August 27, 2020 • No Comments • National News

kali9/iStockBy BILL HUTCHINSON and WILLIAM MANSELL, ABC News

(MINNEAPOLIS) — Violence erupted in Minneapolis overnight when protesters took to the streets, some looting and vandalizing businesses, after social media posts wrongly claimed officers fatally shot a Black man who police alleged died by suicide following his involvement in a homicide.

At least six people were arrested when the civil unrest took an ugly turn in the city where a national wave of protests began in May with the killing of George Floyd.

The Minneapolis Police Department took a rare step Wednesday night of immediately releasing surveillance video of the suspect allegedly shooting himself at a shopping mall with several members of the public nearby.

The video was released, according to police officials, because many community residents took to the streets believing social media reports that the suspect was shot in the head by police.

“This evening, a murder suspect committed suicide as police approached them at 8th & Nicollet,” the Minneapolis Police Department said in a statement accompanying the surveillance video. They warned, “contains graphic images.”

“No officer weapons were fired,” the statement went on. “This is a tragedy for our community that is still hurting. Our condolences go to the families of the victims.”

The incident followed three days of violent protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that spread to several other U.S. cities after cellphone video captured a police officer there shoot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, multiple times in the back in front of three of his six children.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz mobilized about 150 State Patrol troopers to respond to Minneapolis to restore order.

“Minneapolis, it’s time to heal,” Walz said in a message posted on Twitter. “We must rebuild and recover. Dangerous, unlawful behavior will not be tolerated.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey responded to the governor on Twitter, saying, “The unrest must stop and the healing must start.”

During a news conference Wednesday night, Frey said the city has requested help from the National Guard to restore calm to the city, which saw days of looting, vandalism and confrontations with police in the aftermath of Floyd’s May 25 death in which an officer was caught on cellphone video digging his knee into Floyd’s neck as he repeatedly cried out “I can’t breathe” and called for his dead mother.

Minneapolis, it’s time to heal. We must rebuild and recover. Dangerous, unlawful behavior will not be tolerated. The State Patrol is headed to Minneapolis to help restore order. I remain in close contact with the city and every state resource stands ready to help bring peace.

— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) August 27, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js “What our city needs right now is healing,” Frey said, adding that a 72-hour citywide state of emergency and curfew would go into effect at 10 p.m. Thursday and run through 6 a.m. on Friday.

The mayor said he requested the National Guard to help restore peace to the city.

We have mobilized approximately 150 troopers — including our Mobile Field Force, Special Response Team and all available metro area state troopers — to restore order in #Minneapolis.

— MN State Patrol (@MnDPS_MSP) August 27, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

“We do not need more destruction. We do not need more property damage,” Frey said. “That is unacceptable in every way, shape and form and I want to be very clear, it will not be tolerated.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo also appeared at the news conference and pleaded with protesters in the downtown area to go home.

“This was not an officer-related incident,” Arradondo said. “But we’re compounding more tragedy by the destruction and folks wanting to do harm to our communities and to our downtown sector this evening. I will not allow … more trauma to a city that’s still grieving from May 25.”

Soldiers from the @MNNationalGuard 257th Military Police Company are assisting local law enforcement in protecting property and ensuring the safety of MPLS residents. We are working in coordination with the @CityMinneapolis and the @MinneapolisPD at the direction of @GovTimWalz. pic.twitter.com/0zDpylZfQS

— MN National Guard (@MNNationalGuard) August 27, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The chaotic night in Minneapolis began on Wednesday afternoon when police responded to a fatal shooting and began searching for a man and a woman suspected of being involved in the homicide and fled the scene on foot, police said. Officers were able to obtain from witnesses descriptions of the suspects and the female suspect was quickly located.

Around 6 p.m., police said the male suspect was spotted by officers outside the Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. As officers approached the suspect, he produced a handgun and shot himself in the head, police said.

“He appears to have seen officers approaching. He turned into a doorway of a building, produced a handgun, put it up underneath his chin. He then adjusted his stance, and shot himself underneath the chin closer to where it meets the neck,” John Elder Elder, a Minneapolis police spokesperson, told ABC Minneapolis affiliate station KSTP-TV.

Elder said people began to livestream to social media false information that officers had shot the suspect in the head, prompting protesters to take to the streets and wreaking havoc.

The video, captured by a surveillance camera owned by the city, shows a man dressed in a white T-shirt and dark ball cap and wearing a black backpack walk past a group of people who scattered as he pulled a weapon and shot himself.

Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

August 27, 2020 • No Comments • National News

wellesenterprises/iStockBy MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News

(NOTRE DAME, Ind.) — Before arriving on campus at the University of Notre Dame earlier this month, nearly all undergraduate and graduate students took COVID-19 tests. More than 11,800 tests yielded 33 positive cases, for a positivity rate of 0.28%.

By Aug. 18, eight days after classes started, the campus had 147 confirmed cases and a positivity rate of nearly 16%. The cases had overwhelmed the school’s testing and isolation measures and put the remainder of the fall semester in jeopardy, school officials said. That day, the university announced that undergraduate students would be going virtual for at least two weeks.

The university is one of hundreds of schools attempting to reopen with students on campus amid the pandemic. It’s also among those making headlines for its increase in COVID-19 cases since welcoming back students.

Notre Dame has been committed to reopening its campus since the spring. In late May, its president, Father John I. Jenkins, penned a New York Times opinion piece with the bold headline, “We’re Reopening Notre Dame. It’s Worth the Risk.” Whereas some schools — notably the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill — have pivoted to virtual learning amid coronavirus outbreaks this fall, Notre Dame is continuing to prioritize on-campus learning.

The rising cases — which now total nearly 500 — caused the school to “come up with a new battle plan,” Provost Marie Lynn Miranda said in a video address to students last Friday.

Part of that plan is keeping undergraduates, an overwhelming majority of whom have tested positive for the virus, out of classrooms until at least Sept. 2. The school should have an update on a return to in-person learning by Friday, a spokesman told ABC News.

The university has also expanded its COVID-19 testing. On Friday, it launched randomized testing of its student body to help identify asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic cases. Over the five days since, Notre Dame conducted 2,175 total tests — about half of the overall number of tests it’s conducted since Aug. 3. The campus positivity rate has decreased to around 3%.

Increased testing is a welcome move for third-year Notre Dame law student Rachel Palermo, though it’s one she wishes the school had implemented from the start.

“I think that the testing has been a huge problem,” Palermo told ABC News.

The university had initially advised that only those students with a set criteria of symptoms look into getting tested. Now, anyone who believes they have had direct contact with someone infected with COVID-19 can get a test — something Palermo also believes should have been the case from the beginning.

“I think the only way to be safely in person is to mandate regular testing of all students,” she said. “I know it’s expensive, but it’s worth it.”

Testing is a sticking point for others in the community. A petition started last week is demanding that COVID-19 testing be made available for the entire student population. The student newspaper, the Observer, has also called for more data in the university’s COVID-19 dashboard, including hospitalizations, recoveries, available quarantine and isolation spaces and demographics of students testing positive. This week, the university updated the dashboard to include some new data, including a rolling seven-day average of positive cases and a breakdown of cases by undergraduates, graduates and employees.

Observers say messaging has been mixed, too, as the university brought some 12,000 students back on campus amid new coronavirus protocols.

“Notre Dame’s biggest issue is a lack of discipline on messaging,” Chris Marsicano, founding director of the College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College — which is tracking higher education institutions’ responses to COVID-19 — told ABC News. He pointed to reports that the university’s president apologized earlier this month after failing to comply with the school’s recommended social distancing guidelines while taking selfies with students.

“Discipline of the messaging is important for places that are big,” Marsicano said. “It’s hard to keep tabs on every single student.”

Language on disciplinary action had also been “very vague,” Palermo said. Still, she noted that it’s gotten stricter since the rise in cases. Last week, the university limited gatherings to 10 people, down from 20, and officials warned that students who fail to comply with health protocols could face “severe disciplinary action,” including dismissal.

University spokesman Paul Browne told ABC News that compliance with COVID-19 measures has been strong on campus — there haven’t been any cases linked to classrooms, he said — but “not as much off-campus.” The initial outbreaks were tied to a couple of off-campus parties where students weren’t wearing masks and spread the virus from there, officials said. Recent testing hasn’t found any other super-spreader events, Browne said.

The university is currently weighing disciplinary action for several students who failed to comply with health protocols, such as mask-wearing or social distancing, or didn’t isolate or quarantine when required to, Browne said.

“In some instances, we’ve had students leave those quarters to go out to get food, or just leave,” he added.

Browne said students themselves have been effective at spreading the message to follow health protocols through social media and the student newspaper.

“I think their engagement has probably been as, if not more, effective than messaging from the administration,” he said.

One student recently started an Instagram account on “why we do our part to prevent the spread.” Another, who said he went to the hospital after contracting the virus, pleaded with students to follow protocols in a letter to the editor published in the Observer this week.

“The past is the past, and there is nothing we can do to change that,” he said. “What we can do is begin to take this virus seriously even when the people in power and those closest to us refuse to do so.”

Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

August 27, 2020 • No Comments • National News

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Julio Rivera/ReleasedBy LUIS MARTINEZ and MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC News

(WASHINGTON) — A U.S. Navy sailor is being questioned by investigators for possible arson after allegedly starting the massive fire on the USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego in July, according to defense officials.

The almost week-long fire caused so much damage that the Navy is now debating whether it makes sense to keep the large amphibious assault ship in service.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) has identified the sailor, serving aboard the ship, as the potential suspect that may have started the blaze, a U.S. official said.

The investigation is still ongoing and no charges have yet been pressed, another official said.

“The Navy will not comment on an ongoing investigation to protect the integrity of the investigative process and all those involved,” said Lt. Timothy Pietrack, a U.S. Navy spokesman. “We have nothing to announce at this time.”

KGTV, ABC’s affiliate in San Diego, was first to report the details that a sailor may have been responsible for the fire on the ship.

Multiple sources told KGTV that various search warrants were executed at the sailor’s home and property. The sailor’s name and rank were not disclosed.

The fire began on the morning of July 12, in a storage area above where Marine Corps vehicles are usually stored on the large amphibious assault ship that looks like an aircraft carrier.

The fire quickly spread to the ship’s hangar deck, where it spread throughout most of the ship’s upper decks and raged for five days before it was finally extinguished.

Navy officials said at the time that the temperatures reached as high as 1,200 degrees when the flames were at their peak.

The Navy is carrying out four investigations into how the fire started and the extensive damage that it has left behind.

Following a tour of the damage in July, the Navy’s top admiral questioned whether it made sense to repair the ship that has been in service since the late 1990s.

“I am 100% confident that our defense industry can put this ship back to sea,” said Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations. “But, having said that, the question is: Should we make that investment in a 22-year-old ship? And I’m not going to make any predictions until we take a look at all the facts and we follow the facts and we can make reasonable recommendations up the chain of command on the future steps, any repair efforts, future repair efforts of Bonhomme Richard.”

Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.