(KELOWNA, Canada) — A couple who allegedly harassed and “accosted” a 9-year-old girl and her family at a track meet, claiming the athlete was trans and shouldn’t be playing on the girls team, will be banned from the school district’s events and property, according to school officials.
The incident occurred last week at a track meet for elementary students in Kelowna, British Columbia in Canada, Superintendent of Central Okanagan Public Schools Kevin Kaardal told ABC News.
According to local reports of the incident, a man demanded that the girl show certification of her sex – claiming she’s not a girl, was trans, and should not be competing.
Heidi Starr, the mother of the girl, told news outlets that the man halted the entire event and that the man’s wife began calling her a “genital mutilator” and “pedophile.”
The young athlete is a cisgender girl, born female, with a short haircut, according to her mother.
ABC News has reached out to the man who was allegedly involved in the incident, Josef Tesar, who told CTV News Vancouver that he never berated Starr or her daughter. Instead, he said he privately asked an event official whether it was a co-ed event since he believed she was a boy.
The district confirmed the incident with ABC News and said it is taking steps to ban the people involved from district property and events.
According to Kaardal, the “person(s) who accosted the student and family was not from one of our Central Okanagan Public Schools.”
“The safety of our students and staff is our top priority, which includes protecting human rights and ensuring safe, inclusive places to learn and work,” Kaardal said in a statement. “We expect that adults who are invited to celebrate student success govern their behaviour and conduct themselves with civility and respect.”
David Eby, the premier of British Columbia, denounced the incident on Twitter, saying “This kind of hate is not acceptable or welcome in British Columbia.”
“Let’s keep calling out transphobia when we see it,” he said in the post. “Hate hurts everyone. And let’s stand with this girl and everyone who is targeted just for being themselves.”
(MIAMI) — Former President Donald Trump is narrowing down his list of potential attorneys as he and his team work to expand his legal team following his arraignment Tuesday on federal charges, sources tell ABC News.
Multiple sources have described the process as “productive,” with “several options” for lawyers that could join his legal defense.
The former president, appearing in federal court in Miami, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing, saying that his handling of all documents was in line with the Presidential Records Act. Officials with the National Archives and Records Administration, however, have said that the act requires a president to separate personal and presidential documents “before leaving office.”
Trump’s search for new counsel comes after his attorneys in the case, Jim Trusty and John Rowley, resigned on Friday, just hours after Trump was informed on Thursday of the indictment.
With no timetable set for Trump’s next court date, sources said there’s no time crunch to officially finalize the team.
Nevertheless, Trump’s history of legal turnover has led to some attorneys to turn him down, while others have asked for retainer fees that Trump’s team views as excessive, multiple sources told ABC News.
Among the first motions Trump’s legal team is expected to file is a motion to dismiss the indictment entirely, according to sources.
Sources said Trump’s team believes a critical witness in the case will be Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran, who was ordered to turn over notes and provide testimony to a grand jury after a federal judge determined in March that the government had made a prima facie case that Trump had “committed criminal violations” by deliberately misleading Corcoran about his handling of documents, as ABC News reported at the time.
Trump’s legal team has discussed filing a motion to suppress Corcoran’s notes and make his testimony inadmissible at trial, sources tell ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, if elected to the White House, would not pursue charges against Joe Biden over the current president’s handling of classified documents while out of office, Ramaswamy told ABC News on Wednesday.
His comments stand in stark contrast to current GOP front-runner Donald Trump, who promised in a speech after being arraigned on federal charges on Tuesday that, if he retakes the White House, he’ll “appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president and the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden.”
Ramaswamy, though, took another view.
“I think that as part of a broader vision of laying down arms, 360 degrees, that we’re agreeing to put the past in the past and we’re ready to move forward,” the 37-year-old entrepreneur said. “That would be my way of governing.”
Both Trump and Biden have been investigated by special counsels over their handling of government secrets while out of office. Some classified documents from Biden’s earlier time in office, before his presidency, were found in his personal possession. He has since returned the materials and said in January, “We’re fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly.”
While Ramaswamy is currently polling at the back of the crowded field of GOP primary candidates, he said Wednesday that he has been thinking about what his presidency would look like — in content and style.
He told ABC News that he plans to look beyond traditional party lines to lead, a perspective that he argues makes him “an outsider” among his Republican rivals.
“I’m using the Republican Party as a vehicle to advance a positive nationalist agenda,” he said. “I certainly don’t think either of the two major parties, including the Republican Party, are defined what they mean. I think it is on the table how we define them.”
Ramaswamy said he remains firm on his commitment to pardon Trump if elected — a pledge that has drawn criticism from some other Republicans in the 2024 race, with former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson calling it “offensive.”
Trump, who was arraigned in Florida on Tuesday afternoon, is charged with 37 counts including willful retention of national defense information and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He denies wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors allege he illegally retained government secrets after he left the White House and worked to avoid returning them when asked.
“If there was any evidence that he was actually selling those defense plans or nuclear secrets to our foreign enemies, my judgment is completely different. That is treason,” Ramaswamy said on Wednesday. “But my assumption is that that would have been an indictment if that were the case.”
Ramaswamy has been outspoken in his disapproval of Trump’s unprecedented federal indictment, calling Trump’s alleged actions “reflective of very poor judgment” but maintaining they are not unlawful.
“I would have made different judgments than he made, but a bad judgment is not the same thing as breaking the law,” Ramaswamy said.
Despite his vocal support of Trump, who is running to win the Republican presidential nomination over him, Ramaswamy insists he is still set on winning himself.
When asked if it would be a mistake for the party to nominate Trump, he said, “I’m running because I think this party should nominate me. I do think that we do need a leader who is … offering a vision of what we are running to. We can’t be running from something.”
(NEW YORK) — A grand jury has indicted former U.S. Marine Daniel Penny in connection with the chokehold death of Jordan Neely aboard a subway train, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The exact charges will not be unsealed until Penny appears in court at a later date, the sources said. Penny was initially arrested on a second-degree manslaughter charge.
Video showed Penny, 24, putting Neely in a chokehold on May 1. Several witnesses observed Neely making threats, assistant district attorney Joshua Steinglass told the judge.
Some witnesses told police that Neely was yelling and harassing passengers on the train, authorities said. Police sources told ABC News that Penny was not specifically being threatened by Neely when he intervened and that Neely had not become violent and had not been threatening anyone in particular.
Neely was homeless at the time of the incident.
Penny held Neely for several minutes, and at some point Neely stopped moving, but Penny continued to hold him for a period of time, Steinglass said. Penny remained on the scene to talk with police following the incident, Steinglass said.
The medical examiner determined Jordan Neely was killed by a chokehold and his death was ruled a homicide.
Steinglass said prosecutors conducted a “thorough investigation” that included interviews with eyewitnesses, 911 callers and responding officers before moving forward with the criminal charge. Penny turned himself in to police on May 12 following an announcement from the Manhattan district attorney’s office regarding charges. He has not yet entered a plea.
Neely, who was homeless at the time of his death, had a documented mental health history, according to police sources. Neely had been previously arrested for several incidents on the subway, though it’s unclear how many, if any, led to convictions.
Attorneys for Penny said in a past statement to ABC News that they “fully expect that Danny will be exonerated of all charges.”
Penny’s attorneys offered “condolences to those close to Mr. Neely” and claimed, “Mr. Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel,” and that the Marine veteran and others “acted to protect themselves” in an earlier statement.
Mayor Eric Adams released a statement Wednesday afternoon stating he appreciated the DA “conducting a thorough investigation into the death of Jordan Neely.”
“Like I said when the DA first brought charges, I have the utmost faith in the judicial process, and now that the grand jury has indicted Daniel Penny, a trial and justice can move forward,” the mayor said in his statement.
(BOUTE, La.) — A 28-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly posing as a 17-year-old student and attending a Louisiana high school throughout this school year, authorities said.
Martha Jessenia Gutierrez-Serrano, 28, who was placed in the ninth grade, allegedly pretended to be a teenager so she could learn English, St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne said at a news conference Wednesday.
“She was in school, she minded her own business, she did her schoolwork, she caused no trouble,” the sheriff said. “She wanted to learn English.”
Gutierrez-Serrano, 28, and her mother, Marta Elizeth Serrano-Alvarado, 46, both of Boutte, Louisiana, were each charged Tuesday with one count of injuring public records, the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
Serrano-Alvarado allegedly used a fraudulent passport and birth certificate to enroll her 28-year-daughter at Hahnville High School in Boutte during the 2022-2023 school year, according to the sheriff’s office.
Boute is about 25 miles west of New Orleans.
School officials launched an investigation after getting “a tip that a female student, who was on record as being 17 years old, was in fact an adult possibly in her mid 20’s,” the sheriff’s office said. School officials then relayed their findings to the authorities on May 29, the sheriff’s office said.
The fraudulent birth certificate, from Honduras, “looked just like a real birth certificate,” the sheriff said.
“Whether you’re a U.S. citizen, a foreign national, some type of immigrant — no matter what status — students are entitled a role in our public school system,” Champagne said. “Inquiring about their immigration status is not done.”
The mother, Serrano-Alvarado, had been in the U.S. for “a number of years” and had an expired visa, the sheriff said. Her daughter, Gutierrez-Serrano, arrived in the U.S. in fall 2021, and the sheriff said, based on a photo taken at that time, she could “very easily be taken for a young teenager.”
She “wanted to become proficient in English and perhaps further her education, which I think we can all be sympathetic with,” Champagne said. “Unfortunately, whether it was her decision or her mother’s decision, it’s certainly bad judgment to submit a falsified document to the government.”
The St. Charles Parish school district said in a statement it “will enhance processes to determine the authenticity of enrollment documents for current and future students as well as modify policy and procedures as warranted.”
(WASHINGTON) — As much of the nation on Tuesday watched news coverage of former President Donald Trump’s historic arraignment at a Miami courthouse, a panel of Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill were being riveted by something else: the testimony of a mother whose 26-year-old son, working as an asset protection officer, was fatally shot in April at a Home Depot in Pleasanton, California.
“The system failed my son,” an emotional Lorie Mohs told members of the House Judiciary Committee. “We will never have another family photo. We will never hear his laughter or feel his hugs. I will never get to say, ‘I love you.'”
According to lawmakers the “crushing,” “dastardly” and “horrific” story of how Mohs’ son, Blake, ended up being killed by an alleged thief is a jarring example of the surging threat from what authorities call organized retail crime, when groups of people steal high-dollar items from retailers to then sell those stolen goods online or elsewhere.
While this kind of theft has been around for years, retailers say it’s reached unprecedented levels and become increasingly violent. And federal law enforcement warns that brutal gangs, dangerous international crime syndicates, and even groups with suspected ties to terrorism are increasingly dabbling in it.
“These are not cases of simple shoplifting,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said.
“[We must] really quash this kind of retail crime,” added Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas.
Home Depot, where Blake worked, has been especially hit hard. In recent weeks, ABC News has investigated the growing issue, with in-depth reports featuring exclusive videos, rare interviews and an inside look at what Home Depot is trying to do about it.
But testifying to Congress on Tuesday, Mohs put some of the blame for her son’s death on Home Depot itself.
She recounted that in regular phone calls with her son before he was shot, Blake would tell her about the many thieves who pulled knives or guns on him and “I would ask if he’s been issued any bulletproof vests, pepper spray or safety gear.”
“He would … tell me, ‘No,'” she said. “As a mom, my concerns began to grow at the lack of [protective equipment] he had been issued by Home Depot. All of my concerns and fears were realized by one phone call.”
On April 18, a woman Blake confronted at work for allegedly stealing a tool charger “pulled out her gun from her purse and shot my son — in the heart, of all places,” Mohs testified Tuesday.
The alleged shooter and an alleged getaway driver have been arrested on murder charges in the case.
In a statement to ABC News, a spokeswoman for Home Depot called the killing of Mohs’ son a “senseless tragedy,” adding, “Blake was our associate and friend, and our hearts go out to his family and everyone who knew and loved him.”
The statement said: “The safety of our associates and customers is always our number one priority. The Home Depot offers extensive training and resources to all of our associates, with additional training for Asset Protection associates, and we’re constantly assessing what tools and training will keep people safest.”
On Tuesday, Mohs testified that “so many could have prevented [her son’s] death,” including the U.S. Labor Department, which she said could mandate that retailers provide protective equipment for asset protection workers, and local justice systems, which she said “failed” to rehabilitate Blake’s alleged killer over her lengthy criminal career.
Sitting beside Mohs on Tuesday, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican, agreed that many “factors” are “exacerbating this problem” of organized retail theft.
In particular, he said, a “huge number” of cases never get prosecuted “due to the lack of prosecutorial capacity at the county level,” which itself stems from “a shortage of criminal prosecuting attorneys across the country.”
“Many [district attorneys] simply have too large a stack of crimes” to focus on cases where no one is physically harmed or personally victimized. Similarly, local police departments “only have a limited number of detectives, [so] if you’ve got multiple stores getting hit multiple times each day, they don’t have the capacity to investigate all of them,” he said.
Even when local prosecutors do bring charges, there is “a lack of detention,” which allows criminals to strike retailers over and over again, Kobach added.
“In Kansas, the felony threshold is at $1,000, so you’ll typically see them stealing $900 or so in any given criminal event,” keeping them out of jail pending trial, Kobach said.
He said that — in terms of dollars stolen through organized retail crime — Kansas ranks among the top 10 states in the country, and that’s mainly because the I-70 corridor that runs from Kansas City west to Colorado “is a pipeline” for drugs, making it also a pipeline for organized retail crime.
People struggling with substance abuse issues are often targeted for recruitment by organized crime rings, which can provide them a source of money, Kobach said. People with mental illness are also frequently recruited, the head of the National District Attorneys Association, John Flynn, told lawmakers.
That’s why to effectively fight organized retail crime, it’s important to “address the issue holistically,” providing help to those who need substance abuse or mental health treatment and only using a “more law-and-order approach,” including arrest and incarceration, against those higher up in the crime rings, Flynn said.
Jackson Lee, the Texas congresswoman, noted that the true scope of organized retail theft has been hard to ascertain because there is no “consistent and comprehensive” data on it. In fact, she said, there isn’t even a “uniform definition” of what organized retail crime is, making it even harder to track and then tackle.
At times, Tuesday’s hearing was unmistakably political, with Republican lawmakers and the conservative witnesses they invited saying that “in some quarters” of the country, as Kobach put it, prosecutors with “a lack of respect for the rule of law” are unwilling to bring certain cases even when they can. He did not point to any specific inaction, but some retailers and other law enforcement officials have previously expressed similar concerns to ABC News.
On Tuesday, one Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, accused Republicans of being “very interested in retail crime, [but] not very interested in saving lives” through further gun regulations.
A Republican lawmaker on the committee, Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, criticized “woke” companies who now want help fighting retail theft and claimed Democrats are “why we are seeing the lawlessness.”
When Tiffany then asked Mohs, still grieving over her son’s death, to comment, Mohs balked, saying that “defunding police and things like that are not my expertise.”
“I only involve myself in this … with my son’s passing, unfortunately,” she said.
“Our hope is that our story helps this committee understand the importance and the urgency for change,” she told the lawmakers.
ABC News’ Erielle Reshef and Laura Romero contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Thirty million Americans are on alert for severe weather as tornadoes slam the South on Wednesday.
A tornado watch is in effect for Georgia and Alabama, where two tornadoes have already been reported, and severe thunderstorm watches have been issued for much of central Mississippi.
Wind gusts up to 90 mph and huge hail are also in the forecast.
The bull’s-eye will be from Jackson, Mississippi, to Montgomery, Alabama, to Albany, Georgia.
But the severe weather could stretch as far west as Dallas and as far east as Savannah, Georgia.
On Thursday, the threat for hail and winds will be in two pockets: one in Kansas and Oklahoma, and another along the Gulf Coast from Alabama to Florida.
The South is also facing dangerous heat.
On Tuesday, McAllen, Texas, hit a record high of 103 degrees.
On Wednesday afternoon the heat index — what temperature it feels like with humidity — could soar to 104 degrees in San Antonio, 105 in Houston and a scorching 114 in Corpus Christi, Texas.
By Saturday, the heat index is forecast to climb to a dangerous 108 degrees in Dallas and 111 degrees in San Antonio and Houston.
Sergi Reboredo/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
(BOSTON) — Five people, including a Harvard Medical School morgue manager, face federal charges after allegedly conspiring to steal and sell body parts from cadavers donated to the institution.
A federal grand jury indicted Cedric Lodge, 55, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, who managed the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School, with conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods charges for allegedly transporting and selling the human remains across multiple states between 2018 and 2022.
Cedric Lodge’s wife, Denise Lodge, 63, and two others — Katrina Maclean. 44, of Salem, Massachusetts, and Joshua Taylor, 46, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania — were also indicted on the same charges as part of an alleged conspiracy to “profit from the interstate shipment, purchase, and sale of stolen human remains,” the indictment stated.
A fifth man — Jeremy Pauley, 41, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania — was also indicted by a federal grand jury on conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods charges for allegedly purchasing and then selling human remains stolen from two medical schools, including Harvard’s.
The indictments, filed this week in the United States District Court Middle District of Pennsylvania, lay out an unsettling scheme involving the alleged theft and sale of human body parts — including brains, faces and skin — in multiple states, with transactions totaling in the tens of thousands of dollars.
As morgue manager at the Boston medical school, Cedric Lodge had access to the morgue and the donated cadavers, according to his indictment. He allegedly stole dissected portions of donated cadavers, including heads, brains, skin and bones, from the morgue and transported them to his home in New Hampshire, the indictment said. He also allegedly used his access to let Maclean and Taylor into the morgue to “choose what remains to purchase,” the indictment alleged.
Cedric Lodge and his wife allegedly communicated with others, including Maclean and Taylor, “through internet social media websites and cellular telephones regarding the sale of stolen human remains,” the indictment stated.
Among the transactions referenced in the indictment, Cedric Lodge and Maclean allegedly met at the morgue on Oct. 28, 2020, after Maclean agreed to purchase two “dissected faces” for $600 from him.
Maclean allegedly stored and sold stolen remains at her store, Kat’s Creepy Creations in Peabody, Massachusetts, as well as shipped to buyers in multiple states, including Pauley, according to the indictment.
In one instance, in 2021, Maclean allegedly shipped Pauley human skin to be tanned to create leather, and provided him with human skin as payment, according to the indictment. Maclean contacted Pauley to confirm the shipment arrived because she “wanted to make sure it got to you and I don’t expect agents at my door,” the indictment stated.
Taylor is also accused of buying remains stolen from Harvard Medical School and selling them to buyers including Pauley, according to the indictment.
Between September 2018 and July 2021, Taylor transferred 39 electronic payments to a PayPal account operated by Denise Lodge totaling $37,355.56 in “payment for human remains stolen by Cedric Lodge from Harvard Medical School,” the indictment stated. One $1,000 payment in 2019 was sent with the memo “head number 7,” while a $200 payment in 2020 had the memo “braiiiiiins,” according to the indictment.
Pauley allegedly transferred 25 payments totaling $40,049.04 to Taylor via PayPal, according to the indictment, which did not specify what the payments were for.
“Some crimes defy understanding,” U.S. Attorney Gerard Karam said in a statement. “It is particularly egregious that so many of the victims here volunteered to allow their remains to be used to educate medical professionals and advance the interests of science and healing. For them and their families to be taken advantage of in the name of profit is appalling. With these charges, we are seeking to secure some measure of justice for all these victims.”
ABC News has reached out to Harvard Medical School for comment. Karam said the school, “which is also a victim here,” is cooperating in the investigation.
FBI Boston special agents arrested Cedric and Denise Lodge and Maclean on Wednesday without incident, the FBI said. Online records do not include attorney information for them. ABC News was unable to reach them for comment.
Taylor entered a not guilty plea on Wednesday, court records show. His attorney declined to comment to ABC News on the allegations.
Pauley is also implicated in another alleged human remains trafficking scheme involving the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, according to his indictment.
He is accused of buying stolen remains from Candace Chapman Scott, who worked at a Little Rock mortuary and crematorium that had contracted with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences for cremation services for cadavers received through its anatomical gift program, according to the indictment.
Pauley is accused of advertising human remains for sale on Facebook and selling remains he purchased from Scott to buyers in various states, including Matthew Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota, according to his indictment. Pauley and Lampi allegedly bought and sold from each other over an extended period of time and exchanged over $100,000 in online payments, prosecutors allege.
Lampi was also indicted this week on conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods charges in connection with his alleged dealings with Pauley.
Online court records do not include any attorney information for Lampi and Pauley. ABC News was unable to reach them for comment.
Scott was previously indicted in the Eastern District of Arkansas. She pleaded not guilty in April to multiple charges, including interstate transportation of stolen property and mail fraud.
Actor/comedian Suzy Eddie Izzard and Downton Abbey’s Ed Speleers have joined the film Midas Man, the long-in-the-works biopic about The Beatles manager Brian Epstein, according to Variety.
Izzard has signed on to play Allan Williams, the band’s first manager, who went on to be known as “The Man Who Gave Away The Beatles.” Speleers will play Epstein’s love interest, Tex Ellington.
As previously reported, Midas Man is currently in post production and recently brought on its third director, Joe Stephenson, who directed the 2023 film Doctor Jekyll. He took over the project after Vinyl director Sara Sugarman left, reportedly due to creative differences and scheduling problems. She took over the project from Jonas Åkerlund, who left the project in 2021 following disagreements with producers.
The film stars The Queen’s Gambit’s Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Epstein, with four newcomers playing the Beatles— Jonah Lees as John Lennon, Blake Richardson as Paul McCartney, Leo Harvey-Elledge as George Harrison and Campbell Wallace as Ringo Starr. The cast also includes Emily Watson, Eddie Marsan and Jay Leno,who plays legendary talk show host Ed Sullivan.
(INDIANOLA, Miss.) — The attorney for Greg Capers, the Mississippi police officer who was suspended for shooting and injuring 11-year-old Aderrien Murry, says the May 20 incident was unintentional.
“The shooting was not intentional, it was not reckless, and [Capers] wishes none of this happened. It was a pure accident,” attorney Michael S. Carr told “GMA3” co-anchor DeMarco Morgan in an interview that aired on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.
Aderrien was shot in the chest by Capers in the early morning of May 20 after the boy called 911 when his mother’s ex-boyfriend showed up at their home. The boy’s mother, Nakala Murry, said she asked Aderrien to call police.
Following the shooting, Aderrien was rushed to the hospital where doctors discovered a bullet had collapsed his lung and cut his liver, according to the Murry family. Aderrien has since been released from the hospital.
Capers has not spoken publicly about the incident, instead speaking to ABC News through his attorney.
“Officer Capers is absolutely sorry. As to what happened to the young man is very, very sorry, and his feelings go out to the family,” Carr said.
Carr said that Capers has been with the Indianola Police Department for four years and was named officer of the year in 2021. He said that Capers “knew the child” prior to the incident because Indianola is a small town and he never wanted to hurt him.
Asked what led to the shooting, Carr declined to provide further details but called for the release of the body camera footage, claiming that it would clear the officer’s name.
Aderrien spoke about the harrowing experience in an exclusive interview with Morgan that aired on “GMA” and “GMA3” on May 30.
“I came out of the room like this,” Aderrien said with his hands above his head as he reflected on the incident in an interview with “GMA3” co-anchor DeMarco Morgan.
“It felt like a Taser, like a big punch to the chest,” he added.
Following the incident, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation.
Asked about the timeline of the investigation and the potential release of the body camera footage, the MBI told ABC News that this is an ongoing investigation and that the results will be turned over to the Mississippi Attorney General’s office. The state AG’s office did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Capers was initially suspended with pay, according to Indianola Mayor Ken Featherstone, but on Monday the Indianola Board of Aldermen voted 4-1 to suspend the officer “without pay effective immediately,” according to Alderman Marvin Elder of Ward 4.
Carr said that Capers found out about the suspension on social media and was not given due process.
“We wish that the city would have given us an opportunity to speak on the issue,” he said.
The officer’s suspension came after the Murry family filed both a federal civil lawsuit and a criminal complaint against the officer.
The criminal complaint for aggravated assault was filed against Capers on June 5 by Nakala Murry.
Carr said that the affidavit is “flawed and inaccurate” and the next step is a probable cause hearing scheduled for Oct. 2.
The Murry family also filed a federal lawsuit on May 30 against the city and police in Mississippi federal court on behalf of Aderrien and his mother. The lawsuit, which ABC News has reviewed, alleges that Capers arrived at the home with his firearm drawn and that he fired at Aderrien without warning as the boy emerged from the room.
“This is a claim for negligence and excessive force,” said the complaint, which named the city of Indianola, Capers, Police Chief Ronald Sampson and John Does.
The lawsuit said, “… as a result of the defendants’ deliberate indifference, reckless disregard and gross negligence, plaintiffs sustained injuries and damages.”
The Indianola Police Department and the city of Indianola did not respond to ABC News’ requests for comment. ABC News has also attempted to reach the two other officers named in the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Carr disputed the allegation that the shooting was “reckless” and called on the MBI to release the body camera video of the incident, which he claims will clear Capers’ name.
“[Officer Capers] is ready to have his name cleared,” Carr said.
Indianola Mayor Ken Featherstone addressed the “public outcry” over the incident in an interview with ABC News on May 30 and urged the residents of Indianola to remain “patient” as the MBI investigates.
Asked about a timeline for the release of the body camera video, Featherstone said that the city had a special meeting on the incident with the city aldermen and they decided not to release it yet due to “pending litigation.”
“We didn’t want to taint the process at all,” he said. “The board voted overwhelmingly to follow the advice of legal counsel.”
Featherstone didn’t immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on Capers’ comments Wednesday.
ABC News’ Armando Garcia contributed to this report.
