Air traffic control room fight at Reagan National Airport leads to arrest
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(WASHINGTON) — A fight in the air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport, or DCA, in the Washington, D.C., area led to an employee being arrested and charged with assault.
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said in a statement to ABC News that police arrested Damon Marsalis Gaines last week after reports of a fight breaking out in the airport’s control tower.
Gaines, 40, was ultimately charged with assault and battery, officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement that Gaines was put on administrative leave while the agency investigates the incident.
Further details about what led to the fight have yet to be released.
The arrest at DCA comes months after the deadly mid-air collision between a regional jet and an Army Blackhawk Helicopter that left 70 dead.
Sixty-seven people were on the American Airlines plane, which departed from Wichita, Kansas on Jan. 29 and three Army soldiers were aboard the helicopter, which was on a training flight at the time, officials said.
ABC News’ Clara McMichael contributed to this report.
(HOUSTON) — Police in Houston are searching for a man who was been charged with allegedly impersonating a nurse and treating disabled people while working for two nursing agencies.
Dazael Gloria, 33, is charged with practicing nursing with a fraudulent license, according to court records.
Houston Police allege Gloria practiced nursing without a license at least three separate times in October 2024, according to a criminal complaint.
He is also accused of presenting himself as a licensed nurse in Harris County, Texas, from August 2022 to October 2023, according to court records.
The suspect is accused of using the identity of a relative to unlawfully gain employment for two separate nursing agencies in Harris County, according to court records.
Police were informed of these incidents by an investigator and the Texas Board of Nursing. The investigator showed police documents that show Gloria’s nursing license was terminated and voluntarily surrendered on Feb. 14, 2020, according to court records.
Gloria allegedly applied for a job online, submitting the necessary documents and certifications under the relative’s name and attended a required employee orientation. Assignments are disseminated after the orientation, according to court records.
Part of Gloria’s responsibilities included providing life-sustaining care for a disabled adult who suffers from physical and mental disabilities. The patient is “non-verbal and wheelchair-bound” and care for him necessitates being “fed, assisted with oxygen apparatus, bathed, and maintained in cleanliness,” according to court records.
While on a shift with the patient, the nurse arriving to relieve Gloria discovered the patient unattended and informed staff. When a staff member asked Gloria where he was, he allegedly said he had been assaulted while taking out the trash for the patient’s apartment and “feared returning,” according to court records.
An investigator showed staff photos of the licensed relative and a separate photo of Gloria and staff identified Gloria as the person using the nursing license for employment, according to court records.
After the defendant left that nursing agency, he began working for another nursing agency, again using the relative’s name, police say. During his employment at the second agency, Gloria allegedly provided care including “checking vital signs, administration of medicine, and any other emergency tasks regulated to license nurses,” according to court records.
Gloria allegedly provided care to disabled patients including a five-year-old and a 27-year-old during his time at the second agency, according to court records.
Court records do not indicate the relative knew of Gloria’s use of their identity.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge is hearing arguments Friday in the case of a Maryland man with protected legal status who was sent to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador following an “administrative error” by the Trump administration.
The government has acknowledged the error but said in a court filing that because Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is no longer in U.S. custody, the court cannot order him to be returned to the U.S., nor can the court order El Salvador to return him.
Last month, Abrego Garcia, who has a U.S. citizen wife and 5-year-old child, was stopped by ICE officers who “informed him that his immigration status had changed,” according to his attorneys. He was detained and then transferred to a detention center in Texas, after which he was sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, along with more than 200 alleged Venezuelan gang members, on March 15.
Abrego Garcia entered the United States in 2011 when he was 16 to escape gang violence in El Salvador, according to his lawyers. His attorneys say that in 2019, a confidential informant “had advised that Abrego Garcia was an active member” of the gang MS-13. Abrego Garcia later filed an I-589 application for asylum, and although he was found removable, an immigration judge “granted him withholding of removal to El Salvador.”
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said that he “is not a member of or has no affiliation with Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or any other criminal or street gang” and said that the U.S. government “has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation.”
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt — while acknowledging the error — called Abrego Garcia a leader of MS-13.
“The administration maintains the position that this individual who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang,” Leavitt said.
(SAN DIEGO) — At least two people are confirmed dead and eight others injured after a small plane crashed in a neighborhood of San Diego on Thursday morning, spewing jet fuel and starting a large fire that damaged about 10 buildings and multiple cars, fire officials said.
The small private jet crashed seconds before landing at about 3:45 am. local time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Five people were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and a sixth person was injured while climbing out of a window, officials said. Two others were treated for minor injuries. All the injuries were treated at the evacuation center and no one was transferred from the scene.
All the fatalities appear to be from the plane itself, San Diego Assistant Fire Chief of Emergency Operations Dan Eddy said at a press conference earlier Thursday. Officials do not yet know how many people were aboard the plane.
Multiple homes have been destroyed in the neighborhood, according to Eddy, who said earlier the crash site looked “like a movie scene.” One home was permanently destroyed, officials said Thursday.
There was dense fog in the area on Thursday morning and Eddy told reporters he could only see 40 to 50 feet in front of him.
In air traffic control audio from minutes before the crash, you can hear the pilot ask about the weather, according to LiveATC.net. Air traffic controllers told the pilot the weather station at Montgomery Airport was down and the pilot asks for more weather information.
The controller tells him the weather for nearby Miramar Airport, according to the audio.
“Ugh, that doesn’t sound great, but we’ll give it a go,” the pilot responds.
The plane was flying from Wichita, Kansas, to San Diego’s Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport when it crashed. The plane originated in Teterboro, according to FlightRadar24 records, before landing in Wichita at 1:50 a.m. Central time. It left for San Diego at 2:35 a.m. local time.
It was roughly 500 feet in the air at its last radar check-in, according to the FAA.
Over 100 people have been displaced as a result of the crash, according to officials. Murphy Canyon, the neighborhood where the crash happened, is one of largest military housing units in the world, according to San Diego Naval Base Commanding Officer Capt. Robert Heely.
Multiple elementary schools have been closed for the day due to the crash, according to officials
“Our city will be supporting these families who are impacted here. They’re part of the military community that makes up our city,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said at a press conference.
Several factors contributed to the crash, according to Gloria.
“Visibility was relatively low at the hour that the fight was making its approach to Montgomery Gibbs, the plane clipped a transmission line, an electricity transmission line and that caused it to fall into the Murphy Canyon neighborhood that’s there,” Gloria said in an interview on ABC News Live.
“Beyond that, we’re going to wait for our professionals at the federal level to give us some more of the investigative results. But right now, [this] is a terrible tragedy of the loss of life of those aboard the plane,” Gloria said.
The plane that crashed can hold eight to 10 people, including the pilot, but it’s still unclear how many were on board.
“I can’t quite put words to describe what this scene looks like, but with the jet fuel going down the street and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see for the police officers and firefighters to run in there, start trying to evacuate people out of the way, and doing anything and everything they could to try to save somebody’s life is really heroic,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said at a press conference.
Residents were evacuated to a nearby school and officials went home to home to find out if there was anybody inside, Eddy said.
“I was half-asleep and I saw a flash at the window and heard a bang,” said Jennifer Hoffman, who lives a couple blocks from the crash. “I thought it was lightning to be honest, I even checked the weather to see if it was raining out. And then I heard like bunches of pops and I was like, ‘That can’t be lightning.’ I went downstairs, I checked outside and I saw the neighborhood behind us was bright red. It was awful.”
The plane directly hit multiple homes and cars, setting them ablaze, before running down the street, Eddy said.
“There was a big explosion and I woke up, I looked out the window and there was fire all in front of my house,” said neighborhood resident Jessica Schrader. “I just kept hearing explosions and the fire was up to right in front of my front door. So I’m trying to figure out how to escape with my kids.”
“We yelled for our neighbors — our neighbors put a ladder up to their fence, it’s about 8-foot-tall,” she said. “We were able to climb the ladder and jump onto their trampoline to escape — me and my children.”
There was no mayday call before this crash, according to radio traffic. The last communication was the pilot announcing on the radio that he was 3 miles out and landing. The tower was closed at the time and this is standard procedure.
The whole neighborhood is still on lockdown as investigators continue their work.
The National Transportation Safety Board was also en route to the scene.
ABC News’ Sam Sweeney and Ayesha Ali contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
