80-year-old dies falling off boat on rapids trip in Grand Canyon
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(GRAND CANYON VILLAGE, Ariz.) — An 80-year-old man died in Grand Canyon National Park over the weekend after his boat flipped in the Colorado River, marking the 13th person to die in the park this year.
The man was on a commercial rapids trip Sunday and fell into the water at Fossil Rapid, according to the National Park Service.
He fell in at around 3:40 p.m., according to officials, with an emergency being reported to the National Park Service via satellite phone.
The group said CPR was already in progress as park rangers responded to the emergency.
However, efforts by the group and park rangers, who were flown in by helicopter, were not able to resuscitate him.
The National Park Service and Coconino County medical examiner are investigating the incident. The victim was not identified by officials.
Several people have died in Grand Canyon National Park just in August alone. A 33-year-old woman, Chenoa Nickerson, was washed away in flash flooding was found on Sunday, the same day as the 80-year-old man died in the boating accident.
Three people died in the park on the last day of July and into the first week of August, including a 20-year-old man who fell off a scenic overlook on July 31, a BASE jumper who fell to his death on Aug. 1 and a 20-year-old female hiker who was found dead 150 feet below the rim after she entered on Aug. 3.
A park official told The Associated Press this week that about 10 to 15 people die in Grand Canyon National Park every year, with just 11 dying last year.
(OROVILLE, Calif.) — A 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of starting a massive Northern California wildfire in July that destroyed 26 homes and businesses and prompted the evacuation of nearly 30,000 people, officials said.
Spencer Grant Anderson of Oroville, California, was arraigned on Monday on charges of arson of an inhabited structure, arson of forest land and arson causing multiple structures to burn, according to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office.
Anderson was ordered to return to court on Wednesday after he has a chance to speak to his court-appointed attorney, prosecutors said.
“It was a long-term investigation. There are a lot of moving parts. Right now it’s an accusation and everybody has a right to a trial,” Anderson’s attorney, Larry Pilgrim, told ABC News on Tuesday as he waited at the Butte County Jail to speak to his client for the first time.
Pilgrim said he plans to ask for a continuance in the case to allow him to review the evidence. He said Anderson will enter a plea at a later date.
Investigators from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) identified Anderson as a possible suspect a day after the Thompson Fire ignited near the town of Oroville on July 2, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said at a news conference on Monday.
“For 50 days, Cal Fire devoted four to six investigators per day, brought in from around the state, to continuously watch Anderson as other investigators meticulously built the case,” Ramsey said. “If Anderson had chosen to light another fire, we were confident the surveillance personnel would be able to detect and stop the fire before it could get out of control.”
Anderson was taken into custody on Aug. 22 when Cal Fire investigators executed search warrants and “located evidence further implicating Anderson in starting the Thompson fire,” prosecutors said in a statement without elaborating on the evidence.
Ramsey said that on the day the fire was ignited, Cal Fire investigators pinpointed the area where the fire started near the intersection of Cherokee and Thompson Flat roads in a rural area northeast of Oroville and quickly determined the “fire was caused by an intentional human act.”
“Arson by its very terms is a very difficult crime to solve because it burns up the evidence,” Ramsey said, praising the work of investigators on the case.
Ramsey said several 911 callers and witnesses in the area at the time the fire started reported seeing a blue Toyota driving in the area and investigators determined the fire was most likely started by a flaming object thrown from the Toyota as it drove southbound on Cherokee Road.
Using automatic license plate readers in the area, investigators were able to identify the Toyota and trace it to Anderson, Ramsey said.
“Anderson was arrested and questioned. He admitted that on the morning of the fire, he purchased fireworks from a firework stand in Oroville, then went up to Cherokee Road to ‘test one’ by throwing it out his car window,” prosecutors said in the statement.
In addition to destroying 26 structures, including 13 homes, the Thompson Fire damaged eight structures and burned 3,789 acres before it was fully contained on July 8, according to Cal Fire. Two firefighters were injured battling the blaze, Cal Fire said.
If convicted of the charges, Anderson faces a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison, according to prosecutors. Anderson has been ordered to be held without bail at the Butte County Jail.
The Thompson Fire was the second wildfire deliberately set in Butte County in July. On July 24, the Park Fire was deliberately started in Bidwell Park near Chico and spread to more than 429,000 acres across Butte, Tehama, Shasta and Plumas counties.
Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, was arrested on a felony count of arson of an inhabited structure or property, according to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office. Stout has pleaded not guilty.
Stout was allegedly spotted pushing a car that was on fire down a gully called “Alligator Hole” in Bidwell Park, igniting the Park Fire, now the fourth largest wildfire in California history, according to prosecutors.
(MEMPHIS) — Opening statements began on Wednesday in the federal trial of three former Memphis police officers charged in connection with the January 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Rogers presented the prosecution’s case, explaining to jurors what evidence they can expect to see and warned them that they will watch and hear “horrifying” body camera video and audio over the course of the trial, according to WATN, the ABC affiliate in Memphis covering the case in the courtroom.
“They stood by his dying body and laughed,” Rogers said, describing what happened after the officers were finished beating Nichols, according to WATN. “These will not be easy days.”
Defense attorneys for the former officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith — also began presenting opening statements.
John Perry, Bean’s defense attorney, told jurors that they can expect to see that the evidence will show the officers did their job, according to WATN.
“It will take you 5 minutes to deliberate,” Perry said, according to WATN.
Michael Stengel, Haley’s attorney, said that Nichols did not stop for 2 miles after officers turned on their police lights, according to WATN. Stengel claimed that there is no evidence that the officer knew who was driving at the time and there was no personal vendetta concerning rumors of a woman.
“When they got the wallet [of Nichols] after the stop, that’s when they learned who it was,” Stengel said, according to WATN.
Bean, Haley and Smith, along with two other officers involved in the incident, were charged on Sept. 12, 2023, with violating Nichols’ civil rights through excessive use of force, unlawful assault, failing to intervene in the assault and failing to render medical aid – charges that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The 4-count indictment also charged all five officers with conspiring to engage in misleading conduct by attempting to falsify or intentionally withholding details of the arrest in statements and to a supervisor – charges that carry up to 20 years in prison, per the DOJ.
Bean, Haley and Smith have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Desmond Mills Jr. and Emmitt Martin III, the two additional officers who were also charged in this case, have pleaded guilty to some of the federal charges.
Martin pleaded guilty to excessive force and failure to intervene, as well as conspiracy to witness tamper, according to court records. The other two charges will be dropped at sentencing, which has been scheduled for Dec. 5, according to the court records.
Mills pleaded guilty to two of the four counts in the indictment — excessive force and failing to intervene, as well as conspiring to cover up his use of unlawful force, according to the DOJ. The government said it will recommend a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, based on the terms of Mills’s plea agreement.
Tyre Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, who attended opening statements, told reporters on Wednesday that she hopes the jury will return a guilty verdict.
“Our hope is that they’re found guilty and to show the world that my son was a good person and he wasn’t the criminal that they’re trying to make him out to be,” she said.
ABC News reached out to the attorneys representing the officers but requests for comment were not immediately returned.
Nichols, 29, died on Jan. 10, 2023 – three days after a traffic stop captured in body camera footage and surveillance footage, which allegedly shows officers violently striking Nichols repeatedly and walking around, talking to each other as Nichols was injured and sitting on the ground. He was also pepper-sprayed and tased during the incident. The beating triggered protests and calls for police reform.
Police said Nichols was pulled over for reckless driving, though Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said she has been unable to substantiate that.
Body camera footage shows Nichols getting away from the officers after the initial stop, but he was apprehended minutes later by the officers. He then sustained multiple punches, kicks and hits from a baton from the officers.
Nichols was transferred to the hospital in critical condition where he later died. The medical examiner’s official autopsy report for Nichols showed he “died of brain injuries from blunt force trauma,” the district attorney’s office told Nichols’ family in May 2023.
While Nichols’ mother has said that first responders told her he was drunk and high, the autopsy report shows that his blood alcohol level was .049, the DA’s office said. The district attorney’s office told the family that was “well less than the legal limit to drive.”
The five former officers charged in this case were all members of the Memphis Police Department SCORPION unit – a crime suppression unit that has since been disbanded after Nichols’ death.
Rogers told the jury on Wednesday that the SCORPION unit followed an alleged rule that they called the “run tax,” according to WATN, where it was understood that the first person to reach a running suspect would beat them.
Perry claimed that his client, Bean, was not present at the initial stop and only arrived at the second scene after hearing a call on dispatch radio, according to WATN.
The five officers charged in connection to Nichols’ death were all fired for violating the policies of the Memphis Police Department.
All five former officers also face state felony charges, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping, in connection with Nichols’ death. They pleaded not guilty.
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — It was a story tailor-made for Hollywood: A wealthy white family takes in a Black teenager, guiding his football career from a high school standout to Ole Miss to the NFL. However, years later now Michael Oher claims he was blindsided by the movie that so many of us know and love, underscoring the importance of his perspective for a balanced narrative.
The Tuohy family and Michael Oher’s inspiring story was a book by acclaimed author Michael Lewis and then a blockbuster movie — “The Blind Side.”
The movie premiered in 2009 and reportedly earned $300 million at the box office. Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for portraying Leigh Ann Tuohy, a strong and determined character not to be underestimated.
Audiences embraced the movie’s message of racial harmony, but now the retired NFL star, who is a Super Bowl champion offensive tackle, is questioning everything he thought was true.
“The movie is something that will shadow Michael Oher for life because people think they know his story,” Michael Sokolove, a New York Times journalist and author who interviewed and spent time with Oher, said. “But that’s not actually Michael Oher.”
In a surprising turn, Oher is now suing the family that took him in.
An “IMPACT x Nightline” episode, now available to stream on Hulu, unpacks how such a feel-good story ended up mired in contentious litigation and looks at how everything went so wrong.
In his lawsuit, Oher alleges that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy saw him as a “gullible young man whose athletic talent could be exploited for their own benefit,” and that the Tuohys claimed he was their adopted son when, in reality, he wasn’t.
“What happened is that he entered a conservatorship with the Tuohys, which is wildly different than an adoption,” ESPN reporter Kelley Carter said.
Oher and his attorneys filed a 15-page petition against the Tuohys, alleging that they and their children have made millions of dollars off Oher’s name and story while Michael Oher has made comparatively little.
The petition also accuses the Tuohys of negotiating a movie deal where they would reap millions while Oher and others received nothing.
Oher seeks a full accounting of the money earned from using his story and unspecified damages.
Oher said he did not wish to respond when ABC News reached out to him for comment.
The lawyers for the Tuohys stated that each family member, including Oher, made an equal amount of money from the film.
In court filings, the Tuohys submitted an accounting statement showing they made full payments to Oher for his equal share. The amount was a little over $138,000, one-fifth of the money they say they all made from the movie.
The Tuohy family is claiming that Oher is trying to extort them. Text messages they say are between them and the former NFL star allegedly show Oher demanding they pay him millions, writing in a text, “If something isn’t resolved this Friday, I’m going to go ahead and tell the world how my supposed-to-be parents robbed me. That’s the deadline.”
“Whether we agree with how he sees it, I think it’s understandable that someone would feel differently as a 38-year-old adult than they would as an 18-year-old or even a 26-year-old in the midst of trying to stay in the NFL,” Sokolove said.
The Tuohys filing states that the term “adopted” was always used in its colloquial sense and was never intended as a legal term of art.
“This is a sad day,” Steve Farese Sr., lawyer for the Tuohy Family, said. “It’s devastating to the family. And we hope that it doesn’t have a chilling effect on others who want to help needy individuals.”
The Touhys declined to comment to ABC News, but in an interview with The Daily Memphian last year, Sean Tuohy said lawyers advised them that they couldn’t adopt Oher since he was over the age of 18. However, it is legal to adopt an adult in Tennessee.
Attorneys for the Tuohys say Oher always knew he was in a conservatorship.
“Fact of the matter is, he wrote a book in 2011,” Randall Fishman, attorney for the Tuohy family, said. “And in 2011, he acknowledged in that book, on three separate occasions in that book, that he — that there was, in fact, a conservatorship.”
In the book “I Beat the Odds,” Oher explains that the term “adoptive parents” pretty much means the same thing as “legal guardians,” but the laws were written to consider his age. He didn’t care about the terminology which was explained to him that way by the Tuohys; he was just happy that no one could argue that they weren’t legally what they already knew was real: a family.
“Ultimately, Michael Oher did win a victory, maybe just a moral victory, in getting the Tuohys to pull down any mention that Michael Oher is their adopted son and to stop saying that going forward,” ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmire said.
Just last year, at Oher’s request, the probate court judge dissolved the nearly 20-year conservatorship. The Tuohy family also agreed to remove all mentions of Oher’s supposed adoption from their websites, and not to mention adoption in public speeches.
“People don’t know anything about me,” Oher told ABC News’ Deborah Roberts in a 2009 interview. “I mean, you might see something on TV and think you know, but you gotta get to know me as a person. But you’ll never know a person by watching a movie or reading a book.”
Now, as the legal case wends its way through the court system, Oher is moving on to the next season of his life. Since 2022, Oher has been the president of the Oher Foundation, a nonprofit set up to empower economically disadvantaged kids through high school scholarships.
In an interview last year with “Good Morning America,” Oher said, “I shouldn’t be a miracle. And no kid — we shouldn’t be miracles. We should have opportunities and resources to live a normal, young adult, child life and grow up and be successful.”
ABC News’ Kevin Rochford, Kelley Robinson, Claire Pedersen and Jaclyn Skurie contributed to this report.
