13-year-old, 7-year-old among 5 killed in massive crash on I-95 in Virginia: Police
A Virginia State Police car. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
(STAFFORD COUNTY, Va.) — Five people were killed and 44 were injured in a massive crash between a bus and multiple vehicles on Interstate 95 in Virginia early Friday morning, according to state authorities.
The accident unfolded at about 2:35 a.m. on I-95 south in Stafford County, about 45 miles south of Washington, D.C., the Virginia State Police said.
As traffic slowed for a work zone, a bus did not slow down and struck a Chevrolet Suburban, police said.
The bus then hit other cars, while the Suburban was forced into an Acura SUV and other cars, police said.
The Acura caught fire, police said. Four of the five people killed were in the Acura: a 45-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, all from Greenfield, Massachusetts, police said.
The fifth victim killed, a 25-year-old woman, was in the Suburban, police said.
Forty-four people were taken to hospitals, including three with critical injuries, police said.
The bus — which was en route from New York City to Charlotte, North Carolina –was carrying about 34 people, police said, noting that the bus driver, Jing S. Dong, 48, suffered injuries.
Charges are pending, police said.
The crash initially closed all lanes of I-95, Virginia’s Department of Transportation said, causing massive delays for the Friday commute. All lanes have since reopened.
Undated photo of Murry Alexis Foust. (Covington Police Department)
(CINCINNATI) — A search is underway for a 22-year-old Northern Kentucky University student who went missing nearly a week ago, according to police.
The missing student, Murry Alexis Foust, was last seen on April 27 in the Latonia neighborhood of Covington, about nine miles south of Cincinnati, according to a statement from the Covington Police Department.
“At this time, there is no indication of foul play. We understand the family’s concern and share in the worry they are experiencing during this difficult time,” police officials said in the statement.
Police asked the public for help in locating Foust. “Concerns for their safety have arisen, and your input could be crucial,” police said.
The Covington Police Department released surveillance images of Foust, which it described as “the most recent surveillance footage we have found.” Citing police officials, ABC affiliate WCPO in Cincinnati said the surveillance images of Foust, who’s seen carrying a tan or yellow backpack and walking in the Latonia neighborhood, were taken around 6 p.m. local time on April 27.
“Northern Kentucky University is aware that one of our students, Murry (Alexis) Foust, has been reported missing. We are deeply concerned and our thoughts are with their family, friends and all those impacted,” a university spokesperson said in a statement. “The Covington Police Department is leading the investigation, and we are fully cooperating and supporting their efforts. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Covington Police.”
Police officials said they are using multiple resources in the search for Foust, including water rescue and search teams, and drone operators.
In an interview on Friday, Foust’s father told WCPO that there have been unconfirmed reported sightings of Foust since the student was reported missing, including one on Friday. However, no one has heard from Foust, the father said.
Foust is fine arts major in the university’s College of Arts and Sciences and is set to graduate next week, WCPO reported.
Friends of Foust told WCPO that Foust was planning to go to a class at Northern Kentucky University on the afternoon Foust went missing. Friends said Foust’s phone was found at the student’s home and Foust’s backpack was located on the university campus, according to WCPO.
“We don’t know what happened. They could be in danger,” Eve Miller, a friend of Foust, told WCPO.
Colin Gray, 54, the father of Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray, 14, enters the Barrow County courthouse for his first appearance, on September 6, 2024, in Winder, Georgia. (Photo by Brynn Anderson-Pool/Getty Images)
(ATLANTA) — The father of a Georgia teenager who carried out a deadly mass shooting at his high school is set to be sentenced on more than two dozen charges, including second-degree murder, after a jury found him criminally culpable for the attack.
Colin Gray, 56, admitted to providing the assault rifle used by his then-14-year-old son in the September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School, which killed two students and two teachers.
His son, 16-year-old Colt Gray, pleaded guilty to all 55 counts against him, including murder and aggravated assault. Judge Nicholas Primm sentenced him to life in prison without parole on Tuesday.
The teen’s father will appear in the Barrow County Courthouse before the same judge on Thursday to learn his fate. He faces more than 100 years in prison after being found guilty of 27 counts, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, cruelty to children in the second degree, and reckless conduct. The jury deliberated for fewer than two hours before returning the guilty verdicts in March.
Colin Gray marks the latest parent charged and convicted in the U.S. in connection with a mass shooting carried out by his child.
During the two-week trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Colin Gray had been warned that his son had an affinity for mass shooters and was aware that the teen kept a shrine in his bedroom dedicated to the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Instead of getting his son psychological help, Colin Gray gave the boy an AR-15-style weapon as a Christmas present that the teen ultimately used to carry out the mass shooting at Apalachee High School, prosecutors said.
Colin Gray testified in his own defense during the trial, breaking down while being questioned about whether he noticed any “red flags” that would have led him to believe the boy was capable of committing a mass shooting.
“I struggle with it every day,” Colin Gray testified. “He’s a good kid, you know? He wasn’t perfect, but to do something, uh, that heinous, like I don’t, I don’t know if anybody would see that type of evil.”
During his testimony, Colin Gray confirmed that he gave his son the AR-15-style rifle as a Christmas present, telling jurors the gift came with rules.
“This is a weapon that I want you to shoot when we go to the range, and if you keep doing really good in school, going to school and doing all the things you should, you graduate and you’re 18, this will be your gun,” Colin Gray said he told his son.
Following the verdict, Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said that evidence showed that there were “multiple warnings over a lengthy period of time.”
“You just had to do one thing — take that rifle away — and this would have been prevented,” Smith told reporters.
Several other parents have been convicted in the U.S. in connection with a mass shooting carried out by their children.
In 2024, Jennifer and James Crumbley were convicted of charges stemming from a deadly mass shooting at a Michigan high school committed by their then-15-year-old son, Ethan Crumbley. The parents were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in separate trials after prosecutors presented evidence of an unsecured gun at their home and their indifference toward their son’s mental health. They were each sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.
Their son pleaded guilty in October 2022 to murdering four students and injuring several others in the November 2021 shooting at Oxford High School and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In 2023, Robert Crimo Jr. pleaded guilty to seven counts of misdemeanor reckless conduct — one count for each person killed by his son, Robert Crimo III, during a mass shooting at a 2022 Fourth of July Parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. As part of a plea deal, Crimo Jr. was sentenced to 60 days in jail and two years of probation.
His son, who was 19 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of murder and attempted murder last year and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In an ongoing case, the father of a 15-year-old girl who shot and killed a student and teacher at a Wisconsin school in 2024 faces charges alleging he allowed his daughter access to guns used in the deadly shooting.
The father, Jeffrey Rupnow, was charged with two counts of intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to a minor and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in connection with the shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison. His case is set to go to trial next year.
