Uber driver charged after allegedly shooting teenage girl at Waffle House: Police
Meredith Grundy, 38, was charged after he allegedly shot a 16-year-old girl at a Waffle House in Dunwoody, Georgia, according to the Dunwoody Police Department. Dunwoody Police Department
(DUNWOODY, Ga.) — An Uber driver has been charged after he allegedly shot a teenage girl at a Georgia Waffle House after she allegedly threatened to kill him, according to the Dunwoody Police Department.
Meredith Grundy, 38, was arrested on Sunday after he allegedly shot a 16-year-old girl, who remains in critical condition, officials said in a press release on Tuesday.
On Sunday at approximately 2:30 a.m., officers responded to a person being shot at a Waffle House in Dunwoody, Georgia.
Officials learned five juvenile females “ordered an Uber to take them home from the restaurant,” to which the driver — identified as Grundy — said he could “only transport four of the five because he did not have enough room and seatbelts in the car,” police said.
The group of girls then “argued with the driver about his refusal and who should cancel the trip with Uber,” police said.
The argument began to escalate, with one of the teens threatening “to kill the driver” before she “struck him in the face while he was inside the car,” police said.
Grundy then fired a gun and “struck the female who assaulted him,” police said.
When speaking to authorities, the other teens denied the assault and threat took place, officials said.
The victim, a 16-year-old female, was transported to a local hospital to receive treatment for her injuries. She remains in critical, but stable condition, officials confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday.
Grundy, who was taken to the DeKalb Jail, was charged with aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during a felony. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to ABC News that Grundy was released on bond.
Police said the incident is still an “active investigation.”
It was not immediately clear whether Grundy has an attorney who can speak on his behalf or the date of his next court appearance.
Uber did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. The company told Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB that Grundy’s access to Uber has been removed and they “stand ready to support law enforcement in their investigation.”
ederal law enforcement officers stand guard at the Paul G. Rogers federal courthouse on September 16, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. The courthouse is the site of the trial of Ryan Wesley Routh, a suspect in the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump. (Photo by Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(WEST PALM BEACH, Fla) — Jurors in the criminal trial of the man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on his golf course last year got to see with their own eyes Friday how close Ryan Routh came to carrying out his alleged plan.
Routh, who is representing himself despite not being a lawyer or having a legal education, is on trial in Florida on charges that include the attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate.
Erin Casey, a media specialist with the FBI, use a trove of drone video, photographs, and laser imagery to create a “fly-through” video showing Routh’s alleged sniper post in relation to Trump’s location on the golf course.
“It’s like an animated camera in a Pixar movie,” she told the jurors, saying the video is a “tool to bring you back to the scene.”
FBI Special Agent Katherine Rose also showed the jury the rifle, ammunition, and items recovered from the crime scene.
“Shots fired — that’s all I heard,” said Mayes. “Without much information, I tried to figure out what was going on and where it was going on.”
As Routh appeared fixated on her testimony from across the room, Rose showed the jurors the SKS semiautomatic rifle that Routh allegedly used. The jurors saw his scope, the magazine he used, and the single bullet chambered in the rifle that prosecutors say was intended to kill the now-president.
“What do we have here?” asked prosecutor Maria Medetis Long.
“This would be the rifle recovered from the scene,” Rose said.
Rose also displayed the two bags that Routh allegedly attached to the fence of the golf course. Inside the spray-painted bags were two metal plates that prosecutors say Routh sought to use as armor to protect himself from incoming fire.
‘Blue, blue!’
Two other witnesses testified about the frantic response to the shooting.
Kenneth Mayes, a sergeant with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office who was with a tactical unit positioned at Trump’s golf course on the day of the shooting, testified that local police used a different radio channel than the Secret Service, so his unit initially had no details about the incident.
Operating with little information, Mayes said he followed another officer’s car out of the course’s parking lot, though he later returned after realizing he was driving away from the incident. He said he decided to drive in the opposite direction, where he eventually came across the crime scene.
“When I arrived, there was one person there, and they had no information,” he said. “I went into the bushes to see what we were dealing with.”
He said he shouted “Blue, blue!” when he arrived to prevent others from mistaking him for Routh.
Lieutenant William Gale was also one of the first to arrive at the scene, though Routh had allegedly fled before he showed up. He told jurors that he was eventually able to locate Routh because a bystander, who testified Thursday, was able to identify Routh’s car and license plate number.
“He said he had some information about this incident,” Gale said. “He mentioned that the car was a black Nissan Xterra.”
Vienna-style sausages
Meanwhile, an unlikely object has taken center stage in the prosecution’s case: Vienna sausages.
Four different witnesses have so far mentioned the processed meat product during their testimony, and prosecutors encouraged jurors in their opening statement to see the sausages as a way to link Routh, 59, to the crime scene.
All four of those witnesses told the jury that they found an empty can of Vienna sausages near Routh’s alleged sniper perch, and that unconsumed sausages littered the crime scene.
During Rose’s testimony, the jury was able to see the empty can and lid that brought into the courtroom for them to examine.
“Could you tell what kind of items these were?” asked Medetis Long.
“Yes, I could,” answered Rose. “They appear to be Vienna-style sausages.”
In his opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley said the sausages link Routh to the crime scene, pointing to a selfie Routh sent a romantic partner from his car that showed the same sausages in the background.
Prosecutors say that in the month leading up to the attempted assassination, Routh was living in his car at a nearby gas station while he was “obsessively researching the movements of Donald Trump online.” Shipley alleged that Routh lied to his family and friends about the trip to conceal its purpose, including sending his romantic partner a selfie inside his car to prove he was “camping.”
The Vienna sausages in that photograph, prosecutors say, is another piece of evidence that demonstrates Routh was the person who hid in the bushes of Trump’s golf course to try to kill the now-president.
A quick pace
While prosecutors originally estimated needing about three weeks to conclude their case against Routh, they signaled on Thursday that their case might conclude sooner than planned because of the quick pace of the first few witnesses’ testimony.
Jurors at the trial in Fort Pierce, Florida, heard from the Secret Service agent who confronted an armed Routh on the golf course before Routh fled, and a witness who identified Routh to police.
Prosecutors allege that Routh put together a methodical plan — including purchasing a military-grade weapon, researching Trump’s movements, and utilizing a dozen burner phones — to kill Trump based on political grievances.
Hiding in the bushes of Trump’s Palm Beach golf course and armed with a rifle, Routh allegedly came within a few hundred yards of the then-presidential nominee before a Secret Service agent spotted his rifle poking out of the tree line.
Routh allegedly fled the scene but was later arrested by a local sheriff’s office on a nearby interstate.
He faces five criminal charges, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, using a firearm in furtherance of a crime, assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm as a felon, and using a gun with a defaced serial number.
Routh has been rebuked several times by Cannon after making unexpected and off-topic comments. During opening statements Thursday, Routh launched into a speech about the origin of the human species, global conflicts, and his political grievances, before the judge cut him off after about six minutes for making arguments that she said have “absolutely nothing to do with the evidence in this case.”
Prosecution plans to rest case
After flying through eight law enforcement witnesses on Friday, prosecutors said they plan to rest their case against Ryan Routh this coming Thursday.
The unexpected speed of the case is in part attributable to Routh’s approach to his defense; he has rarely objected to testimony and briefly cross examined some of the witnesses.
“Seems like we got nowhere. Thanks for your useful testimony,” Routh told one of the witnesses after his questions fell flat.
Prosecutors sped through four additional witnesses this afternoon. FBI Special Agent Jose Loureiro testified about the chain of custody for Routh’s car, and Special Agent David Gilbert told the jury about disarming Routh’s rifle.
Digital analyst Elizabeth Reidel testified about the trail camera that police found at Routh’s alleged sniper perch. According to Reidel, most of the video stored on the device was from August 2024 when Routh relocated to Florida to allegedly begin planning his assassination attempt. Jurors saw some wobbling footage that appeared to be taken from inside a bush, though prosecutors did not explicitly make clear if the footage was taken from Routh’s perch.
Special Agent Tristan Bailey also testified about the process of collecting DNA and fingerprint samples from Routh. During a brief cross examination, Routh appeared to praise her work while highlighting how she also took hair samples from him.
“You left the hair out. You pulled all my hair out, and it’s not in evidence,” Routh said. “I can attest we did a very good job.”
The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday at 9:00 a.m. after prosecutors ran out of additional witnesses to call today, earning themselves a rare rebuke from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon.
“I don’t want this to happen again,” she said to conclude the day.
(CHICAGO) — At least 57 people have been shot, seven fatally, across Chicago over Labor Day weekend, including a drive-by attack that left seven victims wounded, according to police.
The violent holiday weekend came as President Donald Trump renewed threats to send federal agents and National Guard troops to Chicago over the objections of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Trump on Saturday sent a warning to Pritzker in a post on his social media platform, referencing recent crime in Chicago and saying Pritzker “better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!”
Pritzker, a Democrat, responded in a news conference a week ago to an earlier Trump threat to “straighten out Chicago, just like we did D.C.,” by saying that the president’s plan was “unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it is un-American.”
Johnson responded last week by saying in part that he had “grave concerns about the impact of any unlawful deployment of National Guard troops to the city of Chicago,” and calling Trump’s approach “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.” Johnson also said that deploying the National Guard in Chicago could “inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement.”
On Saturday, Johnson signed an executive order dubbed the “Protecting Chicago Initiative,” which he described in a news conference as “the most sweeping campaign of any city in the country to protect ourselves from the threats and actions of this out-of-control administration” and which “directs our department of law to pursue any and every legal mechanism to hold this administration accountable for violating the rights of Chicagoans.”
“We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some type of militarized activity by the federal government,” Johnson said, in part. “We take these threats seriously and we find ourselves in a position where we must take immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach.”
At least 36 separate shootings occurred in Chicago between 10:32 p.m. Friday and noon on 11:13 p.m. Monday, according to a review by ABC News of police incident reports published online.
The victims included a 17-year-old girl who was inside her home when a bullet came through a front window and hit her in the arm, a 31-year-old man who was shot in the leg after getting caught in the crossfire of gunmen shooting at each other from two vehicles, and two people who shot and injured while driving down a street, all according to the incident reports.
Fewer than five hours after Trump posted a message on social media on Saturday criticizing Pritzker’s handling of crime in Chicago, a mass shooting occurred in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side that left seven people wounded.
“He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!” Trump said in his post about Pritzker.
The shooting in Bronzeville occurred about 11:10 p.m. on Saturday on South State Street, according to police. A group of people were gathered outside in the area when a vehicle drove by and at least one occupant opened fire on the crowd. All seven people shot, five men and two women ranging in age from 28 to 32, were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries to their lower extremities, police said. No suspects have been arrested.
The first of seven homicides that police say occurred over the long holiday weekend happened at 11:56 p.m. on Friday at the South Shore apartment complex on East Essex Street, where two women were discovered shot, according to police.
A 25-year-old woman was found in the apartment suffering from two gunshot wounds to her stomach and one to her leg, according to a police incident report. She was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she was pronounced dead, according to authorities. The victim’s name was not immediately released.
The second victim, a 23-year-old woman, suffered gunshot wounds to both legs and was in fair condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Investigators were interviewing a person of interest in the East Essex Street homicide but no arrests have been announced, according to police.
Elsewhere, two men were shot, one fatally, in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago around 11 a.m. on Saturday, according to police. The victims were standing outside on North Sawyer Avenue when a dark SUV approached them and a gunman exited the vehicle and opened fire, according to a police incident report.
A 29-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was shot multiple times and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to police. The second victim, a 32-year-old man, suffered a gunshot wound to his right side and was in stable condition at Mount Sinai, police said. No arrests have been announced in the incident.
Also on Saturday, gunfire erupted in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood. Around 7:46 p.m., a 43-year-old woman was standing outside on E. 131st Street when five armed men approached her and opened fire, striking her multiple times, according to police. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to Christ Hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said.
No arrests have been announced in the Altgeld Gardens homicide.
Around 1:39 a.m. on Sunday, a 46-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was killed in a triple shooting that occurred in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago’s Lower West Side, according to police. The victims were standing on West 17th Street when a gunman walked up to them and opened fire, police said.
The two other victims, a 41-year-old man and a 43-year-old man, suffered gunshot wounds to their legs and were in good condition at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.
Around 2:52 a.m. on Sunday, a 33-year-old man was killed in the West Inglewood neighborhood on the Southwest Side of Chicago, police said. The victim got into a argument inside a residence with a man who shot him in the head, according to police. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. No arrests were announced.
The violence continued Sunday night as police launched two more homicide investigations.
A 26-year-old woman was fatally shot around 7:28 p.m. on Sunday in the Pullman neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side after getting into a verbal altercation with another woman, police said. The victim, whose name was not released, was shot in the chest and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, according to police. No arrests have been announced.
Also on Sunday night, police discovered a man lying on the ground suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the Little Village neighborhood of southwest Chicago, police said. The victim, who was found on S. Drake Avenue, died at the scene, police said. No suspects have been identified.
At least three additional shootings unfolded early Monday in the city, including one that left five people wounded, including a 17-year-old boy who was in critical condition after suffering multiple gunshot wounds, police said.
Just after 1 a.m. on Monday, police were called to the Oakland neighborhood on the city’s South Side for a report of a large disturbance on South Cottage Grove Avenue, according to a police incident report. Upon arrival, officers followed the sound of gunfire to an area where they found the five shooting victims and four discarded firearms, according to police. Besides the critically wounded teenager, police said the four other victims, ranging in age from 26 to 36, were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.
One person of interest was being questioned in the Oakland neighborhood shooting, but no charges have been announced.
Around 11:20 a.m. on Monday, a 48-year-old man was shot in the West Elsdon neighborhood of southeast Chicago, according to police. The victim, who was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, was standing outside of a residence when a gunman approached him and opened fire, striking him multiple times in the abdomen, according to police. No arrests have been announced.
The series of shootings came after President Donald Trump said last week that he is prepared to order National Guard troops to American cities in addition to those in the nation’s capital, but that he wanted local officials to request his help.
Trump threatened to make Chicago the next city he would target after he declared what he said was a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C., and he put the city’s police force under federal control on Aug. 11.
Violent crime in Chicago has dropped significantly in the first half of the year, according to official data released by the city. Shootings are down 37% and homicides have dropped by 32% compared to the first half of 2024, while total violence crime dropped by over 22%, according to the crime statistics.
“Do not come to Chicago, you are neither wanted here nor needed here,” Pritzker further said in response to Trump during a news conference last week. “Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city to punish its dissidents and score political points. If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is – a dangerous power-grab.”
ABC News Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia was taken into immigration custody after checking in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement at its office in Baltimore on Monday morning, his attorney announced.
Abrego Garcia was detained as soon as he entered ICE’s office, attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
“We asked the ICE officer what the reason for his detention was, the ICE officer didn’t answer,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said, adding that ICE officers would not say which detention center his client would be taken to.
“We asked the ICE officer for a copy of any paperwork that’s being served on him today, the ICE officer wouldn’t commit to even giving us that paperwork,” he added.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said a new lawsuit challenging Abrego Garcia’s detainment and potential deportation was just filed in Maryland.
Less than 24 hours after being released from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday, ICE notified Abrego Garcia’s attorneys that he may be deported to Uganda and ordered him to report to their office in Maryland.
The notification from ICE came after Abrego Garcia rejected a plea deal to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to human smuggling charges and remaining in jail, according to a court filing from his attorneys.
In the filing, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys accused the federal government of trying to force their client to accept a guilty plea or face deportation to East Africa.
In July, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the government to “restore Abrego Garcia to his ICE Order of Supervision out of the Baltimore Field Office.”
But Xinis also said that if the government intends to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country, it needs to provide 72 hours’ notice.
The order allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to initiate “lawful immigration proceedings” when Abrego Garcia returned to Maryland.
The immigration proceedings may or may not include “lawful arrest, detention and eventual removal,” Xinis said in July.
