Category: National

(NEW YORK) — The Russian woman accused of sneaking onto a Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Paris has been charged with knowingly and intentionally secreting herself aboard an airplane.

Svetlana Dali, 57, was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday after returning to New York. She made her first court appearance Thursday.

“On or about November 26, 2024, the defendant Svetlana Dali snuck onto Delta Airlines flight DL264 at JFK without a boarding pass and flew as a stowaway to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris,” according to the criminal complaint obtained by ABC News.

In her first appearance, the judge issued a temporary order of detention until 2 p.m. Friday so she can try to come up with a bail package and a verifiable residence.

She did not enter a plea.

Surveillance footage from Nov. 26 showed Dali arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport and attempting to get in line at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint. She was turned away because she was unable to show a boarding pass, the complaint said.

A few minutes later, Dali successfully accessed the TSA line “by entering through a special lane for airline employees masked by a large Air Europa flight crew,” the complaint said. Dali was screened and boarded the plane without presenting a boarding pass.

“Delta agents, who were busy helping ticketed passengers board, did not stop her or ask her to present a boarding pass before she boarded the plane,” the complaint said.

By the time the crew realized Dali did not have a seat, the plane was on its way to France.

“Before the flight landed, Delta employees notified French law enforcement that Dali was on the plane as a stowaway,” the complaint stated.

During an interview with the FBI upon her return, Dali allegedly admitted to flying as a stowaway. She allegedly stated she did not have a plane ticket and that she intentionally evaded TSA security officials and Delta employees so she could travel without buying one.

Dali admitted the surveillance images depicted her, according to the complaint. She also stated she knew her conduct was illegal.

Less than a week before the incident, Dali filed a civil lawsuit against the FBI, Pennsylvania State Police and other authorities, claiming she was sold by the Russian Federation to her ex-husband for $20,000.

The lawsuit claims she was abused and poisoned.

Dali filed the lawsuit herself and the allegations are handwritten.

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(GEORGIA) — Three people have been indicted over an alleged drunk driving crash in Georgia that killed a high school student in February — including parents accused of letting the teens drink before the crash.

Sumanth and Anindita Rao, who are 50 and 49 respectively, face charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and maintaining a disorderly house, DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announced in a press conference Wednesday.

The car’s driver, 18-year-old Hannah Hackemeyer, faces numerous charges, including vehicular homicide and driving under the influence of alcohol under the age of 21.

On Feb. 24, Hackemeyer crashed a car after drinking alcohol at the Raos’ home, police said. She and the Raos’ teen daughter, Ananya, were able to crawl out of the flipped vehicle, but a third passenger, 18-year-old Sophia Lekiachvili, was trapped in the front passenger seat.

Lekiachvili was transported to the hospital, where she died of her injuries, according to police.

Hackemeyer had allegedly been driving more than 60 miles per hour over the speed limit when she crashed, and had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.046, more than twice the legal limit for a person under 21, police said.

According to Boston, the three teenagers had spent the evening leading up to the crash at the Raos’ home, where they drank wine, allegedly “in plain view of Ananya’s parents.”

Shortly before midnight, they allegedly told Sumanth Rao they wanted to go for a drive, Boston said.

“Ananya’s parents knew the girls had been drinking, but they still let them get into a car and leave the house with an open bottle of wine in the front seat,” Boston said. “Less than 30 minutes later, a little more than a half mile away, that decision would prove deadly.”

Boston alleged that allowing the teens to drink was “not an anomaly” at the home of the Raos, who she said had a “long-standing, repeated pattern of allowing teenagers to drink in their home.”

“The Raos’ home was the party house where teens could freely consume alcohol without interference from the adults who lived there — the adults who should have accepted responsibility,” Boston said. “It is a miracle that nothing happened prior to Feb. 24.”

Lekiachvili’s death was a “foreseeable consequence” of the Raos’ alleged permissiveness with teen drinking in their home, Boston said.

“As a prosecutor and a mother of two teenage daughters, I have never seen a more egregious disregard for safety and well-being of young people as I have in this case,” Boston said.

Attorney information for Hackemeyer and the Raos was not immediately available.

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(NEW YORK) — Police appear to be closing in on the identity of the man suspected of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan, sources told ABC News.

Authorities on Thursday released images of the suspect taken from a surveillance camera at the HI New York City Hostel at West 103rd Street on the Upper West Side, where it appears the suspect shared a room with two other men, according to police sources.

The NYPD has obtained a warrant to search the hostel. Detectives are canvassing other hostels and locations on the Upper West Side and beyond, showing the suspect’s picture as they work to identify him, sources told ABC News.

The gunman shot Thompson at close range on Wednesday morning outside a Hilton Hotel where he was attending a conference.

The “brazen, targeted attack” was “premeditated,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

Bullet casings found at the scene had the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” written on them, police sources said.

The motive remains unknown, police said.

The gun used in the shooting hasn’t been recovered, sources said.

Police believe the shooter used a B&T Station Six, known in Great Britain as a Welrod pistol, according to police sources. The gun doesn’t have a silencer but does have a long barrel that enables the 9 mm to fire a nearly silent shot. The gun requires manually cycling ammunition from the magazine.

The weapon is not easily attainable so investigators have been running down all recent purchases, according to police sources. NYPD detectives arrived Thursday at a gun shop in Connecticut that sold a weapon of the same type, sources said.

Thompson, 50, was in New York City for the UnitedHealthcare investors conference, which was scheduled to start at 8 a.m. His schedule was widely known, police sources said.

The suspect — who was caught on surveillance cameras before, during and immediately after the shooting — had been lying in wait near the hotel.

After Thompson exited his hotel across the street and walked to the Hilton, the masked gunman shot him at about 6:40 a.m., police said.

“The shooter then walks toward the victim and continues to shoot,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. “It appears that the gun malfunctions, as he clears the jam and begins to fire again.”

The shooter fled on foot into an alley, where a phone believed to be linked to the suspect was later recovered, police sources said.

The suspect then fled on a bike and rode into Central Park, police said.

The shooter was caught on surveillance video at 5 a.m. Wednesday outside the Frederick Douglass Houses, a public housing project on the Upper West Side, sources told ABC News. That footage showed the suspect carrying what appeared to be an e-bike battery.

Police have recovered a water bottle and candy wrapper from the crime scene which they believe are linked to the gunman. Fingerprint and DNA tests on the items are ongoing, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, said in a statement that she is “shattered” by the “senseless killing.”

“Brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives,” she said. “Most importantly, Brian was an incredibly loving father to our two sons and will be greatly missed.”

Police urge the public to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS with any information.

ABC News’ Mark Crudele and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.

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(PETROLIA, Calif) — A 7.0 magnitude earthquake was reported off the coast of Northern California on Thursday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The epicenter is off the coast near Petrolia, in Humboldt County, the USGS said.

Also, a tsunami warning that had been issued for coastal areas in California and Oregon, including San Francisco, was canceled just before noon local time.

“The tsunami Warning is canceled for the coastal areas of California and Oregon,” the National Tsunami Warning Center wrote on X. “No tsunami danger presently exists for this area.”

The warning had been in effect from Davenport, California, to Douglas/Lane Line Oregon, the National Tsunami Warning Center said.

Police in Berkeley, California, had issued an evacuation order for parts of the city “due to a tsunami coming to West Berkeley.”

“People in the Tsunami Zone are in IMMEDIATE DANGER and MUST EVACUATE NOW,” the police department said. “Stay east of 7th St. This is a lawful order to leave now.”

The earthquake was reported at 10:44 a.m. local time, according to the National Tsunami Warning Center.

Subsequent earthquakes were reported in the region, including a 4.2 magnitude earthquake near Petrolia, according to the USGS.

Shake alerts in the USGS’s earthquake early warning system were delivered as far north as Lincoln City, Oregon, and as far south as Salinas, California, the agency said.

“System was activated and performed as designed. Still trying to ascertain how much warning people received,” the USGS said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said officials with the state’s Office of Emergency Services are “actively responding to the earthquakes this morning in Northern California.”

“Californians should follow guidance from local emergency responders,” he said on social media.

Regarding aftershocks, there is currently a 5% chance of a magnitude 6 or larger earthquake occurring in the next week, and a 34% chance of a magnitude 5 quake occurring in that time frame, the USGS said.

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

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(LOS ANGELES) — Two kindergarteners — a 5-year-old boy and a 6-year-old boy — are in “critical but stable condition” on Thursday after they were shot a day earlier at their small Christian grammar school in Northern California, authorities said.

The suspected gunman died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after entering the school and opening fire on the students Wednesday, according to Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea.

Butte County authorities responded to reports of an active shooter at the Feather River Adventist School near Oroville shortly after 1 p.m., Honea said. A California Highway Patrol trooper was the first to arrive on the scene and found the two wounded students and the suspect’s body with a handgun nearby.

The suspected shooter had met with a school administrator earlier in the day to discuss enrolling a student at the school, which teaches kindergarten to 8th grade and has a total of 35 students, according to Honea.

It’s unclear if the meeting was legitimate or a ruse for the suspected gunman to get inside, the sheriff said.

The meeting was described as “cordial” and did not set off any alarm bells with the school administrator, the sheriff said.

A few minutes after that meeting, the shots rang out, he said.

The suspect has been identified and authorities are working to find a motive, the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff said that he may have targeted the school because of its affiliation with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we sent an alert out to law enforcement agencies throughout the state of California, advising them of this shooting and advising them that the subject may have targeted this school because of its affiliation with that particular religious organization,” Honea said.

“Our request of those law enforcement agencies was to be vigilant and make sure that those schools are safe and the students are still safe,” he added.

The suspect was dropped off at the school by an Uber driver who has since been interviewed by police, authorities said.

“We’re working to essentially reconstruct this individual’s activities over the course of today as well as into the past to determine why … he did the things that he did,” Honea said.

The FBI is helping to process the scene and dig into the suspect’s background.

Butte County is located about 65 miles north of Sacramento.

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(NEW YORK) — The father of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who died after being placed in a chokehold by subway rider Daniel Penny, filed a civil lawsuit against Penny on Wednesday for negligent contact, assault and battery that led to Neely’s death.

Penny, a 25-year-old former Marine, put Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man, in a six-minute-long chokehold after Neely boarded a subway car acting erratically, according to police. Witnesses described Neely yelling and moving erratically, with Penny’s attorneys calling Neely “insanely threatening,” when Penny put Neely in a chokehold.

The city’s medical examiner concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely.

“The aforesaid incident, injuries, and death were caused by reason of defendant Daniel Penny’s negligence,” the lawsuit alleged.

Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, requested damages “in such sum as a jury may find reasonable, fair, and just.”

Penny is currently on trial for manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in Neely’s May 2023 death. Penny, 25, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The jury is currently deliberating the criminal trial.

Zachery is present in court this morning, seated alone in the courtroom gallery a few rows back from the jury box.

Penny’s attorneys were not immediately available for comment.

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(NEW YORK) — An arctic front and snow squalls will impact the Northeast and Midwest on Thursday.

In Erie, Pennsylvania, a blizzard warning is in effect until 1 a.m. EST on Saturday.

Snow accumulations of 10 to 18 inches are expected north of Interstate 90 (I-90) and 12 to 20 inches south of I-90. In addition, wind gusts are up to 60 mph north of I-90 and 50 mph south of I-90.

According to the National Weather Service warning for the city of Erie and Erie County, whiteout conditions are expected which will make visibility difficult and travel potentially life- threatening. The hazardous conditions will impact commutes and lead to power outages and downed trees across the region.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission strongly encourage drivers to heed all travel restrictions and delay unnecessary travel.

Furthermore, the Erie School District announced on their website that school will be closed Thursday, Dec. 5 and Friday, Dec. 6, with no virtual instruction those days.

The arctic front and snow squalls have hit the Midwest and the Northeast this week. Snow squalls are quick and intense bursts of snow and wind, sometimes accompanied by lightning which last 30 minutes to an hour.

Along the I-95 corridor, strong winds are forecast in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City, where winds could gust up to 50 mph. Winds like that could delay flights at major airports on Thursday.

Cold wind chills are expected to reach the East Coast by Friday morning, with single digits and teens for most, even coastal areas. The cold air is expected to reach just outside of New Orleans, where the wind chill could be as low as 27 degrees.

Heavy snow is also hitting the northern Plains and the Great Lakes with whiteout conditions from the Dakotas to Michigan. At least 18 states from Wisconsin down to the Carolinas and north to Maine are under wind and snow alerts.

On the West Coast, warm temperatures reached a record high in the San Francisco Bay area, when Oakland hit 70 degrees yesterday. Unseasonably warm weather will continue out west throughout the weekend with near 80 degrees from California to Arizona.

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(NEW YORK) — The jury has requested to receive two readbacks and several pieces of footage as they continue to deliberate in the subway chokehold death trial of Daniel Penny.

Little more than an hour into deliberations on Tuesday, the jury asked for a readback of a portion of the judge’s instructions on the law. The jury is interested in the part about justified use of force.

They also asked for several pieces of video on Wednesday, including police body camera footage, Penny’s interrogation video, and a bystander’s video.

The jury also asked for a readback of the cross-examination of the city medical examiner who concluded that Penny’s chokehold killed Neely.

The medical examiner, the final witness for the prosecution, found that Neely died from compression to the neck and never wavered from her view under intense cross-examination.

The defense countered her conclusion, suggesting public sentiment about the case had influenced her findings and that Neely died of other factors.

The jury requested the definitions of criminal negligence and recklessness on Thursday. They also requested to see two bystander videos — one of which they had already seen — capturing the moments when Penny placed Neely in a chokehold. Wiley allowed the jury to access a laptop with the videos so they could watch the requested videos as many times as they’d like.

The jury — comprised of seven women and five men — is considering whether to convict Penny of manslaughter and negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man, on a New York City subway train.

To convict, prosecutors have told the jury that Penny’s use of lethal force must be considered unjustifiable and that Penny acted recklessly and consciously disregarded the substantial risk of putting Neely in the chokehold for so long. Defense attorneys told the jury that Penny was only trying to protect subway passengers.

Defense attorneys also said that Penny never intended to kill Neely, while prosecutors said they do not have to prove Penny intended to kill Neely to have the jury hand down a guilty verdict.

Read the key takeaways presented to the jury during the weekslong trial here.

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(NEW YORK) — Police appear to be closing in on an identity of the man suspected of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan, sources told ABC News on Thursday.

Police have sought a search warrant for a location in New York City where they believe the suspect may have been staying, sources said.

The masked gunman shot Thompson several times at close range on Wednesday morning outside a Hilton Hotel where he was attending a conference.

The “brazen, targeted attack” was “premeditated,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. The motive remains unknown, police said.

Detectives believe the gunman is not a professional killer, sources said. Bullet casings found at the scene had the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” written on them, police sources said.

Thompson, 50, was in New York City for the UnitedHealthcare investors conference, which was scheduled to start at 8 a.m. His schedule was widely known, police sources said.

The suspect — who was caught on surveillance cameras before, during and immediately after the shooting — had been lying in wait near the hotel.

Thompson was shot at about 6:40 a.m. After the shooting, the shooter fled on foot into an alley, where a phone believed to be linked to the suspect was later recovered, police sources said.

The suspect then fled on a bike and he was last seen riding into Central Park at 6:48 a.m., police said.

The shooter was caught on surveillance video at 5 a.m. the morning of the shooting outside Frederick Douglass Houses, a public housing project on the Upper West Side, sources told ABC News. That footage showed the suspect carrying what appeared to be an e-bike battery.

Police have recovered a water bottle and candy wrapper from the scene of the shooting which they believe are linked to the gunman. Fingerprint and DNA tests on the items are ongoing, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Thompson’s wife, Paulette Thompson, said in a statement that she was “shattered” by the “senseless killing.”

“Brian was an incredibly loving, generous, talented man who truly lived life to the fullest and touched so many lives,” she said. “Most importantly, Brian was an incredibly loving father to our two sons and will be greatly missed.”

Police urge the public to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS with any information.

ABC News’ Mark Crudele and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Svetlana Dali, the woman who stowed away on a Delta Air Lines flight to France, was arrested by the FBI upon her return to New York, an official confirmed.

She returned to John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday, once again flying Delta, but this time escorted by U.S. law enforcement, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The TSA confirmed that its inspectors, along with other law enforcement officials, were there to meet Dali at the gate for questioning when she deplaned.

The stowaway’s name was confirmed Tuesday by her daughter and ex-husband, although authorities had yet to verify her identity at the time of her return to the U.S.

Dali had previously been described only as a Russian national who had been caught traveling without proper documentation on Delta Flight 264. The flight was scheduled to fly between New York City and Paris on Nov. 26.

According to a statement from the French Interior Ministry, “She was not admitted to French territory due to lack of a valid travel document (visa) and was placed in the waiting area for the time necessary for her re-routing to the United States since she held a valid US residence permit.”

Dali will be making her initial appearance in Brooklyn Federal Court on Thursday, officials have confirmed.

However, the charges against her have not been made public as of the time of her arrest.

It is therefore unknown if the appearance is related to the civil case that the TSA told ABC News it was preparing against Dali.

“TSA opens a civil case against any passenger when there is evidence that TSA regulations may have been violated,” the spokesperson said in a statement on Monday.

Upon Dali’s reentry to New York on Wednesday night, Delta issued a statement thanking French and U.S. authorities for assisting in the incident.

“Our review affirms that Delta’s security infrastructure, as part of our Safety Management System framework, is sound and that deviation from standard procedures is the root cause of this event,” the statement said.

“We are thoroughly addressing this matter and will continue to work closely with our regulators, law enforcement and other relevant stakeholders,” it continued. “Nothing is of greater importance than safety and security.”

Details about how she was able to originally sneak onto an international flight remain under investigation.

Christopher Looft and Ayesha Ali contributed to this report.

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