DHS arrests another student involved in Columbia university protests

(LOS ANGELES) — A damaging Santa Ana wind event was peaking early Wednesday and winds were expected to stay strong through early afternoon in Southern California, fueling three wildfires that were quickly expanding early Wednesday around the Los Angeles metro area.

The Palisades Fire had grown to at about 2,921 acres, the Eaton Fire was about 1,000 acres and the Hurst Fire was about 500 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. All were zero percent contained.

Wind gusts were recorded at 99 mph on Mt. Lukens in the Eastern San Gabriel Mountains, at 98 mph on Saddle Peak in the Santa Monica Mountains and at 84 mph at Hollywood Burbank Airport.

Relative humidity in the area is very low, less than 10%. It has been very dry in Los Angeles, in fact October through December period was the sixth driest on record last year.

Downtown Los Angeles only saw about 0.16 inches of rain since Oct. 1, where it usually sees as much as about 4.53 inches.

An extreme fire risk warning was issued from Malibu to Burbank, along with Simi Valley and San Fernando.

A “Particularly Dangerous Situation” red flag warning was set to continue for Los Angeles until 4 p.m. PST on Wednesday.

The same type of warning was also issued for Orange County, and the damaging winds are expected to extend all the way to San Diego county.

A warning of critical fire danger was extended all the way to east of San Diego.

On Thursday and Friday, winds will begin to relax and relative humidity will begin to climb.

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(HOUSTON) — Passengers on a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York were evacuated before takeoff on Sunday due to engine issues, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

No injuries were reported, according to the Houston Fire Department, which was assisting at the scene.

The FAA said takeoff was “safely aborted” due to a “reported engine issue.”

“Passengers deplaned on the runway and were bused to the terminal,” the FAA said in a statement.

United Airlines confirmed the incident, saying passengers evacuated the aircraft “via a combination of slides and stairs.”

In one video taken by a passenger, smoke could be seen coming out of the plane.

In another video, passengers were seen deplaning via the aircraft’s evacuation slide.

One passenger, Kelcie Davis, called it a “terrifying experience” in a post she shared on TikTok.

“Engine blew out right as our wheels were leaving the ground,” Davis said. “Plane lost control on the runway for a few seconds, but thank god our pilot was able to get the plane back under control. Only one slide was working for the entire plane to evacuate.”

ABC News’ Ayesha Ali and Camilla Alcini contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — In a major ruling, the judge overseeing the case of the man charged with killing four Idaho college students in 2022 has denied a request to exclude potentially key DNA and other evidence from his upcoming capital murder trial.

Lawyers for Bryan Kohberger had sought to suppress DNA evidence that was seen as a linchpin of prosecutors’ case against him — evidence they say directly links Kohberger to the crime scene. In addition, lawyers sought to exclude data obtained from various online accounts like Apple, Google and Amazon belonging to Kohberger; his apartment in Washington; and his parents’ Pennsylvania home.

Judge Steven Hippler, in a sweeping series of rulings on Wednesday, denied the defense requests, paving the way for prosecutors to present to a jury their case against the former criminology Ph.D. student.

The judge ruled Kohberger’s constitutional rights were not violated, and that police behaved properly. He said the evidence investigators obtained throughout the investigation, which led them to Kohberger, is not tainted and can be admitted at trial.

“The Court finds suppression is not warranted on any of these issues,” Hippler wrote.

Prosecutors allege that in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Kohberger, then a student at nearby Washington State University, broke into an off-campus home and stabbed four University of Idaho students to death: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.

After a six-week hunt, police zeroed in on Kohberger as the suspect, arresting him on Dec. 30, 2022, at his family’s home in Pennsylvania. He was indicted in May 2023 and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. At his arraignment, he declined to offer a plea, so the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

The trial is set for August. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

On the critical DNA evidence, the judge wrote Kohberger’s lawyers “failed to demonstrate his constitutional rights were” violated by detectives’ use of the controversial new technique known as investigative genetic genealogy, which involves building out a family tree to zero in on a suspect.

The use of genetic genealogy helped point investigators in the direction of their suspect, using the DNA taken from a button snap on the sheath of a knife found at the crime scene. That sample was critical, police said, in cracking the case and later was shown to be a “statistical match” for Kohberger, authorities said. The murder weapon — police believe it to be a knife — has not been found.

The judge also said authorities did not act improperly collecting trash from the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger’s parents, which yielded items with Kohberger’s father’s DNA that authorities said was confirmed to be a match with Kohberger’s cheek swab later.

The judge, setting out a detailed timeline, also cast aside the issues raised by Kohberger’s lawyers, who had argued the way he was arrested was unnecessarily aggressive.

“Law enforcement believed [Kohberger] was potentially destroying evidence from the vehicle that was related to the homicides” and they also knew he had a Glock handgun, “prompting a concern over officer safety,” the judge wrote.

That prompted them to descend on the home more swiftly and make the arrest “without incident in a bedroom,” the judge said.

While monitoring the home at 12:33 a.m. the night of his arrest, snipers “observed a kitchen light turn on and saw a taller, young, white male wearing a black hoodie standing near the glass sliding door leading out to the deck,” whom they were able to identify as Kohberger. About 20 minutes later the light came on in the garage and “lights flashed in the garage as if the vehicle was being locked or unlocked by a key fob.”

A few minutes later Kohberger “was seen in the kitchen of the home, this time wearing rubber gloves and handling a plastic baggie,” the judge wrote — adding, “It was 1:09 a.m. in the morning, a time when most people would not be removing items from their car with rubber gloves.”

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