1 nursing home resident, 1 employee killed in fire, explosion; cause under investigation
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro speaks during a press conference outside of the Governor’s Mansion on April 13, 2025. Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images
The “catastrophic” incident — possibly caused by a gas leak — unfolded Tuesday afternoon at the Silver Lake Nursing Home in Bristol, which is about 25 miles northeast of Philadelphia.
Of the 20 people hurt, 19 are still hospitalized on Wednesday, including one in critical condition, Bristol Township Police Chief CJ Winik said on Wednesday.
Bristol Township Fire Marshal Kevin Dippolito said parts of the first floor collapsed into the basement, trapping people inside.
All employees and all 120 residents of the facility have been accounted for, the police chief said.
Winick praised the “heroism” of the first responders, who he said ran into the building, despite the strong smell of gas, and evacuated residents, including some who couldn’t walk or talk.
“This could’ve been a much more serious catastrophe,” he said at a news conference on Wednesday. “The actions of everybody involved help preserve life.”
The cause of the incident remains under investigation, Dippolito said on Wednesday. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said on Tuesday that the preliminary belief was that a gas leak was responsible, and Dippolito said the source of the leak was in the facility’s basement.
A bouquet is left outside of the engineering and physics building at Brown University, the site of a mass shooting yesterday that left at least two people dead and nine others injured, on December 14, 2025, in Providence, Rhode Island. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Federal and local law enforcement officials in Rhode Island were continuing their search early on Monday for an assailant who fatally shot two Brown University students on Saturday in an academic building in Providence.
A person of interest in the case, who had been taken into custody early on Sunday, was released later in the day, after authorities said that there was no basis to continue detaining them.
“Tonight, we announced that the person of interest is being released. The investigation has been ongoing and remains fully active between all agencies,” the Providence Police Department said in a statement early on Monday. “Since the first call to 911, we have not received any specific threats to our community.”
Two people were killed and nine were injured in the shooting, according to officials. The injured victims were transported to local hospitals amid a day of “devastating gun violence,” Christina H. Paxson, the university’s president, said in a statement posted early on Sunday.
“Every year, emergency responders and students drill for the unthinkable — a shooting at our schools,” Gov. Dan McKee said in his own statement. “Yesterday, that action became all too real when a gunman opened fire on a classroom of innocent Brown University students.”
The FBI and other law enforcement officials shared a short video clip of someone whom they described as a person of interest. The individual in the clip is seen dressed in dark clothing, including what appeared to be a hood, as they walk along Hope Street and take a corner heading north.
The person’s right hand appeared to be in their jacket pocket as they walked northward along Waterman Street before exiting from the frame.
Officials said they still believe the person seen in that video is a person of interest in the shooting.
The person of interest who was detained and released on Sunday was initially caught at about 3:45 a.m. at a hotel in Coventry, about 28 miles south of Providence, according to law enforcement sources and Coventry police.
Law enforcement sources described the person of interest as a man in his mid-20s from Wisconsin. At the time the person was detained, the individual was allegedly in possession of two guns, according to sources.
There was “no basis” to keep the person detained, Attorney General of Rhode Island Peter Neronha said.
“Sometimes you head in one direction and have to regroup and go in another,” Neronha said. “That’s exactly what’s happened over the last 24 hours or so.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James stands silently during a press conference on October 21, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The nationwide fight over the Trump Administration’s top prosecutors moves to an Albany courtroom this morning, when a federal judge hears arguments about whether Acting U.S. Attorney John Sarcone has the authority to act as Northern New York’s chief law enforcement officer.
New York Attorney General Letitia James began the legal fight against Sarcone after the Federal Bureau of Investigation served two grand jury subpoenas to her office for documents related to the civil cases against the Trump Organization and National Rifle Association.
The oral arguments over the legitimacy of the subpoenas and criminal investigation comes one week after a judge in Virginia dismissed a criminal mortgage fraud case against James over issues with the appointment of Trump’s handpicked prosecutor.
Lawyers for the attorney general’s office argue that the subpoenas and ongoing criminal investigations are a “flagrant abuse of the criminal justice system” to punish James’ office for bringing cases against the president, his business and his allies.
“The Executive Branch seeks to transform a personal grievance, which failed as civil claims, into a federal criminal prosecution—a plain and calculated campaign to harass a law enforcement agency that held Mr. Trump and his organization to account,” attorneys wrote in a motion to quash the subpoenas.
Last year, James won a half-billion-dollar penalty against Trump for inflating his net worth to secure better business deals, but a state appeals court vacated the financial penalty when it upheld the ruling earlier this year. According to court filings, a grand jury in Albany issued two subpoenas in August to the office to turn over any documents or records related to both cases to the Justice Department.
James’s office moved to quash both the subpoenas in August by arguing the subpoenas were issued in bad faith, lacked a legitimate legal basis, violated state sovereignty, infringed on First Amendment protections and were issued by an unlawfully appointed federal prosecutor.
“The U.S. Department of Justice asks this Court to treat this as an ordinary case. It portrays the subpoenas as routine. And it recites the usual standards governing grand jury investigations — while trying to ignore and trying to convince this Court to ignore the extraordinary reality before it, that these subpoenas are a flagrant abuse of the criminal justice system, even by this President’s standards,” lawyers for the office wrote.
Prosecutors with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York have defended the subpoenas by arguing that the grand jury has vast power to investigate James because she allegedly “repeatedly promised to investigate, prosecute and sue the NRA and President Trump.”
“The challenged subpoenas … were issued by a validly empaneled grand jury in the Northern District of New York, which is entitled to investigate whether Attorney General Letitia James — alone or in concert with others — violated federal law by selectively pursuing the NYOAG Lawsuits against the NRA and President Trump when other similarly situated entities and individuals went unpursued,” prosecutors wrote.
The legal fight took on an added significance in recent months as the Trump administration’s policy of circumventing the Senate confirmation process for many of its U.S. attorneys has been scrutinized and rejected by federal judges.
A federal judge recently dismissed criminal cases against James and former FBI Director James Comey because the president’s handpicked prosecutor lacked the authority to bring the cases, and a federal appeals court unanimously upheld a decision on Monday disqualifying Alina Habba as the U.S. attorney in New Jersey.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield — a judge in the Southern District of New York overseeing the case after Northern District judges recused themselves — narrowed the purpose of today’s hearing to the sole question of whether Sarcone’s allegedly unlawful appointment invalidates the subpoenas.
Sarcone has functioned as the Acting U.S. attorney in Northern New York, but a panel of judges in July refused to permanently appoint him to lead the office following his controversial interim tenure. In response, Attorney General Pam Bondi named him as a “special attorney to the attorney general” who can indefinitely serve as northern New York’s top federal prosecutor.
Similar legal standoffs have sprouted across the country over the last few months, as federal courts have disqualified the U.S. attorneys in Nevada, California, and New Jersey. In each case, the Trump administration’s original picks to lead the office have remained in charge, bucking the long-standing practice of having the Senate confirm the president’s picks for the positions.
ABC News Correspondent Jim Avila. Randy Sager/ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Jim Avila, a former longtime ABC News senior correspondent, whose investigative journalism earned him several of the most prestigious awards in broadcast news, has died. He was 70.
His death after a long illness was announced internally by ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic.
“Jim was a gifted journalist and a generous colleague,” Karamehmedovic said in an email to staff.
Avila had also a been 20/20 correspondent based in Los Angeles before departing from the network in 2021. He specialized in politics, justice, law and consumer investigations.
“As the Senior Law and Justice Correspondent, he has covered every major trial from Jerry Sandusky and Penn State to Michael Jackson, OJ Simpson and countless others,” according to his ABC News official biography. “He led reports on immigration, making several trips to the southern border to document stories of immigrants, and also covered the death of Freddie Gray and civil unrest in Baltimore.”
He covered the White House from 2012 to 2016, during President Barack Obama’s second term.
“He won the prestigious Merriman Award from the White House Correspondents Association for breaking the news that the United States and Cuba had reopened diplomatic relations,” the biography said.
He earned numerous awards, including two National Emmy Awards and five Edward R. Murrow Awards, the biography said. His work also won him the prestigious Cine Golden Eagle Award, the Mongerson Prize for Investigative Reporting and five Chicago-area Emmy Awards in the category of Spot News.
“In 1999, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists honored him with reporter of the year,” the biography said. “In addition, he garnered three Peter Lisagor Awards from the Headline Club of Chicago, winning for his coverage of the Peru drug wars and the death of Mayor Harold Washington, and was named Best Reporter of 1989.”
He was a named a 2019 honoree by National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Hall of Fame.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect Avila’s correct age.
Avila was most recently a senior investigative reporter at KGTV, the ABC affiliate in San Diego, where he continued “covering a wide range of stories with depth and fairness,” Karamehmedovic said.
Even after his health challenges began, Avila “continued to contribute to journalism through opinion writing and local reporting, sharing his experience and deep curiosity to tell the stories that mattered most to his community and viewers,” the email said.
“We send our heartfelt condolences to his family, including his three children, Jamie, Jenny, and Evan, and we thank him for his many contributions and unwavering commitment to seeking out the truth,” Karamehmedovic said.
