(MILWAUKEE) — A suspect arrested in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old Milwaukee girl allegedly told investigators it was the first time he had ever fired a gun, according to a criminal complaint.
Marcellus Duckworth, 23, of Milwaukee, was charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the death of 15-year-old Gabby Landry, according to police.
Landry was in the backseat of a car when Duckworth allegedly fired a gun into the vehicle during an argument on Feb. 13 in the Silver Spring neighborhood of north Milwaukee.
Landry was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
When Duckworth learned a teenage girl in the vehicle had been struck and killed, he purportedly told detectives “he did not mean to do that and it was his first time shooting a gun and there were no excuses,” according to the criminal complaint obtained by ABC affiliate station WISN in Milwaukee.
The suspect told detectives he was aiming at a tire of the vehicle when he allegedly fired, according to the criminal complaint.
Duckworth appeared in court on Friday and was ordered to be held in jail on $50,000 bail.
Duckworth’s girlfriend told police the incident unfolded after she made an Instagram post about selling shoes and received a message from a woman who claimed to have had a relationship with Duckworth and was coming to his house to fight, according to the complaint.
When the woman arrived at Duckworth’s house with Landry and another teenager, she allegedly vandalized Duckworth’s girlfriend’s car, and then Duckworth allegedly confronted them with a gun, according to the complaint.
As the woman started to drive away, Duckworth and his girlfriend chased them on foot, and Duckworth allegedly fired at the vehicle, striking Landry, according to the complaint.
Landry’s death is the latest in a series of shootings in Milwaukee this year in which children have been killed. The shooting came just three days after 10-year-old Jada Clay was fatally shot in her home, allegedly by her mother, Henrietta Rogers, who was charged with reckless homicide.
Among the victims in the other child homicides was 8-year-old Tiana Huddleston, who was allegedly killed Jan. 2 by her father, Michael Huddleston, who claimed it was an accident, according to police. Huddleston was charged with reckless homicide.
Michael J. Snow is seen in a undated police mugshot.- New York State Police
(POTSDAM, N.Y.) — A 21-year-old college student was shot and killed in northern New York near her university’s campus, according to authorities.
Elizabeth Howell, a senior at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music, was identified as the victim of the shooting, which took place Friday in the village of Potsdam, located about 200 miles north of Albany, according to New York State Police.
When officers arrived to the scene just before 6 p.m., they found Howell unconscious with gunshot wounds, police said. She was transported to Canton-Potsdam Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Authorities did not provide details surrounding the circumstances of the shooting.
A shelter-in-place order was placed at the university after police received reports of shots fired near campus and lifted Saturday morning.
Michael J. Snow, 31, of Massena, New York, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder on Saturday afternoon, police said. At his arraignment, Snow was remanded to St. Lawrence County Jail without bail. He is not affiliated with the college, according to the university, and it is unclear how he and Howell were connected.
State police are asking the public for information on Snow’s whereabouts between 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Friday. He was seen driving a gray Honda Civic with New York license plate KVE2731 with damage to the driver’s side door through Potsdam, Hopkinton, Malone, Westville, Hogansburg and Massena during that time frame, police said.
Howell, who went by the nickname “Beth,” was a cellist who performed with the Crane Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Phil Neisser, the president of SUNY Potsdam, said in a statement. She was scheduled to graduate this year.
“She was an aspiring educator with a bright future ahead of her.” Neisser wrote. “Together, we — as one united campus community — honor her life and mourn her loss.”
Classes are canceled on Monday, the school announced.
“The entire SUNY Potsdam community mourns her loss, and we stand together in unity to remember her,” the university wrote in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — When the recent COVID-19 wave fueled by the omicron variant hit the U.S., no one expected it would lead to the number of deaths it did.
As of Wednesday, the nation is reporting 2,200 new COVID daily deaths on average. While this is lower than the 3,400-peak seen last winter, it’s still three times higher than the number of average fatalities recorded two months ago.
Additionally, last winter, vaccines had only just started to roll out, children were not yet eligible and the conversation surrounding boosters was far off.
With around 60% of Americans fully vaccinated during the most recent wave, daily deaths from omicron are still relatively high, which begs the question: Who is dying of COVID-19 when there is such strong vaccination coverage?
Infectious disease doctors say it is still mainly unvaccinated people, most of whom are in their 30s and 40s with no underlying health issues, who are dying.
“The vast majority of patients — anywhere from 75% and greater — we’re seeing is primarily unvaccinated individuals who are getting COVID and wind up in the hospital severely ill and are currently dying,” Dr. Mahdee Sobhanie, an assistant professor of internal medicine and an infectious diseases physician at The Ohio State University, told ABC News.
A small percentage of deaths are among fully vaccinated (and boosted) people who are either older or have preexisting conditions that increase their risk of dying.
Unvaccinated still make up majority of deaths
Nearly two years into the pandemic, unvaccinated Americans are still making up the majority of COVID deaths.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that during the first week of December — when the omicron variant began taking hold — unvaccinated people were dying at a rate of 9 per 100,000.
By comparison, fully vaccinated people were dying at a rate of 0.4 per 100,000, meaning unvaccinated people were 20 times more likely to die of the virus, according to an ABC News analysis. State-level data, from California to Mississippi, shows similar results.
“We started [in 2020] with the most vulnerable deaths among the elderly,” Dr. David Zonies, associate chief medical officer for critical care services at Oregon Health & Science University, told ABC News. “As we transitioned into different variants, the age demographic shifted. Now we see very young people dying. It’s around 30-year-olds and 40-year-olds.”
Deaths by COVID-19 vaccination status in California
One of those people was father-of-two Christian Cabrera, a 40-year-old comedian from Los Angeles with no underlying conditions.
“He’s always brought joy and laughter to everybody,” his brother, Jino Cabrera Carnwath, told ABC News. “He would be the type of person that would bust out into song in a quiet elevator.”
However, he was unvaccinated. Christian feared potential side effects and, because he didn’t get sick often, he didn’t think he needed the vaccine, his brother said.
But, right after the Christmas holidays, he started to develop symptoms. After attempting to treat himself at home, his oxygen levels began dropping dangerously low.
Christian was taken to Sherman Oaks Hospital, where he was admitted to the ICU and where he remained until he passed away on Jan. 21.
Jino, who has set up a GoFundMe for Christian’s 3-year-old son Noel, said two days before his brother died, he received a text message from Christian in his hospital bed saying he regretted not getting vaccinated.
“He sent me a text saying, ‘I can’t breathe. I wish I had gotten vaccinated. I really regret it. If I could do it all over again, I would do it in a heartbeat to save my life,'” Jino said. “I think that was his message too to everybody: if you’re on the fence, please get all the protection you can, get your vaccine, get your booster.”
Dr. Taison Bell, a critical care and infectious disease physician at the University of Virginia, told ABC News many of his unvaccinated patients had similar feelings and regretted their decisions.
When he asked why they weren’t vaccinated, they would mostly answer, “I just thought I didn’t need to get vaccinated.”
“And there are sighs of regret in how they say it,” Bell said. “These are preventable deaths now, by and large. The people that we have in the ICU could have avoided hospitals altogether if they were vaccinated.”
Fully vaccinated people with preexisting conditions also dying
While most U.S. COVID deaths are made up of unvaccinated people, there is a small percentage of fully vaccinated Americans who are getting breakthrough infections and dying.
Doctors say the overwhelming majority of these cases are among people with underlying conditions, many of whom are on immunosuppressive medications.
“Also, patients who have other medical conditions: obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV,” Sohbanie said. “So, if you have other medical conditions that can also put you at high risk, those are the [fully vaccinated] patients that can wind up getting hospitalized and dying of COVID.”
Jeff Sales, a 47-year-old Army veteran and nurse, from Sarasota, Florida, was one of those patients.
He enlisted in the Army at age 18 with the goal of being a medic and served two tours in South Korea, according to his son, Brayden Sales, 22.
During one of those tours, Jeff came down with rheumatic fever, which went untreated for several weeks. This led to a hole in his heart and, at age 22, he had a metal heart valve installed.
After being medically discharged from the Army, he got his nursing degree and was a nurse for more than 15 years, mostly in Utah before the family moved to Florida in August 2020.
“Everything in his life was about helping people and making special connections and doing everything he could for everybody and anybody,” Brayden told ABC News.
Although Jeff worked as an orthopedic nurse, his unit had been converted into a COVID unit to deal with the influx of patients. He took several precautions including always wearing a mask and getting fully vaccinated and boosted.
However, on the night of Jan. 20, another nurse told him he was looking pale. Then, he developed chills. He was admitted into the ER and at 6:00 a.m. the next day, his COVID test results came back positive.
Brayden said a few hours later, his father was struggling to breathe, and his condition rapidly declined.
Individuals with heart valves have an increased risk of blood clotting compared to the general population, and one of the side effects of COVID is an additional increased clotting risk. “When his blood thickened up, it caused his heart valve to fail and, when his heart valve failed, he went into complete organ failure,” Brayden said. “If it wasn’t for his heart valve, it wouldn’t have hit him as hard, and he probably would still be here.”
On Jan. 21, just 12 hours after testing positive, Jeff died.
Dr. Scott Curry, an assistant professor in the division of infectious diseases at Medical University of South Carolina, called the deaths of fully vaccinated people the “most heartbreaking” to him.
He said, in Charleston, as of Feb. 10, COVID-19 deaths have comprised about 50% severely immunosuppressed, vaccinated patients and 50% unvaccinated patients of all ages.
“When you’re a healthy adult who chose not to get vaccinated, you rolled the dice and took your chance,” Curry told ABC News. “But when you’re immunocompromised, and you live with someone who won’t get vaccinated or you’re exposed to someone, those are the ones who will die when they get COVID. They are the ones at the greatest risk.”
Brayden said he hopes his dad’s death encourages others to do what they can to limit the effects of COVID.
“He always was an advocate of doing something to prevent the spread,” Brayden said. “If he could get one person to just think about what they’re doing and change something to make it so this virus doesn’t spread as much, he would be happy.”
ABC News’ Mark Nichols contributed to this report.
(PORTLAND, Ore.) — A woman was killed and five others were injured on Saturday in a shooting near a park in Portland, Oregon, police said.
Officers responded to a report of a shooting near Normandale Park in northeast Portland at about 8 p.m. local time, the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement. A protest had been planned for the area, police said.
“When officers arrived they located a female victim who was deceased,” the department said. “Additional shooting victims, two men and three women, were transported to area hospitals and their status is unknown at this time.”
Police said their initial investigation “indicates this incident started with a confrontation between an armed homeowner and armed protesters.”
“The scene was extremely chaotic, and a number of witnesses were uncooperative with responding officers,” police said in a statement late Sunday. “Most people on scene left without talking to police. Detectives believe a large number of people either witnessed what happened, or recorded the incident as it unfolded. This is a very complicated incident, and investigators are trying to put this puzzle together without having all the pieces.
Police have not yet identified the victim.
Normandale Park sits near the intersection of Northeast 55th Avenue and Northeast Hassalo Street, in the city’s Rose City Park Neighborhood.
ABC News’ Keith Harden, Izzy Alvarez and Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The United States continues to warn that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day” amid escalating tensions in the region, with President Joe Biden telling reporters Thursday that the threat is now “very high.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, making urgent remarks to the United Nations Security Council, challenged Moscow to commit to no invasion.
More than 150,000 Russian troops are estimated to be massed near Ukraine’s borders, U.S. officials have said. While Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin claim that some troops have begun to withdraw, Biden told reporters that more Russian forces have moved in, contrary to Moscow’s claims.
It remains unclear whether Putin has made a decision to attack his ex-Soviet neighbor.
Russia has denied any plans to invade and reiterated its demands that the U.S. and NATO bar Ukraine from joining the military alliance.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 21, 5:27 am
Talk of Biden-Putin summit ‘premature,’ Kremlin says
The Kremlin has said it is still “premature” to talk about a summit between President Joe Biden and President Vladimir Putin, though it didn’t rule out that one could take place.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Sunday said Biden and Putin have agreed “in principle” to meet, provided Russia did not invade Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the possibility of a meeting after speaking with both leaders on Sunday, amid intense diplomatic efforts to try to dissuade Putin from launching an invasion the U.S. fears could come this week.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that for now there’s only an agreement for Russia and the U.S. to speak at a lower level, between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. That meeting is scheduled for this week.
Peskov seemed to suggest that an agreement on a meeting between Biden and Putin would depend on the outcome of those talks.
“I can say that an understanding has been reached that we need to continue the dialogue at the level of ministers,” Peskov told reporters on Monday. “But to talk about some kind of concrete plans about organizing any summits is for now premature.”
Contacts between Biden and Putin can be arranged quickly, if necessary, he said.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 20, 10:28 pm
US alleges Russia making list of Ukrainians ‘to be killed or sent to camps’
The United States has obtained information of potential Russian operations against Ukrainian targets as part of a potential invasion, including targeted killings, kidnappings, detentions and torture, the U.S. alleged in a letter to the United Nations obtained by ABC News.
“We have credible information that indicates Russian forces are creating lists of identified Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps following a military occupation,” U.S. Ambassador Bathsheba Nell Crocker wrote to Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.
That includes the “likely use” of lethal measures to “disperse peaceful protesters or otherwise counter peaceful exercises of perceived resistance from civilian populations,” Crocker wrote.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken alluded to this during his remarks to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, telling his fellow diplomats, “Conventional attacks are not all that Russia plans to inflict upon the people of Ukraine. We have information that indicates Russia will target specific groups of Ukrainians.”
In addition, sources told ABC News last Tuesday that the U.S. believed Russia aimed to move into Kyiv to decapitate the Ukrainian government and install their own.
But this new letter goes further, saying Russia “would likely target those who opposes Russian actions, including Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile in Ukraine, journalists and anti-corruption activists, and vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons.”
Ambassador Michele Sison, the top U.S. diplomat for international organizations, is headed to Geneva this week to meet Bachelet at the U.N. headquarters there, the State Department announced Sunday.
“The United States is gravely concerned that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would produce widespread human suffering. In light of OHCHR’s important mandate and its reporting presence in Ukraine, we wish to share this information with you as an early warning that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine may create a human rights catastrophe,” Crocker added in the letter.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 20, 8:46 pm
Biden, Putin agree to summit
U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to hold a summit proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron. The leaders both accepted the summit “in principle,” with one major condition: that Russia does not invade Ukraine.
“As the president has repeatedly made clear, we are committed to pursuing diplomacy until the moment an invasion begins,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday evening.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov are set to meet Thursday. During their meeting, they will prepare “the substance” of the summit, according to a statement from the French government. Macron “will work with all stakeholders to prepare the content of these discussions” as well.
Macron spoke with Putin twice Sunday, both before and after he called Biden for a brief 15-minute phone call.
“We are always ready for diplomacy,” Psaki said. “We are also ready to impose swift and severe consequences should Russia instead choose war. And currently, Russia appears to be continuing preparations for a full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Feb 20, 7:49 pm
US State Department gives more info on Moscow safety alert
A State Department spokesperson said the alert published Sunday warning Americans to avoid crowds and stay alert in places frequented by tourists and Westerners was issued “out of an abundance of caution,” stopping short of tying it directly to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
“In recent days a number of Russian media outlets have reported on a spate of bomb threats being made against Russian public buildings, including metro stations, in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and elsewhere,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“The U.S. Department of State has no greater responsibility than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” they said. “Out of an abundance of caution, and in line with our commitment to providing U.S. citizens with clear and timely information so they can make informed travel decisions, we published this alert.”
(NEW YORK) — Although tattooing has been around for centuries, the practice was mainly underground before becoming recognized as legitimate art in modern history.
Despite being a fairly mainstream industry now, discriminatory hiring practices and racial stigmas are among the challenges that Black tattoo artists say they face in the white-dominated field of tattoo artistry.
Even tattoo artists of color in New York City — considered the birthplace of modern tattooing following a nearly four-decade ban, according to The New York Historical Society, say the field needs more diversity.
Richard Parker, who owns a private tattoo studio, Think Before You Ink in Brooklyn, New York, said that being an artist brings “a struggle of its own” — but being a Black artist only adds another layer of obstacles.
“As a whole, we have been left far behind in an industry that has actually derived from our tribal heritage,” Parker told ABC News.
The lack of diversity can also affect customers due to many professionals’ inexperience with tattooing on Black and brown skin, something that “has left many darker-skinned clients struggling to find someone who can actually provide them with quality work,” Parker said.
For Black women working in the field, inclusion issues are deeper, as the industry is not only white-dominated, but it’s also inundated by men.
Jacci Gresham, who is considered America’s first Black female tattoo artist, is still working and living her dream at the age of 75. She has been running her business in New Orleans for over 50 years after first opening her own tattoo shop in the 1970s, making it one of the state’s oldest tattoo parlors.
“I had issues because of color… I had issues because of being a woman and just being trusted … they just weren’t used to women being in that field. Let alone Black women,” Gresham told ABC News.
Gresham is a native of Flint, Michigan, who grew up during an era when tattoos were not widely accepted. She said she used her artistic background to study architecture before pursuing her true passion of tattooing.
Today, she is living in Mississippi and regularly travels to her New Orleans studio, Aart Accent Tattoos & Body Piercings, after her home flooded during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She said that although her business temporarily lost power and the roof was destroyed, she is grateful her shop was still left standing despite the deadly hurricane.
Gresham, who doesn’t have any biological children, said she hopes that among her biggest impact is being a trailblazer within the industry.
“My kids are the people I’ve trained to tattoo,” she said.
While there has been progress in recent years for Black women tattoo artists, Kandace Layne, owner of Magic Mirror tattoo studio in Atlanta, said the industry still has a long way to go to become more inclusive.
“It is hard for anyone to get an apprenticeship, but it’s even harder for Black women to find a place that will teach them and to find a place that will treat them with respect,” Layne told ABC News.
The 27-year-old said that one of her primary drives in taking the leap to open her own shop was after her struggle with finding opportunities elsewhere. Now, Layne runs a shop that prioritizes service for women/femmes, LGBTQA+; and Black, Indigenous and people of color
“I felt that creating my own space was the best way to get my needs met,” Layne said, adding that she worked at some locations that made her question her worth.
But there are those in the industry who are working to make the tattoo business more inclusive. Helios Tattoo Supply in New York is a manufacturing and supply company providing artists with items such as needles, machines, ink and after-care products.
Craig Petralia, Helios’ founder and CEO who is from Long Island, New York, has been working in the industry for over two decades. The father of two said he aims to provide a family atmosphere to support several artists, many of whom are people of color, and also the freedom to create without limitations.
“We are a group of people coming together to build something bigger than ourselves … our purpose is to give artists the tools to create their best artwork,” Petralia told ABC News.
Petralia’s company sponsors Ceaser Emanuel, a tattoo artist of color, and star of “Black Ink Crew” — a reality TV show which began by following New York-based tattoo artists and later expanded to other cities.
Parker has collaborated with Petralia for over five years. Petralia’s Helios is also a sponsor of Parker’s tattoo studio. Both say they are committed to diversifying the tattoo business and also bringing more art to more people. For instance, Parker, who is the father of a 5-year-old boy, says he has worked with several students across New York City over the last decade to create artwork in schools and help inspire students’ creativity.
From seeing his son create illustrations to subjecting him to the atmosphere of his tattoo shop, Parker said being a positive influence is one of his most important jobs.
“I’m just extremely happy and proud that I get to expose him to a life that’s more out of the box so he can create his own canvas,” Parker said.
Parker — who also is a former cast member of “Ink Master,” a tattoo artist competition TV show — said becoming an entrepreneur was the best way to open more doors.
He says he is also trying to implement change by joining other artists involved in “The Black Tattoo Experience,” which is a collective of artists creating opportunities and a space for minorities to build within the industry.
“More of us are coming together and trading secrets as a community to build each other up [and] us sticking together is what will further diversify the playing field,” Parker said.
(SAN ANTONIO, Texas) — Lina Sardar Khil’s family had held out hope that she would be found to celebrate her 4th birthday on Sunday, Feb. 20, at home, but two months after she went missing in San Antonio, Texas, there are still no answers.
“Her light is missing from her family and community. Our continuous prayer is that she will be back in the arms of those that love her,” Pamela Allen, who is representing the Khil family, told ABC News on Saturday.
Lina was last seen on Dec. 20, 2021 at a park on the 9400 block of Fredericksburg Road in San Antonio between 4:30 p.m. and 5:10 p.m., according to police. The park is near the family’s home at the Villa Del Cabo apartment complex.
On Sunday afternoon, Lina’s family and the community prepare to gather near the family home to celebrate her birthday and pray for her safe return home.
She was out of sight from her mother for an unknown amount of time before the mother realized Lina was nowhere to be found, according to the San Antonio Police Department.
“At this time there are no updates on Lina’s case. The missing person case involving Lina Khil is still an active missing person investigation,” a spokesperson for SAPD told ABC News on Friday. “The San Antonio Police Department, in partnership with our federal partners have worked tirelessly on finding Lina.”
Lina’s family is part of an Afghan refugee community in San Antonio. They arrived in the United States in 2019 and speak Pashto.
Lina’s mother, Zarmeena Sardar Khil, is pregnant with her second child. She spoke with FOX 29 in San Antonio through a translator earlier this month.
“I am missing my child, I cannot forget her and it is affecting me a lot and my other child who is coming to this world,” she said.
“We all have the same pain, it doesn’t matter that I am from Afghanistan, I have a different culture, different religion. What we have in common is the pain of motherhood as a human, is the same as all people,” she added.
The Afghan community in the city, along with a group of nonprofits and organizations have rallied behind the family, joining search crews, fundraising and raising awareness about Lina’s case.
The Islamic Center of San Antonio announced Wednesday that it increased a $100,000 reward for any information on Lina to $120,000. Meanwhile, Crime Stoppers of San Antonio has offered $50,000 for information resulting in the arrest or indictment of a suspect accused of involvement in Lina’s disappearance, bringing the latest total to $170,000.
The Eagles Flight Advocacy & Outreach organization, a San Antonio-based nonprofit, joined the search in early January, with about 150 people from the Afghan community showing up to help.
Allen, the CEO of the group, became the family’s spokesperson after meeting the Khils through her organization’s work. She told ABC News last month that the family believes Lina was abducted.
“We believe someone has her,” she said. “And so that this is what the family believes — that someone has their daughter and hopefully keeping her alive.”
Lina has brown eyes and straight, brown hair, and was last seen wearing a black jacket, red dress and black shoes, according to police.
Last month, Allen’s organization shared a newly surfaced photo taken by a family member of Lina the day she disappeared in hopes that details about Lina’s jewelry could assist the public in identifying her.
In the photo, which was obtained by ABC News, Lina appears to be wearing blue bangle bracelets on one wrist and gold-toned bangles on the other. She is also wearing small gold earrings and an article around her neck that Allen said is known as the Taweez, which is etched with verses from the Quran and is usually worn for protection.
Police are urging anyone with information regarding Lina or her whereabouts to come forward and contact the missing persons unit in San Antonio at 210-207-7660.
ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.
(NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.) — One police officer was killed and another was injured after a police helicopter crashed on Saturday into the water near Newport Beach in California.
The helicopter crashed at about 6:30 p.m. local time, as two officers from the Huntington Beach Police Department were responding to nearby Newport Beach, the department said.
“The helicopter crashed for reasons that we’re not certain of,” Huntington Beach Police Chief Eric Parra told reporters late Saturday. “One of the officers, a 16-year veteran, was extricated and he went to a local hospital, or nearby hospital, where he is in critical condition, but he is doing okay. The other officer, a 14-year veteran, unfortunately and tragically passed away as a result of injuries sustained during the crash.”
Officials identified the officer killed as Nicholas Vella, 44. The second officer was not identified.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department major accident reconstruction team are investigating the incident.
“I don’t have details on what potentially caused the aircraft to become disabled,” Parra said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates. ABC News’ Izzy Alvarez contributed to this report.
(PORTLAND, Ore.) — A woman was killed and five others were injured on Saturday in a shooting at a park in Portland, Oregon, police said.
Officers responded to a report of a shooting near Normandale Park in northeast Portland at about 8 p.m. local time, the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement.
“When officers arrived they located a female victim who was deceased,” the department said. “Additional shooting victims, two men and three women, were transported to area hospitals and their status is unknown at this time.”
Police have not yet identified the victim.
Normandale Park sits near the intersection of Northeast 55th Avenue and Northeast Hassalo Street, in the city’s Rose City Park Neighborhood.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates. ABC News’ Keith Harden contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has tested positive for COVID-19, Buckingham Palace announced on Sunday.
The Queen, 95, has been experiencing “mild cold-like symptoms,” the palace said. She’s expected to carry out “light duties” in the coming week.
“She will continue to receive medical attention and will follow all the appropriate guidelines,” the palace said.
“I’m sure I speak for everyone in wishing Her Majesty The Queen a swift recovery from Covid and a rapid return to vibrant good health,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter.
News of the monarch’s diagnosis comes after it was confirmed that her son, Prince Charles, and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, tested positive for COVID-19. Clarence House announced Prince Charles’s diagnosis on Feb. 10, and Camilla’s on Feb. 14.
This is the second time Prince Charles, 73, has tested positive for COVID-19, with his first diagnosis coming in March 2020, before he was vaccinated.
Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, held several virtual and in-person events this month, including an event in Sandringham on Feb. 5 to mark her 70 years on the throne.
The queen, who returned to Windsor Castle shortly after the reception, met with representatives from local community groups in the ballroom at Sandringham House to celebrate the start of the Platinum Jubilee.
The Feb. 5 event was the queen’s first public, in-person event since October, when she was hospitalized for one night for what the palace described as “preliminary investigations.”
After being advised by her doctors to rest, Queen Elizabeth took on a more modified schedule. In November, she missed the annual Remembrance Sunday Service for the first time in her reign due to a sprained back.
The queen had already modified her schedule throughout the coronavirus pandemic, holding virtual audiences and participating in video calls instead of public events.
When her husband, Prince Philip, died at age 99 last April, the queen sat alone during the funeral service in St. George’s Chapel, following pandemic restrictions.
Both Queen Elizabeth and her late husband received their first COVID-19 vaccination shots in January 2021, Buckingham Palace confirmed at the time.
Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, confirmed in December that they had both received their booster shoots of the vaccine, according to the BBC.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
