Man, woman dead in murder-suicide after hours-long SWAT standoff
Harris County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Bureau Major Earl Dean speaks to reporters after a man and his girlfriend were found dead in a murder-suicide after an hours-long standoff with police. (Harris County Sheriff’s Office)
(HOUSTON) — A man and woman were found dead in a Houston apartment after an hours-long standoff with the sheriff’s department, according to officials.
A 20-year-old woman and the 23-year-old suspect were found dead in the apartment, Harris County Sheriff’s Department Patrol Bureau Maj. Earl Dean said at a press conference on Monday.
Deputies received a report of man “frantic” on his phone just before 2 p.m. Monday, saying he “accidentally shot his girlfriend,” Dean said.
At the scene, deputies made contact with the man, who refused to obey their commands and threatened to kill himself. The man then barricaded himself inside the apartment, Dean said.
Deputies contacted additional resources and a SWAT team took over the scene, according to Dean.
After several hours of the crisis negotiation team talking to the man, trying to get him to surrender, the man refused all commands, Dean said.
“At one point we did deploy gas into the apartment complex. The male retreated onto the balcony where he suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Dean said.
“This is very unfortunate,” Dean said.
No deputies discharged their weapons during the incident, according to Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
The circumstances surrounding both deaths remain under investigation. There is no ongoing threat to the public, Gonzalez said.
Howard Lutnick, US commerce secretary during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice overnight restored a photo purportedly showing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick visiting the private island of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to its trove of publicly released documents.
On Thursday, a Department of Justice official acknowledged the photo was taken down as part of a “batch of files that were flagged for nudity” following the recent release of Epstein files.
The image itself did not contain nudity, and the restored version of the photo did not contain any new redactions.
“The batch of thousands of images was pulled for review and is being uploaded with necessary redactions on a rolling basis. No files are being deleted,” the official said.
Some photos on the Department of Justice’s website are batched together into a single document, and the DOJ has said they are pulling documents on a rolling basis to make necessary redactions, such as for nudity or personally identifiable information.
The previously removed photo appears to show Epstein, Lutnick — dressed in a blue shirt and white shorts — and three other individuals near the southwest corner of Little Saint James, the private island owned by Epstein in the United States Virgin Islands.
The Commerce Department and White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Department of Justice appears to have withdrawn the image from its public archive of Epstein documents sometime earlier this month, according to a saved version on the nonprofit site Wayback Machine. The removal prompted criticism from lawmakers including Representatives Ted Lieu, Thomas Massie, and Jimmy Gomez.
“Dear @AGPamBondi: Why are you covering up this picture of Epstein’s friend Lutnick?” Lieu wrote on X. “And are you really so stupid you think deleting a picture after you’ve posted it on the internet will make it go away?”
Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee earlier this month. Lutnick acknowledged that he visited Epstein’s island with his family during a vacation, though he initially claimed he distanced himself from Epstein in 2005.
Emails released by the Department of Justice earlier this month showed Lutnick’s wife coordinating with Epstein’s assistant to visit the island for lunch in December 2012.
“I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation. My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies,” Lutnick told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee.
Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, who broke from his party to push for the release of the Epstein files, called on the Department of Justice on Thursday to explain why the image was removed.
“I’m sure there’s a good reason for this. DOJ needs to tell Congress who pulled this file down so we can ask them,” Massie wrote on X.
A Carnival Cruise ship is docked at the PortMiami as the company becomes one of the first to be sued under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse on May 02, 2019, in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
In February, after the teen was charged as a juvenile, the 16-year-old was permitted to live with his uncle instead of being held in custody. But in April, when the case was moved to adult court, prosecutors said the teen should be detained.
“We do not know what triggered him,” prosecutors argued in court Wednesday. “Who will be the next object he will become fixated on?”
The teen’s lawyers have countered that he’s a child who has been cooperative with the investigation and has shown no indication of hurting anyone in the months since his stepsister’s killing.
The suspect arrived at court Wednesday with his father and his uncle and was seen wearing an ankle monitor. The judge ruled he’s only allowed to leave his house with his uncle and will be electronically monitored by authorities.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres said Wednesday that U.S. Marshals should examine options for potential detainment in the Tampa area.
Prosecutors allege the teenager “sexually assaulted and intentionally killed” his 18-year-old stepsister, Anna Kepner, during the family’s November vacation on a Carnival cruise. Anna Kepner died from mechanical asphyxiation, officials said.
Prosecutors are alleging more details about the night Kepner died from Wednesday’s hearing as well as a newly unsealed transcript from a February detention hearing.
Closed-circuit television on the cruise captured many of the movements of Kepner and her stepbrother, as well as the movements of their 13-year-old sibling who was sharing their room, prosecutors said in the Feb. 6 transcript.
The night Kepner died, the suspect was seen entering their shared cabin around 7:35 p.m., the transcript said. At about 7:38 p.m., Kepner was seen entering the cabin — the last time cameras would capture her alive, prosecutors said.
At approximately 7:51 p.m., the 13-year-old sibling entered the cabin and quickly exited, prosecutors said.
The suspect was not seen leaving the cabin again until 10:13 p.m., when he is “looking left and right down the hallway, appearing to check if there is anyone in the hallway,” prosecutors said. He’s seen between 10:23 p.m. and 10:49 p.m. “entering and exiting the cabin approximately two more times,” prosecutors said, and he put a privacy sign on the door at 10:53 p.m.
The video showed the 13-year-old and the suspect coming and going a few more times, prosecutors said. At 12:09 a.m., when the 13-year-old tried to get into the room, the suspect prevented him, and made the 13-year-old wait outside for a few minutes, prosecutors said.
Severe weather outlook for Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — More than 50 million people across the Midwest are bracing for severe weather on Tuesday, a day after baseball-sized hail and multiple tornadoes were reported in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Kansas.
The threat of damaging storms has shifted slightly south from where strong winds blew the roofs off several buildings on Monday, including the collapse of a nursing home roof in Lodi, Wisconsin.
A level 3 out of 5 “enhanced risk” for severe storms is in place on Tuesday for parts of Iowa, southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, far northern Indiana, far northwestern Ohio and southern Michigan. Strong tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail are possible for parts of the Midwest on Tuesday, including the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, Des Moines, Iowa and Detroit.
A level 3 out of 5 “enhanced risk” for severe storms is also in place on Tuesday for parts of central Oklahoma. Some tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail are possible for parts of the south-central Plains on Tuesday, including Oklahoma City.
A widespread area from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas to the U.S.-Canadian border in Michigan is under the threat of slightly less severe storms on Tuesday.
Tornadoes, especially in Oklahoma, are possible, along with large hail and damaging winds.
In the Northeast, there is also a chance for severe storms in parts of the region on Tuesday, with damaging wind gusts expected from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire, including the cities of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Binghamton and Albany, New York, and Burlington, Vermont.
The storms are expected to pop up in the Northeast sometime after 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday and continue into the evening.
The severe weather comes after destructive storms hit on Monday in parts of rural Minnesota, Wisconsin and Kansas.
At least 14 tornadoes were reported on Monday across Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.
The sheriff’s office in Franklin County, Kansas, reported that three people suffered minor injuries when a suspected tornado touched down in Ottawa, Kansas.
Video taken by ABC Kansas City affiliate station, KMBC, showed the roofs ripped off several buildings in the Ottawa area, including a motel in the city.
In nearby Hillsdale, Kansas, in Miami County, more than 50 homes were damaged by a suspected tornado, according to the Red Cross, which was providing support for displaced families.
On Wednesday, severe storms are expected to be in place from Oklahoma, including Oklahoma City and Tulsa, to southern Wisconsin. Parts of Kansas, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Ohio, including the cities of Pittsburgh and Cleveland, could also be in the path of severe weather on Wednesday.
In Michigan, heavy rains over the past few days, combined with snow melt, caused flooding on Monday when several rivers, including the Manistee River in northwest Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, overflowed, officials said. Several roads and bridges were washed away in the flood and some homes were damaged by the floodwaters, authorities said.
The Manistee River, near Sherman, Michigan, reached a new record level on Monday and was still rising early Tuesday morning as heavy rain continued to fall. The river has surpassed 18 feet, topping its previous record of 16.9 feet set in April 2014, authorities said.
Residents living downstream from two Michigan dams were advised to evacuate after seepage was found at the base of the Bellaire Dam in Antrim County. The Cheboygan Dam in Cheboygan County, near Lake Huron, was at risk of failing, authorities said Monday night.
Rain in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is expected to taper off on Tuesday afternoon, but another round of thunderstorms is expected to bring more rain to the area on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, increasing the flooding threat and adding pressure to the Bellaire and Cheboygan dams.
