Son arrested in the murder of his father, stepmom and stepbrother: Police
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(PAWLET, Vt.) — A son has been arrested for the murder of his father, his father’s wife and her teenage son, who were found shot to death at their Vermont home, police announced Friday.
The triple homicide was discovered early Sunday. Officers responded to a report of a “suspicious person” and the investigation led them to a home in the town of Pawlet, Vermont State Police said.
Inside they found the three deceased victims — Brian Crossman Sr., 46, who was a Pawlet government official; his wife, Erica Crossman, 41; and her son and his stepson, Colin Taft, 13, police said. They were killed sometime early Sunday morning inside their home, police said.
Crossman Sr.’s son — Brian Crossman Jr., 23, of Granville, New York — now faces counts of aggravated murder in connection with the fatal shootings of his father, stepmother and stepbrother, Vermont State Police said Friday.
“The Vermont State Police investigation identified significant evidence that linked Crossman Jr. to the killings, including digital information, statements, injuries, and various interviews,” Vermont State Police said in a statement.
New York State Police located Crossman Jr. and took him into custody. He is being detained without bail pending an appearance before a judge in New York to initiate proceedings for his extradition to Vermont, police said.
Police have not released any details on an alleged motive in the killings.
He was set to appear in court in Glens Falls, New York, Friday afternoon. It is unclear if he has an attorney at this time.
It is unclear when he will return to Vermont, police said.
All three family members died from gunshot wounds and their deaths have been ruled as homicides by the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Office, police said. Crossman Sr. was shot in the head and torso, Erica Crossman was shot in the head and her son had multiple gunshot wounds, police said.
Crossman Sr. had joined the Pawlet Select Board this year, where he served as a liaison to buildings and development and to the town’s highway department, according to the town’s website.
Pawlet Select Board Chair Mike Beecher remembered him as a “friend and neighbor” and a “hardworking community member.”
“This tragedy that struck him and his family has also hit our community hard, and we are shaken and grieving,” Beecher said in a statement Tuesday. “Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this devastating loss. The town of Pawlet will work to get through this as we always get through hard times, by supporting each other and doing our best to carry on.”
Pawlet, a town of about 1,400 people, is located in western Vermont on the New York state line.
(WINDER, Ga.) — Two students and two teachers were killed in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday morning, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, were the two teachers killed in the incident, officials said at a Wednesday night news briefing. Students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, also 14, were also killed, officials confirmed.
Another nine victims — eight students and one teacher — were taken to hospitals with injuries following the shooting, the GBI said earlier in the day.
The suspect — 14-year-old Colt Gray, a student at Apalachee High School — was encountered by officers within minutes, and he immediately surrendered and was taken into custody, the GBI said. He will be charged with murder and he will be tried as an adult, the GBI said. Gray was set to be booked on Wednesday night, according to an official.
It’s not clear if any of the victims were targeted, authorities said.
Chris Hosey, the director of the GBI, said at Wednesday night’s briefing that an AR-platform-style weapon was used in the incident.
Emergency responders were alerted to the shooting due to teachers having a form of identification that had a type of panic button on it, a law enforcement member said at the news briefing. He added that they had only had those kinds of IDs for “about a week.”
Earlier Wednesday night, the FBI confirmed on X that the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, on an alert from the organization, interviewed Wednesday’s alleged shooting suspect in 2023.
“In May 2023, the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time,” the FBI post read. “Within 24 hours, the FBI determined the online post originated in Georgia and the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office referred the information to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office for action.”
The agency added that the sheriff’s office “located a possible subject, a 13-year-old male, and interviewed him and his father. The father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them. The subject denied making the threats online,” the FBI said.
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office “alerted” schools in the area regarding “monitoring” of the teen, and there was no probable cause for arrest, the FBI said in its post.
“To confirm, the subject referred to as the 13 year old is the same subject in custody related to today’s shootings at Apalachee High School,” the FBI added in a subsequent post.
Apalachee High School is in Barrow County, not far from Jackson County.
Hosey said Wednesday night that law enforcement is aware of previous contact that Family and Children Services had with the family earlier and they are investigating.
He also praised the teachers at the high school as heroes, who prevented a much larger tragedy.
Students and parents speak out
Senior Sergio Caldera, 17, said he was in chemistry class when he heard gunshots.
“My teacher goes and opens the door to see what’s going on. Another teacher comes running in and tells her to close the door because there’s an active shooter,” Caldera told ABC News.
He said his teacher locked the door and the students ran to the back of the room. Caldera said they heard screams from outside as they “huddled up.”
At some point, Caldera said someone pounded on his classroom door and shouted “open up!” multiple times. When the knocking stopped, Caldera said he heard more gunshots and screams.
He said his class later evacuated to the football field.
Kyson Stancion said he was in class when he heard gunshots and “heard police scream, telling somebody, ‘There’s a shooting going on, get down, get back in the classroom.'”
“I was scared because I’ve never been in a school shooting,” he told ABC News.
“Everybody was crying. My teacher tried to keep everybody safe,” he added.
Dad Jonathan Mills said he experienced an “emotional roller coaster” as he and his wife rushed to the school and waited to get a hold of their son, Jayden.
It was “exhilarating” and “overwhelming” to reach Jayden, a junior, and learn he was OK, Mills told ABC News.
Mills, a police officer, said, “Growing up in this area, you don’t expect things like that to happen.”
“I have three children. All three of them go to this cluster of schools, and you never think about that,” he said.
Winder is about 45 miles outside of Atlanta.
Barrow County Schools will be closed through the end of the week, the superintendent said.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith called the shooting “pure evil.”
Among the victims, Northeast Georgia Health System said three people with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds were taken to its hospitals. Five people with symptoms related to anxiety and panic attacks also came to its hospitals, it said.
Leaders react
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed on the shooting, according to the White House.
“Jill and I are mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short due to more senseless gun violence and thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed,” Biden said in a statement. “Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal.”
The president highlighted his work to combat gun violence, including signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law and launching the first White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. But he stressed that more must be done.
“After decades of inaction, Republicans in Congress must finally say ‘enough is enough’ and work with Democrats to pass common-sense gun safety legislation,” Biden said. “We must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines once again, require safe storage of firearms, enact universal background checks, and end immunity for gun manufacturers. These measures will not bring those who were tragically killed today back, but it will help prevent more tragic gun violence from ripping more families apart.”
Harris said at a campaign event in New Hampshire, “Our hearts are with all the students, the teachers and their families.”
“This is just a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies,” she said. “We have to end this epidemic of gun violence.”
“This is one of the many issues that’s at stake in this election,” Harris said.
“Let us finally pass an assault weapons ban and universal background checks and red flag laws,” she said. “It is a false choice to say you are either in favor of the Second Amendment, or you want to take everyone’s guns away. I am in favor of the Second Amendment, and I know we need reasonable gun safety laws in our country.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he is “heartbroken.”
“This is a day every parent dreads, and Georgians everywhere will hug their children tighter this evening because of this painful event,” he said in a statement. “We continue to work closely with local, state, and federal partners to make any and all resources available to help this community on this incredibly difficult day and in the days to come.”
Kemp canceled a planned speech in front of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas Wednesday night to fly back to Georgia in the wake of the shooting, a source confirmed to ABC News.
In Atlanta, authorities will “bolster patrols” around schools on Wednesday “out of an abundance of caution,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement.
“My prayers are with the high school students, staff and families affected by the senseless act of violence,” Dickens said.
(NEW YORK) — The time of year that typically sees the most tropical systems forming in the Atlantic Basin is almost here.
The past three weeks in the Atlantic Basin have been notably quiet with no named storm formations since Ernesto on Aug. 12.
The last time the Atlantic had no named storm formations between Aug. 13 and Sept. 3 was in 1968, Philip Klotzbach, senior research scientist at Colorado State University, told ABC News. There has not been a named storm anywhere in the Atlantic Basin for more than two weeks.
The peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is Sept. 10, according to the National Hurricane Center. Historically speaking, about two-thirds of all storm activity occurs between Aug. 20 and Oct. 10.
Earlier this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted a very active Atlantic hurricane season for 2024.
One of the explanations for the lack of storm systems forming in the Atlantic Basin in recent weeks is due to the Saharan Dust moving across the Atlantic Ocean, scientists say. Large Saharan dust outbreaks brought widespread, intense plumes of dust and lots of dry air across the tropical Atlantic during July and much of August, Ed Nowottnick, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, told ABC News.
Tropical waves have been exiting the African continent so far north that they have been pulling in lots of dust and dry air, limiting their chances for development, according to researchers and tropical weather experts at Colorado State University.
While the frequency of these dust plumes has been around average, they have been more intense and widespread in nature, Nowottnick said.
The timing and location of any dust plumes and large areas of dry air play a big role in tropical development, Nowottnick said. Dust levels are trending down, closer to average for this time of the year, which should begin to minimize its role as an inhibiting factor in the coming weeks.
Unfavorable conditions in the upper atmosphere and a northward displaced storm track across West Africa are also playing a role, experts said.
The northward displaced storm track across West Africa has brought abnormal rainfall to portions of Africa outside the typical setup amid the monsoon season, Dan Harnos, a meteorologist at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, told ABC News.
Disturbances crossing this region are then entering the Atlantic over relatively cooler waters and with greater exposure to dry air from the mid-latitudes, which hinder the chances of a storm developing.
What to expect for the rest of the Atlantic hurricane season
Below-average activity remains likely over the next two weeks, according to tropical weather experts at Colorado State University. However, the seasonal forecast remains on track to be above average in the end, after a couple more weeks of usually quiet conditions, they said.
Towards the middle of the month, large-scale environmental conditions look to become more favorable for tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic Basin.
Three tropical disturbances are currently being monitored for potential development in the Atlantic Basin. But the latest update from the National Hurricane Center indicates that they all have a low chance of development over the next seven days.
There are still no major concerns or threats at this time.
A tropical disturbance moving westward across the Caribbean Sea has a 30% chance of development in the next seven days and a 0% chance in the next two days, forecasts show. This system will bring heavy rain and gusty winds to Nicaragua and Honduras this weekend and then to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico early next week.
Another tropical disturbance, located off the coast of Africa, has a 20% chance of development in the next week.
A third tropical disturbance has just a 10% of development over the next week as it sweeps across the central Atlantic Ocean.
At this point, it looks like the U.S. is in the clear for the foreseeable future.
Looking ahead to mid-September, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center’s long-range Global Tropical Hazards Outlook calls for a slight to moderate chance of new tropical development over the Central Atlantic Ocean.
While this isn’t a strong signal for activity ramping up, it highlights that changes are likely coming in a few weeks that support more activity.
NOAA’s hurricane outlook for the 2024 season calls for 17 to 24 named storms, with eight to 13 of them becoming hurricanes, and four to seven of those reaching major hurricane strength. So far, there have been five named storms in the 2024 season, with three hurricanes.
The history of peak hurricane season
The top two busiest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record are 2020 and 2005, respectively, records show. Both years had around half the total number of named storms for the season occurring after Sept. 3.
By Sept. 3, 2020, there had already been 15 named storms, up to the letter “O,” with 15 more named storms to follow through the end of the season, on Nov. 30.
In 2005, there had already been 13 named storms by Sept. 3, up to the letter “M,” with 14 more named storms to follow that year.
The average number of named storms in the Atlantic Basin during one season is 14, with seven hurricanes on average.
Numerous factors play an important role in tropical cyclone activity and a seasonal outlook. This year, the end of El Niño giving way to a developing La Niña event in the equatorial eastern Pacific, near-record warm ocean temperatures across much of the Atlantic Basin, and above-average African monsoon activity were all primary reasons for this forecast.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — Attorneys for two of the three former Memphis police officers facing charges in the January 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols rested their cases on Monday.
Demetrius Haley’s and Tadarrius Bean’s lawyers said they wouldn’t call any more witnesses to the stand, according to WATN-TV. The two ex-officers did not testify at the trial, but Justin Smith, the third defendant, might be called to the stand. Martin Zummach, Smith’s attorney, said in opening arguments that the former officer will testify, according to WATN.
Smith, Bean and Haley were charged on Sept. 12, 2023, with violating Nichols’ civil rights through excessive use of force, unlawful assault, failing to intervene in the assault and failing to render medical aid. These charges carry a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The officers have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., the two other officers who were also charged in this case, have pleaded guilty to some of the federal charges.
Mills pleaded guilty to two of the four counts in the indictment — excessive force and failing to intervene, as well as conspiring to cover up his use of unlawful force, according to the DOJ. The government said it will recommend a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, based on the terms of Mills’ plea agreement.
Martin pleaded guilty to excessive force and failure to intervene, as well as conspiracy to witness tamper, according to court records. The other two charges will be dropped at sentencing, which has been scheduled for Dec. 5, according to the court records.
Michael Stengel, Haley’s lawyer, and John Perry, Bean’s attorney, each called for the testimony of police-use-of-force experts in previous days attempting to justify the officers’ actions during the encounter with Nichols.
Zummach called Jared Zwickey, who had been in law enforcement for 50 years, to the stand as an expert witness, according to WATN. Zwickey testified that the actions of Smith, who was characterized as the unit’s team leader, were consistent with Memphis police and national policing standards and training.
“Hit him,” Smith could be heard saying on police body camera video during the beating, according to WATN.
“It’d be appropriate if the officer needed help,” Zwickey said when asked if Smith’s statement was appropriate during the Nichols’ encounter.
Body-camera footage shows that Nichols fled after police pulled him over on Jan. 7, 2023, for allegedly driving recklessly, then shocked him with a Taser and pepper-sprayed him.
Officers allegedly then beat Nichols minutes later after tracking him down. After the police encounter, Nichols was transferred to the hospital in critical condition.
Nichols, 29, died in the hospital on Jan. 10, 2023. Footage shows the officers walking around, talking to each other as Nichols was injured and sitting on the ground.
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said she has been unable to substantiate that Nichols was driving recklessly. The incident triggered protests and calls for police reform.
After the police encounter, Nichols was transferred to the hospital in critical condition. The medical examiner’s official autopsy report for Nichols showed he “died of brain injuries from blunt force trauma,” the district attorney’s office told Nichols’ family in May 2023.
The prosecution told ABC News earlier this month that they will not have any statements until after the trial. The defense attorneys did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The five former officers charged in this case were all members of the Memphis Police Department SCORPION unit — a crime suppression unit that was disbanded after Nichols’ death. All of the officers were fired for violating MPD policies.
