Category: National

(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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(NEW YORK) — A man has sustained serious injuries after leaping to the rescue of his wife who was ambushed by a polar bear in an early morning attack, police said.

Members of the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service working out of the Fort Severn First Nation detachment in Ontario, Canada, were dispatched to a residential address in the early morning hours of Tuesday to reports of gunfire, according to a statement from the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service.

When authorities arrived, they discovered during their investigation that an adult male and adult female “had exited their home before 5 a.m. to find their dogs. While in the driveway of their home, a polar bear lunged at the woman,” police said.

“The woman slipped to ground as her husband leapt onto the animal to prevent its attack. The bear then attacked the male, causing serious but non-life-threatening injuries to his arm and legs,” Nishnawbe Aski Police Service continued.

During the attack, a neighbor reportedly arrived with a firearm and was able to shoot the bear several times before it retreated to a nearby wooded area and subsequently died from its injuries.

When police arrived on scene, they located the deceased polar bear and learned “an adult male had been transported to the community nursing station to have his injuries assessed and treated,” police said.

Officials continued to patrol the area to ensure no other bears were roaming the community following the attack.

The unnamed man is now recovering from serious injuries to his arm and legs, but is expected to survive.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Two kindergarteners were seriously wounded in a shooting at a small Christian grammar school in Northern California on Wednesday, authorities said.

After entering the school and opening fire on the students, the suspected gunman died from what is believed by officials to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Two boys, ages 5 and 6, were promptly taken to a hospital and were in “extremely critical condition” as of Wednesday evening, according to Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea.

Authorities in Butte County responded to 911 calls for reports of an active shooter at the Feather River Adventist School just outside of Oroville, California, shortly after 1 p.m. local time, Honea told reporters. A trooper with the California Highway Patrol was the first to arrive on the scene and found the two wounded students and the suspect’s body with a handgun nearby.

The sheriff said 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 explained.

The sheriff told reporters that authorities have identified the shooter and 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 sheriff said authorities are not ready to publicly release the suspect’s identity.

The suspect was dropped off at the school by an Uber driver who had been located in the aftermath of the shooting and undergone interviews with police.

Otherwise, authorities are still looking to piece together a timeline of his whereabouts leading up to the shooting.

“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 sheriff’s office is leading the investigation into the shooting. The FBI is helping to process the crime scene and also to dig into the suspect’s background.

Butte County is located about 65 miles north of Sacramento.

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(UNITY TOWNSHIP, Pa.) — The dangerous search for a missing grandmother who officials believe fell into a deep sinkhole in Pennsylvania is now considered a recovery effort, police said Wednesday.

A challenging excavation has been underway at an abandoned coal mine in Unity Township since Tuesday when police said Elizabeth Pollard was reported missing after she was not heard from after searching for her cat.

The sinkhole is believed to be tied to the mine and formed while Pollard was walking in the area, officials said.

Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani said authorities are “virtually positive” that she is in the mine, though do not believe she could still be alive at this stage based on the conditions underground, including the level of oxygen.

“I know we had a lot of hopes,” Limani said during a press briefing Wednesday evening, calling the development “difficult.”

“Unless it’s a miracle, most likely it’s recovery,” Limani said, later noting that it’s “definitely recovery” at this stage.

Rescue crews have been pumping oxygen into the mine, though it’s “lower than what you’d want for someone to try and sustain their life,” he said.

Cameras and sound devices have not found any signs of life that would warrant them to try to push ahead with urgency at the risk posed to search crews, he said.

He said authorities have had an “emotional” conversation with Pollard’s family to update them on the shift to a recovery effort.

“It feels like we failed,” an emotional Limani said. “But if somebody else gets hurt, I think it would be worse.”

Limani said crews will continue to work to recover Pollard and are preparing for inclement weather to resume the search on Thursday.

“We’re not quitting,” he said. “We are going to continue to work through this. It’s just taken longer than we thought. And the mine is just not in good condition.”

Pollard was last seen Monday evening, police said. Her vehicle was located shortly before 3 a.m. Tuesday with her 5-year-old granddaughter safe inside, though Pollard was nowhere to be seen, police said.

While searching for Pollard in the area, troopers found an apparent sinkhole with an opening about the “size of a manhole” 15 to 20 feet away from the vehicle, according to Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani.

Local firefighters, a technical rescue team and the state’s Bureau of Mine Safety worked alongside an excavation team to remove dirt to access the sinkhole, Limani said.

Search crews were able to make entry into the mine area, though the integrity of the mine has been compromised by the water they are using to break up the ground, Limani said. Parts of the mine have started to buckle and collapse, he said.

“We’re afraid we’re going to make it worse if try to continue to plow forward with the techniques that we were using,” he said.

The area where the sinkhole formed has a “very thin layer of earth” and appears to have been deteriorating “for a long time,” Limani said. Other areas near the sinkhole have been deemed unsafe and will be quarantined off with round-the-clock police surveillance, Limani said.

The mine last operated in 1952, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. The depth to the coal seam in this area is approximately 20 feet, a department spokesperson said.

Once the scene is clear, the department will investigate the site “to determine if this issue is the result of historic mine subsidence,” the spokesperson said.

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(NEW YORK) — Three Fort Cavazos soldiers have been accused of a conspiracy to smuggle undocumented immigrants, according to the Department of Justice.

The Texas-based soldiers were caught on Nov. 27 allegedly driving three people — one Mexican national and two Guatemalan nationals — after a United States Border Patrol Agent initiated a vehicle stop in Presidio.

An agent approached the vehicle, which then fled and “struck a second USBP vehicle, injuring an agent inside,” the DOJ said.

Police eventually stopped the vehicle and apprehended the three undocumented immigrants, as well as one of the soldiers, identified as Emilio Mendoza Lopez.

The car’s driver, who was allegedly Angel Palma, “fled on foot and was located the following day at a hotel in Odessa,” prosecutors said.

The Department of Justice has accused Mendoza Lopez and Palma of traveling to the Army base to Presidio “for the purpose of picking up and transporting undocumented noncitizens.”

A third soldier, identified as Enrique Jauregui, has been accused of recruiting and facilitating the scheme.

Text messages between the three soldiers, which were obtained through a search of Palma’s phone, allegedly revealed communications “indicating collaboration in the smuggling operation.”

Mendoza Lopez is charged with one count “of bringing in and harboring aliens” and made his initial court appearance on Monday.

Palma and Jauregui are both charged with one count of “bringing in and harboring aliens” and one count of assaulting a federal agent. They were arrested Tuesday, and are expected to appear in court on Friday.

It was not immediately clear if any of the soldiers had obtained attorneys.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Army base said they “are aware of the arrest of three Fort Cavazos Soldiers” and said they would “continue to cooperate with all federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.”

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