1-year-old dead after abduction of 3 children ends in car crash in Maryland: Police
(VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.) — An alleged abduction of three Virginia Beach children ended in a car crash Thursday morning that left the youngest dead, according to police.
Virginia State Police responded to a stabbing Wednesday night in an incident they said they believe to be “domestic-related.”
Two female victims — one adult and one juvenile — were transported to the hospital with multiple stab wounds, and are currently in stable condition, police said.
The suspect, Dana Plummer, 36, is believed to have stabbed the two victims and then fled the scene with his children, police said.
The three children were identified as 7-year-old Zayin Plummer, 5-year-old Zayir Plummer and 1-year-old Za’riyah Plummer.
An AMBER Alert — which has since been canceled — was issued Thursday morning for the children.
Law enforcement identified the suspect’s vehicle thanks to a tip from a member of the public and attempted to initiate a traffic stop, but the vehicle refused to stop and fled north on the highway into Maryland, police said.
While fleeing, the driver lost control of the car and crashed, police said.
The three missing children were located at the scene. The 1-year-old was transported to a hospital, but later succumbed to her injuries, police said.
Police apprehended Plummer at the scene.
He has been charged with two counts of aggravated malicious wounding, three counts of parental abduction, four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and domestic assault, police said.
“Our hearts go out to the family and loved ones who are grieving this morning,” Virginia State Police Chief Paul Neudigate said in a statement. “This is an unimaginable tragedy, and on behalf of the VBPD, I extend our deepest sympathies to those affected by this loss.”
(NEW YORK) — Three major wildfires were raging across Southern California Tuesday, threatening thousands of homes as firefighters and the state National Guard were battling to bring the flames under control amid a triple-digit heatwave, officials said.
The Line Fire in San Bernardino County, the Airport Fire in Orange County and the Bridge Fire in Los Angeles County are all being fueled by extremely dry vegetation and spreading rapidly, officials said.
The Line Fire
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Line Fire was threatening 65,600 structures, including homes and commercial properties, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention (Cal Fire).
Fire crews achieved 5% containment on the blaze on Monday night as Gov. Gavin Newsom deployed the state National Guard to support the ongoing response to extinguish the blaze.
While evacuation orders were issued for 9,200 structures in the area, with another 56,400 structures under evacuation warnings, Cal Fire said no buildings have been destroyed or damaged.
“We’re pouring resources into this incident aggressively by deploying more air and ground support through the California National Guard,” Newsom said in a statement. “This is on top of nearly 2,000 firefighters, nearly 200 engines, and air assets we already have tackling this fire. California stands with these communities and has their backs.”
Newsom said the California National Guard will support the ongoing response to the Line Fire, the cause of which remains under investigation. Eighty troops split into four 20-person teams and one military police company have been sent to the fire scene to assist the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department with traffic control in evacuated areas.
National Guard troops are also helping firefighters battle the flames. Four UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters for water bucket dropping operations and two C-130 aircraft with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems are among the resources deployed by the National Guard, Newsom said.
The fire, which ignited Sept. 5, is burning in steep and rugged terrain, making access difficult, Cal Fire said. Firefighters are working to build “control lines” to contain the blaze.
“Stronger winds are predicted Tuesday which could help fire spread and contribute to longer range spotting. Mid-week cooling may moderate fire activity and increase fuel moistures,” Cal Fire said.
The Airport Fire
Another major fire in Southern California broke out Monday afternoon in an unincorporated area of Orange County, prompting the evacuations of 1,427 homes, according to Cal Fire. The fast-moving Airport Fire in Trabuco Canyon in the hills southeast of Irvine had burned 9,333 acres by Tuesday afternoon, according to Cal Fire.
The fire was 0% contained Tuesday afternoon, according to Cal Fire.
Two firefighters battling the blaze were hospitalized with heat-related injuries and one civilian suffering from smoke inhalation was also treated at a hospital, Cal Fire said. The Fire was burning in the direction of the Cleveland National Forest.
At least four people, including a couple and their 3-year-old child who were hiking on a trail in the area, had to be airlifted to safety, officials said. A man and his cats were airlifted to safety from their home, officials said.
Several emergency communication towers on Santiago Peak in the fire zone, as well as towers operated by local broadcasting stations, were being threatened by the fire, officials said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, no structures had been destroyed or damaged, according to Cal Fire.
The Airport Fire began around 1 p.m. PT on Tuesday, sparked by county public works crews working on a fire prevention project by trying to move boulders to prevent public access — mostly by motorcyclists — to an area of the canyon with a lot of dry vegetation that could ignite easily, officials told ABC Los Angeles station KABC.
“The fire has been classified as unintentional,” said Orange County Fire Authority Deputy Chief TJ McGovern.
At least 1,000 firefighters were battling the blaze Tuesday.
The Bridge Fire
Elsewhere, the Bridge Fire, which started on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles Country, had burned 4,178 acres as of Tuesday afternoon. The fire north of Azusa in the Angeles National Forest was 0% contained.
Evacuation orders are in place for a mobile home park, campgrounds and a small river community.
(NEW YORK) — Two Russian military aircraft were detected Wednesday operating in the international airspace off of Alaska, NORAD said.
The aircraft were operating in airspace known as the Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, that stretches 150 miles from the coastline, an area where aircraft are asked to identify themselves.
“The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” NORAD said. “This Russian activity in the Alaska ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat.”
The U.S. does not appear to have launched intercepting aircraft, with NORAD saying in a press release that the Russian aircraft were “detected and tracked.”
United States and Canadian fighter jets in July intercepted four Russian and Chinese bombers flying in international airspace near Alaska, officials said at the time.
NORAD did not identify what type of Russian aircraft were involved in Thursday’s incident.
(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles County is choosing to continue with the “care first, jails last” approach when addressing the more than 75,000 individuals experiencing homelessness in the county, despite recent pressure from California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“We can’t arrest our way out of what’s going on in the streets,” said L.A. Board Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who is one of five board members who unanimously voted this week against Newsom’s executive order on dismantling homeless encampments across the state.
In his executive order on July 25, Newsom announced $24 billion in funding given to local governments across the state to address widespread homeless encampments, saying in a statement there are “simply no more excuses. It’s time for everyone to do their part.”
The governor’s order follows the Supreme Court’s landmark City of Grants Pass, Oregon, v. Johnson decision in June that gave localities the justification to fine and arrest people for sleeping outdoors on public property.
Barger maintained that she’s not at odds with Newsom’s order but rather supporting the ongoing work the board and its partners have been doing to solve the homelessness crisis in the county.
“The concern we have is if we’re not all on the same page, as it relates to how the Grants Pass decision impacts the ability to clean up encampments, we are going to be just moving people from one city to another,” Barger said of the 88 municipalities within Los Angeles County.
Showing a united front with the board of supervisors, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said during the meeting Tuesday, “Being homeless is not a crime, and we will maintain our focus on criminal behavior rather than an individual’s status.”
Barger believes the pathway to permanent results for the county’s unhoused population is paved with outreach, mental health services and job training, which she says “gets lost” in the conversation.
The “Care First, Jails Last” investment is the Measure J ballot initiative approved by voters in 2020 to set aside at least 10% of existing locally controlled, unrestricted revenues to be directed to community investment and alternatives to incarceration.
Within the measure is the Care First Community Investment (CFCI), which has received $88.3 million in annual allocation from the Board of Supervisors.
Additionally, the Sheriff’s Department’s Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST) is a group of law enforcement officers who work with homeless services agencies to help people experiencing homelessness.
Supervisor Hilda Solis told ABC News the law enforcement partnership “has been an integral partner in our Care First approach.”
“Since their establishment, HOST has never resorted to arrests to address encampments in the public’s right of way or that pose a public health concern,” Solis said.
Despite pressure at the state level, Los Angeles City has in fact seen fewer people living on the streets in the last year.
The L.A. City Controller’s office confirmed to ABC News the city saw a 10,000-person decrease in the unhoused population between 2023 and 2024.
This month, the nonprofit policy organization RAND released a 2023 study that showed that in areas with frequent encampment clearings, those encampments returned within two to three months.
After mass clearings of the homeless encampments in the Venice Beach area of Los Angeles, the share of unhoused people jumped from 20% to 46%, according to the study.
In a report released in June 2024, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) found that LA Municipal Code 41.18, which allows for encampment removal in certain areas, isn’t effective at reducing encampments or helping to house people — while costing over $3 million in two years, not including enforcement costs.
“I’ve never seen incarceration work to end homelessness, I’ve only seen that extend homelessness,” Downtown Women’s Center CEO Amy Turk told ABC News.
The Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) is a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles focused on serving women and gender-diverse individuals experiencing homelessness.
Turk has worked directly with the unhoused population in Los Angeles for two decades, providing trauma-informed outreach, shelter and helping people towards permanent housing.
“When I’ve seen people move toward criminalization, dismantling an encampment and offering no place for people to go, then what you see is people move from one plot of land to another plot of land, and you’re not solving anything.”
However, others say the county and local organizations’ efforts to keep people off the streets are not noticeable on the ground floor, where encampments, they say, continue to impede the lives of other residents.
“I think it’s very clear that the programs and policies both at the city level and the county level, have failed to reduce the number of people on the streets in a significant and sustainable way,” Paul Webster, executive director of the Los Angeles Alliance for Human Rights (LAAHR), told ABC News.
“Residents, business owners and even people experiencing homelessness themselves, have for years have been told that things are improving and that the city and the county have enacted programs that would end homelessness in Los Angeles, and for years, that has not come to pass,” Webster added.
In 2020, LAAHR sued the City and County of Los Angeles, claiming that the city’s leaders were not doing enough to address the homelessness crisis.
Webster said the lawsuit demanded an increased number of shelter beds, increased access to mental health and drug abuse treatment and a return to the intended uses of public rights of way and public spaces.
In 2022, the lawsuit was settled with the county agreeing to pay $236 million to fund increased services, outreach, and interim housing.
“We’ve seen some progress,” Webster said two years after the suit, adding, “We’re still working to actively monitor and actively hold the city and the county accountable for these commitments.”