15-year-old who allegedly shot teacher was ‘failing several classes,’ motive still under investigation: Sheriff
(COMAL COUNTY, Texas) — A 15-year-old boy allegedly shot a teacher at his Texas high school before dying from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
The teen used a .357 revolver he brought from home in Monday morning’s shooting at Hill Country College Preparatory High School in Comal County, about 30 miles north of San Antonio, the Comal County Sheriff’s Office said.
A injured teacher, a female, was taken to a San Antonio hospital in an unknown condition, the sheriff’s office said. She remains in the hospital on Tuesday, authorities said.
“The situation was contained very, very quickly,” and there’s no ongoing threat, the sheriff’s department said. The school was placed on lockdown and the approximately 250 students were evacuated to be reunited with their parents, authorities said.
While the motive remains under investigation, it appears the suspect “may have been experiencing academic challenges, including failing several classes,” the sheriff’s office said.
Electronic devices were taken from the teen’s home to try “to learn more about the student’s actions and possible motive,” the sheriff’s office said.
Hill Country College Preparatory High School is closed on Tuesday and counselors will be available to students, Principal Julie Wiley said.
“Our hearts are with everyone impacted, especially that teacher, their family, and our school community,” Wiley said in a statement. “We know this has been a difficult day. I want to personally thank our local law enforcement officers, amazing staff, and district administrators for their swift response, professionalism and care of our students.”
The National Weather Service in Honolulu has issued a flash flood warning after dam failure on the Kaukonahua Stream below Wahiawa Dam on Oahu, Hawaii, March 20, 2026. (City and County of Honolulu Department of Emergency Management)
(OAHU, Hawaii) — Dangerous flooding is impacting Hawaii’s Oahu island, prompting evacuations and a warning from local officials of a possible dam collapse, as major rains pummel the area for the second significant rain event in a week.
An evacuation order was issued early Friday morning local time for Haleiwa and Waialua, including areas near the Wahiawa Dam, according to Oahu Emergency Management, which warned that the dam “may collapse or breach at any time.”
The dam “has not failed but is at imminent risk of failure,” Oahu Emergency Management said mid-morning local time Friday.
“Potential for life-threatening flooding and catastrophic amounts of fast-moving water in downstream areas,” the agency warned.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said the Hawaii National Guard has been activated and other resources are being deployed across Oahu amid the “severe storm.”
“We are coordinating closely with state and county partners to support evacuations, open shelters, and keep our communities safe,” he said on X.
The latest flood threat comes a week after a damaging flood event that washed away roads and damaged homes.
A flash flood emergency was issued for northern Oahu earlier Friday for “catastrophic” flooding. Local emergency personnel had reported “life-threatening flash flooding” early Friday across northern Oahu, according to the National Weather Service in Honolulu.
“Floodwaters have cut off road access in and out of Haleiwa, and widespread flooding of roadways and low-lying areas is ongoing,” the NWS said, warning that “significant runoff continues to produce high water levels and dangerous flooding impacts.”
The Hawaii Department of Transportation advised of several road closures in the area early Friday due to flooding.
Flood conditions were expected to worsen, with more heavy rain forecast for the region throughout the day. The NWS warned that mudslides could occur in steep terrain areas.
The heaviest rain will be Friday through Saturday for most islands — with the Big Island getting the heaviest rain on Sunday.
Thunderstorms will be possible at times, which may include damaging winds.
Flood watches are in effect for the Hawaiian Islands through Sunday, with at least 2 to 7 inches of rain possible during the event.
ABC News’ Kyle Reiman contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
A huge dinosaur sits outside the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 26, 2016. (Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
(PITTSBURGH) — The Carnegie Museum of Natural History has made the behind-the-scenes inventory of rare fossils and other ancient artifacts available for public viewing for the first time.
The exhibition, dubbed “The Stories We Keep,” features items from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, museum’s inventory that are typically not displayed, chosen by the researchers and curators who work to preserve them.
Museum curators were inspired to create the exhibition in an effort to display items that wouldn’t otherwise be seen, Sarah Crawford, director of museum experience at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, told ABC News.
Museum staff cares for more than 22 million objects and specimens, less than 1% of which are on view at any given time, similar to other natural history museums around the country, Crawford said. The exhibition was designed in part by asking collection managers to choose objects and specimens to highlight.
“Every fossil, every animal and every object has a story that it can tell about our planet and the universe and our place in it,” Crawford said.
One of the most unique aspects of the exhibition is its Visible Collections display, which features a care lab in which visitors can watch as conservation staff work with fossils and other items in real time.
Guests even have the opportunity to speak with the scientists as they preserve and maintain the items, Crawford said.
When visitors walk in, the first thing they see behind the window is a 40-foot Egyptian funerary boat — the planks of which were all taken apart and individually restored, Crawford said.
Also within the Visible Collections are a cuneiform cylinder from King Nebuchadnezzar II that was made over 2,500 years ago, a fossilized bird feather that was found in Utah from about 48.5 million years ago and the lower jaw of a pygmy hippopotamus.
Currently on display within the Minerals and Earth Science Collection are toxic, radioactive specimens that could potentially kill people, as well as a meteorite that fell in Pennsylvania several years ago.
And a display named “Collecting So Many Bugs” features many of the museum’s 13 million invertebrate specimens, many of which are rare or from habitats that were previously lost.
Museums often do not have the space to display all of their items, or they are still in the process of being prepared and conserved, Crawford said.
The exhibition was unveiled in November and has since struck the curiosity and awe of new and repeat visitors alike.
“Because we have that visible lab, it means that the exhibition could be new every time you come,” Crawford said.
Ice agents look on as travelers stand in long lines at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, March 23, 2026 in Atlanta. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began fanning out at more than a dozen airports across the nation on Monday to assume some of the duties of Transportation Security Administration officers affected by a federal government funding crisis.
“What I see ICE agents doing is helping TSA plug the holes of security,” White House Border Czar Tom Homan told ABC News on Monday.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that the ICE agents assigned to airports will also continue to enforce immigration laws.
“They really are a high-level group of people and they love it because they’re able to now arrest illegals as they come into the country. That’s very fertile territory,” Trump said during a gaggle with reporters on the tarmac in Palm Beach, Florida. “But that’s not why they’re there. They’re really there to help.”
Homan said that if ICE agents see “illegal activity,” they will take action because they are federal law enforcement officers.
Asked whether the ICE agents will be carrying out immigration enforcement at airports, Homan said, “We’re not going to ignore illegal conduct in the airport whether it’s human trafficking, whether it’s alien smuggling with somebody that’s wanted, whether it’s … someone that they believe they have reasonable suspicion to talk to because they feel there’s a criminal activity in front of them.”
“Of course, anybody would need probable cause to make any arrests, but yeah, their law enforcement officers and they’re not going to ignore the law while we’re there,” Homan said.
“I’m leaving it up to the TSA Administrator, who’s an expert airport operations,” Homan added. “Where can we plug the holes? Where can we increase security, especially in this heightened security environment, because what’s going on the world? Where can we help you to move those lines and American people quicker to inspections while the same time maintaining security at the airport?”
As ICE agents began showing up at airports on Monday, Trump earlier posted a message on social media asking them to refrain from wearing masks while helping with airport security.
“I would greatly appreciate, however, NO MASKS, when helping our Country out of the Democrat caused MESS at the airports,” Trump said in his post, adding that he is a “BIG proponent” of ICE agents wearing masks when they “search for, and are forced to deal with, hardened criminals.”
Asked by reporters on Monday on Air Force One why he wants ICE agents to remove their masks at airports, Trump replied, “Because the people coming into the airport, typically speaking, aren’t murderers, killers, drug dealers, etc. There may be a few of them. But there aren’t many.”
Immigration officials wearing masks has been a key issue for critics in Trump’s nationwide mass deportation program.
Trump added that typical travelers at airports are “people that want to come into the country, and that want to leave the country, going to maybe their home countries, so I didn’t think it was an appropriate look for an airport.”
ICE agents were spotted by ABC News at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport early Monday.
The agents appeared to be helping with crowd control at the airport amid long lines of travelers trying to get through security. At one point, lines stretched outside the Atlanta airport’s terminals.
DHS funding battle continues
Democrats have blocked funding for the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to push for policy reforms to ICE, whose aggressive tactics in enforcing immigration laws have prompted protests and lawsuits across the country.
The DHS reforms that Democratic lawmakers have proposed include requiring ICE agents not to wear face masks, be equipped with body cameras and have warrants signed by a judge before entering homes and businesses.
Republicans have, so far, rejected those proposals.
ICE and TSA are both under the umbrella of DHS. But while ICE has remained funded through appropriations from Trump’s tax and spending bill passed last summer, key DHS agencies like TSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard are left unfunded.
Approximately 60,000 TSA officers have gone over a month with partial pay and last week began getting no paychecks as the stalemate over DHS funding continues.
Some TSA officers have begun calling out sick or quitting as they missed their first paycheck since the shutdown began on Feb. 14. DHS said that more than 400 TSA officers have quit so far.
Confusion over duties of ICE agents
On Sunday, Homan said the deployment of ICE would largely free up TSA agents for specialized tasks, like passenger and bag screening.
Homan, however, said ICE agents are not trained to do specialized work like screening passengers and running X-ray machines.
“But there are roles we can play to release TSA officers from the non-significant role, such as guarding an exit, so they can get back to the scanning machines and move people quicker,” Homan said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Homan said that “ICE can check identification before people enter the screening area.”
But in an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy seemed to contradict Homan.
Asked by Jon Karl, ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent, whether the ICE agents have any practical experience in manning airport security lines, Duffy said, “They run those same type of security machines at the Southern border, right? Packages come through or people come through. They run similar assets.”
Duffy added that ICE agents could also manage the flow of travelers through airport security and help TSA with administrative tasks.
“It depends on who shows up. Every single day will dictate how long these lines are,” Duffy said. “And you don’t know as travelers are trying to figure out, do I have to come an hour-and-a-half early? Do I have to come four hours early? They don’t know until the day of or the afternoon of their flight.”
Homan attempted to clarify what duties ICE agents would have at the airports during an interview on Monday with ABC News. Homan said that Duffy might have been referring to machines used for luggage and other packages that ICE agents already run at airports.
Homan told ABC News that ICE and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) “have a footprint of all the airports, because that’s where we open investigations on currency smuggling and human trafficking.”
“So ICE is involved with baggage investigations on that. So there is a sort of screening,” Homan said.
