(LOS ANGELES) — As hundreds of firefighters battled a raging wildfire on Thursday in the steep mountains north of Los Angeles, cooler weather sweeping into Southern California aided their fight, fire officials said.
The so-called Bridge Fire, which is burning in the Sheep Mountain Wilderness in the Angeles National Forest, saw “minimal” growth on Thursday as winds died down and humidity increased, officials said in their most recent update, posted at about 4 p.m. Thursday.
But the fire’s containment was still at zero percent as of that update, fire officials said. The blaze by then had spread to about 51,580 acres that straddled Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
“Firefighters made great progress on the ground, aided by aircraft to attack the fire aggressively 24 hours per day,” the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
About 480 firefighting personnel were working to contain the fire, which was ignited Sunday and was the largest of several active blazes in Southern California.
The three largest blazes burning on Thursday covered a total of more than 110,000 acres and threatened tens of thousands of structures, according to fire officials.
The Line Fire in San Bernardino County was spread over about 37,207 acres with 21% containment, Cal Fire said. That fire had destroyed or damaged by early Friday at least four structures, with some 65,000 others threatened, officials said.
And the Airport Fire in Orange and Riverside counties covered about 23,453 acres with about 5% containment, Cal Fire said.
Officials with San Bernardino County announced further evacuations for the Bridge Fire late on Thursday, broadening their order near The Baldy Village to including several additional neighborhoods from San Antonio Heights to Wrightwood and east to Cucamonga Peak.
The temperature in Los Angeles was expected to peak on Friday and Saturday at about 78 degrees Fahrenheit, before further cooling next week, according to the National Weather Service.
ABC News’ Marilyn Heck, David Brennan and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
A school sign is seen on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, Calif., in August 2023. — Mike Levine/ABC News
(BERKELEY, Calif.) — Two weeks ago, as college students returned to campus at the University of California, Berkeley, some of the most senior officials in the FBI were huddling inside a nondescript conference room beneath the stands of the school’s football stadium.
“Here’s where the rubber meets the road,” one of the FBI officials told the group of law enforcement officials, academics, tech developers, venture capitalists, and crime victims.
The problem they’re trying to solve, according to officials, is that the FBI is losing its ability to fight some of the greatest threats facing Americans, because phones and other electronic devices are increasingly being designed with no way for authorities to access their contents when the law authorizes them to collect evidence regarding suspected crimes — including those committed by radical terrorists, fentanyl dealers and online child predators.
It’s hardly a new problem.
“[It’s] the same conversation we had yesterday, five years ago, and 10 years ago, and 15 years ago, and now 20 years ago,” a professor told the group. “There’s something depressing about that. … We keep making the same goddamn mistakes over and over again.”
That’s why the FBI has taken the unusual step of turning to an academic institution for help. And not just any academic institution, but Berkeley — considered to be the birthplace of the Free Speech and student protest movements of the 1960s.
“To their credit, they were willing to think outside the box,” former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, who now runs a center at Berkeley focused on security, said of the FBI.
‘A historic milestone’
A generation ago, such a partnership would have seemed unthinkable. In the 1950s and ’60s, in the midst of the Cold War, the FBI reportedly targeted a wide swath of Berkeley professors and students with surveillance and other secret tactics, convinced that radical Communists were among them.
Now, however, the FBI is battling a very different set of threats — and a new generation of advanced technologies.
Last year, the FBI signed an agreement with Napolitano’s center, the Center for Security in Politics, vowing to exchange resources and technology related expertise in a shared effort to support the FBI’s mission.
In a press release at the time, Napolitano touted the arrangement as “the first collaboration of its kind” and “a historic milestone for both institutions.”
The meeting two weeks ago was one of the first in-person gatherings to come out of the agreement.
The gathering involved three sessions spread over two days, and ABC News was allowed to observe the closing session on the condition that it not name any of the speakers.
One FBI official framed the final session by noting that while the FBI brings “enormous resources to bear” in significant or high-profile cases, “we don’t have the people, we don’t have the financial resources to do that” in the many thousands of other cases the FBI pursues each day.
“[That] is why we need to work with our private sector partners to have a lawful-access solution for our garden-variety cases,” the FBI official said during the session.
Instead of trying to address the many types of threats investigated by the FBI, the summit focused on just one: finding ways to stop child exploitation and the spread of sexual abuse material online.
“I think there’s a universal recognition that that stuff is bad, and we need to figure out a way to better deal with it,” Napolitano told ABC News.
‘A really egregious trend’
More children than ever are being exploited online, as predators use newer technologies like live-streaming apps, online video games and advanced messaging platforms to solicit sexual material from them, according to Abbigail Beccaccio, who heads the FBI’s section focused on violent crimes against children.
Beccaccio told ABC News there’s been a significant shift in these cases as they’ve exploded in number.
While the FBI had long seen cases of “traditional sextortion,” when predators with a sexual interest in young girls trick them into sharing explicit images of themselves, the FBI has in recent years seen a “huge uptick” in so-called “financially motivated sextortion” targeting boys, Beccaccio said.
In such cases, the victims are tricked into sharing sexually explicit images of themselves — but “that’s where the scheme turns,” said Beccaccio. Armed with the compromising material, the perpetrator then threatens the victim with claims of, “If you don’t send me money, I will ruin your life, I will send this to all your friends and family,” Beccaccio said.
In less than 18 months, from October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI counted more than 12,600 victims of such schemes — a “huge” and “shocking number,” as Beccaccio put it.
She said she knows of cases where children even dipped into their college savings accounts to pay the criminals who targeted them. But worst of all, she said, “We began to see a really egregious trend in suicides.”
Beccaccio said that helps illustrate why she and her FBI colleagues are so adamant that law enforcement needs some way to access criminals’ devices when a judge authorizes it.
“Without lawful access, we lose the ability to obtain the information we need to prosecute the offenders and rescue these child victims,” she warned.
The public, she said, should find that “troubling.”
‘A very dark place’
A decade ago, as highly-encrypted phone apps became commonplace, the FBI tried to engage the public in a national conversation about the future of lawful access. Then-FBI director James Comey warned that “going dark” by losing lawful access to personal data would lead to law enforcement agencies “missing out” on chances to stop “some very dangerous people.”
“Criminals and terrorists would like nothing more than for us to miss out,” he warned during an October 2014 speech in Washington, D.C. “Encryption threatens to lead all of us to a very dark place.”
The issue came to a head a year later, when for several months the FBI was unable to unlock an Apple iPhone left behind by one of ISIS-inspired terrorists who killed 14 people and injured nearly two dozen others during an attack in San Bernardino, California, in December 2015.
There were congressional hearings held on the issue, and the FBI even took the matter to federal court, seeking to force Apple to find a way for authorities to access the phone’s content. The case became moot after an Israeli security company found a way to unlock the perpetrator’s phone.
“It’s so seductive to talk about privacy as the ultimate value,” Comey told a House panel in March 2016. “[But] in a society where we aspire to be safe and have our families safe and our children safe, that can’t be. We have to find a way to accommodate both.”
But the FBI’s public campaign over lawful access appeared to lose steam after FBI leadership become engulfed in a controversy surrounding the 2016 presidential election and Comey was fired as the agency’s director in May 2017.
Now — more than seven years later — the FBI is trying to spark the conversation again.
Katie Noyes, the head of the FBI’s next-generation technology section, said that in a survey of the FBI’s field offices last year, the bureau identified nearly 17,000 active cases that were either stalled or missing key evidence due to “warrant-proof encryption.”
Just two months ago, as the FBI struggled to determine why a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally, Abbate, the deputy director, told lawmakers that the shooter had used encrypted applications and that, more than two weeks after the shooting, the FBI was still unable “to get information back because of their encrypted nature.”
“We need a solution that provides lawful access to law enforcement,” Abbate implored lawmakers during a Senate hearing on the assassination attempt.
So the FBI is turning to Napolitano and her team at Berkeley for help.
‘Waiting for the market’
The summit at Berkeley was led by Napolitano’s team and an array of FBI officials, including deputy director Abbate; Jeff Fields, the head of counterintelligence at the FBI’s San Francisco field office; and members of the agency’s technology units.
Victims of online sexual exploitation, including a woman whose likeness appeared in a “deepfake” video that went viral, also shared their stories and perspectives.
“What was really wonderful about this convening was having really disparate points of view around the same table,” Noyes told ABC News, adding that some of the tech companies and venture capitalists there said they had never heard directly from victims before.
The group got into an impassioned debate over whether tech companies, especially global giants such as Apple and Meta — neither of whom participated in the summit — would ever voluntarily redesign their devices and platforms to ensure that law enforcement could access them with a court order.
One law enforcement official noted that the FBI spoke with the companies a decade ago, but they had little interest in having a conversation about changing their ways.
“Waiting for the market here is not going to get it done,” said another law enforcement official, insisting that the only thing that will bring change is Congress passing a new law.
Others rejected that view, saying that the point of holding the summit is to potentially find other ways to address the problem.
“There hasn’t been much movement at all, but on the other hand the technology has changed,” Napolitano told ABC News after the summit. “And so there may be better and more available ways for government — meaning law enforcement — to get around some of the traditional barriers to lawful access, and those were part of the discussions today.”
‘What’s next?’
Noyes emphasized that she and her colleagues at the FBI are “big fans of encryptions” for personal security and privacy — and that the FBI is not trying to expand or change what it’s legally allowed to do.
As she described it, the FBI just wants ensure that law enforcement maintains the type of access that it has long used to bring criminals to justice.
“There’s no discussion around a request for any additional authority,” she said. “In many cases we have had this access, and it has been removed or taken away over time” due to newer technology.
According to Noyes, the summit produced a number of ideas and proposed approaches.
Some participants suggested that an independent third party could hold a technology company’s access keys in “escrow,” so those keys would not be in the hands of law enforcement but could be used under court order.
There was also discussion about “homomorphic encryption,” a type of encryption that can keep data encrypted even as that data is processed or even shared.
Napolitano said the summit two weeks ago was just the beginning.
“The challenge for us is, ‘OK, now we’ve had these discussions, what’s next?'” she said.
NOTE: If your child is the victim of a predator or you know someone who is a victim, you can always call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit information online at tips.fbi.gov.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd shows the booking photo for Collin Griffith during a press briefing, Sept. 11, 2024. — Polk County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook
(AUBURNDALE, Fla.) — A Florida teenager has been charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of his mother, less than two years after he was arrested for fatally shooting his father but never charged, authorities said.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said during a Wednesday press briefing that the teen had previously allegedly threatened to kill his mother before Sunday’s “cold-blooded murder.”
The stabbing occurred after the teen, 17-year-old Collin Griffith, and his mother, 39-year-old Catherine Griffith, were seen having an altercation outside a mobile home in Auburndale, according to Judd.
“There were witnesses outside the mobile home that actually saw Collin drag his mother into the house by the hair on her head,” the sheriff said.
Griffith called 911 Sunday evening to report that his mother “fell on a knife” and was bleeding from the neck, Judd said. The teen reportedly said his mother had lunged at him with the knife when she fell on it during a prolonged fight inside the home, according to Judd.
The home belongs to the teen’s grandmother, who was not there at the time of the incident, Judd said.
When deputies arrived, the teen met them outside and was “calm, cool, collected – not upset,” Judd said. Griffith reportedly told them, “I know my rights, I want an attorney,” according to Judd.
A bloody kitchen knife with an 8-inch blade was found inside the home, the sheriff said.
During an autopsy conducted on Monday, the medical examiner determined that Catherine Griffith died from a deep knife wound to the neck that was inconsistent with an accidental injury, according to Judd.
“The medical examiner said it is not reasonable or plausible that she died the way that [her son] said she did,” Judd said.
Collin Griffith is in custody and has been charged with first-degree murder, Judd said, adding that they have asked the state attorney’s office to prosecute the teen as an adult.
The State Attorney’s Office 10th Judicial Circuit, which includes Polk County, told ABC News on Thursday they have no comment on the case at this time.
It is unknown if Griffith has an attorney. ABC News’ attempts to reach his grandmother were unsuccessful.
Judd said as investigators started to “peel back the layer of this onion,” the teen’s family told investigators that he had previously been physically or verbally confrontational with his mother.
Sheriff’s office reports out of Charlotte County in Florida, where Collin Griffith and his mother lived, showed that he had allegedly threatened to kill her in statements purportedly made in September 2023 and, most recently, in February, according to the charging affidavit for his mother’s murder.
Collin Griffith was also arrested by the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office for domestic violence battery against his mother in November 2023, according to Judd.
“She was disciplining him and took his video game privileges away, so he beat up his mother,” Judd said. “He pushed her to the ground and he stomped on her.”
Days before the stabbing, Collin Griffith and his mother had an argument about chores and he went to his grandmother’s home, Judd said. Catherine Griffith went to the grandmother’s home on Sunday to bring him back to hers, and she and her son were seen arguing outside of the grandmother’s home around 4:30 p.m., fewer than two hours before the teen called 911 to report the stabbing incident, Judd said.
While investigating the stabbing, the sheriff’s office learned that authorities in Oklahoma also had arrested the teen last year in connection with the fatal shooting of his father, Charles Griffith, at their home in Lincoln County.
Collin Griffith told authorities that he shot his father in self-defense on Feb. 14, 2023, during an argument that turned physical, according to Adam Panter, the district attorney for Oklahoma’s 23rd District, which includes Lincoln County.
During a 911 call, the teen said he grabbed a rifle and shot his father twice after his father chased him into a bedroom while armed with a knife, according to the district attorney.
“At the start of his police interview, he requested an attorney and the interview was terminated, so the only version of events that we were able to obtain was what Collin said on the 911 call, which was consistent with the evidence we found at the scene,” Panter said in a statement to ABC News.
State police investigated forensic and digital evidence and no charges were ever filed against the teen in the case, Panter said.
“Ultimately, after evaluating all of the evidence and possible theories, it was determined that we could not rule out self-defense and as a result, declined to file any formal charges,” Panter said.
Both Panter and Judd said any relevant information obtained in the investigation into the mother’s death will be considered in connection with the shooting of the teen’s father.
“If any new evidence is obtained that is both relevant and credible to our investigation into the death of Collin Griffith’s father, we will certainly re-evaluate the case and make a new determination if necessary,” Panter told ABC News.
Following the Oklahoma shooting of his father, Collin Griffith came to Charlotte County in Florida in March 2023 to live with his mother, Judd said.
He was “being intensely watched” by the county’s sheriff’s office prior to the stabbing, Judd said. Griffith had been placed on active juvenile probation following his arrest in November 2023 for battery domestic violence in connection to his physical attack on his mother, according to an affidavit.
A spokesperson for the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office told ABC News that its juvenile unit had been working with the teen and his family “in various ways to include connecting them with available resources.”
“I cannot expand any further on that as I am not privy to those interactions, and because he is a minor,” the spokesperson said.
The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) had also been in contact with the family, including after the teen ran away from home in February following an argument with his mother, according to Judd.
A spokesperson for DCF, which investigates allegations of abuse, neglect or abandonment, said information regarding its investigations is confidential, per state law.
Judd said they are looking into Collin Griffith’s history and interactions with other agencies in Florida and Oklahoma as they investigate the case.
“My question is, was there anything else that could have been done?” he said
He noted that the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office did a “remarkable job keeping up” with Collin Griffith.
In addition to murder, Collin Griffith has been charged with kidnapping and violation of a no-contact order, the sheriff’s office said. The charges stem from his juvenile probation in Charlotte County for battery domestic violence, with conditions including that he have no contact with his mother, according to the affidavit.
(UVALDE, Texas) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel who responded to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, did not violate policy or the law, according to an internal CBP report released on Thursday.
However, the report found responding agents weren’t properly trained for a school shooting event and there were no clear instructions from local agencies on the ground.
CBP personnel including a tactical team from the agency responded to the shooting at the school in 2022, and they ultimately killed the shooter, but not until after a lengthy delay in the response, according to the report.
The fault of the slow response was ultimately placed on local officials who were at the school but didn’t take command of the scene, according to the report.
Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the Robb Elementary School mass shooting.
“None of the first responders or CBP personnel who were in a position to take action against the assailant had access to an accurate school layout or understanding of where to locate the necessary keys for entry to critical areas of the school, which may have been mitigated by a functioning command and control system,” CBP said in a statement about the report.
Ahead of the report, CBP has taken more than half a dozen steps to address issues with its response to mass casualty events — and the lack of training before the shooting hindered the CBP response, it said.
“The training did not prepare CBP personnel for incidents in which they would be responding to a situation at a school, where an active shooter would be engaged behind a locked door, and where local authorities had not established a command and control framework. It also insufficiently covered using a ballistic shield, legal authorities, leadership responsibilities, and agency interoperability,” according to a press release from the agency.
As a result of the shooting, CBP said it has also corrected several policies. Use-of-force training materials have been distributed to agency personnel across the country, the agency is looking at acquiring more tools to respond to active shooters, and it’s also working on a plan for Congress to clarify federal authorities for responding to mass-casualty situations, according to CBP.
The inability of law enforcement to establish an “identifiable incident management or command and control protocols led to a disorganized response to the Robb Elementary School shooting,” the report found.
“No law enforcement official ever clearly established command at the school during the incident, leading to delays, inaction, and potentially further loss of life,” according to the report.
One Border Patrol agent told internal investigators they “never knew who was in command” of the scene.
At least 188 members of CBP responded to the incident, with 19% being members of the BORTAC team — the equivalent of a CBP SWAT team.
There was also no diagram of the school that was useful for the BORTAC agents to use, according to the report..
The report points to a 40-year-old Border Patrol training manual that had not been updated to accurately reflect the post-9/11 federal law enforcement apparatus under the Department of Homeland Security.
“… CBP training on active shooter response procedures did not adequately prepare responding personnel to deal with this situation,” the report states.
(LOS ANGELES) — One of the four suspects charged in connection to the shooting death of “General Hospital” actor Johnny Wactor has pleaded guilty, a spokesperson for Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s office told ABC News.
Leonel Gutierrez, 18, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of attempted robbery and grand theft. He was not alleged to have been the one who actually shot Wactor.
He was released on $120,000 bond, and is expected to be sentenced Nov. 1.
Ahead of sentencing, the court will hear victim impact statements, the district attorney’s office said.
Gutierrez could face up to four years and eight months in prison.
Wactor, 37, was fatally shot “without provocation” in the early morning hours of May 25, after he ended his shift at a bar and was walking to his car, according to police. Police said the suspects had his car “raised up with a floor jack and were in the process of stealing the catalytic converter.”
Just before he was shot, Wactor had been with a female co-worker, and he immediately stepped in front of her to try to protect her, according to his family and friends.
“They had a mask on and they pulled out a gun,” Wactor’s friend, Colin Flynn, previously told ABC News. “And from what I understand, Johnny literally stood in between himself and his colleague. And the shooter just pulled the trigger and ran away.”
Gutierrez, along with three other suspects, were charged in August in connection to Wactor’s death. Two of the suspects were charged with murder and could face life in prison if convicted.
At a news conference where the charges were announced, Gascón said he was “committed to seeking justice for Mr. Wactor and ensuring that those responsible are held accountable for their actions.”
“The loss of this talented young actor, who was in the prime of his life and had so much to offer the world, is deeply felt by all of us,” Gascón said. “Mr. Wactor’s work and presence touched the lives of many, and our hearts go out to his family, friends and the entire community who mourn this devastating loss.”
All four suspects have “very lengthy criminal records” and were allegedly affiliated with a gang, Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Ryan Rabbett said at the press conference.
(SPRINGFIELD, Ohio) — A bomb threat prompted a major police response in Springfield, Ohio, on Thursday morning, according to the city commission office.
The threat was sent via email “to multiple agencies and media outlets,” the office said.
Explosive-detecting K-9s helped police clear multiple facilities listed in the threat, including two elementary schools, City Hall and a few driver’s license bureaus, Springfield Police Chief Allison Elliott told reporters. The county court facilities were also cleared “out of an abundance of caution,” she said.
The FBI is working with local police to help identify the source of the threat, Elliott said.
Though it is not yet known if they are connected, the threat comes after baseless rumors spread online in the wake of viral social media posts claiming Haitian migrants were abducting people’s pets in Springfield order to eat them. The rumors were amplified by right-wing politicians, including former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” Trump said at Tuesday night’s presidential debate. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
A spokesperson for the city of Springfield told ABC News these claims are false, and that there have been “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community.”
“Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes,” the spokesperson said. “Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic.”
Springfield estimates there are around 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants living in the county; migrants have been drawn to the region because of low cost of living and work opportunities, according to the city. The rapid rise in population has strained housing, health care and school resources, according to the city. But city officials also said the migrants are in the country legally and that many are recipients of Temporary Protected Status.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance condemned the “baseless and inflammatory” claims about Haitian migrants, arguing they “not only perpetuate harmful stereotypes but also contribute to the dangerous stigmatization of immigrant communities, particularly Black immigrants from the Republic of Haiti.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who dispelled the rumors this week, said the state would send more resources to Springfield.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — The University of Idaho quadruple murder suspect, Bryan Kohberger, will stand trial in the capital city of Boise, Idaho, according to a new ruling from Idaho’s Supreme Court.
With this new venue, a new judge, District Judge Steven Hippler, has been assigned to the case.
The original judge on the case ruled Monday that the case would be moved out of Latah County, where the crime took place, agreeing with the defense who argued that Latah County was tainted by pretrial publicity.
Defense lawyers surveyed Latah County residents and said their results found the “pressure to convict” Kohberger was shown to be “so severe” that the venue couldn’t be impartial.
The defense said one respondent answered they would “burn the courthouse down” if he were not convicted. The same survey, according to the defense, found “much less emotional” responses from people living closer to Boise, which is about 300 miles south of Moscow.
The prosecution has said the case has national and international interest, and that the case has been covered plenty in Boise, so a change of venue would not solve any problem.
The relatives of victim Kaylee Goncalves didn’t want the venue changed, saying they “felt that a fair and impartial jury could be found in Latah County,” and they believed keeping the trial locally would help the community heal.
Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in an off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022.
Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time of the crime, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.
The trial is set to begin on June 2, 2025.
If convicted, Kohberger could face the death penalty.
(RALEIGH, N.C.) — Abortions are now legal in North Dakota after the state Supreme Court ruled its near-total abortion ban was unconstitutionally vague.
The ruling came as part of a lawsuit filed by physicians that asked the court to strike down the ban in its entirety. A North Dakota South Central Judicial District Court judge granted that request Thursday.
At least 21 states currently have bans or restrictions in place on abortion care. Of those states, 13 states have ceased nearly all abortion services and four states prohibit abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before most women know they are pregnant.
Abortion is currently illegal in South Dakota.
Plaintiffs argued the ban was unconstitutionally vague and made it impossible to interpret the language surrounding when abortions are allowed under medical exceptions, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the lawsuit.
Physicians who violate the ban could be found guilty of a class C felony, punishable with up to five years of imprisonment, a $10,000 fine or both.
The court also found pregnant women have a fundamental right to choose an abortion before viability under the state constitution.
“The North Dakota Constitution guarantees each individual, including women, the fundamental right to make medical judgments affecting his or her bodily integrity, health, and autonomy, in consultation with a chosen health care provider free from government interference,” Judge Bruce Romanick wrote in the opinion.
(LONDON, Kent.) — As the hunt for the suspected gunman in an eastern Kentucky interstate shooting that left five people injured entered its sixth day, Gov. Andy Beshear said law enforcement officers will be posted at high school football games and stationed along school bus routes in an attempt to ease fear in nearby communities.
Beshear on Thursday said four of the victims shot in Saturday’s sniper-like attack on Interstate 75 near London, Kentucky, have been released from hospitals and that the fifth victim is also expected to survive.
The governor said he is confident that law enforcement teams with the help of agents from the FBI, the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives will catch suspect Joseph Couch and bring him to justice.
“I don’t yet have the evidence in front of me of what fully led him to this point, but there’s no excuse,” he said. “When you put a plan in place to take the lives of our fellow human beings and try to take as many of them as possible, you can and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Beshear said the Kentucky State Police believe Couch, 32, is still in the thick woods of the 708,000-acre Daniel Boone National Forest, which he described as “some of the most rugged terrain that anyone could hide in.”
Kentucky State Police Commissioner Phillip “PJ” Burnett said more than 100 officers are combing the forest, where on the day of the rampage investigators found an AR-15 rifle believed to have been used in the the shooting as well as Couch’s vehicle abandoned on a forest road.
“We have no significant updates at this time, but we are following up on leads,” Burnett said.
The commissioner said police are using sophisticated technology in the search, including Kentucky National Guard Black Hawk helicopters, aircraft equipped with thermal imaging and multiple K-9 units, including cadaver-sniffing dogs and FBI bloodhounds brought in from Illinois.
Burnett said the search, which has focused on the area near I-75’s Exit 49, is being expanded in the Daniel Boone National Forest.
“We will keep working until we exhaust every single lead,” Burnett said.
Beshear said he’ll consider deploying National Guard troops to the forest to help in the ground search.
“Right now what was requested is some aerial assistance. The Black Hawks have proven to be very helpful. Right now we don’t have an extra request, but that’s something we would certainly look at,” Beshear said of deploying the National Guard on the ground.
However, Beshear said investigators believe Couch could still be armed and dangerous.
“This isn’t the type of search where you can put a whole bunch of people out there at once because this is an individual that we believe is still armed, would be very difficult to spot and we want to make sure we don’t lose anybody throughout this,” Beshear said.
According to an arrest warrant, Couch, a former member of the U.S. Army Reserves, is wanted on charges of attempted murder and first-degree assault. A $35,000 reward is being offered for information leading to his capture.
Couch was 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 I-75, law enforcement officials told ABC News.
Up to 30 rounds were fired from a hillside near Exit 49, officials said. 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.
Investigators said they believe all of the victims were shot at randomly and that Couch had no previous contact with any of them.
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 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.
Burnett said Thursday that the police “understand there is fear in the community.” To ease fears, he said state troopers and officers will be posted at every high school football game in Laurel County on Friday night.
Beshear said the presence of law enforcement officers is being boosted at area public schools and that state police are helping local police with some bus routes to ensure students get to school safely.
The governor implored citizens not to turn Couch into a folk hero for evading capture.
“There is no notoriety, there is no celebrity in committing an act like this,” Beshear said. “There’s just evil.”
(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Francine made landfall early Wednesday evening in Louisiana, southwest of New Orleans, as a Category 2 storm. Francine has since weakened to a tropical depression as it brings heavy rain to the South.
Here’s how the news is developing:
No fatalities reported in Louisiana
No fatalities have been reported from the storm in Louisiana, Gov. Jeff Landry said Thursday, and he thanked residents for heeding all the warnings.
A Louisiana trooper suffered minor injuries while removing a downed tree from a road Wednesday night, officials said. The trooper was released from the hospital and is recovering at home.
Power outages due to vegetation are the biggest issue in Louisiana, officials said.
Fourteen route-clearance teams are out working to clear debris, officials said.
-ABC News’ Alexandra Faul
Over 340,000 without power in Louisiana
More than 340,000 customers are without power in Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Francine. About 36,000 customers are without power in Mississippi and 36,000 are in the dark in Alabama.
What to expect next
Francine — which brought a record daily rainfall to New Orleans — is now pushing north, bringing heavy rain, gusty winds and potential tornadoes to the South.
Eight states across the South are under wind and flood alerts, from Louisiana to Missouri.
As Francine moves north, it is expected to slow down and stall. An additional 5 to 10 inches of rain is possible across the South, especially in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia.
Over 390,000 without power in Louisiana
More than 390,000 customers are without power in Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Francine. About 66,000 customers are waking up without power in Mississippi and 12,000 are in the dark in Alabama.
Francine weakens to tropical depression
Francine weakened to a tropical depression as it moved over south-central Mississippi Thursday morning.
Francine is now spreading heavy rain across Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.
A tornado watch is in effect for Florida and Alabama.
Heavy rains, ‘severe thunderstorms’ forecast as Francine weakens
The National Weather Service forecast heavy rains and thunderstorms across the southeast through Thursday as Tropical Storm Francine moves north from Louisiana into southern Mississippi.
The National Hurricane Center said Francine was around 20 miles northwest of New Orleans early Thursday, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph. The tropical storm was moving northeast toward Mississippi at 14 mph.
Francine is expected to bring between 4 and 8 inches of storm rainfall to areas across southeastern Louisiana, Mississippi, far southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle through Thursday, the NHC said.
“This rainfall could lead to considerable flash, urban and river flooding,” it added.
The NWS warned of “heavy rain and chances for severe thunderstorms” across the affected areas, as well as tornadoes “potentially impacting parts of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle along a slow-moving warm front.”
“The greatest threat for considerable flash flooding exists across parts of northern and central Alabama,” it added, noting the possibility of up to 10 inches of rain.
The NHC also warned of dangerous storm surges. Water could rise by 4 to 6 feet between the mouth of the Pearl River in Louisiana to Ocean Springs in Mississippi, as well as at Lake Pontchartrain.
Three- to 5-foot surges may occur from Ocean Springs, Mississippi to the state border with Alabama, between Morgan City and the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana and at Lake Maurepas, the NHC said.
419,000 without power after Francine landfall
At least 419,942 people were without power early Thursday following the passage of Tropical Storm Francine, which made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on Wednesday.
PowerOutage.us reported 392,440 people without power in Louisiana and 27,502 in Mississippi as of the early hours of Thursday morning.
Among those affected were 301,000 customers of the Entergy energy company, the firm said on its website. The most pronounced outages were in Louisiana, with the largest impact in coastal areas around New Orleans where Francine made landfall Wednesday.
Jefferson County (68,189), Orleans County (49,975), Lafourche County (36,701), Ascension County (27,038) and Terrebonne County (25,611) were the worst affected in Louisiana, Entergy said.
Francine weakens to tropical storm
After making landfall as a hurricane, Francine weakened to a tropical storm late Wednesday night.
All Hurricane Watches and Warnings have been canceled, but Tropical Storm Warnings continue for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
The Flash Flood Warning remains in effect in metro New Orleans while heavy rains remain.
By Thursday morning, Francine will be over central Mississippi with heavy rain, gusty winds, and tornado risk extending into Alabama to the Florida panhandle.
The storm is moving northeast at 16 mph while sustaining maximum winds of 65 mph.
Flash Flood Warning issued for New Orleans
Thunderstorms across Louisiana are producing heavy rain across the state, according to the National Weather Service.
Flash Flood Warnings are in effect for “Northwestern Jefferson Parish, Southwestern Orleans, Northern St. Charles Parish and Southwestern St. John The Baptist Parish” until 11:45 PM local time, the NWS said Wednesday evening.
Between 5 to 7 inches of rain has already fallen in the areas, with an additional 2 to 3 inches expected, according to NWS.
Other areas in Louisiana that may experience flash flooding include Hahnville, Metairie, Avondale, Laplace, Marrero, Reserve, Harvey, Timberlane, Jefferson, Gretna, Harahan, Westwego, St. Rose, Destrehan, Ama, New Sarpy, Norco, Luling and Waggaman.
AT&T and T-Mobile report resolution of 911 outage in New Orleans
AT&T and T-Mobile say the issues customers in New Orleans had reported in reaching 911 services in some storm-impacted areas have been resolved.
Those customers who needed emergency services were told to call the 10-digit number instead — 504 671-3600 — according to the NOLA Ready Emergency Alert System.
Francine continues to bring ‘life-threatening’ storm surge
Francine continues to bring life-threatening storm surges and hurricane conditions to southern Louisiana. Heavy rain and gusty winds will stick around while the Category 1 storm is expected to weaken Wednesday evening.
It’s currently moving southeast of Morgan City with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph.
Metro New Orleans is under a Flash Flood Warning and power went out in Slidell, Louisiana.
Causeway Bridge closes to traffic
The famed Causeway Bridge over Lake Pontchartrain in southeastern Louisiana has been closed to traffic due to “thunderstorms, high winds, crosswinds [and] poor visibility,” Causeway Police said.
Francine weakens to Category 1 storm
Francine has weakened to a Category 1 hurricane post-landfall, but continues to bring life-threatening storm surge and hurricane conditions to southern Louisiana.
A peak gust of 97 mph was reported at a weather station in Dulac.
FEMA on storm dangers
As residents in Louisiana hunker down due to Francine, Keith Turi, the associate administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Association, warned of potential hazards in the wake of the storm.
“What many people don’t know is that some of the most dangerous times are those hours right after the storm passes, when you’ve got high floodwaters or power lines down or even operating a generator, making sure you’re doing that safely and keeping it away from your home,” Turi told ABC News Live’s Kyra Phillips.
Turi said the agency has been coordinating with state and local officials for several days as Francine approached and will be prepared to conduct damage assessments on Thursday.
Francine makes landfall as Category 2 storm
Francine has made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane in southern Louisiana with 100 mph winds.
Landfall was about 30 miles south-southwest of Morgan City, in Terrebonne Parish.
Francine strengthens to Category 2
Francine has strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane with 100 mph winds as its eye approaches the Louisiana coast.
Life-threatening storm surge and hurricane conditions are moving onto shore.
Hurricane Francine’s eyewall is nearing the Louisiana coast, bringing hurricane-force winds close to shore.
Francine is now located 115 miles southwest of New Orleans and is moving northeast at 17 mph.
Some voluntary evacuations were issued in Terrebonne Parish, along the Louisiana coastline southwest of New Orleans, Parish President Jason Bergeron told ABC News.
“We’re starting to get some of the first bands coming through. And so we’re just getting everybody hunkered down and getting people to get to safety,” he said. “We opened our shelter last night and then we issued the curfew at 8 a.m. this morning, going to 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.”
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.
130PM: These bands will continue through the evening hours and into the overnight. Locally heavy rainfall and tornadoes will be possible inside these bands along with the damaging winds from the hurricane. pic.twitter.com/o8hu1Zng5A
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.
Hurricane Francine is expected to make landfall along the Louisiana coast this evening as a Category 1 storm.
By 11 AM, everyone in New Orleans should stay off the roads and shelter in place until tomorrow morning.
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.
