(NEW YORK) — A rookie New York City officer is dead and another officer was in critical condition after they were shot responding to a domestic violence call in Harlem Friday night, police said.

Three officers responded to the scene of the call, West 135 Street, around 6:30 p.m., where a mother and her adult son, Lashawn McNeil, were fighting in a first-floor apartment, according to police.

The mother met police in the front of the apartment and when they went to a rear room to talk to McNeil, shots suddenly rang out, police said.

Officer Jason Rivera, 22, a rookie entered a hallway and was struck first, police officials with knowledge of the investigation told ABC News. Rivera, who was married, died from his injuries.

His partner, Officer Wilbert Mora, 27, tried to duck into the kitchen during the shooting, but was struck. Mora was listed in critical condition as of Saturday morning.

The third officer, a rookie who stayed with the mother in the front of the apartment, fired on McNeil, who was struck in the neck and shoulder, according to police sources.

The suspect was listed in critical condition as of Saturday morning.

A police body camera captured some of the shooting, police sources said.

“I am struggling to find the word to express the tragedy we are enduring,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a press conference Friday night. “We are mourning and we are angry. … Our department is hurting, our city is hurting. it is beyond comprehension.”

McNeil is believed to have had behavioral problems and posted anti-government and anti-police material on social media, according to police sources.

The suspect has five previous arrests, including one in New York City for felony narcotics possession in 2003. He was currently on probation for that arrest, police said.

Outside the city, McNeil was arrested for unlawful possession of a weapon in 1998, assaulting a police officer in 2002 and two other drug arrests in subsequent years.

He was staying with his mother to help her take care of her other son who has special needs, possibly a learning disability, the sources said.

When McNeil came up from Maryland in November, his mother ordered him not to bring guns into the house, because of his history with firearms, according to the source. She later told police she didn’t know he had the weapon, the sources said.

The mother called police Friday night asking for help with McNeil, saying that, “We’ve been having problems,” according to sources. Officers believed they were responding to a verbal domestic dispute since no weapons were mentioned, sources said.

The Glock. 45 used in the incident was reported stolen in Baltimore in 2017, police said. A licensed security guard said it was taken by her 13-year-old son, who sold it for money, according to investigators.

The teen was later arrested for the theft, but the gun was never recovered, police said.

Mayor Eric Adams called on the federal government to do more to stop the proliferation of guns in the city.

“We don’t make guns here,” Adams said Friday night. “How are we removing thousands of guns off the street and they are still finding their way into New York City?”

This has been a particularly violent week for the New York Police Department. Four NYPD officers have been shot in three incidents this week. The officers in the other shootings, which took place in the Bronx and Staten Island, did not suffer life-threatening injuries.

“It is our city against the killers,” Adams said. “This was not just an attack on three brave officers, this was an attack on the city of New York. it is an attack on the children and families of New York. We are not going to win this battle by dividing lives. We must save this city together.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland also spoke to Sewell Friday night and offered assistance from the Department of Justice or FBI if needed, according to DOJ spokesperson Anthony Coley.

“I am horrified by tonight’s tragedy in Harlem,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “My thoughts are with the family who answered the phone to receive the news they’ve always dreaded: that their loved one, who had sworn to protect and serve New Yorkers by joining @NYPDnews will not be coming home.”

President Joe Biden tweeted condolences to the NYPD officers and their families Saturday afternoon.

“We’re keeping them and their families in our prayers. Officers put on the badge and head into harm’s way every day. We’re grateful to them and their families for their extraordinary sacrifice,” he tweeted.

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(NEW YORK) — Rebeca Andrade had been waiting days for a shipment of COVID-19 rapid tests to help keep her school open. The superintendent of a school in Salinas, California, Andrade said she wanted to be testing kids once a week to slow the spread of the omicron variant and protect the community.

But even as rapid testing to keep schools open was being pushed at the highest levels of government, Andrade was coming up short.

That’s because 350 miles away, some 17 million tests — including some earmarked by the California Department of Public Health for schools like Andrade’s, plus nursing homes, homeless shelters and childcare centers — sat backlogged on giant pallets for days.

Like so many other vital goods, precious at-home rapid tests have been caught in the supply-chain snare, caused by a combination of workers calling out sick with omicron and bottlenecked warehouses that are already operating over capacity to handle the massive demand for tests.

The impacted tests are some of the test kits produced by iHealth, which are manufactured in China and have been purchased by at least 15 states.

“The delays that we’ve experienced during this time, I know that sometimes it’s out of our control, but this is something that I would say is really critical and a priority for us to continue to offer in-person learning for each and every one of our students,” Andrade told ABC News.

As of Thursday, the distribution company that handles the iHealth shipments from China, XChange Logistics, had worked through the millions of backlogged tests, only to face delays on three of iHealth’s charter planes carrying roughly 25 million tests, the company told ABC News.

At the same time, the distribution company said it’s still sending out 20 truckloads of tests per day from its Los Angeles warehouse, which is the biggest distributor of iHealth tests.

For iHealth, which received authorization for its at-home rapid tests from the Food and Drug Administration in December and can manufacture up to 200 million tests per month, producing the tests has turned out to be the easy part.

Getting them to customers is the challenge.

“I hope that one day the American people can get the test the same day,” said iHealth COO Jack Feng, referring to the timeline of shipment from China and delivery in the U.S.

XChange Logistics said their warehouses were struggling at 200-300% over capacity last week.

And the stress of moving so many goods has been compounded by workers testing positive for COVID-19 — which usually means that an additional 8-10 workers have to quarantine due to exposure, said Frank Filimaua, the company’s general manager.

Over the past month, up to 30% of XChange Logistics’ workforce has been out with COVID-19, Filimaua said.

“That certainly is impacting the lack of manpower and the shortage of the ground-handling agents,” he said.

Under normal circumstances, without worker shortages and such a high-demand product, it would take 24-48 hours to get the tests from the planes onto trucks and on their way to customers.

But it was instead taking an average of five days, said Filimaua.

He estimated that it would take the company two more weeks to get back up to speed.

The supply chain backlog is the “biggest key factor as to why there’s challenges in getting these kits to schools, to medical offices, hospitals, and to consumers,” he said.

“Everybody has just been highlighting and showcasing the congestion at the ports and the container congestion,” said Filimaua. “Nobody’s really focusing on what’s happening at the international airports. It’s the same effect, but I would even say to a higher degree of challenges and impact to the supply chain and to the consumers.”

After ABC News reached out this week to the White House about the millions of backlogged tests, iHealth said the Biden administration had stepped up its efforts to help the company, which has now also contracted with the government to supply 250 million tests to Biden’s efforts to give out 1 billion free tests to the public, Feng said.

Agencies like Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense have begun to help iHealth get its tests through customs faster using priority labels, and will help charter flights full of the tests from China beginning in the first week of February, Feng said.

“They are helping us a lot,” said Feng.

Feng also said some states have also mobilized resources by sending ground teams to the warehouses to help move tests.

A Biden administration official told ABC News that the White House “continues to actively engage with manufacturers and distributors to help them expedite their timelines and help get tests to the American people.”

The official said the government was coordinating chartered aircraft for the 250 million iHealth rapid tests it had contracted for Biden’s plan, and was also working on “breaking through bottlenecks” at Los Angeles International Airport, where most shipments from China arrive, by working with the airport and with Customs and Border Protection to get each shipment “trucked out of the airport as soon as it lands.”

The official also noted that the Biden administration had increased the monthly supply of overall at-home rapid tests in the U.S. four times over from fall through December.

Experts note that the supply chain issues facing iHealth are not unique to that testing company.

Some of the issues stem from “general supply challenges,” said Mara Aspinall, head of the National Testing Action Program at the Rockefeller Foundation, which connects testing companies with state governments.

“But increasingly we’re hearing that — like all other essential businesses — manufacturers, shipping companies and others have so many people out with COVID that they can’t fully take advantage of the technological capacity, and therefore supplies are being slowed,” she said.

While iHealth is one of the most prolific producers of rapid tests for the U.S., other companies are also critical to meeting the enormous demand. ABC News reached out to several other large suppliers of rapid tests, including Roche, Siemens, Abbott and Ellume, and those that responded said they were doing everything possible to meet demand, including opening new production lines to scale up production by tens of millions of tests per month.

“There are currently tens of millions of tests in various settings and supply chains,” said Abbott spokesperson John Koval. “We build BinaxNOW in the U.S. because it hedges against unpredictable supply chains and is what enables us to produce at massive and reliable scale, which is what we’re doing.” As a result, Koval said, the company is aiming to be able to produce 100 million tests per month.

With more and more rapid testing products on the market, there’s also more competition for distributors. That’s been a particular challenge for iHealth, a new company that didn’t have the connections of bigger pharmaceutical companies that had been around for years.

“I think it’s hard to guarantee a consistent freight supplier for so many of these companies, because there’s not a program where when you receive an EUA [emergency use authorization from the FDA], you receive immediate distribution assistance,” said Andrew Sweet, managing director of COVID-19 Response and Recovery at the Rockefeller Foundation.

“That’s in part why we’re at where we’re at,” said Sweet. “It is really dependent on the individual manufacturer to have those relationships in order to get their product to market as quickly as possible.” As a result, said Sweet, the companies that have existing relationships can “hustle.”

“They’re more successful than others,” he said.

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(NEW YORK) — The FBI said on Friday that it’s treating the recent hostage situation at a Texas synagogue as a terrorist act and hate crime.

An international federal investigation is ongoing after a rabbi and three members of his Dallas-Fort Worth-area congregation were taken hostage Saturday by an allegedly armed man who authorities said was demanding the release of a convicted terrorist.

The incident “underscores the continued threat violent extremists pose to religious institutions, particularly Jewish institutions and other Jewish targets,” Matthew DeSarno, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office, said during a press briefing.

“The FBI is and has been treating Saturday’s events as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community,” DeSarno continued. “It was committed by a terrorist exposing an antisemitic worldview.”

The suspect “repeatedly demanded the United States release a convicted al-Qaida terrorist in exchange for the safe return of the hostages,” which met the definition of terrorism under federal law, said DeSarno, adding that forcibly holding hostage the victims as they exercised their right to worship was a federal hate crime.

“We recognize that the Jewish community in particular has suffered violence and faces very real threats from across the hate spectrum, from domestic violent extremists to foreign terrorist organizations. And because of that, the FBI considers the enduring threats to the community to be among our very highest priorities,” DeSarno said.

The suspect, who died in the incident when an FBI hostage rescue team breached the synagogue, was identified by authorities as Malik Faisal Akram, 44, a British citizen.

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker was leading Shabbat services at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville on Saturday morning when, according to law enforcement officials, Akram interrupted the service and allegedly claimed he’d planted bombs in the synagogue.

Authorities believe the location was intentionally targeted because it was the closest synagogue to Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth, where the convicted terrorist is being held.

DeSarno did not identify the prisoner by name, though multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News the armed suspect was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted of assault and attempted murder of a U.S. soldier in 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison.

DeSarno said the suspect was aware that foreign terrorist organizations previously had tried to negotiate the release of the prisoner by exchanging American hostages. DeSarno said he doesn’t know of any personal connection between the suspect and the convicted terrorist.

In the days since the incident, law enforcement officials have received a “high volume of leads” and have interviewed all those they believe Akram had interacted with since arriving in the U.S. on Dec. 29, according to DeSarno, who did not elaborate if any were considered accomplices. Authorities have not detained anyone locally in connection with the incident.

Investigators have been digging into the suspect’s social media and personal devices to try and find out more about his travel and associates, as well as determine how he allegedly acquired a firearm, DeSarno said. No explosives were recovered at the scene.

The FBI is also working with international partners, including the U.K., as part of the investigation. Two men were arrested in England on Thursday morning as part of the investigation, British authorities said.

The 10-hour standoff ended with all four hostages safely escaping as the situation had gone from “bad to significantly worse,” said DeSarno.

“The professionalism and expertise in the negotiation team combined with the composure and judgment of the hostages set the conditions for a successful resolution,” he said.

Cytron-Walker said he had the cellphone number of Colleyville Police Department Chief Michael Miller and was able to text and communicate with him about the hostage situation as it unfolded.

“We were constantly looking for an opportunity to leave, and it was very, very hard to find an opportunity where we all could leave,” Cytron-Walker told reporters Friday.

Hostage negotiators successfully negotiated the release of one of the hostages. As three remained, Cytron-Walker said he threw a chair at the hostage-taker so they could make their escape.

“I stand up here before you with great gratitude just to be alive,” Cytron-Walker said. “With gratitude to God, with gratitude for all of those individual human efforts that allow us to be here today, I’m just overflowing with gratitude.”

Cytron-Walker invited all those interested to pray with the congregation Friday night and Saturday morning through its Facebook Live program as the community tries to find a “sense of peace” after the harrowing incident.

“We all desperately, desperately need that sense of peace,” he said. “And I would extend that not only to the Jewish community but extend that to all communities.”

ABC News’ Matthew Fuhrman contributed to this report.

 

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(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles community members gathered for a vigil outside the furniture store where a 24-year-old employee was killed in the middle of the afternoon.

Brianna Kupfer was attacked with a knife while she worked alone at the store on Jan. 13. Kupfer had texted a friend that afternoon saying someone in the store was giving her a “bad vibe,” Los Angeles Police Department Lt. John Radke said at a Tuesday news conference.

Community members brought flowers, candles and posters to a Thursday vigil for the slain 24-year-old, who, when not working at the Croft House furniture store, was taking design courses through UCLA Extension, a continuing education program.

“I’m the parent of a girl two years younger than her. It’s shocking to me that this happened here or anywhere in our city,” resident Sherry Gonzalez told Los Angeles ABC station KABC.

The suspect, 31-year-old Shawn Laval Smith, was apprehended in Pasadena on Wednesday. Police said the crime appeared to be random.

Smith was charged Friday afternoon with murder.

“Those who show no compassion for human life will face serious consequences,” LA District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement. “The murder of Brianna Kupfer has left Los Angeles County devastated and my office is reaching out to her family to provide any services they may need.”

 

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