Trump and Vance to attend Army-Navy game with Daniel Penny
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(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance will make their way to Landover, Maryland, on Saturday to attend the Army-Navy football game and will be joined by Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran recently acquitted in the subway chokehold case in New York City.
Vance posted on X that he invited Penny, who was just acquitted in the death of Jordan Neely, to join him in Trump’s suite.
“Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance posted. “I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage.”
In the wake of his acquittal, Vance posted that “justice was done in this case. It was a scandal Penny was ever prosecuted in the first place.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(NEW YORK) — Crime in New York City’s transit system dropped in 2024 for the second year in a row, the head of the New York City Police Department said Monday, while acknowledging that people still do not feel safe after several shocking subway incidents that included the death of a woman who was set on fire.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said she has ordered more officers to patrol the subway trains and platforms following the “terrifying acts of random violence.”
Overall, major crime — including incidents of murder, felony assault, robbery and burglary — decreased 5.4% last year in the transit system compared to 2023 and is 12.7% below pre-pandemic crime levels, according to NYPD data.
Compared to the previous year, 2024 saw drops in robberies (down 16.3%) and burglaries (down 23.5%) in the transit system, according to NYPD data. However, murders on the subway doubled, with 10 in 2024 compared to five in 2023, and shootings and petit larceny also increased year-over-year, according to the data.
Tisch called the overall transit crime drop “significant” but more needs to be done to address the perception of safety in the subway system after the “terrifying acts of random violence we have seen recently.”
“I want to be very clear, the subways will always be a bellwether for the perception of public safety in New York City. Declining crime numbers are significant, but we still must do more, because people don’t feel safe in our subways,” Tisch said during a press briefing on Monday.
The sentiment was echoed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
“It is clear, perception always overrides reality, and when you look at some of the horrific incidents that the commissioner talked about in these last few days, the average New Yorker would believe that they’re living in a city that is out of control. That is not the reality,” Adams said. “We know that we are doing a good job in fighting crime, as the numbers will show, but we must deal with the perception that many New Yorkers feel.”
One such horrifying incident included the killing of a 57-year-old woman who was set on fire last month on a subway train in Brooklyn. The victim, Debrina Kawam, was sleeping when she was set ablaze, police said. An undocumented Guatemalan citizen has been charged with first-degree murder.
In another, a man was critically injured last week after an assailant pushed him onto the subway tracks in front of train in Manhattan in a random attack, police said. The suspect in that case was charged with attempted murder.
“Nothing is more horrific than watching a person burned to death on our subway system. We know how individuals feel when they’re shoved to the tracks for no reason at all. We know how it impacts us,” Adams said Monday.
The latest crime data was announced a day after New York City’s congestion pricing plan went into effect. Under the new toll system, the first such program of its kind in the country, drivers will pay $9 to access the center of Manhattan during peak hours as part of an effort to ease congestion and raise funds for the city’s transit system.
Among measures to address subway safety, Tisch said she has directed to move more than 200 officers onto the trains to do “specialty train patrols,” effective this week.
“I have further directed that we deploy more officers onto subway platforms in the 50 highest crime stations in the city,” she added. “It’s all part of the strategy to refocus our subway efforts to places where the crime is occurring.”
She said more initiatives are in the works.
“This month, we will roll out substantial additional improvements to our transit deployments to be even more responsive to the terrifying acts of random violence we have seen recently,” she said. “I will have more to say about that soon.”
Adams also said addressing “severe mental health” issues will be a focus of the governor’s budget to address public transit safety.
“We know we have to tackle that perception, and it starts with dealing with the real issue — mental health,” he said.
Last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she plans to launch a $1 billion plan to address mental health care and supportive housing.
“The recent surge in violent crimes in our public transit system cannot continue — and we need to tackle this crisis head-on,” Hochul said in a statement. “Many of these horrific incidents have involved people with serious untreated mental illness, the result of a failure to get treatment to people who are living on the streets and are disconnected from our mental health care system. We have a duty to protect the public from random acts of violence, and the only fair and compassionate thing to do is to get our fellow New Yorkers the help they need.”
The drop in transit crime coincides with an overall 2.9% drop in crime in 2024, including murders and shootings, Tisch said.
The police commissioner attributed increases in felony assaults to repeat offenders. She called it “disheartening” for police officers to be arresting the same people over and over again due to an increase in the number of decline-to-prosecute cases and a decrease in the number of defendants for whom bail is set.
Mark Brown, president and CEO of Tuskegee University in Alabama, speaks at a news conference on Nov. 11, 2024, to announce changes being made at the school to tighten security in the wake of a mass shooting that left a teenager dead and 16 other people injured. Image via ABC News.
(TUSKEGEE, Ala.) — The president of Tuskegee University in Alabama announced Monday that the school is being closed to outsiders and that its security chief has been fired in the wake of a mass shooting Sunday on campus.
The barrage of gunfire left a teenager dead and injured 16 other people attending an unsanctioned homecoming event, officials said.
Mark Brown, president and CEO of the historically black university, announced the changes as the investigation of the mass shooting continued Monday and the local sheriff warned those responsible for the shooting that “we are going to find you.”
“The Tuskegee University community is heartbroken by what happened on our campus Sunday morning,” Brown said during a news conference Monday afternoon.
Moving forward, no one will be allowed on the Tuskegee campus without authorized permission or a school-issued identification badge, he said.
“Tuskegee University is no longer an open campus,” Brown said. “Effective immediately, we require IDs for everyone to be displayed to enter campus and worn at all times while on campus.”
Earlier Monday, the university hired a new campus security leader “and relieved our previous security chief of his duties,” Brown said. He did not take questions or elaborate on why the security chief was being replaced.
“Our new campus security chief and ultimately his team will complete a full review, including all implementations of new security procedures,” Brown said.
He said Sunday’s shooting erupted at the event that was “not approved in advance and in no way was sanctioned by the university.”
“Nonetheless, it happened on our campus and we take full responsibility,” Brown said.
The deadly barrage of gunfire erupted between 11:30 p.m. Saturday and midnight Sunday in a parking lot that was packed with people on campus to celebrate the university’s 100th homecoming, Macon County Sheriff Andre Brunson told ABC News.
The person killed in the shooting was identified as 18-year-old La’Tavion Johnson by the Macon County Coroner’s Office. University officials said Johnson was not a Tuskegee University student.
At least 16 other people, including students, were injured during the shooting, including 12 who suffered gunshot wounds, according to police.
Several videos posted on social media and verified by ABC News captured what sounded like automatic gunfire and showed people diving to the ground or taking cover in vehicles.
Brunson said numerous shots were fired during the incident.
“I would say that with the amount of shots that were fired, there’s going to be multiple shooters,” Brunson said.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which is leading the investigation, announced Sunday evening that one person had been arrested. Authorities said Jaquez Myrick, 25, of Montgomery, Alabama, was taken into custody while trying to leave the campus after the shooting and faces federal charges of possession of a handgun with a machine gun conversion device.
State police have yet to determine if Myrick was one of the gunmen who opened fire.
No suspect has been charged directly with the shooting.
“I want to say one thing to the people that were shooting: We’re going to make sure we find you. We’re not going to let them disrupt what we do here in Tuskegee.”
Brown said the shooting occurred despite numerous steps the university took before homecoming week to make the festivities safe, including hiring 70 additional law enforcement officers from throughout Alabama and Georgia to help campus and local law enforcement with crowd control.
Brown said efforts were made through social media and advertising to advise visitors that weapons and drugs are prohibited on campus and that visitors could only use clear bags to carry their possessions.
“We did entry checks at all officially sponsored events, some random and some 100% checks,” Brown said. “However, the general campus remained open and we did not, nor could we, have planned for security at an event that was not approved in advance or officially sanctioned by the university.”
Brunson said he and deputies from his department had been at the campus all day and into the night Saturday, assisting university police and the Tuskegee Police Department with security.
He said he was driving back to the school after taking a break when the shooting occurred.
“First of all, it was just chaotic,” Brunson said of what he observed when he arrived at the campus.
He said officers were told an active shooter was held up in a dorm and raced there, running past injured victims, only to learn there was no shooter at the dorm.
“We had to immediately go there. You have to take out the threat first and we found out that it wasn’t that case at that time,” Brunson said. “As we were running to that dorm, trying to get to the active shooter, we saw people hurt, we saw people laying down, people asking for help. But we had to tell them, we’ll be back.”
Brown said he eventually went back to help give first aid to injured victims, including those suffering from gunshot wounds.
“Being there and seeing the faces of the students, seeing the anger and the hurt, being afraid and all of that all into one, it was just a horrific scene,” Brunson said. “I sympathize with the students because you shouldn’t have seen anything like this.”
ABC News’ Faith Abubey and Matt Foster contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Snow is headed to the Midwest and the West ahead of Thanksgiving, while rain will target the East Coast on Thanksgiving Day.
Here’s your weather forecast for the holiday week:
Monday
Snow is headed to Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on Monday, while rain is possible from Chicago to Detroit to Indianapolis.
In the West, lots of snow will accumulate in the California mountains. Parts of the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range below the snow line could see 4 to 8 inches of rain through Monday night.
Throughout the South, temperatures will be above average — in the 70s or 80s — on Monday.
Tuesday
Rain is headed to the Northeast on Tuesday, potentially causing flight delays during this busy travel week.
In the West, snow will continue in the Sierra Nevadas and will target the Rockies.
Rain showers are possible from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay area.
Wednesday
The Midwest, including Chicago, will see a mix of rain and snow on Wednesday.
In the West, snow totals will reach 3 to 5 feet for parts of the southern Sierra Nevadas in California. Up to 7 feet of snow is possible at the highest elevations.
The Rocky Mountains in Colorado are forecast to get 1 to 3 feet of snow. Wind gusts may reach 35 to 50 mph.
Temperatures on Wednesday will return to potentially record-breaking highs for Houston and Austin, Texas, with highs in the mid-80s.
Thanksgiving
A storm is expected to bring rain to most of the East Coast on Thanksgiving.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City will be rainy and chilly, with temperatures in the 40s.
Snow is possible in upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and northern Maine.
Temperatures will be average or below average for most of the country on Thanksgiving. But temperatures will be above average for Phoenix; New Orleans; Jacksonville, Florida; and Raleigh, North Carolina.
