Nearly 800 prisoners now helping to battle Los Angeles fires
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(LOS ANGELES) — As firefighters work to contain the slew of brush fires spreading across Los Angeles County, among the emergency responders on Thursday were nearly 800 incarcerated individuals, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) confirmed to ABC News.
The prisoners, who voluntarily sign up to be a part of the Conservation (Fire) Camps program, are embedded with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection crew members (CalFire).
The participating individuals are paid between $5.80 and $10.24 per day plus $1 an hour when responding to active emergencies, according to CDCR.
“CDCR Fire Camp Program firefighters are proud to be embedded with CAL FIRE personnel to protect lives, property, and natural resources in Southern California,” the law enforcement agency said in a statement.
Incarcerated firefighters have been working “around the clock” cutting fire lines and removing fuel from behind structures to slow fire spread, according to the agency, which called the program a source of “crucial support” during emergencies.
The exact number of hours the incarcerated crew members have worked since brush fires erupted in Los Angeles on Tuesday was not immediately clear.
CDCR’s Fire Camp Program operates 35 minimum-security facilities in 25 counties across California — including two camps designated for incarcerated women.
There are over 1,800 incarcerated individuals staffing the camps across the state, according to the agency.
Participating prisoners have joined the thousands of federal, state and local emergency responders that are battling at least five sprawling wildfires across Los Angeles County.
The largest of the devastating blazes, the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades, has scorched over 19,000 acres, destroyed thousands of structures and remains entirely uncontained as of Thursday afternoon.
The Eaton Fire, in Altadena, has spread over 10,000 acres and is also 0% contained, according to CalFire.
There have been at least five deaths between the two fires, a number officials warn may rise as emergency efforts continue.
More than 180,000 Los Angeles County residents have been ordered to evacuate as wind-driven infernos both big and small spread in the area.
(NEW YORK) — Prosecutors on Long Island plan to announce a “significant development” in their case against accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann on Tuesday, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
The architect and father has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the murders of six women whose remains were found in a remote spot along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach and parts of eastern Long Island.
Prosecutors have also linked him to the death of several other unsolved killings — including that of Valerie Mack, a New Jersey woman whose remains were discovered in Manorville and near Gilgo Beach. Like the other women, the prosecutors have said she was also involved in sex work.
Prosecutors named Heuermann a suspect in Mack’s death in June based on evidence allegedly found on an electronic device seized from Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park on Long Island. Prosecutors have said Heuermann kept detailed notes about serial killings, body disposal and torture pornography.
A spokeswoman for Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney declined to comment.
Heuermann, 61, is scheduled to appear in court in Riverhead at 9:30 a.m.
(NEW ORLEANS) — The suspect in the truck attack that killed 14 and injured dozens in New Orleans on New Year’s had traveled to Egypt in 2023 for about a month, his half-brother told ABC News.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran and U.S.-born citizen from Texas, went to Egypt alone and told his family he was going “because it was cheap and beautiful,” his half-brother, 24-year-old Abdur Jabbar, said.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s foreign travel is a part of the ongoing investigation, law enforcement officials told ABC News.
Investigators are working to determine what he did during his travel in Egypt, why he went and who he interacted with while there, multiple sources said. Critical to the probe is whether he had been radicalized prior to the travel or if the travel marked the start of his radicalization.
“This next most important phase of the investigation is to find out how that radicalization happened and if it happened on that trip,” Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams told ABC News.
Early on New Year’s Day, Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck onto a sidewalk and around a parked police car serving as a barricade to plow into pedestrians over a three-block stretch on Bourbon Street, police said. He then exited the damaged vehicle armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement said. Officers returned fire, killing him.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar posted several videos online hours before the attack “proclaiming his support for ISIS” and mentioning he joined ISIS before this summer, according to the FBI.
Officials said the first 24 hours after the ramming attack were occupied by a feverish effort to determine whether there were additional suspects on the loose or if Shamsud-Din Jabbar worked with accomplices. Since Thursday, investigators have been focused on piecing together his path to radicalization and the events that led up to his decision to attack Bourbon Street.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security has issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning the nation’s 18,000 law-enforcement agencies about potential copycats, ABC News learned. The bulletin was sent out of an abundance of caution to sensitize law enforcement around the country to be on the lookout for any activity pointing to the use of vehicles as a method to inflict mass casualties, sources told ABC News.
“We advise federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government and law enforcement officials and private sector security partners to remain vigilant of potential copycat or retaliatory attacks inspired by this attack and other recent, lethal vehicle-ramming incidents across the globe,” the bulletin said.
The bulletin notes that ISIS has been promoting the use of vehicles as a terrorism weapon since around 2014.
ISIS has ramped up calls for its supporters to launch low-tech, mass casualty ramming attacks in recent months, sources told ABC News, especially since the most recent Israel-Hamas conflict began in October 2023.
The bulletin stated that Shamsud-Din Jabbar was inspired by ISIS but that there remains no evidence of any co-conspirators. A senior law-enforcement official told ABC News that there is so far no sign of ISIS claiming responsibility for the New Orleans attack.
“Law enforcement should be aware that in many cases attackers have conducted vehicle-ramming attacks with secondary weapons and may continue the attack with edged weapons, firearms, or IEDs after the vehicle has stopped,” the bulletin said. The tactic could be “attractive” for foreign terrorist organizations and other actors due to its low complexity threshold, the warning said.
An intelligence bulletin from the New York Police Department obtained by ABC News indicated that ISIS supporters did celebrate the attack online. Violent extremists, the bulletin said, “continue to view densely populated walkways, parades, mass gatherings and other outdoor events along streets, especially during holidays, as vulnerable targets of opportunity.”
“This enduring threat underscores the criticality of pre-staged blocker cars and the deployment of other effectively configured countermeasures including heavy block, barriers and bollards,” it added.
Surveillance footage showed Shamsud-Din Jabbar placing two improvised explosive devices in coolers in the Bourbon Street area, Raia said. He had a remote detonator in the truck to set off the two devices, President Joe Biden said. Both devices were rendered safe, officials said.
Bomb-making materials have been recovered at Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s Houston home, sources confirmed to ABC News. The items found were also referred to as “precursor chemicals” by agents in the field, sources said.
Law enforcement cleared and reopened Bourbon Street on Thursday as the investigation continued. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said authorities had the “confidence” to reopen the area to the public ahead of the Sugar Bowl on Thursday afternoon, which was initially scheduled for Wednesday but postponed in the wake of the attack.
“I want to reassure the public that the city of New Orleans is not only ready for game day today, but we’re ready to continue to host large-scale events in our city,” she said. “Our hearts and prayers continue to go out to the victims’ families,” Cantrell added.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will head to New Orleans on Monday to meet with the families and community members, the White House said. Biden said Friday that he’s spoken with victims’ families.
There is no apparent direct connection between the New Orleans attack and Wednesday’s Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, which is also being investigated as a possible act of terror, the FBI said Thursday.
In this screen grab from a video, a drone is shown near Bedminster, New Jersey, on Dec. 3, 2024. Obtained by ABC News
(NEW YORK) — The Pentagon shot down a congressman’s claim that an Iranian “mothership” is behind large drones spotted over New Jersey in recent weeks, while officials in the state are demanding a stronger federal response and transparency in connection with the mysterious, unexplained sightings.
Since mid-November, large drones of uncertain origin have been repeatedly spotted in the sky at night over central and northern New Jersey, including near a military installation.
State and local officials convened at a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning at the New Jersey State Police headquarters with representatives from the Department of Homeland Security to address the matter, according to several officials in attendance.
It remains unclear who is operating the drones, according to a DHS handout released by Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali, who attended the meeting.
“At this time, according to the FBI, there are no known specific or credible threats related to these sightings,” the handout stated.
There have been reports ranging from four to 180 sightings per night, according to New Jersey Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, who attended the meeting. The drones “operate in a coordinated manner” and have not been identified as hobbyist drones or ones related to DHS, she said.
Several officials said following the meeting that they were not assuaged by the DHS response.
Ghassali said it has only “heightened my apprehensions regarding the federal government’s approach to this critical issue.”
“The message conveyed was that there is no credible threat, yet they are flying over critical infrastructure, and their point of origin and destination remain unidentified,” he said in a statement. “They will eventually find out but for now, we don’t know anything else.”
New Jersey state Sen. Holly Schepisi called the DHS response “abysmal.”
“[It] actually made me feel less confident in our federal government’s reaction to this issue rather than more,” she said in a statement. “For the federal government to not dedicate every defense resource needed to identify the origin and purpose of these drones in the most densely populated state in the nation is inexplicable and completely unacceptable.”
Fantasia said “we know nothing” and to “state that there is no known or credible threat is incredibly misleading, and I informed all officials of that sentiment.”
Following the meeting, New Jersey state Sen. Jon Bramnick urged the Department of Defense to investigate and reiterated his call for a limited state of emergency in the state.
“The Department of Defense must investigate and until that occurs we must shut down the airspace to drones. That would require a limited state of emergency and FAA cooperation,” he said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the FBI, which is the leading agency investigating the sightings, said it is “doing all we can [to] figure out what’s going on.”
“The public can continue to call our 800 line, or submit a tip online, we are acting on every substantive lead that we get,” the FBI spokesperson said.
The Federal Aviation Administration has imposed flight restrictions over Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County and Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in Somerset County in response to the drone activity.
“Safely integrating drones into the National Airspace System is a key priority for the FAA,” the agency said in a statement earlier this month. “We look into all reports of unauthorized drone operations and investigate when appropriate.”
New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew criticized the FAA for its inability to locate the drones during a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s hearing earlier Wednesday.
“We have a serious problem with our aerospace. The recent sightings of unidentified drones in the state of New Jersey, my home state, is justifiably causing tremendous public concern,” he said.
Van Drew said the drones are “large” and “sophisticated” and alleged the presence of an “Iranian mothership” responsible for them, though he did not provide evidence to support his claims.
“I’ve learned, for real, that there is circumstantial evidence that there’s an Iranian mothership off the East Coast of the United States, and that’s launching these drone incursions,” he said.
He said he is concerned at this time with identifying his sources but said they are “individuals who are reputable, individuals who speak with authority.”
The Pentagon shot down Van Drew’s claim.
“There is not any truth to that — there is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there’s no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Wednesday.
Singh said there is no evidence the drone activity is coming from any foreign entity or is the work of an adversary.
“We’re going to continue to monitor what is happening,” she said, adding, “At no point were our installations threatened when this activity was occurring.”
Van Drew doubled down in an interview with ABC News following the Pentagon’s briefing, saying there is a “real possibility that it is a foreign entity.” He said his “well-placed” sources believe there is a possibility the drones are Iranian, and that there could be a mothership hundreds of miles off the U.S. coast.
“They say to us there’s nothing to fear, but we have no idea who it is, where it comes from, what it’s about and what it can do,” he said.
Van Drew proposed that flight restrictions be placed over the New Jersey airspace “and an order be given to neutralize any drone aircraft in violation of those restrictions” in a letter addressed to President Joe Biden on Wednesday.
“In neutralizing these drones we must ensure the safety of people on ground and should also attempt to keep the drones intact so that we may study their capabilities,” he wrote.
New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith has called on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to help identify and address the widespread drone activity over the state.
“As you no doubt are also aware, there have been numerous instances of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) flying over New Jersey, including in close proximity to sensitive sites and critical infrastructure, to include military installations located in my district,” he stated in a letter to Lloyd on Tuesday.
He noted that Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JBMDL) possesses the capability to identify and take down unauthorized unmanned aerial systems.
“I urgently request all capabilities possessed by the Department of Defense, especially those in use by JBMDL to be immediately deployed to identify and address the potential threats posed by UAS over the state of New Jersey,” he said.
During a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Smith said an officer saw “50 drones” coming in off the ocean earlier this week in Ocean County. He has also said that a U.S. Coast Guard commanding officer stationed in Barnegat Light reported that “between 12 and 30” drones were following a USCG motor lifeboat over the weekend.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker has called for greater transparency from federal authorities on the unexplained drone activity in a letter on Tuesday to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
“I recognize the need to maintain operational security of ongoing investigations and that this situation requires complex interagency coordination. However, there is a growing sense of uncertainty and urgency across the state — from constituents and local officials alike — despite assurances that the drones pose no known threats to public safety,” he stated in the letter. “As such, I urge you to share any relevant information about these drone sightings with the public. Without transparency, I believe that rumors, fear, and misinformation will continue to spread.”
The public should be “immediately briefed” by federal agencies, including the FBI, FAA and DHS, on what they know, New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer said.
“I think people have a right to know what’s going on,” he told ABC News Live anchor Kayna Whitworth on Wednesday.
Gottheimer, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, noted he is “not concerned there’s any imminent threats to security” in New Jersey or D.C. based on the briefings he’s had.
“That said, you can’t just fly drones anywhere,” he said. “This can’t just be game on. We need to know who these drones belong to, where they’re coming from. And if they’re not welcome, we’ve got to take them out.”
Police in Warren County, New Jersey, have also expressed frustration at the “lack of transparency” over the drone activity.
“We are shocked by the lack of response or update from Federal and State officials,” Chief Scott D. Robb, president of the Warren County Police Chief’s Association, said in a statement Wednesday. “We do not agree with their response that there is no known threat to the public at this time. It is our stance that just the unidentified drone flying over us is a threat in itself.”
DHS said in its handout on the New Jersey drones that there have been other drone sightings “of this type” both nationally and internationally.
Biden has been briefed on the drones and is “closely tracking the activity” and “coordinating closely” with DHS and the FBI to continue investigating these incidents, the White House said Tuesday.
“This is something that DHS and FBI are tracking very, very closely,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday.
The U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) is also monitoring reports of “unauthorized drone flights in the vicinity of military installations in New Jersey,” a spokesperson said.
“Local law enforcement and the FBI are currently investigating,” the spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that at this time NORTHCOM has not been requested to assist with the events but is prepared to respond “when asked or should the situation escalate to threaten any DoD installations.”
ABC News’ Jay O’Brien, Alexandra Faul, Ayesha Ali and Matthew Seyler contributed to this report.
