1-year-old girl dies after being left in hot car for 9 hours; dad arrested for murder
St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office
(MADISONVILLVE, La.) — A Louisiana dad has been arrested for second-degree murder after he allegedly left his 1-year-old daughter in a hot car for over nine hours, authorities said.
The incident unfolded after Joseph Boatman “consumed multiple alcoholic beverages” and then went to pick up his 21-month-old daughter from a relative’s house shortly after 2:30 a.m. Sunday, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
Boatman, 32, allegedly strapped his daughter into her car seat, went inside the Madisonville home and didn’t return to the car, the sheriff’s office said.
More than nine hours later, deputies were sent to the house after a family member found the toddler unresponsive in the car, authorities said.
The temperature in Madisonville climbed to 95 degrees on Sunday; the heat index — what temperature it feels like — reached 105 degrees.
“This is a devastating loss that no family ever wants to face,” Sheriff Randy Smith said in a statement. “When a child is left in a vehicle, especially on a day when the heat index climbs over 100 degrees, the outcome can turn deadly in a matter of minutes. This case involved compromised judgment, and the result was heartbreaking.”
The girl is the fifth child to die in a hot car in the U.S. this year, according to national nonprofit KidsAndCars.org.
On average, 38 children die in hot cars every year in the U.S. About 88% of them are 3 years old or younger, KidsAndCars.org said.
Click here for hot car safety tips to keep in mind this summer.
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The nation’s largest police force is “criminal at its core,” according to a new federal lawsuit by former interim New York City Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon.
Donlon said the NYPD “functions as a racketeering enterprise,” at the direction of Mayor Eric Adams.
In addition to Adams, the lawsuit named Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry, Chief of Department John Chell and former Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard among others.
“Senior leadership had abandoned lawful governance and engaged in outright malfeasance by using the NYPD to consolidate political power, obstruct justice, and punish dissent,” the lawsuit said. “The Defendants engaged in a coordinated pattern of racketeering activity that was deliberate, sustained, and directed from the highest levels of the NYPD and City Hall.”
The accusations in Donlon’s lawsuit are “absurd,” Adams’ press secretary, Kayla Mamelak Altus, said in a statement in response to the lawsuit.
“These are baseless accusations from a disgruntled former employee who — when given the opportunity to lead the greatest police department in the world — proved himself to be ineffective. This suit is nothing more than an attempt to seek compensation at the taxpayer’s expense after Mr. Donlon was rightfully removed from the role of interim police commissioner,” Altus said.
“The NYPD is led by the best, brightest, and most honorable professionals in the nation — and their results speak for themselves: crime continues to fall across the city, with shootings at the lowest level in recorded history. We will respond in court, where we are confident these absurd claims will be disproven,” she added.
Adams appointed Donlon interim commissioner in 2024 after Edward Caban resigned the post following an FBI search of his home. Caban has not been charged with any wrongdoing and said at the time he was resigning because the raids “created a distraction.”
In the complaint, Donlon said he was commissioner “in name only” and true authority remained with an inner circle of Adams’ loyalists.
“The Defendants undermined Donlon’s authority by blocking his merit-based promotions and instead elevating unvetted individuals of their choosing. The Defendants then fraudulently used Donlon’s official Police Commissioner stamp — without his consent — to legitimize and carry out their corrupt scheme,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also accused several of the defendants of carrying out “a calculated and deeply personal act of vengeance” by orchestrating the false arrest of Donlon’s wife and leaking it to the press. Donlon’s wife was arrested for expired car insurance last December, sources told the New York Post.
“This was not a mistake. It was a deliberate abuse of power designed to punish and intimidate Donlon for exposing their misconduct,” the lawsuit said. “This coordinated humiliation was a direct warning: the NYPD Defendants would stop at nothing to silence and personally destroy Donlon, even if it meant violating the constitutional rights of his spouse.”
Donlon is looking for compensatory, emotional and punitive damages as well as injunctive relief, with “the full extent of damages incurred by Donlon are to be determined at trial.”
Adams is currently running for a second term as mayor, but chose not to run in the Democratic primary and will run for reelection as an independent instead.
(NEW YORK) — Hundreds of wildfires still burning in Canada are expected to undermine air quality across the Upper Midwest and Northeast into Tuesday.
At least 738 wildfires are currently burning in Canada, with at least 201 out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
As a result, at least eight states from Wisconsin to Maine were under air quality alerts as of Monday morning due to wildfire smoke.
Heavy smoke will run through that corridor on Monday, with hazy skies expected from Green Bay, through Detroit and New York City to Boston.
Detroit and Chicago begin Monday listed among the world’s 10 worst major cities for air quality.
Those living under alerts should limit outside exertion and keep their windows closed, officials said. Alerts may remain in place through Tuesday with smoke still lingering.
Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images
(BOULDER, CO) — The wife and children of Boulder, Colorado, terrorism suspect Mohamed Soliman are in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the family is being processed for expedited removal, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Tuesday. “I am continuing to pray for the victims of this attack and their families. Justice will be served.”
Soliman — who was arrested after allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails in an “act of terrorism” during a pro-Israel demonstration on Sunday — has been in the U.S. on an expired tourist visa, officials said
The father of five was granted a work permit, but that had also expired in March.
Soliman was born in Egypt and lived in Kuwait for 17 years before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, court documents said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media on Monday, “In light of yesterday’s horrific attack, all terrorists, their family members, and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump Administration we will find you, revoke your visa, and deport you.”
Soliman allegedly said he had been planning Sunday’s attack for one year but waited until his daughter graduated from high school last Thursday to carry it out, state and federal documents said.
Omer Shachar, a co-leader of Run for Their Lives in Boulder, told ABC News he was standing in front of the group outside the Boulder courthouse Sunday afternoon when a man threw a Molotov cocktail under their legs.
Shachar felt “panic right away” as his friends caught fire in front of his eyes.
“They’re literally on fire,” he said. “I don’t know if I can express it enough — literally on fire and trying to pull my friend out of the fire.”
“Once someone could help her, I was reaching out to the [attacker] and try, I don’t know what I thought, but maybe to tackle him … but we saw that he’s approaching to a container full of bottles and realized that it’s not a good idea, so we stepped back,” Shachar said. “We’re trying to keep people away as much as possible, although some of them couldn’t walk. One of them was on the ground where the fire is.”
Shachar said passersby stepped in with water bottles to try to help put out the blaze.
Twelve people were injured, officials said. Two victims remain in the hospital.
Authorities are reviewing a newly released video showing the chaos and panic in the attack’s aftermath.
Soliman, who allegedly disguised himself as a gardener during the attack, told police “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” court documents said. “SOLIMAN stated he would do it (conduct an attack) again.”
He “said this had nothing to do with the Jewish community and was specific in the Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine),” documents said.
Shachar said Run for Their Lives holds a peaceful walk every Sunday to raise awareness about the hostages who remain held in Gaza by Hamas since Oct. 7, 2023.
Participants include those who are “Jewish and non-Jewish, right and left, Israelis and non-Israelis, Americans and non-Americans,” he said. “And people are coming for the same cause — to bring those hostages back home.”
Shachar said he hopes the group can return to their walks soon.
“At the moment, Run for the Lives, the international group, asked to stop walking until we understand better safety arrangements and security arrangements,” he said. “However, personally, I will say that as long as we can do it, and as long that we’re working with the police and we can do it, I will walk until the last hostage is back home.”
Soliman had taken a concealed carry class to learn how to fire a gun, but “had to use Molotov cocktails [for the attack] after he was denied the purchase of a gun due to him not being a legal citizen,” state court documents said.
Sixteen unused Molotov cocktails were within “arm’s reach” of the suspect when he was arrested, FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek said on Monday.
The unlit Molotov cocktails were “comprised of glass wine carafe bottles or Ball jars containing clear liquid and red rags hanging out of the bottles,” court documents said. Police also found a “backpack weed sprayer, potentially containing a flammable substance. The clear liquid in the glass bottles and weed sprayer were determined to be 87 octane gasoline, which was determined to contain xylene.”
Soliman has been charged with a federal hate crime and state charges including 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder, according to court documents. He appeared in court virtually on Monday. He has yet to enter a plea.
