(SAN ANTONIO) — Three members of the Thin Blue Line Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club were killed and nine others were critically injured when an alleged drunken driver going in the opposite direction swerved into their lane and hit them head-on while they were on a group ride in the Texas Hill Country, officials said.
The crash occurred about 5 p.m. on Saturday on a highway in Kerrville, Texas, about 65 miles northwest of San Antonio, according to the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office.
“They were on a ride in the Texas Hill Country and were on Highway 16 south of Kerrville, when another person crosses the center stripe,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.
The sheriff’s office said the driver who struck the motorcycle club members was arrested on several counts of intoxicated manslaughter and intoxication assault. The name of the alleged drunken driver was not immediately released.
“Please keep our brothers with the Thin Blue Line Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club in ya’lls prayers,” the statement from the sheriff’s office reads.
The motorcycle club, comprised of active and retired law enforcement officers and military service members, had gathered in Texas for the weekend to celebrate the group’s 11th birthday, according to a spokesman for the club.
The club members killed were identified as Joseph Paglia, Jerry Wayne Harbour and Michael White, according to a statement issued by David Weed, a spokesman for the club. Weed said the club members were attending the annual Thin Blue Line meeting in Bandera, Texas, and celebrating the club’s birthday.
Weed said Paglia was a former Niles City, Illinois, police officer and the president of the motorcycle club’s Chicago chapter. He said White, a former Chicago Community Services officer and U.S. Army veteran, was also a member of the Chicago chapter and served as its secretary.
Harbour, who was from Houston, was a Thin Blue Line National Ambassador, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a retired Eastern Airlines pilot, Weed said.
“These men who spent their lives serving our Country and their communities with valor and honor,” Weed said in his statement.
He said the crash occurred when a group of club members went on a “leisurely motorcycle ride” headed back to Bandera after having lunch in Kerrville.
(NEW YORK) — As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across the U.S., the debate over how to safely reopen schools is intensifying.
Three teachers who are mothers spoke to ABC News, urgently pleading to halt plans of in-person school reopening’s without better managing safety risks and providing more guidance on how to keep children and families safe.
From hard-hit Arizona — now a global COVID-19 hot spot — to California, which has seen a rise in new infections that forced a rollback of reopening plans, to Georgia, where a battle over mask-wearing continues, these three educators weigh in on the debate as a new Gallup poll shows slightly more than half the country’s parents favor their child going back to school full time.
Lucero Beebe-Giudice, a middle school teacher in Phoenix, not only believes her state’s reopening plan is reckless, considering Arizona is now a global COVID-19 hotspot, she’s been rallying in the sweltering summer heat to make sure her voice is heard.
She joined a group of teachers, parents and activists at the Capitol on Tuesday to deliver to Gov. Doug Ducey a letter signed by over 1,900 people who oppose the state’s reopening plan to resume in-person classes in less than a month.
“We have a historic legacy of systemic exclusion of communities of color from things like health, safety and security,” she told ABC News. “And what’s happening right now is by design. It’s intentional. And we have to fight.”
Beebe-Giudice, a 40-year-old mother of two who has been teaching for over seven years, previously worked in diversity recruiting and community relations. The letter she and hundreds of others delivered to state leadership stressed once again how reopening schools disproportionately harms students of color.
“I’m really angry right now,” she said. “Governor Ducey just thinks that my Black, Indigenous, Mestizo and other students of color are disposable.”
According to the Arizona Department of Education, most public school students aren’t white: Among about 1.1 million, about 45% are Latino, 5% are Black, 4% are Native American, 3% are Asian American and 4% identify as multiracial.
Since a statewide reopening May 15, Arizona has seen an 850% increase of reported coronavirus cases. As of Thursday, the state’s health department said nearly 90% of intensive care units were full.
“We live in a reality now where some schools run out of bathroom soap and toilet paper halfway through the year, and we’re talking about a pandemic?” Beebe-Giudice said. “We need sustainable funding. We need to know that there are new protocols, maintenance and safety procedures.”
Karen Sher, a public school teacher in Oxnard, California, who has been teaching for more than 25 years, has joined the push to go virtual in the fall.
A mother of three who teaches language arts for middle schoolers, Sher reiterated that although many teachers would love to return to the classroom, it just isn’t safe yet.
“As a teacher, a trustee and a parent, I want for all children to be successful and have the opportunity for a powerful future, but we can’t do that if we’re not alive,” Sher told ABC News.
In California, the country’s most populous state, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently rolled back several reopening plans as coronavirus surged, resulting in more hospitalizations and deaths.
Sher, a trustee for the Oxnard Union High School District and Board President, has condemned the federal government’s threat to cut funding for schools that don’t reopen in the fall.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who has no experience as an educator, has faced fierce backlash after demanding U.S. public schools reopen without providing any guidance on how to do so safely.
“To threaten to remove funding is cruel and wrong,” Sher said. “The federal government should be giving schools more money to help provide measures that will protect everyone.”
Sher, 50, calls teaching one of the joys of her life and has devoted years to advocating for teachers’ rights. She also supports students, standing in solidarity with them on issues affecting the LGBTQ community and Black Lives Matter activists.
Public school teachers nationwide make about $60,000, and Sher, who also serves as a teacher leader for the California Teacher Association’s Instructional Leadership Corps and the U.S. Library of Congress, also wants to know why if it’s so vital to get students back in front of teachers, why aren’t they more fairly compensated?
“If we’re so vital to the success of our nation,” Sher added, “why aren’t we paid adequately?”
Roxanne Mungin, a 43-year-old mother and music educator in Georgia, has been teaching for over 20 years. Currently, she teaches middle schoolers.
Mungin said she’s feeling a sense of relief after her county recently vowed to provide virtual learning for students, with only teachers and staff set to return to classrooms in the fall.
Mungin’s child is 6, so although she’s been given some level of temporary comfort considering the circumstances, the decision allowing her to teach virtually still presents its own challenges.
“Now the problem is teachers with kids. Because we have to teach from the building, we can’t be with our kids during the day,” Mungin told ABC News.
She said she’s standing in solidarity with fellow teachers nationwide — whom she calls “front-line workers” — in rallying for stricter safety guidelines, including at several schools across her home state of Georgia where there’s little if any guidance.
Mungin said any educators uncomfortable with the lack of safety guidance — either from their districts or from the federal government — need to remember that they “have rights.”
“Make your voice heard,” she said. “We have to say something because we’re already the most underrated profession. … COVID has really brought out another perspective of how parents, administrators and local school officials feel about teachers.”
(NEW YORK) — There were 82 reports of severe weather on Saturday including two reported tornadoes.
The two reported tornadoes occurred in Washington County, Minnesota, and Pierce County, Wisconsin.
Some tree damage was reported from Pierce County, Wisconsin, where a tornado was reported.
There were three reports of egg-sized hail including one report of baseball-sized hail in St. Louis County, Minnesota.
A wind gust of 76 mph was also reported at the Standard Rock Lighthouse in Michigan.
A heat wave is continuing to build across much of the eastern half of the country today.
The dangerous and persistent heat has prompted alerts across 22 states this morning including Heat Advisories and Excessive Heat Warnings.
Heat Index Values, or the “Feels-Like Temperature,” are expecting to climb into the triple digits for much of the southern Midwest and southern states today.
Meanwhile, in the northeastern states, Heat Indexes will approach near triple digit values with some places like Philadelphia expected to hit a feels-like temperature of 100 degrees by this afternoon. The heat is not going anywhere.
The dangerous heat should remain in place across the eastern U.S. through at least midweek with New York City potentially hitting triple digit Heat Index Values by Tuesday.
Over 26 million people are at risk for severe weather today in two separate parts of the country.
There is a “slight risk” for severe storms today from Indiana to upstate New York and the main threats here will be strong wind and potentially large hail, along with heavy downpours that may cause localized flooding.
A brief spin up tornado also cannot be ruled out, but conditions don’t look too favorable for a tornado threat.
There is also a “slight risk” of severe storms for later in the day across Midwest from Kansas north to South Dakota where the main threats in this area will be strong winds and damaging hail, along with an isolated tornado.
Fire weather is improving as we finish off the weekend, however, there is an area of weak concern from northern California to southwestern Wyoming.
Midlevel moisture is moving into the basin and may lead to some isolated storms.
Since surface conditions have been rather dry and windy, there is a decent amount of tinder that may ignite a fire if struck by dry lightning associated with the potential isolated storms.
Wind gusts this afternoon may reach 30 mph but will calm down overnight into Monday coupled with increasing relative humidity values which will further dampen the fire threat for the start of the work week.
(WASHINGTON) — Multiple people were injured during a Bible study session on Saturday afternoon when an alleged member of the congregation stabbed the church’s pastor before being stopped by the area’s police chief who happened to be in attendance.
The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon at around 3 p.m. at the Grace Covenant Church in Chantilly, Virginia, about 25 miles west of Washington, D.C. when a member of the church stabbed the church’s pastor who was leading a Bible study class at the time.
Two church members reportedly came to the defense of the pastor, including Fairfax County Police Chief Ed Roessler who happened to be at Grace Covenant at the right time.
A witness of the stabbing spoke to ABC News’ Washington, D.C. affiliate WJLA and described the chaotic scene.
“He did his part in the moment,” the female witness said. “Sometimes we can’t prevent injury. I know people were injured but it could have been worse, I do believe. I think it could have been a lot worse. There are a lot of emotions but I do have faith that everything is going to be okay.”
According to WJLA-TV, Ed Roessler is a 31-year law enforcement veteran who has been in a leadership position with Fairfax County Police since 2010 and also worked at the most recent presidential inauguration in 2017.
Brett Fuller, another pastor at the Grace Covenant Church and chaplain to Washington, D.C.’s NFL franchise, released a statement following the stabbing.
“Today, in a routine church educational setting, one of our pastors was assaulted by an attendee,” Fuller said. “Two church members came to the pastor’s aid and valiantly risked their own lives to defend him. In the process, one of our members was injured. The pastor and one of the members are being treated at Reston Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. The other member involved sustained injuries that did not require medical attention. The assailant was taken into captivity at the scene.”
Said Fuller: “We are in prayer for all the injured. We are grateful for the courage exhibited that prevented worse from happening. Lastly, we want to thank the broader community for their outpouring of concern and support in this time.”
Two people were treated for non-serious non-life-threatening injuries at nearby Reston Hospital and the unnamed suspect was taken into custody.
(FROSTPROOF, Fla.) — Authorities in central Florida are desperately looking for answers after three friends were found brutally murdered at a local lake late Friday. In the moments before he died, one of the victims was able to call his father and report the attack, the local sheriff’s office said.
No one has been arrested in the triple murder.
The three close friends had gone to catch catfish at a local fishing spot on Lake Streety in Frostproof, Florida, before they were killed, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
The victims were identified as Damion Tillman, 23, Keven Springfield, 30, and Brandon Rollins, 27.
According to the sheriff’s office, Rollins called his father at about 10 p.m. Friday and managed to only say “help.” He quickly jumped into his car and went to where his son had said he was going fishing.
“When he arrived he found his son Brandon barely alive, and his two friends deceased,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release. “Brandon was able to say a few things to his dad, which we are not releasing at this time.”
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Saturday they believe Tillman traveled to the lake first and arrived by himself. When Rollins and Springfield arrived soon after, Tillman was being beaten by unknown attackers. When the two intervened to help their friend, they were shot.
“This is a horrific scene,” Judd said at a press conference. “I’ve been to a lot of murder scenes in my life and this ranks among the worst I’ve been to.”
Rollins’ father had left his home without his cellphone, so he returned to a nearby gas station and called 911, the sheriff’s office said. When authorities arrived at the scene, all three men were dead.
“We are seeking leads; we need help so we can solve this crime sooner rather than later because there are one or more, we suspected more, murderers that killed three people in a quiet community,” said Judd.
Judd added that the suspect or suspects may have known the men, saying, “You don’t just stumble upon somebody out here. … It’s not like there’s a lot of people around here. As you can see, it’s cow pastures and lakes.”
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office is offering $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest.
iStock/ChiccoDodiFCBy: BILL HUTCHINSON, ABC News
