Boys, 12 and 13, arrested in street attack on former NY Gov. David Paterson and stepson
(NEW YORK) — Two boys, ages 12 and 13, have been arrested and charged in a street attack last week on former New York Gov. David Paterson and his 20-year-old stepson that unfolded on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, according to officials.
The two children, whose names were not released, were arrested around 8 p.m. Saturday after turning themselves in at a police precinct with their parents, the New York Police Department said.
A third child initially wanted in the attack also turned themself in but was not charged after officers determined he was not involved, officials said.
The 12-year-old suspect was arrested on a charge of second-degree gang assault while the 13-year-old was charged with third-degree gang assault, according to the NYPD.
“Governor Paterson and his family are glad to see the suspects turned themselves in,” Sean Darcy, spokesperson for Paterson, told New York ABC station WABC. “We hope that the young people involved learn something from this unfortunate encounter.”
The attack occurred around 8:35 p.m. on Friday on 2nd Avenue near 96th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, according to the NYPD.
The confrontation began as a “verbal altercation” between the suspects and the 70-year-old former governor and his stepson, the NYPD said. Police initially said that up to five suspects were involved in the attack.
The suspects had had “a previous interaction” with the stepson, Paterson’s spokesperson told WABC, noting that the attack took place near the victims’ home.
The suspects hit the victims in the face and body, police said.
Paterson and his stepson managed to fight off the attackers, the spokesperson said, and the suspects fled on foot, according to police.
The investigation of the attack is ongoing and more arrests could be made, police said.
Paterson and his stepson were both taken to the hospital in stable condition, police said, and they’ve since been released, the former governor’s spokesperson said.
Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor of New York from 2008 to 2010. He was New York’s first African American governor and the nation’s first legally blind governor.
ABC News’ Matt Foster and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.) — An 8-year-old boy who went missing at Arizona’s Lava River Cave on Wednesday night has been found alive and is being evaluated.
Tzion Maron was reported missing at around 6 p.m. local time on Wednesday after he became separated from his family at the cave, located near Flagstaff, according to the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.
Before he went missing, the boy was last seen near the cave entrance, according to officials.
His family reported the boy missing after they were unable to find him in the immediate area, the sheriff’s office said.
Patrol deputies and multiple search and rescue teams spent the night and morning scouring the area, before the child was found Thursday afternoon. Officials said it was raining overnight in the area.
The boy was described as just over 4 feet tall and about 50 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a gray shirt with blue stripes, navy blue pants and sneakers.
The Lava River Cave is a mile-long lava tube cave formed around 700,000 years ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.
The cave can be as cool as 42 degrees, even in the summer, and there may be some ice inside, the Forest Service said. Rocks in the cave can also be “sharp and slippery” and visitors are told to bring two or three sources of light as it can be “very dark one mile from the nearest light source,” according to the USDA.
(NEW YORK) — The trial for Andrew Lester, the Kansas City man charged in the shooting of Ralph Yarl after the teenager mistakenly went to the wrong house, was delayed indefinitely on Monday after a judge ordered a mental evaluation for the 85-year-old to determine if he is fit to stand trial.
Lester appeared in court Monday morning for a preliminary hearing ahead of the trial, which was set to begin on Oct. 7. ABC News reached out to Lester’s attorney, Steven Salmon, for additional comment. The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 8.
Lester, a white man, was charged with one count of felony assault in the first-degree and one count of armed criminal action, also a felony, in the April 2023 shooting of Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who mistakenly went to Lester’s home after arriving at the wrong address to pick up his twin brothers from a play date. Lester has pleaded not guilty.
Yarl was shot in the head and in the right arm on the evening of April 13, 2023, by Lester, a homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri, according to police. The teenager suffered a traumatic brain injury, his family previously told ABC News.
The delay in this case comes after Salmon filed a motion in the Clay County Circuit Court on Aug. 27, requesting a mental evaluation to determine if Lester is fit to stand trial, according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
The motion, which was reviewed by ABC News, argued that Lester is facing health conditions that could impair his ability to understand legal proceedings or assist in his defense. According to court documents, Lester has lost more than 50 pounds, experienced issues with his memory and has exhibited confusion surrounding the details of the case.
“Over the course of this case, Counsel has noticed a significant decline in Defendant’s overall physical health, as well as his mental acuity,” Salmon said in the motion.
“The frailty of Defendant’s physical health has, in part, been because of a broken hip, heart issues and hospitalization he has suffered during the pendency of this matter,” he added.
Salmon also said that Lester, who pleaded not guilty in April 2023 and was released on a $200,000 bond, has faced “stress” due to “overwhelming media attention, as well as death threats and other unwanted attention, making it difficult for him to interact socially with anyone.”
Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson responded to the motion requesting a mental health evaluation in a filing on Aug. 28, saying, “the State respectfully moves this Court to make a determination regarding whether reasonable cause exists to believe that the accused lacks mental fitness to proceed prior to deciding whether to order a mental evaluation.”
ABC News has reached out to the Yarl family for comment.
The trial was initially set after a Clay County judge ruled during a preliminary hearing in August 2023 that there was enough probable cause that a felony has been committed.
“The binding over of a defendant from a preliminary hearing is fairly normal. The prosecutor simply needs to provide probable cause to bind the case over,” Salmon told ABC News after the August 2023 ruling.
(LONDON, Ky.) — As a massive search continued Monday afternoon for the suspect in a Kentucky interstate shooting that injured five people and left a dozen vehicles with bullet holes, an arrest warrant released by authorities alleges the fugitive gunman sent a woman a text message threatening to “kill a lot of people” about a half hour before highway rampage.
The suspect, 32-year-old Joseph A. Couch, was also allegedly involved in a domestic dispute on Saturday morning and legally purchased an AR-15 rifle and ammunition at a gun store hours before allegedly opening fire on vehicles traveling on Interstate 75 near London, Kentucky, law enforcement officials told ABC News.
According to an arrest warrant, Couch is wanted on charges of attempted murder and first-degree assault.
Before the interstate shooting, according to the arrest warrant, a Laurel County 911 dispatcher received a call from a woman who alleged Couch texted her before the interstate shooting and “advised he was going to kill a lot of people. Well try at least.” The text message was sent to the woman at 5:03 p.m. Saturday, about a half-hour before the interstate shooting started, according to the arrest warrant.
“Couch sent another message to [the woman] that read, in part, ‘I’ll kill myself afterwards,” according to the arrest warrant.
London city officials told ABC News the woman Couch texted is the mother of his child.
Details of the domestic dispute that allegedly involved Couch were not disclosed.
Couch allegedly purchased a Cobalt AR-15 rifle with a mounted sight and 1,000 rounds of ammunition for $2,914 at a London, Kentucky, gun store on Saturday morning, according to the arrest warrant.
Saturday’s interstate shooting unfolded around 5:30 p.m. local time on I-75 at Exit 49, about eight miles from London, officials said.
At a news conference Sunday night, Laurel County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Richard Dalrymple estimated that 20 to 30 rounds were fired at vehicles in both the north and southbound lanes of I-75, from a hillside near Exit 49. At least 12 vehicles were struck by gunfire, leaving five people with gunshot wounds, including one victim who was shot in the face, officials said.
The five victims suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
Authorities initially said seven people were injured in the incident.
Officials said they do not believe any of the victims of the shooting were targeted.
State police announced Monday that a $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest of the suspect.
A silver Toyota SUV registered to Couch was found abandoned on a forest road in the dense woods near Exit 49, according to the arrest warrant issued for Couch. A Cobalt AR-15 rifle believed to have been used in the shooting and a green army-style duffle bag containing ammunition and several magazines were discovered in roughly the same area, according to the arrest warrant. The duffle bag had “Couch” handwritten on it, according to the warrant.
Investigators believe that the suspect was unprepared for a long period of trying to evade law enforcement in the woods because he left his gun, ammunition and vehicle behind. There is no indication, so far, that Couch had any type of stash of supplies that would enable him to disappear into the rugged terrain, investigators said.
Couch was initially named as a person of interest in the shooting, and the sheriff’s office released his photo and said he was “considered armed and dangerous.” On Sunday afternoon, Laurel County Sheriff John Root announced that Couch had been upgraded to the primary suspect.
Root said Couch has an address in Woodbine, Kentucky, and the sheriff’s office described him as about 5-foot-10 and 154 pounds.
According to military records, Couch served as a member of the U.S. Army Reserve from March 2013 to January 2019. Records show he was part of an Army Reserves engineering company, the 979 Engineering Company, based in Lexington.
More than 150 law enforcement officers are participating in the search for Couch.
Authorities are focusing their search in the area of Exit 49, although they have also investigated reported sightings of Couch in other areas of Laurel County and outside the county, officials said.
The area around Exit 49 is the most remote area of I-75 and the terrain is densely wooded and rugged, Kentucky State Police Trooper Scottie Pennington said at a news conference Monday afternoon.
“We’re in the Daniel Boone National Forest; this is thousands and thousands of acres. It’s kind of like a jungle,” Pennington said.
Pennington said the plan is to continue applying pressure on Couch to “wear him down.”
“Hopefully he has no water and nothing to eat,” Pennington said.
London Police Department Assistant Chief Bobby Day told ABC News that the area authorities believe Couch is hiding in has an extensive cave system and that the search has included underground caves.
At least nine Kentucky school districts and a community college campus closed Monday due to safety concerns stemming from the search for Couch.
“Student and Staff safety is a priority in the Laurel County Public Schools; therefore, out of an abundance of caution, school is canceled for tomorrow, Monday, September 9, 2024,” the Laurel County Public School said in a statement Sunday night.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.