(PHOENIX) — A 9-year-old boy allegedly shot and killed his 5-year-old sister by accident in their Phoenix home, police said.
The 5-year-old girl was pronounced dead at a local trauma center after the incident on Tuesday night, Phoenix police said.
The rifle used in the shooting belonged to the children’s father, 33-year-old Irvin Ramos-Jimenez, police said. Ramos-Jimenez has been arrested for possession of a weapon by a prohibited person, police said.
It was not immediately clear where the rifle used in the Phoenix shooting was stored.
“We ask all gun owners to ensure that all guns are stored in a location, preferably a secured safe, out of reach of all children in the home or who may visit,” Phoenix Police Sgt. Robert Scherer told ABC News via email. “No family should ever have to endure the loss of a child in circumstances like these.”
Guns are the leading cause of death for children in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Each year, hundreds of kids in the U.S. access loaded firearms and accidentally shoot themselves or someone else, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. The worst year on record was 2023, when there were more than 400 unintentional shootings by kids, Everytown said.
So far this year, kids have carried out at least 66 unintentional shootings, resulting in at least 30 deaths, according to Everytown.
(NEW YORK) — Federal prosecutors said no one from the state or federal government eavesdropped on a jailhouse phone conversation between accused UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione and his lawyer.
Defense attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo claimed at a court appearance last week that prosecutors at the Manhattan district attorney’s office had been “eavesdropping” on a call after federal prosecutors provided them with a recording.
Judge Margaret Garnett asked for an explanation, which federal prosecutors provided in a court filing.
“To be sure, no one at [the Manhattan DA’s office] or the Government ‘eavesdropped’ on the defendant on a live basis,” prosecutors said in the filing Tuesday. “Rather, consistent with well-known practice in federal and state jails, many of the defendant’s calls are recorded with notice of the recording provided to him and the person on the other side of any calls.”
Prosecutors said a paralegal inadvertently listened to a call between Mangione and Agnifilo but stopped as soon as it became clear it was a lawyer on the other end of the line.
Prosecutors reminded Agnifilo there are ways for attorneys to bypass recorded lines when setting up calls with incarcerated clients and told the judge no further action was needed.
Mangione is accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel as Thompson headed to an investors conference on Dec. 4. Mangione was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after the assassination-style killing.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges. The federal charge of murder through the use of a firearm would make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
(ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MN) — Three major wildfires raging out of control in the same Minnesota county have burned more than 20,000 acres combined, destroying dozens of structures, triggering evacuations and prompting the governor to call in the state National Guard to help battle the flames.
The largest fire in St. Louis County — the Camp House Fire — exploded overnight to nearly 12,000 acres and was 0% contained on Tuesday afternoon, officials said.
“The responders are doing everything they can, working long hours under extremely tough conditions,” Cmdr. Ryan Williams of the Minnesota Incident Command System (MNICS) said at a news conference.
The Camp House Fire, which started on Sunday in the Superior National Forest near Brimson, about 35 miles north of county seat Duluth, grew overnight from roughly 1,200 acres to 11,788 acres by Tuesday afternoon, according to Williams.
He said that up to 150 structures, including seasonal cabins, remain under mandatory evacuation orders.
St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay said in a video statement that more than 40 structures, including homes and cabins, have been destroyed by the Camp House Fire.
Fueled by wind gusts, relative low humidity, warm temperatures, dry underbrush and a build-up of dead trees killed by an insect infestation, the Camp House Fire has quickly spread through the area, according to officials.
“When the fire torches through tree canopies, it throws embers into the air like confetti,” Williams said.
Two other wild fires burning in St. Louis County were the Jenkins Creek Fire — which started on Monday afternoon and had spread to 6,800 acres as of Tuesday afternoon — and the Munger Saw Fire, which also started Monday afternoon and had grown to 1,400 acres as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the MNICS. Both fires were also 0% contained, officials said.
No injuries have been reported from any of the fires, officials noted.
As of Tuesday morning, wildfires had scorched over 37,000 acres — far above the state’s typical yearly total of about 12,000 acres.
“We are seeing the effects of climate change,” Sarah Strommen, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said at Tuesday’s news conference. “It’s harder to compare current fire seasons to what used to be normal. We are trending toward hotter, drier weather — and that’s changing everything.”
On Monday night, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called in state National Guard troops to help firefighters gain control of the three fires.
“Last night, many of our firefighters were out there with no sleep in extremely dangerous conditions,” Walz said in a statement. “We’ve already seen 970 wildfires this year — 40 on Sunday and another 40 on Monday. These are record-setting numbers, and the fires are burning fast.”
The blazes ignited amid red flag fire danger warnings issued by the National Weather Service for nearly the entire state of Minnesota.
Making matters worse for firefighters were high temperatures forecast for most of Minnesota this week. On Monday and Tuesday, temperatures in the Duluth area reached the 80s.
(LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C.) — Twenty people were injured by a reported lightning strike while swimming at a beach in South Carolina, officials said.
The incident occurred at approximately 5 p.m. on Tuesday, when multiple agencies responded to a “reported electrocution” due to lightning at Dominion Beach Park near the Lake Murray Dam in Lexington County, South Carolina, officials said in a press release.
When first responders arrived on the scene, 20 patients — eight adults and 12 juveniles — had been injured by the strike, officials said.
Eighteen of those individuals were treated at the scene, while 12 were sent to three local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, Vanessa Diaz, the public information officer for Lexington County, told ABC News in a statement.
All of the patients are expected to recover, officials said.
When the strike occurred, it was a “bright and sunny day” at the lake, but then a bolt of lightning hit the water and “energized a metal cable with buoys on it that surrounds the swimming area,” the Irmo Fire District said in a statement.
“Lightning can strike far away from a cloud. It doesn’t seem logical but a few hundred of us are believers today,” the fire district said.
Several people had swam out to the buoys and were holding the cable when the lightning hit, with others nearby in the water, the fire district said.
“Everybody got quite a jolt, we’re so fortunate that injuries were not worse than they were,” the fire district said.
Dominion Beach Park is expected to reopen on Wednesday “following safety assessments and clearance from authorities,” Lexington County officials said.
This week is Lightning Safety Awareness Week, which began in 2001 “in order to call attention to lightning being an underrated killer,” according to the National Weather Service. So far this year, there have been four reported deaths from lightning strikes in the U.S., according to the National Lightning Safety Council.
