Nine injured, hundreds evacuated in JFK airport escalator fire
(NEW YORK) — Several people were taken to the hospital after an escalator caught fire at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey told ABC News.
The small fire in Concourse C sent smoke billowing through the airport’s Terminal 8 at about 7 a.m.
Nine people received minor injuries due to smoke inhalation, four of whom were hospitalized, according to New York ABC station WABC-TV. None of the injuries were considered life-threatening.
About 960 people were evacuated on buses to another area of the terminal, officials said.
One traveler, Nate Peckinpaugh, told ABC News he had been about to board a flight from New York to Washington, D.C., when the fire broke out.
“I was catching a flight at the exact terminal we evacuated from. The alarm was going off for a long time and no one was paying attention,” Peckinpaugh told ABC News.
“Eventually this woman started running around and yelling for someone to help,” he added.
Peckinpaugh recorded the incident on his phone, from the alarm going off at the terminal to passengers being escorted outside, some covering their faces from the smoke. Firefighters were then seen arriving at the scene, with a few people being rescued from the jet bridge while others were being put on stretchers to receive assistance.
Operations had resumed in the terminal by about 8:15 a.m., officials said, and the cause of the fire is now under investigation.
(CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y.) — Alexi Saenz, a high-ranking member of the MS-13 gang, pleaded guilty in federal court in Central Islip, New York, on Wednesday to racketeering charges stemming from eight murders.
He faces between 40 and 70 years in prison as part of a plea agreement, prosecutors said.
Among the deaths Saenz pleaded guilty to were those of two Long Island teenagers — 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas and 15-year-old Nisa Mickens — who were killed in Sept. 2016. Prosecutors said several gang members chased them down and attacked them with baseball bats and a machete.
Prosecutors said the teens’ murders arose from a series of disputes and an altercation Cuevas and her friends had with people associated with MS-13 at Brentwood High School. After the altercation, the gang members “vowed to seek revenge against Cuevas,” according to prosecutors.
Saenz, along with several other suspected MS-13 gang members, were arrested for the teens’ deaths in 2017. Charges against his brother, Jairo Saenz, who was also arrested at the time, remain pending.
“To say that Alexi Saenz’s hands are drenched in blood does not begin to describe the multiple killings and extreme mayhem he personally directed and committed in the span of one year in Suffolk County,” Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a press release Wednesday. “While those murders and violent crimes were intended to further the sordid mission of the MS-13, the defendant has failed miserably.”
Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty for the two Saenz brothers, but Attorney General Merrick Garland said in 2023 they would no longer do so.
The murders of the two girls garnered national attention, with then-President Donald Trump inviting their parents to the 2018 State of the Union.
“Here tonight are two fathers and two mothers: Evelyn Rodriguez, Freddy Cuevas, Elizabeth Alvarado, and Robert Mickens,” Trump said during his speech. “Their two teenage daughters — Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens — were close friends on Long Island. But in September 2016, on the eve of Nisa’s16th birthday, neither of them came home. These two precious girls were brutally murdered while walking together in their hometown. Six members of the savage gang MS-13 have been charged with Kayla and Nisa’s murders.”
Saenz was charged in connection to the murders of six other people, all of whom the MS-13 members suspected of being affiliated with rival gangs, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors described Saenz as a ringleader in these killings, frequently instructing fellow gang members to carry out the attack or giving the greenlight to do so.
Saenz was also charged in connection with three attempted murders, arson, narcotics trafficking and firearms offenses.
Suffolk County Police Department acting Commissioner Robert E. Waring called Saenz’s crimes “senseless and barbaric.”
“The murders of teenagers Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens shook our communities and reverberated around the nation,” Waring said. “My hope is that this guilty plea will give the victims’ families some closure while also demonstrating our commitment to dismantling these criminal enterprises.”
(NEW YORK) — Lawmakers in a suburban New York county approved a bill to ban masks in public spaces, saying concealing your identity is a misdemeanor offense punishable by up to a year of jail time and a $1,000 fine.
Proponents of the Mask Transparency Act in Nassau County, Long Island, say the ban will combat crime during protests.
It was introduced in response to “antisemitic incidents, often perpetrated by those in masks” in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, Legislator Howard Kopel said during a public meeting on the mandate this week.
The ruling does have exceptions, however, with individuals wearing face coverings for religious or health reasons being exempt.
“This legislature finds that masks and facial coverings that are not worn for health and safety concerns or for religious or celebratory purposes are often used as a predicate to harassing, menacing or criminal behavior,” according to the bill.
The bill gives local authorities the right to demand individuals remove their masks during a traffic stop or “when the officer has reasonable suspicion of criminal activity and/or intention to partake in criminal activity.”
Those opposing the bill say it threatens protesters from expressing their views anonymously and could lead to retaliation, as well as posing a health risk with COVID-19 on the rise across the country.
“Nassau County’s mask ban is a dangerous misuse of the law to score political points and target protestors,” Susan Gottehrer, regional director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.
“Making anonymous protest illegal chills political action and is ripe for selective enforcement, leading to doxxing, surveillance and retaliation against protesters,” Gottehrer said.
The Mask Transparency Act, approved this week, saw a split decision between local leaders with 12 Republicans supporting the legislation and seven Democrats opposing it.
The bill is headed to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s desk to sign into effect.
“Unless someone has a medical condition or a religious imperative, people should not be allowed to cover their face in a manner that hides their identity when in public,” Blakeman said Monday after the vote.
Positive cases of COVID-19 are on the rise in the U.S., with the CDC reporting over a 16% increase in cases between the end of July and the start of August.
Gottehrer warns that this mask ban could endanger the health and even lives of residents, saying, “face coverings are critical to protecting the health of an individual, their family, and their community.”
“Nassau County police officers are not health professionals or religious experts capable of deciding who needs a mask and who doesn’t,” Gottehrer added.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has also considered a mask ban on New York City Transit with support from NYC Mayor Eric Adams.
“On a subway, people should not be able to hide behind a mask to commit crimes,” Hochul said.
(WINDER, Ga.) — The teenager suspected in the shooting at Apalachee High School on Wednesday that left four dead had an apparent affinity for mass shooters, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
Investigators are currently scouring social media posts that mention prior mass shootings and those who carried them out from accounts associated with the suspect, who officials previously identified as 14-year-old Colt Gray, the sources said.
Over a year before Wednesday’s incident — back in May 2023 — the FBI reached out to the local authorities at the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office after a Discord user alerted the Bureau about a possible threat of a shooting at a middle school.
The 2023 FBI tip about online threats that were traced to Colt Gray included a user profile written in Russian, sources said. Investigators with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department said at the time that the translation of the Russian letters spells out the name Lanza, referring to Adam Lanza, the mass shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The 2023 documents released Thursday reflect how Colt Gray’s father, Colin Gray, was very concerned about his son being “picked on” and “ridiculed” day after day at school.
Gray said that was why he repeatedly visited his son’s school in 2023.
When the deputy spoke with Colt Gray, the then-13-year-old told the officer that he had a Discord account but had deleted it months earlier, before they moved to a new home.
“I promise I would never say something [like that],” Colt Gray said of the reported school shooting threat, according to a transcript of his interview with the officer.
The officer then told Colt, “I gotta take you at your word, and I hope you’re being honest with me.”
“Oh yes, sir,” Colt responded.
According to the 2023 interview, his father Colt Gray told the deputy that the family — and Colt Gray in particular — were going through a hard time, with Colt Gray’s mother moving away with two of Colt’s younger siblings after the whole family was evicted from their home.
On Thursday, in a brief exchange ABC News had with Annie Brown, the aunt of Colt Gray, she said that her nephew was “begging for help from everybody around him.”
Colt Gray’s maternal grandfather, Charles Polhamus, told ABC’s Vera Drymon on Thursday that he believes the teenager’s father, Colin Gray, bears some responsibility.
“I put the blame where it belongs. His father should be convicted as well,” he said.
Colin Gray was arrested Thursday and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. He is currently in custody, and no information on a court date was immediately available.
Colt Gray was taken into custody on Wednesday at the school. He was charged with four counts of felony murder, with additional charges expected, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. He will be in court on Friday.
ABC News couldn’t immediately determine if Colt or Colin Gray had legal representation.