DNIPRO, Ukraine (AP) — The death toll from the Ukraine war’s deadliest attack on civilians at one location since last spring reached 45 at an apartment building a Russian missile blasted in the southeastern city of Dnipro, officials said Tuesday.

Those killed in the Saturday afternoon strike included six children, with 79 people injured, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. The toll included two dozen people initially listed as missing at the multistory building, which housed about 1,700, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office.

Emergency crews cleared some 9 metric tons (9.9 tons) of rubble during a non-stop search and rescue operation, the Dnipro City Council said. About 400 people lost their homes, with 72 apartments completely ruined and another 236 damaged beyond repair, it added.

People converged at the site Tuesday to lay flowers, light candles and bring plush toys. For a third day in a row, Dnipro resident Oleksandr Pohorielov came to mourn.

“It’s like coming to the cemetery to your family. It’s a memory, to say a proper goodbye. To remain a human after all,” he explained as an intense reek of burning emanated from the building’s ruins.

Volunteers helped Nadiia Yaroshenko’s son escape from their third floor apartment on a makeshift ladder but their white cat Beliash refused to leave. He remains in his favorite place at a window that is now blown out, Yaroshenko said, desperately trying to see him from the courtyard with a flashlight.

“We cannot reach the apartment even with rescuers because the apartment is in an emergency and dangerous condition. Walls could collapse there every minute,” she said.

The latest deadly Russian strike on a civilian target in the almost 11-month wa r triggered outrage. It also prompted the surprise resignation on Tuesday of a Ukrainian presidential adviser who had said the Russian missile exploded and fell after the Ukrainian air defense system shot it down, a version that would take some of the blame off the Kremlin’s forces.

Oleksii Arestovych’s comments in a Saturday interview caused an outcry. He said as he quit that his remarks were “a fundamental mistake.” Ukraine’s air force had stressed that the country’s military did not have a system that could down Russia’s Kh-22 supersonic missiles, the type that hit the apartment building.

Zelenskyy vowed “to ensure that all Russian murderers, everyone who gives and executes orders on missile terror against our people, face legal sentences. And to ensure that they serve their punishment.”

The British Defense Ministry said Tuesday that the weekend barrage of long-range missiles, the first of its kind in two weeks, targeted Ukraine’s power grid.

The Kh-22 was designed during Soviet times to strike enemy ships. It can also be used against ground targets, but with much less precision. Observers have said that Russia has increasingly used older weapons, including those intended for other purposes, to attack targets in Ukraine in what could be a sign of the depletion of Russian stockpiles of modern precision weapons. The U.K. ministry noted that the Kh-22 “is notoriously inaccurate when used against ground targets as its radar guidance system is poor at differentiating targets in urban areas,” suggesting that might have been a factor in the deaths in the Dnipro.

Similar missiles were used in other incidents that caused high civilian casualties, it said, including a strike on a shopping mall in Ukraine’s central city of Kremenchuk in June that officials said killed more than 20 people.

The deadliest attack involving civilians before Saturday was an April 9 strike on a train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk that left at least 52 people dead, according to The Associated Press-Frontline War Crimes Watch project.

In Moscow, a makeshift memorial to the Dnipro attack’s victims appeared in front of an apartment building, an unusual act in Russia, where even a hint of criticism of the government’s “special military operation” in Ukraine is often suppressed. Amid snow, flowers and toy stuffed animals were laid at the monument of prominent Ukrainian writer Lesya Ukrainka, along with a photo of the destroyed building and a sign that read in Russian: “Dnipro. 14.01.2023.”

Attacks on civilians have helped stiffen international support for Ukraine as it battles to fend off the Kremlin’s invasion. The winter has brought a slowdown in fighting, but military analysts say a new push by both sides is likely once the weather improves.

Underscoring Russia’s growing military needs, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that the country’s military would increase the number of troops from 1.15 million to 1.5 million in the coming years.

As part of the buildup, the military will form an army corps in the northwestern region of Karelia, near Finland, as well as three new motorized infantry and two airborne divisions. The military will also beef up seven motorized infantry brigades into divisions.

On the side of Ukraine, the top U.S. military officer, Army Gen. Mark Milley, traveled to the Ukraine-Poland border on Tuesday to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart for the first time. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, in southeastern Poland. On Monday, Milley visited troops from Ukraine training at a military base in Germany under U.S. commanders.

Aid is also on the way from the Netherlands. Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Tuesday in Washington that his country plans to “join” the U.S. and Germany’s efforts to train and arm Ukraine with advanced Patriot missile defense systems.

It remains unclear if the Dutch will ultimately send Patriot systems, although Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday that the Netherlands had agreed to send Ukraine a battery of the equipment. “So, there are now three guaranteed batteries. But this is only the beginning. We are working on new solutions to strengthen our air defense,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian troops are at Oklahoma’s Fort Sill Army base learning how to operate and maintain the Patriot, the most advanced surface-to-air missile system the West has pledged to provide to Ukraine to help repel Russian aerial attacks.

Ukraine’s first lady was doing her part Tuesday to help. She pressed world leaders and corporate executives at the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Switzerland to exercise their influence against a Russian invasion she said is leaving children dying and the world struggling with food insecurity.

As the first anniversary of the war nears, Olena Zelenska said parents in Ukraine are in tears watching doctors trying to save their children, farmers are afraid to return to their fields filled with mines and “we cannot allow a new Chernobyl to happen,” referring to the 1986 nuclear power plant disaster.

“What you all have in common is that you are genuinely influential,” Zelenska told attendees. “But there is something that separates you, namely that not all of you use this influence, or sometimes use it in a way that separates you even more.”

Meanwhile, the head of the U.N. nuclear agency is visiting several of Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants this week to oversee the establishment of a permanent presence of inspectors at each of them to oversee operations and ensure safety.

Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tuesday the missions “will make a very real difference through supporting the Ukrainian operators and regulator in fulfilling their national responsibility of ensuring nuclear safety and security.”

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Jermaine Garnes of West Bloomfield was convicted of murder, neglect resulting in death, aggravated battery resulting in death and battery on a person under 14 resulting in death. The jury returned the verdicts Wednesday.

Garnes and his girlfriend, Crystal Lynn Cox, were both charged in August 2021 in connection with the death of 3-year-old Zeus Cox. The little boy was found dead on a bedroom floor with bruises on his chest, stomach and other areas of his body.

The couple gave police conflicting accounts. Cox said he had fallen on concrete and later ran into a table. Garnes trold police Zeus had fallen off his bike.

Witnesses told police Garnes struck the 3-year-old with his fist.

Cox was found guilty of murder, neglect resulting in death, aggravated battery resulting in death, and battery on a person under 14 resulting in death last May and was sentenced to 53 years in prison.

Garnes’ sentencing has not yet been scheduled.

He said an autopsy shows Cannady and her sons died from hypothermia and their deaths are considered accidental. National Weather Service records show temperatures Saturday night into Sunday morning were in mid-to-low 20s, then high teens, with wind chills falling to 10 degrees.

Bouchard said Cannady has been having severe mental health issues and was frightened that people were trying to kill her, including her family members and police. He said police learned from her surviving daughter that she had instructed her children to run and hide if anyone approached them.

On Saturday, he said, she told her children to lie down in a field to go to sleep. Only the girl woke up. When she couldn’t rouse her family, she took her mother’s coat and walked to a nearby home to ask for help, he said. She told the person who answered the door that her family was dead in the field.

The family wasn’t homeless, Bouchard said, but Cannady’s mental health issues kept her away from her apartment, about a mile from where she and her sons died. He said there’s no indication that drugs played any role in the tragedy but results of the toxicology test will take weeks. The children’s father, Kyle Milton, was shot dead in Nov. 4, 2021.

The trial for the man accused of his murder and another man’s death is currently underway, with closing arguments set for Tuesday.

“This was a mental-health crisis. She had housing. She had a family that cared,” Bouchard said, adding that her family had been trying to arrange in-patient care for Cannady when she disappeared.

Bouchard said once Cannady’s daughter recovers from hypothermia, she’ll be released to the care of family members.

He emphasized the importance of people getting mental health help as soon as possible and for family members to make calls for those who cannot help themselves. Cannady’s family had been making calls, he said, but she refused.

Mayor Tim Greimel urged people to get mental health support when they are in a crisis.

Bouchard, Greimel and others said the deaths were preventable.

“It was preventable if we all communicated with each other,” Bouchard said. “At the point when the family knew a crisis was developing, if they called us or these phone numbers (referring to county resource numbers) then we would have popped up assets to look for the kids and the mom. We would have known it was something more than just maybe somebody was walking down the street who didn’t have a coat on.”

When police were alerted by neighbors that they’d spotted a woman and some children not dressed for the weather, deputies were unable to find any trace of them. Signs in the area say there are cameras watching the land, but Bouchard said he’s not aware of any cameras there.

This neighborhood on Pontiac’s southside just north of Crystal Lake could be called peaceful or desolate. Monday morning, only the sound of birds interrupted the quiet as a small white dog wandered placidly across a few lawns. The street signs at the corner were gone, but the pole remains. Trash litters the street, with garbage bags and old tires dumped just outside the Lakeside property fence. Even the fence is damaged, leaving a wide opening to the uncultivated land.

It’s desolate, said two women standing outside their family home smoking cigarettes early Monday morning, a few doors away from the old Lakeside property. One had wrapped a blanket over her clothes as insulation from the 19-degree wind chill. Frost covered car windows, grass and trees, even as the sun rose. Neither woman wanted to be named, but they talked about seeing police cars converge at the corner on Monday. They expressed sorrow at not being able to help the family.

“I wish they would have knocked on our door. We have the brightest light here,” said the woman in the blanket, gesturing to a spotlight above the garage doors. She would like to see some action from city officials to clean up the Lakeside property – at least to cut down the trees and brush, which make the site attractive to homeless people and others. The women aren’t thrilled about a small grove of saplings on the northeast corner of Branch and Gillespie, because in a few years, they said, that will also become a magnet for people looking for shelter.

The incident happened in Councilwoman Melanie Rutherford’s district, on the city’s south side. She called the situation tragic and personal. As a younger, pregnant woman, Rutherford faced sleeping outside in cold weather. But she was able to get into a shelter and the next day workers there helped her find a home and benefits so she could get groceries and other supplies.

People now have fewer resources, Rutherford said.

“We absolutely need to address affordable housing, homelessness and mental health,” she said. “We absolutely need to protect the most-vulnerable people in our community.”

She said a tragedy like Monica Cannady and her sons’ deaths must never be allowed to happen again.

“We have to have this hard conversation. Now. Or somebody else is going to die,” she said.

Black women are often hesitant to ask for help, because of what she called “strong Black woman syndrome,” which prevents Black women in particular from admitting their vulnerability in a crisis. She wants to see the stigma attached to mental illness erased.

Like Rutherford, Councilman Mikal Goodman said he is distraught by the deaths, which he also called preventable.

“No person should be dying from exposure, and by extension any form of housing or shelter insecurity, when we have so many resources at our collective disposal,” he said. “There were multiple failures that lead up to this, and we need to figure out what they are so we can fix them so that this does not happen again.”

Bouchard said the county has a lot of programs, including Coats for the Cold, and deputies typically carry mittens or gloves to hand out when they spot people in need.

“We didn’t have it on our radar about a particular mom or three kids or a crisis,” he said.

Society is replete with people suffering from anxiety, depression and other mental-health challenges, he said.

“It takes strength to ask for help, it’s not weakness,” Bouchard said. “If it’s encouraged and if we have more mental-health resources available to everybody, I think it will go a long way.”

For now, he said, police respond daily to suicides and overdoses.

“Oftentimes, overdoses are self-medication. Basically we’re seeing death every day as a result of the mental-health crisis in this country,” he said, adding that police are challenged with the mental health crisis both in their daily work and in their personal lives

Increased funding for mental health services from state and federal agencies would help, he said, pointing to a $1.3 million cut from his office’s annual budget two years ago. Last year, he said, he added two positions dedicated to community mental health services. One is a license mental health worker to works with deputies when they go on crisis calls. The other is a peer-support deputy to work with sheriff’s office employees.

For help with non-emergency access to mental health support, call (248) 464-6363; for customer service, call (800) 341-2003. Anyone can call the customer service line for themselves or others, he said. Crisis services are available and that includes Common Ground.

Kristin Blevins manages Common Ground’s mobile crisis team, which connects people throughout the county to help. Offices are open around the clock at 1200 N. Telegraph, Building 32E in Pontiac. Clinicians can do mental health assessment and referrals. The crisis help line is (800) 231-1127.

The mobile unit can meet people in crisis where they are at, she said, adding that they also operate a crisis unit,, where a person can stay up to two weeks, as well as a behavioral health urgent care.

“However we can help, we would love to be there for someone who is in crisis,” she said, explaining that if a person feels they are in a mental-health crisis, that is considered valid and will be supported. People concerned about family members can also call or visit Common Ground offices to get support.

She said it can be tricky to navigate the mental health system, and Common Ground tries to simplify the process and help people connect to the right resources.

Family members have started a GoFundMe account to help with hospital bills and funeral expenses:https://www.gofundme.com/f/k84zv7-50000?qid=f7788c166d4ce737985b25716581b7d2.

Aileen Wingblad contributed to this story.

A family member told TMZ that Harris was taken to a hospital via ambulance but died following a suspected heart attack on Sunday in Jasper, Alabama.

Harris placed sixth in ‘Idol’ season 13 — which aired on Fox in 2014 — giving his takes on Darius Rucker’s “Radio,” John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change,” and Ray LaMontagne’s “Shelter,” among his other performances on the show.

“You sing ‘cause you have to sing, not ‘cause you want to sing,” ‘Idol’ judge Keith Urban told Harris during the competition. ‘And I mean that in the deepest way. And that’s why it’s so believable and real.”

Harris followed his ‘American Idol’ run with a performance with Rucker at the Grand Ole Opry and an ‘Idol’ concert tour with other season 13 contestants.

“I grew up in the church, playing gospel music and singing in the choir. I guess I was a little nervous to go on ‘Idol,’ because I didn’t know if I was prepared. I didn’t have the training,” Harris told AL.com in 2015. “Now, when I get on stage in front of these crowds, it doesn’t matter if I have my eyes closed. I don’t have to keep a camera view. I can calm down, relax and be myself. Ever since I was a little boy, I wanted to see those lights on stage. Every time I get into my bed right after a show, I still can’t believe I’ve been on stage. I’m having a lot more fun than I did on the TV show.”

The singer remained active on social media before his death, posting a selfie to Twitter on Sunday and sharing a TikTok video of himself performing The Fray’s “How to Save a Life” in late December.

“When I’m behind the microphone, I let everything go and let the music flow through me,” Harris previously wrote in his Facebook bio, per AL.com. “My friends, family, and fans have always supported me and always had my back, and I can never repay them for the love they have shown me.”

It was the first time the two men had ever spoken. They’d chosen drastically different lives since that night in 1998, and when they met on that day in October 2021, Nelson had just left prison. Roberts, by then, was working with the Denver Police Department’s victim assistance unit.

Roberts found Nelson thanks to a random Facebook post. But Roberts wanted more than just to reconnect.

If they could build a relationship, he thought, telling their story could help young people who are at risk of being drawn into gun violence to make a better decision — for reconciliation over vengeance. Nelson, for his part, wanted to show them it’s possible to leave gangs and live a productive life.

There are only two places people in gangs wind up, he said: the grave or the penitentiary.

“I want them to see that change is possible,” he said. “Everybody is scared of change, but you have to do it if you want to go forward in the world.”

On Monday, the two men stood in front of a group of teenagers and, for the first time publicly, share their story. Their message comes as an increasing number of young people die in gun homicides every year. Fifteen teenagers were shot and killed in Denver in 2022 — nearly double the number of teens killed in 2019, when the mayor called youth gun violence an epidemic and convened city leaders to address the problem.

Roberts could have become a statistic like that. Or he could have sought out Nelson for revenge. Instead, he found his way to forgiveness.

“He’s like my brother now,” Roberts said.

Two lives collide in “chaos” of fighting at a party

Both men grew up in Denver in the 1990s, when a wave of gun violence bloodied the city’s streets. Roberts graduated from Overland High School in Aurora, and Nelson, three years younger, attended Denver’s East and South high schools. They didn’t know each other.

On Sept. 11, 1998, their lives intersected.

Nelson, 16 at the time, was invited to a party in Northeast Park Hill. He and his friends were looking for another teen they’d been having problems with — and he was on edge wondering if he’d see him there.

He brought a gun.

When someone at the party played a song about gang life, everyone started throwing their gang signs, Nelson said. Fights broke out and spilled outside.

“It was chaos — period,” Nelson said.

Roberts, then 19, arrived outside shortly before the violence erupted. He was dropping off a friend’s brother at the party. Immediately, he felt like they shouldn’t be there.

He got out of his car to say hi to a few people he recognized when he saw someone he knew, a basketball teammate at East High, about to get into a fight.

Roberts made his way through the crowd to break up the fighting.

As he weaved through the fights, someone hit him and he fell to the ground. He looked up and saw someone walking away. Assuming it was the person who hit him, he stood up, grabbed the man and took him to the ground.

The man Roberts tackled was Nelson, who thought he was about to get jumped.

Nelson fired two shots.

Roberts didn’t realize he’d been hit until he looked at his abdomen. He saw his shirt smoking. He felt the wound with his hand, stuck a finger inside.

“It felt like everything slowed down — time stopped — and then it was complete chaos again,” he recalled.

He asked a friend to help him over to some bushes. If he was going to die, he didn’t want to die in the street.

Instead, police and paramedics arrived and scooped him into an ambulance. He woke up the next morning in the hospital, his mom sitting by his bed. The bullet had pierced his colon.

Despite detectives’ insistence, Roberts couldn’t identify who shot him. He’d never seen Nelson before.

Roberts didn’t even recognize Nelson the next time they saw each other — in the downtown Denver courthouse, when Nelson was to be sentenced for shooting him. Before the hearing, they crossed paths in the bathroom.

“I remember thinking, ‘I wonder what he did?’ ” Roberts said.

It wasn’t until his case was called that Roberts realized the man in the bathroom was the same person who’d shot him. The judge sentenced Nelson to a boot camp program for teens and gave him a six-year suspended prison sentence.

But Nelson struggled to escape the gang life that surrounded him growing up. He spent most of the next two decades in and out of prison, with convictions that included burglary and attempting to escape. All told, 15 years locked up.

He said he realized during his most recent stint in prison that he was just spinning his wheels.

“I got tired of just living my life revolving around what other people think and other people believe,” he said. “I just woke up one day, and that was it. I gave everything up. I couldn’t do it anymore.”

Nelson was paroled and released from prison on Sept. 21, 2021.

“Tired of being angry,” Roberts forgives Nelson

Recovery from the shooting wasn’t easy for Roberts. For three months after Nelson shot him, he walked with a cane. He lost significant weight because the injury to his colon made it difficult for him to eat.

But by January 1999, he was returning to normal.

He stayed in Denver, working in human services roles in Denver Public Schools and for nonprofits. He got married and became a father. And in 2019, he joined the Denver Police Department’s Victim Assistance Unit.

As victim assistance coordinator, Roberts’ job is to build relationships with residents in the East Colfax neighborhood — one of Denver’s neighborhoods most impacted by gun violence.

Occasionally, Roberts thought about Nelson. Once, he saw him in passing at Denver’s Juneteenth celebration. But he didn’t approach.

“I always wondered what his upbringing was, where he came from,” Roberts said. “I wanted to know what he was going through in prison.”

Roberts forgave Nelson years ago, he said.

“I was tired of being angry,” Roberts said. “I had nightmares and PTSD,” or post-traumatic stress disorder. “I was tired of wondering what would happen if we did run into each other.”

Shortly after Nelson was released from prison, Roberts saw Nelson’s name tagged in a Facebook post. He reached out to their mutual connection and asked for Nelson’s phone number.

He thought that if they worked together to tell their story, they could help young people see the possibilities of forgiveness, redemption and change.

When he called, Nelson was eager to help.

“I was like, ‘Whatever you want to do, I’m on board,’ ” Nelson said.

They met for brunch with their wives. Then they kept meeting. They became friends.

Roberts, now 43, introduced Nelson to his family and told them Nelson was the person who shot him. Roberts’ daughter later came up to Nelson and told him she was proud they had become friends.

Everyone had tears in their eyes, said Nelson, 41.

“These stories of forgiveness are so profound,” Ali said. “It lets you know that change is possible. You don’t have to be stuck in a mire of hate.”

At a retreat he hosted last year, Ali asked the 20 teens gathered there how many of them had been affected by suicide or gun violence.

“Every hand went up,” he said. “Even the 13-year-olds.”

Both Nelson and Roberts exemplify uncommon strength, Ali said: Nelson turned his life around after years of street life. Roberts proved that choosing forgiveness instead of revenge can yield unexpected gifts.

On Monday, Ali is hosting another day of mental health and wellness workshops for young people, a program aimed at preventing suicide and gun violence.

Nelson and Roberts plan to be there. They’ll tell their story to the participants — the first time they’ve done so in such a setting.

“Never underestimate the power of forgiveness,” Ali said. “That’s what we want them to walk away with understanding.”

The SEC alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday, Jan. 12, in U.S. District Court that from December 2018 to January 2021, Yossi Engel induced at least 29 individuals to invest in his company, iWitness Tech, LLC by claiming their funds would be used to purchase and install security camera equipment.

Additionally, Engel also allegedly promised that investor funds would be used to purchase property in Israel that would be developed and sold.

“Both of these claims were false,” the SEC said in the suit seeking sanctions and undisclosed civil penalties against Engel. “Rather than use investor money to purchase cameras or develop property, Engel misappropriated the funds by spending investor money for his personal benefit and making Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors in an attempt to keep the scheme going.”

Engel cultivated a reputation in the Orthodox Jewish community as trustworthy, charismatic and generous. According to the SEC, he opened a small synagogue in a room next to his iWitness office where he taught from the Torah, which is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

“Engel, however, exploited the goodwill he engendered through his community activities to engage in a fraudulent securities offering scheme,” says the suit.

When investors asked Engel why he didn’t obtain bank loans for iWitness at a lower interest rate, he allegedly replied that because he was from Israel, he did not have sufficient credit in the United States.

“This was false, and the reason Engel could not obtain bank financing was because his businesses were not real,” states the suit.

Investors typically sent money to Engel and iWitness by wire or check. In some instances, Engel told investors to wire funds to another investor, who would provide them with payments, according to the SEC.

“Most iWitness investors did not question this flow of funds, but the ones who did were told that they needed to send money via the third party because the third party was capable of changing money in Israel at lower rates than the banks,” the suit says. “This was another falsehood.”

A group of investors allegedly was brought into the scheme by a person identified in the suit as “Individual A,” who was unaware of the fraud and believed the investments would be beneficial to his friends.

Individual A, who ultimately lost more than $700,000 of his own money, is now repaying investors more than $5.7 million because of the guarantees that he signed with them, says the suit.

Beginning in December 2018, Engel allegedly represented to existing and potential investors that he needed capital to purchase cameras and other equipment for iWitness, and would pay their investment returns from installation fees.

He allegedly offered at least one investor multiple variations on this deal, for different camera installation jobs, with investments ranging from $50,000 to $180,000, and rates of return of 10% to 20%.

However, in reality, iWitness’ camera installation business was never profitable and over five years worked on projects worth $10,000 to $20,000 for only 20 to 30 customers, says the suit.

The SEC alleges Engel also created an illusion of profitability by using investor funds to pay for office rent, cars and payroll.

“Engel’s representations about iWitness’ operations and the source of investor returns, and the appearance of iWitness as a profitable, ongoing business, were all material to investors’ decisions to invest in iWitness,” the suit says.

In April 2020, Engel allegedly began pitching a new investment scheme.

He allegedly told investors he had a special relationship with the mayor of Bnei Brak, a town in Israel with a high concentration of Orthodox residents, that enabled him to fast-track the development of units in apartment buildings that would be sold slightly below market, generating a quick profit.

In connection with this pitch, Engel sent investors and potential investors videos and pictures of an apartment building in Israel, a video of him sitting in the office of Bnei Brak’s mayor, and copies of land registrar documents, the suit states.

However, Engel later admitted there were no investment properties and he knew the land investment scheme was “based on lies,” the SEC said. The videos Engel sent investors were allegedly of apartments where he had once lived. Additionally, the video of Beni Brak’s mayor, with whom he did not share a special relationship, was taken when he simply stopped by the mayor’s office to say hello, the suit says.

Engel allegedly sent more than $2.5 million to currency exchangers in Israel, and he withdrew $861,000 in cash. Engel also spent $56,880 at casinos and to fly on private jets at least twice.

At the end of December 2020, his scheme collapsed. Engel, who had been urging investors to roll over their investments or agree to additional time for repayment, was unable to solicit additional investments to cover his obligations, and he fled the United States to Israel.

“After a flurry of emails in which he apologized for ruining people’s lives due to his ‘sickness,’ he briefly returned and, during that time, he met with some investors who were attempting to salvage their losses,” the suit said.

Engel eventually signed a notarized statement in February 2021 admitting to securities fraud, and participated in a recorded meeting with several investors a month later in which he admitted running a Ponzi scheme, said the SEC.

Engel told investors he would try to pay them back at that time, but has not returned to the United States, according to the suit.

A former Republican New Mexico House of Representatives candidate — who, police say, claimed election fraud after his defeat — was arrested by an Albuquerque SWAT team Monday in connection with a string of recent shootings that damaged homes of local Democratic elected leaders, city police said.

Solomon Peña, who lost his 2022 run for state House District 14, is accused of paying and conspiring with four men to shoot at the homes of two state legislators and two county commissioners, Albuquerque police said.

“It is believed he is the mastermind” behind the shootings that happened in December and early January, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said in a news conference.

CNN has reached out to Peña’s campaign website for comment and has been unable to identify his attorney.

Before the shootings, Peña in November — after losing the election — had approached one of the legislators and some county commissioners at their homes with paperwork that he said indicated fraud was involved in the elections, police said.

The investigation confirmed “these shootings were indeed politically motivated,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said Monday.

“At the end of the day, this was about a right-wing radical, an election denier who was arrested today and someone who did the worst imaginable thing you can do when you have a political disagreement, which is turn that to violence,” said Keller, a Democrat. “We know we don’t always agree with our elected officials, but that should never, ever lead to violence.”

The stewing of doubt about election veracity, principally among Republicans and usually without proof, has exploded nationwide since then-President Donald Trump lost his reelection bid and began propagating falsehoods the 2020 presidential election was stolen. The claims have stoked anger — and unapologetic threats of violence — against public officials down to the local level.

Peña will face charges related to four shootings: a December 4 incident at the home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa; a December 8 shooting at the home of incoming state House Speaker Javier Martinez; a December 11 shooting at the home of then-Bernalillo Commissioner Debbie O’Malley; and a January 3 shooting at the home of state Sen. Linda Lopez, police said in a news release.

In the latest shooting, police found evidence “Peña himself went on this shooting and actually pulled the trigger on at least one of the firearms that was used,” Albuquerque police Deputy Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock said. But an AR handgun he tried to use malfunctioned, and more than a dozen rounds were fired by another shooter from a separate handgun, the police statement said.

The department is still investigating whether those suspected of carrying out the shootings were “even aware of who these targets were or if they were just conducting shootings,” Hartsock added.

“Nobody was injured in the shootings, which resulted in damage to four homes,” an Albuquerque police news release said.

5 people tied to conspiracy, police say

During the fall campaign, Peña’s opponent, Democratic state Rep. Miguel Garcia, sued to have Peña removed from the ballot, arguing Peña’s status as an ex-felon should prevent him from being able to run for public office in the state, CNN affiliate KOAT reported. Peña served nearly seven years in prison after a 2008 conviction for stealing a large volume of goods in a “smash and grab scheme,” the KOAT report said.

“You can’t hide from your own history,” Peña told the outlet in September. “I had nothing more than a desire to improve my lot in life.”

A district court judge ruled Peña was allowed to run in the election, according to KOAT. He lost his race to Garcia, 26% to 74%.

“After the election in November, Solomon Peña reached out and contracted someone for an amount of cash money to commit at least two of these shootings. The addresses of the shootings were communicated over phone,” Hartsock said Monday, citing the investigation. “Within hours, in one case, the shooting took place at the lawmaker’s home.”

Firearm evidence, surveillance video, cell phone and electronic records and witnesses in and around the conspiracy aided the investigation and helped officials connect five people to this conspiracy, Hartsock said.

Detectives served search warrants Monday at Peña’s apartment and the home of two men allegedly paid by Peña, police said in the statement, adding Peña did not speak with detectives.

Officers arrested Peña on suspicion of “helping orchestrate and participate in these four shootings, either at his request or he conducted them personally, himself,” Hartsock added.

Police last week announced they had a suspect in custody and had obtained a firearm connected to one of the shootings at homes of elected officials. A car driven at one of the shooting scenes was registered to Peña, the department said.

“Detectives no longer believe the shootings are connected to reports of shots fired near a campaign office of the Attorney General, nor the law office of a state senator,” the news release states.

‘Processing this attack (is) incredibly heavy’

“I am very relieved — and so is my family. I’m very appreciative of the work the police did,” O’Malley told CNN on Monday evening. O’Malley and her husband had been sleeping on December 11 when more than a dozen shots were fired at her home in Albuquerque, she said.

Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa discovered the gunshots at her home after returning from Christmas shopping, she said.

“It was terrifying. My house had four shots through the front door and windows, where just hours before my grandbaby and I were playing in the living room,” Barboa said in a statement. “Processing this attack continues to be incredibly heavy, especially knowing that other women and people of color elected officials, with children and grandbabies, were targeted.”

State House Speaker Javier Martinez, whose home also was shot at, is grateful a suspect is in custody, he told CNN in a statement. “We have seen far too much political violence lately and all of these events are powerful reminders that stirring up fear, heightening tensions, and stoking hatred can have devastating consequences,” he said.

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In a statement Monday, the White House said the president will visit with first responders, state and local officials, and communities impacted by the recent extreme weather; survey recovery efforts; and assess what additional federal aid is needed.

California has been hit by nine atmospheric rivers since Christmas. Across the state, the storms have killed at least 20 people and caused at least $1 billion in damage.

Biden on Saturday declared that a major disaster exists in California and ordered federal aid to supplement state, tribal and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe winter storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides beginning on Dec. 27 and continuing.

Funding is now available to residents of Santa Cruz, Sacramento and Merced counties.

In a separate statement, the White House said assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help people and businesses recover from the effects of the disaster.

Check back for updates.

House Republicans have been demanding that the White House turn over all information related to misplaced classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president, including any visitors logs to Biden’s private residence and who might have had access to his private office in Washington, DC, where the first batch of documents were discovered in early November.

“Like every President across decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” the counsel’s office said in a statement Monday morning. “But upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitors logs, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration ended them.”

Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the US Secret Service, said the agency also does not independently maintain visitor logs for Biden’s home in Wilmington. The agency provides security for the property, and screens visitors before they arrive to Biden’s home, but does not maintain records of those visitors. Biden and his staff determine who is permitted onto the property.

Guglielmi said the Secret Service does not independently maintain visitor logs at the Wilmington home because it is a “private residence.”

The announcement on Saturday was the third time in less than a week that the White House was forced to acknowledge a batch of classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president had been found at a personal property — first an office space in Washington, DC, and then in the Wilmington home.

CNN previously reported that the classified material found in Biden’s private office included some top secret files with the “sensitive compartmentalized information” designation, which is used for highly sensitive information obtained from intelligence sources. Those documents included US intelligence memos and briefing materials that covered topics including Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The White House announced over the weekend that it had discovered five additional pages of classified documents at Biden’s Wilmington home on Thursday. The White House counsel’s office said it would be referring all future questions to the special counsel’s office.

In a letter addressed to White House chief of staff Ron Klain, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, asked for more documents and communications related to the searches of Biden’s homes and other locations by the president’s aides for classified documents, as well as visitors logs of the president’s Wilmington home from January 20, 2021 to present.

“It is troubling that classified documents have been improperly stored at the home of President Biden for at least six years, raising questions about who may have reviewed or had access to classified information,” Comer wrote in the letter. “As Chief of Staff, you are head of the Executive Office of the President and bear responsibility to be transparent with the American people on these important issues related to the White House’s handling of this matter.”

The White House labeled the Republican investigations as “shamelessly hypocritical” compared to their approach to former President Donald Trump’s possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago in his post-White House years.

“House Republicans have no credibility. Their demands should be met with skepticism and they should face questions themselves about why they are politicizing this issue and admitting they actually do not care about the underlying classified material,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said.

More searches for documents possible at locations connected to Biden, sources tell CNN

Additional searches of other locations connected to Biden could be undertaken for presidential records and any classified material from his time as vice president that need to be returned to the federal government, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Biden’s team has searched a private office in Washington, DC, and his two Delaware homes — three locations where the White House said files may have been shipped during his 2017 transition out of office — turning up about 20 classified documents.

Sources say more searches are possible, but it’s unclear who would conduct them or where they would take place. While sources did not provide other potential locations, Biden has used other office spaces, and his family had rented another home in northern Virginia.

So far, Biden’s private attorneys and White House special counsel Richard Sauber, who has a security clearance, have handled the searches. Justice Department officials also accompanied Sauber last week to take possession of five more pages marked classified that were discovered at the Wilmington house after an initial search.

But the pace of searches by Biden’s team became a source of consternation for the US attorney’s office in Chicago that originally looked into the matter, a source close to the investigation tells CNN.

John Lausch, the US attorney there, was tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland less than two weeks after Biden’s personal attorneys discovered the first batch of documents. Lausch did not request searches of additional locations after that discovery, according to the source, nor did he conduct his own searches or use a grand jury during his review. Instead, Biden’s lawyers decided on their own to search Biden’s Delaware homes, the source said.

When that process took several weeks, Lausch did not wait for Biden’s team to complete its search of the Delaware residences before recommending that Garland appoint a special counsel to take over the investigation. Lausch briefed the attorney general multiple times before officially recommending a special counsel on January 5. Garland appointed Robert Hur to that role last week.

Many of those details in the timeline of recent events were released by the Justice Department. Sources tell CNN that Justice officials decided to provide the information after the White House released information in dribs and drabs, creating confusion and mistrust.

While some Republicans are crying foul, saying Trump was treated differently because FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago last August, that step followed months of Trump’s team stonewalling and failing to turn over documents sought by the National Archives.

Moreover, the Trump investigation is looking at potential obstruction, in part because after the former president’s lawyers attested that all classified documents had been returned, investigators obtained evidence indicating that wasn’t the case and surveillance video of boxes being moved from a storage room the Trump team had promised to secure.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

NEW YORK (AP) — Officials are investigating a close call at a New York airport Friday night between a plane that was crossing a runway and another that was preparing for takeoff.

“(Expletive)! Delta 1943, cancel takeoff clearance! Delta 1943, cancel takeoff clearance!” an air controller said in an audio recording of Air Traffic Control communications when he noticed the other plane, operated by American Airlines, crossing in front. The recording was made by LiveATC, a website that monitors and posts flight communications.

Delta Air Lines’ departing Boeing 737 plane then came to a safe stop on the John F. Kennedy International Airport runway as the other crossed in front around 8:45 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

Brian Healy, a passenger on the Delta flight, said at first he thought the abrupt stop was a mechanical issue.

“There was this abrupt jerk of the plane, and everyone was sort of thrust forward from the waist,” he recalled. “There was an audible reaction when the brakes happened, like a gasp. And then there was a total silence for a couple of seconds.”

Healy, who was traveling with his husband for their winter getaway to the Dominican Republic, said it wasn’t until he was scrolling on Twitter the next day that he realized the gravity of what could have happened on that runway.

“The pilot made the call to only share information on a need-to-know basis, and that was absolutely the right call, because it would’ve been pandemonium,” he said.

John Cox, a retired pilot and professor of aviation safety at the University of Southern California, said he thought the controller “made a good call to reject the takeoff.”

He said the rejected takeoff safety maneuver, which is when pilots stop the aircraft and discontinue the takeoff, is one they are “very, very familiar with.”

“Pilots practice rejected takeoff almost every time they get to the simulator,” he said.

The Delta plane stopped about 1,000 feet (about 0.3 kilometers) from where the American Airlines plane had crossed from an adjacent taxiway, according to the FAA statement.

The plane returned to the gate, where the 145 passengers deplaned and were provided overnight accommodations, a Delta spokesperson said. The flight to Santa Domingo Airport in the Dominican Republic took off Saturday morning.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Saturday that it will investigate.

The National Transportation Safety Board also said it was looking into the case.

“They’ll go back and listen to every transmission between the American jet and air traffic control to see who misunderstood what,” Cox said.

“Delta will work with and assist aviation authorities on a full review of flight 1943 on Jan. 13 regarding a successful aborted takeoff procedure at New York-JFK. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and delay of their travels,” a Delta spokesperson said in a statement.

American Airlines would not comment on the incident and said it would defer all questions to the FAA.

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This story was first published on January 15, 2023. It was updated on January 16, 2023 to correct the misspelling of the last name of one of the passengers. The correct spelling of his full name is Brian Healy, not Brian Heale.

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Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Maysoon Khan on Twitter.