Becky G‘s fiancé Sebastian Lletget is issuing a public apology amid rumors that he cheated.
Taking to Instagram on Monday, the soccer star, 30, shared a lengthy statement, noting that there’s a “reality I’ve hit from everyone around me.”
“Over the last few weeks, during a moment I regret deeply, a 10 minute lapse in judgment resulted in an extortion plot,” he wrote in the post, which comes just days after he was accused of being unfaithful to Becky, 26. “Since this person did not get what they wanted it has now become a public social media spectacle filled with more lies than any truth and false posts aimed at the love of my life, the one person who I should never take for granted or put at risk.”
Lletget went on to say that the incident was “a wake-up call” and “the loudest alarm” of his life.
“I can’t keep running from demons. I know that any actions made that put us here should have never happened to begin with,” he continued, before sharing that he has decided to commit himself to a “mental wellness program” to work on the parts of himself that “deeply need healing.”
Speaking directly to the “Shower” singer, he added, “To Becky, you have been the light of my life, my strength, who has always shown me unconditional love. Instead of honoring that love every day, I have done the opposite, hurting you and disrespecting the one person that I love more than anything. I am so sorry and know I have to do whatever it takes to earn back the trust and love you deserve.”
The apology comes more than three months after the couple, who have been dating since 2016, announced their engagement.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Authorities are searching for answers after a shooter killed six people at a private Christian elementary school in Tennessee’s capital city on Monday morning.
The suspect — identified as Audrey Hale, 28, of Nashville — had a detailed map of the Covenant School and allegedly shot through the door to gain entry before gunning down three students and three staff members, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. A motive remains unknown.
“We have not been able to determine a motive as of yet. The investigation is still very much ongoing,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake told ABC News in an interview Tuesday on Good Morning America.
The slain children were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9 years old. The deceased adults were identified as 61-year-old substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61-year-old custodian Mike Hill and 60-year-old Katherine Koonce, who was head of the school, police said.
The suspect was armed with at least two assault-style rifles as well as a handgun. At least two of those weapons were purchased legally and locally, according to police.
About 14 minutes after the initial 911 call came in, officers shot and killed the suspect in a lobby area on the second floor of the school, police said.
Investigators believe the suspect was a former student. The suspect had a map “of how this was all going to take place” as well as “writings,” and it appears the shooting was a targeted attack, according to Drake.
Drake had told reporters that the suspect was female and identified as transgender but didn’t immediately provide more details. A police spokesperson later told ABC News that the suspect was assigned female at birth but pointed to a social media account linked to the suspect that included the use of the pronouns he/him.
The Covenant School is for students in preschool through sixth grade. There are about 209 students and 40 to 50 staff members. It does not have a school resource officer, police said.
(NEW YORK) — A fire broke out at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Monday, killing at least 39 people, officials said in a statement.
The fire started at about 10 p.m. on Monday at the Instituto Nacional de Migración, Mexico’s Institute of Migration said early Tuesday. The center houses migrants near the Puente Internacional Lerdo Stanton bridge to El Paso, Texas.
Sixty-eight men from Central and South America had been housed in the facility, officials said. The dead were all migrants, according to the statement.
Another 29 migrants were injured, some seriously, and were transferred to four local hospitals, the statement said.
(NEW YORK) — Just as the school week began across the country Monday, news broke that another school shooting was unfolding in the United States.
On Monday morning, according to officials, three children and three staff members were shot and killed at the Covenant School, a private Christian school for students in preschool through sixth grade, in Nashville, Tennessee.
The suspect was shot and killed by authorities inside the school. No one who was shot survived, officials said.
The deadly shooting is one of the nearly 130 mass shootings that have taken place so far this year in the U.S., according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are shot or killed, not including the shooter.
The Nashville school shooting is now also on the long list of school shootings that have taken place in the past decade, since the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that claimed the lives of 20 students and six educators.
With each school shooting, the number of people affected by school shootings grows, as do the conversations parents and caregivers must have with kids about the reality of gun violence in the U.S.
Read on to see five tips from experts on how to discuss school shootings with kids:
1. Be proactive in talking with kids.
ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said last July — shortly after 19 students and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — that topics like school shootings should be discussed with kids in a proactive way.
“The first step is to make an age-appropriate dialogue, open lines of communication with your child,” Ashton said, later adding, “We shouldn’t sit back and wait for them to come up and say, ‘Mom, Dad, I’d like to talk about gun violence.'”
She continued, “We’re going to need to take the first step and come to them early and often and say, ‘What are you thinking about? What are you afraid of? What questions do you have?'”
Ashton also encouraged parents and caregivers to lead with honesty and transparency and to not be afraid to say “I don’t have an answer” or to share their feelings.
If an adult doesn’t have an answer, Ashton recommended they use dialogue like, “I don’t have an answer to that but I’ll help you find it.”
And if an adult has fear after a school shooting as children often do, Ashton said they can reassure a child by saying, “I know you’re scared, so am I, but let me tell you what your teachers and what your parents and community are trying to do to help you stay safe.”
2. Be truthful about what happened.
Dr. Melissa Brymer, director of terrorism and disaster programs at the UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, said parents and caregivers should be truthful with kids about school shootings that happen, but in an age-appropriate way.
“As hard as it is, we need to be truthful about what happened,” Brymer told ABC News last year. “And make sure we answer kids questions truthfully.”
She continued, “For our young kids, they don’t need to have all the details. Many times they’re going to be worried about their safety, your safety as a parent or caregiver or their family members’ safety, so we want to reiterate what’s being done to help them right now.”
Brymer said parents should be prepared for teenagers to want a “much more in-depth conversation.”
“How do we talk about what this event has meant that might have impacted our value system?” Brymer said of a potential conversation starter with a teen. “Can you encourage your kids to think about is there a club or some type of activity that they can do within their schools to show and create change? In these times, many of us start to feel lonely. How do we reach out to those that might not have someone in their life?”
3. Reach out to others for support.
Brymer also suggested parents and caregivers take a “pause” to think about how an event like a school shooting affects their own emotions so they can be ready to talk to their kids.
“Sometimes we don’t have the words right away,” Brymer said. “We might need to reach out to our own support systems and have those conversations, and then we can have them with our kids.”
If a child’s stress levels or response to a mass shooting are hard to manage, experts say parents and caregivers shouldn’t hesitate to seek guidance from their pediatrician, a school counselor, social worker or other mental health experts. Parents should also seek out professional mental health help if they are struggling.
4. Keep an eye out for changes in kids’ behaviors.
Psychiatrist and author Dr. Janet Taylor said children may respond to disturbing news about mass shootings in different ways, and parents and caregivers should pay attention to see if their child’s behaviors change.
Children may experience problems focusing, have difficulty sleeping or become more irritable, according to Taylor.
“If you have younger children and they suddenly get more clingy or want to sleep in bed with you, pay attention to that and cuddle them as they need it,” Taylor told ABC’s Good Morning America in 2022. “Older kids may become more isolated or feel that they have to solve things by themselves.”
5. Remember to check-in with kids.
Instead of discussing a school shooting only once, Robin Gurwitch, a licensed clinical psychologist and Duke University professor, said it’s crucial to continue the conversation over time.
“A one-and-done conversation is not sufficient,” Gurwitch told ABC News in 2018, after 17 students and teachers were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. “Let your child or teenager know that ‘I really do care about you and I am open to having this discussion.'”
She continued, “It is really important to check back in tomorrow, to check back in the next day, to find out, ‘What are your friends talking about related to this school shooting?'”
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network offers comprehensive resource guides for parents, caregivers and educators to support students. Click here for resources related to school shootings.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call or text the national lifeline at 988. Even if you feel like it, you are not alone.
(WASHINGTON) — A staffer for Sen. Rand Paul was stabbed and seriously injured in Washington, D.C., on Saturday and a suspect has since been arrested, according to police and Paul’s office.
“This past weekend a member of my staff was brutally attacked in broad daylight in Washington, D.C.,” Paul, R-Ky,. said in a statement to ABC News on Monday. “I ask you to join [wife] Kelley and me in praying for a speedy and complete recovery, and thanking the first responders, hospital staff, and police for their diligent actions.”
Paul’s office has not publicly identified the staffer.
According to a police report obtained by ABC News, officers first responded Saturday around 5:15 p.m. to a call about a stabbing on the 1300 block of H Street Northeast in the district.
The victim was treated on the scene for “stab wounds” and was seen by a witness “bleeding from the head,” the report states.
According to one of two witnesses cited in the report, the suspect had “popped out of the corner” and stabbed the Paul staffer multiple times as he and the witness were walking. The victim “was able to grab [the suspect’s] arms” and the witness with him tackled the suspect, “leading to a struggle between the parties,” the report states. Then, the victim and the witness ran as the suspect fled.
The first witness shouted to another about what was happening and that person called the authorities while they aided the victim, according to the report.
On Monday, D.C. police said that 42-year-old Glynn Neal, a D.C. resident, was arrested later on Saturday and had been charged with assault with intent to kill, wielding a knife, in connection with the attack. Court filings state that he has told officers he heard a voice was going to get him before the attack occurred.
Paul’s staffer was hospitalized “for treatment of life-threatening injuries,” police said, but further information about his condition was not available.
“We are relieved to hear the suspect has been arrested. At this time we would ask for privacy so everyone can focus on healing and recovery,” Paul said in his statement.
Neal appeared in court on Monday and remains held without bond.
A public defender representing him did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — A shooter armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun killed three students and three staff members at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday morning, authorities said.
The suspect, identified by police as Audrey Hale, 28, of Nashville, had a detailed map of Covenant School, a school for students in preschool through sixth grade, and allegedly shot through the door to gain entry to the school, police said.
The children were identified by Nashville police as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9 years old. The slain adults were identified as Cynthia Peak, 61; Mike Hill, 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60, who was the head of the school, according to police.
Peak was a substitute teacher and Hill was a custodian, according to investigators.
The suspect was shot and killed by authorities in a lobby area on the second floor of the school roughly 14 minutes after the 911 call was placed, according to police.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake had said the suspect was female and identified as transgender but didn’t immediately provide more details. A police spokesperson later told ABC News the shooter was assigned female at birth but pointed to a social media account linked to the shooter that included the use of the pronouns he/him.
Drake also said authorities believe the suspect was a former student.
No one who was shot survived, officials said.
Drake said he “was literally moved to tears to see” the young students as they were “ushered out of the building.”
The suspect was armed with at least two assault-type rifles and a handgun, officials said. At least two of those weapons were purchased legally, investigators said.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department on Monday night released images of three weapons, as well as footage of the suspect driving and parking at the building, allegedly shooting through the door and walking around inside the facility while holding a gun.
The suspect had a map “of how this was all going to take place,” and writings, according to Drake. It appears the shooting was a targeted attack, according to the chief.
Authorities said the suspect entered the school through a side entrance and went from the first floor to the second floor, firing multiple shots. It appears all the doors were locked and the suspect allegedly shot through a door, officials said.
The shooting was reported at 10:13 a.m. and the suspect was dead by 10:27 a.m., according to police. The officers who fatally shot the suspect were later identified by police as Rex Englebert, a four-year veteran of the force, and Michael Collazo, a nine-year veteran of the MNPD.
A car found near the school helped authorities identify the suspect, and authorities responded to the suspect’s home, Drake said.
Police later announced that they seized “a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other evidence” from the home.
In a statement Monday night, the Covenant School said its community “is heartbroken.”
“We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our church and school,” the statement read, in part. “We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing.”
Throughout the day and afternoon, students were reunited with concerned parents. Families of the staff said they were shocked with the violence that had transpired.
Alex Apple told ABC News Live that his mother works at the school’s front desk, and she was at her car when she got an alert saying to shelter in place.
“She got out of her car, heard the gunshots, so she fled,” he said.
The school has about 209 students and about 40 to 50 staff members, officials said. Police said the school does not have a school resource officer.
President Joe Biden called the shooting “a family’s worst nightmare.”
The president once again urged Congress to pass an assault weapons ban, saying, “It’s about time that we begin to make some more progress.” Biden ordered flags at half-staff through Friday to honor the victims.
First lady Jill Biden said Monday, “I am truly without words. Our children deserve better.”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee tweeted that he’s “closely monitoring the tragic situation.”
“Please join us in praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community,” Lee said.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper thanked first responders for their swift action and called on Nashville residents to reach out and help one another.
“In this dark hour let us support each other,” he said during a news conference.
Tennessee state Rep. Bo Mitchell spoke to Linsey Davis on ABC News Live Prime on Monday night, saying: “My two teenage boys leave, and with every expectation, I expect them to come home in the afternoon. We’ve got three parents tonight; their children did not get to come home today and it is sad.”
Mitchell said he spent hours with students’ parents on Monday, who wanted him and his colleagues to take action.
“Not a single parent asked me for a thought or a prayer,” he said. “They asked for me and my colleagues to have some courage and do something about this.”
Some parents took to social media in the wake of the Covenant School shooting to express their frustration of yet another mass shooting.
Kimberly Garcia, who lost her daughter, Amerie Jo Garza, in the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, tweeted, “When is enough going to be enough?”
“6 more innocent lives TAKEN? But it’s not the guns right ? Wake up people,” she wrote.
Lives Robbed, a group made up of some Uvalde victims’ families advocating for changes in gun laws around the country, also tweeted their support for the Nashville families who lost loved ones Monday.
“We are with you. This is why we fight for change,” the group tweeted.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — A shooter armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun killed three students and three staff members at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday morning, authorities said.
The suspect, identified by police as Audrey Hale, 28, of Nashville, had a detailed map of Covenant School, a school for students in preschool through sixth grade, and allegedly shot through the door to gain entry to the school, police said.
The children were identified by Nashville police as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9 years old. The slain adults were identified as Cynthia Peak, 61; Mike Hill, 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60, who was the head of the school, according to police.
Peak was a substitute teacher and Hill was a custodian, according to investigators.
The suspect was shot and killed by authorities in a lobby area on the second floor of the school roughly 14 minutes after the 911 call was placed, according to police.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake had said the suspect was female and identified as transgender but didn’t immediately provide more details. A police spokesperson later told ABC News the shooter was assigned female at birth but pointed to a social media account linked to the shooter that included the use of the pronouns he/him.
Drake also said authorities believe the suspect was a former student.
No one who was shot survived, officials said.
Drake said he “was literally moved to tears to see” the young students as they were “ushered out of the building.”
The suspect was armed with at least two assault-type rifles and a handgun, officials said. At least two of those weapons were purchased legally, investigators said.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department on Monday night released images of three weapons, as well as footage of the suspect driving and parking at the building, allegedly shooting through the door and walking around inside the facility while holding a gun.
The suspect had a map “of how this was all going to take place,” and writings, according to Drake. It appears the shooting was a targeted attack, according to the chief.
Authorities said the suspect entered the school through a side entrance and went from the first floor to the second floor, firing multiple shots. It appears all the doors were locked and the suspect allegedly shot through a door, officials said.
The shooting was reported at 10:13 a.m. and the suspect was dead by 10:27 a.m., according to police. The officers who fatally shot the suspect were later identified by police as Rex Englebert, a four-year veteran of the force, and Michael Collazo, a nine-year veteran of the MNPD.
A car found near the school helped authorities identify the suspect, and authorities responded to the suspect’s home, Drake said.
Police later announced that they seized “a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other evidence” from the home.
In a statement Monday night, the Covenant School said its community “is heartbroken.”
“We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our church and school,” the statement read, in part. “We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing.”
Throughout the day and afternoon, students were reunited with concerned parents. Families of the staff said they were shocked with the violence that had transpired.
Alex Apple told ABC News Live that his mother works at the school’s front desk, and she was at her car when she got an alert saying to shelter in place.
“She got out of her car, heard the gunshots, so she fled,” he said.
The school has about 209 students and about 40 to 50 staff members, officials said. Police said the school does not have a school resource officer.
President Joe Biden called the shooting “a family’s worst nightmare.”
The president once again urged Congress to pass an assault weapons ban, saying, “It’s about time that we begin to make some more progress.” Biden ordered flags at half-staff through Friday to honor the victims.
First lady Jill Biden said Monday, “I am truly without words. Our children deserve better.”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee tweeted that he’s “closely monitoring the tragic situation.”
“Please join us in praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community,” Lee said.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper thanked first responders for their swift action and called on Nashville residents to reach out and help one another.
“In this dark hour let us support each other,” he said during a news conference.
Tennessee state Rep. Bo Mitchell spoke to Linsey Davis on ABC News Live Prime on Monday night, saying: “My two teenage boys leave, and with every expectation, I expect them to come home in the afternoon. We’ve got three parents tonight; their children did not get to come home today and it is sad.”
Mitchell said he spent hours with students’ parents on Monday, who wanted him and his colleagues to take action.
“Not a single parent asked me for a thought or a prayer,” he said. “They asked for me and my colleagues to have some courage and do something about this.”
Some parents took to social media in the wake of the Covenant School shooting to express their frustration of yet another mass shooting.
Kimberly Garcia, who lost her daughter, Amerie Jo Garza, in the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, tweeted, “When is enough going to be enough?”
“6 more innocent lives TAKEN? But it’s not the guns right ? Wake up people,” she wrote.
Lives Robbed, a group made up of some Uvalde victims’ families advocating for changes in gun laws around the country, also tweeted their support for the Nashville families who lost loved ones Monday.
“We are with you. This is why we fight for change,” the group tweeted.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — The shooter who attacked students and teachers at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday was identified by police as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who law enforcement said may have once attended the school.
A website that appears to be associated with Hale indicates that Hale was a Nashville-based graphic designer and illustrator who created logos and branding to “help tell a company’s story” and “bring a whimsical and light-hearted feel.”
A police spokesperson told ABC News that Hale was assigned female at birth, and pointed to a social media account linked to Hale that included use of the pronouns he/him.
In a brief phone interview with ABC News, Hale’s mother, Norma Hale, said, “It is very, very difficult right now” for the family, before asking for privacy.
“I think I lost my daughter today,” she said.
A neighbor of the family told ABC News that Audrey Hale lived at the family’s home with Hale’s parents, who the neighbor described as “very nice” and “very religious.”
Hale graduated from Nashville’s Nossi College of Art & Design in 2022, school president and CEO Cyrus Vatandoost confirmed to ABC News.
“While at our school, she was a talented artist and a good student,” Vatandoost said of Hale. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family, to the victims and their families and to our city.”
A post on the school’s Facebook that has since been removed indicated that Hale earned at least one award for strong academic performance.
“Aside from art, I enjoy binging on video games, watching movies, and playing sports,” Hale wrote on a personal website. “There is a child-like part about me that loves to go run to the playground. Animals are my second passion, so I also enjoy spending time with my two cats.”
Hale’s LinkedIn account also lists work as a part-time grocery shopper with the food delivery service Shipt and mentions past employment as a cat sitter.
Founded in 2001, the Covenant School is a private Presbyterian school in Nashville with some 200 students in pre-K through sixth grade, according to the school’s website.
With a career spanning over two decades, and numerous hit singles and accolades, Miranda Lambert is undeniably one of country music’s biggest female superstars. While she’s blazed her own trail, the “Kerosene” singer has also been a trailblazer for many of the genre’s up-and-coming female artists.
To celebrate Women’s History Month, Miranda recently spoke with the press to share words of advice and her hopes for “the next generation of women in country music.”
“I just hope that they know that they’re heard and seen, and my biggest wish is that everybody will just be real and be themselves,” Miranda said. “And, you know, it’s hard with all the noise that’s around with social media and everything else to find your confidence.”
“Sometimes you find yourself confused comparing yourself to other people and what they’re doing, what their life is, but I really believe in just standing strong in who you are to the core,” she added.
Miranda’s latest studio album is 2022’s Palomino. The 15-song collection, which includes the singles “If I Was a Cowboy” and “Strange,” served as her final record with her longtime label home, Sony Music Nashville.
Lola Brooke‘s dreams are becoming a reality, thanks to her viral hit “Don’t Play With It.” She teamed up with fellow Brooklyn rapper Billy B for the song, but says she’s surprised by how quickly it took off.
“I always felt that ‘Don’t Play With It’ was special, but I didn’t think it was that special!” she tells Complex. “And for it to take off, probably like the next year and a half, almost two years, it’s wild to me.”
She noted she “never gave up on a record … because it was my music and I put it out for a reason.”
“I’m supposed to stay consistent,” she continued, adding she thinks “all my records should get the same love.”
Among those records are “So Disrespectful,” and the newly released “Don’t Play With It (Remix)” featuring Latto and Yung Miami. Speaking of the latter, Lola says, “I wanted to bring more cities to my world.”
“You have Latto from Atlanta and Yung Miami from Miami and they both go hard for their cities like I do for BROOKLYN,” she adds in an email to Complex. “The energy was to the ceiling while shooting the music video … the NYPD tried to shut my video down twice but we still were able to all do the things we like to doooo.”
Lola’s career has taken her on tour with A Boogie and to her label, Arista Records, yet she doesn’t feel like she’s made it.
“I want to get to the point where I could be anywhere in the world, and I don’t have to worry about my family members or my team,” she says. “Like, I know they’re OK because I made sure I worked hard enough so that they could be somewhere that’s going to make sure they’re straight.”
