Here's a look at the top stories for today, Thursday, March 30:
Trump indicted
A lawyer for Donald Trump said Thursday he's been told that the former president has been indicted in New York on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter.
It becomes the first ever criminal case against a former U.S. president and a jolt to Trump’s bid to retake the White House in 2024.
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CDC study: Gun injuries in US surged during pandemic
For every American killed by gunfire, an estimated two or more more survive, often with terrible injuries — a fact that public health experts say is crucial to understanding the full impact of guns on society.
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A new government study highlights just how violent America's recent past has been by showing a surge in gunfire injuries during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the number of people fatally shooting each other — and themselves — also increased.
The number of people injured by gunfire was nearly 40% higher in 2020 and 2021, compared with 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a study published Thursday. In 2022, gun injuries tapered off, but were still 20% higher than before the pandemic.
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Nashville school shooting 911 calls released
The recent Nashville school shooting is a harrowing reminder of just how bad gun violence has become in the US, getting worse pretty much every year. But a report by the CDC reveals that deaths related to guns are now the leading cause of death amongst teens, more than literally anything else. Veuer’s Tony Spitz has the details.
Authorities released 911 recordings on Thursday that capture the terror inside a Nashville elementary school during a mass shooting this week, as callers pleaded for help in hushed voices while sirens, crying and gunfire could be heard in the background.
Police released recordings of three emergency calls made during Monday's attack at The Covenant School, in which three children and three adults were killed.
In one, 76-year-old retired church member Tom Pulliam tells the dispatcher he is with a group of people, including several children, who are walking away from the Christian school toward a main road. Although Pulliam remains calm, the tension and confusion of the situation are clear, with several adults speaking over each other and children’s voices in the background.
When the dispatcher requests a description of the shooter, Pulliam asks a second man to get on the line.
“All I saw was a man holding an assault rifle shooting through the door. It was — he’s currently in the second grade hallway, upstairs” the second man says, noting the assailant was dressed in camouflage and wearing a vest.
Asked about how many shots were fired, a woman responds, “I heard about 10 and I left the building.”
Pulliam, who was with his wife driving near the church when the attack happened, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he is struggling to make sense of what happened. He said he mostly the children and how calm they seemed, not “yelling and screaming or anything.”
“Up there for a normal day of school, these young children," he said. "Now, there’s difficult days to go through.”
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