Seven people missing following fireworks warehouse explosion
Seven individuals are currently unaccounted for following the blast at the storage facility.
The fire at the warehouse, located 40 miles outside Sacramento, continues to burn days after the initial explosion.
Officials issued an evacuation order for residents near the site due to an immediate threat to life, with a one-mile evacuation area remaining in place.
The cause of the explosion is still under investigation by the Esparto Fire Protection District and the State Fire Marshal's Office.
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Telegraph
10 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Bryan Kohberger: The crime student turned cold-blooded murderer
Bryan Kohberger was studying for a Phd in criminology in 2022 when he was accused of butchering four University of Idaho students in their sleep. When the autistic 30-year-old pleaded guilty to the brutal murders on Wednesday, his former professor questioned whether her module on serial killers may have served as inspiration. 'I have to look at the framework of what I taught and wonder, did I inspire him in some way?' Dr Katherine Ramsland, a psychologist at Pennsylvania's DeSales University, told NewsNation. Dr Ramsland, who taught Kohberger during his undergraduate degree said she never observed any 'red flags' about her former student, but conceded psychopaths might be drawn to her area of study. 'Unfortunately, in this field, that's what we live with,' she said. It's a compelling explanation to a case that sent shockwaves through the remote farming community of Moscow, grabbed headlines around the world and set off a nationwide manhunt that lasted for weeks, ending in the arrest of Kohberger. In the years since, a motive for the killings has never been established. Nor has a connection between Mr Kohberger and the victims – Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen – who were stabbed to death at their rental home near campus in the early hours of Nov 13, 2022. With Kohberger's August trial looming, his lawyers' decision to plead guilty, in a last-ditch effort to avoid the death penalty, has left families of the deceased divided, at least some of whom had hoped for their day in court. 'We are beyond furious at the state of Idaho,' the Goncalves family wrote on Facebook. 'They have failed us.' Following Kohberger's arrest, friends were left baffled by how a 'polite', 'curious' Phd candidate from an affluent background could have carried out such a heinous and calculated crime against four complete strangers. 'It's wild,' Jack Baylis, a Pennsylvania friend of Mr Kohberger's at the time, told The New York Times. 'Bryan himself would've been fascinated by it.' But in the weeks after his detention, details of the student's troubled past, involving heroin use and suicidal thoughts, began to surface, painting a picture of a more mentally unstable character. 'I feel like an organic sack of meat with no self worth,' he wrote in 2011, when he was 16, adding: 'As I hug my family, I look into their faces, I see nothing, it is like I am looking at a video game, but less.' The posts were made on an online forum called Tapatalk, where he also professed to experience the 'constant thought of suicide' and a feeling of being able to do 'whatever I want with little remorse'. Mr Kohberger graduated high school in Pennsylvania in 2013, where he was allegedly bullied for his weight (he posted online of having lost half his body weight) and later began using heroin, friends told The New York Times. Messages seen by the newspaper suggested that after attending rehab, he got clean and told a friend in October 2018 that he was interested in studying 'high-profile offenders'. According to a police affidavit, Mr Kohberger applied for an internship with the Police Department in Pullman Washington, where he was living while studying criminology at Washington State University, in the months before he murdered the four students. On the night of the murders, Kohberger slipped into the house via the kitchen's sliding door before climbing to the stairs to the third floor, where he used his seven-inch blade to stab Mogen and Goncalves as they slept alongside each other, according to court documents. He left the room, where he encountered Kernodle, who was awake after picking up a food delivery. After killing her, he went into her bedroom to find, Chapin, her boyfriend, asleep and stabbed him to death. The day of the murders, the two surviving female housemates called the police at around noon to report that one of the victims was unresponsive, presuming they were unconscious. Responders arrived at the three-storey home to find all four victims dead, spread out between the house's bedrooms. Post-mortems showed some of the victims were likely asleep when they were killed, while others showed signs of defensive wounds. One of the surviving housemates, Dylan Mortensen, said she woke up 'a short time' after 4am because she thought she heard Goncalves say: 'There's someone here', according to court documents. Ms Mortensen said she looked out her bedroom door and couldn't see anything, but later thought she heard 'crying' from Kernodle's room before a male voice said: 'It's okay, I'm going to help you.' She said she opened the door again, this time seeing, 'a figure clad in black clothing' with a mask covering their mouth and nose walking toward her. She 'froze' in shock, according to the affidavit, and the person walked past before she locked herself in her room. At 4.20am, Ms Mortensen began frantically calling her housemates. Bethany Funke, the other surviving housemate, replied to her message and the pair exchanged a string of panicked texts in which Ms Mortensen described the figure in a 'ski mask' and said she was 'freaked out'. The next morning, the pair sent more messages to their housemates at 10.20am, but did not get a reply. Shortly before noon, they called 911. As police scrambled for leads in the wake of the murders, they asked for information about a white Hyundai Elantra sedan which passed the home on three occasions on the night of the killings. Authorities eventually learned Kohlberger owned a car of that description which he had driven to his parents home, a gated community in Pennsylvania, in the days afterwards. A search of the house recovered rubbish that matched the DNA to a knife sheath left at the scene, the affidavit said. Online shopping records also showed that Mr Kohberger, months earlier, had purchased a military-style knife matching the sheath, and his claim that he was on a solo drive at the time of the killings did little to absolve him. Most troubling of all, cellphone data and surveillance video showed that Mr Kohberger visited the victims' neighbourhood at least a dozen times before the killings, suggesting he was canvassing his victims. During his detention, Kohberger's lawyers exhausted all avenues to bar the prosecution from seeking the death penalty for his crimes, claiming their client's autism diagnosis diminished his responsibility. Following his guilty plea in exchange for a life sentence, some of the victims' families have expressed relief that they can now 'put this behind us'. But Kohberger's punishment will provide little relief to Goncalves's family, who have demanded a 'full confession' of the events on the night their daughter was killed. 'Bryan Kohberger facing a life in prison means he would still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world,' Goncalves's 18-year-old sister, Aubrie, said. 'Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever. That reality stings more deeply when it feels like the system is protecting his future more than honouring the victims' pasts.'
Daily Mail
19 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Alternate Diddy juror reveals his take on shock verdict that surprised everyone
One of the alternate jurors in Diddy 's bombshell trial has spoken out to say he agrees with the sex-trafficking and racketeering acquittals. George, who only gave his first name to CNN, said that he understood the verdict and 'probably would have reached the same conclusion' as the jury who declared Diddy not guilty of the most serious charges he faced. He explained that jurors were not told who was an alternate and who was in the 12-member final panel until 'the last second,' so he took 350 pages of notes during the seven-week trial. George also described the video evidence he saw of the 'freak offs' at the center of the case against Diddy, who in the end was only convicted of lesser prostitution offenses. The video evidence remained sealed throughout the trial, and only the jury and lawyers got to see it in court. George said the videos shown by Diddy's lawyers mostly showed Cassie 'sitting around.' Those shown by the state showed more sexual activity, he added. However, George said the sexual activity 'did not seem forced.' 'It was actually like pretty tame,' he revealed 'It was just a lot of rubbing oil and stuff... it wasn't anything too graphic.' George also addressed the 2016 video of Diddy assaulting Cassie in a hotel hallway. He said that while it was 'a very bad video,' Diddy was not charged with domestic violence - repeating one of the defense's main arguments in the case. George said in the end the video would not have influenced his conclusion that Diddy is not guilty of sex trafficking or racketeering. The alternate juror's comments come after Diddy was spared life in prison on Wednesday in Manhattan. Diddy dropped to his knees and prayed in the courtroom after he was acquitted Wednesday of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put one of hip-hop's celebrated figures behind bars for life. The rapper was convicted of lesser prostitution-related offenses and denied bail as he awaits sentencing. The mixed verdict capped a sordid legal odyssey that shattered Combs' affable 'Puff Daddy' image and derailed his career as a Grammy-winning artist and music executive, fashion entrepreneur, brand ambassador and reality TV star. 'I'll see you when I get out,' Diddy told family members including his mother and children just before leaving the courtroom to return to jail. 'We're going to get through this.' Diddy stands convicted of two counts of a crime — transportation to engage in prostitution — that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. But jurors cleared him of three charges, two of which carried a mandatory 15 years and a maximum of life. He was convicted of flying people around the country, including his girlfriends and male sex workers, to engage in sexual encounters, a felony violation of the federal Mann Act.
Daily Mail
19 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
ICE spotting app surges to number one on iPhone downloads after White House backlash
A controversial app for tracking ICE agents has become the most downloaded program among iPhone users after the White House publicly denounced it this week. ICEBlock, which launched in April for free, is a community-driven iOS app designed to anonymously report and track US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent sightings in real-time. Modeled after the Waze navigation app for reporting traffic and road hazards, ICEBlock allows users to pin ICE agent locations on a map and add notes within a five-mile radius. The app has recently surged in popularity as deportation raids have increased, prompting US Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to call it an 'obstruction of justice' and claiming it encourages violence against ICE agents. The White House has also lashed out at media organizations like CNN for allegedly promoting the app on their network, claiming that CNN was helping illegal migrants 'sabotage' ICE raids across the country. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said: 'CNN is willfully endangering the lives of officers who put their lives on the line every day and enabling dangerous criminal aliens to evade US law. Is this simply reckless 'journalism' or overt activism?' As the controversy over the app grows, so has the number of people downloading it, with ICEBlock reaching the number one spot in the Apple App Store to start July. As of Monday, ICEBlock had 95,200 users, according to Joshua Aaron, the Texas-based software developer who created the free app. According to NBC News' Ben Goggin, the app skyrocketed in popularity after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt condemned ICEBlock's use to avoid immigration authorities carrying out President Trump's mass deportation order. Apple does not release data on the number of downloads from the App Store; however, the tech giant noted that ICEBlock had soared past other free apps, including WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook. Aaron has described himself on BlueSky as 'Proud Antifa,' a term that's short for 'anti-fascist' and refers to a group of activists who oppose perceived far-right or fascist ideologies, often tying them to the Trump Administration. They are known for their militant tactics, including physical confrontations, doxxing, or disrupting events associated with groups that have opposing political views. Aaron went on to compare the recent ICE raids in major cities like Los Angeles to police tactics used in Nazi Germany. ICE raids have been drawing increased scrutiny in Los Angeles and so-called 'sanctuary cities,' with some civil liberties groups blasting the practice of armed, masked agents surrounding and detaining people on the street and in other public spaces. 'When I saw what was happening in this country, I really just wanted to do something to help fight back,' Aaron told NBC News. The creator of ICEBlock claimed that the app is for information and notification purposes only and is not meant to help people track down and start fights with law enforcement. Despite Aaron's intentions, ICE officials have noted a staggering 500 percent increase in assaults on agents during the Trump Administration's immigration crackdown. Leavitt slammed CNN's coverage of ICEBlock after the rise in assaults was revealed during a White House press briefing this week. 'Surely, it sounds like this would be an incitement of further violence against our ICE officers,' Leavitt said. 'As you stated, there's been a 500% increase in violence against ICE agents, law enforcement officers across the country who are just simply trying to do their jobs and remove public safety threats from our communities,' the press secretary continued. In a post on X, the Department of Homeland Security warned: 'If you obstruct or assault our law enforcement, we will hunt you down and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. CNN has pushed back on claims they are actively promoting the app's usage, writing in a statement that ICEBlock 'is an app that is publicly available to any iPhone user who wants to download it.' 'There is nothing illegal about reporting the existence of this or any other app, or does such reporting constitute promotion or other endorsement of the app by CNN?' the media organization added.
