Pro-Palestinian protesters arrested for interrupting Thanksgiving parade
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(NEW YORK) — Pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested for blocking the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City on Thursday.
For the second year in a row, the demonstrators jumped the barriers and ran into West 55th Street just before 9:30 a.m.
The exact charges the protesters will be facing are still pending.
The protesters sat on the ground, locking arms and chanting, “Free, free Palestine!”
Others held a banner behind them that said: “Don’t celebrate genocide! Arms embargo now.”
The brief interruption had spectators booing and then cheering as NYPD officers intervened.
The parade was delayed for about five minutes as the 21 protesters were removed from the road.
There have been international calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, but numerous efforts to reach an agreement to end fighting have not succeeded. More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war started on Oct. 7, 2023.
The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade took place in 1927. It’s been a holiday tradition ever since.
(NEW YORK) — The second suspect who was arrested earlier this week in connection to the deadly Michigan home invasion on Oct. 11 that left 72-year-old Rochester Hills businessman Hussein Murray dead has been formally charged with multiple counts, including felony murder, police said.
“Joshua Zuazo, 39, of Dearborn, is charged in a three-count warrant issued today by prosecutors with felony murder – a life offense if convicted – and two counts of unlawful imprisonment – 15-year felonies,” said the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office in a statement announcing the charges. “The warrant was signed late [Thursday] afternoon by 52-3 District Judge Laura Polizzi.”
Zuazo is now being held in the Oakland County Jail and is expected to be arraigned on the charges on Friday at 1:15 p.m. ET.
Murray was found dead Friday last Friday in the basement of his Rochester Hills home, according to the sheriff’s office. His wife, who called 911, had been tied up with her hands duct-taped.
The woman told law enforcement officials that the night before the attack, the two suspects had also shown up to the home claiming to be responding to a gas leak, but they were not allowed inside.
When they showed up again on Friday, they were let into the home, and her husband went with them into the basement, “ostensibly to look for the leak,” according to the sheriff’s department.
When they came back upstairs without her husband, they tied her up and taped her hands, the woman said. She did not see him come out afterward and “assumed he had been kidnapped.”
In home security camera footage released by the sheriff’s department, the since-arrested suspect can be seen wearing a utility worker’s uniform and a mask while holding a clipboard.
“We’re DTE. We’re checking for gas leaks,” the man can be heard saying in the video, naming the Michigan-based energy company.
The other suspect, Carlos Jose Hernandez, 37, was arrested last Saturday, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. He has been charged with murder, and law enforcement officials are seeking his extradition from Louisiana.
“I want to reiterate how proud I am of our whole team and what they did to quickly move this case forward, not only taking our suspects off the street, but bringing evidence to the prosecutor to move this into her court for the next phase,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a statement Thursday.
ABC News’ Julia Reinstein contributed to this report.
Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
(NEW ORLEANS) — Authorities no longer believe there are any other suspects involved in the New Year’s truck attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans that killed 14 people and injured 35 others, the FBI said Thursday.
After investigators reviewed all of the surveillance videos more closely, it appears that the suspect — 42-year-old Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who also died in the attack — placed explosive devices in the area himself and then changed clothes, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The FBI is still investigating whether there were individuals Jabbar spoke to or messaged with prior to the early Wednesday attack, but no one was in the vicinity to help him do anything, the sources said.
“Federal law enforcement and the intelligence community are actively investigating any foreign or domestic contacts in connection that could possibly be relevant to the attack,” President Joe Biden said Thursday.
There is no additional threat to the public, Christopher Raia of the FBI said.
Raia called the attack a premeditated “act of terrorism.”
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry on Thursday compared the investigation to a jigsaw puzzle.
Over 400 tips have been submitted and investigators are combing through Jabbar’s laptops and phones, Raia said. More than 1,000 law enforcement officers have been “pouring over countless amounts of data, of videos, of surveillances, interviews, tracking down every possible lead,” Landry said.
Jabbar drove from Houston to New Orleans on Tuesday evening and posted several videos online “proclaiming his support for ISIS,” and mentioning he joined ISIS before this summer, Raia said.
“There were five videos posted on Jabbar’s Facebook account, which are time stamped beginning at 1:29 a.m. and the last at 3:02 a.m.,” Raia said. “In the first video, Jabbar explains he originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the ‘war between the believers and the disbelievers.'”
An ISIS flag was recovered from the back of the truck, Raia said.
The death toll is not expected to rise beyond 14 people, Dr. Jeffrey Elder of the University Medical Center New Orleans told ABC News Live on Thursday. Sixteen people remain hospitalized at University Medical Center New Orleans, including eight in intensive care.
Jabbar was “hell-bent” on killing as many people as possible, driving a pickup truck onto the sidewalk around a parked police car serving as a barricade to plow into pedestrians, officials said.
The suspect mowed down dozens of people over a three-block stretch on the world-famous thoroughfare while firing into the crowd, police said.
Jabbar then exited the damaged vehicle armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement said. He was also armed with a handgun, sources told ABC News.
Officers returned fire, killing Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen from Texas, sources said. At least two officers were injured, one by gunfire and the other when the officer was pinned by the truck, authorities said.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said security bollards were not working at the time because they were in the process of being replaced for next month’s Super Bowl.
Surveillance footage showed Jabbar placing two improvised explosive devices in coolers in the Bourbon Street area, Raia said.
“Those are the only two devices that we’ve been able to recover that were functional — both devices were rendered safe on scene,” he said.
Authorities have conducted search warrants in New Orleans and outside of Louisiana, the FBI’s New Orleans field office said.
A home in Houston was among those searched. The FBI in Houston said “there is no threat to residents in that area.”
Raia urged anyone who knew Jabbar to come forward.
“While we have interviewed many people who know Jabbar, we still need to talk to others,” he said. “Whether you know Jabbar personally, worked with him, served in the military or saw him in New Orleans or Texas, we need to talk to you.”
He said police also want to speak with witnesses who were in the French Quarter on New Year’s Eve or early on New Year’s Day.
The FBI has cleared Bourbon Street and authorities have the “confidence” to reopen it to the public ahead of the Sugar Bowl Thursday afternoon, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced Thursday.
The game was initially set for Wednesday and was 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,” she added.
“They have not found any evidence of such a connection thus far — I’ve directed them to keep looking,” Biden said Thursday.
The Las Vegas driver was killed and seven bystanders suffered minor injuries, authorities said. The motive behind the incident remains under investigation, but investigators told ABC News they believe it was “intentional.”
The Cybertruck was rented via the Turo app, as was the truck used in the New Orleans attack, sources told ABC News.
The Cybertruck driver had an Army special operations background but there’s no evidence suggesting he and the New Orleans suspect knew each other, according to officials.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Harvey Weinstein has been diagnosed with a form of bone marrow cancer, sources told ABC News.
Weinstein has been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, sources said, adding that the former Hollywood producer is receiving treatment while jailed.
Weinstein’s authorized legal healthcare representative in New York, Craig Rothfeld, declined to comment, saying, “Out of respect for Mr. Weinstein’s privacy, we will offer no further comment.”
According to the American Cancer Society, chronic myeloid leukemia is a type of cancer that starts in the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow and invades the blood. The organization says approximately 15% of leukemias in adults are CML.
Weinstein is currently in prison on Rikers Island in New York, where he has experienced a slew of health issues amid his ongoing sexual assault trials.
In September, Weinstein was rushed to Bellevue Hospital for emergency heart surgery after experiencing chest pains, his representatives told ABC News, at the time.
In July, Weinstein’s representatives said he was hospitalized for a “myriad of health conditions,” including COVID-19 and double pneumonia.
Weinstein was also suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis, fluid on his heart and lungs, and various other conditions, he representatives said at the time.
The former movie mogul is being prosecuted again for sex crimes after his New York conviction was overturned on appeal.
On Sept. 19, while he was recovering from his procedure, Weinstein pleaded not guilty to criminal sex act in the first degree, based on the allegations of a woman who said he sexually assaulted her on one occasion in 2006 at a Manhattan hotel.
The latest indictment came months after the New York Court of Appeals overturned his 2020 sex crimes conviction. He had been found guilty of criminal sexual assault and third-degree rape and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Weinstein has denied all claims of sexual misconduct, saying his encounters were consensual.
