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(PROVIDENCE, R.I.) — Police are investigating after a mob of ATV and dirt bike riders allegedly pulled a woman out of her car and beat her in a late-night attack in Providence, Rhode Island — the latest incident in what officials are saying is a spate of “out of control” violence.

The incident happened Tuesday night, officials from the mayor’s office said. Around 11:30 p.m., the 35-year-old victim had honked her horn at a group of ATV and dirt bike riders after they failed to move through two green lights, according to ABC Providence affiliate WLNE.

As she drove away, the group surrounded her car and several riders opened the driver’s side door, dragged her onto the street and began assaulting her, according to WLNE.

Cellphone video obtained by WLNE showed the woman on her knees in the street while an assailant repeatedly punched her.

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza said the woman was “shaken and injured” in the “awful incident.”

The ATV and dirt bike riders reportedly fled.

The victim hurt her head and knees but did not need to be hospitalized, according to the Providence Journal. The paper reported that the driver’s friend and the friend’s 8-year-old daughter were in the car at the time of the attack.

ABC News has reached out to the Providence Police Department for updates on the incident.

The assault is the latest in a string of violence that has plagued the capital city, including a drive-by shooting Sunday that fatally killed a 24-year-old woman, leading to calls for stronger enforcement.

On Friday, Providence City Council President John Igliozzi sent a letter to Gov. Dan McKee requesting that Rhode Island State Police troopers be deployed to the city to assist police in confronting the crime wave.

“As you know, the headlines regarding crime in the city of Providence over the last few weeks have been shocking — murders, drive-by shootings, stabbings, gang incidents and roving throngs of ATV and dirt bike riders terrorizing our neighborhoods,” Igliozzi wrote.

“This wave of violent crime is unacceptable, and we need to act immediately to restore public safety and make our city’s residents once again feel safe walking and sitting outside in their own neighborhoods,” the letter continued, which pointed to a lack of staffing in the police department as an issue.

“The gun violence, the physical attacks and reckless behavior of individuals in our city have resulted in grief, loss and fear in our community,” he said in a statement. “It is time for the city to take decisive action to put a stop to this senseless violence and better serve the people trying to make a home in the city of Providence.”

A meeting will be scheduled for early next week, Igliozzi said.

Providence officials have also been working for years to address people illegally riding ATVs on city streets, especially during the summer.

“We will continue to dedicate all our available resources to getting these illegal ATVs off our streets and to bring those responsible to justice,” Elorza said in a statement.

Police have seized and destroyed over 200 bikes since 2017, according to the mayor’s office.

“[We] will continue to pull over and arrest people who are using these bikes illegally,” the mayor said.

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(Sturgis, S.D.) — While a series of high-profile events have been canceled this week due to the looming threat posed by the delta variant, one that last year contributed to hundreds of COVID-19 cases will not.

South Dakota’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which begins Friday and runs through Aug. 15, is expected to draw upwards of 700,000 attendees. Last year’s rally, which took place during the height of the United States’ summer surge, had more than 400,000 estimated attendees, many of whom didn’t wear masks as they patronized bars, restaurants and concerts.

The downstream effect was tangible: At least 649 COVID-19 cases were linked to Sturgis, including secondary and third-degree contacts.

“The Sturgis rally had many characteristics of a superspreading event: large crowds, high intensity of contact between people, potential for highly infectious individuals traveling from hotspots, and events in poorly ventilated indoor environments,” a 2020 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study concluded.

“Such mass events can result in the resurgence of COVID-19 in counties and states even after epidemic control has been achieved through local risk mitigation activities,” the authors wrote.

This year, the CDC has designated Meade County, where Sturgis is located, an area of “high community transmission.” The agency recommends that anyone residing in or visiting such an area wear a mask in public indoor spaces.

South Dakota’s vaccination rate also trails the national average. As of Thursday, 53% of residents had received at least one dose, and 47% were fully vaccinated, according to the CDC, compared with 58% of and 50%, respectively, of all Americans.

Republican Gov. Kristi Noem supports the rally, a major economic driver in the state.

“There’s a risk associated with everything that we do in life,” Noem wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “Bikers get that better than anyone.”

“It’s been extremely busy compared to other years so far,” said Pete Gold, the owner of One-Eyed Jack’s Saloon, a Sturgis-based biker bar. He estimated that at least 100,000 people had arrived in town already.

“There’s not one single person here wearing a mask,” he added. “These people — bikers, Trump supporters, South Dakota Republicans — do not believe in it.”

Despite being unconcerned about COVID-19 or the delta variant, Gold said that he and his family got vaccinated because they want to travel internationally, including to Thailand, where he lives for part of the year.

“I suffered through two Pfizers,” he said. “I have a lot of countries I haven’t been to, so if I don’t get vaccinated, I can’t go.”

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(QUEEN CREEK, Ariz.) — An Arizona mom’s worst fear came true when her 5-year-old daughter tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks after her school year started.

Heidi Kim’s 5-year-old daughter, Irene, is in kindergarten and her 8-year-old daughter, Rosalind, is in third grade at EduPrize charter school in Queens Creek, Arizona.

Kim homeschooled both of her children during the 2020 school year due to Arizona’s high COVID-19 rates and to protect close friends and family that were high risk for COVID-19. This year, Kim and her husband made the decision to send their children to school on July 21 in hopes that a vaccine would soon be available for children and allow for Kim to return to work.

“I was really nervous about sending them back there, but I had hoped maybe in September they would be eligible for the vaccine,” Kim told “Good Morning America.” “I had hoped it would just be the month and a few extra weeks depending when it comes.”

Arizona is one of eight states that has banned mask mandates in classrooms. On June 30, 2021, Gov. Doug Ducey signed a law prohibiting mask mandates in Arizona schools. Kim says EduPrize encouraged students to wear masks but due to state law cannot enforce it.

“I dropped them off at school and I just cried and not because of things that you should normally be feeling when you send your youngest kid off to kindergarten,” Kim said. “I cried because I felt like I was sending her into a petri dish.”

Kim said although masks were encouraged, there were only two other kindergartners wearing masks in her daughter’s class. In Rosalind’s third grade class there was only one other student.

“It’s incredibly frustrating because I think schools should absolutely be open. I don’t think that people should have to put their life on hold for a year and a half,” Kim said. “When we look at what public health is telling us, you look at the American Academy of Pediatrics, or the CDC, they’re all saying schools should be open. But also people who aren’t vaccinated should wear a mask.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reversed its mask guidance and recommended that schools embrace universal masks, backtracking on an earlier recommendation that vaccinated students and staff could go without masks indoors. Several Arizona districts have opted to make masks mandatory.

In addition, The American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization of nearly 70,000 pediatricians, has also called for schools to enforce universal masking mandates.

“AAP recommends universal masking because a significant portion of the student population is not yet eligible for vaccines, and masking is proven to reduce transmission of the virus and to protect those who are not vaccinated,” the AAP wrote in a statement.

Two weeks after her first day of school, Kim noticed Irene was acting out of character. She would fall asleep doing everyday activities and soon she was running a 103 fever. Kim brought her to get a COVID-19 test and confirmed that the 5-year-old had contracted the virus.

“I’d like to be honest, I’m angry,” Kim said. “And of course I’m sad. And I feel guilty, because I had felt so conflicted about sending her back in the first place. And I never should have had to be in that position.”

Kim says since Irene tested positive for COVID-19 her other daughter has also started showing symptoms but has not yet received her results from the PCR test she took at her doctor’s office.

Arizona Public Schools Superintendent Kathy Hoffman weighed in on Arizona’s mask guidelines for schools in a statement to ABC News.

“It is heartbreaking to learn of a child being infected with COVID-19. It is equally as frustrating knowing that Arizona public schools have lost the authority to fully implement proven mitigation strategies recommended by public health experts like universal and correct use of masks,” Hoffman said. “In June, Governor Ducey signed a law prohibiting schools’ ability to implement mask requirements, undercutting local school authority. This action by Governor Ducey and the Legislature was reckless and short-sighted – and will result in more children testing positive for COVID-19.”

“I want kids in their classrooms because that is where the best learning happens – and until we are fully on the other side of this pandemic, we must take every necessary precaution to protect student health and safety in those classrooms and ensure minimal disruption to learning,” Hoffman continued. “We have serious work ahead of us to help students recover from the last two disrupted school years, all while keeping them safe, and we don’t have time for political games.”

After going through this with her children, Kim said she hopes that since schools in her state cannot mandate masks, more parents will put masks on their kids before they head into classrooms..

“It’s not hard to wear a mask and it does so much to protect the people around you,” Kim said. “I would really encourage parents to put their kids in a mask. And I would really encourage parents if they haven’t, to get vaccinated.”

“The more adults that are eligible to get the vaccine, the less community spread there will be. And the sooner these kids can get back to a normal life,” Kim said. “I understand that we want kids to have a normal school year, the best way we can do that is by sending them in a mask.”

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(PHOENIX) — The Justice Department is opening an investigation into the policing practices of the Phoenix Police Department and the city of Phoenix, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday afternoon.

The investigation will examine whether the Phoenix Police Department uses excessive force, whether it engages in discriminatory policing practices, whether the department violated the First Amendment by retaliating against protesters and whether the department discriminates against people with disabilities.

This is the third pattern or practice investigation the Justice Department has opened during the Biden administration. Earlier this year, the DOJ opened investigations into the Louisville Police Department and Minneapolis Police Department.

“Each time I have noted that these investigations are aimed to promote transparency and accountability,” Garland said. “This increases public trust, which in turn increases public safety.”

Garland noted in his remarks that one important aspect of the investigation will be examining whether the Phoenix Police Department violated the rights of individuals experiencing homelessness by seizing or disposing of their belongings in a manner that violates the Constitution.

“Our society is straining the policing profession by turning to law enforcement to address a wide array of social problems,” Garland said. “Too often we ask law enforcement officers to be the first and last option for addressing uses that should not be handled by our criminal justice system. This makes police officers’ jobs more difficult, increases unnecessary confrontations with law enforcement and hinders public safety.”

The DOJ’s civil rights chief Kristen Clarke said the investigation was opened after a review of court files, media reports and citizen complaints, but she declined to say whether there was any “final straw” that led to Thursday’s formal announcement.

She said local officials in the city were contacted Thursday about the probe and the mayor and chief of police “pledged their full support.”

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego tweeted out a statement Thursday, saying police reform has been a priority since she took office and she welcomes the review.

“The reccomendations that will result from this review will assist in our ongoing efforts to become an even safer, stronger, more equitable city,” it said.

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