3 killed, 2 injured in Hawaii helicopter tour crash
This photo released by the U.S. Coast Guard shows wreckage in the water after a helicopter crashed off Kalalau Beach in Kauai, Hawaii, on March 26, 2026. (U.S. Coast Guard)
(KAUAI, Hawaii) — Three people are dead and two others were evacuated after a helicopter crashed off Kalalau Beach in Kauai, Hawaii, on Thursday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Bystanders and Kauai Fire Department crews rescued and medically evacuated two survivors to Wilcox Medical Center in Lihue, Hawaii, the Coast Guard said.
According to a preliminary report, the helicopter was carrying one pilot and four passengers when it crashed at Kalalau Beach, the County of Kauai said Thursday.
“We are greatly saddened by the loss of three lives in this helicopter crash and thinking of those individuals’ families and friends,” Cmdr. Andrew Williams, search and rescue mission coordinator with the Coast Guard Sector Honolulu, said in a statement.
“We are also keeping the survivors in our thoughts as they begin their recovery. We remain grateful for close coordination with our partner agencies throughout this tragic incident,” Williams added.
Kauai Police Dispatch personnel reported a helicopter crash at around 4 p.m., with five people aboard. The helicopter landed on the sandbar 100 yards off Kalalau Beach, according to the Coast Guard. The Kauai Fire Department responded with an Air 1 helicopter crew and Ocean Safety Bureau officers aboard jet skis from Hanalei Bay, according to the Coast Guard.
The helicopter is reportedly a Hughes OH-6 Cayuse operated by Aviation Airborne, according to the Coast Guard.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.
Christine Banfield is seen in an undated photo. Obtained by ABC News
(FAIRFAX, Va.) — Brazilian au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães, who went along with former IRS agent Brendan Banfield in a northern Virginia double murder plot, was sentenced to to 10 years in prison with two years of probation.
On Friday morning, Fairfax County Judge Penney Azcarate decided to give the 25-year-old the maximum sentence, which was up to 10 years on a manslaughter charge for which she pleaded guilty in 2024.
“Your actions were deliberate, self-serving, and demonstrated a profound disregard for human life,” Azcarate said in delivering her ruling. “So, let’s get straight: You do not deserve anything other than incarceration and a life of reflection on what you have done to the victim and this family.”
A new “20/20” episode about the case, “The Au Pair, The Affair and Murder” is scheduled to air Friday, Feb. 20, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.
Magalhães and Banfield were separately arrested over their roles in the Feb. 24, 2023, murders of Joseph Ryan and Banfield’s wife, Christine Banfield, which were committed inside the Banfield home.
Early in the investigation, detectives discovered evidence suggesting that Banfield and Magalhães were having an affair — and that they had plotted to kill his 37-year-old wife.
Part of that plot, according to prosecutors and Magalhães’ testimony, involved covertly creating a profile for, and thus masquerading as, Christine on a social media site for sexual fetishes.
Ryan, 39, took the bait in what prosecutors called the “catfishing” scheme. Ryan communicated back and forth with the profile account that was allegedly posing as Christine, as they together crafted a rape fantasy scenario using a knife, chains and rope.
“I have caused pain that cannot be measured. I pray for forgiveness from the Benson family, and from the Joseph Ryan family,” Magalhães said during Friday’s sentencing hearing.
“There is nothing I could possibly do to make it up to you, for your loss. There are so many regrets, this is my biggest. It’s a tragedy I have been carrying with me, and I know I can never take back the devastation of what I have done,” she added.
Saying she lost herself in the relationship with Banfield, she has changed in jail over the past three years.
At the time, Magalhães and Banfield told police they came home to find Ryan — a stranger to them — stabbing Christine Banfield to death. Banfield and Magalhães each fired a shot, killing Ryan, they said both in their 911 call and to responding officers at the scene.
In October 2023, Magalhães was charged with the second-degree murder of Ryan, as she had admitted to firing the second, fatal shot.
One year later, Magalhães took a plea deal with prosecutors, turning on Banfield in exchange for a lesser charge of manslaughter. Prosecutors also promised to recommend to the judge upon sentencing that Magalhães only get time served.
With that agreement, Magalhães sat for nearly four hours of interviews with prosecutors, largely confirming the theory detectives had developed about their scheme.
Magalhães also took the stand in the trial against Banfield in January, as he maintained his innocence. During his three-week-long trial, Banfield even took the stand, testifying in his own defense.
After two days — nearly nine hours total — of deliberations in the trial, the jury reached a verdict on Feb. 2. The jury found Banfield guilty on all four counts, which included two counts of aggravated murder, one count of child endangerment, and possession of a firearm in commission of a felony.
Family and friends of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan filled the courtroom Friday morning for Magalhães’ sentencing.
Joining remotely online from Florida, Ryan’s mother, Deirdre Fisher, delivered her victim impact statement. She said her son was born two days before Christmas, making it a special holiday for them. Since Ryan’s murder, she has not been able to take down her Christmas tree, which sits behind the urn holding her son’s ashes.
“I say good morning to him each day when I turn on the tree’s lights, and I tell him I love him each night when I turn off the lights,” Fisher told the court.
Fisher said she has missed so many milestones now, including the chance to be a grandmother. There have been many times, Fisher said, when she’s reached for the phone to call her son, only to remember that he can’t and won’t answer.
Ryan’s aunt, Sangeeta Ryan, delivered her impact statement from the courtroom, pausing periodically between sobs.
“He was fun-loving and loved from the beginning. He was inquisitive, curious, smart, charming, and so dang talkative,” she said.
Ryan’s aunt described her nephew’s love for animals and the environment, noting that he often rescued and adopted dogs.
Sangeeta Ryan, added that he also was a dedicated member of their family, especially in taking care of his grandmother, who, she said, sold her home in wake of Ryan’s murder to “dodge memories, grief, and reporters.”
Acknowledging that Magalhães did eventually come forward with the truth, Sangeeta Ryan said that this still was not an act of heroism on Magalhães’ part.
“This could have been a very different ending where Juliana saved two lives,” she said could have been the case if Magalhães had not gone along with Banfield’s plot.
As Magalhães was charged only in Ryan’s murder, Judge Azcarate ruled that prosecutors could not include victim impact statements that Christine Banfield’s family members had prepared.
The death penalty was abolished in Virginia in 2021, meaning that, following his conviction, Banfield is facing life in prison without parole.
An undated photograph of Emmanuel Damas. (Courtesy of the Nelson family)
(NEW YORK) — Last week, Presner Nelson went to a shopping mall with one goal in mind: to find a suit his brother, who died in immigration federal custody in March, would wear in his casket.
Nelson’s brother, Emmanuel Damas, died after allegedly complaining for roughly two weeks of a toothache that Nelson believes could have been treated.
“This was the first time I had to do this in my life — it was not easy,” Nelson told ABC News.
The death of Damas, a Haitian immigrant who Nelson says arrived in the U.S. legally and had a pending Temporary Protected Status application, comes amid growing concerns from lawmakers and immigrant advocates about the conditions in migrant detention facilities, and a sharp increase in immigrant deaths in detention under the second Trump administration as it pursues its immigration crackdown.
Most deadly period According to an ABC News analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data and the number of detainee deaths provided to Congress from ICE, the first 14 months of the second Trump administration represent the most deadly period for the federal detention system in recent years — with the exception of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic contributed to detention deaths.
As of March 25, 44 people have died in government custody during the current Trump administration, according to figures shared by lawmakers, with two of those fatalities being victims of a shooting last September at a Dallas detention facility. The rise in fatalities comes as the detention population reaches record highs, with over 70,000 people currently detained in federal immigration custody.
The data analysis reveals a stark and rapid acceleration in the mortality rate within federal facilities. While the figure was as low as one death per 100,000 admissions in 2022, that number surged to about seven deaths per 100,000 admissions in 2025, even when excluding the two people shot while in custody. And in just the first ten weeks of 2026, the rate is currently at 12 deaths per 100,000 admissions.
Using a methodology established by researchers and detention statistics provided by ICE, ABC News calculated estimated mortality rates per 100,000 detention admissions for the calendar years 2019-2025, plus Jan. 1 through March 16, 2026. Using a rate shows whether mortality is increasing beyond what would be expected from higher detention admissions alone.
“There is really no contest — fiscal year 2026 is on track to be the deadliest year ever in the history of ICE,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an immigration policy expert with the American Immigration Council who did his own data analysis of ICE deaths.
“Things are dramatically worse this year. We are seeing more deaths than ever,” Reichlin-Melnick said.
Scrutiny over the deaths of detainees has grown as the Trump administration has pressured ICE to increase arrests and has dramatically expanded detention space by converting warehouses and other spaces into detention facilities. A document shared by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency with New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte shows the government expects to spend $38 billion converting these spaces and increasing detention capacity by 92,600 beds.
Under previous administrations, the government has found ways to mitigate the number of people in detention by enrolling detainees in “Alternatives for Detention” efforts, which can involve scheduling regular check-ins with ICE, and mandating the use of ankle monitors.
The Trump administration has doubled down on invoking mandatory detention for undocumented immigrants, and in some cases even for those who are in the process of obtaining legal status. The government has also restarted detaining families with children at facilities like the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.
“They’re making a decision to take a U.S. citizen child and detain them with their parents. They’re making a decision to detain someone who’s lived here peacefully for 20 years. That is their choice, and they need to be pushed further on that,” said Andrea Flores, an attorney and immigration policy expert who is a former DHS and White House official. “Nobody should lose their life because they went through our immigration system — but that, in and of itself, has been a problem across administrations. And so there’s been work that’s needed to be done on this.”
The case of Emmanuel Damas In a statement, ICE described Damas as a “criminal illegal alien” arrested in Boston for assault and battery. His brother Nelson disputes this, saying Damas was in the country legally under a humanitarian parole program and had a pending petition for Temporary Protected Status.
Nelson also said Damas was never convicted following his arrest and that the arrest stemmed from a misunderstanding when someone called police to report that Damas’ 12-year-old son appeared to be walking by himself on a sidewalk. Damas mistakenly believed his son had called the police on him, became angry, and gestured as if to hit him but never made physical contact, Nelson said.
Damas was taken to jail where he was transferred into ICE custody before Nelson could bail him out, Nelson said.
Nelson said when he last spoke on the phone with his brother on Feb. 16, Damas complained about a toothache he’d had for the last two weeks. According to Nelson, his brother had claimed he was denied multiple requests to see a dentist.
Two days later Damas called their mother but he had difficulty speaking, Nelson said. Nelson believes his brother could not speak clearly because the toothache had developed into an abscess and his jaw had swollen. He did not complain of shortness of breath, Nelson said.
The next day, according to ICE, Damas was “immediately” taken to a hospital on Feb. 19 after allegedly reporting shortness of breath and was subsequently transferred to an Intensive Care Unit at a hospital in Phoenix for a “higher level of care.”
It’s unclear when he was placed on a ventilator, but ICE said that by Feb. 20, Damas “remained intubated” and underwent a series of tests.
On Feb. 22, the hospital in Phoenix “reported the likely diagnosis to be septic shock due to pneumonia,” ICE said.
Before he was transferred to Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center on Feb. 25, Damas “had two chest tubes placed on his right side and a thoracentesis was completed to help remove excess fluid from the pleural spaces around the lungs,” ICE said.
On Feb. 28, Nelson said his family was told they’d be allowed to visit him in the hospital and four of his relatives, including his mother, were able to see him the next day.
“But at that point on, it was too late, there was not much I could be done to save his life,” Nelson said. “So when my mom got there, he was in a coma.”
At 1:12 p.m. on March 2, Damas was pronounced deceased.
In a statement provided to ABC News about Damas and the number of recent detainee deaths, a DHS spokesperson said Damas “refused” dental extraction and had claimed in January that his toothache had gone away. The spokesperson said that in February, Damas was again seen “for bleeding gums and loose front teeth” and again refused to have two teeth extracted.
“It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an individual enters ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, and mental health services, access to medical appointments, and 24-hour emergency care,” the spokesperson said. “Many individuals receive healthcare in ICE custody that exceeds what they have previously experienced.”
Damas believes his brother would be alive if he had received adequate medical care for his toothache.
“They waited for too long to take him to the hospital to be seen by a dentist. So on the nineteenth, when they finally realized, it was too late because he had that infection going on for two weeks,” Nelson said. “He asked for help for two weeks — they said that he was faking it.”
‘Presumed suicides’ The recent surge in detainee deaths includes a number of “presumed suicides,” including 19-year-old Royer Perez-Jimenez, who died on March 16 in Florida, and Victor Manuel Diaz, who died in a Texas facility in January.
In a press release, DHS said that Diaz died in ICE custody on Jan. 14 at Camp East Montana in El Paso, after staff found him “unconscious and unresponsive in his room.” A DHS spokesperson confirmed this month that Perez-Jimenez was found “unconscious and unresponsive” by a Glades County detention officer.
While the department noted that “the official cause of death remains under investigation,” they labeled the incident a “presumed suicide.” However, Diaz’s family told ABC News they do not believe he took his own life and are calling for a full investigation.
“Suicide is a preventable cause of death for people in custody,” Reichlin-Melnick told ABC News. “It’s something that jails should be working to prevent, and yet we’ve now had three or four suicides just in 2026 alone, including the 19‑year‑old who died recently.”
Questions regarding the Department of Homeland Security’s statements about ICE deaths have been further fueled by the case of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban immigrant who died at the Camp East Montana facility in January.
While DHS initially stated Campos died after “experiencing medical distress,” an autopsy report from the El Paso County Medical Examiner later ruled the death a homicide, citing “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.”
Attorneys for the Campos family filed an emergency petition in January to stop the deportation of witnesses who alleged guards choked and asphyxiated him.
For families like these, answers about their relatives’ death can be hard to come by.
“We don’t know what happened to him in that place,” a sibling of Diaz recently told ABC News in Spanish.
Nelson says he already knows why his brother is gone.
A suspected Molotov cocktail incendiary device was used to start a fire at the front door of a Tesla sales office in Louisiana, April 14, 2026, according to officials. (ATF New Orleans Field Division)
(NEW ORLEANS) — An apparent Molotov cocktail was used to start a fire outside a Tesla sales office in New Orleans, according to federal officials.
The incendiary device sparked a blaze at the office’s front door just before 8 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and New Orleans police.
No one was injured, but the business suffered damage, police said.
No arrests have been made, police said.
ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
