(NEW YORK) — A member of a threatened owl species couldn’t resist the chance to join vacationers aboard a cruise liner, evading capture for weeks.
A “wayward” burrowing owl hitched a ride on the Royal Caribbean International’s Symphony of the Seas and remained on board for two weeks, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission said on Facebook.
Throughout its stay, the owl made his presence known to other guests by perching on exit signs, resting on railings and peaking through planters, according to the state wildlife agency.
Biologist Ricardo Zambrano was brought on board after receiving a call from the ship’s environmental officer.
During the one-hour window of time between passengers disembarking and new passengers arriving for the next cruise to Mexico, Zambrano placed mist nets around the owl’s perch of choice, according to FWC.
The third attempt of capture was the charm. As the owl sat on a balcony on the 10th floor, crew members standing below made noise to distract it while Zambrano snuck up behind the bird of prey and safely netted it from the railing, the agency said.
“After the amazing rescue, the cute little stowaway was safely assisted with the disembarkation process,” the conservation commission wrote. “He had nothing to claim in customs.”
The owl seemed to be in good health but was transported to the South Florida Wildlife Center as a precautionary measure.
Burrowing owl populations around the world are decreasing, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. The owl species is listed as endangered in Canada and threatened in Mexico, according to the Burrowing Owl Conservation Network.
In the U.S., the burrowing owl is listed as endangered in Minnesota, threatened in Colorado and Florida and as a species of concern in Arizona, California, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, according to the network.
(HAMBURG, Germany) — Multiple people were shot, some fatally, at a building used by Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hamburg, Germany, on Thursday evening, police said.
Several people were seriously injured in the shooting, said police, who initially described the location as a church.
A suspected shooter was found dead in a community center, according to police, who were continuing to conduct searches to “rule out the involvement of other perpetrators.”
The incident occurred around 9 p.m. and involved one or more unknown perpetrators, according to an alert from the city of Hamburg.
The streets around the building have been cordoned off and residents have been advised to avoid the area and shelter in place “for the time being,” the alert said.
Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher called reports of the deadly shooting “shocking” and offered his “deepest condolences” to the families of the victims.
“The emergency services are working flat out to track down the perpetrators and clarify the background,” he said in a statement earlier Thursday.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The Manhattan district attorney’s office has informed former President Donald Trump of his right to testify before a grand jury investigating his role in a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
In New York, potential targets of investigations are, by law, given the chance to appear before the grand jury hearing evidence.
So-called “cross notice” was given to Trump in recent days, the sources said, and could be a sign that District Attorney Alvin Bragg is moving toward a charging decision.
“The Manhattan District Attorney’s threat to indict President Trump is simply insane,” a Trump spokesperson said in a statement. “President Trump was the victim of extortion then, just as he is now. It’s an embarrassment to the Democrat prosecutors, and it’s an embarrassment to New York City.”
In recent weeks ABC News has reported on the witnesses who have appeared before the grand jury, including former Trump associates Kellyanne Conway, Hope Hicks and Michael Cohen.
The district attorney has been probing whether Trump falsified business records in connection with a $130,000 payment made to Daniels before the 2016 election, which prosecutors allege was to keep her from talking about a long-denied affair, sources familiar with the matter have told ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — The mother of a missing 11-year-old girl asked a distant relative if he could help smuggle them away from their home because she was in a bad relationship with her husband and wanted a divorce, according to a search warrant obtained by ABC News.
Diana Cojocari, 37, and her husband have been charged after they took three weeks to report her daughter, 11-year-old Madalina Cojocari, was missing.
Cellphone data reviewed by police showed that Diane Cojocari contacted and had extensive communication with her distant relative, Octavian Cebanu, according to police. Cebanu made multiple phone calls to phone numbers belonging to unidentified targets who are involved in drug and narcotic trafficking investigations, police documents show.
Police conducted a canine search of Diane Cojocari’s car, during which the dog alerted to narcotics inside the passenger-side door. Police believe the car may have evidence of narcotics, drug paraphernalia or evidence of trafficking, according to the documents.
Several items were found inside the door, including a Moldova Agroindbank debit card belonging to Diana Cojocari; Madalina Cojocari’s Romanian and Moldovan passports; Diana Cojocari’s Romanian passport; and miscellaneous education and work certificates, according to the warrant.
On Dec. 15, 2022, Diana Cojocari went to her daughter’s school and told administrators that the 11-year-old had been missing since Nov. 23, 2022, according to authorities. Police were then alerted and responded to the school.
Diane Cojocari told police she last saw her daughter when she went to bed on Nov. 23, according to the warrant. Diane Cojocari said she then had an argument with her husband, Christopher Palmiter, that night and the next morning he left to drive to his family’s house in Michigan. When she went to check on her daughter the next day, she noticed she wasn’t in her room, the warrant showed.
Diane Cojocari said she waited until Palmiter, who is not Madalina’s birth father, returned to ask him if he had seen her daughter. He said he did not and asked her if she knew where the daughter was, according to the warrant.
A school official had attempted a home visit with a school counselor to check on the girl since she had not been to school for four days, the warrant said. No one answered the door and the official left a truancy packet.
Due to their failure to report that the 11-year-old was missing for three weeks, Cojocari and Palmiter were arrested on Dec. 17. They have both been charged with a felony.
The last confirmed public sighting of Madalina Cojocari was on Nov. 22, the FBI’s Charlotte bureau said. Bureau investigators released a video in December they said showed the girl getting off a school bus at her usual stop in Cornelius, a suburb north of Charlotte.
In December, police said the parents “clearly” knew more than they have been telling investigators.
(ATLANTA) — Protesters in Atlanta say they are hoping to reignite the energy from the 2020 racial reckoning during a rally they are calling their National Day of Action Against Police Terror on Thursday.
Across the country, anti-police brutality and racial justice activist groups will be hosting marches, teach-ins, and demonstrations against what they say is the militarization of police forces at the in-construction Atlanta Public Safety Training Center that critics are calling “Cop City.”
To culminate a weekslong effort, organizers will be holding a rally and march Thursday at 6 p.m. at the King Center, a center focused on nonviolent civil disobedience, in Atlanta.
Protesters argue the facility is “supporting the police narrative as opposed to finding alternatives to [policing]. Less people with guns, more actually interacting with the community,” Kamau Franklin, founder of Community Movement Builders and one of the lead organizers of #StopCopCity, told ABC News.
The #StopCopCity campaign is an effort to try and disrupt the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which will be used for specialized training for both law enforcement and fire department service workers.
The center will include an “auditorium for police/fire and public use,” a “mock city for burn building training and urban police training,” an “Emergency Vehicle Operator Course for emergency vehicle driver training,” a K-9 unit kennel and training, according to the center’s website. The first phase of the training center is scheduled to open in late 2023.
The facility is intended to “boost morale, retention and recruitment of our public safety personnel” as well as “give us physical space to ensure that our officers and firefighters are receiving 21st century training, rooted in respect and regard for the communities they serve,” according to former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
The facility was approved last year with widespread support from local lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, and across all racial and ethnic lines.
But groups including the Movement for Black Lives, Black Voters Matter, Community Movement Builders and others are calling on Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens to “end the lease with Atlanta Police Foundation,” the organization behind the facility. The organization’s board members include representatives from major corporations, banks and companies.
Dickens recently created a community task force “to seek further community input and expert recommendations on key issues” amid the unrest, according to a press release from his office.
The training site has been at the center of yearslong tension between police and protesters.
Demonstrators argue that the center is further militarizing the police and may lead to more instances of police brutality and violence.
“Training is a misnomer,” Franklin said, pointing to the hundreds of hours of training that police convicted in murders are required to have received.
“We’ll continue to uplift and talk about the people who’ve been murdered by the police in the Black community, and how policing doesn’t work,” Franklin said.
Other demonstrators argue that the center’s construction will take over parts of the Weelaunee Forest, which Franklin says is “one of the most significant urban forests in the U.S., which borders a Black working-class neighborhood in Southeast Atlanta.”
Criticism over the new facility began initially with concerns that the city would need to tear down trees in one of Atlanta’s largest remaining green spaces. Across the city, signs that read “Defend the Atlanta Forest” sprung up in yards. The environmentalist movement Defend the Atlanta Forest is one of the groups leading protests against the facility.
The center is expected to cost $90 million and take up over 85 acres, with the “remaining portion of the 265-acres property as greenspace,” according to the center’s website.
Tensions came to a head with the fatal police shooting of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán in January, who was shot and killed by police as they raided the campground occupied by environmental demonstrators who had allegedly been camping out for months to protect the forest.
Officials say the protester fired the first shot at a state trooper, who was injured. Other law enforcement officers returned fire, hitting the man. There is no body camera footage of the incident. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident.
On March 5, more than 30 people were arrested after authorities say a group of “agitators” launched an attack on officers using fireworks, large rocks and Molotov cocktails following a music festival.
Twenty-three of the 35 protesters arrested Sunday were charged with felony domestic terrorism. Most of those protesters were from out of state, and one was from Canada and another from France.
No officers were injured during the incident, though police said that “the illegal actions” of protesters “could have resulted in bodily harm.” According to representatives from the racial justice organizations, the incident was not connected to the music festival and demonstration being held nearby.
The mayor’s office and the Atlanta Police Foundation has not responded to ABC News’ requests for comment. Atlanta Police officials directed ABC News to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which declined to comment.
Courtesy of Laquonda Green, Tay McGee, and Michele Williams, and ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A powerful Mexican cartel has allegedly taken responsibility for the kidnapping of four U.S. citizens, and killing of two of them, in the Mexican border city of Matamoros.
Five men were found tied up near a pickup truck on Thursday morning. ABC News has geolocated that location as the same area where the U.S. citizens were kidnapped on Friday.
A handwritten note was found placed on the windshield of the truck, whose author or authors say they belong to the Gulf Cartel, the dominant organized crime group in this part of Mexico.
The note said some Gulf Cartel members were responsible for the kidnapping and killings and apologized for their actions.
“We have decided to deliver those involved and directly responsible,” the note said, presumably referring to the five men found tied up at the scene.
Multiple different law enforcement agencies along with members of the Mexican army responded to the scene.
Three sources confirm to ABC News that the five men were taken into custody by Tamaulipas State Police, where they remain.
Multiple sources close to the investigation said they believe the note left on the windshield to be legitimate.
Neither ABC News nor U.S. officials have been able to independently verify the authenticity of the note.
Police allegedly found two weapons inside the truck when they detained the five men — an AK-47 and an AR-15 — as well as four AK-47 magazines, three AR-15 magazines and cartridges of different calibers, according to a copy of the police report from Mexican authorities obtained by ABC News from a source close to the investigation.
Police found the men inside the truck with their hands tied with belts, along with the note, according to the police report.
A source close to the investigation believes that state police and other Mexican law enforcement want to verify the identities of those five men arrested and be sure they were in fact connected to the kidnappings before commenting publicly.
ABC News has reached out to the FBI for comment.
The four kidnapped Americans — Eric James Williams, Zindell Brown and cousins Latavia “Tay” McGee and Shaeed Woodard — drove Friday morning into Matamoros, in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas just south of Brownsville, Texas. McGee had traveled from South Carolina to Mexico for a cosmetic medical procedure.
Soon after crossing the border, “unidentified gunmen fired upon the passengers in the vehicle,” and then put the four Americans in another car and fled, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said.
Mexican investigators believe the kidnappers may have wrongly believed the Americans were rival human traffickers, a source close to the investigation told ABC News.
The two survivors — McGee and Williams — were found Tuesday morning in a wooden house in the Lagunona area, outside of Matamoros, Mexican officials said. Williams was shot in both legs while McGee was largely unharmed, family members said.
One of the deceased was also found inside the house, and the second was found outside it, a source close to the investigation told ABC News.
During the three days they were held, the Americans were transferred to various places, including a medical clinic, in order to create confusion and avoid rescue efforts, according to the governor of Tamaulipas, Américo Villarreal.
A 24-year-old suspect who was in charge of looking after the victims inside the house where they were found has been arrested, Mexican officials said.
The two survivors were being treated at a hospital in Brownsville following their rescue. The bodies of two Americans killed remain at the morgue in Matamoros, local officials said Thursday.
The Attorney General’s Office of Tamaulipas also said on Thursday that a Mexican woman died in the incident.
(WASHINGTON) — There’s optimism in the Republican conference about the health of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell after lawmakers were briefed on McConnell’s condition by his longtime aide and current chief of staff, Sharon Soderstrom, during a closed-door lunch on Thursday.
Sodesterom told the members that her boss is alert, talking and expected to make a full recovery from a fall and concussion he suffered while attending a dinner at a Washington hotel on Wednesday night.
“Wish him well. He’s a tough old crow, so my money is on Mitch,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 3 Republican in the chamber and a doctor, confirmed that McConnell, who is 81, has been up and speaking.
“He’s gonna be observed, which is a concussion protocol,” Barrasso said. “I expect him to make a full recovery and be back here next week.”
“I’m told he’s in good spirits, so that tells me that he’s recovering well,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., also a physician.
When asked if it is unusual to keep McConnell in the hospital for multiple days, Cassidy said he would not “second-guess the doctors. He is the majority leader, right? So it may just be that it’s a little dose of being extra careful. But there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Another doctor-turned-senator, Kansas Republican Roger Marshall, said that the care McConnell is receiving is “typical” of a concussion. He “absolutely” expects McConnell to make a full recovery, he said.
It remains unclear when McConnell will return to the Senate. Some Republicans are optimistic it could be as soon as next week.
“Leader McConnell tripped at a dinner event Wednesday evening and has been admitted to the hospital and is being treated for a concussion. He is expected to remain in the hospital for a few days of observation and treatment,” McConnell’s communications director, David Popp, told ABC News Thursday afternoon in a statement. “The Leader is grateful to the medical professionals for their care and to his colleagues for their warm wishes.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said after Thursday’s conference lunch that “hopefully he’ll be back next Tuesday when kind of we’re up and running.”
While McConnell recovers, he has a care package on the way. Every year, right around the time of the Iditarod, the famed sled dog race, Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski hosts a smorgasbord of her state’s favorite foods — salmon, her mom’s recipe for halibut and reindeer sausage.
McConnell, she said, loves the halibut.
“When I saw the news last night that the leader was in the hospital, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s going to miss his favorite lunch!’ So I made sure that he had a little to-go pack to make sure that it’s gonna lift his spirits,” Murkowski told ABC News.
“They just said that, you know, he’s in good spirits,” Murkowski continued. “Hopefully now he’ll be in better spirits,” she said. “What we’re all doing is just making sure that he follows doctor’s orders.”
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy described his party’s Senate leader — the longest-serving person ever in that role — as “tough as a boot … He’s gonna be fine.”
“The report was very encouraging,” said Sen Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
McConnell’s Kentucky colleague, Sen. Rand Paul, said senators had learned nothing more than what was released publicly but repeatedly said, “We wish him well.”
The Senate’s No. 2 Republican, South Dakota’s John Thune, said he did not want to “speculate” on whether the chamber was preparing to run without McConnell present next week.
“We’ll get him back as soon as possible. I think it’s just a question of when,” Thune said.
In either case, his absence will be felt.
“He is essential to the leadership of how the Senate works. There’s a lot of negotiations that take place between [Democratic] leader [Chuck] Schumer and leader McConnell as to what will come to the fore and what will be the process,” Cassidy said, “and no one does it better than Mitch. And so we’re looking forward to him coming back quickly.”
(NEW YORK) — Prosecutors in New Mexico told Alec Baldwin’s defense team the gun used in the October 2021 shooting on the set of “Rust” broke during testing, a source close to the defense told ABC News.
The source called it “very problematic” since it is a key piece of evidence that led to involuntary manslaughter charges against Baldwin in connection with the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is awaiting trial along with the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was also charged with involuntary manslaughter.
(EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio) — More than a third of the East Cleveland, Ohio, police department is now under indictment after prosecutors charged 11 more current and former members of the troubled law enforcement agency with public corruption and civil rights violations, alleging some of their abuse perpetrated on community residents was akin to “torture.”
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office and the Cleveland Division of the FBI announced the new indictments at a news conference and released police body camera footage showing the officers allegedly beating, kicking and stomping community residents, including several who were brutalized after being handcuffed and appearing to comply with officers order to get on their knees.
“The real victim here was the entire city, all the citizens of East Cleveland, who had to live in a city with fear,” said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley.
The new indictments increased the number of current and former East Cleveland officers charged with crimes within the last seven months to 16, including the former police chief Scott Gardner, who was indicted in September on multiple counts of theft and fraud. Gardner has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The indictments leave the city with just two dozen remaining officers on the force, officials said.
East Cleveland, which is nine miles east of the city of Cleveland, has a population of 13,586.
Prosecutors said the indictments stemmed from 31 separate incidents between June 2018 and July 2022.
The officers arrested and charged under the new indictments were identified as John Hartman, Nicholas Foti, Ian McInnes, Kyle Wood, Tyler Mundson, Brian Stoll and Laurice Mans. Also indicted were Brian Parks, Daniel Toomer, Tristan Homan and Tre DeHart Robinson.
During Wednesday’s news conference, O’Malley played clips from nine police body cam videos showing officers allegedly abusing citizens.
“People in these videos were giving up, they were showing their hands, they were not threats,” O’Malley said.
One video showed an officer repeatedly stomping on a man who was in police custody on the ground. Another video captured a cop commanding an individual shown on his knees to lie down on his stomach and then allegedly kicking the person in the back, knocking him to the pavement.
Other videos showed an officer shoving a man who had his hands up to the ground and kicking him in the groan. And another video showed an officer allegedly striking a man with his police cruiser and then punching him as he lay on the ground writhing in pain from a broken pelvis.
A video O’Malley said he was particularly “appalled” by showed officers stomping on the head of a handcuffed man and repeatedly deploying stun guns on him.
“I was appalled that we could be witnessing a guy handcuffed and his head stomped, or witnessing a guy handcuffed and being tased while handcuffed repeatedly, which to me is a form of torture,” O’Malley said.
East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King applauded O’Malley for “helping our police department root out these individuals who have committed these alleged offenses.” But King added that the investigations against the officers started with internally.
King said new police body camera equipment the city funded provided much of the supporting evidence for the charges.
“Last year, we were able to upgrade our cameras. The new cameras, the new systems, aren’t reliant on officers to activate them, which lessens the possibility of human error,” King said.
East Cleveland City Council President Juanita Gowdy told ABC affiliate station WEWS-TV in Cleveland that she was “shocked” by the alleged abuse. To fill the staffing void in the police department, Gowdy said she has made an emergency request for patrol assistance from the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department.
“I’m disappointed and I’m really upset. This should never happen like this,” Gowdy said. “I’m looking forward to having the sheriff to come out and support us because we definitely are going to need help.”
The indictments against the East Cleveland police officers come in the wake of the fatal beating of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols by police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, following a traffic stop. The incident was captured on police body cameras and a stationary security camera and led to the firing of seven officers, including five who are charged with murder.
Joshua Boucher/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Alex Murdaugh’s attorneys have filed a notice of appeal for the former lawyer’s convictions and sentences, a week after he was found guilty of murdering his wife and younger son, court records show.
The notice was filed in the South Carolina Court of Appeals on Thursday.
Murdaugh, 54, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murdering Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, who were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds near the dog kennels at the family’s estate in June 2021.
The life sentences for each murder will run consecutively, Judge Clifton Newman said.
Murdaugh has maintained his innocence throughout the high-profile trial.
“I’m innocent. I would never hurt my wife, Maggie, and I would never hurt my son, Paw-Paw,” he said during his sentencing hearing on Friday.
Jurors returned a verdict after deliberating for nearly three hours.
Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview on “Good Morning America that cellphone video placing Murdaugh at the scene minutes before the crime “absolutely” made a difference in the guilty verdict.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
