‘Narrowly missed a tragedy’: Teen believed to be armed stopped from entering Wisconsin elementary school
Teen believed to be armed stopped from entering Wisconsin elementary school. Via Kenosha Police Department
(KENOSHA, Wis.) — Authorities in Wisconsin say an armed 13-year-old carrying a backpack and duffel bag was stopped from entering an elementary school Thursday morning after being confronted by school staff and taken into custody several hours later.
“We narrowly missed a tragedy,” Kenosha Police Chief Patrick D. Patton told reporters Thursday.
The 13-year-old, who previously attended Roosevelt Elementary School, attempted to enter the building at about 9 a.m. local time, Patton said.
The suspect tried to enter through other doors to the school building, but was not able to get in, Kenosha Unified School District Superintendent Jeffrey Weiss told reporters at a news conference. He then approached the front entrance and was buzzed into a vestibule area. Two school employees confronted the student, who got nervous and then fled, Weiss said.
“I can’t stress … really how heroic our office staff was,” Weiss said, adding “They helped avert a disaster.”
Police later identified the teen suspect, thanks to tips from the community.
“We can confirm that this was not just a suspicious individual, we believe that this was actually an armed suspect with a firearm and there was no legitimate reason to enter the school,” Patton said at a later news conference.
Police took the suspect into custody shortly after 2 p.m. local time. During the earlier news conference, police played a video they said depicted the suspect with a firearm and said the suspect looked up school shootings online and made comments to fellow students for weeks leading up to the incident.
Kenosha is located about 40 miles south of Milwaukee.
An ABC News graphic shows the fire forecast in Southern California on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. Via ABC News.
(LOS ANGELES) — Another round of Santa Ana winds is forecast to sweep into Los Angeles on Thursday night into Friday morning, putting most of the region under a critical fire risk, as emergency responders battle to contain five quickly spreading wildfires.
The wind in the region relaxed overnight as the low pressure, which was helping enhance the wind, is moving away into Texas.
But high pressure is building from the north and that will help to tighten the pressure gradient over Southern California, producing more gusty winds.
Those winds may help spread the five sprawling wildfires that are spread around the Los Angeles area and that emergency responders are attempting to contain.
Thousands of structures have been damaged or destroyed and more than 100,000 people evacuated as uncontrolled infernos spread.
Red flag and high wind warnings have been issued through Friday afternoon for wind gusts 40 to 60 mph, with 70 mph possible in the mountains surrounding the California city.
Relative humidity could drop to as low as 5% for Southern California.
Because of the dry and windy conditions anticipated, a critical fire risk has been issued for much of the area for the next 24 hours.
An air quality alert has also been issued for Southern California, including Los Angeles, due to thick wildfire smoke and dust being blown around.
Smoke is forecast to engulf most of the Los Angeles basin.
ABC News’ David Brennan contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The prosecution and defense are preparing for Monday’s closing arguments in the Daniel Penny trial as it comes to a close after a break for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Penny put Jordan Neely, 30, a homeless man, in a fatal 6 minute-long chokehold after Neely boarded a subway car acting erratically.
Penny, 25, is charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide in the May 2023 choking death of Neely on the New York City subway. He pleaded not guilty.
Here are the key takeaways from the trial so far:
The prosecution’s argument
Prosecutors argue that Penny, a former Marine trained in martial arts, should have known that his chokehold maneuver was turning fatal, arguing that Penny held onto Neely “for far too long” — more than 5 minutes after the train pulled into the station and passengers were able to exit.
Neely entered a moderately crowded subway car on an uptown F train at the Second Avenue stop and began yelling and moving erratically, when Penny put Neely in a chokehold. Thirty seconds later, the train arrived at the next station and essentially all the passengers left the train car.
Footage of the interaction between Penny and Neely, which began about 2 minutes after the incident started, captures Penny holding Neely for about 4 minutes and 57 seconds on a relatively empty train with a couple of passengers nearby.
“He was aware of the risk his actions would kill Mr. Neely and did it anyway,” Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran said in her opening statements. “Jordan Neely took his last breaths on the dirty floor of an uptown F train.”
Prosecutors further argued that while Penny may be an “honorable veteran” and “nice young man,” he used too much force for too long and was reckless with Neely’s life because “he didn’t recognize his humanity.”
She later continued, “Under the law, deadly physical force such as a chokehold is permitted only when it is absolutely necessary and for only as long as is absolutely necessary. And here, the defendant went way too far.”
The second-degree manslaughter charge only requires prosecutors to prove Penny acted recklessly, not intentionally, according to prosecutors.
The defense’s argument
Defense attorney Thomas Kenniff countered that Penny sought to protect passengers, claiming he was responding to Neely’s “unhinged rage.”
“This is a case about a young man who did for others what we would want someone to do for us,” Kenniff said. “It doesn’t make him a hero, but it doesn’t make him a killer.”
Penny claims to have heard Neely say “I will kill,” said Kenniff, who has said there was no opportunity for his client to de-escalate or stop Neely from the harm he was threatening.
Borrowing from “a bit” of martial arts training he received in the Marine Corps, Penny put Neely into a chokehold without intending to kill him, the defense said, but to hold him until police arrived.
“His conduct was consistent with someone who values human life and that’s why he was trying to protect it so fiercely,” the defense attorney said.
Kenniff insisted his client “does not want to use any more force than is necessary,” but Neely “aggressively resisted” while in Penny’s grip. He said Penny thought Neely, who police say was unarmed, might have a weapon as he waited for police.
Daniel Penny’s interview with police
Jurors saw body camera video that had not yet been publicly released of Penny’s initial encounter with police, more than 4 minutes after he let go of Neely.
On the first day of the trial, the jury saw the officer’s body-worn camera footage that captured the attempts to save Neely and showed his lifeless body on the subway floor.
When searched for weapons, the only thing officers found in Neely’s pockets was a muffin. Nothing else was found in the jacket, Officer Teodoro Tejada confirmed.
Penny is heard saying, “I put him out,” when the officer asked what happened. To prosecutors, the footage — which had not been seen publicly until the trial — is evidence Penny disregarded Neely’s basic humanity.
The defense used Tejada’s testimony to suggest to the jury Penny did not behave like a criminal by fleeing the scene.
“Did he appear cooperative?” the lawyer asked.
“Yes,” the officer replied.
“It didn’t appear that he had anything to hide?” Kenniff asked.
“No,” Tejada said.
Video of Jordan Neely’s subway chokehold death
In a video taken by then-17-year-old high school student bystander Ivette Rosario, a witness can be heard calling out to Penny, “He’s dying…you need to let him go.” Others are heard yelling on the clip to “get the cops!”
Rosario testified that she did not hear anyone say that Neely is “dying” at the time and it’s not clear whether Penny heard it either.
Man who helped restrain Neely testifies A Bronx man who helped Penny restrain Neely ”jumped in and tried to help” so Penny could release his chokehold, according to the man’s testimony.
Eric Gonzalez, who is seen in video footage holding Neely by the wrist, boarded the subway and noticed Penny holding down Neely “with his legs around his waist and his arm around his neck.” Gonzalez testified he did not know why Penny was restraining Neely but he heard people yelling to call for the police.
Gonzalez said he waved his hands in front of Penny’s face to get his attention.
“I said, ‘I will grab his hands so you can let go,’” Gonzalez told the jury. “Just giving him a different option to hold his arm — well, to restrain him until the police came.”
Prosecutors asked Gonzalez to clarify: “If I held his arm down, he could let go of his neck,” he said.
Gonzalez said he watched Neely’s body go limp and let go of him before Penny did the same.
“I tried to shake Jordan Neely to get a response out of him, feel for a pulse, and then I walked away,” Gonzalez said.
Conflicting testimony about the cause of death
Dr. Cynthia Harris of the city’s Chief Medical Examiner’s Office conducted Neely’s autopsy in 2023 and ruled Neely’s death a homicide, with the cause of death as “Compression of neck (chokehold).”
She testified at the trial that “the consensus was unanimous” in the medical examiner’s office that Neely had died from the chokehold, according to Associated Press reporting: “There are no alternative reasonable explanations,” she said.
Forensic pathologist Satish Chundru disputed that determination in his testimony in defense of Penny, according to the AP, arguing that Neely died from “combined effects” of his schizophrenia, synthetic marijuana, a blood condition and his efforts to struggle against Penny.
“In your opinion, did Mr. Penny choke Mr. Neely to death?” defense lawyer Steven Raiser asked, according to AP.
“No,” replied Chundru.
Prosecutors argued that Chundru’s testimony departed from medical literature and his own opinion in similar cases, but Chundru testified that the cases were not comparable to this one, according to the AP.
Marine Corps instructor who trained Penny testifies
According to the AP, Joseph Caballer, the combat instructor who trained Penny, said that Penny was taught how to knock a person unconscious — but that the technique could kill someone if held too long. He argued that someone performing the technique is supposed to let go when the person is rendered unconscious, and testified that Penny used the chokehold in an “improper” manner when asked by prosecutors.
However, the defense claims Penny did not use a strong enough hold to kill Penny, the AP reports.
(WASHINGTON) — Nearly 1,600 individuals have faced charges in the four years since a mob of President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, according to figures released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Monday.
But one of the largest investigations in the Department of Justice’s history now faces a future rife with uncertainty.
Of the roughly 1,583 defendants whom prosecutors have charged in connection with the Capitol riot, 608 have faced charges for assaulting, resisting or interfering with law enforcement trying to protect the complex that day, the office said.
Roughly 174 of those 608 were charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or otherwise causing serious injury to an officer.
And in a rare move, the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed it is currently evaluating whether to bring charges in roughly 200 cases that have been referred to them by the FBI, about 60 of which involve potential felony charges involving allegations of assault or impeding law enforcement.
While the U.S. Attorney’s Office has provided monthly “by the numbers” updates in connection with the Capitol attack — detailing arrests, guilty pleas and sentencings among other figures — Monday’s update is the first to include an estimate of the number of uncharged cases being evaluated by prosecutors.
It comes just days before Trump is set to take office for his second term and potentially follow through on his years-long public promises to pardon a vast number of Jan. 6 defendants, whom he has described as “political prisoners” unfairly targeted by the Biden administration.
The two months since Election Day have already proved to be a time of major instability for the Justice Department’s Capitol riot cases — as prosecutors have sought to manage an increasing number of newly emboldened defendants seeking delays in their cases with the potential promise of pardons or commutations on the horizon.
While Trump has promised to hand down a number of pardons and commutations during his first hours in office to some Jan. 6 defendants, neither he nor his transition have provided concrete guidance on how sweeping those pardons will ultimately be.
Trump’s Justice Department is also expected to slow down or even shutter completely the ongoing investigation into the attack.
In figures released Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office made clear to document how many cases are outstanding in advance of Trump’s inauguration, noting that 170 defendants who have already pleaded guilty or been found guilty still await sentencing.
Roughly 300 cases remain where a charged defendant hasn’t pleaded guilty or been found guilty, approximately 180 of whom have been charged with assaulting or impeding police.
