5 dead in small plane crash south of Austin, officials say
Cessna Golden Eagle (Francois Joseph Berger / 500px/Getty)
(WIMBERLEY, Texas) — Five people were killed in a plane crash in Texas on Thursday night, investigators said.
Hayes County Judge Ruben Becerra said first responders received a call around 11:00 p.m. local time about a plane down in the area of Wimberley, which is roughly 30 miles southwest of Austin.
Fire and EMS crews found the downed Cessna 421C, along with the bodies of the five deceased passengers. Their identities were not immediately released.
Stacey Rohr lives in a house close to the crash site and told local reporters, including one from ABC affiliate KVUE, Friday morning that the crash rattled the neighborhood.
“It felt like an earthquake,” she said.
Although a cause of the crash was not immediately determined, investigators said preliminary information shows that there was no midair collision.
“Preliminary information indicates the aircraft was traveling at a high rate of speed at the time of impact,” Becerra said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will take over the investigation, according to the judge.
The NTSB said in a statement that the Cessna was destroyed in a post-impact fire. An investigator is on the way to the scene, according to the agency.
Preliminary flight data obtained by ABC News found that the plane took off from Amarillo, Texas, which is about 420 miles northwest of the crash area, and was in the air for almost two hours before it crashed.
The Hookers’ boat, “Soulmate,” is seen in Marsh Harbor on Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas, April 8, 2026. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — Cadaver dogs are heading to help with the search for Lynette Hooker, an American woman who’s missing in the Bahamas, according to police.
The K-9 team from the U.S. Coast Guard will be on the ground in Hope Town on Wednesday morning, Advardo Dames, assistant commissioner of the Royal Bahamas Police, told ABC News.
Lynette Hooker has been missing since she went overboard on a dinghy on the evening of April 4.
When the 55-year-old Michigan woman and her husband, Brian Hooker, departed Hope Town on the Abaco Islands for their yacht, Soulmate, in Elbow Cay, bad weather caused her to fall off the dinghy, her husband told authorities.
Brian Hooker, 58, was arrested on April 8 and questioned by police. He was released on Monday without charges.
Brian Hooker told ABC News on Tuesday that he’s staying in the Bahamas with a “sole focus” of finding his wife, “no matter how likely or unlikely that is.”
He said he was planning “to go back to the boat, and then hire or beg people to help me go find some areas to search.”
Brian Hooker’s attorney did not allow him to answer questions about what happened the night his wife went overboard due to the pending investigation.
When asked if there was anything he wishes he’d done differently, Brian Hooker was emotional, saying, “I will always think there was something I could have done differently. My one job, my one job was to look out for her, and that has not happened. And I’m gonna keep looking out for her now, the best I can.”
ABC News’ Brian Andrews contributed to this report.
Kentucky State Police released this image of the suspect in a bank robbery in Berea, Kentucky, on April 30, 2026. (Kentucky State Police)
(BEREA, Ky.) — An 18-year-old is in custody after he allegedly gunned down two people during a bank robbery, according to Kentucky authorities.
Braelin Weaver, wearing a black mask and black gloves, allegedly went into the U.S. Bank in Berea just before 2 p.m. Thursday, immediately shot and killed a male victim, and then shot and killed a bank teller, court documents said.
He then allegedly checked multiple drawers before fleeing the bank, according to the documents.
Surveillance footage linked the suspect to a silver BMW, court documents said, and investigators traced the car to a Facebook account under Weaver’s name.
At about 8 p.m. Thursday, Weaver posted an image to social media showing an alien holding a large amount of cash, according to the court documents.
On Thursday night, authorities zeroed in on Weaver’s car on Interstate 75 in Somerset, Kentucky, and he allegedly led police on a chase, driving over 100 mph, documents said. He eventually crashed the BMW and fled on foot, according to documents. A gun was found in the car, documents noted.
Weaver has since been arrested and is facing federal charges, according to prosecutors. He will make his first court appearance in Lexington on Monday, authorities said.
“Our hearts go out to the families of the victims, our colleagues and the entire Berea community,” U.S. Bank said in a statement. “We are committed to supporting the victims’ families and our colleagues. And we will continue to work closely with law enforcement on this active investigation.”
Berea, a city of more than 16,000 people, is roughly 40 miles south of Lexington.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters and members of the media at Mar-a-Lago on February 1, 2026 in Palm Beach, Florida. Al Drago/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Judge Aileen Cannon on Wednesday sentenced Ryan Routh to spend the rest of his life in prison for attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump on his Florida golf course in September 2024.
Prosecutors argued that Routh, 60, should get a life sentence after a jury last year convicted him on five counts for allegedly plotting “painstakingly to kill President Trump, and [taking] significant steps toward making that happen.”
“Routh’s crimes undeniably warrant a life sentence — he took steps over the course of months to assassinate a major presidential candidate, demonstrated the will to kill anybody in the way, and has since expressed neither regret nor remorse to his victims,” prosecutors argued in a court filing.
After a two-and-a-half-week trial in September, a jury quickly found Routh guilty on five felony counts, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate and assaulting a federal officer.
Routh allegedly hid in the bushes of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach and pointed a military-grade SKS rifle towards Trump and a Secret Service agent.
“Routh’s crimes of conviction reflect careful plotting, extensive premeditation, and a cowardly disregard for human life,” prosecutors wrote. “Routh’s motive for his crimes was unconscionable – preventing the American people from electing the candidate of their choice for President. Routh’s gloss on his crimes has always been that anything he may have done was justified by events in Ukraine or American domestic politics.”
Routh represented himself at trial and attempted to argue that he never intended to harm Trump or the Secret Service agent, framing his actions as a form of protest against the president’s policies. After he was found guilty, he attempted to harm himself in front of the jury by stabbing himself with a pen.
Since his conviction, Routh was appointed an attorney and has requested a 27-year sentence that would allow him to “experience freedom again as opposed to dying in prison.” His lawyer argued that Routh could not have a fair trial because he represented himself, even though Routh made that decision after repeated warnings about the potential consequences.
“Defendant recognizes that he was found guilty by the jury but asserts that the jury was misled by his inability to effectively confront witnesses, use exhibits, or affirmatively introduce impeachment evidence designed to prove his lack of intent to cause injury to anyone,” his defense lawyer wrote.
Routh had attempted to bolster his push for a lighter sentence by submitting multiple letters from friends attesting to his character and undergoing a psychiatric examination, which suggested he suffers from narcissistic personality disorder and bipolar II disorder.
“Ryan has already shown, through his actions, that he is an asset to his community, not a threat. He deserves the chance to one day return home, where he can continue to be a loving father, partner, and a peaceful, contributing member of society,” wrote Darya Trotsenko, a Kyiv resident who said she met Routh when he attempted to volunteer to support Ukraine’s defense.
But prosecutors argued that Routh continues to show little remorse for his actions, pointing to recent writings in which he referenced an earlier attempt on Trump’s life and wrote, “I hate our dictator missed the trial, can my appeal be heard in 30 years when he is gone.”
In another court filing, Routh suggested he prefers that Trump personally punish him for his actions.
“If the President wished to pummel the defendant just for good measure, put on the handcuffs and shackles and give it your worst. No cameras, no complaints, no charges/charges. Just good fun. Don’t be a p—-. (Can I say p—- or coward – sorry),” Routh wrote.
Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge, dismissed the criminal case against the president in 2024 related to his handling of classified documents. Routh unsuccessfully attempted to have Cannon removed from the case by arguing her appointment by Trump is a conflict of interest.
