1 dead, 1 injured in shooting at Kentucky State University, suspect in custody: Police
Jacob Lee Bard, 48, is accused of shooting and killing a person on the Kentucky State University campus on Dec. 9, 2025. (Franklin County Jail)
(FRANKFORT, Ky.) —One student is dead and another critically injured in a shooting Tuesday at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, according to police.
A suspect in the shooting, who is not a student at the university, is in custody, police said in a press release, identifying him as Jacob Lee Bard, 48, of Evansville, Indiana.
He has been booked into jail on charges of murder and first-degree assault.
Preliminary information indicates the shooting was caused by a personal dispute and was not a random active shooter situation, an official briefed on the situation told ABC News.
“This was not a mass shooting or a random incident based on what I’ve been told, and the suspected shooter is already in custody,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a video message. “That means that while this was scary, there is no ongoing threat and I believe our families are safe.”
The Frankfort Police Department said it responded to an incident on the school’s campus Tuesday afternoon “regarding an active aggressor.”
The shooting occurred near Whitney M. Young Jr. Hall, a residence hall on the south side of the campus, according to the school.
Two Kentucky State University students were shot in the incident, authorities said. One has since died while the other was transported to a hospital in stable but critical condition, Frankfort police said.
“At this time, there is no ongoing threat to the campus community,” the school said in a statement to students.
The investigation is ongoing. The university said it is working closely with local and state law enforcement.
All classes and activities at the campus, which is located approximately 25 miles northwest of Lexington, have been canceled for the rest of the week, school officials said.
“Today, indeed, was a senseless tragedy,” Kentucky State University President Koffi Akakpo said at a press briefing on Tuesday. “We’re mourning the loss of one of our students.”
Beshear urged people to pray for those affected and “for a world where these things don’t happen.”
“I’ll keep trying to build a Kentucky that we don’t see arguments ended in violence,” he said.
Trees emerge from flood waters along the Guadalupe River on July 4, 2025 in Kerrville, Texas. (Eric Vryn/Getty Images)
(KERRVILLE, Texas) — Hundreds of 911 calls during the July 4 Texas flood that devastated the Hill Country have been released from hard-hit Kerr County.
The Kerrville Police Department released the calls late Thursday following Freedom of Information Act requests from eight media outlets.
“We want to caution the public that what you will hear on these calls is distressing. Some callers did not survive,” Kerrville Police Chief Chris McCall said in a video message on Thursday ahead of the release.
ABC News is currently reviewing the 911 calls.
The first call related to flooding in western Kerr County came in to the police department’s 911 center at 2:52 a.m. on July 4, according to McCall.
Over the next six hours, the center, which receives all 911 calls for Kerr County, answered 435 calls, he said.
Two people were working at the time, the police chief said while commending the operators for their handling of “extraordinary call volumes.”
“I’m immensely proud of our telecommunications operators,” he said. “These public safety team members showed incredible perseverance as they faced high call volumes and did their best to provide assistance and comfort to every caller.”
Some calls were transferred to neighboring dispatch centers based on the protocols regarding high volume, he said. Once they obtained critical information from callers, the operators “were faced with the difficult decision to disconnect and move on to the next call,” McCall said.
The 911 calls are being released in their entirety, without redaction.
“The recordings contain disturbing content, which our community, employees, and family and friends of loved ones lost may find highly distressing,” the police department said in a statement. “Listener and audience discretion is advised.”
Over 130 people were killed in flash flooding across the Hill Country region, including at least 117 in Kerr County, officials said. At Camp Mystic, a Christian all-girls sleepaway camp located along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, 28 people — including 25 campers, two counselors and the camp’s director — died as rapidly rising floodwaters inundated the camp.
Thursday’s release follows the release of 911 from other counties in the Hill Country, including Gillespie and Kendall counties.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — New York’s intermediate appellate court should overturn President Donald Trump’s criminal hush money convictions because his trial was “fatally marred” by faulty evidence and overseen by a judge who should have recused himself, his attorneys argued in a court filing late Monday.
Trump’s formal appeal, 17 months after a Manhattan jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts, asks the Appellate Division’s First Department to reverse what his lawyers call the “most politically charged prosecution in our Nation’s history.”
Trump was found guilty in May 2024 after a six-week trial over a scheme to conceal a $130,000 payment his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her from talking about a long-denied affair ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump reimbursed Cohen in monthly installments that prosecutors said amounted to falsified records.
“The DA, a Democrat, brought those charges in the middle of a contentious Presidential election in which President Trump was the leading Republican candidate. These charges against President Trump were as unprecedented as their political context,” Trump’s attorneys at the white shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell wrote in their appeal.
Under New York state law, falsifying business records becomes a felony if the records were falsified to commit or conceal another crime. The appeal accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of trying to “twist New York law” to persuade the jury that Trump violated election statutes.
“Targeting alleged conduct that has never been found to violate any New York law, the DA concocted a purported felony by stacking time-barred misdemeanors under a convoluted legal theory, which the DA then improperly obscured until the charge conference. This case should never have seen the inside of a courtroom, let alone resulted in a conviction,” the appeal argued.
Leaning into a decision by the Supreme Court made after the trial that limited the use of evidence related to a president’s “official acts,” Trump’s lawyers also argued the New York Judge Juan Merchan erred by allowing evidence protected by presidential immunity. According to Trump’s lawyers, testimony from Trump’s former communications director Hope Hicks — later described by prosecutors as “devastating” for Trump — as well as evidence taken from his Twitter account and other protected conversations were improperly considered by the jury.
“The trial was fatally marred by the introduction of official Presidential acts that the Supreme Court has made clear cannot be used as evidence against a President,” the appeal said.
The appeal also took aim at Judge Merchan, arguing that a $15 donation he made to President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and another $20 in donations to Democratic-aligned organizations demonstrated political bias. Before the trial, the New York State Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics concluded that those donations — as well as Merchan’s daughter’s work for a digital ad agency that worked with Democratic officials — did not create a conflict for Merchan.
Following Trump’s conviction, Judge Merchan, on the eve of Trump’s inauguration, sentenced him to an unconditional discharge — the lightest possible punishment allowed under New York state law — saying it was the “only lawful sentence” to prevent “encroaching upon the highest office in the land.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visits Athens, Greece, on November 16, 2025, for a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the signing of a cooperation agreement at the Maximos Mansion. (Photo by Nikolas Mhtrousias/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — As President Donald Trump pushes Ukraine and Russia to commit to a peace deal before Thanksgiving, both leaders suggested they would engage on it but signaled doubts it could succeed.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned his country may face a difficult choice between losing its “dignity” or the support of its most important ally –presumably the United States, though Zelenskyy didn’t mention by name — as the Trump administration pressured Kyiv to accept the plan that would impose harsh concessions on Ukraine and that many Ukrainians fear would be effectively a capitulation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the deal, which Russia has helped develop and contains many of its key demands, could serve as a “basis” for a solution to the conflict, but accused Kyiv of being unwilling to accept it.
Zelenskyy addressed the nation in a powerful speech, where he vowed not to betray the country and said the next week would “be very difficult.”
Trump’s 28-point peace plan demands provisions that the Kremlin has long demanded and that have been previously dismissed as non-starters for Kyiv, including that Ukraine cut its armed forces by more than half and cede swaths of territory not yet occupied by Russia, according to a draft proposal obtained by ABC News.
Officially, the 28-point peace plan notes that “Ukraine will receive reliable security guarantees,” which a senior U.S. administration official told ABC News included a NATO-style security guarantee. Under that provision, the U.S. and its allies could respond with military force if Russia attacks Ukraine in the future, according to the official.
The plan comes after Ukraine suffered heavy losses in the last few weeks and Russian forces captured more territory. Zelenskyy himself is currently under pressure because of the worst corruption scandal of the war that involves top officials, which has rocked his administration.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine is facing “one of the most difficult moments in our history” and that Ukraine in the coming days may have to choose between “dignity” and the “risk of losing a key partner.”
“Either complicated 28 points, or an extremely tough winter — the toughest — and further risks. A life without freedom, without dignity, without justice,” he said.
Zelenskyy compared the current situation to the first days of the war, when he refused to flee and Ukrainians held back Russia.
“They said: either this, or nothing. Either you sign this, or you will simply be eliminated. We did not betray Ukraine then; we will not do it now. And I know for certain that in this truly one of the hardest moments of our history, I am not alone,” he said.
Zelenskyy spoke with Vice President JD Vance about the plan on Friday.
“We managed to cover a lot of details of the American side’s proposals for ending the war, and we’re working to make the path forward dignified and truly effective for achieving a lasting peace,” a readout from the Ukrainian president read.
Putin, in a meeting with his national security council that was televised, said Russia was in possession of the 28-point plan and suggested Moscow was prepared to take it as a basis for “a final peace settlement” but had yet to discuss it in detail.
Putin said Russia had previously discussed a version of the plan with the Trump administration around his and Trump’s summit in Alaska this summer, calling the 28-point draft an “essentially modernised” one.
“We confirmed that, despite certain difficult issues and complications, we nevertheless agree with these proposals and are ready to show the flexibility that has been offered to us,” Putin said.
But he claimed since the summit that the Trump administration had paused and claimed that was because Ukraine is unwilling to accept the plan.
“I believe the reason is the same: the US administration has not yet managed to secure the agreement of the Ukrainian side, as Ukraine is opposed to it. Apparently, Ukraine and its European allies are still under the illusion that they can inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield,” Putin said.
The Russian leader vowed that if Ukraine did not discuss the proposals, Russia would continue to attempt to seize more cities and achieve its goals via force.
Zelenskyy on Friday warned Putin would attempt to use the peace talks to try to frame Ukraine as unwilling to accept peace, while making unjust demands.
“There will be a constructive search for solutions” with the U.S., he said. “I will present arguments, I will persuade, I will offer alternatives, but we will certainly not give the enemy any reason to say that Ukraine does not want peace, that it is Ukraine who disrupts the process and is not ready for diplomacy. That will not happen.”
