(MESA, Az.) — Seven people, including four children, were injured in an apparent drive-by shooting Friday night in Mesa, Arizona, authorities said.
The incident occurred around 9:30 p.m. local time in a parking lot where a crowd was gathered, police said. A vehicle drove by and opened fire on families visiting food vendors, police said.
The victims included three adults and four children ages 1, 6, 9 and 16, Mesa Police Department Chief Ken Cost said Saturday afternoon during a press briefing. The children were from multiple families.
The 1-year-old was hospitalized in “extremely critical” condition, Cost said, while the other victims had non-life-threatening injuries that ranged from minor to severe.
“This is devastating, this is a sad day,” Cost said.
The shooting occurred after occupants of a white SUV stopped in the middle of the road and opened fire toward the food area, where several families were eating, Cost said.
One of the food vendors returned fire at the vehicle, and it is not known at this time if it was struck, police said.
No suspects have been located or detained, police said.
Investigators have not found any link between the perpetrators and the victims, Cost said. They are also working to determine if an incident in the same parking lot several hours earlier that day, during which a food vendor intervened while a man was allegedly assaulting a woman, is connected to the shooting, the chief said.
“This type of senseless, evil violence will not be tolerated in our city or anywhere else,” Cost said, urging people to come forward with any information.
Officers and investigators were processing the scene on Saturday and speaking to witnesses. Footage of the scene captured by Phoenix ABC affiliate KNXV showed tents from the event still set up in the parking lot.
“We’re in the early stages of trying to find out who did this, and what motive there might have been for this incident,” Mesa Police Department spokesperson Detective Nik Rasheta said Friday night during a press briefing at the scene.
(NOTRE DAME, In.) — Officials at the University of Notre Dame are sounding the alarm — and limiting the size of gatherings — after a recent spike in COVID-19 cases tied to parties.
The South Bend, Indiana, school saw a “significant increase” in positive cases this week, Rev. John Jenkins, the university’s president, said in a video address Thursday, “mostly due to social activity over the past weekend.”
After averaging fewer than five new cases for the past week as of Oct. 7, the university reported 31 new cases a week later, on Oct. 14, prompting Jenkins’ address. As of Friday, the seven-day average for new cases was 11.
School officials noted a “concerning” trend in positive cases as well as the number of close contacts identified through contact tracing this week. In a letter to students on Thursday, Vice President for Student Affairs Erin Hoffmann Harding and Vice President for Campus Safety and University Operations Mike Seamon said that the “number of close contacts for each positive case has also increased substantially, with as many as 10 to 15 close contacts needing to quarantine.”
They also noted that many of these cases were tied to “larger parties and gatherings last weekend.”
Notre Dame played Florida State University at home a week ago. The university didn’t find any cases in the spike tied to attending the game, though it did off campus, officials told the South Bend Tribune.
The spike followed relaxing rules around the size of informal gatherings, Harding and Seamon noted. To combat the recent increase in positive cases and the number of contacts needing to quarantine, the school is now restricting informal gatherings from groups of 20 to 10.
The officials also urged students to wear masks, socially distance, wash their hands regularly, participate in surveillance COVID-19 testing and avoid bars and restaurants where social distancing rules are ignored. “The St. Joseph County Health Department is concerned about local trends, and they have increased their enforcement efforts accordingly,” they said.
As of Saturday, the seven-day positivity rate was 1.6%, after jumping to 4.1% on Wednesday. It’s a far cry from when the school saw double-digit positivity rates and dozens of new cases each day amid off-campus outbreaks in August, prompting a two-week campus lockdown and increased disciplinary action.
It appears the school doesn’t want to take any chances this time, with the end of the fall semester a little more than a month away.
“I understand the weariness we all feel after a long semester under COVID restrictions, and this can lead to laxity as we socialize. Yet so many have worked so hard to bring us to this point,” Jenkins said in his video address. “We have come a long way, and we have just weeks to go. Let’s finish strong.”
Jenkins added that “if you made mistakes, as I certainly have, let us own the mistakes and resolve to do better going forward” — a nod to the criticism he recently faced over his behavior during a White House event last month.
Jenkins was seen in photos and videos not wearing a mask or social distancing while attending the SCOTUS nomination ceremony in the Rose Garden on Sept. 26. He issued an apology to the Notre Dame community for his behavior, and the university’s student senate passed a resolution last week “formally disapproving” of Jenkins’ “violations of university” health policy.
Jenkins subsequently was one of over a dozen attendees to test positive for COVID-19, along with President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and others. He has since been symptom-free and ended his isolation, the university announced earlier this week.
Nathan Howard/Getty ImagesBY: JOSH MARGOLIN, OLIVIA RUBIN AND LUKE BARR, ABC NEWS
(NEW YORK) — Officials in multiple states are taking aggressive steps to protect voters from efforts by militias or other armed groups seeking to congregate near polling places on Election Day, as simmering online activity indicates that some groups are trying to register as campaign poll watchers for Donald Trump‘s campaign.
In Michigan, an open carry state, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Friday announced a ban on open carry firearms at and near polls.
“Michiganders should know that law enforcement across multiple levels is working together to ensure that anyone who wishes to exercise their right to vote in person on Election Day can do so safely and without the threat of intimidation,” said Col. Joe Gasper, the state’s police director.
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal issued a statement, also on Friday, that reiterated guidance for local law enforcement to help protect voters. Poll watchers “may not harass or intimidate voters, engage in electioneering, cause disturbances at polling places or challenge voters based on their race or ethnicity or how they are expected to vote,” the statement said.
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said at a Thursday press conference that she’s “putting security provisions in place” to assure voters “there’s no place for violence, there’s no place for threats.”
The measures come as online accounts tied to neo-Nazi sympathizers and “alt-right” groups such as the Proud Boys have been generating posts that encourage supporters to join the campaign’s Election Day operations, according to two new reports this week. That includes sending out links to poll-watching registration sites for the Trump campaign’s so-called Army for Trump, an effort working to recruit thousands of supports to sign up as poll watchers for the campaign on Election Day.
In one instance, a Proud Boys-affiliated user, in a group that claimed to circulate to 1,800 people affiliated with the Proud Boys, shared the link to sign up, writing that Democrats “don’t want us Republicans to be in their polls,” according to the report from SITE Intelligence Group, a non-governmental agency group that tracks potential security threats online, that was released on Tuesday. A separate SITE report released on Thursday said a link was shared within a neo-Nazi channel that claims to have about 5,000 members.
“The call to watch the polls, initially made by President Trump himself in the first presidential debate, has been answered by several far-right groups,” the SITE report said.
Samantha Zager, deputy national press secretary for the Trump campaign, said in a statement to ABC News on Friday that the president “has unequivocally denounced hate groups by name on numerous occasions but the media refuses to accurately cover it because that would mean the end of a Democrat Party talking point.”
Zager did not reject these groups’ apparent interest in joining the campaign’s poll watching team when specifically asked by ABC News.
Poll watchers are legal under strict rules that vary by state. In most states, both parties are permitted to have trained representatives observe the voting process, relay information back to their parties, and watch for irregularities. They are not supposed to interfere with voting aside from reporting issues through official channels.
ABC News previously has obtained videos of Trump campaign poll watcher training sessions, held in multiple battleground states, in which attendees explicitly were told to avoid interacting with voters.
The SITE report said efforts by the Proud Boys or similar groups to volunteer for Trump “have so far not been followed with direct threats of voter suppression,” but it could be “inferred” that their “presence at election locations as ‘poll watchers’ would potentially serve to intimidate, pressure and harass oppositional voters.”
“Some of these groups will be listening to his false claims of fraud, and you put that in combination with his refusal to condemn white supremacists and civil unrest — it really is a very thinly veiled call for his most militant supporters to go to the polls,” Mary McCord, a longtime national security official and Georgetown University Law professor, previously told ABC News.
Previously, at a debate, Trump urged his backers to “watch very carefully” at polls on Election Day, heightening already high political tensions. He later backtracked, saying at a Thursday town hall event, “I denounce white supremacy.”
Experts have told ABC News they’re concerned over the Trump campaign’s use of the word “Army” in recruiting poll watchers.
“An ‘army’ doesn’t sound like people just there to observe,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, deputy director of voting rights and election programs at the Brennan Center for Justice. “An ‘army’ sounds like people there to engage in war with the enemy.”
ABC News’ Will Steakin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Coronavirus cases in the United States are headed toward a third peak, as cases continue to climb throughout the Midwest, Mountain West, Northeast, South and West.
Back in April, the country hit a grim milestone, logging a record of 31,165 average new cases each day, according to data from The COVID Tracking Project. Those high numbers eased off until July, when the country broke its record, logging an average 66,143 new cases each day.
After a late-summer respite, the nation recorded an average 53,282 new cases Oct. 16, meaning the U.S. is on track to break its daily infection record for the third time.
Beyond grim national statistics, including 37,000 Americans currently hospitalized with COVID-19, there are worrying state-level indications that the outbreak is headed in the wrong direction as winter approaches.
Infections are increasing in 38 states, with eight reporting record numbers of new COVID-19 cases on Oct. 15. Hospitalizations are trending upward in 39 states, including in Utah, where Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, an infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare, said the uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations is straining the health care system.
“This is getting to a point where we’re going to be opening up overflow ICUs,” Stenehjem told told Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX.
“We’re load-leveling like never before. We’re transferring patients,” Stenehjem added. In addition to concerns about patient care, the high level of COVID-19 hospitalizations is taking a toll on health care workers.
“We may have beds to take care of these patients, but our staff is getting incredibly tired and short and our ICU nurses are working around the clock,” Stenejhem said.
In addition to rising new cases and hospitalizations, 13 states are reporting an increasing number of COVID-19 deaths.
In Texas, two funeral homes told El Paso ABC affiliate KVIA they added extra mortuary refrigerators due to increasing COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.
“First, initially, we see the rise in positive cases,” Dr. Hector Ocaranza, the county health authority told KVIA. “Then we see the rise in hospitalizations, and unfortunately, we see the rise in deaths.”
ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Brian Hartman, Benjamin Bell and Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 1 million people worldwide.
Over 38.9 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 criteria for diagnosis — through clinical means or a lab test — has varied from country-to-country. Still, the actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks.
Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the virus has rapidly spread to every continent except Antarctica.
The United States is the worst-affected country, with more than 7.9 million diagnosed cases and at least 217,700 deaths.
California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 868,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 837,000 cases and over 744,000 cases, respectively.
More than 190 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are being tracked by the World Health Organization, at least 10 of which are in crucial phase three studies. Of those 10 potential vaccines in late-stage trials, there are currently five that will be available in the United States if approved.
Here’s how the news is developing Friday. All times Eastern:
Oct 16, 1:47 pm Denver limits social gathering to 5 people
In reaction to a growing positivity rate, Denver health officials are reducing the social gathering limit from 10 to five people. Additionally, people must wear their face mask when outside and walking with others from outside their household.
The new restrictions are only for Denver County and not the rest of the state.
As of Friday, Colorado has 81,895 COVID-19 cases and 2,162 deaths, as per John Hopkins University data. Denver has 15,383 confirmed cases, and has had 440 deaths.
Oct 16, 1:01 pm New England Patriots cancel practice after positive COVID-19 test
The Patriots are canceling their Friday practice after a positive COVID-19 test, per a source. There is also a second test they are awaiting to confirm is a positive, ESPN reported.
Oct 16, 12:21 pm Indianapolis Colts open for practice after four players re-test negative
The Indianapolis Colts will reopen their practice facility Friday after four individuals’ re-test for COVID-19 confirmed they were negative, the team announced.
The team closed their facility Friday morning after initial positive tests. They involved one player and three staff members, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Indianapolis is scheduled to have a home game Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Oct 16, 11:11 am Governor surges state resources for COVID-19 response
Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Friday that the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Texas Division of Emergency Management surge in resources to support the COVID-19 response in Texas.
Resources include medical personnel, medical supplies, and personal protective equipment for the Panhandle and South Plains areas.
DSHS has deployed 171 medical personnel to these communities, and an additional 100 personnel will arrive by Sunday. DSHS has also deployed 100 IV pumps, 56 ventilators, and 25 oxygen concentrators to the region.
“As the Amarillo and Lubbock communities see a rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations, the State of Texas is providing support to hospitals throughout these two regions,” said Governor Abbott. “The additional medical personnel, supplies, and PPE surged to the Panhandle and South Plains will help these communities care for patients and contain the spread of this virus.” ABC News’ Matthews Furhman contributed to this report.
Oct 16, 9:32 am Czech Republic reports nearly 10,000 new cases, setting another record
The Czech Republic confirmed 9,721 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, its highest single-day rise yet.
The previous record of 9,544 new cases was set a day earlier, meaning it’s the second straight day that the country has reported its highest increase in infections.
The cumulative total now stands at 149,010 cases with 1,230 deaths, according to the Czech health ministry. Almost 50,000 of those cases were registered last week.
More than 84,000 cases were active Friday, including 2,920 patients who remained hospitalized for COVID-19, while over 63,000 have recovered from the disease, according to the health ministry data.
The Czech Republic has the highest rate of COVID-19 infection in Europe. Over the past two weeks, the country of 10.7 million people has reported 701.9 cases per 100,000 population, according to data published Friday by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
The Czech government said hospitals could reach full capacity around the end of the month due to growing number of COVID-19 patients. Over the weekend, the Czech military will start building a field hospital in Prague that will be able to house 500 patients.
Oct 16, 9:06 am New cases and deaths are both on the rise in US, HHS memo says
The number of new cases of COVID-19 recorded in the United States increased by double digits in week-over-week comparisons, while the number of deaths is also on the rise, according to an internal memo from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that was obtained by ABC News on Thursday night.
The memo, which is circulated among the highest levels of the federal government and is used to determine daily priorities for the agencies working on a COVID-19 response, said 38 U.S. states and territories are in an upward trajectory of new infections, while eight jurisdictions are at a plateau and 10 others are in a downward trend.
There were 366,455 new cases confirmed during the period of Oct. 8-Oct. 14, a 16.4% increase from the previous week. There were also 4,893 fatalities from COVID-19 recorded during the same period, a 3.1% increase compared with the week prior, according to the memo.
The national positivity rate for COVID-19 tests dropped from 6% to 5% in week-to-week comparisons. Meanwhile, 24% of hospitals nationwide have more than 80% of beds full in their intensive care units. That figure was 17%-18% during the summertime peak, the memo said.
Arkansas saw its death toll from COVID-19 increase by 25% during the week ending Oct. 11. Case rates continue to rise in rural parts of the state, according to the memo.
A review of death certificates in Georgia revealed that while Black residents make up 30% of the state’s population, they account for 48% of the 7,416 deaths from COVID-19 to date. Just over 82.4% of ICU beds and 81.3% of inpatient beds were occupied in Georgia during the period of Oct. 5-11, the memo said.
In Iowa, 7% of new cases are being reported in the 18-40 age group. COVID-19 hospitalizations across the state reached an all-time high on Oct. 7, with 449 reported admissions, according to the memo.
Kentucky broke its record for weekly case count on Oct. 1 for the third straight week, the memo said.
New Mexico saw its number of new cases increase 53.3% in the week ending Oct. 11, compared to the week prior. The Albuquerque area experienced a relative increase of 89.5% in new cases between Oct. 4 and Oct. 11, according to the memo.
Oct 16, 8:46 am After contracting COVID-19, Chris Christie admits he ‘made a mistake’ not wearing a mask
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spoke exclusively to ABC News on Friday morning for the first time since he tested positive for COVID-19 and was released from the hospital.
“It hits you like a freight train.” Christie told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview on Good Morning America. “It all happened very, very quickly. Within 24 hours, I went from feeling absolutely fine to being in the intensive care unit.”
Christie, who has asthma, spent seven days in the ICU while battling COVID-19. He said he received an antibody treatment in combination with the antiviral medication remdesivir early on in the course of his illness.
“The last two or three days, I’ve really kind of turned around in terms of being able to recover and getting a lot of my energy back,” he said. “So I’m not yet 100%, but I’m about a fighting 80%.”
Christie admitted he “was wrong” and “made a mistake” in not wearing a face mask while recently helping President Donald Trump prepare for the debate.
“I was led to believe that all the people that I was interacting with at the White House had been tested and it gave you a false sense of security, and it was a mistake,” he said. “I was doing it right for seven months and avoided the virus. I let my guard down for a couple days inside the White House grounds and it cost me unfortunately in a significant way.”
Christie urged the public to wear masks, saying, “there is no downside to you wearing masks and, in fact, there can be a great deal of upside.”
“I think no matter what you’re doing, whether you’re at a rally for your preferred candidate, whether you’re out at the supermarket, whether you’re at a protest, no matter what you’re doing, you should have a mask on and you should try to remain socially distant from folks,” he said. “I did it for seven months, George, and I stayed healthy. I didn’t do it for four days and I wound up in the ICU.”
Oct 16, 7:23 am Russia’s daily case count tops 15,000 for first time
Russia confirmed another 15,150 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, its highest daily tally yet.
It’s the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic that Russia has registered more than 15,000 cases in a single day. The latest daily case count is nearly 1,400 more than the previous day.
More than 33% of the newly confirmed cases were reported in the capital, Moscow, the epicenter of the country’s COVID-19 outbreak, according to Russia’s coronavirus response headquarters.
An additional 232 deaths from COVID-19 were also registered in the past 24 hours, down from the national record of 286 set the previous day. The cumulative totals now stand at 1,369,313 cases and 23,723 deaths, according to the country’s coronavirus response headquarters.
Russia has been breaking its own records for daily case counts and deaths almost every day since Oct. 9. The country of 145 million people has the fourth-highest tally of COVID-19 cases in the world, behind only the United States, India and Brazil.
Oct 16, 6:37 am Germany sees highest single-day increase in infections
Germany confirmed 7,334 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, its highest single-day increase since the start of the pandemic.
It’s the first time Germany has surpassed 7,000 COVID-19 cases in a single day, and it marks the second straight day that the country has broken its own record for the daily tallies.
An additional 24 deaths from COVID-19 were also registered Thursday. The cumulative totals now stands at 348,557 cases and 9,734 deaths, according to the latest data from the country’s public health institute.
Until this week, Germany’s highest recorded figure was nearly 6,300 cases on March 28, according to data published by the Robert Koch Institute. While testing has increased since then, the country is among several in Europe that have seen a sharp uptick in COVID-19 infections in recent weeks.
Earlier this week, Germany’s federal and state governments agreed to toughen rules on wearing face masks and to have bars close early in areas where infections are high.
Oct 16, 5:47 am US reports over 63,000 new cases in highest daily count since August
There were 63,610 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Thursday, the country’s highest daily tally since Aug. 14, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The latest daily tally is up by more than 4,000 from the previous day but still under the country’s record set on July 16, when there were 77,255 new cases in a 24-hour-reporting period.
An additional 904 coronavirus-related fatalities were also recorded Thursday, slightly less than the previous day and down from a peak of 2,666 new fatalities reported on April 17.
A total of 7,980,461 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 217,700 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country’s cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up and crossing 70,000 for the first time in mid-July. The daily tally of new cases has gradually come down since then but has started to climb again in recent weeks.
The number of new COVID-19 cases recorded in the United States continued to increase by double digits in week-over-week comparisons, while the number of new deaths from the disease continued to tick downward slightly, according to an internal memo from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that was obtained by ABC News on Wednesday night.
kali9/iStockBy MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News
