Category: National

(TABLE ROCK, SC) — Three teenagers are accused of causing a massive fire that ignited in a South Carolina state park after failing to extinguish cigarettes while on a hiking trail, officials said.

The teens — Nyzaire Jah-Neiz Marsh, 19, Tristan Tyler, 18, and Isaac Wilson, 18 — were arrested Tuesday on charges in connection with the origin of the Table Rock Fire, the South Carolina Forestry Commission said.

The teens were among several hikers who had been evacuated from Table Rock State Park in Pickens County on March 21 after first responders discovered the rapidly growing wildfire while searching for a missing hiker, the commission said.

They were questioned about the origins of the fire, and investigators “obtained evidence that they allege identified these subjects as suspects in the origin of the Table Rock State Park fire,” the South Carolina Forestry Commission said.

According to the arrest warrant affidavits, “the suspects took part in smoking activities on a hiking trail at the state park and did not extinguish their cigarettes in a proper and safe manner, which officials allege led to the ignition of the Table Rock Fire,” the South Carolina Forestry Commission said.

The three teens are charged with one count each of negligently allowing fire to spread to lands or property of another, a misdemeanor, the commission said. They were booked and released on $7,500 bonds. Online court records did not list any attorney information for them.

If convicted, they face up to 30 days in jail or a $200 fine.

A fourth suspect, a juvenile, was also charged with one count of the same offense and released into the custody of his parents, the commission said.

The Table Rock Fire has burned more than 13,000 acres total in South Carolina and North Carolina since igniting on March 21, the South Carolina Forestry Commission said Tuesday. It was 30% contained as of Tuesday morning.

Fire crews responded from multiple states to help battle the blaze, which prompted the evacuation of more than 1,400 homes and businesses on Thursday.

The South Carolina Forestry Commission issued a burning ban for all counties on March 21 due to the elevated wildfire risk.

The following day, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency to support the response to the Table Rock Fire.

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(WASHINGTON) — A fight in the air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport, or DCA, in the Washington, D.C., area led to an employee being arrested and charged with assault.

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said in a statement to ABC News that police arrested Damon Marsalis Gaines last week after reports of a fight breaking out in the airport’s control tower.

Gaines, 40, was ultimately charged with assault and battery, officials said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement that Gaines was put on administrative leave while the agency investigates the incident.

Further details about what led to the fight have yet to be released.

The arrest at DCA comes months after the deadly mid-air collision between a regional jet and an Army Blackhawk Helicopter that left 70 dead.

Sixty-seven people were on the American Airlines plane, which departed from Wichita, Kansas on Jan. 29 and three Army soldiers were aboard the helicopter, which was on a training flight at the time, officials said.

ABC News’ Clara McMichael contributed to this report.

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(BUFFALO, N.Y) — Payton Gendron, the teenager who killed 10 Black people at the Topps supermarket in East Buffalo in 2022, claims he cannot get a fair trial in Western New York, so his federal death-penalty eligible case should move to New York City, his attorneys said in a new court filing.

Gendron pleaded guilty in November 2022 to state charges, including domestic terrorism motivated by hate, and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of federal crimes.

His federal trial is scheduled to begin in September.

Gendron’s attorneys argued that “due to the overwhelming amount of pretrial publicity, combined with the impact of this case on Buffalo’s segregated communities of color, it is impossible for Payton Gendron to select a fair and impartial jury in the Western District of New York.”

The lawyers asked for change of venue to the Southern District of New York, encompassing Manhattan, the Bronx and the northern suburbs, because it is “far enough from the local media market to be less impacted by it” and because “the S.D.N.Y. also has sufficient minority representation that has not been directly impacted by the shooting and its aftermath that a diverse and representative jury should be able to be selected.”

There was no immediate comment from federal prosecutors, who would be expected to file their opposition or consent in court papers.

Barbara Massey Mapps — whose 72-year-old sister, Katherine “Kat” Massey, was among those killed in the May 14, 2022, massacre — told ABC News on Tuesday that she and her family would oppose a change of venue.

“We don’t want that. No, no no,” said Massey. “Me and my family would be against that.”

Massey said she expects federal prosecutors to oppose the change-of-venue motion at Gendron’s next court date later this month.

Wayne Jones — whose mother, 65-year-old Celestine Chaney, was also killed in the attack — said he also wants Gendron’s federal trial to remain in Buffalo.

“What could you really call a ‘fair trial’ and you’re on video doing it?” Jones told ABC News, referring to the livestream video of the killing rampage that Gendron recorded. “We all know you did it. You already pleaded guilty once.”

Jones said he expects prosecutors to play for the federal jury selected for the trial the video Gendron recorded with a helmet camera, as well as surveillance video from the Topps market.

“The only way you could watch that video and not give him the death penalty is if you’re really against it,” said Jones, who has viewed the video Gendron live-streamed.

Jones also said a change of venue would deprive him and the families of the other victims of the opportunity of watching the trial in person.

“I want him to stay here so I can see the trial,” Jones told ABC News. “In New York City, we wouldn’t be able to go to the trial.”

Gendron has separately asked the judge to strike the death penalty as a possible punishment, arguing the decision to seek it had a “discriminatory intent and discriminatory effect.”

The judge has yet to rule.

During his February 2023 sentencing hearing, Gendron, who was 18 when he committed the mass shooting, apologized to the victims’ families, saying he was sorry “for stealing the lives of your loved ones.”

“I did a terrible thing that day. I shot people because they were Black,” Gendron said.

Gendron planned the massacre for months — including previously traveling twice to the Tops store he targeted, a more than three-hour drive from his home in Conklin, New York — to scout the layout and count the number of Black people present, according to state prosecutors. Wearing tactical gear, body armor, and wielding an AR-15 style rifle he legally purchased and illegally modified, Gendron committed the rampage on a Saturday afternoon when prosecutors said he knew the store would be full of Black shoppers.

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(KENNER, La.) — Text messages between two people charged in connection with the death of a Telemundo Kansas City reporter in Louisiana to cover the Super Bowl show they had been scheming for years to drug and rob victims in multiple locations, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Danette Colbert was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Adan Manzano, who police said was found dead in his hotel room in Kenner, Louisiana, on Feb. 5 with Xanax in his system.

Colbert was found with Manzano’s cellphone and credit card, Kenner police said, adding that she and her alleged accomplice, Rickey White, “commonly use substances to drug their victims.”

Investigators are working to determine whether Colbert and White were operating an organized scheme that targeted men in New Orleans, other locations in Louisiana and Las Vegas, according to the sources.

They have already identified other men who appear to have been victimized, the sources said.

Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams told ABC News the Louisiana attorney general is involved in the case.

“This is a national, multijurisdictional crime spree. For that reason, we’ve asked and have been working with our attorney general to run point. Hopefully, we’ll have a better shot at solving it that way,” Williams told ABC News. “This was not random. There’s a certain pattern with having drinks or food and then saying to the person they’ll help him back to their room.”

Surveillance video shows Manzano and Colbert at his hotel the morning he was found dead, face-down on a pillow, police said.

Investigators said they found Xanax during a search of Colbert’s residence one day after the death of Manzano. The coroner determined the reporter died of the combined toxic effects of Xanax and alcohol along with positional asphyxia. The manner of death is undetermined due to the “uncertain circumstances” of the case, the coroner said.

Colbert was initially charged with property crimes, including theft and fraud-related offenses, after police said she had his cellphone and credit card in her home. She was subsequently charged with second-degree murder in his death.

White, who was arrested in Florida last month, is charged with robbery and fraud.

“Kenner Police Department detectives believe Colbert intentionally drugged Manzano to render him unconscious before robbing him, following a pattern seen in her prior offenses,” the Kenner Police Department said last month while announcing the murder charge in the case.

Colbert and White, who has since been extradited to Jefferson Parish, remain in custody on no bond.

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(GUANTANAMO BAY) — Attorneys representing at least one of 17 alleged Venezuelan gang members who were deported Sunday to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison say the men were sent there two days after a federal judge issued an order prohibiting such deportations.

A federal judge on Friday blocked a Trump administration policy allowing the deportation of migrants to countries other than their own without giving them a chance to argue their removal in immigration court — although it’s unclear whether those deported on Sunday would have been protected by the order.

In his ruling on Friday, U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy blocked the removal of any individual subject to a final order of removal from the United States to a third country other than the country designated for removal in immigration proceedings unless they are given written notice and the opportunity to “submit an application for protection.”

The ruling was issued two days before the Trump administration sent 17 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador’s CECOT prison.

Among the 17 alleged gang members sent to El Salvador was Maiker Espinoza Escalona, who was being held in the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo after being deported from the U.S.

Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the ACLU, told ABC News he has serious concerns about what he called the government’s “sudden allegations” against Escalona that precipitated Escalona’s being sent to CECOT.

“He and others being sent to the Salvadoran prison must be given due process to test the government’s assertions,” Gelernt said.

A White House official told ABC News that the 17 alleged gang members who were deported to El Salvador were not deported under the Alien Enemies Act that was used to send more than 200 alleged gang members to El Salvador last this month, but under different authorities, including Title 8.

The announcement of the “counter-terrorism operation” from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, included no mention of the authority the administration used to deport the 17 individuals.

“DHS’ routine failure to provide meaningful notice and opportunity to present a fear-based claim prior to deportation to a third country has led to hundreds of unlawful deportations, placing individuals at serious risk of persecution, torture, and/or death,” attorneys for the detainees said in a complaint last week.

Escalona, who entered the U.S. on May 14 and requested asylum, filed a sworn declaration in early March in which he stated that he was not a gang member and asked the government not to send him to Guantanamo.

“I believe that I am at risk of being transferred because I have a final order of deportation and am from Venezuela,” Escalona said in the sworn declaration. “I also believe that I am going to be transferred to Guantanamo because of my tattoos, even though they have nothing to do with gangs. I have twenty tattoos.”

Authorities have said they use tattoos to help identify gang members. Escalona, who said in his declaration that he had been in immigration detention in El Paso, Texas, since May 22, listed his tattoos that he said include a cross, a crown, the ghost icon for the social media app Snapchat, his niece’s name, and the word “Faith” in Spanish.

“I do not want to be transferred to or detained at Guantanamo. I am afraid of what will happen to me when I get there,” Escalona said in the declaration. “I want access to an attorney to help me get out of detention and figure out what options I have in my immigration case.”

“If I am transferred to Guantanamo, I will be separated from my family,” he said.

The government opposed Escalona’s request for a temporary restraining order prohibiting his deportation to Guantanano, Gelernt told ABC News.

“The government opposed our request for TRO on the ground that he was not in imminent danger of being sent from the U.S. to Guantanamo, but told the Court they would alert it within 2 business days if he or other Plaintiffs were transferred to Guantanamo,” Gelernt said. “The government has apparently chosen to use a loophole and transfer him on a Friday night, thereby avoiding notice to the Court at this point. He has apparently now been transferred to the notorious Salvadoran prison.”

According to Escalona’s sworn declaration and the ACLU, his partner is currently detained in El Paso and his 2-year-old daughter is under the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

This story has been updated.

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(MEDFORD, N.Y) — An animal sanctuary owner and roughly 100 cats have died in a fire on Long Island, according to officials.

The flames broke out at approximately 7:15 a.m. on Monday at Happy Cat Sanctuary in Medford, according to the Suffolk County Police Department. At the time of the fire, 300 cats were housed in the sanctuary, according to the Save The Animals Rescue Foundation.

Once the blaze was extinguished, police said they found the owner of the sanctuary, 65-year-old Christopher Arsenault, deceased in the home.

At least 100 cats died in the fire, Save The Animals Rescue Foundation said.

Arsenault attempted to extinguish the flames, taking cats away from the fire until “he went back in and he didn’t come out,” according to Lisa Jaeger, founder of Jaeger’s Run Animal Rescue.

“We lost the best man on the face of the planet, we’re just going to need everybody’s support now to try to continue his dream,” Jaeger said in a post on social media.

Jaeger said that “a lot of the cats did survive and we are doing our best to secure them.”

Jaeger’s organization, Suffolk County SPCA and other local animal groups are assisting in the rescue of the surviving cats, with many suffering burns and respiratory distress, according to Strong Island Animal Rescue.

Police said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

John Spat, the founder of Save-A-Dog Animal Protection Service, said in a statement that Arsenault was “one of the kindest humans to inhabit this Earth.”

“He just bought 30 acres upstate to make the USA’s best cat sanctuary. He was currently moving the cats up there. He never got to see his dream,” Spat said.

Arsenault began rescuing cats in 2006 after his 24-year-old son Eric “lost his life in a tragic accident when the throttle on his motorcycle stuck,” according to the sanctuary’s website.

After the death of his son, Arsenault came across a colony of 30 sick kittens, removed them from the colony and “nursed them back to health,” the website said.

“It was at that point he knew saving cats was his calling, and he opened Happy Cat Sanctuary,” the nonprofit’s website said.

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(BUFFALO, N.Y) — Payton Gendron, the teenager who killed 10 Black people at the Topps supermarket in East Buffalo in 2022, claims he cannot get a fair trial in Western New York, so his federal death-penalty eligible case should move to New York City, his attorneys said in a new court filing.

Gendron pleaded guilty in November 2022 to state charges, including domestic terrorism motivated by hate, and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of federal crimes.

His federal trial is scheduled to begin in September.

Gendron’s attorneys argued that “due to the overwhelming amount of pretrial publicity, combined with the impact of this case on Buffalo’s segregated communities of color, it is impossible for Payton Gendron to select a fair and impartial jury in the Western District of New York.”

The lawyers asked for change of venue to the Southern District of New York, encompassing Manhattan, the Bronx and the northern suburbs, because it is “far enough from the local media market to be less impacted by it” and because “the S.D.N.Y. also has sufficient minority representation that has not been directly impacted by the shooting and its aftermath that a diverse and representative jury should be able to be selected.”

There was no immediate comment from federal prosecutors, who would be expected to file their opposition or consent in court papers.

Gendron has separately asked the judge to strike the death penalty as a possible punishment, arguing the decision to seek it had a “discriminatory intent and discriminatory effect.”

The judge has yet to rule.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — Attorney General Pam Bondi is directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione if he is convicted of the December murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, she announced in a statement Tuesday.

One of the federal charges against Mangione, murder through use of a firearm, makes him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

“Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi said in a statement. “After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”

Mangione is accused of gunning down Thompson outside a Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan as the CEO headed to an investors conference on Dec. 4. He was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after the murder.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state charges.

He hasn’t entered a plea to federal charges. He is due back in federal court on April 18.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — A dangerous and potentially historic flooding event is bearing down on 22 million Americans from Arkansas to Ohio, and residents are urged to prepare now.

The life-threatening flooding will likely hit from Wednesday night through Sunday morning, with multiple rounds of heavy rain pounding the same spots over the course of the week.

Twelve to 18 inches of rainfall is forecast for the bull’s-eye of the storm, which spans from Little Rock, Arkansas, to the Arkansas-Missouri border, to Louisville Kentucky, to Evansville, Indiana.

Residents are urged to avoid flooded roads and be prepared for power outages.

Before the flooding moves in, severe storms are heading to the Heartland.

Damaging winds, hail and tornadoes are in the forecast Tuesday night from central Oklahoma to central Kansas.

On Wednesday and Wednesday night, the hail, wind and strong tornadoes could stretch from Chicago to St. Louis to Indianapolis to Louisville to Little Rock.

On the north side of the storm, heavy snow is expected across northern Minnesota. Six to 12 inches of snow could fall from Tuesday night to Wednesday night, along with wind gusts up to 40 mph.

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(BOSTON) — Karen Read’s second trial is set to begin Tuesday, seven months after a first prosecution in the alleged murder of her police officer boyfriend ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict.

Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, in January 2022. Prosecutors alleged Read hit O’Keefe with her vehicle and left him to die as Boston was hit with a major blizzard. Read has denied the allegations and maintained her innocence.

At least four jurors who served on her first trial last year confirmed that she was found not guilty of second-degree murder and leaving a scene of personal injury and death, according to Read’s attorneys.

Read was also charged with manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence.

She pleaded not guilty to all three charges.

Jury selection in the retrial begins on Tuesday. Jury selection could last weeks. Her first trial lasted more than two months, including deliberations, and drew widespread national coverage.

In a surprise twist this week, Read added one of the alternate jurors from her first trial to her legal team for the retrial. Victoria George, the alternate juror, is a licensed civil attorney in Massachusetts.

Last August, a judge declined to dismiss the two charges in her retrial, saying no verdict was announced in court so she was not acquitted of any charges — despite her attorneys’ claim the jury found her not guilty in deliberations. Read filed several appeals to state and federal courts to get the charges dropped, without success.

Read and O’Keefe met friends for drinks at a local sports bar before the storm and then went to another nearby bar, Read told ABC News.

Around midnight, O’Keefe and some others elected to leave after they were invited to the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston police officer, she said.

Read, who said she was tired, claims she dropped O’Keefe off outside Albert’s residence and then drove her SUV to O’Keefe’s house and fell asleep.

Albert and others who attended the gathering at his home say that O’Keefe never went inside the home.

Read said she awoke alone and anxiously called O’Keefe’s friends to say he never came home.

Read said she drove around Canton for 20 minutes before meeting up with two friends of O’Keefe — Kerry Roberts and Jennifer McCabe, sister-in-law of Brian Albert — and returning to O’Keefe’s house thinking he may have made his way home.

Not finding him at the house, the trio drove back to the home where Read said she dropped him off. They found his body lying motionless on the front snowbank, according to her.

He was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead that morning. An autopsy found that he died of hypothermia and blunt force injuries to the head.

Prosecutors have alleged Read hit O’Keefe with her car and left him to die in the middle of a snowstorm after the two got into an argument earlier that day.

Damning testimony during Read’s trial led to the suspension of Massachusetts State Police Officer Michael Proctor last July. Trial testimony revealed Proctor was communicating with Canton Police Officer Kevin Albert during the investigation ahead of Read’s murder trial.

Albert is the brother of Brian Albert, who hosted the party at the house where O’Keefe’s body was found outside.

Kevin Albert was also placed on administrative leave last July, according to Boston ABC affiliate WCVB.

ABC News’ Meghan Mariani contributed to this report.

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