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Possible tornado injures 7 in Arkansas as ‘intense tornadoes’ forecast for Southeast

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Seven people were injured, including two critically, when a possible tornado touched down at 4 a.m. in Springdale, a city in northwest Arkansas, Mayor Doug Sprouse said in a Facebook post.

“Many residents have been displaced from their homes and numerous businesses have reported significant damages,” he said. There have been no reported deaths, he noted.

The Springdale Fire Department said the southeastern part of the city sustained “significant damage,” and the Springdale Police Department announced a number of road closures amid reports of downed power lines, trees, and traffic lights.
Video obtained from CNN affiliate KHBS/KHOG shows flattened buildings, roof damage, and yards littered with storm debris. At George Elementary School, the gym was destroyed and the kitchen and cafeteria were severely damaged, the Springdale School District said.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said on Twitter that there were no students inside the school at the time.
The damage stems from a line of storms racing across eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas that will intensify through the day, putting over 50 million people at risk for life-threatening extreme weather.
“Just walk outside and you can tell something in the weather will occur today,” the National Weather Service (NWS) in Jackson, Mississippi, wrote Wednesday morning. The bull’s-eye is on Mississippi for the most extreme storms.

The Storm Prediction Center issued a tornado watch for Wednesday from 5:25 a.m. to 1 p.m. CDT covering parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

A tornado watch was also issued for portions of southwestern Louisiana and far east Texas from 11:10 a.m. until 7 p.m. CDT, and another watch was issued for eastern Arkansas, northeast Louisiana, the Missouri Bootheel, Mississippi and west Tennessee from 12:15 p.m. to 8 p.m. CDT.

The latter tornado watch contains the highest likelihood of multiple tornadoes, with the Storm Prediction Center giving a 90% chance of tornadoes occurring within the area. In addition to tornadoes, “damaging wind gusts are expected to result in widespread wind damage,” the SPC said, with gusts potentially reaching up to 80 mph.

The extreme weather comes in a month that has seen near-record tornado activity in the US. One difference between this week’s storms and last week’s deadly tornado outbreak is how much more widespread the risk area is, how intense the winds will be and the longevity of damaging winds.

Risks of severe storms throughout the day

As the storms move across Arkansas, the risk for severe storms will increase throughout the day.

“There is an increased threat of EF-2 to EF-5 tornadoes and severe thunderstorm wind gusts of 65 knots (75 mph) or greater,” the Weather Prediction Center said Wednesday morning.

EF-2 tornadoes can cause considerable damage, ripping roofs from houses and destroying mobile homes. Meanwhile, an EF-5 tornado will cause incredible damage, usually sweeping homes off their foundation and carrying them considerable distances, according to the NWS.

By midday, changes in the atmospheric conditions near the line of storms will lead to “a rapid increase in storm coverage and intensity,” the Storm Prediction Center said.

A moderate risk –– level 4 of 5 — for severe storms covers the entire state of Mississippi and includes portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee. So, in addition to Jackson, populated cities like Memphis in Tennessee, Baton Rouge in Louisiana and Mobile and Montgomery in Alabama are all in this risk category.

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The bulk of the most vigorous activity is expected to become severe as it quickly crosses the Mississippi River into Mississippi, western Tennessee and Kentucky, the SPC said.

“We are expecting a long duration severe weather event today with damaging winds even before the storms arrive and destructive winds during the main event,” Logan Poole, a meteorologist with the NWS in Jackson, told CNN.

All across the South, winds are forecast to be strong ahead of the main line of storms which will have even stronger winds. Even before the storms approach, there could be damaging wind gusts of nearly 60 mph out of the south.

High wind warnings are in effect ahead of the line of storms stretching from northwestern Tennessee to the Louisiana Gulf Coast.

“This will certainly be widespread and likely to affect a larger portion of our population,” the NWS in Jackson wrote. “Winds up to 80 mph, in addition to the gradient wind ahead of the line, will pose risks of downed trees and powerlines and result in power outages.

As the line of storm approaches, “Supercells are likely, with strong tornadoes possible,” the SPC said, “as well as particularly damaging outflow surges.”

The storm threat will continue through the evening hours and overnight, with storms hitting places like New Orleans, which is at a severe risk level 3 of 5, just about sunset.

As the storms make their way east across Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, they will begin to lose some of their potency before reaching places like Atlanta in the early morning hours.

A near-record March for tornadoes

As of Wednesday morning, the SPC has tallied at least 187 preliminary reports of tornadoes in March. This is more than 233% of normal and just four shy of the highest March tornado count in recorded history (191 in March 2021), according to CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

On average, March averages about 80 tornadoes across the country.

Though the March record may be broken in a few hours with Wednesday’s storms, another tornado record has been standing far longer. The nat`ion is currently in the midst of its longest stretch without an EF-5 tornado, says Javaheri. “You would have to go back nearly a decade to May 20, 2013, for the last EF-5 in the country.”

Since that time, at least 11,322 tornadoes have touched down in the US, without a single one reaching the EF-5 threshold (200+ mph).

“The streak nearly came to an end in December 2021, amid the historic month that saw over 200 tornado reports,” Javaheri adds. “The December 10 western Kentucky tornado was rated an EF-4, with peak winds estimated around 190 mph, just 10 mph shy of an EF-5 tornado.”

“This is a streak we’ll hope to continue today.”

CNN’s Laura James, Brandon Miller contributed to this report.



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Trump discussed ‘burner phones’ several times, John Bolton says | Donald Trump

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John Bolton, the former national security adviser, has revealed that he heard Donald Trump use the term “burner phones” several times and that they discussed how the disposable devices were deployed by people as a way of avoiding scrutiny of their calls.

Bolton’s intervention compounds Trump’s difficulties amid a billowing controversy relating to seven hours and 37 minutes that are missing in official call logs. The gap occurs in records made for 6 January last year – the day of the violent insurrection at the US Capitol.

The Washington Post and CBS News disclosed on Tuesday that the House committee investigating the insurrection is looking into a “possible cover-up” of the White House records. Documents originally held by the National Archives and turned over to the committee earlier this year showed a gap in Trump’s phone calls spanning precisely the period when hundreds of his supporters stormed the Capitol building.

The news outlets, which obtained 11 pages of records including Trump’s official daily diary and a call log for the White House switchboard, reported that the House panel has begun an investigation into whether Trump used disposable “burner phones” to sidestep scrutiny.

In a statement to the Post/CBS News, Trump said: “I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term.”

Not true, according to Bolton. In an interview with the Post/CBS News, the former national security adviser said that he recalled Trump “using the term ‘burner phones’ in several discussions and that Trump was aware of its meaning”.

Bolton added that he and Trump had spoken “about how people have used ‘burner phones’ to avoid having their calls scrutinized,” according to Robert Costa, author of the Post/CBS News revelations along with Bob Woodward.

At the heart of the January 6 committee investigation is whether Trump was directly involved in coordinating the breach of security at the Capitol on the day that Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election was to be certified by Congress. What Trump did, and whom he talked to, as the insurrection was unfolding is central to the inquiry.

The call logs obtained by the committee show that Trump spoke to several close associates on the morning of January 6, including his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former senior adviser Steve Bannon. His daily diary shows an entry at 11.17 am for a phone call with “an unidentified person”, but after that the records fall silent.

The next phone log is at 6.54pm when Trump asked the White House switchboard to put him through to his communications chief, Dan Scavino.

In those intervening 457 minutes Trump supporters and white supremacist groups had broken through police barricades, forcing vice-president Mike Pence, who was overseeing the certification process, into hiding. A bipartisan Senate report connected seven deaths to the attack with more than 100 law enforcement officers injured.



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Covid-19 News: Booster and Variant Updates

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Credit…China Daily, via Reuters

Jilin, an industrial province in northeastern China, is at the front line of the country’s latest coronavirus outbreak, leaving medical workers and migrant laborers there struggling to cope with restrictions.

Shanghai, which imposed a lockdown to stanch a coronavirus surge, has won more attention in China and abroad in part because it had appeared to be a well-run bastion against infections, and it has a large and vocal-middle class. But statistics of illness and resident accounts suggest that Jilin has been hit harder.

China is trying to follow a restrictive policy, but is now reporting nearly 9,000 cases a day, most of them in people showing no symptoms. More than 2,000 new cases were detected in Jilin on Tuesday, most of them light or asymptomatic, according to China’s National Health Commission.

While the numbers are relatively few compared with those in many countries, especially when it comes to serious illness and death, China’s stringent lockdown and quarantine policies have put a strain on local governments as cases rise and residents require hospital beds, medicine and food deliveries. All 1,150 symptomatic cases in Jilin recorded on Tuesday have been put into medical isolation, according to local health officials.

In recent days, messages have spread on China’s internet describing rural migrant workers in Jilin who have tested positive for the coronavirus and then come under quarantine. Some have complained of lack of medical treatment and economic support. They included laborers who, in a twist of irony, said they had helped build the makeshift hospitals to treat Covid patients there.

“Everyone’s panicking and they don’t know where to go,” said one of the calls for help. “Over 40 have tested positive. Where do we get treatment? Afterward who’s going to set things right with us?”

One infected worker who posted the plea online said in a telephone interview that he had been locked up in the same hospital he had just built as a day laborer, along with dozens of other infected workers. He said he had a fever and sometimes could not get medicine while medical staff members struggled to tend to 300 patients. He said that he was not being paid for his time in quarantine and would miss the spring planting season on his farm.

On Monday, officials in Hebei Province, near Beijing, confirmed that two workers who had traveled to Jilin to help build the Covid hospitals had returned home infected with the coronavirus.

At a news conference on Monday, an official from the Jilin city government — the city is a namesake of the province — acknowledged that workers on a building site for a Covid hospital there had been infected. The official said that the spread had been stopped and “the workers’ rights have been effectively protected and assured.”

Calls to Jilin province government’s press office went unanswered, and an official at the province’s health department said he did not know about the workers’ complaints.

This week, Sun Chunlan, the Chinese vice premier in charge of pandemic measures, visited Jilin. She told officials to stick to the government’s “dynamic zero” goal of minimizing infections.

“Apply rigorous measures to continue getting to grips with every task in pandemic prevention and control,” she said, according to the Jilin government website.

Keith Bradsher contributed reporting and Liu Yi contributed research.

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Republican Susan Collins to back Ketanji Brown Jackson for supreme court – live | US news

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Here’s some more on Joe Biden speaking later about the Covid-19 pandemic. The president is set to announce a new White House initiative to incorporate a “one-stop shop website” designed to give Americans better access to tools and information in fighting coronavirus.

The president will announce that the US is at “a new moment in the pandemic” with lifesaving tools such as improved testing, vaccines and treatments available, and that the website covid.gov will consolidate guidance into a single point of information.

“With a click of a button, people will be able to find where to access all of these tools, as well as receive the latest CDC data on the level of Covid-19 in their community,” a press release about Biden’s announcement states.

“Protecting the American people… now and into the future relies on affordable and accessible tools like vaccines, treatments, tests and high-quality masks. Through efforts like covid.gov and test-to-treat, the Administration continues to take steps to make these tools even more readily available. Now, we need Congress to do its part and continue to fund the Covid-19 response.”

The funding of vaccinations, and the wider government response to the pandemic, has become a bone of contention, even as rates of infection and the number of deaths have tumbled since the peak of the Omicron variant.

In a statement earlier this month, the White House blasted Congress for failing to provide an additional $22.5bn the Biden administration says it needs to continue, among other initiatives, the funding and distribution of vaccines nationwide, and warned of the risk of a new wave of infections.

On Tuesday, the US food and drug administration (FDA) and federal centers for disease control and prevention (CDC) approved a second booster vaccine for Americans over 50, and those with compromised immune systems.

Many health officials are concerned about the fast spread of the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant, which has now become dominant in the US, the New York Times reports.

Here’s more about the FDA approving a second round of booster shots:

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Tyre Sampson, who died in fall from thrill ride in Orlando, may have been too heavy for the ride, operations manual shows

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The teenager who died in a fall from an Orlando thrill ride Thursday night may have been too heavy for the ride, a 2021 manual from the manufacturer appears to indicate.

Tyre Sampson, 14, who was 6 feet, 5 inches tall and over 300 pounds, plummeted from his seat on the Orlando Free Fall ride, which is located at Icon Park along a busy street in the heart of Orlando’s tourist district.

Sampson was a middle school football player in the St. Louis area who dreamed of playing pro ball. His youth football coach, AJ Jones, told WKMG-TV that Sampson weighed 320 pounds at the time of his death.

An operations and maintenance manual seen by CBS News and prepared by the ride’s manufacturer, Funtime Handels GmbH, of Dölsach, Austria, says the maximum weight for passengers should be 130 kilograms, or 286 pounds.

A makeshift memorial for Tyre Sampson is viewed outside the Orlando Free Fall ride at the ICON Park entertainment complex, Sunday, March 27, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. Sampson fell to his death while on the ride.

Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP


The manual also states: “Be careful when seeing if large guests fit into the seats. Check that they fit within the contours of the seat and the bracket fits properly. If this is not so — Do not let this person ride.”

An accident report filed after the incident says Sampson “came out of his seat” as the ride began to brake, but says the “harness was still in a down and locked position when the ride stopped,” CBS News correspondent Manuel Bojorquez reports.  

The 430-foot-tall ride, billed as the world’s tallest free-standing drop tower, is just 11 feet shorter than Orlando’s tallest building, the SunTrust building. It takes patrons up to that height, tilts the seats so they face the ground for a moment or two, and then plummets toward the ground at speeds of 75 mph or more.

The incident is being investigated by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) and Orange County Sheriff’s Office.  

“We hope the subsequent findings will be able to inform us all as to how this tragedy occurred and will precipitate any changes necessary to better protect patrons of amusement rides in Florida,” FDACS Commissioner Nikki Fried said in a statement.

Lawyers for Sampson’s family want to know if negligence about his size, or other factors, played a role.

“This young man, he was athletic and he was big. He had no way of knowing,” said Bob Hilliard, a Texas attorney who represents Tyre’s mother, Nekia Dodd, in an interview Saturday. “This is going to be an issue of a lack of supervision and lack of training. A straight-up negligence case.”

CBS News has reached out to Funtime Handels GmbH, Icon Park and the SlingShot Group, which operates the ride, for their responses.

Icon Park said in an earlier statement that it is fully cooperating with investigators and that the Orlando FreeFall ride will be closed indefinitely.

SlingShot Group said last week, “We are heartbroken with the incident that took the life of one of our guests. We extend our condolences and deepest sympathy to his family and friends.”

–The Associated Press contributed to this report

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Collins to Back Jackson for Supreme Court, Giving Her a G.O.P. Vote

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Ms. Collins, who sat down with Judge Jackson for about 90 minutes before last week’s hearings, had a second, hourlong in-person meeting with the judge on Tuesday afternoon in which the two hashed out several issues that came up before the Judiciary Committee.

During the hearings, Republicans on the panel raised questions about Judge Jackson’s sentencing history on child sex abuse defendants, and tried unsuccessfully to get her to express an opinion about whether seats should be added to the Supreme Court, as some progressives have advocated. Top Republicans, including some who were regarded as potential votes for Judge Jackson, have seized on her refusal to provide an answer on expanding the court as an obstacle to her confirmation.

“I don’t understand that, because it’s not an issue that will come before her in the court, so she should as a nominee be able to talk about it,” Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And I’m concerned that she’s not been willing to do that.”

But Ms. Collins said Judge Jackson had assured her in their conversation on Tuesday that she “would forever stay out of that issue.”

Republicans also seized last week on a legal brief that Judge Jackson filed on behalf of terrorism detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which accused former President George W. Bush of having committed war crimes when his administration tortured detainees. Ms. Collins said Judge Jackson had explained during their meeting on Tuesday that she had not intended to accuse Mr. Bush personally of being a war criminal, but had used a common template for such cases.

“There can be no question that she is qualified to be a Supreme Court justice,” said Ms. Collins, citing Judge Jackson’s “breadth of experience as a law clerk, attorney in private practice, federal public defender, member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission and district court judge for more than eight years.”

Judge Jackson also met on Tuesday with Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, who has been seen as a possible vote in her favor, though he opposed her nomination to the appeals court. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who backed Judge Jackson’s confirmation to the appeals court, is also considered a potential Republican supporter, and has yet to make her position known, saying only that her prior support is no indicator of how she will vote this time.

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BA.2 Accounts for Over Half of New U.S. Cases, C.D.C. Estimates

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The highly contagious Omicron subvariant known as BA.2, which led to a surge of coronavirus cases in Europe, is now the dominant version of the virus in new U.S. cases, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday.

Last week, the World Health Organization reiterated that BA.2 was the dominant version of Omicron around the world, and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the C.D.C., said she anticipated it would soon become dominant in the United States.

Scientists have been keeping an eye on BA.2, one of three genetically distinct varieties of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which was discovered by South African researchers in November.

BA.2 was first identified in the United States in December, and it accounted for about 55 percent of new U.S. cases in the week ending Saturday, according to C.D.C. estimates on Tuesday. The figures are rough estimates subject to revision as more data comes in, as happened in late December, when the agency had to significantly decrease its estimate for the nationwide prevalence of the BA.1 Omicron variant. Before that, the Delta variant had been dominant since July.

Cases of Omicron can only be confirmed by genetic sequencing, which is performed on just a portion of samples across the country. The C.D.C.’s estimates vary in different parts of the country. BA.2 was found in a high proportion of samples in the Northeast, and a lower proportion of samples in the Midwest and Great Plains.

BA.1, which became dominant in late December, was almost entirely responsible for the record-shattering spike in U.S. cases this winter, but earlier this year, BA.2 started to account for a larger proportion of new infections. Its rapid growth is attributed in part to eight mutations in the gene for the spike protein on the virus’s surface, which are not found in BA.1.

While BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1, it has not been shown to cause more severe illness and vaccines continue to protect against the worst outcomes. Many U.S. health officials have said they expect case numbers to rise without a major surge caused by BA.2, but other scientists worry that the nation isn’t doing enough to prevent another possible surge.

In the U.S., the seven-day average of new cases has dropped significantly from the height of the Omicron BA.1 surge. Though the decrease has slowed in recent days, the average has hovered this past week about 30,000 cases per day, a level last seen in July, according to a New York Times database.

Covid hospitalizations plummeted in the last two weeks by about 35 percent, to about 18,000 per day. Intensive care unit hospitalizations have fallen, too — by about 42 percent, to under 3,000.

And about 750 coronavirus deaths are being reported each day in the U.S., the lowest daily average since before the Omicron variant took hold late last fall. The last time the rate was this low was in mid-August.

In some European countries, the rise of BA.2 came at the same time as a surge in new cases. In the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong, South Korea and New Zealand, all of which suffered relatively little from earlier variants, are now getting walloped by BA.2.

Vaccines continue to protect people against severe disease, especially those who received a booster, experts have repeatedly said.

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8-hour gap in Trump’s Jan. 6 White House phone records

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol has identified an almost 8-hour gap in official White House records of then-President Donald Trump’s phone calls as the violence unfolded and his supporters stormed the building, according to two people familiar with the probe.

The gap extends from a little after 11 a.m. to about 7 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, and involves White House phone calls, according to one of the people. Both spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation.

The committee is investigating the gap in the official White House log, which includes the switchboard and a daily record of the president’s activities. But it does not mean the panel is in the dark about what Trump was doing during that time.

The House panel has made broad requests for separate cell phone records and has talked to more than 800 witnesses, including many of the aides who spent the day with Trump. The committee also has thousands of texts from the cell phone of Mark Meadows, who was then Trump’s chief of staff.

The committee’s effort to piece together Trump’s day as his supporters broke into the Capitol underscores the challenge that his habitual avoidance of records laws poses — not only to historians of his tumultuous four years but to the House panel, which intends to capture the full story of the former president’s attempt to overturn the election results in hearings and reports later this year.

The committee has trained a particular focus on what the president was doing in the White House as hundreds of his supporters beat police, broke into the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory. The missing records raise questions of whether Trump purposefully circumvented official channels to avoid records.

Trump was known to use other people’s cell phones to make calls, as well as his own. He often bypassed the White House switchboard, placing calls directly, according to a former aide who requested anonymity to discuss the private calls. It is not unusual for presidential calls to be channeled through other people.

It is unclear whether the committee has obtained records of cell phone calls made that day. The panel issued a broad records preservation order in August to almost three dozen telecommunications and social media companies, demanding that the companies save communications for several hundred people in case Congress decided to issue subpoenas for them. Individuals included in that request included Trump, members of his family and several of his Republican allies in Congress.

The committee also is continuing to receive records from the National Archives and other sources, which could produce additional information and help produce a full picture of the president’s communications.

While hundreds of people have cooperated with the probe, in some cases the panel has been hampered by Trump’s assertions of executive privilege over material and interviews. Courts have overruled his efforts to block some documents, but many witnesses who are still close to the former president — and several who were in the White House that day — have declined to answer the committee’s questions.

Biden, who has authority as the sitting president over his predecessor’s White House privilege claims, said Tuesday he would reject Trump’s claims concerning the testimony of his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner.

Kushner, who was one of Trump’s top White House aides, is scheduled for an interview with the panel on Thursday. The committee has requested an interview with Ivanka Trump as well, but has not said whether she will comply.

During the roughly eight hours on Jan. 6, Trump addressed a huge crowd of supporters at the nearby Ellipse, repeated falsehoods about his election defeat and told them to walk to the Capitol, make their voices heard and “fight like hell.” He then returned to the White House and watched as the mob broke into the Capitol. More than 700 people have been arrested in the violence.

Several of Trump’s calls that day are already publicly known. He spoke to Vice President Mike Pence between 11 a.m. and 11:30, according to a person familiar with that conversation, as he had been lobbying Pence publicly and privately to object while presiding over the certification. He also spoke with several GOP members of the House and Senate as his allies in Congress were preparing to challenge the official vote count.

He had a tense conversation with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who asked him to call off the mob, according to Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state, who shared McCarthy’s account shortly after the insurrection. Trump responded that the rioters must be “more upset about the election than you are,” according to Herrera Beutler.

Trump also talked to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, among other lawmakers. Tuberville has said he spoke to the president while the Senate was being evacuated. Utah Sen. Mike Lee has said that Trump accidentally called him when he was trying to reach Tuberville.

The White House log does show calls Trump made before that time period, as he was preparing to speak at the rally. That log shows calls with his former aide Steve Bannon, conservative commentator William Bennett and Sean Hannity of Fox News, according to one of the people familiar with the records.

The gap in the phone records was previously reported by the AP. The exact length of time of the gap was first reported jointly by The Washington Post and CBS News.

Trump had no immediate comment Tuesday, but he has previously disparaged the investigation and sued to stop records production.

___

Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

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Suspect in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania shooting say it was not road rage, but an accident

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UPPER DARBY, Pennsylvania (WPVI) — The suspect in a deadly shooting in Upper Darby, Delaware County says it was not a case of road rage, as police believed, but an accident.

The shooting happened just before 8 a.m. on Friday, March 25 at Lansdowne Avenue and Winding Way, near Monsignor Bonner & Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School.

Police say the victim, 56-year-old Jim Hunt of Havertown, was found shot in the head inside his minivan. The father of four was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The medical examiner determined the manner of death was homicide and the cause was a gunshot wound to the head.

“When officers arrived at the scene, it was obvious the male was suffering from a gunshot wound to the left side of his head. At that time there were no children in the area and we have no witnesses at that time who were at the scene,” said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt.

According to police, surveillance video showed Hunt’s minivan was stopped at a red light just before 8 a.m. A white Audi A4 was stopped next to him. Moments later, the Audi accelerated through the red light.

Police released still images of the vehicle to help identify the driver.

The suspect, 28-year-old Lloyd Amarsingh of Darby, Pa., turned himself in to police and was questioned.

Amarsingh told police he was unloading his firearm in his car while listening to loud music as he was celebrating receiving unemployment money and the gun misfired.

He told police he was reclined in the driver’s seat, had a gun in his right hand and used his left hand to remove the magazine.

According to police, Amarsingh said after he removed the magazine, he pulled the weapon’s slide back to eject the unfired round and the gun went off.

He told investigators he then drove through the red light and away from the scene, according to police.

Amarsingh told police it was his vehicle in the still images next to the victim’s minivan.

Officers searched the suspect’s home and found a 10mm Rock Island pistol which Amarsingh said was the gun he fired in his car, police said.

The Audi was found in the alley behind his home. Police said there was a bullet hole in the rear passenger window and the car was then impounded.

Amarsingh faces third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and weapon charges.

He is being held without bail at the Delaware County prison.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 6.

Copyright © 2022 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.



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Man arrested in SWFL bank robbery

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CLEWISTON, Fla. – A man was arrested Tuesday evening in connection to a robbery at First Bank at 300 East Sugarland Highway in Clewiston Tuesday morning.

A responding officer recognized the man, Antonio Sanchez-Sanchez, 57, in the bank video. Officers made contact with him outside his residence who then matched the description.

Sanchez-Sanchez had ten $100.00 bills in his possession, according to authorities.

A search warrant on his home revealed stolen cash hidden inside a pillow, a blue bag used to carry out the stolen cash, as well as clothes he wore, and a walkie-talkie.

Sanchez-Sanchez was placed under arrest and is facing charges of armed bank robbery.

Schools in the area as well as Hendry Regional Medical Center were placed on a brief lockdown during the incident and have since resumed normal operations.

This is an active investigation.

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