Prisoner at large after escaping from Texas hospital

(HOUSTON) — The FBI became aware on Tuesday of threats that were communicated involving two teenage girls, ages 15 and 16, plotting what the FBI called a “mass casualty attack” using pipe bombs and guns targeting Memorial High School in Harris County, Texas, according to law enforcement sources.

The threats were specific and deemed concerning enough that the FBI threat mitigation team moved quickly.

At around 2:45 p.m. (CST) the FBI called local law enforcement partners in Montgomery County, Harris County and Spring Branch Independent School District, who simultaneously worked to locate the girls.

By 3:15 p.m., just 30 minutes after the FBI call, both girls were located and in custody, law enforcement sources said.

“I got the call from the FBI agent that we worked very closely with, provided me with the information that they deemed credible, as did I, immediately located the student, found exactly where she was and went to the school, and that’s when we detained her and began our interview process,” Spring Branch ISDF Chief Larry Baimbridge told ABC News.

Baimbridge said in this case, the system worked.

“This is a perfect example of state and federal law enforcement working together. This is exactly how this information, I think, should be handled and I’m grateful to the FBI that got us information right away and we were able to act on it very quickly,” Baimbridge told ABC News.

“This planned attack wouldn’t have been stopped without exceptionally close partnerships between FBI Houston, Spring Branch ISD Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, and Houston Police Department,” FBI Houston spokesman Connor Hagan said in a statement.

“We were able to take troubling information we received, conduct a rapid investigation, turn our results over to trusted local law enforcement partners, and ultimately save lives of innocent students,” Hagan said. “This type of situation is exactly why the FBI exists.”

The 16-year-old girl who is a student at Memorial High School is being held on a charge of making a terroristic threat, Baimbridge said.

The other student, a 15-year-old, is in custody in Montgomery County on an unrelated charge, according to a Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office statement.

No firearms, bombs or bomb making materials were immediately recovered in Harris County, though the investigation is ongoing in both Harris and Montgomery Counties.

Last week, the FBI worked with police in Mooresville, Indiana to disrupt a possible mass shooting plot against a high school there after learning of threats posted online.

Said Hagan: “We have officers from dozens of local agencies embedded with our agents working these types of threats every day on our Threat Mitigation Team and other task forces. FBI agents and task force officers, who are federally deputized, are absolutely essential to keeping our communities safe.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Figure skaters and coaches returning from the recent U.S. national championships were aboard the American Airlines flight that collided with a Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday, officials said.

No survivors were expected in the crash, officials said Thursday. There were 64 people aboard the plane and three in the helicopter, according to officials.

Fourteen figure skaters were among those on the flight, Doug Zeghibe, the CEO and executive director for the Skating Club of Boston, said he was told.

Zeghibe said six victims were from the Skating Club of Boston, including two coaches, two teenage athletes and two moms of athletes.

He identified the skaters from the Skating Club of Boston as Jinna Ha and Spencer Lane. Ha’s mother, Jin Han, and Lane’s mother, Christine Lane, were also on board. Zeghibe also identified the two coaches as Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. The two were 1994 World Pair Champions who joined the club in 2017, Zeghibe said.

“Six is a horrific number for us but we’re fortunate and grateful it wasn’t more than six,” Zeghibe said. “This will have long reaching impacts for our skating community.”

Zeghibe emphasized how tight-knit the skating community is and that “everyone is like family.”

“We are devastated and completely at a loss for words,” Zeghibe said.

The U.S. Figure Skating organization confirmed that “several members” of the skating community were aboard American Airlines Flight 5342 which took off from Wichita, Kansas, and crashed approaching Reagan National Airport after colliding with a helicopter shortly before 9 p.m.

“These athletes, coaches, and family members were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas,” the organization said.

“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” the organization said. “We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available.”

There were 60 passengers and four crew members aboard the jet and three personnel aboard the Army helicopter, which officials said was on a training flight at the time of the crash.

Officials have not publicly confirmed the number of fatalities in the crash.

The Mayor of Wichita, Lily Wu, offered her condolences during a press conference, becoming emotional when stating there are not any survivors.

“Our hearts are heavy as a city,” Wu said. “Our hearts are heavy as a city council, and we are here to provide the support needed for our community.”

At an early Thursday morning news conference, officials said they were continuing search-and-rescue operations in the icy Potomac River but did not say whether anyone had been pulled from the water alive, or confirm any deaths.

Meanwhile, Russian media reported that two Russian figure skaters were on board the American Airlines flight, and the presidential spokesman expressed condolences to the families and friends of those killed in the plane crash.

“There were other of our fellow citizens there. Bad news from Washington today,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday morning.

Earlier, several Russian state media outlets reported that the 1994 world figure skating champions in pairs, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, were on board the plane, though U.S. authorities have not confirmed these reports.

Oklahoma City figure skating coach Jackie Brenner was in Wichita with the skaters, coaches and officials who were aboard the flight.

“I was there on Sunday at a coaching workshop, which was the first day of U.S. figure skating development camp as they were coming into their two days of training,” Brenner said. “Huge excitement in the arena and lobby of all these families.”

The U.S. Figure Skating community has been struck by tragedy in a plane crash before. In February 1961, an entire U.S. figure skating team died in a plane crash on Feb. 15, 1961. The plane, Sabena Flight 548, was carrying the team to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Along with the team, 16 family members, coaches and friends of the skaters died in the crash.

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(SAN DIEGO, CA) — A cousin of the Menendez brothers said she’s “thrilled” that California Gov. Gavin Newsom is addressing the brothers’ request for clemency and ordering the parole board to investigate further.

“I certainly gasped in relief,” cousin Anamaria Baralt, one of at least 20 relatives in support of the brothers’ release, told ABC News at a virtual news conference Thursday. “This is huge.”

Lyle and Erik Menendez — who are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1989 murders of their parents — have “cautious optimism” they’ll be released, Baralt said.

“They are the first life without parole prisoners on this path,” added another cousin, Tamara Goodell. “So when we look at any advancements … it’s definitely with hope, but also understanding that there are no promises.”

Newsom announced Wednesday that he’s ordering the parole board to conduct a 90-day “comprehensive risk assessment” investigation into whether the brothers pose “an unreasonable risk to the public” if they’re granted clemency and released.

“There’s no guarantee of outcome here,” Newsom said Wednesday on his new podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom.” “My office conducts dozens and dozens of these clemency reviews on a consistent basis. But this process simply provides more transparency, which I think is important in this case, as well as provides us more due diligence before I make any determination for clemency.”

Baralt called Newsom’s decision a “positive step forward” and said she’s confident the parole board will determine Lyle and Erik Menendez are not a risk to public safety.

“We have seen their rehabilitation over the last three decades,” Baralt said.

She said the parole board’s investigation will find: the brothers’ repeated and sincere remorse; their work to improve prison culture and run several programs to help inmates reenter society; and how they’ve spent most of their lives in prison but still built meaningful lives helping others. The board will also consider their age at the time of the crime and their lack of criminal history outside of “making a horrific decision” as a direct result of the abuse they endured, Baralt said.

“We understand that this is not without professional risk for him,” Baralt said of Newsom.

Though the cousins praised Newsom, they were disappointed and frustrated by Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s announcement last week that he’s asked the court to deny the brothers’ habeas corpus petition.

Lyle and Erik Menendez filed the petition in 2023 for a review of two new pieces of evidence not presented at trial: a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin, Andy Cano, eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse from his father Jose Menendez; and allegations from a former boy band member, Roy Rossello, who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by Jose Menendez.

Hochman argued the letter failed the credibility test, saying if it existed, the defense would have used it at the brothers’ trials in the 1990s.

Hochman said Rossello’s allegation failed the admissibility test, because the brothers didn’t know about his claims until recent years, so it couldn’t have influenced their state of mind during the crime and “play a role in self-defense or premeditated murder.”

After Hochman’s announcement, Erik Menendez said to the family, “We need you strong,” Goodell recalled. “They both really mirrored our frustration, but they also said, ‘Let it go. We need to focus on moving forward.’ And so that is our focus.”

Baralt stands by the new evidence.

The letter to Cano, while received in December 1988, was not discovered until recent years, according to the brothers’ attorney.

Baralt stressed that Cano was 14 or 15 at the time Erik Menendez sent him that letter.

“It’s only natural for a teenage boy to not realize he is sitting on critical evidence. Andy wasn’t a lawyer. He wasn’t even an adult,” she said. “To pose the question now, decades later, after he passed, of why wasn’t the letter submitted back then? It’s like asking a teenager who got in a fender bender why didn’t you call the police to file a report — because a teenager doesn’t know any better. He didn’t realize how vital that letter would be to the case.”

And as for Rossello’s admission in 2023, Baralt stressed that it’s common for abuse victims to not disclose for years.

“Roy coming out to share his story in his own time is new evidence” that should be considered admissible, she said.

Baralt said Hochman’s decision “felt extra hurtful, because it was only a few weeks ago that dozens of [relatives] sat in his office and described the horror of being in this victim family, with 35 years of being retraumatized.”

“We have become victims in this process,” she said. “We have been laughed at, ridiculed and forced to relive the pain over and over again.”

Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted in 1996 of the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez. The defense claimed the brothers acted in self-defense after enduring years of sexual abuse by their father, while prosecutors alleged they killed for money.

Besides clemency and the habeas corpus petition, another possible path to freedom is resentencing.

In October, then-LA County District Attorney George Gascón announced he supported resentencing for the brothers. Gascón recommended their sentences of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and said they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately with the new sentence.

The DA’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and help other inmates.

Weeks after Gascón’s announcement, he lost his race for reelection to Hochman.

Hochman, who came into office on Dec. 3, has yet to announce if he is in support of or against resentencing for the brothers. He’s expected to decide in the coming weeks.

A hearing regarding the resentencing case is set for March 20 and 21.

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