11-year-old allegedly confesses to fatally shooting 82-year-old man and his daughter
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(MINDEN, La.) — An 11-year-old has allegedly confessed to fatally shooting a former city council member and his daughter, according to officials in Louisiana.
Officers in Minden, about 30 miles east of Shreveport, received a call at 6:30 a.m. Sunday about two bodies inside of a house, Minden Police Chief Jared McIver told ABC News on Tuesday.
Responders found Joe Cornelius Sr., 82, and his daughter, Keisha Miles, 31, dead from multiple gunshot wounds, he said.
The 11-year-old — who is related to the victims — “gave us a story at first that just didn’t add up,” and later the juvenile allegedly confessed to the shootings, McIver said at a news conference Tuesday.
A motive is not known, McIver said.
Investigators were “told at first he was 10 years of age, but is confirmed to be 11 years of age,” the chief said at the news conference.
The child was at the house Sunday morning and allegedly shot the victims between 6 and 6:30 a.m., the chief said.
Two guns that belonged in the house were found hidden on the property, the chief said, and the shell casings at the scene were of the same caliber as the two guns.
The 11-year-old is in custody and is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, McIver said.
“We still got to put some puzzle pieces together,” the chief told ABC News. “The city can rest easy knowing that the suspect is off the street of a double homicide, but there’s also the shock factor.”
“There’s a sigh of relief, there’s a shock, there’s mourning, there’s just different emotions our city is running through right now. Only thing we can do right now is do this case the best we can,” he said.
The 82-year-old victim, Joe Cornelius Sr., was a longtime councilman in Minden and at one point served as the appointed mayor, according to Minden Mayor Nick Cox.
“Joe Cornelius’s years of service to Minden were marked by his commitment and dedication to the betterment of our community. On a personal note, I am grateful for his friendship and the many ways he supported me and others in our city,” Cox said in a statement. “During this incredibly difficult time, I ask that we all keep Joe’s family in our thoughts and prayers. May they find comfort and strength in the midst of this tragedy. Let us come together as a community to honor Joe’s memory and support one another through this time of grief.”
“Joe’s efforts to improve Minden have left a lasting impact that will be remembered for years to come,” Cox said at Tuesday’s news conference.
A sign reads ‘Road Closed Landslide Damage’ amid an ongoing land movement crisis in the area which has forced power shutoffs to homes, with California Governor Gavin Newsom declaring a state of emergency today, on September 3, 2024 in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for the Southern California city of Rancho Palos Verdes, where a landslide has threatened homes and caused the local utility provider to cut off electricity and gas to 245 residences due to broken pipes and power lines causing hazards.
On Tuesday afternoon, Newsom issued the declaration for the Los Angeles city community after local elected leaders held a news conference over the weekend and repeated their request that he act.
The governor said in a statement that the city is located on four out of five sub-slides that comprise the Greater Portuguese Landslide Complex. He said land movement in parts of the complex has “significantly accelerated following severe storms in 2023 and 2024.”
The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said it has been coordinating with the city and county for nearly a year to support the response to the landslide, including providing technical assistance, supporting the local assistance center, facilitating a federal mitigation grant for groundwater work in the area and helping officials with initial damage estimates.
The governor’s decision came just hours before residents and local leaders held a meeting to discuss the growing crisis with utility officials.
“We can not predict how much the slide will accelerate in the coming weeks and months,” Larry Chung, vice president of Southern California Edison (SCE), said during the meeting Tuesday evening.
Residents in the growing landslide zone, which has spread about 680 acres over the past year, have been advised to leave the area after SCE shut off power to 245 homes on Sunday and Monday and said many of them will be without electricity and gas indefinitely.
Chung maintained during the meeting that there is “no timeframe” for power restoration in the impacted areas due to the instability of the land.
“The safety of the community members and crews remains our highest priority,” he added.
In January, Sallie Reeves told ABC News that she began noticing little cracks in the walls and floors of her Rancho Palos Verdes home of four decades. But by Tuesday, those cracks had turned into a widening fissure running through her home, wrecking room after room as the earth has been moving under her house at what she estimates is 12 inches a week.
Like Reeves, residents in the oceanfront community have been coping with a landslide crisis that is making their homes uninhabitable.
“This just kept getting worse, and we had animals coming in,” the 81-year-old Reeves told ABC News, pointing to where her home has split in half, exposing her master bedroom to the outdoors.
“This has been a hard pill to swallow,” Reeves told ABC News, adding that her husband is disabled.
She said she and her husband have had to move out of their master bedroom after damage to their roof caused a leak so bad she said it was as if “someone just turned a hose on our bed.”
Over the last four months, she said things have worsened as parts of her ceiling have collapsed, and a space between her outdoor deck and home has widened to about 18 inches. Reeves said she and her husband began sleeping in their living room until the landslide made it uninhabitable. She said now they’ve moved to a rear bedroom.
Rancho Palos Verdes is located about 30 miles south of Los Angeles.
“There is no playbook for an emergency like this one,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who represents the area, said at a news conference Sunday. “We’re sparing no expense. This is bigger than Rancho Palos Verdes. This land movement is so gigantic and so damaging that one city should not have to bear the burden alone.”
Hahn said the county has committed $5 million to respond to the disaster.
Officials said the shifting land has caused water and gas pipes to leak, and the city has been forced to red-tag at least two homes made uninhabitable by damage.
“Yes, this landslide has been moving for decades, but the acceleration that’s happening currently is beyond what any of us could have foretold, and it demands more response from the state, more response from the federal government,” Hahn said.
Evacuation warnings have been issued for part of the city. However, residents like Reeves said they are not leaving their homes.
“When people say, ‘Why don’t you just go someplace?’ I can’t take him just someplace,” Reeves said of her disabled husband, who is also in his 80s. “I can’t go to a hotel. He can’t get in the beds. I’m his 24-hour care.”
Reeves said she is working with a contractor on plans to lift her home and build a steel foundation that will sit on cribbing, repairs she expects will be out-of-pocket expenses.
“I would be thrilled to show Gavin Newsom my house because I’m not the only one that lives like this,” Reeves said. “This is what Mother Nature is doing.”
(NEW YORK) — As students across the United States head back to school, classrooms may begin to feel the effects of laws concerning LGBTQ issues, race and religion that have recently been passed and signed by their local legislators.
What laws are schools facing in your state?
Alabama
Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed a “divisive concepts” bill set to go into effect in October, which prohibits public colleges and universities from promoting, sponsoring or maintaining diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices and programs.
It also bans these institutions from including certain “divisive concepts” on race, gender, sex or religion in the classroom curriculum.
California
In July, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a ban on “forced outings” of trans and non-binary students in schools.
The law was implemented to challenge local school districts that required teachers to notify parents if their child identifies as transgender or changes the name or pronouns other than what aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Florida
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that authorizes unlicensed religious volunteer school chaplains to provide counseling services.
Another law bans “identity politics” or any instruction “that systemic racism, sexism, oppression and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political and economic inequities” from being included in college and university teacher-preparation programs.
Minnesota
In June, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — now a vice presidential nominee for the Democratic ticket — signed a law prohibiting book bans in schools and libraries amid a record-breaking rise in attempts to censor library and school books, materials and resources.
Idaho
Republican Gov. Brad Little signed a law banning any material — books, movies and more — describing or depicting nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sado-masochistic abuse from a school or public library if such material is given or is available to a minor.
He also signed a law banning required statements about DEI in hiring and admissions decisions — or any statement on a candidate’s race, sex, color, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
Little also signed a law that bans public school employees from using a trans student’s preferred pronouns or name without parental permission. Teachers also will be allowed to refuse to use a trans student’s preferred name or pronoun.
Indiana
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed Senate Bill 202, which requires school diversity committees to consider and review “intellectual diversity” — which is defined in the legislation as having “multiple, divergent and varied scholarly perspectives on an extensive range of public policy issues.”
The law would punish faculty — including the potential to revoke tenure or promotion — if they are “unlikely to foster a culture” of intellectual diversity or do not expose students to works “from a variety of political or ideological frameworks that may exist within and are applicable to the faculty member’s academic discipline.”
Iowa
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an anti-diversity, equity and inclusion bill that bans DEI offices, positions related to DEI or any statements in favor of DEI.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion” programs are identified as programs or policies implemented or designed with reference to race, color, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.
It also includes restrictions on programs that provide “special benefits” or “differential treatment” of people of different races.
Additionally, the law bans efforts to promote ideas concerning unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, antiracism, racial privilege, sexual privilege, gender theory and others.
Additionally, Reynolds signed a sweeping education law that bans books with any depictions of sex and sexual contact in grades K-12 and bans references to sexual orientation or gender identity in classroom instruction or material from kindergarten to the sixth grade.
Kansas
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly allowed a bill banning colleges and universities from requiring prospective students and faculty to make statements about their views on DEI programs to become law without her signature.
Kelly signed a bill barring health care providers from administering any drug or test or conducting behavioral health treatment without parental consent.
Louisiana
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed a slate of culture wars legislation set to impact students this year. One law bans K-12 teachers from discussing gender or sexual orientation.
He also signed a law that bans teachers from using a trans student’s pronouns or preferred name without parental permission. Teachers are allowed to refuse to use a trans student’s preferred name or pronouns.
Another law bans trans students from using bathrooms that don’t match their sex assigned at birth in schools.
Mississippi
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed a law that bans trans students from using bathrooms that don’t match their sex assigned at birth.
New Hampshire
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed a law barring transgender girls from competing on girls sports teams in grades 5 to 12.
South Carolina
A law signed by Gov. Henry McMaster in May requires public school employees and faculty to notify a student’s parent or legal guardian if they ask to be referred to by a name or pronoun that does not align with their sex assigned at birth or if their gender is not consistent with their sex assigned at birth.
Tennessee
Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill into law barring health care providers from administering any medication, conducting psychological services or counseling services without parental consent — with certain exceptions.
It also bars public school employees from withholding information about the physical, emotional or mental health of a student from their parents.
Another law requires that school employees notify administrators and a student’s parents if a student requests pronouns or a name that does not align with the student’s sex assigned at birth.
Another policy change allows families to abstain from material concerning sexual orientation and gender identity.
Utah
Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed several bills into law that touch on key culture war issues.
One new law requires all schools to remove a book if school officials from at least three school districts or at least two school districts and five charter schools have determined that a book constitutes “objective sensitive material.”
“Objective sensitive material” is defined under the law as an instructional material that constitutes pornographic or indecent material, which is further defined in Utah law as depicting or describing sex or nudity while also lacking “serious value” for minors.
This has led to the banning of books by Judy Blume, Rupi Kaur, Margaret Atwood, Sarah J. Maas and others, in what free speech advocates say is the first statewide book ban.
Another law prohibits diversity, equity and inclusion programs or demographic-based scholarships and initiatives, as well as any program or policy that discusses privilege based on gender or race, social-political power structures, and other topics on race, sex and gender.
Cox additionally signed a law barring transgender students from using restrooms and changing facilities that align with their gender identity.
(NEW YORK) — Testimony about the psychiatric history of a man who died in a chokehold aboard a New York City subway is only meant to “smear” the victim and should be precluded from upcoming trial of a former Marine charged with manslaughter, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a new court filing.
Daniel Penny is scheduled to stand trial next month after he put Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold in May 2023 aboard an F train in what his attorneys say was an effort to “protect the lives of his fellow passengers.” Penny’s attorneys are seeking to call a forensic psychiatrist who they said would “opine regarding the extent of Neely’s K2 abuse” and why that may have caused him to allegedly become “insanely threatening” to subway passengers.
Prosecutors asked the judge to exclude the testimony of the psychiatrist, Dr. Alexander Bardey, and limit what the defense can show from Neely’s psychiatric records.
“The psychiatrist’s testimony and the unredacted psychiatric records are inadmissible and their suggested introduction is a transparent attempt by the defense to smear the victim’s character so that the jury will devalue his life,” assistant district attorney Dafna Yoran said in a motion to preclude Bardey’s testimony from trial.
“Numerous witnesses will testify regarding Mr. Neely’s aggressive behavior on the date of the incident,” Yoran said. “The jury does not need and cannot be permitted to hear Dr. Bardey’s opine as to why Mr. Neely was aggressive.”
The defense has said Neely’s psychiatric history includes non-compliance with medication and chronic K2 abuse and argued that is relevant for the jury to hear.
“Neely’s history of volatile behavior while in treatment, and the steps taken to subdue/restrain him, are documented in these records, and speak to why our client had to use the force necessary to restrain him on the date of incident,” said defense attorney Thomas Kennif, who has argued Penny was justified in seeking to subdue Neely.
Penny has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and negligent homicide charges. He is scheduled to begin trial Oct. 21, re-submitting the highly charged case into the public consciousness less than a month before the election.
