Family sues New York City utility over woman’s fatal manhole fall
This screen grab from a video shows the manhole where the incident occured, on May 19, 2026, in New York. (WABC)
(NEW YORK) — The family of a Westchester grandmother who died after falling into an open manhole in Midtown Manhattan filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the utility responsible for the manhole, alleging its workers failed to properly seal the cover.
Donike Goncaj, 56, fell into the manhole at 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue on May 18 and died of scald burns and thermal inhalation from the steam. The lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court on Thursday, says she suffered “severe, horrifying, and catastrophic injuries.”
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled Goncaj’s death an accident.
The utility, Con Edison, concluded a truck ran over the manhole and dislodged the cover and noted in a statement in May that “while this is a rare occurrence, manhole covers can get displaced by heavy vehicles.”
The lawsuit, filed by Goncaj’s son on behalf of her estate, and her domestic partner, alleged ConEdison “should have known that dislodged and displaced manhole covers presented a recurring and foreseeable danger to pedestrians” and accused the utility of negligence, carelessness and reckless disregard for their mother’s safety.
Someone falling to their death in a manhole “ordinarily does not occur in the absence of negligence,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit contended that ConEd and its contractors “had a duty to maintain” the manhole “in reasonably safe conditions,” including warning pedestrians and providing a ladder or staircase to exit it.
ConEd did not immediately comment on the suit. In May, it said it was investigating the situation and working with the city in its probe.
“Our thoughts remain with her family, and safety remains our top priority,” ConEd said in a statement a day after the incident.
According to the lawsuit, Goncaj’s domestic partner, Jashar Kameraj, witnessed her falling into the scalding hot manhole and tried to rescue her, to no avail.
Kameraj and Goncaj’s son are seeking unspecified damages.
-ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
A man named Cole Allen, who appears to be the same person as the suspect in the shooting incident at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C., April 25, 2026, is interviewed by KABC in Los Angeles in March 2017. (KABC)
(WASHINGTON) — Cole Allen, the suspect in the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooting, appears to have been a highly intelligent person, albeit shy, and was at one point a devoted Christian, according to conversations with individuals from his past.
The California native was tackled by law enforcement after the gunfire Saturday night inside the Washington, D.C., Hilton hotel, where thousands of journalists as well as President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet were gathered for the annual dinner. Allen did not reach the ballroom, where the dinner was underway. A Secret Service member was shot during the incident, but the bullet hit the agent’s protective vest, officials said.
Allen, 31, faces three felony counts of attempted assassination of the President of the United States, transportation of a firearm and ammunition over state lines with the intent to commit a felony and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Allen’s former pastor, Rev. Movses Janbazian, struggled to square the man described by federal officials as an aspiring killer with the hard-working student who attended sermons each week at Pasadena United Reformed Church in South Pasadena.
“Nice, gentle, smart young man,” Janbazian told ABC News. “It’s obviously very surprising to hear his name appear in the news in this way.”
Janbazian said Allen joined the United Reformed Church congregation during his time at Caltech, where he studied mechanical engineering. Allen would frequently bring coursework to church — evidence, he said, of what a “competitive program” he was enrolled in. Allen graduated from Caltech in 2017 and he received a master’s degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 2025.
Paul Thompson, a neighbor of the Allen family, described Allen as “not very sociable,” but maintained that he “had no idea that he was capable of that kind of violence.”
“I’ve seen him a hundred times coming and going … but I’ve never had a conversation with him,” Thompson said.
Allen’s father, on the other hand, was “kind of like the neighborhood mayor — knows everybody by first name,” Thompson said.
“Everybody likes him. He’s a very sociable guy,” Thompson said of Allen’s father.
“This is going to be very, very difficult … on his family,” Thompson added.
Allen was most recently working as a tutor and students said he demonstrated a knack for competently teaching a wide range of subjects. A group of high school students who were tutored by Allen shared a statement describing him as “generally very intelligent” and “normal and friendly.”
Joel Devereux, the father-in-law of Allen’s brother, described Allen to ABC News as “very quiet, polite, smart” in their limited interactions, but said he seemed “distant from his family” and “doesn’t normally hang around them.”
Allen — who officials say traveled by train from California to D.C. — allegedly left a note which said that administration officials were his targets, “not including [FBI Director Kash] Mr. Patel,” and were “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” according to the criminal complaint against him.
Allen allegedly wrote that Secret Service agents were targets “only if necessary, and to be incapacitated non-lethally if possible,” the complaint said.
The note said hotel security, Capitol police and the National Guard were “not targets if at all possible (aka unless they shoot at me),” and hotel employees and guests were “not targets at all,” the complaint said.
The note said he would “go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary,” adding, ‘I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” according to the complaint.
Allen appeared in court on Monday and did not enter a plea. He’s set to return to court for a detention hearing on Thursday.
ABC News’ Susan Zalkind contributed to this report.
The Empire State building and the skyline of Manhattan is viewed on January 21, 2015 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A daredevil couple climbed to the top of the Empire State Building and unfurled a banner on top of its spire Wednesday afternoon, taking their love to new heights.
Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, who have gained an online following for their death-defying skyscraper climbs around the world, stayed on top of the skyscraper for several minutes as cameras rolled on the action before coming down on the spire, police sources told ABC News.
Beerkus then appeared to propose to his longtime girlfriend before they were taken into custody.
The black banner appeared to reference a Jimi Hendrix quote and said in white letters, “When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.”
The banner has been recovered, police said.
An NYPD helicopter was sent and the building’s observation deck was cleared of visitors as police arrived. The observation deck was reopened later in the afternoon.
The top of the building’s spire is 1,454 feet above the ground.
It was not immediately clear how the couple got into position to free climb the metal structure that services the spire, broadcast antenna and red anti-collision beacon atop the building.
A spokesperson for the Empire State Building said in a statement to ABC News that there was at no time danger to the building’s tenants or visitors.
“It is to be emphasized that the Empire State Building Observation Deck, atop the World’s Most Famous Building in the center of New York City, does offer a practical way for the most memorable marriage proposals,” the spokesman said in a statement.
The Empire State Building’s rules prohibit masks and costumes.
The observation deck was reopened later in the afternoon on Wednesday.
They were featured in a 2024 Netflix documentary “Skywalkers: A Love Story.” The film showcased the couple’s climb of Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, the world’s second tallest building at 2,227 feet.
The Russian couple have frequently posted photos of their stunts on their social media pages. In many of their posts, they are seen standing and posing at the edge of buildings from extreme heights.
Some of their posts show them hugging and kissing while on top of buildings.
Nikolau and Beerkus appeared to chronicle their climb up the Empire State Building on social media Wednesday and posted close-up images of the proposal from the spire along closeups of the engagement ring.
Rex A. Heuermann pleads guilty in court to the murders of eight women during a 17-year killing spree on April 8, 2026 in Riverhead, New York. (Photo by James Carbone – Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Admitted Gilgo Beach, New York, serial killer Rex Heuermann was linked to one of his victims, Megan Waterman, by the distinct pattern on a Bounty paper towel, according to the district attorney.
In court on Wednesday, Heuermann changed his plea to guilty and admitted to the murders of eight women: Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Karen Vergata.
Prosecutors said the New York City architect targeted sex workers, strangled them and dumped their bodies near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach from 1993 to 2010.
“This was his obsession,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told ABC News. “With his internet searches and his thought process, this was what was driving him.”
A piece of evidence that would’ve been presented had the case gone to trial is a rolled up Bounty paper towel recovered from Waterman’s mouth, Tierney said.
Waterman, 22, went missing in June 2010 and her remains were found in December 2010 in Gilgo Beach, according to Suffolk County police.
The paper towel had a particular pattern that Bounty created specifically for the box store BJ’s Wholesale Club, and that pattern was only in circulation in 2010, Tierney said.
When searching Heuermann’s home, investigators found a BJ’s receipt for Bounty paper towels, and “the SKU [stock-keeping unit] number was for a Bounty paper towel with that same pattern,” Tierney said.
“And so we were able to show that this Bounty paper towel was purchased by the defendant,” Tierney said. “And inside his desk drawer was a square of that same paper towel that matched perfectly and that he had kept in his office since 2010.”
That paper towel square was a “memento” for Heuermann, Tierney said, adding that prosecutors “would have utilized [that] at trial to link him to the commission of that particular murder.”
Heuermann was arrested in 2023 and initially pleaded not guilty to killing seven women. He was set to go to trial in September.
On Wednesday, Heuermann agreed to serve three consecutive life sentences followed by four consecutive sentences of 25 years-to-life, prosecutors said. His sentencing is set for June 17.
Tierney said, from his “outside observation” as a prosecutor, Heuermann, 62, wanted to change his plea because “I think he was done.”
“He wanted this to come to a conclusion — that’s just my impression,” he said.
Waterman’s daughter, Liliana Waterman, told reporters on Wednesday that she accepts the guilty plea and is “very, very thankful.”
Part of the plea arrangement requires Heuermann to cooperate with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.
“I think it’s very important,” Tierney said.
“This is clinical,” he said. “So I think they’re going to, hopefully, gain insight into him, his motivations, you know, what created this need or desire in him. And hopefully we’ll gain insight, you know, for cases going forward.”
