Beloved dad killed in Washington state chemical tank rupture: ‘We are so heartbroken’
An undated photo of Gilbert Bernal with his wife Maria and grandson Jameson provided by his daughter Geovana who said he died in the chemical tank rupture in Washington state on May 26, 2026. (Courtesy of Geovana Bernal)
Geovana Bernal told ABC News that her father, Gilbert Bernal, died in Tuesday morning’s incident at his workplace, Nippon Dynawave Packaging in Longview, Washington.
At least one person was killed, multiple people suffered critical injuries and nine employees remain missing, officials said. The ongoing recovery efforts are “extremely complex” due to the unstable tank, which contains white liquor, a chemical mixture used in the paper-making process, according to authorities.
Geovana Bernal said in a statement, “There are not enough words to express on how devastated we are right now.”
“My father was the most selfless man I knew. He worked hard to provide for his family and he loved us so much,” she said. “He was going to celebrate his 32nd wedding anniversary with mom in just a couple weeks and he loved my son, his first grandson, so much.”
She said Gilbert Bernal often helped out at his church, “volunteering his time to help repairs or help anyone in need.”
“He was a great man, husband, father, grandfather, son, brother and friend,” Geovana Bernal said. “We are so heartbroken.”
The coroner’s office has not released the identity of the confirmed fatality, but Geovana Bernal said her brother viewed images of her father and confirmed his death after speaking with the coroner’s office.
A still from a video released by the Fort Wayne Police Department of an incident at a Tim Hortons in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on May 13, 2026. (Fort Wayne Police Department)
(FORT WAYNE, Ind.) — The family of a 75-year-old woman who died following a physical altercation with an employee at a Tim Hortons in Indiana will be able to see the full, unredacted surveillance footage of the incident, officials confirmed on Friday.
The full video will not be released to the public at this time, the Fort Wayne Mayor’s Office told ABC News.
“The Grayson family will be able to see the entire video,” a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said in a statement. “There are no plans to show additional video to the public/media beyond what was shared earlier this week.”
The incident occurred on May 13 in Fort Wayne, police said. The customer, Anita Grayson, entered the Tim Hortons that morning to “address an issue” with a drive-thru order, at which point she got into a physical altercation with the store’s 20-year-old shift lead, according to the Fort Wayne Police Department.
Police said the shift lead intervened when Grayson “began berating a 17-year-old female employee” by stepping between the two and repeatedly telling Grayson to leave. When Grayson appeared to move toward the teen, the shift lead “placed her hands” on Grayson, who police said then “forcefully shoved the shift lead backward” and struck her in the nose. The two continued to struggle, with police saying Grayson scratched the shift lead’s face, knocked off her glasses and pulled her to the ground by the hair, pulling out a chunk.
An officer responding to the location found Grayson unresponsive, and paramedics arrived and attempted life-saving measures, police said. She was transported from the scene and later pronounced dead by medical personnel, police said.
Fort Wayne police released surveillance footage of the incident on Tuesday due to what it called “significant public concern and misinformation” in the wake of Grayson’s death, citing a “poor-quality video circulating publicly.”
The three-minute video released by police showed the physical altercation and moments of Grayson then walking around and sitting, though not the entire aftermath or emergency response. The video has no sound.
Grayson’s family has called for the release of the full video.
“I need it to be released publicly because the world is waiting for what happened to her,” Grayson’s daughter, Tawnda Grayson, said during a press conference outside of the Tim Hortons location on Friday.
Carlton Lynch, a pastor in Michigan and former community activist in Fort Wayne who spoke alongside Grayson’s family members at the press conference, said they had been informed Friday that the “mayor and the city police have agreed to allow the family to see the entire video.”
“We don’t know the extent of what took place in that restaurant,” he said.
The family continued to urge police to release the full video to the public.
“I need it to be released publicly, because the world is waiting for what happened to her,” Tawnda Grayson said.
“My whole entire family loved our mom, that was the matriarch of our family,” she said. “So what’s been taken from us is irreplaceable.”
Tawnda Grayson told ABC Fort Wayne affiliate WPTA her mother had congestive heart failure and was wearing a heart monitor a week before the altercation.
The cause and manner of death remain pending, police said Tuesday.
The Allen County Prosecutor’s Office is reviewing the case.
“At this time, no decision regarding this matter will be made until the Prosecutor’s Office has received and reviewed all evidence related to the investigation, including the complete report from the Allen County Coroner’s Office,” the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on Wednesday.
The coroner’s findings may not be available for another four to eight weeks, the office noted.
Tim Hortons offered its condolences to Grayson’s family.
“The health and safety of our guests and team members is our highest priority and the local franchisee has been cooperating fully with the police,” the company said in a statement.
The Hookers’ boat, “Soulmate,” is seen in Marsh Harbor on Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas, April 8, 2026. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — Cadaver dogs are heading to help with the search for Lynette Hooker, an American woman who’s missing in the Bahamas, according to police.
The K-9 team from the U.S. Coast Guard will be on the ground in Hope Town on Wednesday morning, Advardo Dames, assistant commissioner of the Royal Bahamas Police, told ABC News.
Lynette Hooker has been missing since she went overboard on a dinghy on the evening of April 4.
When the 55-year-old Michigan woman and her husband, Brian Hooker, departed Hope Town on the Abaco Islands for their yacht, Soulmate, in Elbow Cay, bad weather caused her to fall off the dinghy, her husband told authorities.
Brian Hooker, 58, was arrested on April 8 and questioned by police. He was released on Monday without charges.
Brian Hooker told ABC News on Tuesday that he’s staying in the Bahamas with a “sole focus” of finding his wife, “no matter how likely or unlikely that is.”
He said he was planning “to go back to the boat, and then hire or beg people to help me go find some areas to search.”
Brian Hooker’s attorney did not allow him to answer questions about what happened the night his wife went overboard due to the pending investigation.
When asked if there was anything he wishes he’d done differently, Brian Hooker was emotional, saying, “I will always think there was something I could have done differently. My one job, my one job was to look out for her, and that has not happened. And I’m gonna keep looking out for her now, the best I can.”
ABC News’ Brian Andrews contributed to this report.
American travelers in the Middle East like Shekinah Lee are speaking out. Lee spoke with ABC News via video. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — American travelers are sharing their stories of being stranded in the Middle East after the joint U.S.-Israel attack against Iran triggered retaliatory strikes, impacting at least 11 countries in the region.
President Donald Trump announced “major combat operations” against Iran on Saturday, with strikes targeting military and government sites. Iran has since responded with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases in Gulf nations and American diplomatic facilities.
Shekinah Lee, who lives in Chicago, told ABC News she and her boyfriend had been traveling in the United Arab Emirates and are now trying to return home.
“I’m anxious, I’m scared, and I’m desperate to get home,” Lee said Tuesday morning.
According to Lee, she hasn’t been able to get any answers from her airline about flights back to the U.S.
“We’re not getting any support from our airline. We’ve been trying to get in contact with them but due to the volume of the situation, they’re not able to field calls, so none of our questions are getting answered,” Lee said.
In a statement Tuesday on social media, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said the agency is in touch with thousands of Americans abroad and working to secure flights to help.
“Yes, the State Department is actively securing military aircraft and charter flights for American citizens who wish to leave the Middle East,” Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, wrote on X in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ve been in direct contact with nearly 3,000 Americans abroad. American citizens should call [the State Department] for assistance with departure options.”
The State Department also issued instructions for travelers abroad on its own social media account Monday, urging Americans to contact the State Department.
While Lee and her boyfriend wait for a flight out of Dubai, she said they had to stay overnight in their hotel parking garage until they could find further accommodation.
“The parking garage was packed with families from all over the world, just desperate to know what’s going on,” Lee said. “Right now, our priority is getting a flight out of here.”
American citizen Alyssa Ramos is using social media to document her struggles returning to the U.S. Ramos shared on Instagram that she and a group of friends paid $1,200 for a nearly eight-hour journey over the land border from Kuwait City to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
On Tuesday, Ramos said in an Instagram story that her plane from Riyadh never left the airport.
“I’ve never been more happy and also more scared to be on a plane,” Ramos wrote in part. “There were attacks here in Riyadh earlier today and they usually strike more at night … please keep sending your positive energy and protective thoughts.”
The State Department is urging Americans to exercise caution worldwide “following the launch of U.S. combat operations in Iran.”
“Americans worldwide and especially in the Middle East should follow the guidance in the latest security alerts issued by the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. They may experience travel disruptions due to periodic airspace closures,” the department advised.
For the United Arab Emirates, the State Department has set a level 3 travel advisory, ordered the “departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members of government personnel on March 2,” and is advising Americans to reconsider travel to the country “due to the threat of armed conflict and terrorism.”
The State Department has similar warnings for Americans in at least five other Middle Eastern countries.
In Beirut, Lebanon, drone strikes have been continuing in the capital city, according to Samer Bawab, an American citizen living in the city.
“I haven’t been able to sleep very well within the last three days, only a few hours per night,” Bawab told ABC News. “That’s because we’re getting awoken in the middle of the night sometimes by loud explosions and being caught off guard.”
Former Team USA basketball player Destiny Littleton said in an interview that aired Monday on “Good Morning America” that she is in Israel where she plays professionally.
Littleton said she could “hear the interceptor missiles … blow up the missiles coming towards us and that was very scary,” adding, “We’re in survival mode.”
American Kristy Ellmer told ABC News that she and her partner Matt Carwell were in Dubai on vacation when the strikes against Iran began. She said they’re uncertain when they will be able to return home to New Hampshire.
“It was definitely very destabilizing … you could actually feel it and you could hear it,” Ellmer said of the explosions.
The State Department recommends Americans check each country’s Travel Information Page for developing details and entry requirements and enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, or STEP, for safety updates and information on how to get help in an emergency.
