Heat advisory in effect for New York City and across Northeast: Latest
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A heat advisory is in place across the Northeast, from Maryland to Maine, where residents are bracing for temperatures 5 to 15 degrees above average.
The heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — could reach 103 degrees in Philadelphia on Wednesday and Thursday.
New York City and Boston could feel like 100 degrees with humidity on Wednesday and Thursday.
Further north, the heat index may climb into the upper 90s in Burlington, Vermont, and Syracuse, New York, on Wednesday.
The dangerous heat is also invading the South and West.
The heat index could hit a scorching 105 to 109 degrees on Wednesday in New Orleans; Memphis, Tennessee; and Little Rock, Arkansas.
In the West, a heat advisory is in place from Northern California to northern Washington with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above average. Portland, Oregon, could near 100 degrees on Wednesday and Seattle could reach the 90s.
(PHILADELPHIA, Pa. ) — Pennsylvania is experiencing “intermittent” statewide 911 outages, officials confirmed on Friday.
The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency confirmed on social media there are “some outages” and they are working to resolve the issue and restore service.
“Please only call 911 for true emergencies. Do not call just to check whether it is working,” the agency said.
The Philadelphia Police Department said the outage is “intermittent” and that “some calls are still successfully going through.”
The outage may impact that the ability of some residents to reach emergency services through the traditional 911 system, police said.
If residents are unable to reach 911, police urge residents to call their local Philadelphia Police District directly.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(FORT WORTH, Texas) — A man was sentenced to 60 years in prison on Thursday for murdering a Texas college student in a random shooting in 2023.
Wes Smith, a 21-year-old junior at Texas Christian University, was shot multiple times outside a Fort Worth bar in September 2023, prosecutors said.
Matthew Purdy, 23, pleaded guilty to his murder during a hearing in Tarrant County on Thursday. A judge then sentenced him to 60 years, under the terms of a plea agreement.
Smith’s parents addressed the court during Thursday’s hearing.
“Your actions caused catastrophic, monumental mourning by thousands of people,” his father, Philip Smith, said while addressing the defendant, saying he believed Purdy has a “dark and ugly soul, if you have any soul at all.”
He remembered his son as a “beautiful human being” who had a great laugh and quick wit.
“He was a true leader of people,” Philip Smith said. “He was a gifted athlete. He was an honor student. He was a loved son. He was a cherished brother.”
His mother, Dorree Smith, remembered him as a “competitor to the core in a way that encouraged and brought out the best in everyone.”
“He thought being a mentor was so important, along with putting others before yourself and serving others however needed,” she said. “He wasn’t perfect, but he was striving for growth, building a foundation and leaving warmth and laughter in his wake.”
She said her son’s last evening was spent doing the two things he loved most — football and mentoring young athletes, while helping coach middle school students — before heading to a bar to meet up with friends.
He was helping women find safe rides home when he was shot, she said.
Addressing Purdy directly, she said, “You didn’t know Wes. You never met him. But in that moment, you made a devastating, evil choice. You decided you mattered more than he did. And you took Wes’ earthly life. And now Wes’ loss is not just a personal loss but a communal wound.”
The shooting occurred in Fort Worth’s West 7th entertainment district shortly after 1 a.m. local time on Sept. 1, 2023.
An officer patrolling the district heard gunshots and found Smith suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the affidavit. Smith was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
The gunman hit another TCU student who was fleeing the scene in the back of the head with the gun, causing a laceration, according to the affidavit.
Purdy was arrested two blocks from the bar and admitted to shooting Smith three times for no discernible reason, according to the affidavit. He told police he didn’t shoot the other TCU student “because he ran out of bullets,” prosecutors said.
After being read his rights, Purdy agreed to provide a statement, in which he “admitted to approaching Wes, who he didn’t know and shooting him three times” in the stomach, shoulder and back of the head after he fell, the affidavit stated.
“Matthew could not provide a clear reason as to why he shot Wes,” the affidavit stated, noting that Purdy asked the victim if he knew his father, who was assaulted in the past in the area, before shooting him.
Purdy also pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated assault for pistol-whipping the other TCU student and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In a police interview, he said he didn’t shoot her because he ran out of bullets.
He was additionally sentenced on eight other felony charges, for a total of 206 years in prison. The sentences will run concurrently, the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office said.
His trial had been scheduled to start in July. ABC News has reached out to his attorney for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been in touch with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man wrongfully deported last month to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison, multiple sources familiar with their contact told ABC News.
The details of their contact were not immediately clear.
ABC News’ Karen Travers asked Secretary of State Rubio about Abrego Garcia at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting in Washington, and he would not say whether there had been any form of contact.
“I’ll never tell you that,” Rubio said. “And you know who else? I’ll never tell a judge, because the conduct of our foreign policy belongs to the president of the United States and the executive branch, not some judge.”
A spokesperson for the State Department said, “We do not comment on reports of private diplomatic negotiations, regardless if they are real or not.”
The New York Times first reported the contact between the U.S. and El Salvador relating to Abrego Garcia.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who has been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
The federal judge overseeing the case on Wednesday denied a motion from the Trump administration to further delay discovery in the case.
The order came a week after the judge, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, paused expedited discovery for seven days after the Trump administration asked her for the stay.
An attorney for Abrego Garcia, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told ABC News they agreed to the seven-day pause “in good faith.”
“Today is the seventh day of the original seven-day period,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said Wednesday. “Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not back in the United States, and it seems to me that the government has not been using that week wisely.”
The attorney said his team is going to figure out “which humans from the U.S. government” are blocking the return of Abrego Garcia.
Judge Xinis earlier this month slammed the administration over its inaction over Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation and ordered government officials to testify under oath through expedited discovery.
Following her order Wednesday, Judge Xinis set new deadlines for the government to respond to requests.
By May 5, the government must answer and respond to all outstanding discovery requests and supplement their invocations of privilege consistent with the court’s previous orders, Xinis ruled.
The depositions of four government witnesses who plaintiffs say have knowledge of the circumstances in the case must be completed by May 9, she ordered.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers may seek the court’s permission to conduct up to two additional depositions, Judge Xinis said.
The plaintiffs have a deadline of May 12 to renew their motions for relief, which previously asked the court to order the government to comply with the order to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., and to order the government to show cause why it should not be held in contempt for failing to comply with the court’s prior orders.
The government will have until May 14 to respond to that motion, Xinis said.
The Trump administration, while acknowledging that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in error, has said that his alleged MS-13 affiliation makes him ineligible to return to the United States. His wife and attorney have denied that he is an MS-13 member.
In 2019, an immigration judge determined that Abrego Garcia was removable from the U.S. based on allegations of his gang affiliation made by local police in Maryland. But Abrego Garcia was subsequently granted withholding of removal to his home country.
Judge Xinis early this month ruled that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, and the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that ruling, “with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
