(NEW YORK) — A young child in California has died of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, health officials said.
In a release Tuesday, Riverside University Health System – Public Health did not disclose the child’s name, city of residence or sex, just that they were under age 4.
Additionally, officials did not reveal details about the child’s illness aside from the fact that they died at a local hospital “after contracting a respiratory illness that is possibly linked to Respiratory Syncytial Virus.”
Jose Arballo Jr., spokesman for RUHS – Public Health, told ABC News the death occurred late last week but was only officially released to the public on Tuesday.
He added that the child was experiencing “several days of symptoms” before being brought to the hospital and was only hospitalized for “a short period of time” before they died.
“The loss of a child is devastating and all of Public Health sends its heartfelt condolences to the family, loved ones and anyone impacted by this tragic event,” Dr. Geoffrey Leung, public health officer for Riverside County, said in a statement.
The death comes as infections of RSV continue to spread across the country. Public health officials have said the season has started much earlier than usual, with autumn cases on par with those usually seen in January or February.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, weekly RSV cases nationwide have risen from 5,872 the week ending Oct. 1 to 16,512 the week ending Nov. 5.
In California, the five-week average of positive RSV tests has increased from 353.3 the week ending Oct. 1 to 1,335 the week ending Nov. 5, CDC data shows.
The surge has led to several hospitals operating at or near capacity and emergency departments with long wait times.
Health experts have said RSV is emerging earlier and affecting more children than typical because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, there was little to no RSV activity due to lockdowns, school closures and mitigation measures such as mask wearing and social distancing. Now, with most of these measures lifted, children are being exposed to viruses like RSV for the first time.
“That just leaves a lot of children, young children in particular, that have been born since March of 2020 who haven’t yet encountered RSV infections,” Dr. Larry Kociolek, medical director of Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, told ABC News in a recent interview. “And so that will increase the ability of the virus to spread and increase the number of children who will get infected.”
Although deaths are not common and usually occur among those with pre-existing conditions, between 100 and 500 pediatric deaths are attributed to RSV every year, according to the CDC.
This is not the first reported death from RSV in the U.S. Earlier this month, California reported a pediatric death from a combination of RSV and the flu with deaths also reported in Michigan and Oklahoma.
Arballo Jr. said the county is also investigating the death of a child under the age of 10 who tested positive for RSV.
The county is asking families over the holiday season to be very careful around babies and young children, who are particularly susceptible to RSV. Arballo Jr. said adults should consider wearing a face mask and frequent hand washing, and advised against handling children if ill.
(HINGHAM, Mass.) — A man has been charged after his SUV plowed into an Apple store in Hingham, Massachusetts, on Monday, killing one and injuring many others, prosecutors said.
The driver, 53-year-old Bradley Rein, told police that his 2019 Toyota 4Runner barreled through the glass wall and into the store when his foot got stuck on the accelerator, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office.
People both inside and outside of the store were injured, and a few people were pinned up against the wall of the store, according to Hingham Fire Chief Steve Murphy. Bystanders helped provide first aid, Murphy said.
Eighteen people were taken to hospitals on Monday; eight patients remain hospitalized as of Tuesday, prosecutors said.
Officials at South Shore Hospital said it received patients with head trauma, “mangled limbs” and life-threatening injuries.
Rein pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to reckless homicide by a motor vehicle and reckless operation of a motor vehicle, prosecutors said.
Kevin Bradley, 65, of New Jersey, was identified as the man killed. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Rein is next in court on Dec. 22.
Hingham is about 20 miles southwest of Boston.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — The 22-year-old who is suspected of gunning down multiple people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado’s second-largest city has been moved from the hospital to the local jail, police announced Tuesday.
The suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich, who was allegedly beaten by people inside the bar after opening fire, is being held without bond on 10 “arrest only” charges: five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, according to online court records. However, those charges “are only preliminary,” according to Colorado’s Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen, who serves El Paso and Teller counties.
“There have been reports that charges have been filed. That is not true,” Allen said at a press conference Monday. “Any case like this, an arrest warrant will be written up that is supported by probable cause affidavit and that will be submitted to a judge for approval of the arrest of a suspect. That has occurred here in this case.”
“Any charges associated with an arrest warrant are only preliminary charges,” he added. “Very customary that final charges may be different than what’s in the arrest affidavit. Typically, there will be more charges than what is listed in the arrest affidavit. So don’t be surprised when you see a different list of charges when we finally file formal charges with the court.”
The Colorado state public defender wrote in court filings released Tuesday that Aldrich is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, and “will be addressed as Mx. Aldrich” in formal filings.
Aldrich is expected to have their first court appearance on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. local time, court records show. Allen told ABC News the appearance is to let Aldrich know the charges they’re facing and advise them on the no bond status.
The appearance will be done via video link from jail, according to the district attorney.
“Within a few days of that first appearance is when we will return to the courtroom and file formal charges with the court,” he added.
Aldrich allegedly began shooting a long gun as soon as they entered Club Q in Colorado Springs late Saturday night. At least five people were killed and 17 others were wounded by the gunshots, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department, which named the deceased victims as Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, Derrick Rump and Raymond Green Vance.
Police said “two heroes” — identified as Thomas James and Richard Fierro — confronted Aldrich and fought with them, stopping the suspect from shooting more people. Officers responded to the scene and detained Aldrich just after midnight, less than six minutes after the first 911 call came in, according to police. Aldrich sustained “significant” but non-life-threatening injuries, Allen told ABC News.
Fierro, who served in the military, said he grabbed the suspect’s pistol from them and beat them. Fierro’s daughter’s boyfriend was among the five killed.
President Joe Biden spoke to Fierro to offer his condolences and thank “him for his bravery,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing Tuesday.
The El Paso County district court has sealed the arrest warrant and supporting documentation connected with Aldrich’s arrest. According to the motion by prosecutors, if the records were “released, it could jeopardize the ongoing case investigation.”
In June 2021, Aldrich was arrested in an alleged bomb threat incident after their mother alerted authorities that they were “threatening to cause harm to her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition,” according to a press release posted online last year by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. While no explosives were found in his possession, Aldrich was booked into the El Paso County Jail on two counts of felony menacing and three counts of first-degree kidnapping, according to the sheriff’s office.
Aldrich’s 2021 arrest may not have appeared on background checks because the case does not appear to have been adjudicated, officials briefed on the investigation told ABC News.
ABC News and other news organizations have petitioned the court in Colorado to unseal the records regarding Aldrich’s 2021 arrest.
Allen told ABC News on Tuesday that after the suspect has their first court appearance, the DA will appeal to have Aldrich’s sealed 2021 records opened next week.
Colorado’s red flag law, which went into effect in 2020, allows relatives, household members and law enforcement to ask a judge to order the seizure of a gun owner’s weapons if that owner is believed to be a risk to themself or others. It’s unclear whether that law would have stopped the suspect from targeting Club Q, according to El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder, who did not recall the circumstances surrounding Aldrich’s 2021 arrest when asked by ABC News.
Club Q has been serving the Colorado Springs community for two decades and was considered a safe haven for LGBTQ people. The nightspot hosts a weekly drag show and live DJ on Saturday nights, according to its website.
Club Q co-owner Nic Grzecka told ABC News that Aldrich was a stranger to their long-established venue.
“He’s never spent money on a credit card or ID ever scanned in our business that we know of,” Grzecka said in an interview on Sunday. “I think this was a community of target for him.”
Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told ABC News that the suspect “had considerable ammo” and “was extremely well armed” when they allegedly walked into Club Q. While a motive remains under investigation, Suthers said “it has the trappings of a hate crime.”
“But we’re going to have to see what the investigation shows in terms of, you know, social media and things like that to make a clear determination exactly what the motive was,” the mayor said in an interview on Monday.
ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Irving Last, Josh Margolin, Alyssa Pone, Tonya Simpson, Stephanie Wash, Robert Zepeda and Ashley Riegel contributed to this report.
(HENNESSEY, Okla.) — The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation identified a suspect in a quadruple homicide at a marijuana farm outside a small town in Oklahoma, but won’t release the person’s name because doing so would put others in danger, the agency said Tuesday.
Police said that a male suspect entered a building at the marijuana farm located west of Hennessey, Oklahoma, at 5:45 p.m. local time on Sunday and allegedly killed three men and one woman. One person was injured and was airlifted to an area hospital, police said.
The suspect was at the site “for a significant amount of time before the executions began,” OSBI said.
OSBI is working alongside the Kingfisher County Sheriff’s Office in the investigation, officials said on Monday.
The names and ages of the victims were not released, but authorities confirmed that they were all Chinese citizens.
The victim’s family members were not notified yet “because of a significant language barrier,” OSBI said.
The Kingfisher County Sheriff’s Office said it received a call Sunday about a possible hostage situation. Sheriff’s deputies discovered four dead bodies upon arriving at the scene, according to OSBI.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing, but law enforcement officials said they don’t believe this was a random event.
(WASHINGTON) — An Ohio man was charged with threatening to carry out a school shooting at a California middle school, the Justice Department announced this week.
Alex Jaques, 21, was charged with making interstate threats – and the FBI found out because he posted videos of his guns on YouTube, according to the Justice Department.
In the video posted on YouTube, Jaques allegedly shot a Chromebook and then made threats to Washington Middle School in Salinas, California.
“The video shows an Uzi-style weapon being discharged in rapid succession and multiple shots fired from a rifle-style weapon,” a release from DOJ says. That video was titled “Torture testing a Chromebook (Washington Middle School),” DOJ says. They say he obtained the laptop because one of his siblings allegedly went to the school.
Court documents say that Jaques made direct threats to the school.
“Hello guys, we are going to be torture testing a… Washington Middle School Chromebook, yea Washington Middle School Chromebook from Salinas, California where I plan to eventually return… uh to fill out my list of duties … that I have filled out with names and addresses of people who have wronged me throughout the years anyways … SUH SD that’s uh Salinas Union High School District,” Jaques said.
He then immediately stabbed the laptop repeatedly with a screwdriver, according to a compliant filed in federal court by DOJ.
“Jaques later stated, ‘Washington Middle School you are next,’ then fires at the Washington Middle School laptop multiple times with what appears to be three separate firearms,” the complaint continued.
Law enforcement says they found the weapon when they searched the home.
A lawyer for Jaques did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(EL PASO, Texas) — House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday called on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign over the administration’s immigration policies and raised the possibility of an impeachment inquiry if he doesn’t.
Speaking at the border in El Paso, Texas, McCarthy said Mayorkas “cannot and must not remain in that position.” He said if Mayorkas were in charge of any company, he would “have been fired by now.”
If Mayorkas does not resign, McCarthy said, “when we take power” the incoming Republican-led House will investigate whether to launch an impeachment inquiry against him, McCarthy said.
“House Republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure will determine whether we can begin an impeachment inquiry,” McCarthy added.
McCarthy said he had spoken to GOP Reps. Jim Jordan and James Comer, the respective incoming chairs of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, about launching investigations into Mayorkas’ handling of the border.
“They have my complete support to investigate the collapse of our border and the shutdown of ICE enforcement nationwide,” McCarthy said.
Jordan said in a statement that Republicans will hold Mayorkas accountable “for his failure to enforce immigration law and secure the border through all means necessary.”
McCarthy was at the border with six other Republican members of Congress to receive “operational briefings,” his office said, and to express gratitude to border officers serving ahead of Thanksgiving.
The White House attacked McCarthy for his visit and claims about Mayorkas, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre calling the trip a “stunt.”
“The question that we have for Kevin McCarthy, who’s soon to be — who’s soon to be Speaker McCarthy, you know, what is — what is his plan?” Jean-Pierre said when asked about McCarthy during her daily briefing for reporters. “What is he doing to help the situation that we’re seeing? What is his plan? He goes down there and he does a political stunt, like many Republicans do, that we have seen them do, but he actually is not putting forth a plan.”
“I think the country doesn’t like impeachment used for political purposes at all,” McCarthy told Punchbowl News in an interview published Oct. 19. “If anyone ever rises to that occasion, you have to, but I think the country wants to heal and … start to see the system that actually works.”
Mayorkas told a Senate panel when asked if he was going to resign said he has no plans to do so nor has he spoken to President Joe Biden about it.
The move to threaten to impeach Mayorkas was expected, according to a Biden administration official. A Mayorkas impeachment by the GOP-led House would likely fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate because of a two-thirds vote needed for removal.
The DHS secretary has drawn the ire of Republicans on Capitol Hill as the number of migrants that crossed the border in the fiscal year 2021 was the highest on record, according to statistics released by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
Tuesday’s announcement from McCarthy comes as more conservative Republicans say they won’t vote for him for speaker.
McCarthy will need the backing of the majority of the House to be elected speaker on Jan. 3. Nearly all Republican members, given the slim majority, would have to vote for him.
He won the House GOP’s nomination to be speaker last week in a 188-31 vote. But so far, five House Republicans are threatening to vote against McCarthy in January when the entire House votes. GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Matt Rosendale, Bob Good and Ralph Norman all now have publicly said they will not support him.
Biggs said McCarthy does not have 218 votes and refuses to “assist” McCarthy in his effort to get the votes. Biggs tried to challenge McCarthy during GOP leadership elections.
“Time to make a change at the top of the House of Representatives. I cannot vote for the gentleman from California, Mr. McCarthy,” Biggs said in a statement last week.
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Luke Barr and Will Steakin contributed to this report.
Phoenix has announced a livestream concert taking place this Sunday, November 27.
The concert will air from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, which is located in the famed Louvre Palace and served as Phoenix’s recording studio for their new album, Alpha Zulu.
“We’re so excited to go back to the Musée des Arts where we recorded Alpha Zulu over the last two years,” Phoenix says. “To be able to perform in one of the most iconic places that is now dear to our hearts is very special.”
You can watch the performance streaming via the Amazon Music Twitch channel beginning Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Alpha Zulu was released earlier this month. It’s the follow-up to 2017’s Ti Amo.
Limp Bizkit is set to headline the 2023 edition of the Bamboozle festival, which marks the New Jersey event’s return after a decadelong hiatus.
Originally held from 2003 to 2012, organizers announced last year that Bamboozle would be resurrected in 2023 in honor of its 10th anniversary. The festival will take in Atlantic City May 5-7.
Other artists on the 2023 bill include Say Anything, Mayday Parade, We the Kings, Sueco, Boys Like Girls and Saosin, with more to be announced.
For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit BamboozleFestival.com, which, fittingly, is stylized like a classic Myspace page.
(WASHINGTON) — Early voting in Georgia’s Dec. 6 runoff kicked off Tuesday in at least one of the state’s 159 counties as Democrat-led efforts to expand the election’s early vote options have continued.
General election vote certification on Monday by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger allowed some voters to cast their ballots for Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock or Republican candidate Herschel Walker a few days ahead of schedule.
Early voting in the runoff election could not start until the results for the Nov. 8 general election were certified, and the decision to allow early in-person voting happens at the county level. So far, only Douglas County in the greater Atlanta region was set to open polling locations Tuesday and Wednesday. Nearby DeKalb County will open up one polling location on Wednesday. Early voting must begin statewide on Nov. 28 and end on Dec. 2, though counties now have the option of offering some additional days this week.
The vote certification and the launch of the runoff election comes after Georgia shattered all past early voting turnout numbers earlier this month. Warnock and Walker’s battle for the Senate seat was sent to a runoff when neither candidate received 50% of the state’s total vote.
“Our 2022 General Election was a tremendous success,” said Raffensperger after he certified the Nov. 8 votes. “Early certification reflects that success. Georgia has struck the balance between accessibility and security, and Georgia’s election administrators worked tirelessly to get the job done. We are so thankful for their work.”
Warnock won his seat in 2021 during a runoff election against former Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, during which time the balance of power in the Senate rested on his shoulders and those of his now-Democratic Senate colleague, then-Rep. Jon Ossoff, who was also fighting in overtime for his seat against former GOP Sen. David Perdue.
comparable to general election numbers. Warnock declared victory after securing the majority of 4,484,954 votes in the runoff election in 2021, while 4,914,361 ballots cast during the general election of 2020.
Georgia secretary of state spokesperson Robert Sinners told ABC News in a statement Tuesday that the office also anticipates “strong turnout” this election.
The faceoff between Warnock and Walker will not determine who controls the U.S. Senate, but Democrats have been holding their breath for a favorable outcome because a 51-seat majority would make wielding power much easier. Republicans have also put political pressure on winning the contest, pointing to successes they’ve been able to achieve in an evenly split Senate.
“When Herschel wins, we’re gonna have a 50/50 Senate. Alright? Now it’d be better if we were at 51, 52, 53 but by him winning, we will be able to block some bad legislation because it takes 51 plus to get this stuff done,” said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., while stumping for Walker last week in Augusta.
The beginning of early voting comes amid widespread confusion about the process of Georgia early runoff voting.
A Georgia appeals court on Monday left in place a lower court order allowing counties to offer voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving for the upcoming runoff election, which was brought up by Warnock’s campaign and other Democrats. On Tuesday, national and statewide Republicans filed an emergency petition in the Georgia Supreme Court to block Saturday voting.
For his part, Walker has made comments in recent weeks that he was unsure early voting was even permitted during runoff elections, noting that the process should be kept on the shorter side.
“They have one day? Two days? One week! A week? We ought to cut it down from a week. Well, if they give you a week, take that week and do that. You’ve got to get out and vote,” he said during a recent campaign event when told that there will be voting before the runoff.
Ongoing legal challenges to early voting on Nov. 26
Earlier this month, Raffensperger told county election officials that early voting could not continue on the Saturday after Thanksgiving because state law says it is illegal on a Saturday if there is a holiday on the Thursday or Friday preceding it.
Warnock’s campaign, the Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, sued the State of Georgia earlier this month, arguing that Raffensperger “misreads” and “cherry-picks” the state’s election law and that the state ban on opening election sites after a holiday applies to general elections and primaries, not runoffs.
On Monday, a Georgia appeals court declined a request by the state to stay a lower court’s ruling that said state law allows early voting that day.
Then, on Tuesday, the Georgia Republican Party, the Republican National Senatorial Committee, and the Republican National Committee filed an emergency petition in the Georgia Supreme Court to block that day’s voting.
The appeal comes as a growing list of counties have started to offer that date for voters — over 18 have announced they will offer early voting on Saturday, Nov. 26.
Georgia’s Senate runoff has attracted high-profile surrogates moving into the last stretch
As voting has now commenced for the contest, so too has national starpower started to schedule campaign events for their respective candidates.
On Dec. 1, former President Barack Obama will return to Atlanta to campaign for Warnock and encourage Georgians to cast their ballots during the final days of early in-person voting.
Obama also came to Georgia in the final days ahead of the general election race on Nov. 8, during which the Warnock campaign said that large swaths of rally-goers signed up to participate in door knocking shifts.
Warnock has not committed to bringing President Joe Biden down to boost his race, noting that he doesn’t “have that much time” left in the race to bring down the current Democratic standard-bearer.
“We will see, we don’t have that much time,” he said at a campaign event last week. “We’ll see who shows up.”
Walker has not answered questions from ABC News about whether his party’s former leader, Donald Trump, would be asked to come down to campaign for him, while other GOP surrogates like Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and recently reelected Gov. Brian Kemp have jumped on the trail on his behalf.
National and statewide Republican officials cautioned how a Trump 2024 announcement could upend Herschel Walker’s chances in the runoff. Still, during Trump’s 2024 presidential announcement last week, he specifically voiced his support for Walker.
“We must all work very hard for a gentleman and a great person named Herschel Walker, a fabulous human being who loves our country and will be a great United States senator,” Trump said.
Just days after those comments, Warnock– who has tried to illuminate his rival’s closeness with the former president, especially after Trump-backed candidates suffered a number of midterm losses during the general election–released an ad broadcasting those remarks with photos of the two of them together. At the end of the 30-second ad, a message appears: “Stop Donald Trump. Stop Herschel Walker.”
(LINCOLN COUNTY, Miss.) — D’Monterrio Gibson, the 24-year-old Mississippi man who authorities say escaped a racially motivated attempted murder, said he’s “satisfied” that charges were upgraded against the two men suspected of ambushing him.
A Lincoln County grand jury indicted Gregory Case, 57, and Brandon Case, 35, who are father and son, on Monday for the attempted murder of Gibson. The two previously faced aggravated assault charges.
Lincoln County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Johnny Hall told ABC News the men were arrested after a jury released the indictments for their arrests for attempted murder, conspiracy and shooting into a vehicle.
On Jan. 24 around 7 p.m. in Brookhaven, Mississippi, Gibson was attempting to deliver FedEx packages and was allegedly ambushed by Gregory Case as he was pulling out of a driveway, according to Gibson’s attorney Carlos Moore. Moore said Brandon Case shot at his client’s vehicle.
According to affidavits obtained by ABC News, Brandon Case attempted to cause bodily injury to Gibson after allegedly shooting at the FedEx rental he was driving. Gregory Case was previously charged with aggravated assault after allegedly chasing Gibson with his pickup truck and trying to block him from leaving a driveway.
“I’ll be more satisfied when we get to trial and see how everything plays out,” Gibson told ABC News on Tuesday.
Moore said he and Gibson were disappointed it took so long for the charges to be upgraded.
“Ten months, nearly 10 months from the date he was accosted, assaulted, almost killed, we finally have an indictment or indictments,” Moore said.
Moore said he’s asked the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI to investigate Gibson’s case as a hate crime.
“I can see no other reason than white supremacy racial animus towards Mr. Gibson that motivated the Cases to do what they did,” Moore said.
Attorneys for the Cases did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
The Cases will be arraigned in December, according to Moore, and a trial may begin as early as May 2023.
According to the Brookhaven municipal court, attorneys for the Cases entered not guilty pleas on their behalf.
Moore said FedEx sent Gibson back on the same route after the alleged incident took place and plans to sue the company for “racial discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
Gibson said he’s currently in therapy to heal from the alleged incident.
“I’m still trying to cope with everything … really there’s been no progress as far as therapy,” he said.
“FedEx takes this situation very seriously, and we remain both saddened and outraged by what Mr. Gibson experienced,” A FedEx spokesperson said in a statement obtained by ABC News. “At FedEx, our workforce is as diverse as the world we serve, and the safety of our team members is our top priority. We remain focused on Mr. Gibson’s wellbeing and continue to support him, including pay under our benefits policy.”
ABC News’ Kendall Ross contributed to this report.
