A St. Louis couple were charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon for displaying guns during civil rights demonstrations outside their mansion.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner announced charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey on Monday, saying they could face an extra charge of fourth-degree assault. They will both be issued summons to appear in court at a later date, officials said.
The couple’s attorney called the charges “disheartening” and maintained that no crime had been committed.
“I, along with my clients, support the First Amendment right of every citizen to have their voice and opinion heard,” attorney Joel Schwartz said in a statement. “This right, however, must be balanced with the Second Amendment and Missouri law, which entitle each of us to protect our home and family from potential threats.”
(PHILADELPHIA) — Police are searching for the body of a Philadelphia toddler who was allegedly abducted and murdered by his babysitter earlier this month.
Family members said 2-year-old King Hill had been presumed dead by police on Monday, nearly two weeks after he vanished from his home in Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion neighborhood.
Police arrested 24-year-old Tianna Parks of Philadelphia on multiple counts Monday, including murder, interference with the custody of children, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice.
“The death of King Hill is an unbearable tragedy that is compounded by Tianna Parks’ actions,” Philadelphia District Attorney Krasner said in a statement Monday. “This precious baby’s family and community deserve to know how he died. They deserve the opportunity to bury and mourn him with dignity. This child deserved so much better in life. My office will continue to work alongside the Philadelphia Police and FBI to seek justice for his death.”
Police said Marvin Reese, King’s stepfather, dropped off the child with Parks at least two weeks before making the missing persons report. Reese initially told police that King was last seen by a babysitter who claimed to have returned King to his mother on July 8. But the toddler’s mother said he was never dropped off and she assumed he was still in his stepfather’s care.
Family members said they called police as soon as they realized King was missing on July 8, but police believe the child was last seen alive on July 5. Investigators with the Philadelphia Police Department along with the FBI said cellphone and video evidence led them to believe that the child had died.
“Wherever he is at, whatever happened to him, just bring him back so we can put King to rest,” Kimberly Hill, King’s maternal grandmother, told ABC affiliate WPVI-TV on Monday. “He was amazing, everybody loved King.”
Parks was being held without bail on Monday. It’s unclear if she has retained an attorney.
Philadelphia Police Department Capt. Mark Burgmann said the case was one of the toughest in his 40-year career.
“We’ve put a tremendous amount of resources to this, probably more resources than we’ve ever devoted to any other investigation I’ve had here in the past over 40 years,” he said during a press conference last week. “We’re leaving no stone unturned here. We’re not going to stop until the child returns.”
iStock/Lalocracio(PORTLAND) — As protesters continue to clash with federal law enforcement agents in Portland, Oregon, a group of moms stepped up to help protect the protesters.
More than two dozen women created what they called a Wall of Moms over the weekend to create a barrier between protesters and federal officers, who are under fire for their use of force against people protesting police brutality after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.
The women, who wore face masks and helmets for safety, chanted, “Feds steer clear, moms are here,” as they linked arms to form the barrier, according to ABC News’ Kayna Whitworth, who is covering the protests in Portland.
“Many of them who were here last night tell me they were tear gassed by federal authorities – but they are back today – and they brought their friends,” Whitworth wrote on Instagram.
The Wall of Moms is the brainchild of Bev Barnum, a mom of two who organized a Facebook event calling on moms to meet at the protest site on Saturday evening.
“We moms are often underestimated. But we’re stronger than we’re given credit for,” Barnum, who could not be reached by ABC News, wrote on Facebook. “So what do you say, will you stand with me? Will you help me create a wall of moms?”
“Thank you so much for being brave. Thank you for being willing to help the protestors,” Barnum wrote on her post, which received more than 500 responses.
Barnum reflected on the success of the moms’ movement in a later post, writing alongside a photo of the moms at the protest, “When I asked moms to join me in protest on Friday night, while I was in my pj’s, getting ready for bed . . . I didn’t imagine that this would be my reality by Sunday morning.”
“In the span of 30hrs, women from all across the world have asked how they too can make this happen in their community,” she wrote. “You want to know the truth? You have to ask your friends to stand with you. You have to ask strangers to trust you enough to go into harms way. And you most especially have to trust that these women are going to show up until there isn’t a single protestor left to protect.”
Barnum and two other women also formed a Wall of Moms group on Facebook that now has nearly 3,000 members, including everyone from local moms interested in attending a protest to moms in states across the country asking how they can help.
“We got gassed last night and it did suck, but we’ve all been through childbirth, IEP meetings, and long barf-filled nights,” Maureen Kenny Mimiaga, one of Barnum’s co-founders, wrote on Facebook. “We got this.”
The federal agents deployed in Portland this week were part of a Department of Homeland Security task force established to respond to the growing protests and acts of civil disobedience that came after the death of Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
The state’s attorney general has launched a criminal investigation into two “unlawful” tactics allegedly made by federal agents.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum also announced she filed a federal civil lawsuit on Friday evening against the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to begin the process for a restraining order to stop the agents “from unlawfully detaining Oregonians.” ABC News’ Christina Carrega contributed to this report.
Ovidiu Dugulan/iStockBy JON HAWORTH and IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — The novel coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 600,000 people worldwide.
Over 14.5 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their nations’ outbreaks.
The United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 3.7 million diagnosed cases and at least 140,541 deaths.
Here is how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
1:42 p.m.: Heat wave forces Washington, D.C. to freeze public testing sites
The heatwave hitting the East Coast has forced Washington, D.C. to suspend its coronavirus testing Monday.
The city’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency sent an alert to residents that it would close all of its public testing sites because of the extreme weather. The National Weather Service said the temperature would top out at 99 degrees with a heat index above 100 in the city.
“Residents are encouraged to call their health care providers if they are in need of a test,” the alert said.
1:26 p.m.: Smithsonian to open 2 of its facilities
The Smithsonian announced it will begin the phased reopening of its Washington, D.C. cultural institutions on Friday.
The National Zoo in northwest Washington, D.C. and the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, will be open to visitors through a timed entry pass system. Visitors above 6 years old will be required to wear face coverings and adhere to social distancing guidelines in both locations, according to the Smithsonian.
The Smithsonian will release 5,000 timed passes per day for the Zoo and about 1,500 passes per day for the Udvar-Hazy Center.
12:45 p.m.: California puts pause on high school sports
The California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees the state’s high school sports, announced it will put a pause on the beginning of the athletic season.
“It is anticipated that most Section start dates will commence in December 2020 or January 2021,” the federation said in a statement.
California has seen a jump in cases over the last few weeks and currently has 384,692 total cases, according to the state’s Health Department.
12:00 p.m.: WHO says vaccine update is promising
The emergencies chief for the World Health Organization told reporters in Geneva that the latest findings from vaccine studies are good news, but warned that there is still work to be done.
Dr. Mike Ryan said the phase one results from a vaccine study at Oxford University were promising as it showed little to no adverse effects of the vaccine. He said that more research is needed with a larger sample scale.
“We now need to move into larger scale real world trials, but it is good to see more data and more products moving into this very important phase of vaccine discovery,” he said.
11:36 a.m.: Mississippi governor extends mask mandate for more counties
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves told “Good Morning America” he will extend his current order for mandated masks to more counties, but will not yet issue a statewide order.
Reeves said there are over 41,000 confirmed cases in the state and health officials are recording 1,000 new cases a day. He urged residents to take the pandemic seriously and abide by the social distancing and mask guidelines.
“We think that we’ve got to make sure that everyone understands that we need your participation to help us slow the spread of this virus,” he told “GMA.”
The governor’s original mask mandate for 13 Mississippi counties was set to expire Monday, however he said he was extending the order for those areas and was adding 10 more counties to the order.
Reeves said that he was not yet considering a statewide order even though the governors in neighboring states Texas and Alabama have done so.
“I believe this is the best strategy for Mississippi,” he said.
11:13 a.m.: Florida hospitals running out of ICU beds as cases soar over 360,000
Florida health officials say their hospitals are reaching capacity in their ICUs as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to climb, with the statewide total now over 360,000.
Roughly 18% of the state’s adult ICU beds are available and 53 medical facilities in the state have maxed out their ICU bed load, according to Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration.
There were 292 people were hospitalized in the last 24 hours, the Florida Health Department reported Monday morning, bringing the state’s total COVID-19 hospitalizations to 21,263. There are currently 9,397 active coronavirus hospitalizations, according to the health department.
The state recorded 10,347 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, bringing Florida’s total to 360,394, the Health Department said. The seven-day average of new cases has been over 10,000 for the last week, according to Health Department data.
There were 90 additional deaths recorded during that timeframe, bringing the state’s total casualty count to 5,181, according to the Health Department.
10:25 a.m.: New York officials warn of potential reclosings after crowds spotted outside restaurants
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio gave harsh warnings to New Yorkers following several reports and viral videos over the weekend that showed crowds outside New York City bars and restaurants.
A frustrated governor called the incidents “stupid” and raised concerns that those actions could increase the spread of the virus and undo the work that was done to keep case numbers down.
“We cannot allow these congregations to continue,” Cuomo said at a news conference on Monday. “We’re going to have to roll back the reopening plan and close back bars and restaurants.”
De Blasio said during his daily briefing that he shut down a restaurant in Astoria, Queens, where some customers were seen loitering in the streets. He said police officials will be out near hots pots to enforce the city’s COVID-19 rules and they are ready to shut down more establishments that don’t comply.
“It’s not widespread, but where it’s happening it will be stopped,” he said.
New York City entered phase four of the state’s reopening plan Monday, with several industries being allowed to resume operations including indoor and outdoor film productions.
The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations across the state was 716, the lowest number since March 18, and there were eight related fatalities in New York, according to the governor. Cuomo said the state will have a challenge due to the increasing number of cases throughout the country and urged New Yorkers to remain cautious.
“We have to protect the progress we made. … “An outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere.” 10:13 a.m.: Oxford study on coronavirus vaccine generates promising early results
A team of scientists at the University of Oxford released promising results showing their COVID-19 vaccine appears safe in a Phase 1/2 study.
The results, which were published Monday in the scientific journal The Lancet, found the vaccine appeared to activate several parts of the immune system. Experts say only the results of an ongoing larger Phase 3 study will show if the vaccine works to protect people from the virus.
8:25 a.m.: Surgeon General pleads with Americans to wear face masks
During an interview on Fox and Friends, Surgeon General Jerome Adams pleaded with Americans to wear face masks and cited their benefits, despite previous vocal doubts from the president.
Adams told the hosts Trump and the administration are on the same page and the most effective way to reopen the country safely was for every person to wear a mask voluntarily.
“I’m pleading with your viewers, I’m begging you, please understand that we are not trying to take away your freedoms when we say wear a face covering,” he said. “We are saying if we do these things, we can actually open and stay open.”
On Sunday, during his interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, Trump said he’s a believer of masks but also “masks cause problems too,” and said there would be no national mandate for masks. He also took issue with CDC Director Robert Redfield’s statement that if everyone wore a face mask over the next four to six weeks, “we could drive this epidemic to the ground.”
“I don’t agree with the statement that if everybody wears a mask everything disappears,” Trump said during the interview.
Trump also criticized Adams during the interview for earlier statements against mask use. The surgeon general admitted he and his team were wrong during the beginning of the pandemic.
“Once we realized that the science was different for this virus, we changed our recommendations,” Adams said.
Adams argued against a federal mask mandate citing concerns over enforcement.
“I would rather help people understand why they should cooperate with wearing a mask and how they benefit from it versus simply saying we are going to force you to do it particularly sending in federal troops and using federal mechanism,” he said.
3:55 a.m.: France makes wearing a mask indoors mandatory
France is taking a new step in the fight against the spread of the new coronavirus making the wearing of the mask mandatory in closed public spaces from today.
The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, said on Saturday that the obligation to wear a mask would apply in shops, “establishments open to the public”, “covered markets” or even banks.
Wearing a mask on the street, in parks, at sea, on hiking trails or at the beach is not included in the new legislation.
The fine for non-compliance will be 135 Euros ($154 U.S.).
Meanwhile, France’s Health Minister said that there is an estimated “400 and 500 active clusters in France” of COVID-19.
Véran told local news outlet franceinfo on Monday morning that there were “worrisome signs of an epidemic resumption in certain territories”, including 400 to 500 active clusters.
“These places of contamination are mainly located in closed places and in specific environments such as slaughterhouses” said Véran. “We are very far from the epidemic wave … there is a dynamic of circulation of the virus that worries us.”
2:10 a.m.: 85 members of shipping vessel in Alaska test positive for COVID-19
At least 85 crew members on an American Seafoods ship have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the company.
A factory trawler called The American Triumph departed Oregon on June 27 with 119 crew members on board to make their way to Alaska to fish for pollock but two weeks after the ship departed seven members of the crew reported that they were suffering from symptoms potentially associated with COVID-19.
The seven crew members were tested in Unalaska and six out of the seven of them tested positive for the virus.
All crew members were then tested and a total of 79 more workers were found to have tested positive bringing the total to 85 crew members out of the 119 onboard the American Triumph, according to a statement by the city.
American Seafoods spokeswoman Suzanne Lugoni said that none of the crew showed COVID-19 symptoms before boarding and that the company screened employees before the fishing expedition began.
“We are moving expeditiously to relocate our crew and get them the care they need,” said American Seafoods CEO Mikel Durham. “I want to thank the Illiuliuk Family and Health Services, the City of Unalaska Unified Command, and the public health and critical infrastructure professionals in Alaska who provided us with support and clear guidance.”
Meanwhile, Alaska had 119 new cases of COVID-19 reported on Sunday — a new record for the state.
All of the crew members will now be moved to Anchorage where they will isolate.
“Our priority is supporting our crew members and protecting the community. I am deeply grateful for the entire Alaska community for working with us to get our crew the care they need,” said Durham.
WABC-TVBy JOSH MARGOLIN and AARON KATERSKY, ABC News
(NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J.) — The son of a federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, has been shot and killed, and her husband shot and injured in an attack at the family’s home, according to law enforcement sources.
The judge, Esther Salas, was not hurt.
Her son, Daniel Anderl, 20, died, Francis “Mac” Womack, the mayor of North Brunswick, New Jersey, told ABC News. Salas’ husband, Mark Anderl, is in critical but stable condition as of Monday morning, according to law enforcement sources.
The suspect was a white man who wore a face covering and a FedEx uniform, law enforcement sources told ABC News, and he used an ordinary car to make a getaway.
At about 5 p.m. Sunday, the gunman knocked at the door to the family’s North Brunswick home. Daniel Anderl answered the door and was shot first, before his father was also shot.
“He was shot through the heart,” Womack said of Daniel Anderl, who was a student at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
“Daniel was a rising junior, enrolled for classes beginning in the next few weeks,” Catholic University President John Garvey said in a statement Monday. “He turned 20 last week. We all mourn and grieve this loss to our University community.”
The suspect was later found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound near Liberty, New York, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News. A municipal employee discovered the body in a car.
The deceased suspect was an attorney who had a case before Judge Salas in 2015, sources said. A FedEx package addressed to Judge Salas was discovered in the car, sources said.
“As a judge, she had threats from time to time, but everyone is saying that recently there had not been any,” said Mayor Womack, who is personal friends with the judge and her husband.
FedEx Spokesman Jim Masilak said in a statement, “We are aware of the media reports and are fully cooperating with investigating authorities.”
In a statement, the FBI Newark office said, “The FBI is investigating a shooting that occurred at the home of Judge Esther Salas in North Brunswick Township, New Jersey earlier this evening, July 19. We are looking for one subject and ask that anyone who thinks they may have relevant information please call FBI Newark at 973-792-3001. We are working closely with our state and local partners and will provide additional updates when available.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called the shooting “a brazen and cowardly act of gun violence at their home in North Brunswick. We give our full support to Judge Salas and her husband at this most trying time. This is an unconscionable tragedy.”
The New Jersey State Police, the North Brunswick Police and the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s office are also involved in the investigation. The U.S. Marshals have been called to provide the judge with a security detail, according to a law enforcement official.
We all mourn and grieve this loss to our University community.
Our deepest condolences go out to Daniel’s parents, Esther Salas and Mark Anderl. We pray too for Daniel’s father, who was also shot and is in the hospital.
— Catholic University President (@CatholicPres) July 20, 2020
Salas had received threats in the past, the sources said. Authorities are investigating whether there is any connection between those prior threats and the shooting, or whether it possibly involved the husband’s work as a criminal defense attorney.
“I know Judge Salas and her husband well, and was proud to recommend her to President Obama for nomination to New Jersey’s federal bench,” New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez said in a statement. “My prayers are with Judge Salas and her family, and that those responsible for this horrendous act are swiftly apprehended and brought to justice.”
Salas is the first Latina woman to serve on the federal bench in New Jersey.
iStock/Kuzma(ST. LOUIS) — BY: KARMA ALLEN
