Coast Guard pilot describes ‘insane’ rescue of man floating on cooler in Gulf after Hurricane Milton
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
(LONGBOAT KEY, Fla.) — When Coast Guard pilot Lt. Ian Logan went out to search the waters off Longboat Key in the wake of Hurricane Milton roaring ashore on the western Florida coast, he didn’t expect to find anyone who needed help.
To all of their surprise, he and his crew found a man clinging to a cooler 30 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico.
“We thought it might’ve been a buoy,” Logan said. “I remember looking down and seeing the strobe and like seeing him holding on to the cooler. So once we pulled up in that 50-foot hover right next to the guy, we’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s on like a cooler that’s opened up and he’s just floating on it,’ which is insane.”
The man had gone out to his boat early Wednesday to make repairs after it became disabled earlier that week approximately 20 miles off John’s Pass, a barrier island west of St. Petersburg, according to the Coast Guard. As he was bringing the boat back to port, it got disabled again, the Coast Guard said.
The man contacted the Coast Guard, hoping for help. But weather conditions had already started to deteriorate as Milton approached Florida’s west coast, and the Coast Guard said it instructed him to put on a life jacket and “stay with the vessel’s emergency position indicating radio beacon.” The Coast Guard said it then lost contact with the man at 6:45 p.m. ET Wednesday.
By the time he was found, with his boat long gone, Logan said the man was essentially strapped to the cooler.
“I didn’t believe it at first. There are a lot of questions going through my head. So I paused for like, 10 seconds, as we’re making this turn, going to make our approach to the water,” Logan said. “And I’m like, ‘Are you sure?’ And the swimmer is like, ‘Yes, he’s waving his hands at us like, this is the guy.’ And I remember all of us are like, ‘My goodness, I can’t believe we’re so excited that we found this guy.’ Like searching for a needle in a haystack.”
“I look back over my shoulder and he’s over my back right shoulder and I see this guy — hair looks like the ‘Castaway’ movie, where he’s covered in salt,” he said. “He’s got a life vest on, he’s soaked. And at that point, it really set in, like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe we just found this guy.'”
Logan said the moment was one of the highlights of his career.
ABC News’ Leah Sarnoff and Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — Prosecutors and defense attorneys delivered closing arguments on Wednesday in the case of the three former Memphis police officers who were charged in the January 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols.
The jury is set to receive instructions from the judge on Thursday morning ahead of deliberations after the prosecution and the attorneys for the three former officers concluded their closing arguments on Wednesday evening.
The jury pool in the federal trial is made up of seven men and seven women, including white, Black and Asian jurors.
Federal prosecutor Kathryn Gilbert said during her closing arguments that the officers laughed and bragged about beating Nichols and did not call medics to the scene because they wanted to get away with what they did and protect themselves.
Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean were charged on Sept. 12, 2023, with violating Nichols’ civil rights through excessive use of force, unlawful assault, failing to intervene in the assault and failing to render medical aid. These charges carry a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The officers have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“They wanted it to be a beatdown,” Gilbert told the jury of the three former officers.
“You are what stands between them and getting away with it,” she added.
Haley, Smith and Bean were among five former officers who were charged in this case.
John Perry, Bean’s attorney, argued during his closing remarks that the force his client used during the interaction with Nichols was “not excessive.”
Both Perry and Haley’s attorney, Stephen Leffler, argued during closing arguments that their clients did not violate the policies of the Memphis Police Department.
Leffler admitted that Haley said “beat that man” and delivered a kick to Nichols, but he said “beat that man” was just a verbal command and not a physical encounter.
Smith’s lawyer, Martin Zummach, said during his closing remarks that Smith did not see Martin and Haley kick Nichols because he was blinded by pepper spray and was scared. Zummach argued that Smith did not cover up “excessive force” and said that Smith reported the kicks to his supervisor.
“He is not perfect but imperfection is not a crime,” Zummach said.
All of the five officers charged in this case were fired from MPD for violating policies.
Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., the two other officers who were also charged, pleaded guilty to some of the federal charges.
Mills pleaded guilty to two of the four counts in the indictment — excessive force and failing to intervene, as well as conspiring to cover up his use of unlawful force, according to the DOJ. The government said it will recommend a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, based on the terms of Mills’ plea agreement.
Martin pleaded guilty to excessive force and failure to intervene, as well as conspiracy to witness tamper, according to court records. The other two charges will be dropped at sentencing, which has been scheduled for Dec. 5, according to the court records.
Mills testified during the federal trial of the three officers and got emotional when he took the stand.
“I wish I would’ve stopped the punches. It hurts to watch. It hurts inside so much,” said Mills, who cried during his testimony, according to ABC affiliate in Memphis, WATN-TV. “It felt bad every time the picture is on the screen to know I’m a part of that. I made his child fatherless. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I know ‘sorry’ won’t bring him back, but I pray his child has everything he needs growing up.”
Martin also testified in the officer’s federal trial and took the stand on Sept. 17.
“They were assaulting [Tyre Nichols],” Martin said of his former partners, according to WATN. “I was already angry that he ran. I kicked him … They [his former partners] were holding him up. He was helpless.”
Body-camera footage shows that Nichols fled after police pulled him over on Jan. 7, 2023, for allegedly driving recklessly, then shocked him with a Taser and pepper-sprayed him.
Officers allegedly then beat Nichols minutes later after tracking him down. After the police encounter, Nichols was transferred to the hospital in critical condition.
Nichols, 29, died in the hospital on Jan. 10, 2023. Footage shows the officers walking around, talking to each other as Nichols was injured and sitting on the ground.
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said she has been unable to substantiate that Nichols was driving recklessly. The incident triggered protests and calls for police reform.
After the police encounter, Nichols was transferred to the hospital in critical condition. The medical examiner’s official autopsy report for Nichols showed he “died of brain injuries from blunt force trauma,” the district attorney’s office told Nichols’ family in May 2023.
The prosecution told ABC News earlier this month that they will not have any statements until after the trial. The defense attorneys did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The five former officers charged in this case were all members of the Memphis Police Department SCORPION unit — a crime suppression unit that was disbanded after Nichols’ death.
A cluster of broken pieces of wood from destroyed houses rest along a damaged bridge in Lake Lure, North Carolina, Oct. 2, 2024, after the passage of Hurricane Helene. (Allison Joyce/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — At least 1,000 National Guard troops are heading into the most hard-hit areas in western North Carolina on Thursday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene as the death toll from the storm approaches 200 with hundreds of people still unaccounted for.
“The nation has your back. We’re not leaving ‘til you’re back on your feet completely,” President Joe Biden said on Wednesday after surveying the mass destruction from the storm in North and South Carolina.
Helene is now the deadliest mainland hurricane to strike the United States since Katrina in 2005 which claimed the lives of nearly 1,400 people.
More than a million people still don’t have power and a nearly completely dark strip marks the path of Helene through the Southeast as the crisis over getting access to drinkable water is growing.
Vice President Kamala Harris met with local authorities and grieving families in Augusta, Georgia, on Wednesday.
“It is particularly devastating in terms of the loss of life that this community has experienced, the loss of normalcy,” Harris said.
Elsewhere, new video captured the moment a landslide hit a house in Newland, North Carolina, as Helene trampled the Southeast.
In Fairview, Connecticut, Philip Morgan showed ABC News the system of ropes he has had to create to rappel the terrain since the bridge to his neighborhood was wiped out.
Morgan’s brother is on a ventilator and in dire need of supplies as Philip Morgan says it is only a matter of time before his brother will need to be moved.
“[My biggest fear is] something happening to him and not being able to get out of here fast enough,” Morgan told ABC News.
Meanwhile, nearby at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, 400 nurses arrived in buses from across the country — even as far as Alaska — all to lend a helping hand in the aftermath of the sheer destruction of the storm.
“They showed up with a smile on their face. Eager to help, eager just to give us a little bit of reprieve,” said Matt Alligood, a resident nurse at Mission Hospital. “So, it’s … it’s been amazing.”
Evidence photo shows Brendan Banfield and his au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhaes. (Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office)
(NEW YORK) — A grand jury has indicted 39-year-old Brendan Banfield in the stabbing death of his wife and murder of another man in the couple’s bedroom 19 months after the killing, according to Virginia’s Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Office.
Banfield is accused of fatally stabbing 37-year-old Christine Banfield and shooting Joseph Ryan, 38, in February 2023.
Banfield’s charging in the case comes months after the family’s 24-year-old live-in au pair was charged in the case.
“We know Brendan Banfield and Juliana Magalhaes, the family au pair, were involved in a romantic relationship at the time of the murders,” Fairfax Police Chief Kevin Davis said at a press conference Monday.
Banfield was indicted on four charges of aggravated murder and one charge for the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He is accused of the premeditated murder of the two.
If convicted, he could face a life sentence without the possibility of parole. For the firearm charge, he could face a mandatory minimum of three years.
“The great investigative work of the Fairfax County Police Department led us to new information which was instrumental in securing today’s indictment,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said during the press conference.
Investigators would not reveal what new information led to Monday’s arrest.
ABC News has reached out to an attorney for Brendan Banfield for comment.
The Banfield couple were married and living in their family home with their then-4-year-old daughter at the time of the murders.
Police responded to a 911 call from the home on Feb. 24, 2023, and found Ryan dead in an upstairs bedroom as a result of gunshot wounds. Christine Banfield was stabbed.
She was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to police.
Police said they recovered two firearms and a knife from the home at the time of the murder.
Police also carried out another search warrant at Banfield’s house on Monday.
Magalhaes has been in custody since her arrest, according to police. Her trial is scheduled to begin in November.
The two are being held in the same adult detention center, according to Descano.
