While some homes and businesses near the quake’s epicenter were damaged, there were no reports of deaths, officials said. About 200 miles away in Mexico City, where an earthquake early warning system sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing into the streets for safety Friday, only minor damage was reported.
With Bridgeport draped in blue Saturday to honor slain Chicago police Cmdr. Paul Bauer, the city laid the fallen officer to rest with stories of his selflessness and harsh words for the man charged with his murder.
Thousands attended the funeral at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church, where the two-hour service and subsequent procession combined for one of most impressive — and stately — civic farewells in recent memory. Elected officials, department brass and rank-and-file officers from across North America filled the cavernous sanctuary on the South Side, while the Dan Ryan Expressway was closed so hundreds of police vehicles could lead the hearse carrying Bauer’s flag-draped casket to a suburban cemetery.
The mourners were comforted throughout the day by the Bridgeport community, which tied blue ribbons around trees and hung the commander’s photo in storefront windows. Some residents brought doughnuts and coffee to officers standing outside the church in frigid temperatures, while others opened their homes for them to warm up or use the bathroom.
Bridgeport residents Erica and Gerardo Avitia brought their two daughters, 3 and 2, to watch the funeral procession. Holding signs with Bauer’s picture on them, the couple said they wanted to show their support for the city and its grief-stricken Police Department.
“There’s not too many things that unite this city,” Erica Avitia said as she held one of her girls. “This is someone who stood up for values and morals. We’re here to support his family, and the men and women who do this every day.”
To be sure, support for the Chicago Police Department served as a common thread throughout the day. Eulogists repeatedly referred to the department’s heartbroken ranks, and the funeral’s officiant went so far as to say the law did not do enough to protect law-enforcement officers like Bauer.
“Paul did not give his life. His life was taken,” said the Rev. Dan Brandt, who serves as the Police Department’s chaplain. “He fought for his life, and it was stolen by a four-time convicted felon.”
Bauer, 53, was fatally shot Tuesday after he thrust himself into the pursuit of a felon carrying a gun outside the Thompson Center, authorities said.
Shomari Legghette is being held without bond on charges of first-degree murder of a peace officer, armed violence, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and two counts of possession of a controlled substance. According to prosecutors, Legghette’s extensive criminal history includes convictions in two drug cases, a gun offense, a misdemeanor battery and an armed robbery in the late 1990s in which he and a co-defendant robbed two people at gunpoint before leading police on a high-speed expressway chase. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison for that offense.
He was last paroled from prison in August 2016 after completing a two-year sentence for drug possession, prison officials said.
In a hard-line homily, Brandt likened Legghette to a leper, saying he should have been segregated from society long before the shooting. Jesus had compassion for lepers, but they were still kept from the public during biblical times, he said.
Bauer “encountered the leprosy of our society: one who did spend time away from the camp … in prison … in isolation because of a violent past,” Brandt said. “One who should have never have been out in society, but who was due to a broken system, a system that Paul himself very publicly and loudly spoke out against.”
The comment drew strong applause and a collective “amen” from mourners watching from an overflow room in the church basement.
The rest of the funeral — the city’s first for a slain police officer in more than six years — followed in a more traditional vein, with speakers paying tribute to Bauer’s service and sacrifice. He was remembered as an unassuming kid from Gage Park who wanted to protect his city, an understanding supervisor who cared about the people under his command and a high-ranking official who remained a patrolman at heart.
Indeed, Bauer, who had long ago been promoted above the riskier responsibilities of a street cop, had no official obligation to enter the scuffle with Legghette, authorities said.
“Those who served under him felt like they served alongside him,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a eulogy that often left the hard-boiled politician struggling to maintain his composure.
The traditional Catholic service included several personal stories about Bauer, whose dedication to his family and community has been well-documented in the days since his death. He walked his daughter to school each day, made sure wounded veterans had the best spots for viewing at the annual Air and Water Show, and declined to attend his own promotion ceremony because he disliked the spotlight.
A few days before his death, he purchased a snowblower so he could clear the sidewalks on his block.
“He was a man of faith, and he lived like a man of faith,” said Capt. Mel Roman, who worked closely with Bauer at the Near North District.
Officers patrolling Lower Wacker Drive because of a recent shooting and drug sales approached Legghette on Tuesday afternoon, but he bolted when an officer stepped out of his police vehicle, identified himself as an officer and approached him, authorities said.
The officer gave chase on foot and radioed a description. Bauer, downtown for a meeting with aldermen after attending training for mass shootings earlier in the day, was on duty and in uniform in his police vehicle at Lake and Clark streets when he heard the radio call of a fleeing suspect. Moments later, Bauer saw Legghette running nearby, got out of his vehicle and ran after him.
Bauer chased down Legghette at the top of the stairwell outside the Thompson Center and attempted to detain him, authorities said. But the two struggled, ending up on a landing below. The skirmish continued there. Legghette drew a handgun and fired seven shots, fatally wounding Bauer, prosecutors said.
Bauer’s weapon was still holstered. His police radio and handcuffs were found next to his body.
A few days before his death, Bauer and his family attended a special Mass in memory of fallen police officers. The commander did one of the Bible readings that morning because his 13-year-old daughter, Grace, who typically handled the duties, had a sore throat.
On Saturday, the remarkably composed teen gave the first reading at her father’s funeral. She read from the Book of Isaiah, speaking in a clear, strong voice.
“Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life,” the passage reads.
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A pair of disturbances taking shape in the south-central U.S. will come together during the day Saturday and accelerate toward the Northeast bringing a quick hit of snow to major I-95 cities from Philadelphia to Boston.
Winter storm warnings have been issued for parts of New Jersey through southern Massachusetts, including Manhattan and the Bronx. Coastal areas, such as Staten Island, Brooklyn, parts of Queens, Long Island and Cape Cod have a winter storm watch due to the uncertainty of how much warm air will inhibit snowfall accumulation.
The storm begins to take shape later Saturday with snow arriving into parts of the Northeast in the early evening hours. The Rapid Precision Mesoscale (RPM) forecast model is currently showing snow falling in Philadelphia and New York City as early as 5 to 7 p.m. The storm is moving quickly though, with only about six to 10 hours of accumulating snowfall expected.
Right now, the highest uncertainty is along the coast from New Jersey to Massachusetts. The storm is currently forecast to track close to shore and keep those areas too warm to see rapidly accumulating snow.
By sunrise on Sunday, the storm is already moving offshore, with only a few snow showers remaining in parts of New England.
The current snowfall forecast for much of the I-95 corridor area from Philadelphia to Boston is generally 2 to 5 inches of snow. North and west of the major cities have the best chance for the exceeding and meeting the higher end of that snowfall range. Areas southeast of the major cities will see the lower end of that range.
Ultimately, the snowfall accumulation will be determined by the exact track of the storm, relatively warm ground temperatures and near-freezing temperatures. If the storm nudges just a little closer to the coast than the present forecast, the snow will not accumulate in the I-95 corridor. If the storm nudges just a little south and east, the heftier snows could accumulate in New York City, as well as many coastal regions.
Whatever snow does fall will not be sticking around. Temperatures are going to quickly warm up this week across the eastern U.S.
On Tuesday, daily records are possible across much of the eastern U.S. with many locations all the way into the mid-Atlantic reaching 70 degrees or higher.
A potent winter storm is also currently heading into the Northwest. It will bring heavy rain along the Northwest coast, and heavy snow to the hills and mountains of the northwest and northern Rockies.
In Washington, winds up to 50 mph or higher are expected Saturday. Heavy mountain snow, including the mountain passes in the Cascades, are expected through Sunday. Totals will range up to 3 feet in some parts of Washington by Sunday afternoon.
The storm will bring a swath of snow to the northern Rockies. Blizzard like conditions are expected in parts of Idaho and Monday by Saturday night and Sunday.
Some of the snow also will break off and head toward the Northern Plains, including Rapid City, South Dakota, and Duluth, Minnesota. The potential for snow will bring potentially dangerous travel on Sunday from Wyoming to Minnesota.
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In a statement released Friday, Abbe D. Lowell, Mr. Kushner’s lawyer, declined to say whether his client would still have a security clearance, saying only that “the new policy announced by Mr. Kelly will not affect Mr. Kushner’s ability to continue to do the very important work he has been assigned by the president.”
It was unclear Friday night how Mr. Kushner could do his job without a security clearance, though Mr. Trump, as president, might be able to overrule Mr. Kelly’s process and grant Mr. Kushner the access that he needs. It is also possible that Mr. Kushner’s background review did not begin until after June 1, which could allow him to retain a temporary clearance.
Mr. Kelly’s memo, which was released publicly after Mr. Trump left Washington for a weekend in Palm Beach, Fla., acknowledges that mistakes and shortcomings were exposed by the handling of marital abuse allegations against one of President Trump’s top aides.
“We should — and, in the future, must — do better,” Mr. Kelly wrote in a document addressed to senior White House officials and copied to the directors of the country’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies. The Washington Post first reported the existence of the memo.
In it, Mr. Kelly did not directly address the case of the aide, Rob Porter, who was forced out of his job as the White House staff secretary this month after news reports that his two former wives had claimed physical and emotional abuse by Mr. Porter during their marriages.
The White House has been reeling for more than a week amid shifting explanations of how Mr. Porter was allowed to remain in one of the most sensitive posts there despite the F.B.I.’s discovery months ago of the abuse allegations.
The deepening scandal called into question the administration’s veracity as Republicans and Democrats pressured Mr. Kelly to detail what had happened. The memo does not do that.
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But Mr. Kelly’s pledge of action comes after bipartisan pressure from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who have in recent days demanded that the White House account for Mr. Porter’s case and the broader issue of people without permanent security clearances working at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“The committee is investigating the policies and processes by which interim security clearances are investigated and adjudicated within the executive branch,” Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, wrote this week.
Mr. Kelly said that he was putting into effect changes that would address a failure of communication between the F.B.I. and senior officials in the West Wing — exactly the kind of failure that White House officials have said was responsible in Mr. Porter’s case.
Among the most significant changes, Mr. Kelly ordered that F.B.I. officials would now directly report to the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, any concerns that they uncovered during the background investigations of the president’s top aides.
Mr. Kelly said that would ensure that “critical material will be differentiated from the ordinary volume of communications and delivered quickly and directly to the appropriate person rather than through layers of intermediaries.”
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, had suggested this week that if changes were necessary in the background check process, it was the responsibility of the F.B.I. to make them.
“If changes are thought to be made, that would be made by the law enforcement and intel communities that run that process, not the White House,” Ms. Sanders said Monday.
Mr. Kelly’s memo noted that he met with F.B.I. officials during his review to discuss “their process and our process.” In testimony to lawmakers on Tuesday, Christopher Wray, the F.B.I. director, said that he was “quite confident that in this particular instance, the F.B.I. followed established protocols.”
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White House officials had earlier said that they were unaware of the allegations against Mr. Porter because the F.B.I. had reported their concerns to a security office staffed by career officials who did not communicate to the West Wing.
People familiar with the background check and security clearance process in prior administrations have said that such communication failures would not — and did not — occur previously because of procedures that were in place.
The changes that Mr. Kelly has ordered suggest that the process for reviewing background investigations and deciding about security clearances had all but broken down during the first year of the Trump administration.
He said that the White House should “develop and implement written protocols governing the review of security files,” suggesting that such written guidelines did not exist.
Mr. Kelly said that the F.B.I. should communicate “significant derogatory information” about a White House employee in 48 hours — an admission that it has taken much longer than that since Mr. Trump became president.
In the future, Mr. Kelly wrote, access to “certain highly classified information” will be kept from people with only interim security clearances unless they receive “explicit” approval from his office, and then only “in the most compelling circumstances.”
That is an admission that too much highly classified information has been shared with Trump administration officials in the White House who had not received permanent security clearances.
Mr. Kelly’s memo makes clear that the White House was aware of shortcomings and concerns with the granting of security clearances several months before Mr. Porter’s case became public this month.
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In September, Mr. Kelly wrote, he ended the practice of granting new interim security clearances without “extraordinary circumstances and my explicit approval.”
He also said that he conducted a review of all White House staff with security clearances, and in some cases reduced the level of clearances for employees who did not need access to classified materials or secret documents.
“I have insisted that we enforce the necessary safeguards and processes to review an individual’s suitability for employment at the White House before that individual begins work,” Mr. Kelly wrote.
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Residents of the Condesa and Roma neighborhoods of Mexico City, which suffered some of the worst damage in September, ran out into the streets in panic, looking up at the buildings as the earthquake warning system went off. Once in the streets, they searched for signs of damage to their buildings.
Last September’s seismic eruption has left people frightened at the slightest tremor, and the tears in the faces of those who endured the last major quake were easy to spot on the streets.
Many could be heard repeating the words “Oh God, not again.”
Video footage from inside the Mexico City newsroom of a daily newspaper, Milenio, showed employees ducking underneath desks as light fixtures swung wildly.
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The initial 7.2-magnitude shock was followed 57 minutes later by a magnitude-5.8 aftershock.
The epicenter of Friday’s earthquake was between those of a magnitude-8.2 quake on Sept. 8 and the 7.1-magnitude quake on Sept. 19. But from a geological standpoint, all three occurred in the same general area — a so-called subduction zone, where one piece of the earth’s crust, in this case the Cocos Plate, is slowly sliding under another, the North American.
Like other subduction zones around the Pacific and elsewhere, this region is the source of many earthquakes, some of them very strong and destructive. The movement of the two plates relative to each other is very slow — about two to three inches a year — but it causes stresses to build, either at the boundary between the two plates or, as was the case with the September quakes, within one of them. At some point the stresses become too much and the rock formations slip, releasing energy as an earthquake.
Shortly after Friday’s quake, the United States Geological Survey released a brief initial analysis, saying that it occurred “on or near” the boundary between the two plates, and about 55 miles north of the Middle America Trench, where the Cocos begins its slide beneath the North America plate.
In addition to local destruction, strong Mexican earthquakes often cause damage in Mexico City — even if, as in this case, the capital is miles away. Mexico City was built on an ancient lake bed, and the sediments of sand and clay amplify the seismic waves as they arrive from the epicenter.
Depending on the amount of energy released, the depth of the epicenter and its distance from Mexico City, the seismic waves from a quake can affect some buildings in the capital more than others. In the Sept. 19 quake, mostly shorter buildings were knocked down. But in a 1985 quake that killed 10,000 people, most of the buildings that were severely damaged or destroyed were six to 16 stories tall.
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Forecasters say some snow could start falling Saturday afternoon, but it is more likely to start Saturday evening and get heavy at times Saturday night.
In many areas, the precipitation might start as rain and then change to snow, said Sarah Johnson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s regional office in New Jersey. As the storm progresses, and warmer air pushes in, the snow will likely mix with sleet and rain in coastal areas and in South Jersey, keeping snowfall accumulations low in those areas.
Most of the precipitation should fall between Saturday evening and the pre-dawn hours on Sunday, and snowfall rates could get close to 1 inch per hour in the heaviest bands, Johnson said. As of now, forecasters are not certain where the heaviest bands will set up, but they are confident it will be a fast-moving storm.
By 5 or 6 a.m. Sunday, the snow and rain should be over, with temperatures rising into the 40s in the afternoon. With temperatures above freezing and the sun expected to be shining, a good amount of snow should melt Sunday afternoon.
The bureau, which was already under considerable political pressure because of its investigation into President Trump, faced calls for even more scrutiny following the massacre.
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Mr. Scott said that Christopher A. Wray, the director of the F.B.I., should step down and that the bureau’s failure to act on the tip about Mr. Cruz was “unacceptable.” “Seventeen innocent people are dead and acknowledging a mistake isn’t going to cut it,” Mr. Scott said in a statement. “The F.B.I. Director needs to resign.”
In an unusually sharp public rebuke of his own agents, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday that the missed warnings had “tragic consequences” and that “the F.B.I. in conjunction with our state and local partners must act flawlessly to prevent all attacks. This is imperative, and we must do better.”
Robert F. Lasky, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I. field office in Miami, said the agency advised the victims’ parents about the misstep in a conference call on Friday.
“We will be looking into where and how the protocol broke down,” he said.
Under clear blue skies on a Friday morning, the first funeral for victims killed in the Florida high school mass shooting was held.
Alyssa Miriam Alhadeff, 14, was remembered for her joy and kindness, traits that had attracted a wide circle of friends. Hundreds of mourners filled the Star of David Funeral Chapel in North Lauderdale, spilling outside.
Among the youngest victims, Alyssa, an honor student and a player for the Parkland soccer club, was buried in the Garden of Aaron at Star of David Memorial Gardens.
Her mother, Lori Alhadeff, urged Alyssa’s friends to stay in touch, but also let their future success be her daughter’s legacy. “Live, breathe for Alyssa,” she said.
At a synagogue just a mile from where she had been gunned down two days before, Meadow Pollack, 18, lay in a plain wooden coffin, closed in accordance with Jewish tradition.
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Before her were hundreds of mourners, seated in row upon row and crowding every wall and corner: her cousins, her classmates, the governor and so many others. She is survived by many family members, including her brothers and her grandmother Evelyn.
Her father stood in a black suit before the crowd.
“How does this happen to my beautiful, smart, loving daughter?” Mr. Pollack said. “She is everything. If we could learn one thing from this tragedy, it’s that our everythings are not safe when we send them to school.”
The room heaved with sobbing teenagers, and mourners wheeled out Ms. Pollack’s coffin, to be buried in a nearby cemetery.
Accompanied by John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, and Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, the Trumps arrived Friday evening at a hospital in Pompano Beach that took in eight of the shooting victims.
The president and Mrs. Trump, visited the Broward Health North Hospital “to pay their respects and thank the medical professionals for their life-saving assistance,” according to a statement related by a White House spokeswoman on Friday evening.
When asked if he met with victims, President Trump said: “Yes, I did. I did indeed.”
“It’s sad something like that could happen,” he said.
Mr. Trump did not respond when he was asked if gun laws needed to be changed. He then walked into another room.
The Trumps, according to the statement, were also scheduled to travel to the Broward County Sheriff’s office to meet with “the law enforcement officials whose bravery helped save lives.”
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On Friday, a number of schools had canceled classes and other activities after receiving unsubstantiated threats.
The authorities were still investigating reports of shots fired on Friday morning at Highline College, about half an hour’s drive south of Seattle, said Capt. Kyle Ohashi, a spokesman for the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority. No physical evidence of a weapons discharge — including shell casings or damage to any structure — had been found, he said. The school said in a statement on Facebook that the situation was cleared about three hours after a lockdown began. Several other agencies, including the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, had also responded.
The Gilchrist County School District in Florida shuttered its schools after receiving an email threat, and the Nutley Public School System in New Jersey also said it would be closed because of a security threat. A high school in Colorado Springs canceled a pep rally.
A school district in Redwater, Tex. decided to close after the superintendent said it received “a rumor about a possible shooter.” And a school in Massachusetts announced it would deploy more police officers and do random security checks throughout the day because of a threatening post on social media.
Schools also wrestled with how to proceed with lockdown drills, which have become as routine as fire drills as students prepare for the possibility of a shooting. Some schools opt to make the drills feel partially authentic — an approach several schools backed off from this week out of fear they would stir already heightened anxieties.
At Dysart High School in El Mirage, Ariz., the principal took extra steps to make sure students knew its previously scheduled drill on Thursday was, in fact, just a drill. The reminder was included in the morning announcements, and she reiterated it on the public address system several times throughout the day, said Zachery Fountain, a district spokesman.
Eureka High School in California postponed its drill that had been scheduled for Thursday, partly because officials were concerned about the mental state of students, said Fred Van Vleck, the district superintendent. Typically, the school doesn’t announce that the lockdown is a drill, telling students only that there could be a drill within a one-week window, he said.
“We determined it was best to allow the teachers the time in the classroom to have the conversations with students, rather than running them through drills at this point,” he said.
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McNeil High School in Austin, Tex., went ahead with its lockdown drill on Friday, but only after an unusual level of communication.
“Normally we would not announce drills to students and parents so the drill is more authentic, however I felt it important to notify our families in advance so as not to cause any fear or panic,” the school’s principal, Courtney Acosta, wrote in an email to parents, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
During the horror at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, Carly Novell, a 17-year-old senior who is an editor for the school’s quarterly magazine, The Eagle Eye, hid in a closet and thought about an awful family tragedy from before she was born. Her mother had told her about how her grandfather had survived a mass shooting in 1949 in Camden, N.J. His family had not made it.
“My grandfather was 12, and his grandma and his mom and dad were killed while he hid in a closet,” Ms. Novell said. “They heard gunshots on the street, so my great-grandma told my grandpa to hide in the closet, so he was safe. But he didn’t have a family after that.”
Interviewed on Thursday, she said: “I was thinking of him while I was in the closet. I was wondering what he felt like while he was there. My mom has told me he was in shock after it, too — that he didn’t remember how he got to the police station, or anything like that. I didn’t forget anything, but I was in shock and I didn’t understand what was going on.”
A gunman armed with a semiautomatic AR-15 assault rifle and “countless magazines” killed at least 17 people at his former high school on Wednesday.
In an orange jumpsuit and shackled around his hands, feet and waist, Mr. Cruz was asked if he understood the circumstances of his appearance in court. “Yes, ma’am,” he whispered.
Nikolas Cruz, shown with a public defender, was ordered to be held in jail without bond.
By SUN SENTINEL VIA REUTERS on Publish Date February 15, 2018.
Photo by Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel, via Associated Press.
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“He’s sad. He’s mournful,” his public defender, Melisa McNeill, said afterward. “He is fully aware of what is going on, and he’s just a broken human being.”
Mr. Weekes, the chief assistant public defender, said lawyers were still trying to piece together the details of Mr. Cruz’s life. He has a “significant” history of mental illness, according to Mr. Weekes, and may be autistic or have a learning disability.
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But Mr. Weekes was not ready to say whether he would pursue a mental health defense.
Howard Finkelstein, the chief public defender in Broward County, said the case would present a difficult question: Should society execute mentally ill people?
“There’s no question of whether he will be convicted of capital murder 17 times,” he said. “When we let one of our children fall off grid, when they are screaming for help in every way, do we have the right to kill them when we could have stopped it?”
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In eight pages of handwritten notes published by the New Yorker, 1998 Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal recalled having sex with Trump in 2006, a few months after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son, Barron.