(BLOOMINGTON, Minn.) – A 19-year-old man is dead after a verbal altercation became violent in a Nordstrom branch at the Mall of America on Friday evening.
Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said in a press conference late Friday evening that at approximately 7:50 p.m., an officer heard gunshots near the Nordstrom at the mall. But when the officer went into the store, they found a man who had been shot multiple times.
The officer tried to perform life-saving measures on the victim but the man ultimately succumbed to his injuries, authorities said.
The Mall of America in Minnesota was put on lockdown after the shooting, the Bloomington Police Department said, but was reopened a little over an hour later shortly after 9 p.m. The Nordstrom’s branch remained closed.
After reviewing surveillance footage of the incident, authorities believe a verbal altercation began between two groups of people before it turned physical. During the conflict a man allegedly pulled out a gun and shot the 19-year-old, Hodges said.
It is believed that the entire altercation lasted about 30 seconds, authorities said.
Police are now in the process of identifying the suspects but no arrests have been made at this time, Hodges said.
The victim who died in the shooting has not yet been identified.
“The family here, I feel really bad for them.” Hodges said. “This is before Christmas, and now they’re having to bury one of their loved ones.”
The Nordstrom will remain closed on Saturday but the Mall of America will open as usual.
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Tesla stock has plummeted since CEO Elon Musk took over Twitter, falling more than 45% in about over two months.
In all, the company’s stock has dropped more than 65% since January, when Musk began investing in Twitter. By comparison, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has fallen about half as far over that period.
Musk said on Tuesday that he will resign as head of Twitter when the company identifies a successor. The news temporarily buoyed Tesla stock before it again turned downward.
The electric vehicle company faces falling demand amid recession fears, heightened competition and pandemic-induced production challenges.
Moreover, some analysts and major investors have sharply criticized Musk over a perceived lack of focus on Tesla, saying the company needs leadership as it contends with an adverse business environment.
“Musk is viewed as ‘asleep at the wheel’ from a leadership perspective for Tesla at the time investors need a CEO to navigate this Category 5 storm,” Dan Ives, a longtime Tesla bull and managing director of equity research at Wedbush, said in a research note on Thursday.
“Instead Musk is laser focused on Twitter which has been an ongoing nightmare that never ends for investors, with hopes a new CEO is picked in the coming weeks as a first step forward,” Ives added.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Aside from investor concerns over Musk, the company’s stock losses owe in part to insurgent rivals and diminished demand.
Tesla remains the top-selling electric vehicle company in the U.S., but its lead has slipped in recent months as competitors offer a host of affordable alternatives, a S&P Global Mobility report showed last month.
The company held 65% market share of new registered vehicles in the U.S. through the third quarter of this year, a drop from 71% last year and 79% in 2020, the report found.
Responding to weakened demand, Tesla announced on Wednesday that it would offer $7,500 discounts on Model 3 and Model Y vehicles delivered in the U.S. this month. Shares in Tesla fell by nearly 9% the following day.
Still, significant investor attention has focused on Musk and his apparent focus on Twitter.
The world’s richest person has sold nearly $40 billion worth of Tesla stock since late last year, including a $3.6 billion sale as recently as last week, as he has financed the acquisition of Twitter.
The sales have reduced the stake Musk holds in Tesla, raising questions about his continued level of involvement with the company.
Some major Tesla investors have called for Musk to place his primary focus on Tesla, which boasts a market capitalization of $392 billion, far larger than the value of Twitter, for which Musk spent $44 billion.
“I think it is in the best interest for Tesla shareholders for Elon to be back at Tesla working full time,” Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management, tweeted on Sunday.
For his part, Musk has defended his actions at Twitter as part of an aggressive effort to rescue the company from financial peril, which he described in a Twitter Spaces interview on Tuesday as an “emergency fire drill.”
“That’s the reason for my actions,” he added. “They may seem sometimes spurious or odd or whatever.”
In a Twitter Spaces interview on Thursday, Musk vowed to stop selling Tesla stock until at least 2024, though he has previously violated commitments to halt sales of the stock. He added, meanwhile, that he hadn’t missed “a single important Tesla meeting” since acquiring Twitter.
Musk also said on Thursday that he expects the economy to fall into a “serious recession” next year, further slashing demand for expensive items.
To be sure, this year has pummeled automakers across the sector. Shares of Ford have plummeted 45% in 2022; while General Motors has fallen 43% and Toyota has dropped 26%.
Interest rate hikes at the Federal Reserve have spiked borrowing costs, making car purchases more difficult for consumers already strained by sky-high inflation. Meanwhile, pandemic-induced production bottlenecks and chip shortages have persisted, increasing costs and causing delivery delays.
In recent months, falling consumer sentiment has placed added pressure on the industry.
Despite these headwinds, Tesla can stanch its financial bleeding and turn around its business, said Ives, of Wedbush Securities.
He attributed roughly 70% of Tesla’s stock decline in recent months to Musk’s focus on Twitter, and urged Musk to return his attention to the company and stop selling Tesla stock.
“Taking a step back, the long term Tesla transformational story remains intact,” Ives said, adding that he expects global electric vehicle demand to significantly accelerate over the coming years.
Tesla, he said, is the “clear leader poised to benefit front and center.”
(WASHINGTON) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on Friday released its latest batch of transcripts from interviews conducted during the probe.
The 46 transcripts, available on the committee’s website, include the panel’s interviews with former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and former President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
The transcripts show that Trump called McEnany days after she received her subpoena to testify before the Jan. 6 committee, according to McEnany’s testimony.
But McEnany told investigators she ignored the call.
“I believe, shortly after I was subpoenaed, I received a call from President Trump, but I did not answer the call,” she said, according to the transcripts. “As I noted to the committee, I have not spoken with him since being subpoenaed. But that’s all to the best of my recollection. I might have received another text I’m forgetting about.”
In its voluminous final report released late Thursday night, the committee said they are aware of “multiple efforts by President Trump to contact Select Committee witnesses,” and that the Justice Department is aware of at least one of those circumstances.
McEnany said she also received a text from General Keith Kellogg and Trump ally Kash Patel after being subpoenaed, and had a phone call with former Trump aide Stephen Miller.
Ivanka Trump, in her testimony, repeatedly told the committee that she could not recall or remember the answers to their questions about her actions and conversations on Jan. 6 — including those with her father.
According to the transcripts, the phrase “don’t recall,” “don’t remember,” or “don’t know” came up more than 300 times amongst her and investigators while she was being interviewed.
Committee members at times appeared skeptical about some of Ivanka’s responses, including when she claimed she never discussed the events of Jan. 6 with her husband, Jared Kushner, as they returned home from the White House that night.
“You just lived through what is understandably very — as you’ve explained, an experience that I think was incredibly traumatic,” committee vice chair Liz Cheney pressed her at one point. “You’d been directly involved in that. It was exceedingly intense. And you haven’t talked to your husband about it since?”
“Ivanka Trump was not as forthcoming as … others about President Trump’s conduct,” the committee noted in its summary report released earlier in the week. “Indeed, Ivanka Trump’s Chief of Staff Julie Radford had a more specific recollection of Ivanka Trump’s actions and statements.”
According to the testimony of former White House communications director Hope Hicks, days after the attack on the Capitol she was asked by Trump if Jan 6. was “as bad as everyone says it was?” Hicks told him yes, she testified.
Following Jan. 6, Hicks said she texted a colleague regarding Trump: “In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local Proud Boys chapter.”
Other interviewees whose transcripts were released Friday include former attorney general Bill Barr, former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, Trump-backed attorney Sidney Powell, and Marc Short, who was chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence.
Friday’s release followed the release of three dozen interview transcripts over the last week.
Among those witnesses whose testimony was released earlier this week are former President Donald Trump’s one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, Infowars host Alex Jones, onetime Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, and Trump-backed attorneys John Eastman and Jenna Ellis.
Most of those transcripts contained responses from the witnesses invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
The committee’s final report, the culmination of its 17-month probe, called on Congress to consider barring Trump from holding further office for leading what it called a “multi-part conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 Presidential election.”
(NEW YORK) — There were 233,740 migrants apprehended along the U.S. southern border in November, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection- a 1% increase from October’s record – breaking apprehensions and marked the highest ever number of border crossings ever recorded for the month of November.
CBP says there were 204,000 unique encounters that is up from 4% the month before. Of those unique encounters, 35% (68,000) were from Cuba and Nicaragua. The number of unique encounters alone is nearly two times the total number of encounters from the previous year at 174,845.
Two thirds of all encounters were single adult men who are often repatriated under the Title 8 statue while only 29% were repatriated under Title 42.
Title 42, the Trump era policy which expelled migrants under the auspices of the pandemic, is halted until the Supreme Court hears arguments on the case.
The timing of the release of the November border numbers, on the Friday before Christmas, irked some Republicans who have been critical of the way the Biden administration has handled the issue of immigration.
“November had the most illegal border crossings ever for the month with 233,740 known crossings — enough to fill SoFi Stadium more than twice over,” Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) tweeted. “This is only getting worse. I urge VP Harris & President Biden to visit the border firsthand so we can work in earnest on solutions.”
CBP touts the Venezuelan asylum program as working – going from nearly 1,100 Venezuelans a day to 100 at the southwest border.
Announced in October, the Department of Homeland Security said Venezuelans presenting themselves at the southern border would be returned to Mexico. They also said Venezuelans will need a sponsor in the United States to enter the country legally. That can be done online, a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call at the time of the announcement.
Fentanyl and heroin seizures, according to the data, both increased more than 50% according to CBP from the previous month.
“This month’s operational update reflects CBP’s dedicated workforce diligently enforcing our laws concerning immigration while seizing fentanyl and other contraband, ensuring America’s economic security and facilitating travel and trade,” said CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller in a release late Friday night.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump responded publicly Friday night to the final report released by the House Jan. 6 committee, attacking the committee and refuting its findings that he was ultimately responsible for the insurrection at the Capitol.
“The unselect committee [sic] did not produce a single shred of evidence that I in any way intended or wanted violence at our Capitol,” Trump said of the voluminous report in a video posted to Truth Social. “The evidence does not exist because the claim is baseless and a monstrous lie.”
Trump, in the five-minute video, repeatedly downplayed the deadly events of Jan. 6 and pushed multiple unproven conspiracy theories surrounding it — including that the doors to the Capitol were “flung open for people to walk in” and that “federal informants” played a role in the violence.
“The events of Jan. 6 were not an insurrection,” Trump said. “They were a protest that got tragically out of control.”
Trump also continued to push the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
The former president also pushed back on the committee’s conclusion that he did not respond to the riot for 187 minutes, saying he issued two tweets “within 25 minutes of the Capitol bridge, and another statement 30 minutes after that.”
The committee’s report, however, said that “evidence showed that neither of these tweets had any appreciable impact on the violent rioters.”
“Neither the 2:38 nor the 3:13 tweets made any difference,” the report said.
Trump also repeated his claim that he had “urged the deployment of 10,000 to 20,000 National Guard troops” before the riot — a claim that the committee directly refuted in its summary report released on Monday.
“The select committee found no evidence of this,” the report said. “In fact, President Trump’s own acting secretary of defense Chistopher Miller directly refuted this when he testified under oath.”
A jury in Los Angeles found rapper Tory Lanez guilty on all three charges in the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion on July 12, 2020 in the Hollywood Hills.
“The jury got it right. I am thankful there is justice for Meg,” Megan Thee Stallion’s attorney Alex Spiro told ABC News in a statement after the verdict was announced.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón in a statement recognized the “bravery” of Megan, pointing to some of the commentary around the case.
“You showed incredible courage and vulnerability with your testimony despite repeated and grotesque attacks that you did not deserve,” he wrote. “You faced unjust and despicable scrutiny that no woman should ever face and you have been an inspiration to others across LA County and the nation.”
ABC News has reached out to Lanez’s attorneys and a request for comment was not immediately returned. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 27 at 8:30 a.m. local time, according to ABC affiliate KABC-TV.
Jury deliberations began Thursday and a verdict was announced Friday afternoon.
Megan, born Megan Pete, shared her account of the incident in an emotional testimony last week and accused Lanez of shooting her following an argument.
Pete testified that on the night of July 12, 2020, she got out of a car following an argument with Lanez and as she walked away, she turned her head and saw him with a gun, according to a reporter with KABC, who was in the courtroom.
“He was holding the gun pointing at me,” she said, according to KABC, and claimed that he said “dance b****” and fired his gun, injuring both her feet.
“I froze…I felt shocked,” she said. “I wasn’t really sure if this was happening…I looked at the ground and saw the blood…everyone was shocked.”
Lanez, bornb Daystar Peterson, was initially charged in October 2020 with one felony count each of assault with a semi-automatic firearm — with the enhancement of “personal use of a firearm” linked to that count — and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, according to charging documents obtained by ABC News.
He was charged earlier this month with an additional felony count of discharging a firearm with gross negligence, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to ABC News.
Lanez, who chose not to take the witness stand during the trial, pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
Sia is a major fan of Survivor and, as she does each year, awarded cash prizes to the contestants she wishes had won the $1 million prize.
Every year the singer doles out The Sia Award. Mike Gabler won season 43 of the long-running reality show, but the “Cheap Thrills” singer thinks Jesse Lopez, Ryan Medranoand Owen Knightshouldn’t have gone home empty-handed — so she gave them some cold, hard cash.
Sia awarded Lopez, who finished in fourth place, $100,000 because she was “devastated” that he didn’t win, reportsEntertainment Weekly. “I just think you played the most epic, sneaky, wonderful game in the whole world. It was the most epic move I’ve ever seen,” she told Lopez in a video call.
Sia also vowed to do what she can to get Lopez cast as a returning player in the future.
After gifting $50,000 to Knight and Medrano, she explained in a video call how they made an impact on her.
She told third-place finisher Knight she loved his personality and that she knows what it’s like to be the underdog. As for Medrano, Sia praised his decision to avoid any drama and instead help his fellow contestants with whatever they needed.
“You’re a totally beautiful, beautiful person,” she lauded the ninth-place finisher, adding she thinks Medrano is a hero.
In a mysterious tweet Friday, the virtual band teased, in all caps, “THE RUPTURE IS COMING,” alongside a photo featuring various drawings and references to the Gorillaz mythology.
One corner of the image includes the numbers 01.01.2023, perhaps hinting that some sort of announcement is coming on New Year’s Day.
Gorillaz is already gearing up for a big 2023 with the release of the upcoming album Cracker Island, due out February 24. The record includes guest spots by artists including Beck, Stevie Nicks, Tame Impala, Thundercat and Bad Bunny.
Meanwhile, Gorillaz recently premiered augmented reality-driven “immersive live performances” of the Cracker Island songs “Skinny Ape” in New York City and London. You can check out official footage of what that looked like in NYC, now streaming on YouTube.
Def Leppard has shared a special holiday message to fans, posting a video to social media with each member sharing holiday wishes to their followers.
“Wanted to say one thing before the year comes to an end,” Joe Elliott shares. “Thank you for your support throughout the year, waiting for us through COVID. We had a fantastic tour this summer.” He adds, “Thank you for your support over the last 45 years. So to everybody, happy holidays and we’ll see you in 2023.”
Vivian Campbell added, “Thank you all for supporting the band in 2022, coming to the shows. We had an absolutely wonderful summer. So happy holidays, however you celebrate it. Have a great time.”
And the band is promising more to come next year, with Rick Savage noting, “As we approach the end of 2022 just want to say thank you to everybody that came out who saw us on the last tour, there’s many more to come.”
Rick Allen passed along a similar sentiment, sharing that “there’s loads more” shows to come, “so we’re looking forward to seeing people out there.”
