11-year-old boy accidentally shot to death by sibling inside of their home
(RACINE, WI) — An 11-year-old boy was accidentally shot to death by his sibling inside of their Wisconsin home, police said.
The incident occurred on Friday when the Racine Police Department in Wisconsin received a call at 10:33 p.m. reporting that a juvenile had been struck by gunfire and was being taken to the hospital by his family, according to a statement from the Racine Police Department.
“When officers arrived at the hospital, they located an 11-year-old male suffering from a single gunshot wound,” police said. “The 11-year-old male did not survive his injury.”
Preliminary information indicate that the incident took place inside a home in the 2600 block of Prospect Street in Racine and that the victim was “accidentally shot by a sibling,” authorities confirmed.
“A suspect has been identified and apprehended,” police said.
Authorities did not disclose what may have happened leading up to the incident or how the juveniles came into contact with a firearm inside the home.
The investigation is currently ongoing and more information about this case will be released in due course.
(NEW YORK) — Disgraced former U.S. Rep. George Santos was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison — the maximum he faced — on Friday after pleading guilty to a series of fraudulent schemes.
U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert sentenced him to 87 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release.
A tearful Santos told the judge he regrets defrauding the voters who supported his 2022 run for Congress before she handed down the sentence.
“My conduct betrayed my supporters and the institutions I swore to uphold,” he said during his sentencing hearing in a New York federal court.
Santos, 36, was convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He faced a sentence of 75 to 87 months imprisonment, including a mandatory minimum two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft.
Santos did not take any questions from reporters as he arrived at federal court in Central Islip for the Friday morning sentencing hearing.
In a court filing ahead of Friday’s sentencing hearing on Long Island, federal prosecutors requested the maximum possible sentence — amounting to seven years and three months — calling his conduct a “brazen web of deceit” that defrauded donors and misled voters.
They also argued the former New York congressman’s recent “social media blitz” shows he “remains unrepentant for his crimes” in a subsequent filing. In one example, prosecutors pointed to an April 4 post on Santos’ X account that stated, “No matter how hard the DOJ comes for me, they are mad because they will NEVER break my spirit.” The post was made the same day the DOJ filed its initial sentencing recommendation.
Santos, meanwhile, insisted in a letter to Judge Joanna Seybert this week that he has “accepted full responsibility” for his crimes. He said he can be both “profoundly sorry” and upset by the Justice Department’s recommendation of a lengthy prison sentence.
“But saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop an anvil on my head. True remorse isn’t mute; it is aware of itself, and it speaks up when the penalty scale jumps into the absurd,” Santos’ letter said.
Santos included a selective chart to suggest the government’s sentencing recommendation is out of step with other political prosecutions, citing former Illinois Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. being sentenced to 30 months for misusing $750,000 in campaign funds or ex-New York Rep. Michael Grimm being sentenced to eight months for concealing $900,000 in wages and taxes.
Santos has asked for a two-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors alleged Santos, with the help of his former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, falsified Federal Election Commission filings, fabricating donor contributions and inflating fundraising totals to meet the $250,000 threshold required to join the National Republican Congressional Committee’s coveted “Young Guns” program.
Marks pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge in 2023 and is awaiting sentencing in May.
Santos pleaded guilty in August 2024. The Republican was expelled from Congress in December 2023.
As part of his plea deal, he agreed to pay nearly $600,000 in restitution and forfeiture.
The judge agreed to delay Santos’ sentencing, which had initially been scheduled for Feb. 7, after Santos asked for more time to make money off of his podcast to satisfy his restitution and forfeiture.
(NEW YORK) — More than 50 million people from Mississippi to western New York are under a slight risk Monday of receiving damaging wind, large-sized hail, flash flooding and a few tornadoes.
Storms were already rolling through east Texas and Louisiana early Monday morning, prompting a severe thunderstorm watch. Storms are forecast to continue to move through the South, with the severe weather extending through Monday afternoon.
A cold front spanning the East from western New York to the Gulf Coast is expected to produce strong to sever storms Monday afternoon and into the evening.
A flood watch is also in place for parts of central and western New York, including the cities of Syracuse and Rochester, where 1 to 3 inches of rain could fall in a short span of time through Monday evening and could lead to flooding of rivers, streams, and other low-lying areas.
Overnight, there were more than 240 damaging storm reports from Texas to Virginia, including reports of large-sized hail, destructive wind and a few tornadoes.
Hail the size of grapefruit was reported on Sunday near Amarillo, Texas. Thunderstorms accompanied by wind gusts up to 90 mph swept across the Texas panhandle, causing widespread power outages.
A local state of disaster was declared Sunday by the mayor of the City of Canyon, Texas, a suburb of Amarillo, due to “significant storm damage” caused large-sized hail across the city.
More than 200 homes in the City of Canyon were damaged by hail that also left numerous vehicles with shattered windows, ABC affiliate station KVII in Amarillo reported.
Severe weather damage was also reported in the Dallas suburb of Bonham, Texas, where high winds partially ripped the roof off an ice cream store, according to ABC Dallas affiliate station WFAA.
One person was killed in Lafayette County, Mississippi, on Saturday when a tree fell on a vehicle during a storm, according to Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves. Multiple tornado warnings were issued across northern Mississippi on Saturday.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said one person was also killed in Georgia on Saturday night. The Georgia Emergency Management said the fatality occurred in Banks County when a tree fell on a vehicle.
Meanwhile, the west was dealing with extreme heat over the weekend that broke daily high-temperature records on Sunday in Seattle, which reached 90 degrees, and Portland, Oregon, which hit 96 degrees.
The hot weather is forecast to continue throughout the West through at least Tuesday.
Record high temperatures are possible on Monday in Oregon, including the cities of Portland, Eugene and Medford. Spokane, in northeast Washington, and Boise, Idaho, could also break high temperature records on Monday.
Las Vegas will be under an extreme heat warning on Monday and Tuesday with temperatures expected to reach 110.
At Death Valley National Park in Southern California, known as one of the hottest places in the world, temperatures could approach 120 degrees this week.
(NEW YORK) — Several dozen wildfires burning in Canada have led local authorities to declare states of emergencies and forced thousands of people to evacuate. Now, they are expected to send smoke drifting into the United States on Friday.
As of Friday, there are 174 active wildfires in Canada, with 94 of these considered to be “out of control,” meaning fires that are being observed and assessed, but not immediately suppressed, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
Smoke blowing into the United States
Some of the smoke from these fires will run along winds that are turning south in the coming days — carrying it into the United States.
Northern Minnesota, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and most of Wisconsin are under air quality alerts, with the smoke considered dangerous for sensitive groups. Most people can still remain active outdoors, but should take breaks indoors and monitor if symptoms like shortness of breath or coughing arise.
Heavy smoke will reach Green Bay, Wisconsin, at approximately noon local time on Friday, creating hazy skies. Going into Friday afternoon and evening, noticeable smoke is expected over Michigan and Chicago.
Sunset in Milwaukee and Chicago on Friday may have an orange hue, as well, with heavy wildfire smoke projected to reach the area by nightfall and potentially spreading as far as Detroit.
The smoke will continue to disperse as it moves into Appalachia and the Southeast on Saturday, with another batch of smoke expected to travel into the Dakotas and Great Plains.
What we know about the fires
As of Friday, the areas in Canada with the most fires include British Columbia with 61 and Alberta with 51. The country is also now at the highest National Preparedness Level, meaning they have requested international help to put out the flames and equipment and personnel from every jurisdiction in Canada is being put to use.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe declared a state of emergency for the Canadian province on Thursday amid a spate of wildfire outbreaks.
There were 17 active wildfires in Saskatchewan as of 11:30 a.m. Thursday, the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency President and Fire Commissioner Marlo Pritchard said during an afternoon press conference.
Of those, three were contained, eight were not contained and five were under assessment, he added, while one was listed as “protecting values” — referring to a process of setting up tactics, such as water sprinklers, to guide the fire away from areas that could increase risk or damage.
“Travel may be impacted due to forest fires in northern Saskatchewan,” the Saskatchewan Highway Hotline said in a post on the Government of Saskatchewan’s Facebook page on Thursday afternoon.
“We’ve had to evacuate and support the evacuation of about 15 communities,” Moe said during the same press conference on Thursday.
He explained there has been a “significant lack of moisture” in the northern parts of the province causing “over 200 wildfires” in Saskatchewan this spring.
Amid his emergency declaration, wildfires continued to spread in the northern part of the province and into other parts of Canada.
The neighboring province of Manitoba had first declared a state of emergency on Wednesday as wildfires forced some 17,000 people to flee, according to The Associated Press.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney offered “Canada’s full support” to the province in a post on X on Wednesday.
“The premier and I are in close contact, and the federal government stands ready to assist Manitoba’s provincial wildfire teams,” Carney wrote in the post.
The region saw 15 active fires as of Thursday night, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman, Kenton Gewecke and Daniel Manzo contributed to this report.
