Birmingham shooting results in ‘multiple’ casualties, police say

(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Francine strengthened on Tuesday into a Category 1 storm, with winds reaching 75 mph, as it churned in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm is expected to make landfall Wednesday afternoon or early evening in Louisiana, southwest of New Orleans.

Here’s how the news is developing:

Latest forecast

Tropical storm conditions have reached the Louisiana coastline, and life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds are expected to begin in the next few hours leading up to Hurricane Francine’s landfall.

A hurricane watch is in effect in New Orleans, where the worst impacts will be Wednesday afternoon through Wednesday night.

A tornado watch has been issued for parts of Mississippi and Louisiana, including New Orleans.

Storm surge will worsen throughout the day. Up to 10 feet of storm surge is possible in parts of Louisiana; up to 5 feet is possible in the New Orleans area.

Flash flooding is a major threat for Louisiana and Mississippi.

Conditions across Louisiana will start to improve overnight as Francine weakens and moves north into Mississippi.

Francine will rapidly weaken after landfall and become a tropical storm by Thursday, but it’ll still bring heavy rain to the South.

Flash flooding will remain a threat through the end of the week as Francine moves north into Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri.

The threat for isolated tornadoes will continue through Thursday morning, especially in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

-ABC News’ Melissa Griffin

Conditions deteriorating in southern Louisiana

Conditions are deteriorating in southern Louisiana as Hurricane Francine gets closer to landfall.

The storm, located 120 miles southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, is moving northeast at 13 mph.

Rain bands are moving on shore and the dangerous winds are closing in.

-ABC News’ Melissa Griffin

‘The time to evacuate has now passed’

With hours to go until Hurricane Francine makes landfall in Louisiana, “the time to evacuate has now passed,” Jacques Thibodeau, the director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said at a news conference.

“It is now time to go down and hunker down,” he said. “We are no longer in the, ‘Prepare for a hurricane’ — we are now in the, ‘Respond to a hurricane.'”

The White House has approved an emergency declaration for the state. The Louisiana National Guard expects to have 2,400 guardsmen ready for the storm, along with 58 boats, 101 high water vehicles and 61 aircrafts, officials said.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said he’s been in contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers, and said he’s fully confident in all state and federal agencies working together before, during and after the hurricane.

Landry also encouraged residents to “take advantage of the power that you have currently and make sure that you charge all of your devices.”

-ABC News’ Alexandra Faul

New Orleans residents should start sheltering in place

Residents in New Orleans should stay off the roads beginning at noon ET and remain sheltered in place until Thursday morning, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said.

“Conditions will worsen throughout the day—stay safe!” she tweeted.

Latest forecast

Francine is churning north as a Category 1 hurricane with 90 mph winds.

Landfall is forecast Wednesday afternoon or early evening as a Category 1 hurricane near Houma, Louisiana.

Life-threatening storm surge, flash flooding and hurricane-force winds are bearing down on Louisiana.

The storm surge could reach 10 feet along the Louisiana coast and wind gusts could hit 70 mph in New Orleans.

“Ensure you are in a safe location before the onset of strong winds or possible flooding,” the National Hurricane Center warned.

By Thursday morning, Francine will be bringing rain and gusty winds to Mississippi, and potential tornadoes to Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

Throughout the day Thursday, the heavy rain and tornado threat will move into northern Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. Flash flooding is possible near Memphis and Nashville.

-ABC News’ Max Golembo

Weather warnings for Gulf Coast states

A raft of warnings was issued for cities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama ahead of Hurricane Francine’s expected landfall on Wednesday afternoon.

A hurricane watch was issued for New Orleans, with hurricane warnings for Morgan City and Houma on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast.

Tropical storm warnings are in place further east, covering cities including Biloxi, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama.

Storm surge warnings were announced for both Biloxi — where water may rise up to 5 feet — and Mobile, where water levels may rise by up to 4 feet.

Francine is expected to make landfall as either a high-end Category 1 or low-end Category 2 hurricane, with winds between 90 and 100 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. The Category 2 classification begins with winds of 96 mph.

Landfall may bring tornadoes in areas around New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile and Pensacola, Florida.

Heavy rain may cause flash flooding from New Orleans all the way up to Jackson, Mississippi through to Wednesday night. As the storm moves into Mississippi on Thursday, it is forecast to produce flash flooding and gusty winds.

Francine is expected to stall through Thursday night into Friday morning, bringing heavy rain to Memphis, Nashville and Paducah, Kentucky.

Francine 295 miles from Louisiana coast

Hurricane Francine is expected to make landfall southwest of New Orleans as a Category 1 hurricane on Wednesday afternoon.

As of early Wednesday, Francine was 295 miles southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, heading northeast at 10 mph.

Data collected by Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicated that the storm strengthened in the early hours of Wednesday, with maximum sustained winds close to 85 mph — up from 75 mph on Tuesday night.

New Orleans under Hurricane Watch

Emergency officials in New Orleans, Louisiana, warned residents on Tuesday that they should be prepared to shelter in place as Hurricane Francine approached landfall.

A Tropical Storm Warning and Hurricane Watch were issued for areas along the southern Louisiana coast, including New Orleans. A Flood Watch was also issued in Orleans Parish through Thursday morning, the city said.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell signed an emergency proclamation.

“The storm track has shifted more towards the east, which has the potential to worsen impacts for the city, but the storm remains disorganized,” the city said in a statement.

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(ATHENS, Ga.) — The suspect accused of murdering Laken Riley on the University of Georgia’s campus was found guilty by a judge on all charges Wednesday, including malice murder and felony murder.

He was sentenced by the judge to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the maximum possible.

Prosecutors called the evidence against the suspect “overwhelming,” while the defense raised the theory that the defendant could be an accomplice but not the killer during closing arguments in his trial.

Jose Ibarra, 26, was accused of killing the 22-year-old nursing student while she was out for a run after prosecutors said she “refused to be his rape victim.” Jose Ibarra, an undocumented migrant, was charged with malice murder and felony murder in connection with her death, which became a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives, including President-elect Donald Trump.

Jose Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial and the case was presented over four days in the Athens-Clarke County courtroom to Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who rendered the verdict on Wednesday shortly after closing arguments in the trial.

Sobbing could be heard in the courtroom as he read the guilty verdicts on each charge.

Before announcing his verdict, Haggard told the courtroom that he wrote down two statements from the attorneys during closing arguments.

One was a statement by the prosecutor, who said the “evidence was overwhelming and powerful.”

The other was one by the defense attorney, who said that the judge is “required to set aside my emotions.”

“That’s the same thing we tell jurors,” he said. “That’s the way I have to approach this, and I did. Both of those statements are correct.”

In subsequently issuing his sentence on Wednesday, Haggard acknowledged there can be “no such thing as closure” in an event like this.

“As many times as you reflect on the loss, at some point you start smiling about the memories, and I’m hopeful that at some point that takes over to a certain extent, but there’s very little, including the sentence of Mr. Ibarra, that’s going to help much, and I acknowledge that,” he said.

Riley’s family addresses court: ‘There is no end to the pain’

Riley’s family addressed the court ahead of sentencing with often tearful victim impact statements while calling for a life sentence without parole.

“There is no end to the pain, suffering and loss that we have experienced or will continue to endure,” her mother, Allyson Phillips, said.

She remembered Riley as “smart, hard-working, kind, thoughtful, and most importantly she was a child of God.”

She called Jose Ibarra a “monster” who “took my best friend.”

“This horrific individual robbed us all of our hopes and dreams for Laken,” she said.

Lauren Phillips, Riley’s sister, said her big sister was her “biggest role model.”

“I looked up to her in every way,” she said. “She brought the joy that I needed into my life and never failed to make me laugh.”

She said seeing her parents’ heartbreak is “excruciating” and she will never get closure over her sister’s murder.

“We’re a broken family of three struggling to find out how to live this life through the silence and emptiness that her absence has left behind,” she said.

Riley’s father, Jason Riley, said he is “haunted by the fear” his daughter must have felt in her final moments.

“I have to live with the fact that I could not protect her when she needed me the most,” he said.

Riley’s stepfather, John Phillips, said she was the “best daughter, sister, granddaughter, friend and overall person that you could ever hope to meet.”

“I plead with this court to protect the world from this truly evil person by sentencing him to prison for life without the possibility of parole for any reason, so that he could never have the opportunity to do this to anyone else ever again,” he said.

Several of Riley’s good friends also addressed the court, including Riley’s three roommates, who had testified during the trial about trying to find and get in touch with her the day of her murder.

Connolly Huth said she used to run with Riley, but has since “lost the joy of what running was before Laken was taken from us.”

“I live with excruciating guilt every day that I was not accompanying Laken on this run and that it was her and not me,” she said, crying. “I hope and pray that it will never happen again to anyone.”

Lilly Steiner said life has been “dull” without Riley.

“Laken left a colossal legacy to everyone she touched and I have zero doubt that she is still not finished building it,” she said. “And that is something Jose Ibarra will never be able to take away.”

Sofia Magana called Riley her “chosen family” and “fearless other half,” and said her heart is “full of grief, sadness and an overwhelming sense of lost.”

“The loss of my best friend has shattered my world in ways I never thought possible,” she said through tears.

State shows moment parents learned Riley was dead

As part of the victim impact statements ahead of sentencing, the state showed body worn camera of officers breaking the news to Laken’s family that she was dead.

Her mother could be seen collapsing on the ground, weeping.

“That’s what they endured,” special prosecutor Sheila Ross told the judge. “That’s how it was on that day when they came here to look for their daughter.”

Ross also showed the court videos of Riley, including ones of her running in a race.

“These are just little snippets that we saw in the investigation that we thought would be important to share with the court that shows not only the type of person that she was — that you just heard from her friends and family — but the true impact that her murder had on her parents,” Ross said.

Jose Ibarra faced a minimum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole and maximum of life without the possibility of parole for the top charge of malice murder.

Ross urged the judge to offer a sentence that “brings comfort to this community” and one that “appropriately reflects the harm that was done in this case” while asking for the maximum sentence.

The defense asked the judge to impose life with the possibility of parole.

“Getting a life sentence is automatic,” defense attorney John Donnelly said. “There’s certainly no guarantee of parole.”

He added that given the defendant’s immigration status, if he were to be released in the future, “it would only to be deported.”

State says evidence ‘loud and clear’

Prosecutors called 28 witnesses while laying out what they said was evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Jose Ibarra killed Riley, who died by blunt force head trauma and asphyxia.

Ross told the court Jose Ibarra encountered Riley while she was on her morning jog on Feb. 22 while he was out “hunting” for women on the Athens campus.

Ross said Riley “fought for her life” in a struggle that caused Jose Ibarra to leave forensic evidence behind. Digital and video evidence also pointed to him as the only killer, she said.

“The evidence in this case has been overwhelming, and the evidence in this case has spoken loud and clear — that he is Laken Riley’s killer, and that he killed her because she would not let him rape her,” Ross said during her closing argument on Wednesday.

A forensics expert testified that Jose Ibarra’s DNA was found under Riley’s right fingernails, and that his two brothers, who lived with him in an apartment near the campus, were excluded as matches.

When Jose Ibarra was questioned by police a day after the murder, he had visible scratches on his arms, officers said. He also had scratches on his neck and back, which Ross said could have only been left by Riley.

“In order to not find him guilty, you would have to disbelieve your own eyes,” Ross said.

“She marked him. She marked him for everyone to see. She marked him for you to see,” Ross told the judge.

Prosecutors argued Jose Ibarra hindered Riley from making a 911 call, and said his thumbprint was left on her phone. Data from his Samsung phone and the Garmin watch Riley was wearing on her run showed the devices overlapped and were in close proximity in the forest where she was found dead, an FBI analyst testified.

Jose Ibarra was captured on Ring footage discarding a bloody jacket and three disposable gloves near his apartment about 15 minutes after Riley died, prosecutors said. The individual’s face can’t be seen in the video, but Jose Ibarra’s roommate testified that it was him. The defendant’s brother, Diego Ibarra, also identified him as the person in the video while being questioned by police a day after the murder.

Riley’s DNA was found on the jacket and gloves, the forensics expert said. Jose Ibarra’s DNA was also found on the jacket, while his two brothers were excluded as matches, the expert said.

“That is what we call consciousness of guilt in our business — he threw away those items because he knew he had killed her, and he threw them away because he didn’t want anyone to find him,” Ross said.

Her DNA was also found on an Adidas cap he was seen wearing in the video, the expert said. That cap was not discarded, Ross surmised, because Jose Ibarra could not see that there was actually blood on it.

Hours after the killing, Jose Ibarra was also captured wearing different clothes from the dumpster Ring footage while discarding unidentifiable items in a bag in another dumpster at his apartment complex, Ross said. That bag was never recovered by police, she said. Ross surmised that the bag contained the clothes he was wearing earlier that day, which were also similar to ones he was wearing in a selfie posted on Snapchat earlier that morning.

“His digital evidence of posting selfies of himself wearing what is basically his rapist gear an hour before he leaves his house — that condemns him, he has condemned himself,” Ross said.

Defense presents alternative theory

The defense called three witnesses, including a neighbor who said Diego Ibarra had threatened her the night of Riley’s murder.

The defense said they had planned to call two additional witnesses — including Diego Ibarra, who is in federal custody awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to possessing a fraudulent green card, however, his attorney did not wish for him to testify.

“While the evidence in this case is voluminous, it is circumstantial,” defense attorney Kaitlyn Beck told the judge.

Beck told the judge they advised Jose Ibarra to have a bench trial “trusting that your honor could and believing that your honor would set aside the emotions in this case and simply consider the evidence.”

She argued there is doubt about what was tested and said the judge should be “skeptical” of the DNA evidence.

She presented an “alternative theory” that Diego Ibarra was actually Riley’s murderer, and that Jose Ibarra was an accomplice in covering up the evidence.

“Maybe it was him throwing away the jacket, as Diego said, maybe he was covering up for his brother,” Beck said.

“Under that theory, of course, Jose would be guilty of tampering, but that theory does not prove that he was present or involved in the murder of Laken Riley,” she said.

She said since three gloves were discarded, it “suggests that there are multiple pairs of hands wearing those gloves.”

On rebuttal, Ross called the defense’s theory “desperate” and a “mischaracterization of the evidence.”

“There is no reasonable explanation for all of this evidence other than he is guilty of every single count in this indictment,” Ross said of Jose Ibarra.

Diego Ibarra told officers during questioning that he was asleep at the time the killing occurred. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent who was on the case testified earlier Wednesday that there was no evidence to contradict that statement.

Jose Ibarra, a migrant from Venezuela who officials said illegally entered the U.S. in 2022, waived his right to testify during the trial. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges, including malice murder and three counts of felony murder.

Additional charges in the 10-count indictment included aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence. The latter charge was that he “knowingly concealed” evidence — the jacket and gloves — in the murder.

Jose Ibarra was also convicted of a peeping tom offense. Prosecutors said that in the hours before Riley’s murder, he spied through the window of a UGA graduate student, and said the incident “shows his state of mind” that day.

The student testified that she called police after hearing someone trying to open her door.

Ross said the person at the student’s apartment was wearing clothes similar to the ones Jose Ibarra had on in the Snapchat selfie posted earlier that morning, including the Adidas cap.

Trump released a statement following the verdict in the high-profile trial, saying that “our hearts will always be with” Riley. He also said it’s “time to secure our border, and remove these criminals and thugs from our Country, so nothing like this can happen again!”

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(NEW YORK) — Righteous Torrance “Chevy” Hill had great plans for his future, cut short by a fatal shooting in front of his own home in February.

Hill, a transgender man, left behind a budding legacy of activism as the founder of an LGBTQ-focused salon and barber shop called Evollusion. The salon was born out of his desire for a space where he and other clients weren’t faced with uncomfortable or disparaging comments.

“There’s a need for this,” said Terri Wilson, Hill’s partner of six years. Their relationship began at the salon when Wilson herself came to get her hair done.

The two stayed talking for hours, a common occurrence at Evollusion. Clients often made themselves comfortable in the salon well after the end of their appointments to discuss politics, society and life in the shop — the salon was abuzz with laughter or chatter.

“He wanted to make sure that the trans community had the resources that they need,” Wilson told ABC News.

Wilson told ABC News that Hill believed Atlanta, often touted for having a large and inclusive LGBTQ+ community, was the perfect place to create such a space. Wilson has vowed to continue his work following his passing.

“Grief just hits out of nowhere, like the day can be going wonderful, and then I can just think of something or read something or see something online that I want to share with him, and I know that I’m not able to share it with him,” Wilson said.

Hill is one of at least 36 transgender and gender non-conforming victims of fatal violence from last year’s Transgender Remembrance Day to this year’s, according to the Human Rights Campaign, the vast majority of whom were killed by a gun. Some anti-gun violence advocates told ABC News that growing anti-transgender sentiment in the U.S. is a major cause for concern for the trans community.

“No matter what gender they are, what socioeconomic class they’re from, what race or ethnicity they are — those lives mattered and a lot of the policies that we have in place and even the way that we investigate these homicides send a message about the disposability of these lives,” Sarah Burd-Sharps, Senior Director of Research of gun safety advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, told ABC News.

New research from Everytown published in honor of Transgender Remembrance Day on Wednesday aims to highlight the impact gun violence has had on the trans community. Everytown found that roughly 7 in 10 transgender victims are killed with a gun, which is similar to the national rate. Black transgender residents — particularly Black transgender women — face the brunt of this gun violence, according to Everytown.

More than half of all transgender gun homicides took place in the South, according to Everytown. Burd-Sharps also notes these deaths happen predominantly in Southern states with more lenient gun laws.

Hill was shot outside his home in the Atlanta suburb of East Point, Georgia on Feb. 28, 2024, and pronounced dead the following day. In Georgia, about 95% of the trans or gender-expansive victims since 2013 — when the Human Rights Campaign began tracking these deaths — were killed with a gun.

Some researchers argue that violence toward trans people cannot be considered without the context of anti-transgender legislation and rhetoric.

“What it does is it sows further division. It creates an environment where even more hatred exists, which in turn creates more violence against trans folks,” Tori Cooper, the Human Rights Campaign’s director of community engagement, told ABC News.

Federal, state and local agencies across the country have warned about increases in anti-LGBTQ+ violence in recent years as state legislatures break records, introducing more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills nationwide.

“Words matter, policies matter,” Moms Demand Action Executive Director Angela Ferrell-Zabala told ABC News in an interview on the Everytown report. “When we go down this road of dehumanizing and taking away rights from folks … it’s hard for folks to access health care and other things and just kind of live full lives, then that’s contributing to the problem of violence in this country.”

Both the HRC and Everytown note in their research that there may be other cases of fatal violence against transgender or gender-expansive people that have gone unreported or misreported and, therefore, not recorded in the official count.

Researchers and advocates say deadnaming, misgendering and bias in policing or reporting may hinder efforts to track and solve these cases properly.

“Every life is important, and we need to make sure that we’re protecting everybody,” Ferrell-Zabala said. “Media and law enforcement have a duty to make sure they’re correctly reporting people’s names and genders. It’s not only out of respect for victims and their loved ones and communities, but also so that the research on the ongoing violence against transgender people is accurately understood and represented.”

According to Wilson, Hill was misgendered by law enforcement after his death, despite having the correct gender markers on his ID.

“It’s frustrating because a person who respectfully asks you to address them in a certain way, their request should be accepted. Their request should be recognized. It’s not hurting anyone else,” Wilson said. “It’s frustrating for me, so I can only understand how frustrating it was for him. It’s just from going from medical professionals, going through TSA, law enforcement.”

However, she said East Point’s LGBTQ liaison reached out to her following his death: “They have an LGBT Task Force, and they did have one of the representatives who was over this task force reach out to me, which I did appreciate,” Wilson said.

East Point didn’t respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Everytown researchers also found that clearances of trans homicides — “incidents where a perpetrator is arrested, charged, and given to the court for prosecution, or is otherwise identified” — are lower than among homicides overall nationally. Hill’s loved ones waited more than six months for the suspect — Hill’s cousin Jaylen Hill — turned himself police, and hope the arrest can finally bring some relief in the fight for justice.

Jaylen Hill is in pre-indictment hearings on potential charges of murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm. Jaylen Hill’s legal team has not yet responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

“I can’t be consumed with Jaylen and what his punishment is, because all of this revolves around [Hill]. [Hill] lost his life,” Wilson said. “So continuing what he was doing is definitely at the forefront of receiving justice for [Hill].”

Some researchers hope the new data can help law enforcement agencies and city officials nationwide to address growing concerns about anti-LGBTQ+ violence and the role gun violence plays in these deaths.

Officials in neighboring Atlanta — which has LGBTQ+ liaisons on the city and public safety levels — said it’s working to implement programs to improve the safety and concerns of the LGBTQ+ community in the region. Chief Equity Officer Candace M. Stanciel pointed to the city’s Human Relations Commission which investigates reports of discrimination or the revision of standard operating procedures for local public safety officials on how to engage with the transgender community.

“We look forward to even growing the partnership and the work that we continue to do with all of our public safety teams around supporting LGBTQ communities as a whole,” Stanciel told ABC News.

Wilson hopes Hill can be remembered for his “unconditional love.”

“He didn’t have any enemies,” said Wilson. “He had a forgiving heart. He was selfless, he was genuine. He always wanted everyone to succeed. He could see in you what you couldn’t see in yourself.”

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