Drummer Ron Tutt, who played with Elvis Presley‘s longtime backing group the TCB Band from 1969 to Elvis’ passing in 1977 and also worked with many other famous artists, has died at age 83.
Tutt’s death was announced Saturday in a message posted on Elvis Presley Enterprises’ Graceland.com website.
“In addition to being a legendary drummer, [Ron] was a good friend to many of us here at Graceland,” the tribute reads. “We enjoyed each time he joined us here to celebrate Elvis Week, Elvis’ Birthday and many other special occasions. Ronnie was an amazing ambassador to Elvis’ legacy — sharing his memories of working with Elvis with fans — as well as bringing Elvis’ music to arenas around the globe through later Elvis in Concert shows and performances.”
The note adds, “Our hearts go out to [his wife] Donna, his family, his fellow TCB Band members — and to his fans around the world. He will be deeply missed by all of us.”
During his time playing with the TCB Band, Tutt also established himself as an in-demand session drummer. He played on two Billy Joel albums, 1973’s Piano Man and Streetlife Serenade, and recorded and toured for several years with the Jerry Garcia Band.
He also recorded with Neil Diamond from the 1980s till the early 2000s, and was a member of Diamond’s touring band until Neil’s retirement.
Other well-known artists that Tutt recorded and/or performed with included Johnny Cash, The Carpenters, Kenny Rogers, Elvis Costello, Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks, Michael McDonald, Glen Campbell and Gram Parsons.
Halloween Kills, the 12th and latest installment in the Halloween horror franchise, slashed its way to the top of the box office — opening with an estimated $50.4 million.
The film, also available via VOD on the Peacock+ streaming service, delivered the highest-grossing opening weekend for a simultaneous release in theaters and on streaming, topping Godzilla vs. Kong’s $31.6 million debut back in March.
Overseas, Halloween Kills — starring Jamie Lee Curtis — earned an estimated $5.5 million, bringing its worldwide gross to $55.9 million.
No Time to Die, now in its second week, slipped to second place and grabbed an estimated $24.3 million. That brings its total here in the states to $99.5 million. The latest Bond adventure, which has yet to open in China, is faring much better overseas, where it racked up an estimated $348.3 million so far. Its global tally currently stands at $447.8 million
Landing in third place was Venom: Let There Be Carnage, earning $16.5 million stateside, for a three-week total of $168.1. The film added on another $115.6 million internationally, bringing its global box-office total to $283.7 million.
The Addams Family 2, also available on premium VOD for $19.99, earned an estimated $7.2 million in its third week of release. The animated sequel has collected an estimated $16.2 million overseas, putting its current worldwide haul at $58.5 million.
Rounding out the top five was the long-awaited reunion of Good Will Hunting’s Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, whose historical drama The Last Duel fizzled at the box office, delivering an estimated $4.8 million domestically. The news was just as bad internationally, where the Ridley Scott-directed film, which stars Adam Driver and Jodie Comer, added an estimated $4.2 million. That brings its worldwide total to just $9 million.
If you were suddenly freed from prison after 13 years, you’d no doubt have some worries about how you’re going to fit back into society. Well, Britney Spears is evidently having similar worries as the end of her 13-year-long conservatorship approaches.
In a lengthy Instagram post on Friday, Britney wrote, “I’ll just be honest and say I’ve waited so long to be free from the situation I’m in…and now that it’s here I’m scared to do anything because I’m afraid I’ll make a mistake!!!”
“For so many years I was always told if I succeeded at things, it could end…and it never did!!!” she continued. “I worked so hard but now that it’s here and getting closer and closer to ending I’m very happy but there’s a lot of things that scare me.”
For example, she says, she’s concerned that the paparazzi “try to scare me and jump out..onto the road when I drive home,” adding, “It’s like they want me to do something crazy.”
“I’m fearful of doing something wrong…I started experiencing that when I got the keys to my car for the first time 4 months ago and it’s been 13 years !!!!” Britney went on, and pronounced herself, “disgusted with the system.”
“I haven’t done anything to be treated the way I have for the past 13 years !!! [I]…wish I lived in another country!!!” she declared.
Britney also seemed to threaten to spill the tea about how her family has allegedly been complicit in her mistreatment, adding, “Lord have mercy on my family’s souls if I ever do an interview !!!”
She concluded, “In the meantime … I’m staying clear of the business which is all I’ve ever known my whole life … which is why this is so very confusing for me !!!”
For fans of DC’s big and small-screen properties, the wait ended Saturday, with the long-awaited launch of the marathon online event DC Fandome.
This year, all eyes were on Matt Reeves‘The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson‘s turn as the super-powerful anti-hero Black Adam. The Batman‘s trailer capped the four-hour presentation.
“Fear is a tool,” Robert Pattinson‘s Dark Knight whispers darkly in the new snippet.
“When that light hits the sky,” he says of the Bat Signal, “it’s not just a call. It’s a warning.”
What follows are not only shots of Bats dispatching hordes of bad guys, but scenes prominently featuring Zoe Kravitz as Selena Kyle/Catwoman. “Who are you under there?” she purrs, feeling Pattinson’s cowl.
As reported, Paul Dano plays Batman’s main nemesis in the film, The Riddler — albeit a much darker version than Jim Carrey played in 1995’s Batman Forever.
The villain has morphed more into a serial killer in this version — but like the comic original, he’s obsessed with matching wits with Batman — and the obsession is clearly mutual.
Also shown more prominently in the new trailer is Colin Farrell — though you’d be hard-pressed to recognize him as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin.
The Batman opens March 4, 2022.
Earlier, Warner Bros. unveiled its upcoming Black Adam, with the help of the character’s alter ego himself.
While Johnson said the film just started post-production, he lobbied director Jaume Collet-Serra — who he tapped from Jungle Cruise — to present fans with the scene where Black Adam is revealed.
The Black Adam teaser featured cast members introducing their characters: Aldis Hodge plays Hawkman, Noah Centineo plays Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell plays Cyclone, and Pierce Brosnan, who went from James Bond to “silver fox,” plays Doctor Fate.
The snippet shows explorers coming upon an ancient site, and eventually releasing the god-like figure. A gunman approaches him, and Black Adam picks him up by his throat and electrocutes him into dust. As you might imagine, the victim’s heavily armed comrades also prove no match. That film opens July 29, 2022.
Other content included a sneak peek of November 2022’s time-shifting The Flashteasing the return of Michael Keaton as Batman; an extended trailer for Peacemaker —John Cena and writer-director James Gunn‘s The Suicide Squad spin-off series for HBO Max — and cast interviews and sneak peeks of CW shows like Supergirl and Batwoman.
(LOS ANGELES) — Robert Durst has been diagnosed with COVID-19, his attorney confirmed Saturday, two days after the real estate heir was sentenced to life in prison on a first-degree murder conviction.
Durst, 78, was sentenced Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2000 killing of Susan Berman, his close confidant. The wheelchair-bound Durst appeared in the courtroom for his sentencing, looking frail and wearing a face mask.
His attorney, Dick DeGuerin, did not share any additional details on Durst’s condition.
The high-profile trial has been plagued by a series of delays due to the pandemic. After two days of testimony, the trial was delayed for 14 months after the coronavirus shuttered courts, with testimony resuming in May.
In August, testimony was briefly paused again after a courtroom observer tested positive for COVID-19. There was another holdup in June, when Durst was hospitalized for an unspecified health issue.
Durst did not appear in the courtroom when the verdict was announced in September because he was in quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19 by one of his sheriff drivers. Jurors found him guilty after deliberating for about seven hours over three days.
The New York real estate scion was accused of killing his best friend, Berman, who was shot in the back of the head in her Los Angeles home in 2000. Prosecutors alleged Durst killed Berman to prevent her from telling police she helped him cover up the unsolved murder of his wife, Kathleen Durst, in 1982. Durst has never been charged in his wife’s disappearance.
Durst pleaded not guilty in 2018 to the murder charge for Berman’s death. His attorneys have unsuccessfully sought a mistrial, arguing the lengthy delay impeded his chances of a fair trial.
Durst was also charged in the 2001 killing of a neighbor in Galveston, Texas. He claimed self-defense and was acquitted.
ABC News’ Cassidy Gard contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Even before her stage two breast cancer diagnosis in 2020, Yvonne Llanes knew her strength — and her community.
Llanes, who was first introduced to “World News Tonight” in 2017, had lost both of her legs nearly 16 years ago in a freak accident. For a decade, Llanes was confined to a wheelchair.
But, in 2017, she had made a promise to herself — and her late father — to walk again.
“I was just depressed. I was sad. I was mad at the world and I wanted my life back. I wanted my legs back,” Llanes told “World News Tonight” in 2017.
Llanes found a community at the Hanger Clinic’s Bilateral-Above-Knee Amputee Bootcamp.
With the support of fellow amputees and after months of determination, Llanes pushed herself to get out of her chair and walk across a stage in front of her friends and family.
“I met a group of amputees such as myself that were doing extraordinary things. They were up and they were walking and they were out of their wheelchairs and I was just incredibly amazed and I told myself I want to be like them,” said Llanes.
“I decided enough was enough I was going to get up and get on with life,” she added.
Nearly four years later, Llanes returned to the Hanger Clinic’s Bootcamp for Amputees to celebrate another victory. This time, to announce that she was cancer-free.
She was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer and underwent surgeries in 2020 and 2021. Across the country, her Bootcamp family was there for her by sending photos and wearing “Yvonne Strong” T-shirts.
“All my amputee friends here have stood behind me through this diagnosis and have been very supportive of me 100%, and I just appreciate it tremendously,” said Llanes on Thursday.
Llanes told “World News Tonight” Friday that the community’s motto, “Decide to rise,” can be applicable to anyone.
“Life is going to throw obstacles at you — do not let those obstacles get in your way,” she said. “Have faith, have courage, have hope, overcome those obstacles and never forget to decide to rise.”
(WASHINGTON) — “I’m in danger,” the daughter cried to her father from thousands of miles away in Afghanistan.
“We cannot go outside with friends. Before, we were going outside to restaurants, shopping, but now we are like prisoners in our own home,” she said, her voice full of fear, saying Taliban fighters might find her.
“Mina” (ABC News has changed her name for her protection and that of others), a university-educated and unmarried Afghan woman, separated from her family in the U.S., was pleading for help on a call with advocates trying to get her out.
With her father having aided the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, and her immediate family living in New Jersey, Mina is in hiding, saying she fears her ties to the U.S. make her a target.
On a recording of a call ABC News listened to, her voice was breaking.
“I’m not mentally good nowadays because this situation is a burden on me,” she said, adding that she did not know which relative she might find shelter with next.
“She is under pressure,” her father said, helping translate for a daughter he said is normally proficient in English. “Now in this status situation, she forgot her language. She forgot her information. She forgot her mind.”
Mina’s mother says she isn’t used to relying on medication to fall asleep, but after calls like this one, she says she needs it to escape the dark reality facing her only daughter — blaming herself for Mina being left behind.
Mina’s parents and two brothers were able to come to the U.S. in 2016 on her father’s Special Immigrant Visa, or SIV, granted to those who helped the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. Her oldest brother, who also worked with the U.S., immigrated in 2018 under the same program. But Mina, now 34, aged out to qualify as a dependent.
While her father has petitioned since 2018 to bring her to the U.S. via a Petition for Alien Relative, a route that permanent, lawful residents can use to bring immediate relatives to the U.S., the chaotic evacuation of American troops from the country at the end of August ignited a desperate search for options.
“It’s life or death,” Elizabeth Dembrowsky, the attorney who’s handling Mina’s case from New York, told ABC News. “Her father’s worked and aided the United States — because of their interests — and because of that aid, he’s put his daughter at risk.”
Mina’s father said he sometimes regrets not lying about her age on the SIV application, believing, he said, that if he hadn’t abided by the rules of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, his daughter might already be with them.
He says people in Afghanistan know her immediate family lives in the U.S. and mockingly call her “‘the Americans’ daughter.'”
‘Please help my daughter’
Dembrowsky founded Good Counsel Services, a nonprofit that offers legal advice to other nonprofit organizations, in 2016. Volunteering at an immigration office while studying at Brooklyn Law School, she met a man who had helped the U.S. mission in Afghanistan who then started recommending her legal services to his friends. One of them was Mina’s father who first contacted her in 2018.
“‘Please help my daughter'” were the only words in an email Mina’s father sent her last month.
Dembrowsky is actively working on filing humanitarian parole applications in 13 similar cases, a legal route she took with Mina’s case as U.S. troops left the country, taking with them the hopes of many Afghans desperate to escape.
Granted by USCIS on a “case-by-case basis,” humanitarian parole allows certain individuals to enter and reside in the U.S. without a visa. Each application comes with a $575 fee and extensive paperwork, including an “Affidavit of Support” that serves as proof a sponsor has agreed to provide financial support to the person who is known as the parolee. It’s a process Dembrowsky said has bipartisan backing.
“You can wring your hands and scream and blame the former or current president or the entire decision to go into Afghanistan, but it’s not helpful because the crisis is ongoing. We have people today that need to be taken out of there, and we as Americans can help by volunteering to serve as sponsors,” Dembrowsky said.
Once a sponsor is secured, it can take weeks to months to process applications. There’s currently a backlog of roughly 11,000, according to the National Immigration Forum. That does not include the majority of SIV holders — tens of thousands of people — who were also left behind in the abrupt evacuation. Dembrowsky is calling on the federal government to do more to expedite applications from allies and their families she says the U.S. “abandoned.”
To expedite a parole application, a person can directly write or call immigration services, but advocates say an often more effective route is having a member of Congress contact them about a specific application on their behalf. Dembrowsky said she contacted the offices of Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., on Sept. 2, and of Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. on Sept. 23.
“My office is working closely with the Department of State, USCIS, and family members in New Jersey to bring this young woman safely to the United States. We are making progress on her case and are confident that she will be able to join her family in New Jersey,” Pallone told ABC News in a statement on Thursday afternoon.
MORE: How are the Taliban treating Afghan women and girls?
Dembrowsky learned late Wednesday that Mina’s Petition for Alien Relative application, filed in 2018 to prove she was related to her family, was “processed,” but they haven’t been contacted about next steps. Mina’s humanitarian parole application still hangs in limbo, as they do for thousands of Afghan nationals.
The UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, has reported more than half a million Afghans have been internally displaced since January due to Taliban advances, 80% of whom are women and children.
‘Matter of political will’
Even if Mina’s parole application is conditionally approved, there’s still a major caveat.
With the U.S. Embassy in Kabul closed, she must make the dangerous and uncertain trek to an embassy or consulate in another country for additional processing. That journey has been made nearly impossible since the former Afghan government collapsed and the U.S. withdrew — with few flights out of the country and uncertainty over how to get a seat, or risky travel over land through Taliban checkpoints.
“It’s extremely difficult and that’s why, while this humanitarian parole application process can offer some hope, it’s not an easy solution,” Danilo Zak, a senior policy and advocacy associate at the National Immigration Forum, told ABC News. “In general, it’s going to be very difficult for people to escape on their own now.”
Mina’s devoted father said in the call reviewed by ABC News that he would personally find a way to get her across the border.
He just needs the paperwork.
“If the government makes excuse that there is no embassy of America in Kabul … if they issue the visa for her, paper-wise, and send by email, I can go to third country and evacuate her from Afghanistan and process her documentation and visa and fingerprint and interview with her — and then I will bring her with me,” he said.
Dembrowsky said her team is also working with veterans groups to help facilitate safe passage if and when Mina is deemed eligible and called for processing at an embassy or consulate.
Despite what may seem like insurmountable obstacles, Zak said granting humanitarian parole is the most effective option right now for those left behind because the process was designed for quick, emergency evacuations. The U.S. has repeatedly granted parole to allies, under presidents of both parties, under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, including 130,000 parolees after the Vietnam War.
“We can’t discriminate against these parolees for the nature of the emergency evacuation — which is really what we’re doing here,” Zak said, arguing the need for an Afghan Adjustment Act to establish a pathway for refugees and parolees to permanent residency.
Further congressional action, such as expediting immigration processes and mandating the U.S. work with allies to create safe evacuation routes, he said, is all “a matter of political will.”
“That’s what we saw before the evacuation, where suddenly we actually were able to ramp up SIV processes. The same thing is true now,” he said. “It’s just a matter of making this a top priority to evacuate those who remain at risk in Afghanistan.”
‘What would I do?’
For now, Mina waits — in hiding.
And volunteers at Good Counsel Services continue lobbying lawmakers — and everyday Americans — on cases like hers.
When Congress passed its continuing resolution last month to prevent a government shutdown, it included a provision of benefits for Afghan parolees they otherwise wouldn’t be able to access without a visa, such as housing, childcare and federal financial support, critical for volunteer agencies and for recruiting all-important sponsors.
“The result is that resettlement agencies can play a much, much larger role for many of those who are coming in under parole, and that means that there’s less of responsibility for the sponsor, and certainly no responsibility to house them,” Zak said.
Dembrowsky, for her part, said she’s asked daily to take on more applications for people still desperate to get out, but lamented she won’t commit to them without securing financial sponsors first.
“I just don’t want to throw this life preserver and not be able to hold on to the other end of it,” she said.
One person who answered her call is Ford Seeman, a social impact entrepreneur in New York, who credited being adopted at birth for giving him a unique understanding of how one’s future can be affected by circumstance. He’s donated $10,000 to Good Counsel Services for the cause, as well as agreed to gather the necessary documents and sign on to sponsor a potential parolee.
“I’m honored and, frankly, feel somewhat obligated to share with those facing overwhelming obstacles,” he told ABC News in an email. “We are all one people and need to look out for each other.”
While thousands of Afghans like Mina face an uncertain fate, Dembrowsky said the U.S. is facing a moment of moral reckoning.
“I wasn’t alive during the Holocaust. I wasn’t alive during the Civil Rights movement in the 60s. But we, as humans, ask ourselves these questions, ‘What would I do in that circumstance?'” Dembrowsky said. “Today in Afghanistan, there is something we can do, and if we refuse to do something — and if anything were to happen to her — it will be on our collective hands.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Friday evening issued a statement reiterating its commitment to remain independent soon after President Joe Biden told reporters he hoped that witnesses who defy subpoenas from Congress’ select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot would face federal prosecution.
“The Department of Justice will make its own independent decisions in all prosecutions based solely on the facts and the law. Period. Full stop,” DOJ spokesperson Anthony Coley said.
The statement came after comments from Biden following his arrival back at the White House Friday when he was asked what his message is for those who defy subpoenas from the Jan. 6 select committee.
“I hope that the committee goes after them and holds them accountable,” Biden said after returning from a trip to Connecticut.
When asked whether he thinks those individuals should be prosecuted by the Justice Department, Biden answered, “I do, yes.”
Biden’s comments came just a day after the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection announced it would meet next Tuesday to consider criminal contempt proceedings against Steve Bannon, a former Trump aide who has refused to comply with a subpoena seeking testimony and any communications he may have had with with the former president in the days around the storming of the Capitol.
As both a candidate and while in office, Biden has repeatedly pledged to put up a wall between the White House and the Justice Department on criminal matters that critics had argued had completely deteriorated during his predecessor’s years – where Trump repeatedly called for the prosecutions of his political enemies and pressured officials to take actions they later said they resisted.
“Though the Select Committee welcomes good-faith engagement with witnesses seeking to cooperate with our investigation, we will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of Congress referral,” the committee said in a statement.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has similarly stated his desire to reinstate the department’s independence from political matters.
Prior to their statement Friday seemingly pushing back against Biden’s comments, the Justice Department has repeatedly declined to comment to ABC News on how it might act if and when the U.S. House votes for a criminal contempt referral stemming from a Jan. 6 committee witness declining to cooperate.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson contributed to this report.
(THACKERVILLE, Okla.) — A dramatic video captured the moment an Amtrak train slammed into a semi-truck hauling several cars in Oklahoma, sending vehicles and debris flying and injuring several people on board.
The incident occurred Friday around 7 p.m. local time in Thackerville, near the Oklahoma-Texas border. Minutes before Amtrak Train 822, which operates daily between Fort Worth, Texas, and Oklahoma City, was scheduled to pass through, the car hauler tractor trailer got stuck on the train tracks, Love County Sheriff Marty Grisham told ABC News.
“The tracks are built up a little bit higher” at that crossing, Grisham said. “He had a lot of cars on the trailer. When he tried to cross over the tracks, the trailer high-centered on the tracks, causing him to be stuck and not able to move his tractor-trailer rig any further off the track.”
“Everything was just stuck,” he said.
A bystander who captured the video of the collision called 911, according to the sheriff. Authorities attempted to contact the railroad network operator, but the train couldn’t be stopped in time, Grisham said.
The video showed the railroad crossing gates partially lowered, unable to move past the cars on the upper deck of the double-decker car hauler trailer. The train’s horn blared before the locomotive collided with the trailer, sending debris on both sides of the crossing.
The driver and his dog were “shaken up” but uninjured in the collision, the sheriff’s office said. Five people on board the train were transported to two area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, the sheriff said. All patients involved in the incident have been treated released, a spokesperson for the hospitals told ABC News Saturday afternoon, though couldn’t confirm how many there were total.
There were 110 passengers and crew members on board, according to Amtrak.
“This train was canceled north of the incident scene and northbound customers were provided substitute transportation,” Amtrak said in a statement.
The Love County Sheriff’s Office warned travelers to avoid the area Friday night, as the crash scene would take “several hours” to clean up.
The site was cleared early Saturday morning “and we have resumed operations through the area,” the railroad operator, BNSF, told ABC News.
A traffic investigation is underway by local and state authorities, an Amtrak spokesperson said.
The video of the incident was captured by local Brandon Sampson, according to video licensing agency Storyful. ABC News was unable to reach him.
(STOCKTON, Calif.) — A week after a Black man was shot seven times by an assailant who was allegedly hurling racial epithets while firing at him, prosecutors said a suspect has been charged with attempted murder with a hate crime enhancement in the attack.
Michael Hayes, 31, was arraigned Friday in connection with the Oct. 8 shooting in Stockton, California. In addition to attempted murder, he has been charged with assault with a firearm with a hate crime enhancement, and carrying a loaded firearm while in a public space.
Prosecutors said, based on police reports, Hayes was “driving erratically and speeding” through a parking lot when the victim, 45-year-old Bobby Gayle, “told the driver to slow down.”
“The defendant then stopped, exited the vehicle, used racial epithets, and shot the victim seven times,” the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Friday following the arraignment.
Bobby Gayle, whom family said had just finished a construction job at a restaurant when the shooting occurred around 11:30 p.m., was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
From his hospital bed Thursday following Hayes’ arrest, Bobby Gayle told Sacramento ABC affiliate KXTV he holds no hatred for the shooter.
“I can’t have hatred living in my heart,” the father of five told the station, struggling to talk due to his injuries.
“We come from a family, we just love everybody, there’s no hatred over here. One-hundred percent, that’s not me,” he said.
Bobby Gayle said he was shot twice in his face, as well as his neck, shoulder and legs. One of the bullets is lodged in his head and “is going to stay there because they can’t remove because it will do more damage,” his brother, Marlon Gayle, told KXTV.
The family expressed gratitude at news of the arrest.
“By God’s grace the guy is found and he’s arrested,” Marlon Gayle told KXTV. “We’ll let justice take its place.”
In an interview with ABC News earlier this week, Marlon Gayle said his brother spoke up after the shooter’s pick-up truck purportedly nearly hit him and a friend.
“According to my brother and the guy who was with him, his friend, the guy gets out of the truck, the white guy, and he has a gun, and he starts saying the n-word over and over again and started shooting my brother,” Marlon Gayle said.
The Stockton Police Department shared photos of the suspected shooter’s truck on Facebook Wednesday, describing it as a late-model Chevrolet Silverado, while asking the public for tips. A reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest was also offered.
On Thursday, police announced they had arrested Hayes the day prior. In a statement, Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones thanked the “anonymous tipster and the hard work of our detectives for bringing a quick resolution to this case for the victim and his family.”
Hayes has been remanded in custody and is scheduled to next appear in court on Oct. 28 for further arraignment, prosecutors said. ABC News has reached out to his attorney.
“The terrible actions of one is not a representation of who we are as a community. No one should be victimized because of their race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation,” District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said in a statement Friday. “My office takes these crimes very seriously. It is our goal, in collaboration with our law enforcement partners, to rid the community of hate and unnecessary gun violence.”
ABC News’ Adia Robinson contributed to this report.
