Man who allegedly beat 84-year-old with dementia, set him on fire is charged with murder
Los Angeles County District Attorney placard. (Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — A man is charged with murder for allegedly beating an 84-year-old man with dementia and setting him on fire, Los Angeles prosecutors said.
The victim, Bang Cho, had wandered away from a senior care home when he was attacked just before midnight on Sunday in downtown LA, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said.
The incident unfolded when Cho walked behind the suspect, Lavonta Wilder, and grabbed a bag Wilder was carrying, prosecutors said.
Wilder, a 40-year-old experiencing homelessness, allegedly “viciously” punched and kicked Cho, then lifted the elderly man over his shoulder and slammed him to the ground, and then set him on fire, prosecutors said.
Cho was taken to a hospital where he died the next day, prosecutors said.
Wilder is charged with murder and faces a special allegation of having a prior serious felony, prosecutors said. He’s due in court for an arraignment next month.
“The level of violence alleged here is brutal, callous and extreme,” LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement.
Cho “was disoriented and living with dementia, conditions that made him particularly vulnerable,” Hochman said. “Our thoughts are with the victim’s family as they endure this unimaginable tragedy.”
(TRUCKEE, Calif.) — The group of skiers involved in the deadly avalanche in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains on Tuesday includes parents, mostly mothers, of students at a local school and ski academy, according to a source involved in the search and rescue effort and a statement from the school.
“Multiple members of the Sugar Bowl Academy community and others with strong connections to Sugar Bowl, Donner Summit, and the backcountry community died in an avalanche on Tuesday, February 17, 2026,” a statement from the school said.
Sugar Bowl Academy is a private independent school boarding and day school designed for competitive skiers.
A source involved in the search and rescue effort on the scene told ABC News that most of both the deceased and surviving victims of the avalanche are parents connected to the school.
The parents’ kids are on a winter break from school, according to sources familiar.
Authorities have not publicly identified any of the victims.
Emergency responders “are still working to recover all of the victims and are not at this time sharing the personal details of the victims and the survivors out of respect for the families affected,” the school said in the statement. “Sugar Bowl Academy is similarly not sharing the names of the victims and survivors out of respect for the families affected.”
The statement went on to say, “Sugar Bowl Academy is focused on supporting its athletes, students, staff, and families through this tragedy. Most importantly, the Sugar Bowl Academy community will continue to be there in the months and years ahead for the families that have lost loved ones.”
The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said earlier Wednesday that 15 people were part of the group of skiers who were caught in the avalanche on Tuesday at the end of a three-day guided trip.
Eight people are confirmed dead and one other person is still missing, but presumed dead, the sheriff’s office said. Of the dead and missing, seven are women and two are men.
Six people survived the avalanche — four men and two women — and were rescued by crews after sheltering under a tarp for hours amid “highly dangerous” conditions, authorities said.
The tragedy is the deadliest U.S. avalanche in 45 years, second only to an avalanche that killed 11 people on Washington’s Mt. Rainer in 1981.
A spokesperson for Nevada County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The entrance to a U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) detention facility is seen following a shooting, on September 25, 2025 in Dallas, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
(ARLINGTON, Texas) — A family in Arlington, Texas, grieved as they laid 30-year-old Wael Tarabishi to rest. His father, Maher Tarabishi, however, was not at the funeral. Instead, he was at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center nearly three hours away in Anson, Texas.
Wael faced a long battle with Advanced Pompe Disease, causing him to be severely disabled. Maher was by his side through it all, and has been described as his son’s arms, legs and lungs because of how involved and essential he was in his life.
Maher, a Jordanian native, overstayed a tourist visa here in the U.S. in 1994, his family and advocates said via @freemahertrabishi on Instagram account. The U.S. government allowed Maher to remain in the country legally to care for Wael through a Supervision Order in 2008, according to the account.
Maher presented himself at the Dallas field office to fulfill conditions of the Supervision Order last year for his annual check-in appointment, but found the building under temporary closure, the account noted. In an act of good will, the account said, Maher visited the office again once it re-opened.
Despite maintaining lawful status and carrying valid documentation of Wael’s condition, officers placed Maher in handcuffs and was told to “shut up and sit down” as he pleaded with them, according to the account.
After Maher was detained by ICE in October 2025, his family and advocates rallied to reunite the father and son. They said Wael, a U.S. citizen, would die without Maher’s care. Three months later, he did.
After Wael’s death on Jan. 23, heartbroken family and supporters desperately tried to get ICE to allow Maher to attend his son’s funeral on Thursday. Late Tuesday night, ICE gave final word that Maher would be denied permission.
“America speaks of freedom and family values yet it stole Maher from his dying son,” Shahd Arnaout, Maher’s daughter-in-law, posted on her Instagram today. “A funeral without Maher!!!!! This is a human rights crime.”
In a statement to ABC News, ICE accused Maher of being part of an organization the U.S. deems a terrorist group.
“Maher Mohd Tarabishi, 62, a criminal alien and self-admitted member of the Palestine Liberation Organization — a murderous foreign terrorist organization that has carried out countless terrorist attacks and plane hijackings, was arrested by ICE officers Oct. 28 in Dallas, Texas. Shockingly, Tarabishi has been permitted to remain in the U.S. illegally for nearly two decades despite being ordered removed from the U.S. by both an immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals,” the agency said.
According to ICE, the Obama administration proactively filed a joint motion to dismiss the immigration case against Tarabishi in 2011, “despite the fact that he had admitted to being a member of a foreign terrorist organization” and had been ordered removed. The agency said its arrest of Tarabishi “shows clear evidence of the game-changing impact the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts are having.”
Shahd, a consistent voice for her family, vehemently denied these claims in an interview with ABC News’ Rhiannon Ally last week.
“We denied that he’s part of PLO or any other part of organization. And we did, his lawyer did,” she said. “He went to the Dallas Field Immigration Center and he spoke to an ICE agent and they respond with the no. He requested to go and at least to say goodbye and to the funeral and both answer was no. So why are they doing that?”
Ali Elhorr, attorney for Maher Tarbishi at Aspire Immigration Law, PLLC, said in a press release that he was profoundly disappointed in the decision and shared details of the process.
“We were in communication with multiple ICE officers who had shown the willingness to facilitate Maher’s supervised release to attend Wael’s burial … Initial steps in the process had already begun when I received a call from the ICE officer with whom I had been in contact,” he said. “The officer informed me that his director stepped in and told him that Maher would not be allowed to attend Wael’s burial. This was the final decision.”
Heartbroken, Shahd explained that Wael’s final wishes were to be with his father.
“We were trying so hard to let him out, to let Maher out, at least to say goodbye to Wael before he died. Because that’s what Wael’s wish was, ‘To say good-bye to my dad. At least let me see him one more time. At least, let me just maybe touch his hand before I die … ‘ ” he said. “Wael is a U.S. citizen And he asked for his dad, it was very simple ask for him. He trusted his country and he trusted the system. But they failed.”
Shahd described Wael as “an angel” and “an amazing person.”
“With everything Wael went through and all the hardship that he had, he always cared about his family. He always made us laugh,” she said. “Him and his father, it wasn’t just a normal relationship between any father and a son. No, he was his best friend. He was his caregiver. He was dad. He was everything for him.”
She said that she and many supporters believe ICE is directly responsible for Wael’s tragic death.
“ICE is responsible of the death of Wael Tarabishi. They may not kill him with a bullet, but they killed him inside.”
In her Instagram post last week, Shahd promised not to forget Wael.
“Me and the girls will miss you every single day. You will always live in our hearts. I will keep speaking your name, I will keep sharing your story, and I will keep every promise I made. I won’t stop until your dad is out and our family gets the justice and peace you deserved.”
(NEW YORK) — Before temperatures get warmer in the East next week, brutal cold is expected this weekend — the coldest of the season, so far, for parts of the Northeast.
Some of the coldest areas will also see accumulating snow to usher in the arctic blast.
On Friday morning, a quick snow shower will move through Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, blanketing the states in a dusting to 2 inches of snow.
Friday afternoon, snow will fall from eastern Kentucky through western Pennsylvania.
On Friday evening, scattered snow will be across Appalachia, from the Smoky Mountains to upstate New York. Up to 2 inches of snow is possible for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
On Saturday, snow will fall over New England — mainly for all areas north of New York City — though some flurries or light snow may reach the city, leading to a dusting to an inch of snow there. Boston could see an inch or two of snow.
Higher snow totals are expected in New England, where 2 to 4 inches are possible for the eastern I-90 corridor, including Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Erie to near Cleveland.
This low to moderate impact winter storm will usher in another cold blast along with very windy conditions leading to brutal wind chills across the region.
These same areas seeing the most snow will also be under strong wind gusts, with wind chills plummeting to 30 below zero. An extreme cold watch is in place from Friday night through Sunday morning.
In parts of northeastern New York, such as Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, wind chills could drop to -35 degrees, which would cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes.
High temperatures in New York City will only reach the 20s on Saturday and the teens on Sunday. The lows will drop into the single digits for Sunday morning. Wind chills during the daytime this weekend will be mainly at or below zero due to gusts up to 50 mph on Saturday and gusts up to 30 mph on Sunday. Sunday morning wind chills could reach -15 in the city.
Boston and Buffalo, New York, could feel like the negative teens on Sunday morning and the negative single digits on Monday morning.
Next week, a slow pattern change is expected, with average to even above average temperatures possible for the East by the middle and end of next week. It will still be chilly, but given the brutal cold we have all been enduring, it might feel downright balmy.
