Judge to determine if Ralph Yarl shooting suspect is fit to stand trial after mental exam
ABC News
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) — Andrew Lester, the man charged in the April 2023 shooting of Ralph Yarl after the teenager mistakenly went to the wrong house, is set to appear in court Tuesday after his attorney submitted a mental evaluation — the results of which could determine whether Lester is fit to stand trial in February 2025.
Steven Salmon, Lester’s attorney, confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday that the examination has been filed with the court.
“I suspect the judge will make a ruling based on that evaluation at the next hearing [on Nov. 26],” he said. “I am not able to provide that report or its contents as it is covered under the gag order entered in the case.”
In October, a Clay County judge rescheduled Lester’s trial, which was initially set for Oct. 7, to begin on Feb. 18, 2025, pending the results of the mental evaluation. That exam was ordered by the judge after Salmon filed a motion requesting it, according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
In the motion, Salmon claimed that Lester, who is 86, is facing health conditions that could impair his ability to understand legal proceedings or assist in his defense at trial.
He said in the motion that Lester has lost more than 50 pounds, experienced issues with his memory and has exhibited confusion surrounding the details of the case. He also noted that Lester had also suffered a broken hip, heart issues and hospitalization since the case began.
Salmon also noted that Lester has faced “stress” due to “overwhelming media attention, as well as death threats and other unwanted attention, making it difficult for him to interact socially with anyone.”
Lester was charged with one count of felony assault in the first-degree and one count of armed criminal action, also a felony, in the shooting of Yarl, a Black teenager who mistakenly went to Lester’s Kansas City home after arriving at the wrong address to pick up his twin brothers from a play date on April 13, 2023.
Lester, who is white, pleaded not guilty later that month and was released on a $200,000 bond.
Yarl, who was 16 at the time, was shot in the head and in the right arm, by Lester, according to police. The now 18-year-old suffered a traumatic brain injury, his family previously told ABC News.
According to a probable cause statement obtained by ABC News, Lester told police that he “believed someone was attempting to break into the house” and grabbed a gun before going to the door because he was scared.
Yarl opened up about the shooting in an exclusive interview with Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts in July 2023, where he reflected on his recovery and the harrowing experience.
“He points [the gun] at me … so I kinda, like, brace and I turn my head,” Yarl told Roberts. “Then it happened. And then I’m on the ground … and then I fall on the glass. The shattered glass. And then before I know it I’m running away shouting, ‘Help me, help me.'”
Operation Bear Claw reveals suspects allegedly wore bear costume to commit insurance fraud. Image via California Department of Insurance
(LOS ANGELES) — Four individuals were arrested Wednesday for allegedly attempting to defraud their insurance companies by claiming a bear had damaged their vehicles — when in fact it was a person in a bear costume attacking the cars.
The suspects were all Los Angeles-area residents, according to a statement released Wednesday afternoon by the California Department of Insurance.
The suspects varying in age, were Ararat Chirkinian, 39, of Glendale; Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, of Glendale; Ruben Tamrazian, 26, of Glendale; and Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, of Valley Village.
The statement said that all four were charged with conspiracy and insurance fraud.
Suspects claimed on Jan. 28, 2024, that a bear entered their 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost and caused interior damage, according to the Department of Insurance. They provided video footage of the incident, stating that it had occurred during their visit to Lake Arrowhead.
Upon reviewing the footage, the Department of Insurance said that it suspected fraud. Officials said that they believed right away that the bear in question was actually a person in a bear costume.
Initiating an investigation — named Operation Bear Claw — the department learned that two other claims had been filed to different insurance companies with similar details: the same location and the same date.
Similar to the claim that originally drew the unit’s attention, the two other reports stated that a bear had attacked their cars: a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350, according to the statement.
Each of the two other claims had submitted video footage as part of their evidence. And in both of those videos, the department said it believed that they were looking at the same bear costume.
However, the department said that it sought an outside opinion on the case before making a final determination. Investigators reached out to a biologist from the California Department of Wildlife, who then independently reviewed the evidence for Operation Bear Claw.
The biologist stated that “it was clearly a human in a bear suit,” according to the statement.
Authorities were able to execute a search warrant for the people involved in the alleged insurance fraud scheme.
Officials confirm that a bear costume was found in one of the suspects’ homes.
At the time of the arrests, officials reported that the insurance companies had already paid out some of the claims, totaling $141,839.
The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case.
(NEW YORK) — Meeting an exotic animal at a public attraction can fill us with wonder, but critics say that this can also be dangerous. Dana Garber said she had just such an encounter at the Endangered Ark Foundation in Hugo, Oklahoma, in 2021.
She thought their family trip would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get close to the world’s largest living land animals.
“It was my youngest son’s birthday,” she told ABC News. “It seemed like for his birthday, it was a wonderful thing. Something we could do as a family.”
The foundation advertises itself as a sanctuary for retired circus elephants, making them a popular attraction in the state.
“I was under the impression that this was a place that was a good place for these elephants to live out their lives after their circus life,” Garber said.
Their day kicked off with the elephants, along with their handlers, greeting the family by bringing them breakfast, according to Garber. Afterwards, she recalled that they fed the elephants graham crackers over a metal fence.
“We were encouraged to pet them,” she said. “We were encouraged to go up to them.”
She recalled taking photos as she says an elephant grabbed her father-in-law with its trunk. She took more photos as she said her husband distracted the towering animal with graham crackers so it would let go of his father. However, to her horror, she said that the same elephant then grabbed her as she tried to walk past it.
“I can tell you that it felt like an anaconda,” she said, referring to the species of snake that constricts its prey. “I was being squished and held very tightly, after the elephant grabbed me and kind of swung me and thrashed me to the ground.”
Garber isn’t alone in claiming to have been injured by an exotic animal at a public attraction. ABC News reviewed government records, lawsuits and local reports to find at least 150 people over the past decade who have alleged they were injured during exotic animal encounters in the U.S.
After the incident, Garber noted that foundation staffers rushed to her aid, offering her ice. She says no one, including her, realized how seriously she had been injured. However, she said her husband — a radiologist — grew increasingly concerned over time.
“He said I wasn’t speaking coherently,” she said. “And at that point, he decided we have to get her immediately to the emergency room.”
Garber said scans revealed the extent of the damage to her knee.
“It had a lateral and a medial tibial plateau crush injury,” she said. “That along with the head injury.”
She told ABC News it has taken almost two years and multiple surgeries for her to regain function of her leg.
In the process of sorting out some of the medical bills, Garber said she reached out to Endangered Ark Foundation to get in touch with their insurance company. She said the company left a voice message suggesting she fell at their location.
“All kinds of hairs stood up on the back of my neck,” she said. “There is absolutely no way that you can get the kind of injury I sustained just by falling.”
Garber eventually filed a lawsuit, which they settled out of court without any admission of wrongdoing by Endangered Ark Foundation. The company told ABC News that they strongly refute all allegations.
“The family of Mrs. Garber continued to enjoy a full day at the foundation after the alleged incident,” it said in a statement.
Since the day she said she sustained her injuries, Garber claims to have discovered that some of the elephants at the sanctuary aren’t retired at all, and are allegedly still performing under a license for a circus called Carson & Barnes. The founders of that circus opened up the Endangered Ark Foundation in 1993 to serve as a retirement ranch for circus elephants, they say.
The circus didn’t respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
“I was under the impression that this was a true reserve and that these elephants were retired elephants that we would be seeing,” Garber said.
The Endangered Ark Foundation is one of at least 900 facilities in the U.S. that offers human interactions with wild or exotic animals as part of their business. According to critics, some of these places — known as roadside zoos — are not accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums and many have a bad track record in their treatment of animals.
In 2020, the Netflix series “Tiger King” shined a light on several such locations — particularly the since-shuttered Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, which was founded and owned by Joe Exotic.
In the wake of “Tiger King,” the Big Cat Public Safety Act was enacted in 2022. The law prohibits public contact with big cats and the new breeding of cubs for private possession.
The Humane Society of the United States, a nonprofit organization that focuses on animal welfare, investigated Exotic’s Oklahoma roadside zoo years before “Tiger King” made him infamous.
Humane Society CEO Kitty Block said her organization often steps in to investigate these facilities because the Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is charged with overseeing them, is either too slow or does too little to act.
The Humane Society highlighted Tiger Safari in Tuttle, Oklahoma, as an example. They first recorded undercover footage of people interacting with tiger cubs there in 2014, after which the USDA filed a complaint and fined the zoo $15,000.
At the time, the founder Bill Meadows told local news outlets that his park was among the cleanest in the state and that the animals were treated well. He claimed the negative publicity came because the Humane Society wanted to cut out private zoo ownership, and that his zoo had corrected the USDA citations.
However, the Humane Society returned in 2021 and discovered that the facility had moved on to promoting interactions with other animals, including otter cubs.
The USDA cited them again for causing “unnecessary discomfort.” In total, the USDA has cited Tiger Safari at least 90 times in the past decade for issues like inadequate vet care and unsanitary conditions.
Tiger Safari did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
“The USDA is not even enforcing the meager standards that are there,” Block told ABC News. “They are stretched too thin.”
The USDA told ABC News, in part, that they take enforcement of the federal law seriously, and that they “work with facilities to ensure they comply.”
The agency said that if a facility is consistently unable to achieve compliance, that they are referred for investigation to determine if enforcement actions like “license suspension and revocations” are appropriate.
Advocates said it’s often their responsibility to work to shut such places down. In 2020, Special Memories Zoo in Wisconsin was sued by the Animal Legal Defense Fund for violating the Endangered Species Act. It also alleged that the zoo violated state law by “operating as a public nuisance because it was violating animal cruelty laws.”
A month after the lawsuit was filed, the zoo announced it would close and begin transferring animals to different facilities. However, a fire broke out and allegedly revealed serious neglect of its animals.
Police were dispatched to the property, and footage from their body cameras shows the officers discussing how several of the animals had starved to death before the flames erupted.
Instead of going to roadside zoos to see animals, advocates recommend doing so at locations accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, a nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of zoos and public aquariums in the areas of conservation, education, science, and recreation.
The Smithsonian Zoo in Washington, D.C., is one such facility, and it maintains a strict no-touch policy with its Asian elephants. Dana Garber agreed with this approach.
“I could’ve died. I don’t want that to happen to someone else’s family,” she told ABC News. “This is going to be with me forever, I will never be able to fully move on from this.”
ABC News’ Jessica Hopper and Laura Coburn contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will travel on Sunday to Florida areas ravaged by the back-to-back hurricanes, and announce federal funding for projects to strengthen the electrical grid, according to the White House.
Biden will be touring St. Petersburg, one of the hardest hit Florida cities from Hurricane Milton last week, and reveal $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in the southeast.
Two of the projects are focused in Florida and provide a combined $94M in federal funds, according to the White House.
Gainesville Regional Utilities will use the funding to help mitigate the effects of increasingly extreme weather in north central Florida, “through storm hardening, as well as faster restoration through deployment of self-healing devices and tools that will enable more efficient and precise dispatching of field teams during outages,” the White House said in a statement.
Switched Source, a private utility technology developer, will work with Florida Power and Light to deploy Phase-EQ, which “optimizes power flow in distribution circuits, will unlock over 200 MW of system capacity, and improve reliability on circuits serving communities that are most susceptible to prolonged outages,” according to the White House.
“These investments are part of the president’s commitment to making long-term investments that protect, enhance, and upgrade our nation’s electric grid, especially in the face of extreme weather events,” the White House said in a statement.
Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening. At least 16 people were killed in the storm and over a million remain without power.
Biden has spoken to numerous state and local officials, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who he said was “very cooperative.” When asked if he would meet with DeSantis on Sunday, Biden said yes so long as the governor was available.
