Earliest snow since 2010 hits parts of Vermont, blankets upstate New York
(BURLINGTON, Vt.) Residents of parts of upstate New York and Vermont awoke to winter-like weather Thursday morning, including the earliest a foot of snow has fallen in the higher elevations of the Green Mountain state in 14 years.
The overnight snowfall brought 12 inches to Mount Mansfield, the highest peak in Vermont, and 15 inches to the summit of Whiteface Mountain in New York’s Adirondack Mountains.
The snowy weather ties 2010 as the earliest date that the snow depth at Mount Mansfield has reached a foot, according to the National Weather Service in Burlington, Vermont.
Winter storm watches and warnings were also issued in the West from Oregon to Colorado, where one to more than two feet of October snow is forecast through Saturday for the Rocky Mountains.
Millions of people from Oklahoma to Maine were feeling their coldest air of the season Thursday morning. Frost and freeze alerts were issued in 20 eastern states or about half of the country.
Frost alerts were also issued for Little Rock, Arkansas, Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta. Asheville, North Carolina, which is still recovering from devastating floods caused by Hurricane Helene last month, was under a frost alert Thursday.
The weather was also chilly in Tampa Bay, Florida, where temperatures dipped to the 50s Thursday morning.
The cold spell is expected to be short-lived. A warm-up is on the way for much of the eastern half of the United States. Temperatures are forecast to jump to the 70s in the Northeast and the 80s across the South over the weekend.
The high forecast for New York City on Sunday is 73 degrees, while Tampa could reach 83 on Sunday.
The first major winter storm of the season is moving through the Pacific Northwest on Thursday. Ahead of this storm, gusty winds and dry conditions are sparking fire weather alerts across the West Coast.
Red flag warnings signaling elevated fire danger have been issued for the San Francisco Bay Area and much of Northern California. Red flag warnings were also in place Thursday for parts of Colorado and Minnesota, and extreme fire danger is forecast for Nebraska, where warm, dry and gusty winds could spread fires quickly.
(CLEVELAND) — Multiple people were shot outside the Shaw High School in East Cleveland, Ohio, early on Monday, investigators said.
The number of people who were injured and their conditions were not yet known, East Cleveland Police told ABC News’ Cleveland affiliate WEWS. The injured were transported to University Hospital, police said.
The shooting occurred at around 2 a.m. on Monday during a reunion event at the high school, investigators said.
The shooting prompted a response from multiple jurisdictions, including local police and emergency services.
East Cleveland City Council President Twon Billings told WEWS that the Shaw High School reunion is a weekend-long event that brings together graduations and community members of all ages.
Billings told WEWS he was devastated by the shooting, and suggested that a local police shortage affected the events that transpired Monday morning.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The largest police force in the nation is planning to use a fleet of autonomous drones to combat an alarming surge in robberies and assaults in Central Park, the world’s most iconic public green space.
The New York Police Department has already flooded the sprawling park, one of the most popular tourist sites in America, with hundreds of officers patrolling on foot, bike and horseback since violent crime began to skyrocket this summer.
“We’ve got the autonomous drones coming by the end of the month. There are over 800 acres in this park. It’s going to allow us to cover a big territory very quickly and also allow us to get images and video in places where we don’t have cameras,” Tarik Sheppard, the NYPD deputy commissioner for public information, said during a recent news conference in Central Park.
According to the crime statistics through Aug. 18, there have been 33 robberies in Central Park so far in 2024, a 154% increase from this time last year. There have also been 11 felony assaults in the park this year, a 57% increase from 2023.
The jump in Central Park crime comes even as overall violent crime in the city of roughly 8.8 million people is down 2.49% from last year, according to NYPD citywide crime statistics.
‘Most iconic park in the world’
“This is the most iconic park in the world, one of the most iconic locations in the world. There are no secrets being kept here. Crime is up in this park for the year, specifically robberies. Robberies are the name of the game here,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a news conference last week.
Chell said the robberies were usually occurring between the hours of 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. He said many of the robberies are being committed by juveniles, some as young as 11 years old, who on several occasions have swarmed victims in mobs sometimes as large as a dozen perpetrators.
“In this particular crime pattern, if you will, that’s happening here at the southern end, from 59th to 65th [streets] on both sides of the park involve young groups of kids,” Chell said.
On June 30, two men, ages 20 and 21, were accosted in the park by a group of people who forced them to hand over their backpacks, wallets and headphones, according to police. On Aug. 1, a roving group of bandits surrounded two men sitting on a bench near Wollman Rink near the southern part of the park and robbed them at knifepoint, police said.
On Aug. 13, back-to-back robberies occurred at the southern end of the park. One of the robberies occurred about 10 p.m. when two men were confronted on the west side of the park by two assailants who forcibly snatched their chains, vape pens and one of their hats. The second robbery unfolded three hours later on the east side of the park when victims — ages 35, 21, and 15 — were approached by three teenagers who stole their AirPods and a necklace from one of them, according to police.
Among the assaults that have recently occurred, a 42-year-old man was repeatedly slashed with knives on July 6 at 9:45 a.m. by two strangers he got into an argument with, police said. An 82-year-old woman was accosted on Aug. 14 by a man in his 30s, who pushed her near the Central Park tennis court, causing her to suffer minor injuries, according to police.
11-year-old perpetrator
Chell said police have made several arrests in the crime spree, including one alleged perpetrator just 11 years old.
“The 11-year-old is on video using credit cards stolen from robberies where? In Central Park,” Chell said. “So, this is what we’re combatting.”
Chell said the 11-year-old assailant and several other alleged teenage perpetrators arrested recently are among the migrants who have been pouring into the city.
But not all of the crimes have been the work of roving groups of criminals.
On June 24, a 21-year-old woman sunbathing at 1:30 p.m. in the Great Hill section of the park was attacked by a man who exposed himself and attempted to sexually assault her, police said. The victim managed to fight off the attacker who ran from the scene. A 43-year-old man, whom police identified as Jermaine Longmire, was arrested in the crime and charged with attempted rape and sexual abuse, according to police.
Longmire has pleaded not guilty to the charges and, according to online records, remains locked up at Rikers Island jail.
Chell said the NYPD has a “mandate” to keep park visitors safe.
“We’ll be deploying numerous resources throughout the days, throughout the weeks until we take care of this problem from mounted, to bike patrol, to foot patrol, to cars in the street to drones,” Chell said.
(WINDER, Ga.) — Colt Gray, the 14-year-old suspect in the Apalachee High School shooting, is set to face a judge Friday for his arraignment.
This will mark the first court appearance for the teenager, who authorities allege killed four people, including two teachers and two students, at his high school and injured nine others. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations previously said he will be tried as an adult.
He has been charged with four counts of felony murder, with additional charges expected, the GBI said. Gray surrendered at the scene to the school resource officers, according to the GBI.
He was taken into custody on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. ET, seven minutes after the initial service call went out, according to the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office, which employs the school resource officers.
On Thursday night, Colin Gray, the father of the 14-year-old, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the deadly shooting, the GBI said.
Colin Gray, 54, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the GBI said.
At a news conference on Thursday evening, Chris Hosey, director of the GBI said that the father was arrested for “knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon.”
It is currently unclear when Colin Gray is expected to appear in court or whether he has obtained legal counsel following his arrest.