Man charged with ethnic intimidation after allegedly stabbing Philadelphia park ranger
Philadelphia Police Department
(PHILADELPHIA) — A man accused of stabbing a Philadelphia park ranger on Sunday has been charged with ethnic intimidation, police said.
The suspect — 34-year-old Thomas Riceman — also faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and terroristic threats, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department told ABC News.
Police said they responded to reports of an assault Sunday afternoon in Rittenhouse Square, where they found the victim in the park’s security booth suffering from multiple stab wounds.
The victim, who had been working inside the security booth, told police the suspect had entered the booth and laid down before the alleged attack.
When the victim asked the suspect to leave, the suspect “suddenly attacked,” stabbing the victim in the face and head with scissors, police said.
According to police, the ethnic intimidation charge was filed because the suspect allegedly told the park ranger to “go back to his own country.”
Despite being injured, police said the victim managed to handcuff the suspect and hold him until police arrived.
The victim was transported to a hospital, where police said he was last listed as being in stable condition.
ABC News wasn’t immediately able to determine if the suspect had retained legal counsel.
(NEW YORK) — A 28-year-old mother has been missing for two weeks under what police in Virginia said are believed to be “involuntary” circumstances.
Mamta Kafle was last seen on July 31 in Manassas Park, Virginia, about 30 miles outside of Washington, D.C, the Manassas Park Police Department said. She hasn’t had any contact with family or friends since then, police said.
Authorities said they believe Kafle is “involuntarily” missing, citing the length of time since she’s been seen.
“Investigators have conducted several follow-ups with neighbors, friends, co-workers and the husband,” police said in a statement. “The investigators are also utilizing several investigative tools to help in an attempt to locate Mamta Kafle.”
Manassas Park police gave a detailed timeline of the investigation on Thursday while asking for the public’s help in locating her.
Kafle, a registered nurse at a hospital, was last seen at work on July 27, police said. She spoke to a friend on July 28 and was last seen by her husband on July 31, police said.
Officers responded to their home on Aug. 2 to conduct a welfare check, police said. They had received the request to conduct a welfare check from her employer, Washington ABC affiliate WJLA reported. Her husband provided information but did not want to report her missing at that time, police said.
Three days later, on Aug. 5, her husband contacted police and reported her missing and she was entered as missing with Virginia State Police, police said.
Over the next several days, “detectives conducted an extensive investigation and found that there was a significant lack of recent contact by Mamta with her family, friends, employer and on social media postings,” police said.
At that point, detectives were able to elevate her missing person status to an involuntary/critical missing person and “additional resources have been afforded to this investigation,” said police, who subsequently released a missing person flyer to the public on Aug. 8.
Her friend and former colleague, Sunita Basnet Thapa, told WJLA the two bonded over both being from Nepal, and that she was a mentor to Kafle. She attended an event Tuesday in Manassas Park to raise awareness about Kafle’s disappearance and press for updates.
Basnet Thapa told WJLA they have “no clue what is going on,” adding that she has been waiting for news for 14 days.
The case remains active, police said.
“The husband, friends, and co-workers have all been cooperative throughout the investigation and detectives will continue to follow up on all investigative leads to locate Mamta Kafle,” the Manassas Park Police Department said Thursday.
Kafle’s friend, Nadia Navarro, who organized Tuesday’s gathering, told WJLA that it is unlike the mother to leave her 11-month-old daughter.
“Even if she was desperate, even if she might have been facing something, she wouldn’t have left her daughter,” Navarro told WJLA. “She was very self-sacrificial that way, no matter what would have been happening.”
ABC News was unable to reach Kafle’s family.
Her husband spoke to a crowd gathered in support of Kafle on Monday by phone, saying that he couldn’t attend because he was caring for their daughter, according to WRC.
“I need to find her as soon as possible, and then using all the tools — community, society, police,” he told the crowd.
Friends are planning to hold a search for Kafle on Thursday afternoon.
Kafle is 5 feet tall, weighs 132 pounds and has black hair and dark brown eyes, police said. She was last seen wearing blue scrubs, police said.
Police urge anyone with information to call the Manassas Park Police Department at 703-361-1136 or submit an anonymous tip to Manassas/Manassas Park Crime Solvers at 703-330-0330.
(NEW YORK) — Several New York City beaches will remain closed for the weekend due to strong rip currents from Hurricane Ernesto.
The Category 1 storm made landfall in Bermuda early Saturday, hovering slowly over the island throughout the day with hurricane-force winds and heavy rain. Although hundreds of miles offshore, the system is generating rip currents on the East Coast of the U.S., prompting the National Weather Service to issue alerts for high surf and riptides along much of the Atlantic coastline.
Waves in the Northeast have the potential of reaching up to 9 and 10 feet, according to the National Weather Service.
In New York City, beaches in Brooklyn, including Coney Island, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach as well as the Rockaway and Riis beaches in Queens will be closed on Saturday and Sunday, the NYC Parks and the National Park Service announced at the start of the weekend. Swimming and wading are not permitted during the closure due to possibly life-threatening conditions from the rip currents.
“Our primary focus is keeping New Yorkers safe, so as the impacts of Tropical Storm Ernesto approach New York City, we are closing our ocean-facing beaches in Queens and Brooklyn this weekend to protect New Yorkers from dangerous rip currents,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement on Friday.
Video taken by ABC New York station WABC showed workers on Coney Island preparing the beach for the onslaught of powerful waves by reinforcing mounds of sand to protect from erosion.
On Long Island, berms were built to protect the delicate shoreline, which has suffered from beach erosion in recent years, WABC reported. One of the biggest concerns there is sea water coming in from the beachfront and flowing into low-lying regions, Jones Beach State Park Director Jeffrey Mason told WABC.
Beaches on Long Island were not closed for swimming, but beachgoers were advised by officials to use caution.
Ernesto will continue moving north and northeast and is expected to move off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada on Monday night as a weakening hurricane.
More storms are expected in the coming weeks, as September is typically the peak of the hurricane season, according to the National Hurricane Center.
(NEW YORK) — Utah placed a blanket ban on at least 13 books in schools, including works by Sarah J. Maas, Judy Blume, Rupi Kaur, Margaret Atwood and other authors, in what free speech advocates say is the first state book ban.
The Utah State Board of Education put together a list of titles that have met the statewide threshold for removal based on a newly enforced law.
H.B. 29, signed by Gov. Spencer Cox in March, requires all schools to remove a book if school officials from at least three school districts or at least two school districts and five charter schools have determined that a book constitutes “objective sensitive material.”
“Objective sensitive material” is defined under the law as an instructional material that constitutes pornographic or indecent material, which is further defined in Utah law as depicting or describing sex or nudity while also lacking “serious value” for minors.
This first set of removed material — that state officials say will be updated in accordance with further book restrictions — includes Forever by Judy Blume, a coming-of-age book that touches on sexuality; Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, a post-apocalyptic novel, and Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, a poetry book about “violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity.”
“The Board is committed to following the law and the list will be updated if and when needed,” a spokesperson for the state Board of Education said in a statement to ABC News.
Several groups have spoken out against the banning of these books, including PEN America, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting free speech, and Let Utah Read, a coalition of Utah residents, educators, librarians and others.
“Allowing just a handful of districts to make decisions for the whole state is antidemocratic, and we are concerned that implementation of the law will result in less diverse library shelves for all Utahns,” said Kasey Meehan, a program director for PEN America’s Freedom to Read initiative.
Advocacy groups say they fear this is just the start of “statewide book purges.”
“Unlike some legislators who are out to make political hay and use national culture war issues to divide us, Utahns understand that great American authors like Judy Blume, Sherman Alexie, and Toni Morrison are not pornographers, and no one should be criminally charged for selling, giving, or lending a book to a high school student,” Let Utah Read said in a statement, referencing other authors who have faced bans in schools across the country.
