalde Police Department.
Uvalde, Texas, is located about 90 minutes west of San Antonio.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The alleged suspect in the unprovoked fatal shooting of 48-year-old Daniel Enriquez on a Q train in New York City is in police custody, according to law enforcement sources.
Sources identified the suspect as Andrew Abdullah, a 25-year-old man from Brooklyn with about 20 prior arrests, including an outstanding gun charge from last year. He also has prior arrests for assault, robbery, menacing and grand larceny, sources said.
Abdullah has three cases that are still pending, including an April arrest for fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property for allegedly being found with a stolen motorcycle, as well as a June 2021 arrest for violating a protective order and March 2021 arrest for assault.
Detectives have also recovered the gun used in the shooting.
It is believed the suspect handed the gun to a homeless man as he fled the Canal Street station. The homeless man then apparently sold the gun for $10 to a third person, who reported it to police, the sources said.
The New York Police Department released surveillance photos Monday of the suspect believed to have shot Enriquez taken shortly after he exited the subway.
The motive for the shooting is still unknown.
In January 2020, Abdullah was arrested as part of a gun-related case and in May 2017 he was charged with second-degree attempted murder as part of an 83-count federal indictment of the Harlem-based street gangs Fast Money and Nine Block. Abdullah was sentenced to three years in federal prison, but served just four months before being released in 2019.
Witnesses say the suspect, alleged to be Abdullah, was pacing back and forth in the last car of a Manhattan-bound train around 11:45 a.m. when he pulled out a gun and fired it at Enriquez unprovoked, according to NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey.
The shooting comes a little over a month after a Brooklyn subway rider opened fire on a train car, wounding 10 people. The suspect in that shooting, Frank James, was arrested one day later in lower Manhattan.
Transit crime is up 62.5% in the city year-to-date from 2021, according to NYPD statistics.
(FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.) — A blue-ribbon Army commission has recommended new names for nine Army bases named after Confederate leaders, including Fort Bragg, which will be recommended to be renamed Fort Liberty, according to a U.S. official, ABC News learned exclusively Tuesday.
Later Tuesday, the Army Naming Commission is expected to formally disclose its recommended names for the bases named after Confederate generals.
Last year, Congress passed legislation that required the renaming of U.S. military installations named after Confederate leaders by 2023.
Congress and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin must approve the nine naming recommendations.
Fort Bragg in North Carolina is currently named after Gen. Braxton Bragg, a senior Confederate Army general. It would be renamed as Fort Liberty, the only one of the bases named after a concept, with eight others being renamed mostly after individuals with ties to Army history.
The other bases to be renamed are Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Rucker in Alabama, Fort Polk in Louisiana, Fort Benning and Fort Gordon in Georgia and Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Lee and Fort Pickett in Virginia.
The panel has recommended that Fort Hood, Texas, be renamed after Richard E. Cavazos, the first Latino to reach the rank of a four-star general in the Army.
Fort Gordon, Georgia, will be renamed after Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Army general who led all allied forces in Europe during World War II and later became president.
Fort Lee, Virginia, will be named after two individuals: Arthur Gregg, a former three-star general involved in logistics — the only living individual for whom a base will be named — and Charity Adams, the first African-American woman to be an officer in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.
Fort Pickett, Virginia, will be named after Van Barfoot, who received the Medal of Honor for his heroism during World War II and is of Native American descent.
Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, will be renamed after Dr. Mary Walker, a physician and women’s rights activist who received the Medal of Honor for her service during the Civil War.
Fort Benning, Georgia, will be renamed after Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, a pioneer in the Air Cavalry whose Vietnam-era story was memorialized in the book and movie, “We Were Soldiers.”
Fort Rucker, Alabama, will be named after Michael Novosel, a Medal of Honor recipient who flew combat aircraft in World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
Fort Polk, Louisiana, will be renamed after William Henry Johnson, a soldier whose heroism in World War Two was not honored with the Medal of Honor until 2015.
(NEW YORK) — Lately, the stock market has taken a thrashing.
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 have each fallen for seven consecutive weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fared even worse, dropping for eight weeks straight, the longest such losing streak for the index since the early years of the Great Depression, in 1932.
The losses on Wall Street owe in no small part to the wider economy’s most pressing problem: sky-high inflation, Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at broker OANDA, told ABC News. For months, strong consumer spending and snarled supply chains have sent prices soaring for everyday expenses like food and gas, as well as for materials like computer chips that many US companies rely upon.
In response, the Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate to a range of 0.75% to 1%, and the central bank has signaled a series of additional hikes.
The goal is to slow down the economy, which in theory should eat away at demand and slash inflation. But the approach all but ensures a downturn for stocks, and runs the risk of hitting the brakes on the economy so hard that it triggers a wider contraction.
“The stock market is down — I’m not surprised, that’s by design,” Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s, told ABC News.
But the rate hikes at the Fed could send the economy into a downturn, especially if an unexpected headwind puts further strain on the economy, Zandi said.
“The risks of this going off the rails are pretty high,” he said. “So we’re vulnerable.”
As the market and economy teeter, buzzwords like “correction,” “bear market” and even “recession” are coming back into the conversation, conjuring images of layoffs, foreclosures and bankruptcies.
But the definitions and implications of these terms can get lost in the tumult, stoking outsized panic in some cases and insufficient caution in others.
What is a bear market?
The S&P 500 made headlines last Friday when it briefly entered bear market territory, which generally means a 20% drop since the index’s most recent high over at least a two-month period. On Friday afternoon, the index had fallen 1.9% for the day, crossing the threshold for a bear market. But it rallied to end the trading day up 0.01% point, elevating it just barely outside of bear market territory. As of market close on Monday, it had ticked up even further.
For its part, the tech-heavy Nasdaq entered a bear market on March 7, and as of market close on Monday had fallen more than 30% since a record high in November.
The prospect of a bear market, and the pessimistic investment environment that it entails, carry disconcerting near-term implications. In the 26 bear markets since 1929, the S&P 500 — the index that most people’s 401(k)’s track — has lost an average of 35.6% of its value over a typical duration of 289 days or about 9 ½ months, according to a report from Hartford Funds.
In comparison with a bear market, a correction entails a milder stock market decline, amounting to a drop of 10% to 20% from the most recent high. The S&P 500 has been in correction territory since late February.
For some traders who jumped into the market during its pandemic boom — when the S&P 500 rose some 108% from March 2020 to its peak in early January — the current downturn may be their first. But a bear market is an expected part of the stock market cycle, especially in light of the pandemic stimulus that flooded the economy in the form of direct payments, low interest rates and other measures, Moya, the senior market analyst, told ABC News.
“We’ve seen a historic amount of support help stabilize the economy,” Moya said. “Also, what that did was inflate risky assets, which included the stock market.”
The currently depressed stock prices should appeal to patient traders, Moya added.
“If you’re a long-term investor, and you believe in the US. economy and that the froth is being taken out of the market,” he said. “These levels should be attractive.”
What is a recession?
The unrelenting market decline has raised fears of a recession.
Many observers define a recession through the shorthand metric of two consecutive quarters of decline in a nation’s inflation-adjusted gross domestic product, or GDP. A country’s GDP is the total value of goods and services that it produces.
U.S. GDP shrank at an annual rate of 1.4% over the first three months of this year, the worst quarterly performance since the recession brought about by the coronavirus in 2020. If the GDP contracts over the second quarter of the year, that would qualify the downturn as a recession in many people’s eyes.
The National Bureau of Economic Research, or NBER, a research organization seen as an authority on measuring economic performance, uses a more complicated definition that takes into account several indicators that must convey “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months,” the group says. This definition determines whether a downturn is formally designated as a recession, since the NBER is the official arbiter on the subject.
A report released last year by the NBER showed that the pandemic-induced recession of 2020 lasted only two months. By comparison, the organization said that the Great Recession spanned from December 2007 to June 2009, lasting 18 months.
“The R-word is something that triggers a lot of fear and panic for your average American because normally it suggests the job market is taking a turn for the worse and that consumer spending will weaken significantly,” Moya, the senior market analyst, said.
Zandi, the chief economist, put the odds of a recession over the next 12 months at 1 in 3. But he downplayed the severity of a potential recession, noting that he doesn’t see any “major imbalances” in the economy.
“It’s likely to be short and mild,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a reason to run for the bunkers but it’s a reason to be cautious.”
(NEW YORK) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting an above-normal hurricane season in the Atlantic, with up to 21 named storms this year.
Ten storms could become hurricanes, the agency said. Three to six storms may reach category 3, 4 or 5.
2022 may also become the seventh consecutive above-average hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.
“The increased activity anticipated this hurricane season is attributed to several climate factors, including the ongoing La Niña that is likely to persist throughout the hurricane season, warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, weaker tropical Atlantic trade winds and an enhanced west African monsoon,” NOAA said in a press release.
NOAA predicts a 65% chance of an above-normal hurricane season, a 25% chance of a near-normal season and a 10% chance of a below-normal season.
“As we reflect on another potentially busy hurricane season, past storms — such as Superstorm Sandy, which devastated the New York metro area ten years ago — remind us that the impact of one storm can be felt for years,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement.
Spinrad added, “Since Sandy, NOAA’s forecasting accuracy has continued to improve, allowing us to better predict the impacts of major hurricanes to lives and livelihoods.”
(NEW YORK) — As the search for the woman wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson continues, the suspect’s father said he does not think his daughter is capable of the alleged murder.
In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ chief national correspondent Matt Gutman on Good Morning America Tuesday, Michael Armstrong spoke directly to his daughter, Kaitlin Armstrong, saying, “We love you … and we are going to figure this out.”
“I know her and I know how she thinks and I know what she believes and I know that she just would not do something like this,” Michael Armstrong said. “I know her.”
Last week, Austin police issued a warrant for the arrest of Armstrong, 35, on a first-degree murder charge in the fatal shooting of Wilson, 25, who they determined was romantically linked to Armstrong’s boyfriend, professional cyclist Colin Strickland.
Wilson, a rising elite cyclist, was in Austin for a gravel bike race earlier this month when she was found bleeding and unconscious with multiple gunshot wounds at a friend’s home the night of May 11, hours after meeting up with Strickland, police said. Austin police said at the time that the shooting did not appear to be random and they had a person of interest in the incident.
A car resembling Armstrong’s 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee was captured on surveillance footage from a neighboring residence stopping outside the friend’s home the night of the shooting, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The likelihood that the gun used in the shooting matched one of two guns Strickland told police he bought for himself and Armstrong was “significant,” the affidavit stated.
When police interviewed Armstrong about the shooting on May 12, she was “confronted with video evidence of her vehicle” but “she had no explanation as to why it was in the area and did not make any denials surrounding the statements,” the affidavit stated. After further questioning, Armstrong requested to leave, according to the affidavit.
Strickland told police he hasn’t seen Armstrong since May 13, according to the affidavit. Armstrong has since deleted her social media accounts and “has not been seen or heard from since this time,” according to the affidavit.
On Friday, U.S. Marshals announced they are helping in the “fugitive investigation” and asked the public’s help in finding Kaitlin Armstrong.
Michael Armstrong said he believes there are “a lot of unanswered questions” in the case.
“I know that she did not do this,” he said.
The U.S. Marshals believe Kaitlin Armstrong may still be in the Austin area, and that finding her Jeep will be key.
“She was a realtor. She was a yoga teacher. So she had personal relationships here in the Austin area,” Deputy U.S. Marshal Brandon Filla told Good Morning America. “We hope that eventually if she had some kind of plan, that maybe she would reach out to those associates, and we would receive a tip based upon that.”
Strickland said he has been cooperating fully with detectives in the investigation.
“There is no way to adequately express the regret and torture I feel about my proximity to this horrible crime,” Strickland said in a statement to ABC News Austin affiliate KVUE. “I am sorry, and I simply cannot make sense of this unfathomable tragedy.”
Strickland explained that after breaking up with Armstrong last year, he had a “brief romantic relationship” with Wilson before shortly resuming his relationship with Armstrong. His relationship with Wilson was “platonic and professional,” he said.
Wilson’s family said in a statement to ABC News that they are “devastated by the loss of our beautiful daughter and sister.”
“Her life was taken from her before she had the opportunity to achieve everything she dreamed of,” they said. “Our family, and all those who loved her, will forever miss her.”
ABC News’ Lissette Rodriguez contributed to this report.
