Two workers killed, one seriously hurt in accident at Delta Air Lines’ Atlanta maintenance facility
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(ATLANTA) — Two workers were killed and one was seriously injured in an accident at Delta Air Lines’ Atlanta Technical Operations Maintenance facility at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to Delta TechOps.
Details surrounding Tuesday morning’s accident were not clear, but Delta TechOps said the incident took place at its wheel and brake shop.
Delta said the accident involved a tire and components within the tire. The wheel was not attached to an airplane or near an airplane at the time of the accident, according to Delta.
“We are extending our full support to their families at this difficult time and conducting an investigation to determine what happened,” John Laughter, executive vice president, chief of operations and president of Delta TechOps, said in a statement. “This news is heartbreaking for all of us. [Employee assistance program] resources will be onsite at the [Atlanta Technical Operations Maintenance facility] to support our teams as long as needed.”
The incident had no impact on airport operations, according to airport officials.
Delta said it’s “working with local authorities and conducting a full investigation to determine what happened.”
The airline added it’s “heartbroken” and “grateful for the quick action of first responders and medical teams on site.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said, “I offer my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased Delta employees. My thoughts are also with those who were injured, and I hope for their swift and full recovery.”
Police, fire and airport teams are at the scene, the mayor said.
Atlanta airport officials also offered their condolences.
ABC News’ Ayesha Ali and Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — One of the two men shot and injured in the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has been released from the hospital, officials said.
David Dutch, 57, was discharged on Wednesday, Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh said.
Dutch was shot in the chest and liver and was initially in a medically induced coma after the shooting, according to the Marine Corps League of Pennsylvania.
Dutch is a former Marine who serves as commandant of his Marine Corps League detachment, the organization said.
“David and our entire family are especially grateful to all the first responders and medical professionals who saved his life, including the Life Flight and trauma surgical teams,” his family said in a statement last week. “We also offer our deepest condolences and prayers for the other victims of this tragic event and their families.”
The second man who was shot and injured, James Copenhaver, 74, remains in the hospital in serious but stable condition, according to Allegheny General Hospital.
“Jim would like to especially thank the first responders, medics, and hospital staff who have provided him with initial and continuing care,” his family said in a statement last week. “Additionally, Jim would like to express his thoughts and prayers for the other victims, their families, and President Trump. He prays for a safe and speedy recovery for them all.”
The man killed at the Trump rally, firefighter Corey Comperatore, died shielding his family from the gunfire, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said.
Comperatore, 50, leaves behind his wife and two daughters.
(NEW YORK) — Inflatable structures like bounce houses and moonwalks are staples at children’s birthday parties and summer carnivals. Despite the fun they bring, the wind can make them dangerous — it’s something multiple families found out the hard way this year.
Shock and chaos ensued as families rushed for cover at an Alabama work picnic last Saturday, when strong winds swept away an inflatable slide during a severe thunderstorm.
“I’ve never seen a bounce house take off like that,” witness Joshua Cofield said. “It was just a crazy, freak accident. I was shocked. I was not expecting it because from where I was at, I could not see the bounce house, but when it came into the frame, it blew my mind.”
Cofield and other witnesses stated that the two inflatables knocked over by the storm each had four to six stakes to secure them to the ground, but even that wasn’t enough.
Experts from safety group Weather to Bounce say all inflatables should have stakes firmly planted in the ground, along with sandbags to weigh them down.
Saturday’s incident just one of many weather-related incidents involving large inflatables, which can cause serious injury and even death.
In April, a bounce house incident in Casa Grande, Arizona, killed a 2-year-old child. Another child was injured when the inflatable was carried away by the wind and landed in a neighboring lot.
Also in April, a Victorville, California, family experienced some turbulent weather that created a frightening scene. A video captured a dust devil forming in their backyard and whipping a bounce house high into the air while children were playing in the pool.
“It was very dangerous,” homeowner Yvonne Iribe said.
A University of Georgia study found that wind-related bounce house accidents injured at least 479 people and killed 28 worldwide from 2000 to 2021, with those numbers only rising since.
Wendy and Mitch Hammond spoke out about a horrifying incident that befell them in July 2019, after their kids Lizzy, Danny and Abby were invited to a birthday party in Reno, Nevada. The festivities included an inflatable bounce house and slide.
A sudden gust of wind lifted both inflatables into the air — Lizzy, Danny and the birthday boy were trapped inside the bounce house.
“It flew over me and as I stood up is when I turned and saw the bounce house up in the power lines hanging there,” Wendy Hammond said.
She recalled the family trying to get the bounce house down.
“It was out of reach. First responders get there. And they had too short of a ladder on their fire truck,” she said. “So then we all had to wait. While you’re screaming up at the bounce house, trying to see which kid you can hear.”
Rescuers reached the children and the boys were treated for minor injuries. However, 9-year-old Lizzy did not survive.
“It was blunt force trauma to the spine,” Mitch Hammond said. “And at that point, we decided to put her on life support and tried to harvest what we could to help other kids.”
Days later, family and friends honored Lizzy’s life with an emotional honor walk at the hospital.
The Hammonds now operate the Lizzy Hammond Foundation, to educate and advocate for legislative change. What gives them peace is knowing their late daughter’s organs gave life to others.
“I would like her legacy to be that she saved three kids, you know?” Mitch Hammond said. “So she still was a giver all the way to the very end.”
Video released by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office shows detectives interrogating Susan Lorincz on June 6, 2023, moments before she is arrested for the fatal shooting of her neighbor, Ajike “AJ” Owens. (Marion County Sheriff’s Office)
(NEW YORK) — Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the trial of Susan Lorincz, the Florida woman who is charged with fatally shooting her neighbor Ajike “AJ” Owens, a Black mother of four, in 2023 amid a dispute with Owens’ children.
“The remembrance of it is very painful,” Pamela Dias, Owens’ mother, said during a June 2 gathering at Immerse Church in Ocala to commemorate Owens’ life on the one-year anniversary of the fatal shooting.
“You feel this emptiness, this void that nothing can complete, and then you couple that with the fact that you have four babies who have lost their mother,” Dias added.
The charges
Susan Lorincz, who is white, was arrested on June 6, 2023, and charged with first-degree felony manslaughter, which is punishable by up to 30 years in prison if she is convicted, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. She was also charged with culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault, but those lesser charges have since been dropped, according to court records.
Lorincz pleaded not guilty on July 10, 2023. She was held on a $150,000 bond and has remained in custody since her arrest last year. Lorincz’s attorney, Amanda Sizemore, previously declined to comment on the charge her client is facing and did not immediately return a request for comment from ABC News ahead of the trial.
Over the past year, Owen’s family has repeatedly called on prosecutors to upgrade the charge against Lorincz to second-degree murder, but Florida State Attorney William “Bill” Gladson said in a June 26, 2023 statement that there was insufficient evidence to prove a murder charge in court.
“As deplorable as the defendant’s actions were in this case, there is insufficient evidence to prove this specific and required element of second-degree murder,” Gladson said.
With jury selection set to begin, ABC News reached out to Owens’ family and their attorney, Anthony Thomas, for further comment.
What the video shows
According to a June 6, 2023 statement from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Lorincz allegedly shot Owens through a closed door in the presence of her now 10-year-old son after the mother of four went to speak with Lorincz about a dispute over Owens’ children playing near her home.
Ahead of Lorincz’s trial, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office released video on June 10, 2024, of Lorincz’s two-hour interrogation, which took place four days after the fatal shooting.
Lorincz claimed in her interview with detectives that she was acting in self-defense when she shot Owens.
“She was saying ‘I’m going to kill you,'” Lorincz claimed in the video.
“No one that we’ve interviewed so far has made any statements about her saying that she wanted to kill you,” one of the detectives told Lorincz.
Body camera footage released on July 3, 2023 by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office showed seven incidents between Feb. 25, 2022, and April 25, 2023 in which Lorincz called sheriff’s deputies to complain about neighborhood children, including Owens’ children, playing near her home.
The body camera videos also show a child alleging in comments to sheriff’s deputies that Lorincz called the children in the neighborhood “the N-word” and another who accused Lorincz of being “racist.”
During the interrogation, Lorincz repeatedly denied using racial slurs towards Owens and her children on the night of the shooting, but according to a police report, Lorincz admitted to calling children in the neighborhood the N-word and other derogatory terms in the past.
“I do not have a comment at this time,” Sizemore told ABC News on July 3, 2023, when asked to comment about the release of the body camera footage and the allegation that Lorincz called the children the “N-word.”
Owens’ family also called on Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and the U.S. Department of Justice in July 2023 to review the case and consider whether the shooting was a hate crime.
