Federal officials investigate after Waymo self-driving vehicle strikes child near elementary school
Waymo vehicle near Union Square, San Francisco, California, January 22, 2026. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
(SANTA MONICA, Calif.) — Federal officials opened an investigation after a Waymo self-driving vehicle struck a child near an elementary school in California, resulting in minor injuries.
The incident occurred on Jan. 23 in Santa Monica, within two blocks of an elementary school during school drop-off hours, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The vehicle was being operated by its automated driving system and there was no safety operator in it at the time, according to the agency.
The child “ran across the street from behind a double parked SUV towards the school and was struck by the Waymo AV,” the NHTSA said in a statement.
Other children and a crossing guard were in the area at the time, as well as several double-parked vehicles, the agency said.
“Our technology immediately detected the individual as soon as they began to emerge from behind the stopped vehicle,” Waymo said in a statement, adding that the autonomous driver “braked hard, reducing speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before contact was made.”
After the vehicle made contact, the child stood up and walked to the sidewalk, according to Waymo. The company said it called 911 and the vehicle “remained stopped, moved to the side of the road, and stayed there until law enforcement cleared the vehicle to leave the scene.”
Waymo reported that the child, whose age was not released, sustained minor injuries, according to the NHTSA.
Waymo said it reported the incident to the NHTSA the day it occurred and will “cooperate fully with them throughout the process of its investigation.”
The investigation will look into whether the self-driving vehicle “exercised appropriate caution given, among other things, its proximity to the elementary school during drop off hours, and the presence of young pedestrians and other potential vulnerable road users,” the NHTSA said.
Waymo and the NHTSA did not release any details on where the vehicle was traveling and if it had any passengers at the time of the collision.
Brian Walshe, accused of murdering wife Ana Walshe on Jan. 1, 2023, is lead into his hearing at Norfolk Superior Court. (Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)
(DEDHAM, Mass.) —Brian Walshe was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a Massachusetts jury found him guilty of killing and dismembering his wife, the mother of their three children, with the judge calling his acts “barbaric and incomprehensible.”
His wife, Ana Walshe, went missing on Jan. 1, 2023, at the age of 39. Her body has not been found.
Brian Walshe, 50, pleaded guilty last month to improperly disposing of her body and lying to police following her disappearance. He had changed his plea on the two charges before jury selection got underway for the trial, while maintaining that he did not kill her.
A Norfolk County jury found Brian Walshe guilty of first-degree murder on Monday, after deliberating for approximately six hours over two days.
He faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of first-degree murder.
Judge Diane Freniere said that the sentence, the only appropriate sentence under the law, is “immensely appropriate and just, given your murderous acts and the life trauma that you’ve inflicted upon your own children.”
She said that because of his lies to police, “thousands of hours of investigative resources were wasted, diverted from other deserving cases,” and that his “acts in dismembering your wife’s body and disposing of her remains in multiple area dumpsters can only be described as barbaric and incomprehensible.”
“You had no regard for the lifelong mental harm that your criminal acts inflicted on your then 2-, 4- and 6-year-old sons,” she said, noting that they will “never being able to properly grieve that loss to say goodbye to their mom.”
She handed down consecutive sentences on the three counts, with up to 20 years for lying to police and up to three years for illegally conveying his wife’s body.
Ana Walshe’s sister addressed the court ahead of sentencing, saying the “incomprehensible act” has left her and their mother with an “unbearable emptiness.”
Her sister, Aleksandra Dimitrijevic, asked the court to consider the “long-lasting” impact her murder will have on her children in handing down the sentence.
“The most painful part of this loss is knowing her children must now grow up without their mother’s hand to hold,” she said. “They now face a lifetime of milestones, big and small, where her absence will be deeply and painfully felt.”
The Commonwealth argued that each of the three charges “calls for a harsh penalty” and asked that he be sentenced consecutively, while the defense responded that consecutive sentences would be “inappropriate and inhumane.”
Prosecutor Greg Connor suggested the word inhumane “describes the defendant’s actions and the depravity of his actions, of murdering his wife, dismembering her and getting rid of her remains by throwing her away like garbage.”
Connor said those actions deprived Ana Walshe’s family of a grave and memorial.
The judge said she had received and reviewed sentencing memorandums from prosecutors and the defense, as well as multiple written victim impact statements. One submitted on behalf of Ana Walshe’s children from the Massachusetts Department of Children and Family Services relayed the “devastating impact on her children,” the judge said.
“It’s clear to me that Ana was a bright light in the lives of many people. She lifted people up,” the judge said.
Freniere said she also considered a letter submitted by Brian Walshe’s mother on his behalf, but she said she “simply cannot reconcile the person Diana Walshe describes in her letter with the person who stands before me for sentence.”
“Mr. Walshe, you will live with the guilt and burden of Ana Walshe’s death for the rest of your life,” Freniere said before sentencing him to life in prison.
Brian Walshe did not testify during the two-week trial in Dedham, and the defense did not call any witnesses.
Defense attorneys said during the trial that Brian Walshe did not kill his wife but found her dead in bed on New Year’s Day in 2023 — calling her death sudden and unexplained — and then panicked and lied to police as they investigated her disappearance.
Prosecutors said Brian Walshe premeditatedly murdered and dismembered his wife, then disposed of her remains in dumpsters. The internet history on his devices on Jan. 1, 2023, included searches such as “best way to dispose of a body,” “how long for someone to be missing to inherit,” and “best way to dispose of body parts after a murder,” prosecutors said.
Evidence presented during the trial included surveillance footage of a man believed to be Brian Walshe buying tools and other supplies at a Lowe’s on Jan. 1, 2023. A receipt showed that items, including a hacksaw, utility knife, hammer, snips, Tyvek suit, shoeguards, rags and cleaning supplies, totaling $462, were purchased with cash.
Additional surveillance footage presented in court showed someone throwing out trash bags at dumpsters on multiple days in early January 2023.
Several blood-stained items recovered from dumpsters by investigators — including a hacksaw, a piece of rug, a towel and hairs — and an unknown tissue were linked to Ana Walshe through DNA testing, a forensic scientist from the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory testified during the trial.
Ana Walshe was reported missing by her employer on Jan. 4, 2023. Brian Walshe told police at the time that she had a “work emergency” at her job in D.C. and left their Cohasset home on New Year’s Day, according to audio of his interview played in court.
Jurors heard testimony, including from a D.C. man with whom Ana Walshe was having an affair, that the mother of three was upset about being away from her young children so much — who were 2, 4 and 6 at the time — and there was stress in the marriage.
At the time, Brian Walshe and their three children were living in Massachusetts while he was awaiting sentencing in a federal fraud case after pleading guilty to a scheme to sell counterfeit Andy Warhol paintings. He was ultimately sentenced to 37 months in federal prison in that case.
Freniere said Thursday it is her understanding that the federal sentence will run concurrent with the one she imposed.
(NEW YORK) — Florida State University law professor Dan Markel’s last day alive began like many others.
He dropped off his two young sons at preschool and went to the gym, authorities said. But things took a dark turn.
After pulling into his driveway on the morning of July 18, 2014, Markel was shot in the head multiple times and rushed to a hospital where he died the next day, authorities said.
Markel had been having custody issues with his ex-wife Wendi Adelson.
Over the next 11 years, two members of Adelson’s family, including most recently her mother Donna Adelson, would be revealed as the center of a stunning murder-for-hire plot against him that would span several criminal trials.
A new “20/20” episode, “Meddler or Murderer?,” airing Friday, Jan. 2, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, examines the case.
You can also get more behind-the-scenes of each week’s episode by listening to “20/20: The After Show” weekly series right on your 20/20 podcast feed on Mondays, hosted by “20/20” co-anchor Deborah Roberts.
Wendi Adelson came from a prominent dentistry family in South Florida. Wendi’s father, Harvey Adelson, and brother Charlie Adelson, were lead dentists at the practice, called the Adelson Institute, according to authorities.
Wendi married Markel in 2006 after previously connecting on a Jewish dating service. However, a controlling figure emerged in their relationship — her mother, Donna.
Sarah Katherine Dugan, who prosecuted Donna Adelson, said in court that the family matriarch was very involved in all aspects of Wendi’s life and relationship with Markel.
“She was extremely controlling. She had very strong opinions about all the decisions in Wendi Adelson’s life, whether it be about her career, her relationships, or even purchasing a home,” she said.
Wendi Adelson and Dan Markel eventually moved to Tallahassee, where they both got jobs at Florida State University’s law school. However, their marriage deteriorated.
“Our marriage dissolved after the children arrived, as the loneliness of being married to someone that didn’t view me as an equal crept in,” Wendi Adelson said in a 2015 podcast.
The couple went through a bitter divorce, and at the center of both of their lives post-separation was the issue of where their two children would live.
Donna Adelson began a fierce campaign against Markel to relocate the children and Wendi down to South Florida with her, but Markel remained insistent on keeping the kids in Tallahassee, 500 miles away, according to authorities.
Markel became increasingly distrustful of Donna Adelson due to her desire to move the children away from him, even filing a motion to prevent her from having unsupervised visits with the children in 2014. However, it would be the last motion he would ever file before he was shot to death.
Some two years after the killing, investigators arrested two individuals named Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera in 2016, charging them with first-degree murder. The duo was alleged to be hired hitmen who were paid to take out Markel, per prosecutors.
In exchange for a lesser sentence of second-degree murder and 19 years in prison, Rivera gave investigators the name of the woman he claimed hired them to carry out the hit on Markel — Katie Magbanua, the mother of Garcia’s child and the ex-girlfriend of Adelson’s brother, Charlie.
Police then arrested Magbanua in 2016 and later Charlie Adelson in 2022, charging them with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation to commit murder for Markel’s death.
Prosecutors alleged that Donna and Charlie orchestrated the hit on Dan Markel due to his custody issues with Wendi, and they used Magbanua, Garcia and Rivera to execute their plot.
Magbanua and Charlie Adelson both pleaded not guilty but were ultimately convicted of all charges in 2022 and 2023, respectively, and sentenced to life in prison with an additional 60 years for their conspiracy and solicitation convictions.
Garcia was also convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2019. He had pleaded not guilty.
After Charlie’s conviction, investigators learned that Donna Adelson was planning to leave the country with a one-way ticket to Vietnam — a country that has no extradition agreement with the U.S.
Police arrested her at the Miami International Airport in 2023, also charging her with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation to commit murder in Dan Markel’s killing.
Donna Adelson pleaded not guilty, with her defense claiming that she was not involved in the murder plot.
Adelson, 75, was convicted of all counts against her in 2025 and sentenced to life in prison with an extra 30 years for the solicitation and conspiracy charges to be served consecutively.
“Never in a million years would I have wanted Danny to be harmed or killed, nor could I ever do something that would leave these two small boys to grow up without him,” she said at her sentencing.
In an exclusive new interview with “20/20,” Evan Higginbotham, a juror at Donna Adelson’s trial, spoke out.
“The prosecution had a long list of evidence,” he said. “I think it was how they presented that evidence in the trial that laid out everything to finally land me a guilty verdict at the end of it.”
Dan Markel’s mother, Ruth Markel, told “20/20” that she was most proud of her son for being a good dad.
“Danny was a great father,” she said. “With all his accomplishments, to me I’m the proudest of him as a father.”
Donna and Charlie Adelson have filed appeals for their convictions. Magbanua and Garcia’s appeals were both denied in 2025.
Rev. Jesse Jackson has a word with Sen. Barrack Obama, after a Congressional Black Caucus ceremony at the Library of Congress, in which members where sworn into the CBC for the109th Congress, Jan. 4, 2005. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)
(CHICAGO) — Three former American presidents and a former vice president are set to honor the late Rev. Jesse Jackson at a memorial service in Chicago on Friday morning – a “Celebration of Hope” that is being held by the family of the pioneering civil rights leader, who died on Feb. 17 at the age of 86.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris are expected to deliver remarks at the homegoing services on Friday, according to the Jackson family. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former first lady Jill Biden are also expected to attend the services, the family said.
ABC News reached out to representatives for Clinton, Obama, Biden and Harris for further comment.
“Jesse Jackson, Sr. marched beside Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights for all people. He traveled the world fighting economic and gender inequity. Until his last days, he fought for better healthcare, education, and peace in Chicago, Illinois, the United States, and beyond,” the Jackson family said in a statement on Wednesday. “I hope everyone who joins us to honor his legacy will also continue to champion these causes. That would be the best possible tribute and celebration they could offer.”
Friday’s public homegoing service will take place at the House of Hope event center. A private service will take place on Saturday morning in Chicago.
The services come after thousands paid their respects to Jackson as he lay in honor at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago last week. He was also honored in his birth state of South Carolina on Monday, where he laid in state at the state house in Columbia.
“Jesse Jackson, Sr. changed the United States — and the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement. “We are deeply honored to know there are people from every walk of life who want to join us to pay their respects.”
Other scheduled speakers at the service on Friday include Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Ill., and Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts. Singer and actress Jennifer Hudson and gospel legends Bebe Winans and Pastor Marvin Winans are also expected to perform on Friday. Stevie Wonder is set to perform at the private service on Saturday.
Jackson died after experiencing health issues over the past several years, including a battle with Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurological disorder.
Jackson’s children honored their father’s legacy at a press conference last month, reflecting on his 1984 and 1988 presidential runs and how he dedicated his career to advancing economic justice and building political power for Black Americans.
Jackson’s son, Jesse Jackson, Jr., called for unity in the Feb. 18 press conference ahead of his father’s funeral services.
“Do not bring your politics out of respect to Rev. Jesse Jackson and the life that he lived to these home going services,” he said. “Come respectful and come to say thank you, but these homegoing services are welcome to all Democrat, Republican, liberal and conservative, right wing, left wing, because his life is broad enough to cover the full spectrum of what it means to be an American.”
