Kyren Lacy, top NFL draft prospect, wanted for negligent homicide after deadly crash
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(LOUISIANA) — NFL hopeful Kyren Lacy, one of the top wide receiver prospects in this year’s draft, is wanted for negligent homicide in connection with a deadly crash in Louisiana last month, state police announced Friday.
Louisiana State Police said they have issued an arrest warrant for Lacy, 24, of Thibodaux, for allegedly leaving the scene of a fatal crash on Dec. 17.
Lacy, who played for Louisiana State University in the fall before declaring for the draft, is alleged to have been behind the wheel of a 2023 Dodge Charger when he “recklessly passed multiple vehicles at a high rate of speed by crossing the centerline and entering the northbound lane while in a designated No-Passing Zone” on Louisiana Highway 20, state police said in a press release.
The driver of a 2017 Kia Cadenza traveling north swerved to avoid hitting the Dodge, only to cross the centerline and collide head-on with a 2017 Kia Sorento. A passenger in the Kia Sorento, identified by police as 78-year-old Herman Hall of Thibodaux, died from his injuries after being transported to a hospital, authorities said.
Lacy allegedly drove around the crash scene and fled south, “without stopping to render aid, call emergency services, or report his involvement in the crash,” state police said.
In addition to negligent homicide, he is being sought for felony hit and run and reckless operation of a vehicle, police said.
“Troopers are in communication with Lacy and his legal representation to turn himself in,” Louisiana State Police said in the release.
Lacy’s agent said the athlete is “fully cooperating with the authorities.”
“We strongly believe that the facts will ultimately demonstrate the truth, but we respect the need for a full and thorough investigation,” the agent, Rocky Arceneaux of Alliance Sports, said in a statement.
Arceneaux added that the case is “being taken very seriously, and we are committed to resolving it responsibly.”
Lacy was a wide receiver for the LSU Tigers. Two days after the crash, on Dec. 19, he announced that he will be declaring for the 2025 NFL draft.
The star prospect had 58 catches for 866 yards and nine touchdowns this season. Lacy had 26 touchdown catches in his five seasons at LSU. He opted out of the Texas Bowl against Baylor to focus on preparation for the draft.
(PHOENIX, Ariz) — A deaf Black man with cerebral palsy who was violently arrested by two Phoenix police officers in August said he tried to alert the officers that he was deaf before they repeatedly punched and tasered him for an alleged crime he had been falsely accused of by another suspect.
Records show that the incident occurred when officers were dispatched to investigate a report of a man causing problems and wouldn’t leave a Circle K convenience store, according to ABC affiliate in Phoenix KNXV-TV.
According to police records, the original description of the suspect was for a white man who had been creating a disturbance in the store, but that man later claimed he was assaulted by a Black man and pointed to Tyron McAlpin – a claim that was disputed by store employees and surveillance video, KNXV-TV reported.
“The officers took me down … And I told them, I was trying to get to my ears to tell them I can’t hear, I can’t hear, pointing to my ears,” McAlpin said through an interpreter as he used sign language, according to KNXV-TV. “I was trying to gesture, and that’s when the cops grabbed me. (I was) trying to show, hey I can’t hear, pointing to my ears, and they grabbed me.”
McAlpin gave his account in the hospital to a medical worker after his arrest, according to KNXV-TV. Two police officers are seen present in the body camera video during the medical examination.
The Phoenix man is seen in the footage telling medical workers he’s having trouble seeing out of his left eye and complaining of neck and chest pain, according to KNXV-TV.
“White male, 20s, grey shirt, blue shorts,” Ben Harris, one of the officers involved in detaining McAlpin, could be heard saying repeatedly to himself on the way to the call, according to the footage.
The newly released video appears to show that Harris knew the suspect was a white male.
In body-worn camera footage recorded after the arrest, employees at the store told law enforcement that the white male had gotten into a physical altercation the night before, according to KNXV-TV. The staff in the footage explains that McAlpin comes to the store regularly, holds the door for people and was trying to help the employees get the man out of the store.
Harris originally told another officer at the scene that he believed he broke a bone in his hand after striking the Phoenix man in the head, according to body camera footage obtained by ABC News in October.
Harris told a different story in court during an October hearing.
“At one point, when I was trying to regain control of his arm, following his initial swings, punch swings, it appears that these fingers were jammed in his forearm, and bent over all the way to my palm,” Harris testified, according to KNXV-TV.
The two Phoenix police officers who were involved in the arrest were placed on paid administrative leave in October amid an investigation into the incident, a spokesperson for the Phoenix Police Department confirmed to ABC News.
ABC News reached out to the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, a union representing the officers, but a request for comment was not immediately returned.
The union’s president, Darrell Kriplean, previously defended the officers’ actions in a statement to ABC News, saying that people should know what to do if uniformed officers approach and that the officers, who did now know McAlpin was deaf at the time, had to force him to comply.
McAlpin was initially charged with felony assault and resisting arrest following the Aug. 19 encounter with Phoenix police, but the charges were dropped on Oct. 17.
The decision to drop the charges against McAlpin was announced by Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, who said in a statement that she personally reviewed the case after a member of the local chapter of the NAACP expressed concern over the incident and poured through “a large volume of video recordings, police reports, and other materials that have been forwarded to my office.”
“I also convened a large gathering of senior attorneys and members of the community to hear their opinions as they pertain to this case,” Mitchell said. “I have now completed my review and have made the decision to dismiss all remaining charges against Mr. McAlpin.”
In the body camera video, police are seen pulling up to McAlpin and ordering him down to the ground. He doesn’t appear to immediately comply. The video then shows the officers punching him at least 10 times in the head and shocking him with a stun gun at least four times while yelling: “Get your hands behind your back.”
McAlpin’s attorney said that his client, who is deaf, didn’t know what was going on and could not hear the commands.
“It is our sincere hope that the County Attorney’s Office will respond to what is shown in the video and to the voices in the community who have raised alarms about what is shown in the video and will dismiss all charges against Tyron,” McAlpin’s attorney, Jesse Showalter, told ABC News in a statement on Oct. 14.
ABC News reached out to Showalter for additional comment after the newly released video became available.
Interim Phoenix Police Chief Michael Sullivan said in a statement on Oct. 16 that the Professional Standard Bureau (PSB) launched an internal investigation shortly after the incident took place.
“Their work is important to ensure all facts are known before drawing any conclusions. I ask for the public’s patience during that process,” Sullivan said.
“I recognize the video is disturbing and raises a lot of questions. I want to assure the community we will get answers to those questions,” he added.
According to Sullivan, the findings of the PSB will be reviewed by himself, as well as by the Office of Accountability and Transparency and the Civilian Review Board “to ensure it is thorough and complete.”
When ABC News asked the Phoenix Police Department if the white man who made the allegedly false allegations was charged, a spokesperson said in a statement that no additional arrests have been made at this point during the investigation.
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
(LAS VEGAS) — Authorities are investigating a vehicle explosion and fire on Wednesday outside the Trump Las Vegas hotel in Nevada.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said it was investigating a fire at the entrance to the tower. The public was told to avoid the area.
The driver pulled into the valet area of the hotel and the vehicle exploded, according to an official. The driver is apparently dead and, so far, the only casualty from the incident.
Investigators do not know what caused the blast, such as whether something was wrong with the vehicle or whether something external prompted it. Determining what was behind the explosion is the key focus of the probe.
The property is the subject of frequent threats and heightened security given its connection to President-elect Donald Trump.
Eric Trump, his son, posted on social media about the incident.
“Earlier today, a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochère of Trump Las Vegas,” he wrote. “The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their swift response and professionalism.”
The hotel also issued a statement on X suggesting the car involved was electric.
“Earlier today a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochère of Trump Las Vegas,” the hotel wrote. “The safety & well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority. We extend our gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their swift response.”
(ATLANTA) — The Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump and his co-defendants in their election interference case.
“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office” over what the appeals court called “a significant appearance of impropriety,” the ruling said.
The criminal indictment against Trump and his co-defendants still stands, the court said.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last year to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Following the ruling, the Fulton County DA’s office filed notice that they intend to appeal the decision to the Georgia Supreme Court. A spokesperson for the DA’s office declined to comment further to ABC News.
Thursday’s ruling leaves the question of who takes over the case — and whether it continues — to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. That decision may be delayed if Trump or Willis continues their appeal to the state’s highest court, Georgia’s Supreme Court.
The case has been on pause after Trump and his co-defendants launched an effort to have Willis disqualified from the case over her relationship with fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify Willis, leading Trump to appeal that decision.
The appeals court ruled to disqualify Willis and her entire office from the case because “no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,” the ruling said.
“The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring,” the order said, reversing Judge McAfee’s original decision.
Wade, who had been the lead prosecutor in the case, resigned as special prosecutor in March after McAfee issued his ruling that either Willis or Wade must step aside from the case due to a “significant appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship between the DA and the prosecutor.
While the appeals court disqualified Willis and her office, it did not find enough evidence to justify “the extreme sanction” of tossing the entire indictment against Trump and his co-defendants, as Trump had sought in his appeal.
“While this is the rare case in which DA Willis and her office must be disqualified due to a significant appearance of impropriety, we cannot conclude that the record also supports the imposition of the extreme sanction of dismissal of the indictment under the appropriate standard,” the ruling said.
“The Georgia Court Of Appeals in a well-reasoned and just decision has held that DA Fani Willis’ misconduct in the case against President Trump requires the disqualification of Willis and her office,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in response to the ruling. “The Court highlighted that Willis’ misconduct created an ‘odor of mendacity’ and an appearance of impropriety that could only be cured by the disqualification of her and her entire office. As the Court rightfully noted, only the remedy of disqualification will suffice to restore public confidence.”
Judge Clay Land — one of the three judges on the appeals panel — dissented from the decision, arguing that reversing the trial court “violates well-established precedent, threatens the discretion given to trial courts, and blurs the distinction between our respective courts.”
Land argued that the appearance of impropriety — rather than a true conflict of interest — is not enough to reverse Judge McAfee’s decision not to disqualify Willis.
“For at least the last 43 years, our appellate courts have held that an appearance of impropriety, without an actual conflict of interest or actual impropriety, provides no basis for the reversal of a trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify,” he wrote.
In his dissent, Land emphasized that the trial court found that Willis did not have a conflict of interest and rejected the allegations of impropriety stemming from her relationship with Wade, including the allegation that she received a financial benefit from his hiring.
“It was certainly critical of her choices and chastised her for making them. I take no issue with that criticism, and if the trial court had chosen, in its discretion, to disqualify her and her office, this would be a different case,” he wrote. “But that is not the remedy the trial court chose, and I believe our case law prohibits us from rejecting that remedy just because we don’t like it or just because we might have gone further had we been the trial judge.”
The Georgia election interference case is one of four criminal cases that were brought against Trump after he left the White House in 2021. His two federal cases, on charges of interfering with the 2020 election and refusing to return classified documents, were dropped following Trump’s reelection last month, due to a longstanding Justice Department policy prohibiting the criminal prosecution of a sitting president.
Trump’s sentencing in New York, following his conviction on charges of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 election, was postponed indefinitely following Trump’s reelection last month.
