December 23, 2020 • No Comments • National News

iStock/ChiccoDodiFCBy: IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Columbus, Ohio, Mayor Andrew Ginther has called for the termination of a police officer involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black man after body camera footage released Wednesday showed the officer did not appear to provide immediate aid to the victim.

The police officer, identified as Adam Coy, a 19-year veteran of the Columbus Division of Police, had his badge and gun taken away Tuesday pending an investigation after it was discovered that he did not turn on his body camera until after the shooting.

The footage released Wednesday comes from the camera’s “look back” function, which captures video 60 seconds before an officer turns on the device, investigators said. It includes footage from after Coy opened fired as he and other officers responded to a 911 call in Upper Arlington, the Columbus Department of Public Safety said.

Andre Maurice Hill, 47, was killed in the shooting, police said.

The incident began at 1:37 a.m. Tuesday when officers were dispatched to a “non-emergency” disturbance call from a neighbor who allegedly saw a man sitting in an SUV for an extended period of time, according to the Columbus Department of Public Safety. The person in the car allegedly kept turning his vehicle on and off, the agency said.

Hill is seen in the body camera footage coming out of a garage with a cellphone in his left hand and his right hand obscured before Coy opens fire. The “look back” function does not record the audio before the shots were fired.

Coy is then seen approaching Hill’s body, ordering that the wounded man show his hands and roll over, before asking a colleague if medics have been called. Coy does not administer aid to the victim, according to the footage.

Hill was taken to Riverside Hospital where he was pronounced dead, investigators said. No weapon was found at the scene and none of the responding officers had their cameras on until after Hill was shot, according to investigators.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is overseeing the probe into the shooting.

Hill’s family, including his daughter, saw the footage on Tuesday, Ginther said Wednesday.

The mayor said Hill was known to the residents of the house and was their guest that night.

“He was expected. He was not an intruder,” Ginther said.

The mayor said he was shocked and stunned when he saw the body camera footage, especially since it took “several minutes” for the officers to administer aid to Hill.

“To see him lying in the driveway, minute after minute after minute, with no attempt to render aid and comfort. … I’ve never seen body-worn camera footage like that,” Ginther said.

He called for Hill to be terminated for failing to turn on his camera and not administering aid after he opened fire.

Ned Pettus, director of the Department of Public Safety, said at Wednesday’s press conference that there would have to be a hearing before any formal termination could happen.

“My commitment, my legal obligation, is to conduct a fair and impartial hearing, and that is what I intend to do,” he said.

Ginther, who earlier Wednesday had attended the funeral of Casey Goodson Jr., a Black man who was shot by a sheriff’s deputy in Columbus on Dec. 4, said to the city’s Black community that he understood their frustration and concern following both incidents.

“Enough is enough. This community is exhausted,” he said.

Hill’s sister, Shawna Barnett, posted a photo of the two of them on her Facebook page along with a message to others about how the family is dealing with his death.

“My brother was snatched away from me, our family. I’m deeply hurt and in pain at the moment and will be able to speak soon … but not at the moment,” she wrote. “We need time to process what has happened to my brother, my only brother, that I cannot laugh with again, call on the phone, see him smile, hear him talk endlessly, and be there for me when I needed him.”

“Now I and my family will be there for him (and other murdered victims) to take up this plight that our culture has painfully endured for years,” she added. “The violence against us … This has to stop right NOW!”

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December 23, 2020 • No Comments • National News

narvikk/iStockBy ROSA SANCHEZ, EMILY SHAPIRO and IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 77.8 million people worldwide and killed over 1.7 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Here’s how the news is developing Wednesday. All times Eastern:

Dec 23, 8:55 am
803,000 Americans filed jobless claims last week

Another 803,000 workers lost their jobs and filed for unemployment insurance last week as the pandemic rages, the U.S. Department of Labor said Wednesday. 

The latest figure is slightly less than last week’s figure, but still remains well above pre-pandemic levels.

The DOL also said Wednesday that some 20.3 million people were still receiving some form of unemployment benefits through all government programs as of the week ending Dec. 5. That figure was 1.7 million for the comparable week in 2019.

The latest economic data from the DOL also comes as the COVID-19 relief package, which includes extended unemployment benefits, faces a new hurdle as President Donald Trump has indicated he will not sign the bill yet.

The unemployment rate in the U.S. was 6.7% last month, according to the DOL’s most recent employment situation report. In February, prior to the pandemic, the unemployment rate was 3.5%.

Dec 23, 7:13 am
Pfizer, BioNTech to supply US with 100M more vaccine doses

The U.S. government has ordered 100 million additional doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Business Wire announced Wednesday morning.

This brings the total doses of the vaccine for the country to 200 million.

“With these 100 million additional doses, the United States will be able to protect more individuals and hopefully end this devastating pandemic more quickly,” said Albert Bourla, the chairman and CEO of Pfizer. “We look forward to continuing our work with the U.S. government and healthcare providers around the country.”

All 200 million doses are expected to be delivered by July 31, 2021, allowing for 100 million people in the U.S. to be vaccinated.

“Securing more doses from Pfizer and BioNTech for delivery in the second quarter of 2021 further expands our supply of doses across the Operation Warp Speed portfolio,” said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. “This new federal purchase can give Americans even more confidence that we will have enough supply to vaccinate every American who wants it by June 2021.”

Dec 23, 6:46 am
US sees second deadliest day with over 3,000 deaths

Tuesday became the second deadliest day on record since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., with 3,401 new deaths, according to new data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The deadliest day was last week, Dec. 16, when 3,656 new deaths from the virus were reported.

The U.S.’ seven-day average of daily deaths is now 2,654, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

December is set to surpass April as the deadliest month since the start of the pandemic.

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December 22, 2020 • No Comments • National News

narvikk/iStockBy MINA KAJI and AMANDA MAILE, ABC News

(NEW ORLEANS) — A 69-year-old man who died shortly after collapsing on a United flight last week had COVID-19, a coroner’s report released Tuesday said. The Jefferson Parish Coroner listed acute respiratory failure and COVID-19 as cause of death.

The United flight from Orlando, Florida, to Los Angeles declared an emergency and was forced to divert to New Orleans on Dec. 14 after the man became ill. Paramedics transported him to a local hospital where he was pronounced deceased, the carrier said.

In order to fly on major U.S. airlines passengers must confirm they haven’t tested positive for the coronavirus or experienced COVID-like symptoms within the past 14 days. The passenger did fill out that form and said no to both, sources tell ABC News.

According to witnesses, the passenger’s wife told an emergency medical technician that her husband was experiencing COVID-related symptoms, including loss of smell and difficulty breathing.

Cameron Roberts was a passenger on the flight. He described a chaotic scene in which fellow passengers rushed to help the man in distress.

“They had him on the ground in the center of the aisle,” Roberts said. “They were still giving him CPR while we were touching down.”

Roberts and his fiancé said passengers gave the man chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth, believing he was suffering from cardiac arrest.

Roberts said he is currently quarantining and took a COVID test.

“It’s sad to see that, you know, they lost a family member,” Roberts said, “but at the same time, it was irresponsible on their part to have come on the plane.”

United Airlines said it has turned over all passenger information and seating assignments to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The airline said it does not reach out to individual passengers as it cannot offer medical advice, but adds the CDC will reach out to any passenger who might have been exposed.

On Sunday, the CDC said it “is in the process of collecting information and proceeding according to our standard operating procedures to determine if further public health action is appropriate. To protect the privacy of the individual, we aren’t providing this information to the public.”

Several passengers on flight 591 told ABC News they now have symptoms and have not been contacted by the CDC. The CDC did not respond to specific questions from ABC News regarding flight 591 on Tuesday.

The agency said it continues to recommend that postponing travel and staying home is the best way to protect oneself and others from COVID-19.

ABC News’ Sam Sweeney, Darren Reynolds, Alex Stone, and Stephanie Ebbs contributed to this report.

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December 22, 2020 • No Comments • National News

Ovidiu Dugulan/iStockBy ROSA SANCHEZ and EMILY SHAPIRO, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 77.2 million people worldwide and killed over 1.6 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Here’s how the news is developing Tuesday. All times Eastern:

Dec 22, 9:22 am
European Commission recommends end to UK travel ban

The European Commission is recommending an end to the United Kingdom’s travel ban in the wake of coronavirus cases in England linked to a new variant of the virus.

The Commission said, “while it is important to take swift temporary precautionary action to limit the further spread of the new strain of the virus and all non-essential travel to and from the UK should be discouraged, essential travel and transit of passengers should be facilitated. Flight and train bans should be discontinued given the need to ensure essential travel and avoid supply chain disruptions.”

Dec 22, 8:21 am
Fauci ‘would not be surprised’ if new variant is in US

Hours before getting vaccinated, Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News’ Good Morning America Tuesday, “I want to symbolize to people the importance that everyone gets vaccinated who can get vaccinated.”

Fauci will receive the Moderna vaccine, which the National Institutes of Health helped develop. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the NIH.

Fauci said the general population will likely start receiving vaccines at the end of March or beginning of April — but it’s unclear how long that process will take.

“It may take two, three, four months or more before you get everyone vaccinated that wants to be vaccinated,” Fauci said.

In the wake of an uptick in cases in England linked to a new COVID-19 variant, Fauci said he “would not be surprised” if the variant is in the U.S.

“When you have this amount of spread within a place like the U.K., you really need to assume that it’s here already. And certainly is not the dominant strain, but I would not be surprised at all if it’s already here,” he said.

The reproduction rate of the new variant is 0.4 higher than other known strains, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 technical lead, said Monday. That means the number of people an infected individual transmits to increases from 1.1 to 1.5 with the new variant.

There’s “zero evidence” that the new variant causes more severe disease, said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme.

Dec 22, 5:10 am
BioNTech vaccine will likely work on UK variant, company’s CEO says

BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin is confident that the pharmaceutical company’s coronavirus vaccine will work against the new U.K. variant of the virus.

“We don’t know at the moment if our vaccine is also able to provide protection against this new variant,” Sahin told a news conference Tuesday, after the vaccine was approved for use in the European Union. “But scientifically, it is highly likely that the immune response by this vaccine also can deal with the new virus variants.”

He explained that the proteins on the U.K. variant are 99% the same as the ones on the original strain, so BioNTech has “scientific confidence” that its vaccine will be effective on the variant as well.

Still, more studies need to be done.

“But we will know it only if the experiment is done and we will need about two weeks from now to get the data,” Sahin said. “The likelihood that our vaccine works … is relatively high.”

Dec 22, 1:45 am
Over 60 arrested at superspreader events in LA County

Los Angeles officials arrested over 60 people involved in underground parties over the weekend.

In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the parties were considered superspreader events, as they violated COVID-19 health protocols.

Around 10:45 p.m. Saturday, the Los Angeles Police Department responded to an underground party event in Los Angeles and found two people shot. One of the victims was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a statement from the LASD.
 
Then, at around 12:30 a.m. Sunday, officers responded to another underground party in Compton, where they arrested 67 people: 61 adults and six juveniles. One firearm was recovered.
 
A third underground party, located in Los Angeles, was shut down by the LAPD after a shooting took place.
 
“Sheriff Alex Villanueva has made it clear he will seek out and take law enforcement action against all underground party events occurring anywhere within Los Angeles County, who fall under the Health Orders of the County’s Department of Public Health,” the LASD said in their statement. “The goal of these enforcement actions is to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and the risk to our vulnerable populations.”

Dec 22, 1:09 am
Biden applauds COVID relief package but says more work is needed

President-elect Joe Biden has applauded the COVID-19 relief bill passed Monday by the House and Senate.

In a tweet early Tuesday morning, Biden voiced his approval of the package, but warned that Congress still has more work to do in the new year.

“I applaud this relief package, but our work is far from over. Starting in the new year, Congress will need to immediately get to work on support for our COVID-19 plan. My message to everyone out there struggling right now: help is on the way,” he tweeted.

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December 21, 2020 • No Comments • National News

iStock/narvikkBy: IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News

(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee had a grave message for his constituents Sunday: Avoid holiday gatherings and travel.

The state has become “ground zero” in the latest surge of coronavirus cases that are sweeping through the country, he noted.

Tennessee has recorded 65,382 new COVID-19 cases in the last seven days and leads the nation in cases per 100,000, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lee, who is quarantining after his wife tested positive for the virus over the weekend, said the rise in cases and hospitalizations was caused by Thanksgiving gatherings.

“Tennessee is ground zero for a surge in sickness,” Lee said at a news conference.

The state has 13,745 coronavirus hospitalizations, 6,071 deaths and over 519,000 confirmed cases as of Dec. 20, according to the Tennessee Health Department.

From Dec. 1 to Dec. 20, the seven-day average of new daily cases jumped from 4,703 to 9,025 and the seven-day average of new daily deaths increased from 37 to 86, according to health data.

Lee warned that the next couple of weeks will be critical for the state, and while the rollout of the first two COVID-19 vaccines will help stem the rise in cases, residents still needed to heed health warnings to ensure the state’s health systems aren’t pushed to the brink.

“Tennessee cannot sustain a similar surge after Christmas or New Year’s,” he said.

Lee signed an executive order limiting indoor public gatherings to 10 people. Attendance at indoor sporting events was cut back too. The governor, however, did not issue a statewide mask mandate. Instead, he encouraged constituents to wear face coverings on their own accord.

“Government cannot do this alone,” Lee said. “We are in a cold, cruel phase of this pandemic. It will get worse before it gets better. I know you’re tired, but we’ve got to double down.”

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