Arrest made in fatal Michigan home invasion where perpetrators posed as utility men
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(OAKLAND, Calif.) — A suspect has been arrested and charged with murder in connection to a Michigan home invasion in which two men are believed to have gained entry by posing as utility workers.
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office identified him as Carlos Jose Hernandez, 37, and said they are seeking his extradition from Louisiana.
The second suspect remains at large, and the sheriff’s office is urging anyone with information that could lead to an arrest to get in touch.
On Friday, a 72-year-old man was found dead in the basement of his Rochester Hills home, according to the sheriff’s office. His wife, who called 911, had been tied up with her hands duct-taped.
It is not yet clear how the man, identified as Hussein Murray, was killed.
“Because of the gruesome nature of the injuries, it was not immediately clear if he had been shot or bludgeoned to death,” the sheriff’s department said in a press release.
The woman told law enforcement officials that the night before the attack, the two suspects had also shown up to the home claiming to be responding to a gas leak, but they were not allowed inside.
When they showed up again on Friday, they were let into the home, and her husband went with them into the basement, “ostensibly to look for the leak,” according to the sheriff’s department.
When they came back upstairs without her husband, they tied her up and taped her hands, the woman said. She did not see him come out afterward and “assumed he had been kidnapped.”
In home security camera footage released by the sheriff’s department, the since-arrested suspect can be seen wearing a utility worker’s uniform and a mask while holding a clipboard.
“We’re DTE. We’re checking for gas leaks,” the man can be heard saying in the video, naming the Michigan-based energy company.
In a statement after the incident, DTE urged customers to “be alert for DTE Energy impersonators.”
“If anyone arrives at your home or business claiming they are from DTE, please ask to see a badge with a photo ID. If the person refuses to show their badge, do not allow them entry into your home. If the person becomes agitated or acts in a strange manner, call 911 immediately,” the company said.
In an interview with a Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ, Sheriff Michael J. Bouchard described Murray as “a loving guy, owned a business, cared about his neighborhood and his community.”
“[He] shouldn’t have been a target of this — no one should ever be a target of this,” Bouchard said.
Murray owned a jewelry and pawn shop, according to WXYZ.
Bouchard said they believe Murray’s killing was “very targeted.”
“It wasn’t random,” Bouchard said. “They’re not just knocking on doors and doing this.”
In this Aug. 14, 2024, file photo, broken electricity lines above homes damaged are seen after Tropical Storm Ernesto hit Fajardo, Puerto Rico. (Jaydee Lee Serrano/AFP via Getty Images, FILE)
(NEW YORK) — Puerto Rico is still recovering from Hurricane Maria — nearly seven years after the powerful Category 4 storm caused extensive damage to the island’s already delicate infrastructure.
September marks National Preparedness Month and the start of Hispanic Heritage Month — stark reminders of the work that remains to be done on the island, especially as climate change could lead to more rapidly intensifying hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin.
Getting Puerto Rico to the necessary storm preparedness is about “justice and fairness” in protecting a unique culture and heritage that belongs to the United States, Jorge Gonzalez-Cruz, professor at the University of Albany’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center who has researched urban energy sustainability in Puerto Rico, told ABC News.
“We are U.S. citizens and deserve the best possible opportunity to develop and grow and have a sense of well-being and prosperity,” said Gonzalez-Cruz, who was born and raised on the island.
Hurricane Maria brought 155 mph winds as it made landfall near the city of Yabucoa, on the southeast portion of the island, on Sept. 20, 2017. The storm knocked out 95% of cell towers, leaving residents without the ability to communicate. Power, already scarce due to Hurricane Irma just weeks before, was knocked out on the entire island. Flooding on the island was rampant, with 13 locations reaching record flood stage, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Structural damage to buildings was widespread, and nearly all road signs and traffic lights were destroyed, officials said.
Some communities were without power for up to a year, according to Gonzalez-Cruz.
Out of the nearly 3,000 deaths attributed to Maria, only dozens were as a result of the actual storm, Kyle Siler-Evans, senior engineer of RAND, a nonprofit research institute and public sector consulting firm, told ABC News. The rest of the fatalities were caused by lack of access to clean water, food and power for an extended period of time, he added.
The frequency of strong storms that impacted the U.S. in 2017 likely contributed to delays in response to Puerto Rico, Sally Ray, director of domestic funds for the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, told ABC News. Hurricane Harvey brought widespread flooding to the Houston area in August 2017. Hurricane Irma caused extensive damage in Florida after striking the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, in early September 2017.
“By the time you got to Maria, you know, everybody had given all their attention and money to Harvey and not as much to the subsequent storms of that season,” Ray said.
The COVID-19 pandemic, subsequent storms that followed and the rise of inflation delayed the reconstruction even more, Siler-Evans said.
Puerto Rico was awarded $34 billion from the federal government for Hurricane Maria recovery efforts, $28.6 billion of which was allocated for permanent work and management costs, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
As of September 2023, 86% of FEMA’s Projects for Puerto Rico, including hazard mitigation and management costs had been completed, according to FEMA.
Gonzalez-Cruz described recovery efforts as being at a “good pace,” despite the setbacks. Improvements continue to be made to the power system, new flooding zones are regularly identified and reconstruction is moving steadily across the island, he said.
Thousands of smaller projects, such as the building of baseball fields and repairs to roads and bridges, are currently in the works as well, Siler-Evans told ABC News.
“But, [there’s] still a lot of work to be done,” Gonzalez-Cruz said.
Puerto Rico is often in the bullseye of storm systems that generate in the Atlantic Basin, the experts said. Every extreme weather event to impact the island since 2017 has been a litmus test of what still needs to be done to modernize its aging infrastructure, much of which was built during the mid-20th century.
More than 30,000 homes still had damaged roofs — covered in blue tarp — in 2019 as Hurricane Dorian neared the island, but a direct hit was avoided due to a late shift in track. In 2020, one million customers were without power following back-to-back earthquakes. An explosion and subsequent fire at a substation left 900,000 customers on the island without power in June 2021. Another massive fire at a major power plant caused a massive outage for about 1.3 million customers in April 2022, followed by Hurricane Fiona in September of that year.
Fiona was considered the first big test of the improvements made on the infrastructure since Maria, Gonzalez-Cruz said. The entire island lost power following the impact of the Category 1 storm.
The most recent named storm, Hurricane Ernesto, caused significant flooding on the island and left 730,000 customers without power — about half the island — after striking the island last month, officials said.
“There’s this whole cycle of problems that happens after a storm like Ernesto that [doesn’t] get the attention,” Ray said.
The toll from the aftermath of Hurricane Maria took on the collective psyches of Puerto Ricans cannot be understated, Gonzalez-Cruz said.
“It also shocked the makeup of the Puerto Rican people,” he said. “It revealed a lot of challenges that the island has been dealing with over [the] years.”
FEMA, its federal partners and the Government of Puerto Rico continue working closely on the island’s unprecedented recovery mission, a FEMA spokesperson said in an emailed statement to ABC News.
“FEMA is committed to the work that lies ahead and to ensuring that this historic recovery will have a lasting, positive impact on future generations,” the spokesperson said. “As National Hispanic Heritage Month begins, FEMA is proud to mention that its Hispanic and Latino Employee Resource Group is one of the largest in the agency with nearly 1,000 members across the country, many of whom are Puerto Rican and are leading the island’s long-term recovery efforts.
A request for comment from the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority was not immediately answered.
(NEW YORK) — A tropical storm warning is in effect in the Carolinas as the coast braces for a new storm set to make landfall on Monday.
The tropical system may strengthen to Tropical Storm Helene by the time it comes on shore near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Monday afternoon.
Helene will bring the threat of wind gusts up to 55 mph, coastal flooding with waves up to 11 feet, heavy rain possibly reaching 10 inches and potential flash flooding.
There’s also a threat for a few tornadoes in North Carolina on Monday.
Some of the rain will then reach the Mid-Atlantic, including Washington, D.C., by Tuesday.
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina face the risk of flash flooding on Monday and Tuesday.
The coastal city of Wilmington, North Carolina, is in the bull’s-eye for the worst of the flooding. Flash flood threat map, Sep. 16, 2024.
(WASHINGTON) — A first-of-its-kind survey has found that 3.3% of U.S. high school students identified as transgender in 2023, with another 2.2% identified as questioning.
The first nationally representative survey from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also highlights the multiple health disparities faced by transgender students who may experience gender dysphoria, stigma, discrimination, social marginalization or violence because they do not conform to social expectations of gender, the CDC reports.
These stressors increase the likelihood transgender youth and those who are questioning may experience mental health challenges, leading to disparities in health and well-being, according to the health agency.
Here are some of the findings:
More than a quarter (26%) of transgender and questioning students attempted suicide in the past year, compared to 5% of cisgender male and 11% of cisgender female students. The CDC urged schools to “create safer and more supportive environments for transgender and questioning students” to address these disparities, including inclusive activities, mental health and other health service referrals, and implementing policies that are LGBTQ-inclusive.
About 7 in 10 questioning students (69%) and transgender students (72%) experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, which the CDC states is a marker of depressive symptoms.
The CDC estimates 40% of transgender and questioning students have experienced bullying at school. About a quarter of transgender students (25.3%) and more than a quarter of questioning students (26.4%) skipped school because they felt unsafe, compared with 8.5% of cisgender male students.
Trans students were more likely to experience unstable housing in the last month than cisgender students. The CDC found 10.7% of trans students and 10% of questioning students said they experienced unstable housing, compared to 2.1% of cisgender males and 1.8% of cisgender females.
The CDC noted this disparity is likely caused of discrimination, such as family rejection.
Additionally, “transgender students might experience discrimination, harassment, and assault among foster, shelter, and other social service providers that make this population less likely to be sheltered when experiencing unstable housing, compounding their vulnerability to experiences of violence, poor mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors,” the report states.
The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System regularly surveys more than 20,000 high school students in both public and private schools nationwide to monitor adolescent behavior over time to identify key issues and health needs.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
