Defense rests in Daniel Penny subway chokehold trial
Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The defense in the Daniel Penny manslaughter and negligent homicide case rested without their client taking the stand.
Penny is charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide in the May 2023 New York City subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man. Neely was acting erratically in a subway car when Penny put him in the deadly chokehold.
Penny, a former Marine, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The judge will hold a charging conference with the attorneys Monday to discuss his instructions to the jury.
The jury is off until after Thanksgiving, when the trial will resume with closing arguments, the judge’s instructions and deliberations.
(YEMASSEE, S.C.) — The ongoing operation to capture 43 monkeys that escaped from a South Carolina lab nabbed at least one of the furry runaways on Saturday, according to officials.
Officials in the town of Yemassee said they recovered overnight one of the rhesus macaque monkeys that had escaped from Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center on Wednesday.
“She is well and having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard said in a statement.
Yemasee officials said that “a significant number” of the escaped primates were located in a facility near where the rescued animal was found and were “jumping back and forth over the facility’s fence.”
“Alpha Genesis management and staff are on-site, actively feeding and monitoring the animals, and they will continue these efforts throughout the weekend,” the town’s officials said in a statement.
“The primates continue to interact with their companions inside the facility, which is a positive sign,” they added.
Westergaard said the monkeys were having a nap Saturday afternoon.
“They are coming down to the ground a bit more now. It is a slow process,” he said.
The creatures escaped when a new employee at the Alpha Genesis center left the door to their enclosure open, Yemassee Town Administrator Matthew Garnes said during a briefing Thursday with town officials.
The primates are all very young females weighing 6 to 7 pounds each who have never been tested, according to police. There is no public health threat, police said.
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
(ASHEVILLE, N.C.) — Twenty-six people remain unaccounted for in hard-hit North Carolina, weeks after the devastation unleashed by Hurricane Helene, officials said Monday.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26, wreaking havoc across the Southeast from Florida to Virginia. Helene destroyed homes and roads, stranded residents without cellphone service and water, and claimed the lives of nearly 250 people throughout the Southeast.
At least 95 of Helene’s fatalities were in North Carolina, officials said. Gov. Roy Cooper called Helene “the deadliest and most devastating storm” in the state’s history.
“It hurts the very people we are all trying to help,” he said. “It discourages and makes people fearful of signing up for help. It enables scam artists and it hurts the morale of government officials, first responders and soldiers who are on the ground trying to help.”
Former President Donald Trump is set to visit to the hard-hit city of Asheville on Monday to survey damage from the storm.
Cooper said he’s asking the former president to “not share lies or misinformation while he is here.”
Cooper said the White House “responded quickly and positively to our request from FEMA, which has had 1,400 staff on the ground and has registered 206,000 people for individual assistance, and distributed $124 million directly to people who need it.”
“As for long-term recovery, state and local government will be all in, along with the federal government,” Cooper said. “This will take billions of dollars and years of bipartisan focus from everyone working together to make it happen — from new roads and bridges to public building to water supplies to people’s homes.”
FEMA is now launching a “new initiative” to hire community liaisons in North Carolina’s impacted counties, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell announced Monday.
“We know that so many people have temporarily lost their jobs. We know that others just want to be able to give back, and we want to help keep people in these communities while they recover,” she said. “So these new community liaisons are going to work alongside us at FEMA to make sure that they are the local voice, the trusted voice in their community, and that they can share with us the local considerations and the concerns, so we can include them as part of this recovery. They’re going to be embedded in every county, working directly with county administrators, mayors and community leaders, bridging their concerns with our FEMA staff. And these jobs are available for people to apply right now.”
(WASHINGTON) — Federal and local law enforcement and officials in Washington, D.C., are ramping up preparations to ensure a safe and peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2025, and on Inauguration Day.
In September, the Department of Homeland Security designated Jan. 6 a National Special Security Event (NSSE) and approved D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s request for additional federal resources.
The District is anticipating that there will be no declared winner on election night and, “We could enter a period where we have pervasive misinformation and disinformation about the outcome of the election,” D.C. Assistant City Administrator Chris Rodrigez warned on Tuesday.
“For a period, perhaps days or weeks, where the country, and in many respects the world, will be sitting and waiting for the declared winner,” he added.
Although there are no specific threats to the city, officials are planning ahead for any and all threats, including continued pervasive misinformation and disinformation about everything ranging from COVID to political polarization and violence. They noted that social media will be the “epicenter” of false information.
Preparation for Inauguration Day began in the aftermath of the deadly Jan. 6. insurrection. Five people died during or after the attack, including four protesters and one police officer. Approximately 140 police officers were injured during the attack, according to the Department of Justice.
Bowser told ABC News that one of the biggest lessons D.C. learned was to have “better coordination among the federal branches, and that is what the National Special Security Event status provides.”
D.C. Police Chief Pam Smith told reporters on Tuesday that close to 4,000 additional law enforcement officers will be deployed to D.C. between Jan. 6 and Inauguration Day.
In addition to law enforcement, the mayor is considering an advance request to the Department of Defense for National Guard support. Normally, a state’s governor would call out the Guard, but because D.C. is not a state, it must go through DOD. However, the Capitol Police can now call up the National Guard for support without needing the Capitol Police Board’s pre-approval.
“We have also implemented changes that will hopefully ensure that we will not need to call the National Guard unless it is a last-case scenario,” Capitol Police told ABC News.
Like D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, U.S. Capitol Police have focused on expansion in the four years since Jan. 6. Capitol Police told ABC News that it has strengthened partnerships and coordination with local and state officials.
Capitol Police had a wave of resignations and retirements after Jan. 6, but over the past four years has hired several hundred people and now has 2,100 officers on staff. The agency also added 140 civilians to serve in various roles such as intelligence specialists, operational planners, and emergency management specialists, as well as a new Rapid Response Team.
A source familiar with security planning told ABC News to expect a security footprint similar to that of the State of the Union or the recent NATO Summit in Washington in July.
However, officials are prepared for any and all threats, noting it is a “fluid, unpredictable security environment,” which includes extremist groups and the potential for civil unrest.
“If you see something, say something” noting that the pipe bombs found at the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee headquarters were placed the night before the insurrection “most likely to distract law enforcement,” Rodrigez urged residents.
Bowser told the council to anticipate robust fencing around the Capitol from Jan. 6 until Jan. 21.
She also noted that if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidential election, the city’s challenges will differ from a win by former President Donald Trump.
The mayor said in the event of a Harris win, “The issue is probably a million people will be here who are celebrating and who are in good spirits, and that also presents its challenges to make sure everybody can do it safely.”
“I think that the United States Capitol Police are prepared to ensure a peaceful transfer of power at the Capitol, regardless of the victor,” she added, noting that her team has experience handling large-scale historic inaugurations, including former President Barack Obama’s election.
