(TAMPA, Fla.) — Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Shaquil Barrett’s 2-year-old daughter has drowned in a swimming pool at the Pro Bowl player’s Tampa Bay residence.
The incident occurred at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning when officer’s arrived at the NFL player’s home after receiving a call reporting that a child had fallen into a swimming pool on the premises, according to a statement from the Tampa Police Department obtained by ESPN.
Barrett’s 2-year-old daughter, Arrayah Barrett, was subsequently taken to a local hospital but was pronounced dead a short time later despite life saving measures that were taken following the incident, authorities said.
“Today’s tragic news is heartbreaking for all members of the Buccaneers family. Our thoughts and prayers are with Shaq, Jordanna and the entire Barrett family during this unimaginably difficult time,” the Buccaneers said in a statement released on social media. “While no words can provide true comfort at a time such as this, we offer our support and love as they begin to process this very profound loss of their beloved Arrayah.”
While authorities did not disclose details around the circumstances of the drowning, they did confirm that the investigation remains open and that the incident was “purely accidental.”
“”It is not believed to be suspicious in nature at this time, but a purely accidental and tragic incident,” according to the Tampa Police Department’s statement obtained by ESPN.
Arrayah Bennett was the youngest of Shaquil Barrett’s four children in the family.
Shaquil Barrett, 30, is a two-time Super Bowl champion and two-time Pro Bowl player who has played for the Denver Broncos and is currently entering his fifth season playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2014 but would go on to lead the NFL in sacks with 19.5 in 2019. His 2022 season was cut short due to a torn Achilles tendon.
The Tampa Police Department said an investigation is ongoing.
(SEATTLE) — Two people were shot and killed at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle late Saturday, with another person transferred to a hospital in critical condition, police said.
Seattle Police Department officials said on Twitter at about 10:30 p.m. that they were investigating a shooting at the Capitol Hill park.
Officials arrived on the scene to find three people with gunshot injuries, according to a statement.
“Despite lifesaving efforts by police and Seattle Fire, one man was pronounced dead at the scene,” police said. “Medics transported the two other victims to Harborview Medical Center where one man later died, while the other remains in critical condition.”
Police said they were searching for another man “who was involved but left the scene before officers arrived.”
Seattle CSI and Homicide detectives will lead an investigation.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(KHARTOUM, Sudan) — As countries wind down mass evacuations of their nationals from war-torn Sudan and the White House warns time is running out, the United States has undertaken its first effort to move hundreds of Americans citizens out of Khartoum, the capital.
A government-organized convoy carrying U.S citizens, locally employed staff and nationals from allied and partner countries arrived at Port Sudan on Saturday, according to the State Department, which said Sunday that a second convoy had also arrived.
“We continue to assist U.S. citizens and others who are eligible with onward travel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where additional U.S. personnel are positioned to assist with consular and emergency services,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement on Sunday.
Almost 1,000 U.S. citizens have left Sudan since fighting broke out between Gens. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, Miller said Sunday.
“Fewer than 5,000 US citizens who have sought guidance from the government,” he said.
The State Department has stressed its commitment to American nationals amid the still-developing violence. According to Miller, the routes for exit have included partner-country flights and convoys as well as U.S.-organized travel and seats on departing ships.
A U.S. official confirmed on Sunday that the USNS Brunswick was in Port Sudan to help extricate Americans. The official later said the Navy vessel is expected to take them from Port Sudan to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“The U.S. government has taken extensive efforts to contact U.S. citizens in Sudan and enable the departure of those who wished to leave. We messaged every U.S. citizen in Sudan who communicated with us during the crisis and provided specific instructions about joining this convoy to those who were interested in departing via the land route,” the State Department said in a statement Saturday. “We encourage U.S. citizens who want to leave Sudan but chose not to participate in this convoy to contact the Department of State using the crisis intake form on our website.”
The evacuations have been enabled by “intensive negotiations by the United States with the support of our regional and international partners,” according to the State Department, which reiterated its warning to Americans not to travel to Sudan.
Later Saturday, the Pentagon confirmed it received a request for assistance, though it did not say whether it came from Sudan.
The Pentagon has provided intelligence and surveillance assets, including drones, a department spokesperson said.
“The Secretary of Defense approved a request for assistance from the Department of State to support the safe departure of U.S. citizens and their immediate family members via overland. The Department of Defense deployed U.S. intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets to support air and land evacuation routes, which Americans are using, and we are moving naval assets within the region to provide any necessary support along the coast. Our focus has been and remains to help as many U.S. citizens depart as safely as possible,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in a statement.
On Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre advised that Americans in Sudan who wished to leave should “take advantage of the options that are available to them in the next 24 to 48 hours.”
Although countries like Saudi Arabia and Spain started evacuating their citizens and other foreign nationals from Sudan in the early days of the week and the U.S. airlifted diplomats from Khartoum over the weekend, the administration maintained that carrying out a large-scale operation to rescue some of the thousands of American citizens residing in Sudan was not feasible.
The U.K., Germany and France have all also evacuated thousands.
But not all operations have gone smoothly. On Friday, Turkey reported that one of its aircraft had come under fire as it landed in Khartoum — underscoring the threat that ongoing fighting poses to air rescues.
Before news of the U.S.-led convoys broke, the State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, Vedant Patel, defended the administration’s posture and said it had played a hand in the mass evacuations orchestrated by other countries.
“Our allies and partners that are conducting operations that are able to also take American citizens out–we of course, are incredibly thankful and gracious for their ability to do so. But this is a collective and collaborative effort,” he said. “We are offering logistical support for some of these operations to be conducted. Whether they be overland, whether they be through the air.”
Patel also said that “only a fraction” of the thousands of U.S. citizens in Sudan had actively sought assistance to leave the country.
Other officials familiar with the situation have said it’s unclear how much demand there is from American nationals for an exit route, emphasizing that individual’s desire to leave can change on a day-by-day basis.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that the State Department was working to establish “a sustained process” through which Americans could depart Sudan.
“We believe that the best way to have an enduring capability to help people leave Sudan–if that’s what they so choose–is overland. And we’re working to establish a process that would enable people to move overland to a place where they can more easily exit the country,” Blinken said.
At least two American citizens were among the 500-plus killed in in the sectarian violence that first erupted two weeks ago, which has injured thousands more.
Although the U.S. had assisted in brokering a number of cease-fires in Sudan, their implementation has been uneven. While both sides agreed to another 72-hour truce on Friday, there’s little hope it will hold.
“It’s obvious to everybody that the ceasefires are not perfectly working,” a U.S. official said. “But we are hearing from multiple contacts on the ground, as well as our international partners, that the series of efforts to push forward ceasefires are creating meaningful periods of reduction of violence and that these periods are allowing people to move out of Khartoum.”
But as more foreign nationals leave, there’s looming concern in Sudan that the battle for control over the country will catapult to new intensity.
“There’s going to be fewer eyes on what’s happening,” said Jon Temin, vice president for policy and programs at the Truman Center for National Policy.
(CLEVELAND, Texas) — Authorities are continuing the search for the suspect connected to an “execution-style” shooting that killed five family members in Texas, including an 8-year-old boy.
The carnage began Friday night after neighbors asked the suspect, Francisco Oropesa, 38, to stop shooting his gun in the yard of his home in Cleveland, Texas, about 50 miles north of Houston, investigators said.
The San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office received a call around 11:31 p.m. Friday detailing harassment, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told reporters on Sunday. When deputies arrived at the home, they found five victims at the property, Capers said.
Three minors who were found uninjured but covered in blood were transported to a local hospital, authorities said. Two of the female victims were discovered in the bedroom lying on top of two surviving children, authorities told ABC News.
All of the victims are from Honduras, police said.
Oropesa is still on the loose and likely armed with an AR-15-style rifle. He is a “threat to the community,” FBI Houston field office agent James Smith told reporters during a press briefing on Saturday.
The FBI has “zero leads” on where Oropesa could be, Smith said Sunday while announcing an $80,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
“We do not know where he is,” Smith told reporters during a press briefing. “We don’t have any tips right now to where he may be.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a $50,000 reward later Sunday. “I continue working with state & local officials to ensure all available resources are deployed to respond,” he tweeted.
The neighbors had asked the suspect to stop shooting his gun in the front yard because there was a baby trying to sleep, Capers told ABC Houston station KTRK.
Oropesa, who allegedly had been drinking, responded, “I’ll do what I want to in my front yard,” Capers said.
The massacre went from a case of harassment to a shooting very quickly, Capers said. All of the victims were shot from the neck up, “almost execution-style,” Capers told KTRK.
The victims were identified by authorities as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman, 8. Five other people who were in the home were not harmed.
Footage from a Ring doorbell at the victims’ house shows the shooter entering the home with a weapon, Capers said.
Four of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene. The youngest, an 8-year-old boy, was declared dead after being transported to the hospital, police said.
Some of the victims were trying to shield their children from the bullets, Capers said.
Shell casings were found in Oropesa’s front yard, police said.
Wilson Garcia, who owns the home, told KTRK that the family was preparing a meal when Oropesa began shooting on his property.
Garcia told KTRK he moved in three years ago and “never had a problem” with his neighbor until Friday. Garcia’s wife and young son were among the victims killed in the shooting.
“I don’t have words to describe what happened,” Garcia said during a vigil Sunday. “It’s like we’re alive but not living. What happened was really horrible. I lived through it because I was there. I managed to escape by miracle.”
“Two people died protecting my 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter and my month-and-a-half-old son,” an emotional Garcia continued. “They protected him with a pile of clothes so the killer wouldn’t kill them, too.”
Garcia said he was in the house at the time of the shooting and escaped by climbing out of a window. Garcia said a woman in the house who told him to get out of the window was one of the people who died.
“She told me to jump through the window because my kids are now without a mother and one of us needed to stay alive to take care of them,” he said.
“What can I say, I’m trying to be strong for my kids,” Garcia said. “My daughter somewhat understands, and it’s difficult when she starts to ask for her mom and her brother.”
During Sunday’s vigil, Garcia said his son was 9 years old; authorities have said the boy was 8. Some of Garcia’s remarks also differed from his previous account when he spoke to KTRK.
Neighbor Veronica Pineda told KTRK that she had grown accustomed to neighbors shooting firearms in the area.
“There’s always shooting,” she told the station. “There’s always people calling the cops and there’s nothing being done.”
Another neighbor named Shawn told ABC News that the tight-knit neighborhood is typically “peaceful” and described the victims as “good people.”
“It is a shock that this took place in our neighborhood,” he said.
Investigators described Oropesa as a 5-foot-8 Hispanic man with a goatee and short black hair. He was last seen wearing jeans, a black shirt and work boots.
Authorities believe they have the weapon used in the attack, a .223 rifle, but do not know if Oropesa is carrying a smaller weapon, Capers said.
Investigators have found Oropesa’s abandoned cellphone and several articles of clothing, Capers said.
The San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI’s Houston Field Office are assisting in the manhunt.
ABC News’ Peter Charalambous, Nadine El-Bawab, Meredith Deliso, Jon Haworth, Nicholas Kerr, Jamie McCarty, Gina Sunseri, Armando García, Marilyn Heck, Teddy Grant and Michelle Mendez contributed to this report.
(BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss.) — Two teenagers were killed and at least four others were wounded when a gunman opened fire early Sunday at a house party in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, police said.
One suspect, identified as 19-year-old Cameron Everest Brand, was arrested on six counts of aggravated assault. Following Brand’s arrest, two of the shooting victims died, according to the Bay St. Louis Police Department.
The shooting unfolded around 12:34 a.m. Sunday at a house in the Gulf Coast town about 30 miles west of Biloxi.
“Upon arrival, multiple persons were found suffering from gunshot wounds,” Bay St. Louis Police Chief J. Toby Schwartz said in a statement.
He said two of the victims, an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old, were taken to University Medical Center in New Orleans, where they were pronounced dead. Their names were not immediately released.
Schwartz said the other victims, all between 15 and 18 years old, were taken by private cars to nearby hospitals. One victim remains in critical condition and three others are in serious condition, police said.
“Through a thorough investigation, including witness and victim statements, Cameron Brand was identified as the sole shooter,” Schwartz said.
Brand was taken into custody at his home in the nearby town of Pass Christian, Mississippi, after police obtained an arrest warrant for him, Schwartz said. Everest was jailed without bail.
A motive for the shooting was under investigation Sunday.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
LA Angels 3, Milwaukee 0
Oakland 5, Cincinnati 4
Houston 4, Philadelphia 3
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Boston 7, Cleveland 1
Baltimore 5, Detroit 3
Seattle 10, Toronto 8
Minnesota 8, Kansas City 4
Texas 15, NY Yankees 2
Chi White Sox 12, Tampa Bay 9
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Atlanta at NY Mets (Postponed)
Miami 4, Chi Cubs 3
Washington 7, Pittsburgh 2
Colorado 12, Arizona 4
LA Dodgers 6, St. Louis 3
San Diego 6, San Francisco 4
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Miami 108, New York 101 (Miami leads 1-0)
Golden State 120, Sacramento 100 (Golden State wins 4-3)
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Florida 4 Boston 3 (OT) (Florida wins 4-3)
Seattle 2 Colorado 1 (Seattle wins 4-3)
This weekend, the biggest stars in country music descended on Indio, California for one of the biggest festivals of them all: Stagecoach.
Luke Bryan headlined Friday night’s show, one he’s been playing for more than a decade at this point.
“I’ve been doing Stagecoach for, I guess, probably 10-plus years now,” he tells ABC Audio, “and always am amazed, when I grew up in South Georgia that I could come all the way across the country and really play music that really speaks to people in all corners of the USA.”
“And the main thing is just being out there in front of the fans is what we do all this work for, and it’s pretty special,” he continues. “And to have watched this festival grow [to] 80-plus thousand people out there, it’s pretty special stuff.”
First-timer Riley Green was excited just to get to join the party.
“It was definitely sort of validating to even get invited to this, you know, regardless of where you play or what your time slot is,” he confesses. “But we’ve got such a great time slot on the main stage. And, you know, seeing all the other great artists that are playing here, it just, you can tell it’s a big deal.”
How much fun do the fans have at festivals like this? Well, Riley was prepared to go home with some new stories.
“This is my first Stagecoach, so I would imagine that that answer will change after the set tonight…” he predicted. “I’ve seen a lot of beer go flying at shows. And it’s just a lot of rowdy country music fans and, you know, this is kind of the first concert of the summer, so that’ll be pretty exciting.”
Kane Brown topped the bill on Saturday, while Chris Stapleton closed things out on Sunday.
Shaquille O’Neal‘s gearing up for his return to rap, which will officially take place on May 2. That day, he’ll release his new song “King Talk” featuring Ghanian American rapper Blackway, in celebration of the NBA Playoffs.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the song was first teased on Shaq’s socials back in February as he celebrated LeBron James for becoming NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
Shaq released his Platinum debut album, Shaq Diesel, in 1993 and has worked with the likes of The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Lord Tariq and more. His song with Biggie, Jay and Nas, “No Love Lost,” was never dropped because of clearance issues.
“People didn’t clear it, but I didn’t take it personal,” Shaq previously told Drink Champs. “Me being in the studio with Nas, I’m happy. I get to call my boy and say, ‘Come over, Nas here.’ I get to call my boy and say, ‘Jay in here.’ I get to call my boys and say, ‘Yo, Biggie at the house he ’bout to jump in the seat.’ That’s what it’s all about.”
Shinedown has announced a new vinyl repressing of the band’s 2008 album, The Sound of Madness.
The clear LP will be released May 26 as part of Atlantic Records’ 75th anniversary vinyl collection. You can preorder your copy now via Shinedown’s web store.
The Sound of Madness is Shinedown’s third album and spawned the singles “Second Chance,” “Devour,” “If Only You Knew,” “The Crow & the Butterfly” and the title track. It will celebrate its 15th anniversary in June.
Shinedown’s latest album, Planet Zero, dropped last July. They’re currently supporting the record on their Revolutions Live tour.
John Fogerty kicked off his Celebration Tour last week, marking his first tour since regaining the worldwide rights to his Creedence Clearwater Revival songs. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer fought for 55 years to get those rights back, and he’s learned some big lessons along the way.
So, what would he say to young artists who are so eager to get a deal that they’d be willing to sign any contract?
“Don’t do it,” he tells ABC Audio. “I know you think you’re going to write another great song tomorrow and it doesn’t matter, but it’s really an abomination that somehow at the moment, you’re writing this masterpiece of yours down on paper, it’s now whisked away from you and it gets to be owned by someone else. That’s just a tragedy.”
Of course, it’s easy for young artists to get discouraged if nothing’s happening in their career, but Fogerty urges them not to be too eager.
“I would sure tell a young person, look, if you have the talent, it’s going to come through no matter when you decide to let it shine,” he says. “And doing it with a gun to your head is really a poor outcome for you because you don’t want to end up doing what I had to do (which was) fight for my rights for, you know, 50 years or longer.”
He notes, “There’s so many more positive things that you should be doing with music.”
Fogerty’s Celebration Tour picks up again on May 6 in Pomona, California. A complete list of tour dates can be found JohnFogerty.com.
