3 shot dead outside driver’s licensing office in Louisville, no known suspects: Police
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Three people were shot and killed in a parking lot outside a driver’s licensing office in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday, police said.
A male victim died at the scene while two female victims died at a hospital, Louisville police said.
No suspect is in custody, police said. Witnesses said the suspect appeared to flee the scene, according to police.
“There does not seem to be a public threat,” police said at a news conference.
Authorities didn’t discuss any potential connection between the victims.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(TULSA, Okla.) — The Justice Department provided new insight and chilling details about the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, describing the two-day raid that killed 300 Black residents and destroyed their businesses as a “coordinated, military-style attack” conducted by a white mob of over 10,000 people.
The DOJ released a 126-page report Friday following a four-month investigation into the attacks, which took place between May 31 and June 1 in 1921. In addition to the murders and property destruction, victims’ money and personal property were stolen, and they were not provided with any aid.
The report concluded that the 1921 one-week investigation done by an agent of the Justice Department’s Bureau of Investigation, the precursor to the FBI, was unfounded as it did not include key details about the violence, the victims and the perpetrators and implied Black men were responsible for the massacre.
“Contrary to the agent’s 1921 report, the situation did not ‘spontaneously’ grow out of control,” the new report said. “Rather, what had initially been sporadic and opportunistic violence became systematic, yielding a much more devastating result, due to coordinated efforts among white residents and law enforcement entities. Moreover, although the 1921 report asserts that the massacre (then called a riot) was not the result of ‘racial feeling,’ perpetrators of the massacre overtly expressed and acted upon racial bias.”
Investigation provides detailed timeline of violence
At the time of the massacre, Tulsa was dubbed “Black Wall Street” due to the thriving businesses and community established by Black residents. However, white residents who lived in the city and nearby towns harbored a deep resentment, which built up in the years leading to the attack, the report said.
Investigators from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division “spoke with survivors and with descendants of survivors, examined firsthand accounts of the massacre given by individuals who are now deceased, studied primary source materials, spoke to scholars of the massacre and reviewed legal pleadings, books, and scholarly articles relating to the massacre,” according to the DOJ.
The investigation determined the attack was triggered by an unfounded condemnation alleging 19-year-old Dick Rowland assaulted a white woman who operated an elevator he used. The department said this tactic was commonly used to justify violence against Black residents.
After a local newspaper sensationalized the story, a mob of white Tulsans gathered outside the courthouse, demanding a lynching, according to the report.
When a local sheriff called a group of Black World War I veterans to come to the courthouse to prevent the lynching, the white mob grew, and a shot rang out, the investigation found.
The Tulsa police exacerbated the conflict by deputizing hundreds of white residents, many of whom were “advocating for a lynching and had been drinking,” the report said.
“Law enforcement officers helped organize these special deputies — as well as other white Tulsans — into the martial forces that ravaged Greenwood. Over the next several hours, they looted, burned, and destroyed 35 city blocks while Greenwood’s residents tried desperately to defend their homes,” the report said.
“Some Black residents were shot (or otherwise assaulted), and many were arrested or detained,” it continued. “Law enforcement actively participated in the destruction, disarming Black residents, confiscating their weapons, and detaining many in makeshift camps under armed guard.”
By the morning of June 1, the violence and arsons had become “systematic.”
Left with nothing
Although city officials offered to rebuild and help the victims, they not only failed to do so but put up barriers, the report said.
“White local leaders rejected outside aid, claiming they could handle the recovery, but then provided little to no financial support. Instead, claiming the area was best suited for industrial use, they imposed harsh new fire codes that priced residents out of the area, although a court later enjoined those provisions,” the report said.
“Compounding the injustice, insurance companies denied Black residents of Greenwood compensation due to the ‘riot clause’ in their policies,” it added. “Legal attempts to hold the city accountable also failed. Black residents of Tulsa were left with no avenue for redress.”
No legal avenues left for justice
Due to the statute of limitations and the fact that the perpetrators and almost all of the survivors and witnesses of the attack are long dead, the Justice Department cannot take any legal action for the crimes committed, the report concluded.
“The report recognizes that some may find the department’s inability to prosecute a painful or dissatisfying outcome,” the DOJ said in a statement. “However, the review recognizes and documents the horrible events that occurred as well as the trauma and loss suffered by the residents of Greenwood.”
Family members of survivors said they were not given notice of report
The DOJ said it would be meeting with Greenwood District officials, survivors and descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre, the Tulsa civil rights community and other stakeholders to discuss the probe.
DOJ members held a meeting at the Historic Vernon AME Church in Tulsa on Saturday to discuss the report.
Damario Solomon-Simmons, an attorney for the family of two of the survivors, Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher, however, expressed disappointment with the DOJ, claiming they were not given notice about the report.
Solomon-Simmons said in a statement that he was only made aware of the report after his office saw news reports. Furthermore, he said his team was not told of Saturday’s meeting at the church.
“Neither my legal team nor the massacre survivors will be able to attend due to time constraints amid our ongoing review and discussion with the DOJ,” he said in a statement.
Solomon-Simmons said he and his team will have further comment after they review the report and speak with the DOJ.
The DOJ did not respond to ABC News’ requests for comment about Solomon-Simmons’ claims.
Kent Nishimura for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Employees at multiple federal agencies were ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures by Friday afternoon, according to internal memos obtained by ABC News that cited two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office seeking to curb diversity and equity programs in the federal government.
“Pronouns and any other information not permitted in the policy must be removed from CDC/ATSDR employee signatures by 5.p.m. ET on Friday,” according to one such message sent Friday morning from Jason Bonander, the CDC’s Chief Information Officer. “Staff are being asked to alter signature blocks by 5.p.m. ET today. (Friday, January 31, 2025) to follow the revised policy.”
Federal employees with the Department of Transportation received a similar directive on Thursday, the same day the department was managing the fallout from the D.C. plane crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Employees were instructed to remove pronouns from everything from government grant applications to email signatures across the department, sources told ABC News.
Employees at the Department of Energy also received a similar notice Thursday.
Energy Department employees were told this was to meet requirements in Trump’s executive order calling for the removal of DEI “language in Federal discourse, communications and publications.”
It was not immediately clear whether employees in other federal agencies received similar messages. Spokespeople for HHS, CDC and Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
The mandate to remove pronouns from email signatures is the latest result of the Trump administration’s push to do away with diversity and equity efforts in the federal government.
On his first day in office, Trump signed a pair of executive orders calling for an end to what his administration called “radical and wasteful DEI programs” and seeking to restore “biological truth to the federal government.” Both orders were referenced in the Friday message to agencies.
The memos included instructions for how to edit email signatures.
At least one career civil servant met the order with irritation.
“In my decade-plus years at CDC I’ve never been told what I can and can’t put in my email signature,” said one recipient, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retribution.
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — East Coast residents and lawmakers are again demanding answers after another slew of drone sightings in the region, with the origins of the alleged craft still unclear.
Matthew Murello, the mayor of Washington Township in New Jersey, told “Good Morning America” on Monday that he believes “something’s going on,” expressing concern and frustration at the lack of answers from federal authorities.
“I’m not trying to stir anything up, but we all know — if you just turn on the television — that drones can be used in an aggressive fashion,” Murello said. “They can carry payloads. They can be used for all kinds of really aggressive-type things.”
White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said Thursday that “many” of the reported drone sightings appear to be lawfully operated manned aircraft, adding there was “no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus.”
But Murello said those living under the drones are not reassured.
“That’s a wonderful thing to tell your residents,” he said when asked about Kirby’s assurances. “That’s fantastic, until it’s not.”
“Nobody knows what these things are doing,” Murello added. “Best case scenario, they’re just getting video of us. Again, I don’t know why out here. We’re nothing but farm country. If you want videos of cows, I’ll be happy to send you some.”
Murello cast doubt on the official statements suggesting “no perceived threat.”
“We’ve heard that before from our federal government — ‘We’re not looking, we’re not watching you, we’re not watching your calls, we’re not doing everything and don’t worry — we’re here and we’re here to help you’,” he said.
Murello was among a group of New Jersey mayors who wrote to Gov. Phil Murphy asking for more information. The mayors were subsequently invited to a meeting, but Murello said the governor did not attend.
Instead, state police told the mayors they had little information on the drones. Authorities, Murello said, could not explain why some drones are being flown without emitting radio frequencies or using transponders — both of which are required by law when a drone is used at night.
Murello said he had personally seen “a couple” of drones “around my town.” He disputed Kirby’s statement that many of the reported sightings were of misidentified manned aircraft.
“I have no way of telling you how big it was, but I can sure as heck can tell what they sound like,” the mayor said. “And I know that they are not. What Adm. Kirby said — which is a manned aircraft — that just isn’t right.”
“I’ve seen multiple rotor, helicopter-type aircraft hovering above the tree line,” Murello said, recalling one police official who said the drones can be up to 6 feet in diameter. The fact that most are spotted at night makes it “very difficult to kind of get an idea on them,” Murello added.
Reports of drone activity forced the temporary closure of runways at New York’s Stewart International Airport on Friday. The potential danger to aircraft is causing concern on the East Coast, Murello said.
“If pilots don’t see these things and they’re 6 foot in diameter and they hit an airplane — that is not going to end well,” he said.
Senators are also pushing federal agencies for more information. Last week, New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and New Jersey Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim wrote to the heads of the FBI, Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Homeland Security requesting meetings.
“We write with urgent concern regarding the unmanned aerial system activity that has affected communities across New York and New Jersey in recent days,” the letter said, requesting a briefing “as soon as possible on how your agencies are working with federal and local law enforcement to identify and address the source of these incursions.”
The mystery has caught the public’s attention, with photos and videos of alleged sightings proliferating across social media. One FBI official told reporters Saturday that out of the nearly 5,000 tips the agency had received, less than 100 generated credible leads for further investigation.
As the search for answers continues, Murello said he sees “only two logical conclusions.”
“One is somebody knows something and they’re just not willing to tell us,” the mayor said, suggesting potential national security sensitivities around the Morristown Airport and President-elect Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course.
“If this is an area that needs to be surveilled in the eventuality that the incoming president is going to spend a lot of time here, you know what? I’m fine with that. Just simply say it’s an issue of national security,” he said.
An “even scarier” explanation is that “we’re the greatest nation in the world with the most technologically advanced military on the planet earth, and we don’t know what the hell these things are,” Murello added. “That’s scary.”
The DHS and FAA have both warned against attempting to shoot down a suspected drone, citing the danger of falling debris and ammunition.
It is illegal to shoot down a drone. Anyone who does so could be fined up to $250,000 and sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Murello said he would “definitely” not advise anyone to try to down a drone. “You also don’t know if you do hit it, where it’s going to come down and where are the rounds of ammunition going to land,” he said.
“But I will say that, speaking with friends of mine that are current and former state troopers, we have the technology to be able to bring a drone down,” Murello added, suggesting it was “absolutely silly” that law enforcement authorities are not authorized to down drones unless they are deemed a threat by the federal government.
“We don’t need to bring all of them down, we need to bring one of them down,” Murello continued. “We bring one down, we figure out what’s going on.”
