Kiely was at the Prosser Family Campground on Friday night and was last seen around 12:30 am Saturday, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said.
“We are treating her disappearance as an abduction right now because we have not been able to locate her vehicle,” sheriff’s spokesperson Angela Musallam said.
Officials are looking for Kiely’s silver 2013 Honda CRV and say her phone has been out of service since the party. Kiely is White, 5’7″ and about 118 pounds. She has blond hair, hazel eyes and a nose ring. Kiely was last seen wearing a black tank top and Dickies brand pants.
There were 200-300 juveniles at the party, which was in a wooded area, Musallam said in a news conference Tuesday, and “someone knows something.”
“We are pleading, we are urging anyone who was at that party to please come forward,” she said.
Kiely’s loved ones are wondering how no one saw the teen leave, CNN affiliate KCRA reported.
“I can’t believe it. There has to have been one person— there were people sitting in cars, there were people everywhere around this place,” Kiely’s friend Sammi Smith told KCRA.
The grounds are about 17 miles north of Lake Tahoe and 36 miles from Reno, Nevada.
About 150 law enforcement officers, including the FBI, search and rescue, canines and more than 100 volunteers are combing the area around where Rodni was last seen.
“There is no evidence that supports an abduction, but we are not ruling anything out,” said Placer County Sheriff Troy Sander Tuesday. “We won’t rule anything out. This is a missing persons case, a search and rescue case.”
On Monday, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office flew a search helicopter over the area.
“Despite the numerous resources we have utilized, Kiely and her vehicle are still missing,” the sheriff’s office said. “We are currently coordinating with the California Highway Patrol, Truckee Police, FBI, and the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office as we continue our search for Kiely.”
Kiely’s mother, Lindsey Rodni-Nieman, said the wait has been grueling.
“My head is all over the place and I’m terrified. Bad thoughts are very strong and hard to keep at bay,” Rodni-Nieman told KCRA. “But I’m trying to hold out hope, you know, that we’ll find her, that she’ll come home.”
Friends and family have set up a website, FindKiely.com, to help with the search. And a GoFundMe account has been established to fund a reward for information leading to Kiely’s safe return.
Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, of West Springfield, Mass., reacts to the not-guilty verdict at Coos County Superior Court in Lancaster, NH, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. The commercial truck driver was charged with negligent homicide in the deaths of seven motorcycles club members in a 2019 crash in Randolph, NH (David Lane/The Union Leader via AP, Pool)
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Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, of West Springfield, Mass., reacts to the not-guilty verdict at Coos County Superior Court in Lancaster, NH, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. The commercial truck driver was charged with negligent homicide in the deaths of seven motorcycles club members in a 2019 crash in Randolph, NH (David Lane/The Union Leader via AP, Pool)
CONCORD, NH (AP) — A jury on Tuesday acquired a commercial truck driver of causing the deaths of seven motorcyclists in a horrific head-on collision in northern New Hampshire that exposed fatal flaws in the processing of license revocations across states.
Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 26, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, was found innocent on seven counts of manslaughter, seven counts of negligent homicide and one count of reckless conduct in connection with the June 21, 2019, crash in Randolph. Jailed since the crash, he appeared to wipe away tears as the verdict was read and briefly raised his index finger skyward before leaving the courtroom.
Jurors deliberated for less than three hours after a two-week trial during which prosecutors argued that Zhukovskyy — who had taken heroin, fentanyl and cocaine earlier on the day of the crash — repeatedly swerved back and forth before the collision and told police he caused it. But a judge dismissed eight charges related to whether he was impaired, and his attorneys blamed the lead biker, Albert “Woody” Mazza Jr., saying he was drunk and not looking where he was going when he lost control of his motorcycle and slid in front of Zhukovskyy’s truck.
“Our hearts go out to the victims and their families. Our trial team did an excellent job and we firmly believe that the State provided its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said in a statement.
Zhukovskyy’s family, some of whom attended the trial, said in a statement they were grateful to God, the court and the defense attorneys for an “honest and fair trial.”
“Our family expresses its deepest condolences to the family and friends affected by this tragedy,” the family said, describing him as a “very honest and kind man. He would never have done anything to hurt anyone.”
Zhukovskyy, who was born in Ukraine, remained jailed as of late Tuesday afternoon. It is unclear when he might be released. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued an immigration detainer on him after the crash and that he was executed following the verdict, said Ben Champagne, the superintendent at the Coos County Department of Corrections.
ICE said in a statement that Zhukovskyy has been served a notice to appear before an immigration judge and will remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of that appearance. It did not say where he is being held.
All seven motorcyclists killed were members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club. After the verdict, a member of the Marine group reached through Facebook declined to comment. Mazza’s father, also named Albert, said he was stunned.
“Killing seven people and he gets off. That is unbelievable,” said Mazza. He described his son of him as a “good man” who devoted much of his time to charity, and said it was wrong to pin blame on him.
“It doesn’t make much sense,” he said. “There are seven people dead. There are seven families affected. It’s strange that he didn’t get something.”
The motorcyclists who died were from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island and ranged in age from 42 to 62. They were part of a larger group that had just left a motel along US Route 2 in Randolph.
Killed were Mazza, of Lee, New Hampshire; Edward and Jo-Ann Corr, a couple from Lakeville, Massachusetts; Michael Ferazzi, of Contocook, New Hampshire; Desma Oakes, of Concord, New Hampshire; Daniel Pereira, of Riverside, Rhode Island; and Aaron Perry, of Farmington, New Hampshire.
In closing statements Tuesday morning, the two sides raised questions about who was more “all over the place”: the trucker accused of swerving back and forth across the road or the eyewitnesses accused of contradicting each other.
“Those witnesses were all over the place about what they recalled and what they claimed to have seen,” said defense attorney Jay Duguay.
Duguay also accused prosecutors of ignoring that their own accident reconstruction unit contradicted their theory that Zhukovskyy crossed into the oncoming lane. An expert hired by the defense, meanwhile, testified that the crash happened on the center line of the road and would have occurred even if the truck was in the middle of its lane because Mazza’s motorcycle was heading in that direction.
“From the beginning of this investigation, the state had made up their mind about what had happened, evidence was damned,” said Duguay, who also highlighted inconsistencies between witness accounts or when witnesses contradicted themselves.
In particular, Duguay suggested that the bikers “shaded” their accounts to protect Mazza and the club. Prosecutor Scott Chase acknowledged some inconsistencies, but asked jurors to remember the circumstances.
“People were covering the dead, trying to save the barely living, comforting the dying. This wasn’t story time,” he said. “They were up here talking about some of the most unimaginable chaos, trauma, death and carnage that we can even imagine three years later. They were talking about hell broke open.”
Witnesses were consistent, he argued, in describing the truck as weaving back and forth before the crash. That behavior continued “until he killed people,” Chase said.
“That’s what stopped him. It’s not that he made some responsible decision to start paying attention or do the right thing,” he said. “The only thing that stopped him was an embankment after he tore through a group of motorcycles.”
Chase called the attempt to blame Mazza a “fanciful story” and “frivolous distraction,” while reminding jurors that Zhukovskyy, who didn’t testify at trial, told investigators “Obviously, I caused the crash.”
“He was crystal clear from the very beginning that he caused this crash,” Chase said. “That is what he said, because that is what happened.”
Zhukovskyy’s commercial driving license should have been revoked in Massachusetts at the time of the crash because of a drunken driving arrest in Connecticut about two months earlier.
Connecticut officials alerted the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, but Zhukovskyy’s license wasn’t suspended due to a backlog of out-of-state notifications about driving offenses. In a review, federal investigators found similar backlog problems in Rhode Island, New Hampshire and at least six other jurisdictions.
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Associated Press Writers Michael Casey and Kathy McCormack contributed to this report.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that it has ended a Trump-era policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in US immigration court, hours after a judge lifted an order, in effect since December, that the so- called Remain in Mexico rule be reinstated.
The timing had been in doubt since the US supreme court ruled on June 30 that the Biden administration could end the policy.
Homeland security officials had been largely silent, saying they had to wait for the court to certify the ruling and for a Trump-appointed judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, in Amarillo, Texas, to then lift his injunction.
The supreme court certified its ruling last week and critics of the policy had been increasingly outspoken about the Biden administration’s reticence on Remain in Mexico, calling for an immediate end to it.
“It’s a zombie policy,” Karen Tumlin, founder of the Justice Action Center, an immigration litigation organization, said last week.
The program now will be unwound in a “quick, and orderly manner”, DHS said in a statement. No more people are being enrolled and those who appear in court will not be returned to Mexico when they appear in the US for their next hearings.
The policy “has endemic flaws, imposes unjustifiable human costs, and pulls resources and personnel away from other priority efforts to secure our border”, the department said.
Many questions remain, including whether those whose claims have been denied or dismissed will get a second chance or if those whose next court dates are months away will be allowed to return to the US sooner, where many immigration courts are struggling with backlogs and shortage staffs. . DHS said it will provide additional information “in the coming days”.
About 70,000 migrants were subject to the policy, known officially as Migrant Protection Protocols, from when Donald Trump introduced it as president in January 2019 until Joe Biden suspended it on his first day in office in January 2021, fulfilling a campaign promise.
Many were allowed to return to the United States to pursue their cases during the early months of Biden’s presidency, often from squalid, dangerous, ad hoc camps or strained shelter accommodation in towns a short distance over the border into Mexico.
Then it was reinstated and migrants fleeing to the US once again were halted at the border and made to stay out of the US.
This together with a policy of routine expulsions at the border under a heavily criticized pandemic rule ostensibly to curb Covid-19, known as Title 42, has driven thousands to make unauthorized crossings, often repeatedly, and with deadly results for some – succumbing to botched smuggling businesses, the swirling waters of the Rio Grande in Texas or the desert there and further west.
Nearly 5,800 people were subject to the policy from December through June, a relatively modest number. Nicaraguans account for the largest number, with others from Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela.
Trump made the policy a centerpiece of border enforcement, which critics said was inhumane for exposing migrants to extreme violence in Mexico and making access to attorneys far more difficult.
Lt.Gov. Mandela Barnes has won Wisconsin’s Democratic Senate primary, NBC News projects, officially setting up a pivotal battleground state showdown with incumbent Republican Ron Johnson in a race that could determine control of the Senate.
Barnes’ victory was all but certain after his three leading competitors exited the race in recent weeks. Barnes and groups supporting him have already targeted Johnson, who also easily won his primary, with a barrage of television and digital ads in anticipation of the November matchup.
Wisconsin’s Senate race will be one the closest and most intensely watched in the country, and Senate control could hinge on the outcome — it’s for one of just two Republican-held seats up for grabs in states Joe Biden won in 2020. The race is rated as a toss-up by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
A Marquette University Law School poll from June showed a tight hypothetical race between Barnes and Johnson. The survey — taken before many Democrats dropped out — showed Barnes leading Johnson, 46% to 44%, within the margin of sampling error.
The same poll found Wisconsin voters’ opinion of Johnson, a two-term incumbent, on the wane, with just 37% of registered voters having a favorable opinion of him, compared to 46% who had an unfavorable one.
Johnson has attracted controversy in recent years over a litany of false or questionable claims. He has downplayed the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, falsely claiming that there was “no violence” on the Senate side of the Capitol that day. He has also attracted criticism for promoting the use of unproven Covid therapies like ivermectin, and he has falsely claimed that using mouthwash can protect against the coronavirus.
Johnson, 67, who was elected to the Senate in 2010, had pledged to serve only two terms, but he reversed course in January when he decided, after months of deliberation, to run for re-election again.
Democrats rolled out new ads attacking Johnson on Tuesday morning, before the final votes had even been cast for Barnes, trying to paint him as out of touch.
Barnes, 35, was early to brand himself a progressive — a move that has already attracted attacks from Republicans, who have repeatedly pointed to a photo of him holding up an “abolish ICE” shirt.
The Barnes campaign made it clear early in the primary that he did not support the movement, nor did he support “defunding the police,” but Republicans are certain to keep up the attacks in the general election.
Barnes emerged last month as the prohibitive front-runner in the primary after his three leading competitors exited the race and endorsed him.
His main rival had been Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry, who, despite having sunk at least $12.3 million of his personal wealth into his campaign, never overtook him in the polls. Lasry dropped out July 27 and immediately endorsed Barnes, calling him “the best person to be able to defeat Ron Johnson.” The day before, Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson left the race, and days later, State Treasurer Sara Godlewski did, too, effectively clearing the field for Barnes, whom they both endorsed.
Barnes gained momentum this summer with a series of high-profile endorsements — from Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey and others, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Barnes, who goes by his middle name in honor of Nelson Mandela, the former South African president and anti-apartheid activist, grew up in the inner city of Milwaukee. He attended college at Alabama A&M, a historically Black university, and worked as a community organizer before he won a seat in the state Assembly in 2012, representing part of the north side of Milwaukee.
After he won the 2018 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, Barnes and Tony Evers topped Gov. Scott Walker, a two-term Republican. The victory made Barnes the first Black person to hold the office and only the second Black person to win a statewide race in Wisconsin. He would be the first Black senator to represent Wisconsin if he wins the general election.
Adam Edelman is a political reporter for NBC News.
WASHINGTON — The Democratic spending bill making its way through Congress contains a series of benefits for consumers, including tax credits for clean energy household products and electric vehicles, as well as savings on prescription drugs and health insurance premiums.
The Inflation Reduction Act passed the Senate on a party-line vote Sunday and is expected to get a vote in the House on Friday, before heading to President Joe Biden’s desk.
“Yes, I hope to pass it on Friday,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi told NBC News on Tuesday. “It’s a great bill. It’s historic.”
Republicans, who unanimously oppose the bill, have blasted it as a “reckless taxing and spending spree” that won’t solve inflation and could harm pharmaceutical innovation.
The legislation includes over $400 billion in spending on energy and health care programs, with more than $700 billion in revenues through drug savings and higher taxes on corporations.
Unlike the Covid relief packages in recent years, there are no direct payments or checks in the mail for broad swaths of people. So what’s in it for ordinary Americans? Here’s a rundown.
Medicare out-of-pocket cap, free vaccines
For the first time, Medicare beneficiaries will see their yearly out-of-pocket expenses capped at $2,000 starting in 2025. Today, there is no cap. Medicare seniors would also have the option of spreading out the expenses over monthly payments.
The average Medicare recipient spent $5,460 on out-of-pocket costs such as deductibles and copayments in 2016, according to a study by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
In addition, the bill grants them free recommended vaccines, including for Covid and shingles.
Clean vehicles credit
Want to buy an electric vehicle? The bill offers a credit of up to $7,500 for qualified “clean” vehicles, including popular models from General Motors, Tesla and others.
That credit drops for vehicles that don’t meet all the requirements on electricity power and mineral or battery components, according to details provided to NBC News by the Senate Finance Committee.
It applies to new vehicles that cost up to $55,000 — or $80,000 in the case of SUVs and vans. And you have to earn less than $150,000 in income (or $300,000 for joint filers) to qualify.
There’s a catch: The benefit is cut or eliminated unless the vehicle is sold by a “qualified manufacturer” and for which the final assembly took place in North America, in order to increase domestic production.
For previously owned electric vehicles that are at least two years old and selling at $25,000 or less, there is a credit of up to $4,000 — allowable for individual incomes up to $75,000, according to an analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Energy efficient home credits
The bill contains a grab-bag of benefits to encourage the use of clean energy items in homes over the next decade.
It increases the credit for installing qualified goods — such as Energy Star products — at non-business properties from 10 percent to 30 percent. That includes “solar electric, solar water heating, fuel cell, and small wind energy, and geothermal heat pumps,” according to the Senate Finance Committee.
The legislation replaces a lifetime cap on credits with a $1,200 annual credit ceiling, offering $600 for energy-efficient windows and $500 for doors. That jumps to $2,000 for biomass stoves and heat pumps. It also enhances the existing credits to cover home energy audits (to $150) and upgrade electrical panels (to $600).
Medicare insulin cap of $35
For Medicare beneficiaries, the legislation imposes a $35 cap on the cost of covered insulin products starting in 2023.
A Health Affairs study last month found 41% of people who use insulin were on Medicare. Overall, 14% of those using insulin said they spend “catastrophic” levels of money on insulin — more than 40% of their remaining income after paying for food and housing.
Democrats also attempted to cap insulin costs on the private market at $35, but Republicans objected and that provision was stricken under the Senate’s strict budget rules needed to pass the bill. Subsequent attempts to add it were unsuccessful.
Affordable Care Act funding
The bill prevents a sharp hike in health insurance premiums on Affordable Care Act plans that were scheduled to hit next year by extending enhanced funding for the ACA passed under the American Rescue Plan for another three years, through the end of 2025. That means the extra aid remains available to Americans with incomes above 400% of the federal poverty level, with premiums capped at 8.5% of family income for the “benchmark” plans.
It means no sticker shock this fall for millions of Americans who were otherwise slated to face premium hikes as a result of the money drying up, a prospect that many Democrats were nervous about heading into the Nov. 8 midterm election.
As news broke that the FBI had seized 10 boxes of evidence while carrying out their search warrant on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence, his lawyers were floating the idea that something more sinister might be going down.
Appearing Tuesday evening on Fox News, Trump lawyer Alina Habba expressed concerns about the actions of FBI personnel, alleging the possibility of planted materials.
“Quite honestly, I’m concerned that they may have planted something, you know?” the attorney said. “At this point, who knows? I don’t trust the government, and that’s a very frightening thing as an American.”
Striking a similar tone, Trump lawyer Christina Bobb took issue earlier in the day on Real America’s Voice with “not [being] allowed to observe” the search while being present during the raid on Monday on Trump’s legal behalf.
“No, there is no security that something wasn’t planted,” the lawyer said. “I’m not saying that’s what they did.”
“This was a completely unnecessary power flex. It was a weird flex,” Bobb added. “It’s quite honestly sad to see what they have done to our country.”
Asked by The Daily Beast on Tuesday whether she believes the FBI is playing tricks, Bobb said: “I have no reason at this point in time to believe anyone has made anything up.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the National Archives had already seized 15 boxes of documents “and other items” from the resort in January “that Mr. Trump should have handed over to the agency at the end of his term.”
Those boxes contained several documents that federal law requires be turned over once a president leaves office, along with archives that officials described as “classified national security information.”
A source told the newspaper that those documents included correspondence between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, among others. The discovery of those documents led to the involvement of the Justice Department. In June, Justice Department lawyers returned to Mar-a-Lago, where they sought more information about the sensitive material taken from the White House. Investigators were led to a basement where boxes of documents were stored, but investigators “looked around and eventually left,” a source told the Journal.
A June 8 letter from the Justice Department ordered Trump’s legal team to secure the room where the documents were stored. The latest search was undertaken because the FBI believed even more classified documents had been stored at the residence, the paper reported but it is unclear how or if the latest search is connected to the June visit.
The FBI raid might have caused some headaches within Trump’s orbit, but it also now gives MAGAworld allies more than enough material to cast Trump as a victim, which one current adviser sees as a path for Trump to win a second term—or, as some advisers falsely claim, a third term.
“The Biden folks love to talk about preserving ‘norms,’ and now they’re so desperate to ‘get’ Trump that they’re raiding his home and turning him into a martyr,” a Trump adviser told The Daily Beast. “They’re going to mess around and single-handedly get him re-elected.”
Elsewhere, on cable news on Tuesday night, several Trump backers cast doubt on the legitimacy of law enforcement activity at the former president’s estate.
Fox News host Jesse Watters suggested that the FBI is engaging in illegal activity.
“What the FBI is probably doing is planting evidence, which is what they did during the Russia hoax,” Watters asserted, pejoratively referring to the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, a habit among Fox’s primetime hosts. “We also have a hunch they doctored evidence to get the warrant.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich also baselessly ginned up fears about evidence tampering.
Referring to the “fake FBI,” Gingrich said on right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s show, “You’ll notice they didn’t allow anybody on the Trump side into Mar-a-Lago. So we have no idea whether or not they planted evidence.”
Becca Balint, Vermont’s state Senate president, has won the Democratic nomination for the state’s at-large congressional seat, NBC News projects.
The victory makes her likely to become the first woman to represent the heavily Democratic state in Congress. Vermont is the only state that has never had a female member of its congressional delegation.
Balint, a state senator since 2014 who rose to Senate president two years ago, would also be the first openly gay lawmaker to represent the state on Capitol Hill should she win in November.
Balint, 54, a progressive Democrat backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and the Vermont icons Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, defeated Lt. Gov. Molly Gray.
The more centrist Gray had the backing of fellow Democrats like former Vermont Govs. Madeline Kunin and Howard Dean, while retiring Sen. Pat Leahy had donated $5,000 to her campaign.
Leahy’s retirement announcement set the race for the House seat in motion. Democratic Rep. Peter Welch is running for the seat he is vacating.
Leahy, a Democrat, was elected to the Senate in 1974. Sanders, an independent and a former at-large representative, was elected to the Senate in 2006, the same year Welch was elected to the House.
The state has only three representatives in Congress — its two senators and an at-large House member.
Dareh Gregorian is a political reporter for NBC News.
Investigators have released a surveillance image showing missing teen Kiely Rodni from the night she disappeared. The image taken was from video surveillance at 6:08 pm on Friday from a business in the town of Truckee, where the 16-year-old attended a party where she was last spotted. You can see she was wearing a black tank top, green pants and a black belt. She also had black shoes on, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said. The party, where hundreds of teenagers were in attendance, happened at the Prosser Family Campgrounds. Rodni was last heard from early Saturday morning. Rodni’s disappearance is being investigated as a possible abduction. The Placer County Sheriff’s Office told KCRA 3 that the only reason this has been upgraded to a possible abduction is that investigators have not found her car, which is a silver 2013 Honda CRV with the license plate 8YUR127.The department said it is still considering all leads and possibilities.This could include an accident, or if the teen just ran away.As of Tuesday, CHP is not issuing an amber alert for this case because there is no confirmation that Rodni was abducted. Anyone with information is asked to call investigators at 530-581-6320, option 7.
TRUCKEE, Calif. —
Investigators have released a surveillance image showing missing teen Kiely Rodni from the night she disappeared.
The image taken was from video surveillance at 6:08 pm on Friday from a business in the town of Truckee, where the 16-year-old attended a party where she was last spotted.
You can see she was wearing a black tank top, green pants and a black belt. She also had black shoes on, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said. The party, where hundreds of teenagers were in attendance, happened at the Prosser Family Campgrounds. Rodni was last heard from early Saturday morning.
Rodni’s disappearance is being investigated as a possible abduction.
The Placer County Sheriff’s Office told KCRA 3 that the only reason this has been upgraded to a possible abduction is that investigators have not found her car, which is a silver 2013 Honda CRV with the license plate 8YUR127.
The department said it is still considering all leads and possibilities.
This could include an accident, or if the teen just ran away.
As of Tuesday, CHP is not issuing an amber alert for this case because there is no confirmation that Rodni was abducted.
Anyone with information is asked to call investigators at 530-581-6320, option 7.
A burning body was found hanging from a tree in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park, according to authorities in the city.
Los Angeles Fire Department says that the gross discovery was made near the park’s merry-go-round on Tuesday afternoon.
Authorities say that the victim’s age, gender, and race are not yet known.
Firefighters called to the scene said that the victim was already dead when they arrived, according to NBC Los Angeles.
“It’s a death investigation. We’re assisting with body recovery,” an LAFD spokeswoman told Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Police Department has launched an investigation into the death.
Griffith Park is one of the largest urban parks in the United States, covering 4,210 acres of land in the city’s Los Feliz neighborhood.
“Situated in the eastern Santa Monica Mountain range, the Park’s elevations range from 384 to 1,625 feet above sea level,” states the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.
“With an arid climate, the Park’s plant communities vary from coastal sage scrub, oak and walnut woodlands to riparian vegetation with trees in the Park’s deep canyons.”
It is not the first body found in the park this year.
In April the body of a hiker who went missing two weeks ago was found in the park with his pet dog still sitting loyally by his side.
Oscar Alejandro Hernandez, 29, was found in a remote area of Griffith Park after being reported missing on 16 March. His Golden Retriever from him, King, was emaciated but alive, having faithfully remained with his owner until his body from him was discovered.
A search and rescue team used a helicopter to remove Hernandez’s body from the steep hillside, also near the merry-go-round in the east end of the park.
Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina says they’ve found the vehicle and arrested its prime suspect in recent Muslim killings. Police and FBI agents have arrested 51-year-old Muhammad Syed. Police consider Syed to be the primary suspect in the recent killings. Police say as they prepared to search Syed’s home, Syed drove from the home in the Volkswagen Jetta they were searching for. Once police detained Syed, they searched his home and his vehicle, finding evidence that tied Syed to the recent murders. Detectives found evidence that shows Syed knew the victims and that a conflict may have lead to the shootings. Syed is being charged in the July 26, 2022 murder of Aftab Hussein and the Aug. 1, 2022 murder of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain. Police say they found bullet casings at both scenes that connected the two shootings. The gun that was used in both shootings was found during the search of Syed’s home. Police will work with the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office on possible charges in the August 5, 2022 murder of Naeem Hussain and the Nov. 7, 2021 murder of Mohammad Zaher Ahmadi. What we know about each case Police believe three recent murders and a murder that happened on Nov. 7, 2021, could be potentially connected. Albuquerque police say the first homicide happened on Nov. 7, 2021. In that incident, Mohammad Ahmadi was killed outside of a business he and his brother ran at 1401 San Mateo Blvd. Ahmadi was from Afghanistan. Police are working to determine if this murder is connected to three other murders that happened in the city. Albuquerque police say the second homicide happened on July 26 in southeast Albuquerque. Police identified the victim as 41-year-old Aftab Hussein. Hussein was from Pakistan.The third homicide happened on Aug. 1. Police say Muhammed Afzaal Hussain was killed in southeast Albuquerque.RELATED: Albuquerque homicides on pace with last year’s recordThe fourth homicide happened on Aug. 5. Police say they responded to reports of a shooting on Truman Street and Grand Avenue in northeast Albuquerque. When police arrived, they found Naeem Hussain dead at the scene. Police say the victim was Muslim and was a native of South Asia. Police are still not calling this a hate crime, nor are they calling the suspect a serial killer. If you have any information on the incident, call Crime Stoppers at 505-843 -STOP or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. The Albuquerque Police Department has also created a portal for the public to submit any video or photo evidence related to the case. Click here to access the portal. Who are the victims? Police have named three of the four victims who were killed. Mohammad Ahmadi was killed on Nov. 7, 2021. Aftab Hussein was killed on July 26, 2022. Muhammed Afzaal Hussain was killed on Aug. 1. Naeem Hussain was fourth person killed on Aug 5.Muhammed Hussain was the Planning and Land Use Director for the city of Española.
ALBUQUERQUE, NM —
Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina says they’ve found the vehicle and arrested its prime suspect in recent Muslim killings.
Police and FBI agents have arrested 51-year-old Muhammad Syed. Police consider Syed to be the primary suspect in the recent killings.
Police say as they prepared to search Syed’s home, Syed drove from the home in the Volkswagen Jetta they were searching for. Once police detained Syed, they searched his home and his vehicle, finding evidence that tied Syed to the recent murders.
Detectives found evidence that shows Syed knew the victims and that a conflict may have lead to the shootings.
Syed is being charged in the July 26, 2022 murder of Aftab Hussein and the Aug. 1, 2022 murder of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain.
Police say they found bullet casings at both scenes that connected the two shootings. The gun that was used in both shootings was found during the search of Syed’s home.
Police will work with the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office on possible charges in the August 5, 2022 murder of Naeem Hussain and the Nov. 7, 2021 murder of Mohammad Zaher Ahmadi.
What we know about each case
Police believe three recent murders and a murder that happened on Nov. 7, 2021, could be potentially connected.
Albuquerque police say the first homicide happened on Nov. 7, 2021. In that incident, Mohammad Ahmadi was killed outside of a business he and his brother ran at 1401 San Mateo Blvd. Ahmadi was from Afghanistan. Police are working to determine if this murder is connected to three other murders that happened in the city.
Albuquerque police say the second homicide happened on July 26 in southeast Albuquerque. Police identified the victim as 41-year-old Aftab Hussein. Hussein was from Pakistan.
The third homicide happened on Aug. 1. Police say Muhammed Afzaal Hussain was killed in southeast Albuquerque.
RELATED: Albuquerque homicides on pace with last year’s record
The fourth homicide happened on Aug. 5. Police say they responded to reports of a shooting on Truman Street and Grand Avenue in northeast Albuquerque. When police arrived, they found Naeem Hussain dead at the scene. Police say the victim was Muslim and was a native of South Asia.
Police are still not calling this a hate crime, nor are they calling the suspect a serial killer.
If you have any information about the incident, call Crime Stoppers at 505-843-STOP or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
The Albuquerque Police Department has also created a portal for the public to submit any video or photo evidence related to the case. Click here to access the portal.
Who are the victims?
Police have named three of the four victims who were killed.
Mohammad Ahmadi was killed on Nov. 7, 2021.
Aftab Hussein was killed on July 26, 2022.
Muhammed Afzaal Hussain was killed on Aug. 1.
Naeem Hussain was fourth person killed on Aug 5.
Muhammed Hussain was the Planning and Land Use Director for the city of Española.
