(NEW YORK) — A 67-year-old man from Alvarado, Texas, died on the South Kaibab Trail in the Grand Canyon National Park while attempting to reach the Colorado River, according to the National Park Service.
The Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center received a report of an unresponsive hiker on the trail, below Cedar Ridge, on July 8, just before noon, according to NPS. Bystanders began CPR while National Park Service medical personnel and volunteers responded on foot, according to the NPS.
The man was attempting to reach the river for an overnight stay at Phantom Ranch, NPS said. Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.
The hiker had turned around at Skeleton Point and was making his way back up the trail when the incident occurred, according to the NPS.
Summer temperatures on exposed parts of the trail can exceed 120 degrees, creating extremely hazardous conditions for hikers, according to the NPS.
“In addition to the heat, pre-existing medical conditions can compound physical stress, making summer hiking particularly risky, especially during the peak heat hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Park rangers strongly advise against hiking in the inner canyon during those hours and urge all visitors to take extreme caution when planning hikes during the summer months,” NPS said in a statement.
An investigation into the incident is being conducted.
(NEW YORK) — Svetlana Dali — the woman found guilty of stowing away on a Delta flight from New York to Paris last year — was sentenced on Thursday to time served with one year of supervised release after she told the judge she sneaked onto the plane because the U.S. military had poisoned her.
“My actions were directed toward only one purpose: to save my life,” Dali said through a Russian interpreter before the sentence was handed down.
Dali, a Russian citizen and U.S. permanent resident who recently lived in Philadelphia, blamed her attempts to stow away on an outbound flight on “circumstances beyond my control,” claiming in a labyrinthine statement that lasted more than a half hour that the U.S. military subjected her to poisonous chemicals.
“I was forced to escape from the United States because I was poisoned,” Dali said. “I can draw a conclusion that I was poisoned by those military chemicals in the United States.”
Dali has already been in jail the past seven months, which federal prosecutors said was sufficient as her sentencing guidelines range was zero to six months in prison.
“Stowaway travel is a serious offense that endangers both the offender and other air passengers. Deterrence is particularly important in stowaway cases, as publicized incidents encourage copycat behavior that threatens the safety of air travel and undermines the integrity of airport security systems,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum that noted agreement with the defense.
Judge Ann Donnelly conceded Dali has had a “difficult life” but imposed a sentence of time served, noting the need for deterrence.
“When someone gets onto a plane without a seat, without a ticket, it’s a danger,” Donnelly said. “It’s possible that other people would try to do the same thing and that’s a situation our society cannot tolerate.”
Over the objection of the defense, Donnelly also included a year of supervised release. She insisted it was not meant to be punitive but to help Dali get treatment for mental illness.
“I hope you will work with all the people who are trying to help you,” Donnelly said.
A Brooklyn jury convicted Dali of a federal stowaway charge back in May.
Dali sneaked onto overnight Delta Flight 264 traveling from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport in France on Nov. 26, 2024, without having a ticket and deliberately bypassed multiple boarding pass and identification checkpoints.
In a video obtained by ABC News, Dali can be seen walking up to gate B38 at Terminal 4 while other passengers have their boarding passes and passports checked for the Paris flight. After gate attendants assisted a separate group of customers and ushered them toward the jet bridge, Dali followed immediately behind, the video shows.
Once aboard, she went straight into one of the plane’s bathrooms and hid there with her bags for several hours to avoid detection, prosecutors said. When a flight attendant noticed, Dali faked vomiting to excuse her lengthy time in the bathroom.
After a flight attendant asked for her name and boarding pass, Dali gave two fake names and failed to produce any boarding pass or identification, prosecutors said. Alarmed, the flight attendant told Dali to sit in a seat reserved for flight crew as the plane came in for landing.
Dali was flown back to the United States on Dec. 4, 2024. Authorities had attempted to fly her back sooner, but she was twice unable to be transported due to her disruptive behavior, prosecutors said.
During a two-hour law enforcement interview, Dali admitted to flying as a stowaway and intentionally evading airport security officials and Delta employees so that she could travel without buying a ticket.
After being released from custody in early December 2024, Dali allegedly cut off her ankle monitor and traveled to Buffalo, where she tried unsuccessfully to cross over the Peace Bridge into Canada on a bus on Dec. 16, 2024. She has been in custody ever since.
Prosecutors believe Dali attempted to fly as a stowaway on two earlier occasions.
Two days before sneaking onto the Delta flight in New York, Dali snuck into a secure area at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. Once inside the terminal, she hid inside a bathroom for a lengthy period to avoid detection. She also appeared to try to access a Jet Blue flight by getting in the boarding line but was turned away by gate agents.
In February 2024, Customs and Border Protection agents discovered Dali hiding in a bathroom within a secure area of the Miami International Airport. She claimed she had arrived on an Air France flight and was waiting for her husband but CBP found no records of her on any Air France flight that day.
Dali, who pleaded not guilty, took the witness stand during her trial. She admitted she did not have a boarding pass when she walked onto the flight.
Instead, Dali said she walked through to “where the people were boarding the flights and then I just walked into the airplane.”
Despite the sentence of time served, Dali will not immediately be free from custody.
Connecticut State Police said there is an active case against her for the incident at Bradley International Airport.
Benjamin Hanil Song, a former United States Marine Corps reservist, has been charged in connection with his role in the shooting of an Alvarado police officer at the detention center, according to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office. FBI
(ALVARADO, Texas) — The FBI is searching for a 12th person the agency says was involved in the ambush of law enforcement officers at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, last week.
Benjamin Hanil Song, a former United States Marine Corps reservist, has been charged in connection with his role in the shooting of an Alvarado police officer at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday.
Song is accused of joining 10 others in an organized attack against officers at the Prairieland Detention Center just after 10:30 p.m., on July 4. Officials say he should be considered armed and dangerous.
Song has been charged with three counts of attempted murder of federal agents and three counts of discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.
A group of individuals dressed in black, military style clothing began shooting fireworks toward the detention center, then spraying graffiti on vehicles and a guard structure in the parking lot at the facility, according to officials.
“Correctional officers called 911 to report suspicious activity. An Alvarado police officer responded to the scene and, upon exiting his vehicle, the officer was shot in the neck by a defendant positioned in nearby woods. Another alleged assailant across the street fired 20 to 30 rounds at unarmed correctional officers who had stepped outside the facility,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement Thursday.
The injured officer was treated and released following the shooting.
Song allegedly purchased four of the guns that were found in connection with the shooting, including two AR-style rifles found at the scene, according to officials.
“One of the abandoned rifles at the scene had a binary trigger, used to ‘double’ a regular rate of fire, allowing a shooter to fire more rapidly than a standard semiautomatic gun,” the sheriff’s office said.
Ten assailants who were charged in a criminal complaint on Monday fled from the detention center, but were apprehended by additional responding officers.
Song was not found, but cellphone location data indicated his phone was within several hundred meters of the Prairieland Detention Center the day of the ambush until the next morning, according to the sheriff’s office.
An 11th suspect, Daniel Rolando-Sanchez Estrada, is the husband of one of the attackers, and was arrested on charges of conspiracy to tamper with evidence while attempting to execute a search warrant, according to ICE’s account on X. He allegedly had “insurrectionist propaganda” at his home titled “Organizing for Attack! Insurrectionary Anarchy,” ICE said.
On July 6, a vehicle registered to Song was found on the same block of another suspect’s residence.
The 10 others charged in Monday’s complaint include Cameron Arnold, Savanna Batten, Nathan Baumann, Zachary Evetts, Joy Gibson, Bradford Morris, Maricela Rueda, Seth Sikes, Elizabeth Soto and Ines Soto.
If convicted, Song faces up to life in prison.
“We are committed to apprehending Song and are offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction. If you have any information, please call 1-800-CALL-FBI or you can submit a digital tip to fbi.govprairieland,” FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock, said in a statement Thursday.
A blue alert — which are issued for at-large suspects when a police officer has been seriously injured or killed — was also issued late Wednesday for Song by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for a fired DOJ official-turned-whistleblower released a series of emails and texts Thursday that they say bolster claims that Emil Bove — a top Trump appointee to the Justice Department now in line for a powerful judicial appointment — repeatedly suggested defying orders from courts to enforce the administration’s immigration policies.
The messages, from former immigration attorney Erez Reuveni, provide a real-time look at the internal scramble among top Justice Department and other administration officials as they sought to defend the legality of several rushed deportation efforts that have since become the subject of high-stakes legal challenges.
According to lawyers for Reuveni and Senate Democrats who released the messages, they also provide clear support for Reuveni’s initial whistleblower disclosure, which came just a day before Bove was set to appear for his confirmation hearing for a seat on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
According to the complaint, Reuveni said that in a March 14 meeting on the eve of the administration carrying out its initial wave of deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, Bove remarked that DOJ “would need to consider telling the courts “f— you” in response to any order that sought to enjoin the removals.
In a series of texts released by Reuveni from March 15 — the day that U.S. District judge James Boasberg ordered the administration to turn around two planes carrying migrants deported under the AEA before they arrived in El Salvador, Reuveni said, “This doesn’t end with anything but a nationwide injunction” before adding, “And a decision point on f— you.”
“It’s a question if drew gets out without a sanction,” another attorney replied, an apparent reference to Drew Ensign, a career DOJ official who was tasked with defending the administration’s AEA deportations in the Boasberg case.
Later in the evening, Reuveni again texted, “guess its find out time on the f— you,” an apparent reference, again, to Bove’s alleged remark.
While it’s unclear what impact the texts could have on Bove’s nomination, they could ultimately serve to provide Judge Boasberg with evidence to carry out his contempt proceedings against the Trump administration, which are currently on hold by a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel.
The texts also provide insight into the Justice Department’s initial deliberations regarding the administration’s resistance to returning Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which his family and attorneys deny.
In one email, Reuveni argued that by defying an order to bring Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador, the administration risked “making very bad law here that jeopardizes many far more important initiatives of the current administration over one person.”
The messages also suggest that before Abrego Garcia’s case became the subject of nationwide attention, officials from the State Department and DHS appeared more than willing to facilitate his return — a sharp contrast to remarks from officials like Stephen Miller, who has repeatedly questioned Abrego Garcia’s character and labeled him a “terrorist.”
“I agree he should be brough back to the US if El Sal will release him back to us, and we should take steps to help ensure his safety in the meantime,” one State Department official said in an email.
“I’m with Erez, we want to make sure everyone knows this gentleman is alright if it takes us time to get el sal to send him back,” a DHS lawyer replied.
During his confirmation hearing, Bove vigorously disputed Reuveni’s whistleblower complaint and denied he ever instructed department officials to defy court orders. When pressed, however, on whether he ever made the remark about potentially having to tell the courts, ‘f— you,’ Bove responded he could not recall making such a statement.
In a statement Thursday responding to Reuveni’s release of the messages, Attorney General Pam Bondi described him as “a leaker asserting false claims seeking five minutes of fame” in order to sink Bove’s nomination.
“As Mr. Bove testified and as the Department has made clear, there was no court order to defy, as we successfully argued to the DC Circuit when seeking a stay, when they stayed Judge Boasberg’s lawless order,” Bondi said. “And no one was ever asked to defy a court order. This is another instance of misinformation being spread to serve a narrative that does not align with the facts.”
(CALABASAS, Calif.) — A large oak tree limb fell on a group of kids attending summer camp in Southern California, fatally injuring one child, officials said.
The incident occurred at King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas on Wednesday afternoon, authorities noted. Children attending Camp Wildcraft — an art and nature camp based in Los Angeles — were gathering at the end of the day under a large oak tree for shade when they “heard cracks and suddenly a very large branch fell on top of them,” according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.
Five people were injured during the incident — an 11-year-old girl with a broken leg, a 5-year-old boy with cuts and a head laceration, a 22-year-old man with abrasions to his head and a 73-year-old man who sustained a concussion, the sheriff’s department said in a statement. An 8-year-old boy who was critically injured was transported to a local hospital and later pronounced deceased, according to the department.
The branch, which officials estimate fell on up to nine kids, was around 25 to 30 feet long, the department said.
The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, the operators of the land where the incident occurred, said in a statement they are “devastated by the tragic loss” and they are closely working with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and other officials to “understand exactly what happened, and we are fully committed to supporting a thorough and transparent investigation.”
“Words cannot express the depth of our sorrow,” the recreation and conservation authority said.
It remains unclear how the oak tree branch fell.
“My heart is with everyone impacted by the tragic situation at King Gillette Ranch. We are actively working to provide all possible support. We hold everyone involved in our thoughts and pray for their safety,” L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said in a statement on X.
Officials said they will continue to look into the incident, which they noted is now an accidental death investigation.
Oak trees are protected in the city of Calabasas due to the Oak Tree Ordinance, which requires “reforestation, registration and preservation of all healthy oak trees, unless reasonable and conforming use of a property justifies the removal, transplanting, altering and/or encroachment in the oak tree’s protected zone,” according to the city’s website.
The ordinance also states that any person or entity that “owns, controls or has custody or possession of any real property within the city shall maintain all oak trees and scrub oak habitat located thereon in a state of good health pursuant to the Oak Tree Preservation and Protection Guidelines.”
ABC News’ Jennifer Watts and Kayna Whitworth contributed to this report.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A court hearing over the next steps for accused MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia resumes Thursday in Maryland.
Abrego Garcia, who was brought back to the U.S. from detention in El Salvador to face charges of human smuggling in Tennessee, is expected to be released on bond as he awaits trial.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis heard arguments from Abrego Garcia’s legal team, which is seeking to have their client transferred from Tennessee to Maryland.
Government attorneys say the administration’s plan, should Abrego Garcia be released on bond, is to deport him to a third country.
Judge Xinis on Monday ordered the government to produce witnesses with personal knowledge of what Abrego Garcia’s deportation plan would look like.
During Thursday’s hearing, government officials are expected to “address, among other topics, the asserted lawful bases for detention, the nature and timing of any notice to be provided to Abrego Garcia, the location of any proposed custody or transfer, and the procedural steps Defendants intend to pursue,” the judge wrote in her order.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who had been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he denies.
He was brought back to the U.S. last month to face charges in Tennessee of allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S. while he was living in Maryland. He has pleaded not guilty.
Late Wednesday, Justice Department attorneys said in a court filing that they had sought to have the case dismissed by agreeing to not deport Abrego Garcia to El Salvador without first winning court approval and pledging to follow procedures before sending him to a third country — but that Abrego Garcia’s attorneys had rejected those terms.
(NEW YORK) — Svetlana Dali — the woman found guilty of stowing away on a Delta flight from New York to Paris last year — is set to be sentenced on Thursday after a Brooklyn jury convicted her of a federal stowaway charge in May.
Dali, a Russian citizen and U.S. permanent resident who most recently lived in Philadelphia, has already been in jail the past seven months, which federal prosecutors said was sufficient as her sentencing guidelines range is zero to six months in prison.
“Stowaway travel is a serious offense that endangers both the offender and other air passengers. Deterrence is particularly important in stowaway cases, as publicized incidents encourage copycat behavior that threatens the safety of air travel and undermines the integrity of airport security systems,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum that noted agreement with the defense.
Dali sneaked onto overnight Delta Flight 264 traveling from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport in France on Nov. 26, 2024, without having a ticket and deliberately bypassed multiple boarding pass and identification checkpoints.
In a video obtained by ABC News, Dali can be seen walking up to gate B38 at Terminal 4 while other passengers have their boarding passes and passports checked for the Paris flight. After gate attendants assisted a separate group of customers and ushered them toward the jet bridge, Dali followed immediately behind, the video shows.
Once aboard, she went straight into one of the plane’s bathrooms and hid there with her bags for several hours to avoid detection, prosecutors said. When a flight attendant noticed, Dali faked vomiting to excuse her lengthy time in the bathroom.
After a flight attendant asked for her name and boarding pass, Dali gave two fake names and failed to produce any boarding pass or identification, prosecutors said. Alarmed, the flight attendant told Dali to sit in a seat reserved for flight crew as the plane came in for landing.
Dali was flown back to the United States on Dec. 4, 2024. Authorities had attempted to fly her back sooner, but she was twice unable to be transported due to her disruptive behavior, prosecutors said.
During a two-hour law enforcement interview, Dali admitted to flying as a stowaway and intentionally evading airport security officials and Delta employees so that she could travel without buying a ticket.
After being released from custody in early December 2024, Dali allegedly cut off her ankle monitor and traveled to Buffalo, where she tried unsuccessfully to cross over the Peace Bridge into Canada on a bus on Dec. 16, 2024. She has been in custody ever since.
Prosecutors believe Dali attempted to fly as a stowaway on two earlier occasions.
Two days before sneaking onto the Delta flight in New York, Dali snuck into a secure area at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. Once inside the terminal, she hid inside a bathroom for a lengthy period to avoid detection. She also appeared to try to access a Jet Blue flight by getting in the boarding line but was turned away by gate agents.
In February 2024, Customs and Border Protection agents discovered Dali hiding in a bathroom within a secure area of the Miami International Airport. She claimed she had arrived on an Air France flight and was waiting for her husband but CBP found no records of her on any Air France flight that day.
Dali, who pleaded not guilty, took the witness stand during her trial. She admitted she did not have a boarding pass when she walked onto the flight.
Instead, Dali said she walked through to “where the people were boarding the flights and then I just walked into the airplane.”
(NEW YORK) — At 4:22 a.m. on Friday, as Texas’ Hill Country began to flood, a firefighter in Ingram – just upstream from Kerrville – asked the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office to alert nearby residents, according to audio obtained by ABC affiliate KSAT. But Kerr County officials took nearly six hours to heed this call.
“The Guadalupe Schumacher sign is underwater on State Highway 39,” the firefighter said in the dispatch audio. “Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?”
“Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor,” a Kerr County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher replied.
The first alert didn’t come through Kerr County’s CodeRED system until 90 minutes later. Some messages didn’t arrive until after 10 a.m. By then, hundreds of people had been swept away by the floodwaters.
Kerr County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a Wednesday morning press conference, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha declined to answer a question about delayed emergency alerts, saying that an “after-action” would follow the search and rescue efforts.
“Those questions are gonna be answered,” he added.
Records show Kerr County’s CodeRED Emergency Notification System, which alerts subscribers to emergencies through pre-recorded phone messages, has been in place for at least a decade.
When CodeRED was first introduced by Kerr County and the City of Kerrville in 2014, a government press release claimed it could “notify the entire City / County about emergency situations in a matter of minutes.”
CodeRED relied on the local white pages for users’ contact information, the announcement explained, so “no one should assume his or her number is included.” Residents had to sign up to ensure they would receive alerts.
In 2021, Kerr County incorporated FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) into CodeRED, so that messages could reach tourists and others not in the local database. The IPAWS system allows local officials to broadcast emergency messages and send text blasts to all phones in the area.
At the time, some county officials weren’t sure about the change.
“What’s the benefit?” Kerr County Commissioner Jonathan Letz asked at a May 2021 commissioners’ meeting.
“It’s just another avenue for us to notify people when we have an emergency,” replied Emergency Management Coordinator William “Dub” Thomas.
Then-Commissioner Harley David Belew voted against adding IPAWS to the CodeRED system after noting that it would require switching out the county’s equipment, which he said he’d done recently because of a federal policy change a few years earlier.
“I don’t think it’s going to change anything,” Belew said.
Despite these doubts, Kerr County began using IPAWS alongside its CodeRED system in 2021.
When the area flooded on Friday, Ingram City Council Member Ray Howard told ABC News he got three flash flood alerts from the National Weather Service, but none from Kerr County authorities.
On Monday, Belew went on The Michael Berry Show to discuss the catastrophic flooding. On the show, he said Kerr County Commissioners had considered putting in an early warning system years earlier, but that there weren’t enough cell towers to reach rural parts of the county, “so that idea was scrapped.”
Records show that the topic of a flood warning system for Kerr County came up in at least 20 different county commissioners’ meetings since it was first introduced in 2016 – months before Belew joined the Court.
Belew explained on the radio show that funding for a warning system was also a barrier to implementation, echoing issues he raised at the time, according to meeting minutes.
But even after last week’s tragic flooding, Belew expressed concern over spending on such a system: “God only knows what’s going to happen, what kind of government waste we might get going into an alert system,” he said on Monday’s segment.
“But if we can get any early alert system for the future, that’d give people some peace of mind here,” Belew added. “It’s always been needed.”
(LOS ANGELES) — At least 31 workers were safely rescued after a tunnel collapsed in a large industrial complex in Los Angeles on Wednesday evening, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The collapse took place at the “18-foot diameter tunnel, being constructed for municipal wastewater management, occurred at an underground (undetermined depth) horizontal excavation site about 5 to 6 miles south of the sole entry/rescue access portal,” LAFD said.
The trapped workers were able to “scramble with some effort” over a 12-15 foot tall pile of loose soil, to meet several coworkers on the other side of the collapse, and be shuttled several at a time by tunnel vehicle to the entry/access point more than five miles away, according to preliminary reports.
“Tonight, we were lucky,” LAFD Interim Chief Ronnie Villanueva told reporters during a press conference.
Mayor Karen Bass also attended the press conference, telling journalists, “We’re all blessed today in Los Angeles. No one injured. Everyone safe, and I am feeling very, very good, that this is a great outcome. And what started as a very scary evening.” More than 100 LAFD responders were responding to the scene, including LAFD Urban Search and Rescue team members, “specially trained, certified and equipped to handle confined space tunnel rescue,” according to the department.
Workers were brought out of the tunnel area in a cage hoisted up by a crane; it wasn’t immediately clear if that’s the normal way to go in and out of the tunnel project or due to the rescue.
They came out about eight workers at a time in the cage, and many seemed fine walking out.
At least 27 of the workers are being evaluated by paramedics at the scene, but all walked out without visible injury, according to the fire department.
This tunnel is scheduled to be finished by 2027, according to ABC News’ affiliate, KABC.
Bass arrived at the scene and thanked first responders.
“I just spoke with many of the workers who were trapped. Thank you to all of our brave first responders who acted immediately. You are L.A.’s true heroes,” Bass said on X.
