(BRANDON, Miss.) — The shooting of a Black man in Mississippi during a drug raid is the subject of a federal civil rights investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

The Justice Department was joined by the FBI and federal prosecutors in making the announcement Wednesday.

“The FBI Jackson Field Office, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi have opened a federal civil rights investigation into a color of law incident involving the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office,” the FBI Jackson statement read. “The FBI will conduct the investigation in a fair, thorough, and impartial manner. As this is an ongoing investigation, we are not able to comment further at this time.”

The incident at the center of the probe involved a late-night drug raid in Rankin County on Jan. 24. During the raid, 32-year-old Michael Corey Jenkins suffered a bullet wound to the face.

The police involved in the incident say the shot occurred after someone pointed a gun at the officers. Malik Shabazz, an attorney for Jenkins, says the shooting was a racially motivated attack and plans to file a civil rights complaint with the county.

“A major lawsuit is coming,” Shabazz told ABC News. “Our main objective right now is that the officers must be criminally charged.”

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation also will be conducting an investigation.

MBI spokesperson Bailey Martin did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

“The local authorities, MBI and others, are finally seeming like they’re going to take the illegal actions of Rankin County deputies seriously. They have continuously done this over the years.”

Shabazz filed a notice of claim Thursday morning, as required by the state of Mississippi, and in 90 days plans to file a civil lawsuit.

Jenkins claimed six deputies entered his residence.

Eddie Terrell Parker also was in the residence and claimed officers did not have a search warrant and all officers abused the two men while handcuffed.

Shabazz also represents Parker.

“These officers used and violated the laws of excessive force, illegal search and seizure, inadequate training and supervision against Rankin County. They don’t supervise and monitor anything,” Shabazz said during Wednesday’s press conference in Jackson, Mississippi.

Jenkins was released Tuesday from the University of Mississippi Medical Center after undergoing two surgeries to treat mouth and head injuries, including the surgical removal of his tongue, according to Shabazz, who added Jenkins currently has trouble speaking.

For a period of 90 minutes, the alleged abuse included being shocked with tasers and waterboarded with various liquids around the house, including milk, while handcuffed. This abuse was before a gun was placed inside Jenkins’ mouth and then fired, according to Shabazz.

“They sat there and pelted the men with eggs when they were on their knees handcuffed,” Shabazz told ABC News.

Parker, 35, described the night as something he never thought he would go through.

“I mean, we were beaten. We were handcuffed,” Parker said during the conference. “It was traumatizing, man. It was a night of hell.”

The Rankin County Sheriff’s Department released a statement following the DOJ’s announcement: “Multiple suspects were taken into custody, and we contacted the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations to investigate the actions of our deputies. We are fully cooperating with that ongoing investigation and will continue to do so. Rest assured, if any deputy or suspect involved in this incident is found to have broken the law, he will be held accountable in accordance with the law.”

The department told ABC News that they did not wish to provide any further comment.

According to the attorney, Jenkins has been charged with aggravated assault and the possession of 2 grams of a controlled substance. Parker has been charged with obstruction of justice.

Both Jenkins and Parker deny the substance found in the residence belonged to them.

Shabazz told ABC News that these charges are on “no basis.”

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(LOS ANGELES) — Police are investigating after two Jewish men were reportedly shot after leaving religious services in Los Angeles within 24 hours.

The Los Angeles Police Department told ABC News they have no indication of a hate crime at this time. Initially police did not believe the West Los Angeles shootings to be related, though now say they believe they may involve the same suspect.

The first shooting occurred shortly before 10 a.m. local time on Wednesday, when a man in his 40s was shot while getting into his vehicle, police said. The suspect fired at the victim while driving by, striking him, then took off, police said.

The second shooting occurred Thursday around 8:30 a.m. a couple of blocks from the first incident, when a suspect fired upon a victim at an intersection from a vehicle, police said.

Police described the suspected shooter as an Asian man with a mustache and goatee driving a possible white compact vehicle.

The victims are in stable condition, police said.

Both incidents occurred in LA’s Pico-Robertson area, which is home to many synagogues and religious centers. The victims were leaving houses of worship, according to Jeffery Abrams, regional director for Anti-Defamation League Los Angeles.

The LAPD said it is re-allocating resources “to provide a highly visible and preventative presence in the area.”

“The Los Angeles Police Department is aware of the concern these crimes have raised in the surrounding community,” the LAPD said in a statement Thursday evening. “We have been in close contact with religious leaders as well as individual and organizational community stakeholders.”

LA Mayor Karen Bass said her office is monitoring the incidents.

“These attacks against members of our Jewish community are unacceptable,” she said on Twitter.

LA City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, who represents the district where both shootings occurred, said that the LAPD will provide “heightened deployment around all Jewish institutions citywide” in the wake of the attacks.

“These two shootings are deeply concerning,” Yaroslavsky said on Twitter. “We have seen a rise in antisemitic attacks in recent months, and while there remain questions on the motivation of these particular shootings, we cannot ignore the pain and trauma that they have triggered in the community.”

Lili Bosse, the mayor of nearby Beverly Hills, also confirmed that police were “placing extra security around our houses of worship in our city.”

The victims were Orthodox Jews leaving their synagogues following morning prayers, according to Agudath Israel of America, an organization representing Haredi Orthodox Jews.

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“While we do not yet know who the shooter(s) are, if the cases are related, or what the motivations may have been, Agudath Israel feels that these incidents should be investigated as hate crimes until we know otherwise,” the organization said in a statement earlier Thursday, before police said they believe the cases may be linked. “In the meantime we ask all Los Angeles institutions to be especially vigilant in the days ahead.”

The investigation into both shootings is ongoing, and detectives are looking for surveillance footage and other evidence, police said.

“The Department’s specialized Major Crimes Division has assumed responsibility and is currently interviewing witnesses and pursuing all leads,” LAPD said.

Abrams said the LAPD is working with the Anti-Defamation League amid the investigation into the incidents.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden spoke to the nation on Thursday about the recent shoot-downs of flying objects in U.S. and Canadian airspace.

He addressed how the military responded in the immediate aftermath of discovering a suspected Chinese sky balloon flying toward and then across the U.S. That vessel was subsequently taken down off the coast of South Carolina, on Feb. 4. The other objects were each shot down days later.

“Our military, through the North American Aerospace Defense Command, so-called NORAD, closely scrutinized our airspace including enhancing our radar to pick up more slow-moving objects above our country, around the world,” Biden said Thursday.

The strategy of monitoring U.S. airspace — from before the recent saga of high-altitude objects — includes a combination of military and other government systems watching the skies above.

NORAD: Tracking threats and Santa

NORAD uses a self-described “network of satellites, ground-based radar, airborne radar and fighters” to monitor and protect Canadian and U.S. airspace. That network is under scrutiny after the initial high-altitude balloon flew over North America beginning on Jan. 28. One piece of that technology is the same tool used to track Santa every year.

On Dec. 25, 2022, the official NORAD Tracks Santa Facebook page posted an update, saying the “E-3 Sentry has detected Santa flying south from Alaska.”

While Saint Nick may be mythological, the rest of the year the E-3 Sentry actually serves as an “airborne warning and control system,” according to the U.S. Air Force.

It’s a modified version of the Boeing 707/320 airplane with a 30-foot wide radar attached to it. According to the Air Force, the E-3 “can detect, identify and track airborne enemy forces far from the boundaries of the United States or NATO countries.”

The FAA’s approach

The Federal Aviation Administration monitors U.S. airspace to help pilots safely navigate the skies. The FAA’s National Airspace System encompasses “controlled and uncontrolled airspace, both domestic and oceanic” as well as information used to make air travel safe, according to the agency.

The NAS, according to its website, also involves air navigation facilities, equipment, navigation information, aeronautical information and rules and regulations, among other things.

According to the FAA, the organization is moving away from the familiar radar technology and toward an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), which uses satellites to show both controllers and pilots other aircraft, hazardous weather and any necessary flight information.

Third-party information

There are also third-party websites that give the public an interactive way to see available data.

Sites like the SondeHub Tracker use a network of hundreds of receivers across the world to track radiosondes, which are the small devices attached to high-altitude balloons that take measurements and transmit back to the ground.

There are limitations to online trackers because they don’t have all available data points.

However, with the available information, users can see real-time updates — including location, altitude and any recorded measurements. Sites like SondeHub also give people the ability to find radiosondes once they return to earth.

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(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — As she stared down the teenager who murdered her sister and nine other Black people in the racially motivated Buffalo mass shooting, Barbara Massey Mapps said her blood was boiling to the point she wanted to reach out and wring his neck.

As Mapps gave a blistering victim impact statement in Erie County Court Wednesday, she said her anger grew as she interpreted the look on killer Payton Gendron’s face as someone “who doesn’t care.” But it was her 46-year-old son, Damore Mapps, the oldest of her late sister Katherine “Kat” Massey’s nephews, who made an attempt in court to physically assault Gendron.

As his mother was speaking and pounding her hand on the prosecution’s table to seize Gendron’s attention, Damore Mapps, who was standing next to her, suddenly charged towards Gendron and lunged at the 19-year-old, wildly swinging his fists as courtroom guards restrained him and hustled the handcuffed defendant out of the courtroom.

“He wouldn’t have went up there if it weren’t for me. He saw me emotional and I’m his mom. ‘Mom’s hurt, I’m gonna protect my mother,'” Barbara Massey Mapps said of her son at a post-sentencing news conference. “This is the way we were brought up. You hurt one of us, you hurt us all.”

The courtroom outburst briefly halted the hearing and cut short Mapps’ statement, moments after she told Gendron “you don’t know a damn thing about Black people. We’re human.”

She said her son was extremely close to her 72-year-old sister and that his still “raw” emotions emerged in the courtroom.

“He’s the one who called Kat ‘Triple Black’ … because she was so proud of her heritage,” said Mapps, who referenced the nickname in her statement.

No charges were filed against Damore Mapps, who was not allowed back in the courtroom when the sentencing hearing resumed.

Barbara Massey Mapps, 65, said that as she spoke directly to Gendron, anger and satisfaction coursed through her body. While telling Gendron, “I would hurt you so bad,” if he weren’t surrounded by guards, she said it felt good to finally unburden her pent-up rage.

“I wanted to choke him until my fingerprints left a mark around his neck. That’s what I wanted from the bottom of my heart,” she said. “I have not felt this good since 5/14, since I could speak to him.”

During the hearing, Gendron apologized to the families of the 10 people he killed and the three he wounded in the May 14, 2022, racially motivated mass shooting at a Tops supermarket on Buffalo’s east side.

But Mapps said she felt Gendron’s mea culpa did not strike her as sincere. She said she suspects he only gave a statement in an attempt to avoid the death penalty, which he still faces in the pending federal case against him.

“I feel that he could care less about what he did,” Mapps said.

Gendron pleaded guilty in November to 15 state charges, including murder and attempted murder. He is the first person in state history to be charged with domestic terrorism motivated by hate.

Judge Susan Eagan imposed mandatory sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole for each of the 10 victims Gendron killed and 25 years for each of the three victims he shot and wounded. Eagan told Gendron there would be “no mercy for you, no understanding, no second chances.”

In addition to the state case, Gendron is facing hate and domestic terrorism charges in federal court. His attorneys said he might consider pleading guilty if federal prosecutors agree not to pursue the death penalty.

While several family members who spoke in state court on Wednesday said they would rather see Gendron rot in prison, Mapps said, “I want to have the death penalty.”

“A lot of my family now wants him to be in jail for 200 to 300 years. I think that’s a waste of money,” Mapps said. “If anybody deserves the death penalty, it’s him.”

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