CARMEL, Ind. (WISH) – Police in Carmel are asking for the public’s help in identifying two people, according to the Carmel Police Department.
Police said that on Dec. 23, officers were called to the 9800 block of Haverstick Road for a “suspicious incident.”
Officers stated that just before 8:30 p.m., a woman was spotted running from the passenger side of an SUV. Then a man, who is seen chasing her, grabs her and takes her to the back of the vehicle.
Anyone with information on the two individuals is asked to contact the Carmel Police Department at 317-571-2500.
(CNN) — The Justice Department this week released a three-hour video of a battle between rioters and the police at the US Capitol Building on Jan. 6 where rioters brandished weapons, officers were viciously beaten, and a member of the mob died on Capitol steps.
The assault on the Lower West Terrace was one of the most violent confrontations between Capitol Police and the crowd. Officers held the line until the building was cleared without letting rioters inside. Some officers have since said they did not know the Capitol had already been breached in other areas.
The video, taken from a Capitol security camera, does not have sound. It starts as officers retreat, helping each other as they stumble inside and washing their eyes out with water from chemical spray. Rioters crowd in behind them, coordinate efforts to attack and push through in infamous moments that have haunted the public, and officers, ever since.
The Justice Department released the videos after CNN and other outlets sued for access. It is the longest video from the riot released by the government thus far.
The assault
Once rioters invaded the platform built for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, every officer on it retreated into the tunnel to make their stand, shooting projectiles at rioters as they begin to enter. Members of the crowd climbed on top of each other, swinging fists and poles at the police. Brawls broke out throughout the assault, with rioters punching and kicking at officers on the front line.
Inside the tunnel, rioters pushed police further back, jabbing at them with flag poles and hitting them with a baton, spraying pepper spray, taking riot shields and crushing an officer in a door all while banging against the walls and cheering as they filmed the assault on their phones.
Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone was pulled out of the police line and into the crowd by a rioter who had his arm around his neck. The video shows Fanone eventually falling down and disappearing into the mass of rioters, where he said he was tased in the neck, beaten with a flagpole and heard rioters screaming “kill him with his own gun.” Fanone said he suffered a heart attack and fell unconscious during the attack.
Police were able to push the rioters to the edge of the tunnel’s entrance over half an hour into the assault, using pepper spray and their batons against the crowd. Still, after a long standoff with police, the rioters began a second attack on the line of officers.
At the entrance of the tunnel, rioter and QAnon supporter Rosanne Boyland lay on the ground. She had died of an accidental overdose, according to DC’s chief medical examiner. Heeding her friends’ call for help, prosecutors say two officers waded into the crowd to help Boyland.
The two officers were knocked down and dragged into the mob where they were viciously beaten with an upside-down American flag and other weapons. The attack landed one officer in the hospital with staples in his head to stop the bleeding, and the other with injuries to his face and shoulder according to court documents.
Weapons used by rioters
In the grueling attack, rioters not only used weapons but also whatever they could get their hands on to attack the police, jabbing them with metal poles, throwing furniture and an audio speaker, spraying a fire extinguisher and pepper spray, using crutches to hit the police, and assaulting the officers with fists and feet.
The rioters also used items taken from the police, including riot shields which they continued to pass up their ranks to push against the officers, and batons which they assaulted police with. At one point in the video, a person can be seen even throwing a firework at the line of officers.
Arrests
Prosecutors have arrested and charged dozens of rioters for their part in the grisly battle inside the Lower West Terrace tunnel.
Robert Morss, who prosecutors allege planned to start his own militia, is being held in jail until he faces trial after a judge slammed him for using his training as an Army Ranger to help organize and lead the mob inside the tunnel. Morss is charged with eight other men, including Patrick McCaughey, who was captured in a viral video crushing Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges in a door, and Federico Klein, a former Trump State Department official. All nine have pleaded not guilty.
Albuquerque Head, who allegedly dragged Fanone out into the crowd, has also been charged in the attack. So has Daniel Rodriguez, who prosecutors say tased Fanone in the neck. They, too, have pleaded not guilty.
Jeffrey Sabol, Jack Whitton and Ronald McAbee are part of an indictment with six other rioters who allegedly worked together to drag officers into the crowd. Whitton later boasted to friends, saying that “I fed him to the people,” referring to the officer, according to court filings. They haven’t yet entered a formal plea.
Two of the defendants who were part of the tunnel scene have already been sentenced. Devlyn Thompson, who admitted to throwing a speaker at police officers and hitting an officer in the hand with a baton, was sentenced to nearly four years in jail. Robert Palmer, who used a fire extinguisher, a wooden plank and a pole to attack police, was sentenced to more than five years in prison. Both pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden brought some Christmas Eve cheer to hospitalized children who aren’t well enough to go home for holidays.
It’s longstanding tradition for first ladies to visit Children’s National Hospital at Christmastime, but Joe Biden’s visit on Friday was a surprise. It marked the first time that a sitting president had joined the fun, the White House said.
The Bidens are set to help a group of children making lanterns as part of a winter craft project. Jill Biden will also sit by the Christmas tree and read “Olaf’s Night Before Christmas” to the kids. Video of her reading will also be shown in patient rooms throughout the hospital.
The Walt Disney Co. provided copies of the book for each patient so they can follow along with the first lady, the White House said. Each book includes a White House bookmark designed by her office.
The annual tradition of a hospital visit by the first lady dates to Bess Truman, who served in the role from 1945-1953.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A security officer leapt over conveyor belt rollers and saved a 2-month-old boy who stopped breathing at a security checkpoint at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, newly released video shows.
The footage, released Thursday by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, shows TSA officer Cecilia Morales springing into action to resuscitate the child Dec. 9 after his mother picked him up from a car carrier and noticed he wasn’t breathing.
Morales, an EMT who has been a TSA officer for about two months, told the agency she performed the infant version of the Heimlich maneuver, placing the baby face down on her arm and patting him on the back to get him breathing again.
It was the first time she had performed the technique on an infant, she said. A pediatric EMT arrived a short time later to give the baby oxygen. A TSA spokesperson said the agency didn’t know what caused the baby to stop breathing.
“I saw the video afterward,” Morales said. “It was the first time I’ve ever seen myself in action, saving a life. It was mind-blowing to watch. I felt that my training and experience just took over.”
“Two months on the job and she’s literally a life-saver,” Thomas Carter, the TSA’s Federal Security Director for New Jersey said in a statement. “Officer Morales’s quick reaction and actions helped ensure that this family will have a happy holiday season. Her actions were inspiring.”
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – This year, the number of data breaches has already topped that of 2020.
And several big companies have been impacted, including Facebook, T-Mobile and Volkswagen.
Jane has a report on how each new year brings new strategies taken by identity thieves and fraudsters.
To watch the entire segment, click on the video.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A group of medical professionals from the U.S. Navy has arrived in Indy. Their mission is to ease some of the stress from a COVID surge threatening to overwhelm the health care system.
Here to help in every possible way, that’s the assurance Lt. Commander Micheal Gibbony gave during a news conference with IU Health.
This comes after President Biden announced Tuesday the deployment of medical troops to areas dealing with a sudden surge in COVID-19 patients.
“They’ve already landed in Wisconsin and Indiana this week said, ” Dr. Luetkemeyer said.
FEMA sent a 20-person team of medical professionals that range in expertise to help treat patients at IU Health.
Lt. Commander Gibbony says this is the teams’ second mission together, and they’re getting ready to work with patients. “We’re working hand in hand with the staff here to learn their system, their procedures, their protocols,” said Lt. Gibbony.
As of Thursday, IU health has a little more than 551 COVID patients statewide and a total of 168 COVID patients at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.
Like many healthcare facilities across the state and the country, IU Health has struggled with a lack of resources and staffing during the pandemic.
“We are short, and our providers are tired, said ” Dr. Weaver.
Dr. Chris Weaver says the hospitals’ vaccine requirements are not to blame for the lack of staffing.
Dr. Mark Luetkemeyer says the bulk of the shortage is due to worker burnout.
“Who would have thought that we would have gone through three or four surges?,” said Dr. Luetkemeyer.
The hospital has been in a constant surge since October with the added weight of omicron and the flu season.
“We need help, and that’s what you’re seeing with us reaching out to FEMA and the Department of Defense, ” said Dr. Luetkemeyer.
The U.S Navy members will be at IU Health for a month and may exceed that time if a request to extend help is approved by FEMA and the Department of Defense.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will lift travel restrictions to eight southern African countries on New Year’s Eve, the White House announced Friday.
The restrictions, imposed last month, were meant to blunt the spread of the COVID omicron variant.
The Nov. 29 ban barred nearly all non-U.S. citizens who had recently been in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
White House spokesman Kevin Munoz said on Twitter that the decision was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Munoz said the temporary travel bans bought scientists necessary time to study the new virus variant and conclude that the current vaccinations are effective in blunting its impact.
Omicron is now spreading rapidly throughout the U.S., including among the vaccinated, but a huge majority of those being hospitalized are unvaccinated.
“The restrictions gave us time to understand Omicron and we know our existing vaccines work against Omicron, esp boosted,” Munoz wrote on Twitter.
MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow court fined Google nearly $100 million Friday over its failure to delete content banned by local law, a penalty that reflects Russian efforts to step up pressure on big technology companies.
The Tagansky District Court ruled that Google repeatedly neglected to remove the banned content and ordered the company to pay an administrative fine of about 7.2 billion rubles (about $98.4 million).
Google said it would study the court documents and then decide on its next steps.
Russian authorities have steadily ramped up pressure on social media platforms, accusing them of failing to purge content related to drug abuse, weapons and explosives. Earlier this year, the authorities blamed tech companies for not deleting announcements about unsanctioned protests in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
Russian courts previously imposed smaller fines on Google, Facebook and Twitter this year. The Moscow court’s Friday ruling marked the first time the size of the fine was calculated based on revenue.
Russian authorities also have demanded that foreign tech giants store the personal data of Russian citizens on servers in Russia, threatening them with fines or possible bans if they fail to comply.
(CNN) — Japan will not send any senior officials or Cabinet ministers to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, the government said Friday — but stopped short of calling the decision a diplomatic boycott.
Japan “believes that respect for human rights is important,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a news conference. “We made a decision comprehensively.”
Tokyo Olympics Chief Seiko Hashimoto, Japanese Olympic Committee President Yasuhiro Yamashita, and Japan Paralympic Chief Kazuyuki Mori will still attend the event, Matsuno added.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said earlier this month he does not plan to attend the Games. Kishida has faced rising pressure within his ruling party to take a tougher stance on China, according to local media — a delicate issue for Japan, which is a close partner of the United States but also has strong economic ties to its Asian neighbor.
The Beijing Games have been shrouded in controversy for months, with activists and critics calling for boycotts over concerns of human rights abuses in China — particularly against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs in the western region of Xinjiang.
A number of foreign governments, lawmakers, independent tribunals, and humanitarian groups have declared China’s treatment of Uyghurs a genocide.
So far, Britain, Canada and Australia have followed the US in announcing diplomatic boycotts — meaning they will not send any official delegation, though their athletes will still compete. The US said its boycott was due to China’s “egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang.”
China has strongly criticized the boycotts, arguing politics and sports should remain separate, and that participating countries are contradicting the Olympic spirit of unity. In a statement earlier this month, Beijing threatened the Biden administration with retaliation, warning the move could harm bilateral relations.
(CNN) — Two Georgia election workers are accusing right-wing TV network One America News and former Trump lawyer and pundit Rudy Giuliani of destroying their reputations and prompting Trump supporters to harass them — filling their lives with fear — because of false claims of election fraud in 2020.
The election workers, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, say in a new lawsuit that they became the victims of political lies as the pro-Trump media universe spread accusations that they had miscounted ballots during the presidential vote count in Georgia.
President Joe Biden won Georgia narrowly against Trump, based on three counts of ballots, and no widespread fraud was found in any state in the 2020 presidential election.
In her complaint, Freeman said that because of the election fraud accusations, the FBI advised her to leave her home from Jan. 6, when a mob surrounded it, through the presidential inauguration later that month. She received hundreds of harassing emails, texts and calls — even a Christmas card that said, “You deserve to go to jail, you worthless piece of sh*t whore.”
Moss claims strangers sent unwanted pizzas to her grandmother’s house to harass her and came to the house twice to attempt to make a “citizen’s arrest.”
“Both women are afraid to live normal lives,” the lawsuit says. “Ms. Freeman is fearful when she hears her name called in public; Ms. Moss now fears risking even a visit to the grocery store and must get her groceries delivered instead. Defendants have inflicted, and continue to inflict, severe and ongoing emotional and economic damage.”
Giuliani is named in the lawsuit because of his frequent appearances on OAN after the election and because of segments on his podcast, where he raised conspiracy theories of widespread fraud in the Georgia election and accused Freeman of past voter fraud. The election workers are also suing the network’s White House correspondent Chanel Rion and its owners Robert and Charles Herring.
A lawyer for Giuliani didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment, but the former prosecutor and New York City mayor previously called such lawsuits against him left-wing intimidation. Giuliani has been suspended from practicing law because of false and misleading statements he made in court also claiming election fraud.
OAN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
OAN and Giuliani are already facing other major lawsuits from the elections software company Dominion Voting Systems that seek billions of dollars in damages, and the new lawsuit signifies the compounding possible fallout for Trump’s close allies after the election.
On broadcasts, OAN repeatedly suggested Freeman and Moss had illegally counted ballots, after the Trump campaign circulated edited security camera footage of them counting absentee and military ballots in an arena in Fulton County, according to their lawsuit.
Trump also called Freeman a “professional vote scammer and hustler” on the now-infamous phone call he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2 asking the official to “find” him votes, the lawsuit notes.
Trump and his campaign are not defendants in the lawsuit.
“Though the initial claims by the Trump campaign team were based only on short selections of the Trump Edited Video and did not name any individual Fulton County election workers, OAN and Giuliani were some of the first and only outlets and commenters to specifically name Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss, and they have continued to do so for more than a year,” the lawsuit says.
A Georgia state official also verified early in December 2020 that the women at work on the security footage was normal ballot processing.