Uvalde gunman fired 117 shots in 2 minutes before officer Gonzales entered the school, official says
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(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) — The Uvalde, Texas, gunman fired 117 rounds in two Robb Elementary School classrooms during a two-minute period before school police officer Adrian Gonzales entered the building, a Texas Ranger told jurors on Friday.
Ranger Nick Hill testified that Gonzales had a window of one minute and four seconds after he parked his car before gunman Salvador Ramos entered the school. Gonzales took three minutes and 53 seconds to enter Robb Elementary after parking his car, Hill said.
Hill said Gonzales parked at 11:31:55 a.m. and radioed in the active shooter report at 11:32:09 a.m.
Ramos entered the west side of Robb Elementary at 11:32:59 a.m., and, after firing 21 shots in a hallway, he entered the first of two classrooms at 11:33:45 a.m. Gonzales entered the south door of Robb Elementary at 11:35:48 a.m., Hill said.
In total, Ramos fired 173 shots during the massacre, while law enforcement discharged 25 rounds, Hill said. Ramos killed 19 students and two teachers.
Prosecutors allege Gonzales, who is charged with child endangerment, did not follow his training and endangered the 19 students who died and an additional 10 surviving students. Prosecutors allege Gonzales not only failed when he arrived at the scene, but also when he got into the school because he retreated after two other officers were hit by gunfire.
Gonzales has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers argue he is being unfairly blamed for a broader law-enforcement failure that day. The defense argued Gonzales did everything he could, including calling in the shooting and attempting to enter the school.
Prince William County police seal the street in front of the home of suspected Jan. 6, 2021, pipe bomber on Dec. 4, 2025, in Woodbridge, Virginia. (Andrew Leyden/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A federal magistrate judge did not immediately rule Tuesday on whether the Virginia man charged with placing pipe bombs outside of the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol will remain behind bars pending trial, after saying both prosecutors and the defendant’s attorneys raised important legal issues that he will have to take under further consideration.
During the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Jones urged Judge Matthew Sharbaugh to reject arguments from suspect Brian Cole Jr.’s attorneys that he would pose no danger if released and remained under house arrest — noting such a setting was similar to where he had carried out his alleged planning to plant the pipe bombs in the first place.
Cole was arrested by federal authorities earlier this month following a massive probe that had stymied investigators for almost five years. He appeared in court on Dec. 5, where a judge detailed the two charges he currently faces. The charges carry a maximum sentence of up to 30 years if he is convicted.
Cole’s attorneys had urged the judge to release him pending trial, arguing the government has presented no evidence that shows he poses a danger to the general public.
Cole, who has not entered a plea, allegedly told investigators in a lengthy confession that he wasn’t targeting the joint session of Congress that was convening to certify former President Joe Biden’s election win, according to previous court filing from the Department of Justice.
On Tuesday, Jones said that on the morning of his arrest, Cole allegedly wiped the memory from his phone for the 943rd time since December 2020, just days before he allegedly planted the devices.
“This is not a case that involves an isolated, impulsive act,” Jones said. “This is a case in which the government’s request for detention is based off of a pattern of concerning and disturbing conduct, including planned acts of extreme political violence, experimentation with explosive materials, destruction of evidence, persistent inclination and proclivity for hiding incriminating information from those around him, including his family.”
After Cole saw himself on the news in videos released by the FBI seeking tips on his identity, he said in the interview that he discarded all of his bomb-making materials at a nearby dump and said he never told anyone about his actions in the nearly five years since Jan. 6, according to the filing.
Cole’s attorney Mario Williams argued the tally of instances where he deleted his phone messages was being taken out of context and suggested it was more attributable to his diagnosis of being on the autism spectrum and having obsessive compulsive disorder.
Judge Sharbaugh said he did find it “concerning” the evidence put forward by the government that allegedly showed Cole continued to purchase bomb-making components even after he allegedly placed the bombs outside the RNC and DNC.
Sharbaugh also questioned whether the government had made any determination about what the impact or “blast radius” of the pipe bombs would have been had they detonated. Jones responded that it wasn’t entirely clear given the number of variables at play with pipe bombs, but that for anyone in near proximity it could be “life threatening.”
Throughout the arguments, Williams seemed to provide a partial roadmap for how they plan to present Cole’s defense should the case move forward to trial. Williams accused the government of overstating its evidence of Cole’s apparent radicalization leading up to Jan. 6, saying it had put forward no evidence similar to what prosecutors were able to gather in their investigations of the Capitol riot defendants who often had texts or social media activity that included fringe or even violent political rhetoric.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Sharbaugh did not provide a specific timeline on when he would expect to rule on Cole’s detention, but said he would seek to do so “expeditiously.”
Ali Staking talks about how she and her family reacted to Eric Richins’ sudden death and Kouri Richins’ subsequent murder trial. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — After Kouri Richins was charged with murder for fatally poisoning her husband with fentanyl, a friend of the Utah mother of three had a difficult time reconciling that.
In an exclusive interview with “20/20,” Ali Staking said she and her children were “devastated” about the sudden 2022 death of 39-year-old Eric Richins.
“I said, along the way, ‘Sometimes it looks like Kouri might have done it,'” Staking recalled saying to her children. “Then my kids would say, ‘Well, did she?’ And I’d say ‘I don’t think so. But, you know, it sometimes looks like it.'”
A Summit County jury ultimately found 35-year-old Kouri Richins guilty of aggravated murder on Monday, after prosecutors argued during the three-week trial that she killed her husband for financial gain by giving him a lethal dose of fentanyl in a cocktail.
Eric Richins was found dead in bed on March 4, 2022. An autopsy determined that he died from fentanyl intoxication, and the level of fentanyl in his blood was approximately five times the lethal dosage, according to the charging document. The medical examiner determined the fentanyl was “illicit fentanyl,” not medical grade, according to the charging document.
Kouri Richins, who self-published a children’s book on grief following her husband’s death, was arrested in May 2023 following a lengthy investigation.
The charges alleged that she spiked his drink with a lethal dose of fentanyl that she purchased illicitly, and that she also gave her husband a sandwich laced with fentanyl on Valentine’s Day two weeks before his death in an initial, failed attempt to kill him.
Prosecutors argued that Kouri Richins wanted a “fresh start” and to leave her husband, but didn’t want to leave his money. They said she was in “financial desperation” due to her house flipping business’ debts and needed a significant influx of cash immediately.
According to prosecutors, she believed she would have financially benefited from her husband’s death — without realizing that his assets were in a trust overseen by one of his sisters.
A jury found her guilty of all five counts, including aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, after about three hours of deliberations on Monday. She was also found guilty of insurance fraud for taking out a $100,000 insurance policy on her husband’s life with his forged signature and also for submitting a claim following his death.
Kouri Richins, who had pleaded not guilty and asserted her innocence from jail, did not testify during the trial and the defense called no witnesses. Her sentencing has been scheduled for May 13. She faces 25 years to life in prison.
Staking, who testified during the trial, said she was “very surprised that there was no defense.”
ABC News contributor Brian Buckmire suggested this was a reflection of the defense’s confidence.
“They may believe the prosecution didn’t make out their case, that having any witness on the stand wouldn’t make sense because they’ve already won their case,” he told “20/20.”
Staking said it was “surreal” learning that Eric Richins had died, describing him as a “dedicated dad” and a “goofy cowboy dude who loved to dance.”
“He had so much more life to live and he wanted so much for his boys,” she said. “I’m gonna remember just how much he loved them.”
Kouri Richins also faces more than two dozen charges in a separate case filed last year, including allegations that she committed mortgage fraud in 2021. The charging document alleges she submitted falsified bank statements in support of mortgage loan applications for her realty business, committed money laundering and issued bad checks.
The charges in the case also allege she murdered her husband for financial gain as she “stood on the precipice of total financial collapse.”
She has not yet entered a plea to those charges.
Staking said she wants Eric Richins to be remembered as a “loving dad.”
“I believe Eric is with his kids all the time every day,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anywhere else he’d wanna be.”
Undated photos of Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson who were killed in 1990. (Harris County District Attorney’s Office)
(HOUSTON) — A man has been arrested in a 1990 cold case double murder known as the “Lovers’ Lane” killings, Houston police said.
Floyd William Parrott, 64, is charged with capital murder for the killings of Cheryl Henry, 22, and Garland “Andy” Atkinson, 21, police said.
The victims were found in a car parked in a cul-de-sac on Aug. 23, 1990, police said. Both suffered injuries to their necks, police said.
Houston police, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, the FBI and the Texas Attorney General’s Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit worked together on the case, police said, but decades went by without answers.
Police have not revealed what led them to zero in on Parrott, but they said he was identified as the suspect this month.
Parrott was arrested in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Wednesday and is awaiting extradition to the Harris County, police said.
The DA’s office called the arrest a “significant step in the ongoing pursuit of justice for Cheryl Henry, Andy Atkinson, and their families.”
The DA’s office said authorities are working to coordinate a news conference.
