Man dies after attempting illegal BASE jump at the Grand Canyon: NPS
(PHOENIX) — A man died after attempting an illegal BASE jump in the Grand Canyon in Arizona, officials said Friday.
The Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center received a report around 7:30 a.m. local time Thursday of a visitor who had attempted a base jump from Yavapai Point on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, the National Park Service said.
“Park rangers responded and located the body of a deceased male approximately 500 feet below the rim, along with a deployed parachute,” NPS said in a statement.
The body of the BASE jumper was recovered Friday morning. The victim was transported by helicopter to the rim and then brought to the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office, which is conducting an investigation into the incident along with NPS.
The name of the victim is being withheld pending positive identification, NPS said. No further information was released.
BASE is an acronym for building, antenna, span and earth. The recreational sport involves jumping from a fixed object and using a parachute to descend to the ground.
The “high-risk activity” is prohibited in all areas of Grand Canyon National Park, NPS said.
The incident comes a day after a 20-year-old man accidentally fell 400 feet to his death from a scenic overlook at the Grand Canyon, officials said.
(UVALDE, Texas) — A former Uvalde, Texas, school district police officer pleaded not guilty to the 29 counts against him on Thursday as families of the Robb Elementary School victims looked on.
Two teachers and 19 students were killed in the May 24, 2022, mass shooting. Law enforcement waited some 77 minutes at the scene before breaching a classroom and killing the gunman.
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales faces 29 charges of abandoning and failing to protect children: 19 for the 19 children killed and 10 for the children who survived in classroom 112.
The indictment alleges that despite having time to respond to the shooting, Gonzales failed to act to impede the gunman and failed to follow active shooter training by not advancing toward the gunfire.
Over 30 survivors and victims’ families watched in the courtroom on Thursday as Gonzales pleaded not guilty.
The families included the parents of 10-year-old victim Tess Mata, the parents of 9-year-old victim Jackie Cazares and the parents of survivor Khloie Torres.
“It’s not that we want to be here — we just feel like we have to,” Tess’ mom, Veronica Mata, told ABC News after the hearing. “We’re here ’cause we have to be here for Tess.”
Tess’ dad, Jerry Mata, said while he feels more than two officers should have been indicted, he hopes this is the start of accountability.
“The emotions right now are so high,” he said. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
Gonzales’ defense attorney, Nico LaHood, told reporters, “We have not seen any evidence that would lead us to believe that Mr. Gonzales is guilty of these allegations. … All he did was show up to try to help those children.”
“There was over 370 officers there. We have not seen or even heard of a theory of why Mr. Gonzales is being singled out,” LaHood said.
Gonzales is due to return to court on Sept. 16.
The former school district police chief, Pete Arredondo, who was the on-site commander the day of the shooting, was arrested last month on the same charges as Gonzales. He has also pleaded not guilty.
The indictment alleges that, after hearing shots fired, Arredondo failed to identify the situation as an active shooter, failed to respond as trained, and instead, called SWAT, thereby delaying the response by law enforcement.
The indictment also alleges he chose to negotiate with the gunman instead of engaging; failed to timely provide keys and breaching tools; failed to determine if the classroom door was locked; failed to follow the school district’s active shooter policy; and failed to develop an immediate action plan.
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In a recorded interview with investigators one day after the shooting, Arredondo said he did not view himself as the incident commander, contrary to the active shooter plan he devised.
(NEW YORK) — A California man accused of deliberately starting what has become the largest active wildfire in the country has been formally charged with felony arson, court records show.
Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, of Chico, was arraigned Monday in connection with the Park Fire, which has quickly become one of the largest recorded wildfires in California’s history. During his first court appearance, he was charged with felony arson with an enhancement of special circumstances due to prior convictions. His arraignment has been continued until Thursday.
He will be held with no bail as he awaits trial. He has not yet entered a plea. Attorney information was not immediately available.
Stout was allegedly spotted just before 3 p.m. PT on Wednesday pushing a burning car down a gully called “Alligator Hole” in Bidwell Park, near Chico in Butte County, prosecutors said.
“The car went down an embankment approximately 60 feet and burned completely, spreading flames that caused the Park Fire,” Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said in a statement.
A man who was later identified as Stout was allegedly seen calmly leaving the area by blending in with other park visitors fleeing the rapidly evolving fire, Ramsey said.
Stout was arrested Thursday on suspicion of arson in the fire and jailed without bail.
The arson suspect has two previous “strike” felony convictions, according to the Butte County District Attorney’s office.
The “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law in California imposes a life sentence for almost any crime, no matter how minor, if the defendant had two prior convictions for crimes defined as serious or violent by the California Penal Code, according to Stanford Law School.
Stout’s prior felony convictions include lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age in 2001 and robbery with great bodily injury in 2002, according to the district attorney.
He was sentenced to 20 years in state prison following his 2002 conviction, according to the district attorney.
Since igniting on Wednesday, the Park Fire had spread to more than 373,000 acres by Monday afternoon, or approximately 583 square miles, through four counties — Butte, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama, according to Cal Fire. The blaze was 12% contained as of Monday afternoon, fire officials said.
More than 110 structures have been confirmed destroyed, and at least six others damaged, according to Cal Fire. There have been no reports of deaths or people unaccounted for, officials said.
The Park Fire is the largest fire burning in California as well as the nation right now, surpassing the Durkee Fire in eastern Oregon. It is now the sixth-largest fire recorded in California history, officials said.
The rapid spread of the fire is being fueled by an abundance of vegetation and one of the hottest and driest summers on record in the area, officials said.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is seeking to delay the upcoming sentencing in his New York hush money case by again asking a federal court in New York to take up the case in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.
In a 60-page filing Thursday, Trump’s lawyers urged the court to reconsider his argument to remove the case from state court to federal court ahead of the former president’s Sept. 18 sentencing.
“The ongoing proceedings will continue to cause direct and irreparable harm to President Trump — the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential election — and voters located far beyond Manhattan,” defense lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in the filing.
Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election. In a subsequent decision last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken as president.
It’s unclear if the federal court will consider Trump’s new motion, since U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Trump’s original attempt to have the case removed in July 2023 when the former president argued that the case centered on his official acts while in office.
“Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a President’s official acts. It does not reflect in any way the color of the President’s official duties,” Hellerstein wrote in that ruling.
Trump’s lawyers are now arguing that multiple Supreme Court decisions this year — including the court’s rulings on presidential immunity and Chevron deference — “add force” to Trump’s argument for removal and immunity.
“The groundbreaking Presidential immunity issues arising from Trump v. United States are alone a sufficient basis to grant this removal application,” Thursday’s filing said.
Trump’s lawyers raised familiar arguments about the kind of “official-acts evidence” they believe tainted the former president’s New York trial, including the testimony of White House former communications director Hope Hicks and the use of Trump’s tweets while president as evidence. Defense lawyers also repeated previously unsuccessful arguments about the alleged bias of the judge overseeing the case.
“Post-trial removal is necessary under these circumstances to afford President Trump an unbiased forum, free from local hostilities, where he can seek redress for these Constitutional violations,” the filing said.
Defense lawyers repeatedly mentioned the timing of Trump’s sentencing throughout their filing and warned about the impact of Trump’s potential imprisonment, though most legal experts believe Trump is unlikely to serve any sentence until after the election.
“The impending election cannot be redone. The currently unaddressed harm to the Presidency resulting from this improper prosecution will adversely impact the operations of the federal government for generations,” the filing said.
A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment on the filing.