Everything we know about the Texas school shooting, Ray Liotta's death, the Depp/Heard trial, and more top stories from the last week

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A woman in West Virginia fatally shot a man who began firing an AR-15-style rifle into a crowd of people that had gathered for a party, authorities said.

Dennis Butler, 37, was killed Wednesday night after he pulled out the rifle and began shooting at dozens of people attending the birthday-graduation party outside an apartment complex in the city of Charleston, police said in a statement.

The woman, who was attending the party, drew a pistol and fired, killing Butler, the statement said. No one at the party was injured.

"Instead of running from the threat, she engaged with the threat and saved several lives last night," Chief of Detectives Tony Hazelett told news outlets Thursday.

Butler was at the apartment complex earlier in the evening in a vehicle and had been warned to slow down because children were playing, police said. They said he left, but returned later, parked in front of the complex and began firing.

After fatally shooting Butler, the woman waited along with several witnesses for police to arrive, and all have cooperated with the investigation, authorities said.

Hazelett said no charges would be filed against the woman.

Counties with the most gun deaths

Counties With the Most Gun Deaths

The rates of gun related homicides _ suicides are rising 1

More than 75_ of homicides _ 50_ of suicides involve a gun 1

Mississippi _ Louisiana have the highest rates of gun related deaths 1

Small _ midsize counties with the highest rates of gun deaths 1

15. DeKalb County, GA

14. Hamilton County, OH

13. Pima County, AZ

12. Cook County, IL

11. Fulton County, GA

10. Oklahoma County, OK

9. Cuyahoga County, OH

8. Milwaukee County, WI

7. Duval County, FL

6. Wayne County, MI

5. St. Louis County, MO

4. Jefferson County, KY

3. Marion County, IN

2. Philadelphia County, PA

1. Shelby County, TN

Ray Liotta, the actor best known for playing mobster Henry Hill in "Goodfellas" and baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in "Field of Dreams," has died. He was 67.

An official at the Dominican Republic's National Forensic Science Institute who was not authorized to speak to the media confirmed the death of Ray Liotta and said his body was taken to the Cristo Redentor morgue. The Hollywood Reporter and NBC News cited representatives for Liotta who said he died in his sleep Wednesday night. He was in the Dominican Republic to film a new movie.

Keep scrolling for a photo gallery of Ray Liotta through the years

Lorraine Bracco, who played Karen Hill in "Goodfellas" tweeted Thursday that she was, "Utterly shattered to hear this terrible news about my Ray. I can be anywhere in the world & people will come up & tell me their favorite movie is Goodfellas. Then they always ask what was the best part of making that movie. My response has always been the same…Ray Liotta."

Photos: Notable Deaths in 2022

Estelle Harris

Howard Hesseman

Emilio Delgado

Liz Sheridan

Michael Lang

Alessandro Nivola, who recently appeared with Liotta in "The Sopranos" prequel film "The Many Saints of Newark" wrote, "I feel so lucky to have squared off against this legend in one of his final roles. The scenes we did together were among the all time highlights of my acting career. He was dangerous, unpredictable, hilarious, and generous with his praise for other actors. Too soon."

The Newark, New Jersey, native was born in 1954 and adopted at age six months out of an orphanage by a township clerk and an auto parts owner. Though he mostly grew up playing sports, including baseball, during his senior year of high school, the drama teacher at the school asked him if he wanted to be in a play, which he agreed to on a lark. And it stuck: He'd go on to study acting at the University of Miami. After graduation, he got his first big break on the soap opera "Another World."

Liotta's first big film role was in Jonathan Demme's "Something Wild" as Melanie Griffith's character's hotheaded ex-convict husband Ray. The turn earned him a Golden Globe nomination. A few years later, he would get the memorable role of the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson in "Field of Dreams."

His most iconic role, as real life mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas" came shortly after. He, and Scorsese, had to fight for it though, with multiple auditions and pleas to the studio to cast the still relative unknown.

"The thing about that movie, you know, Henry Hill isn't that edgy of a character," Liotta said in an interview in 2012. "It's really the other guys who are doing all the actual killings. The one physical thing he does do, when he goes after the guy who went after Karen — you know, most audiences, they actually like him for that."

In the same interview, he marveled at how "Goodfellas" had a "life of its own" and has only grown over time.

"People watch it over and over, and still respond to it, and different ages come up, even today, teenagers come up to me and they really emotionally connect to it," he said.

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A jury on Wednesday ruled in favor of Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, vindicating his stance that Heard fabricated claims that she was abused by Depp before and during their brief marriage.

The verdict could help the star rehabilitate his image — at least that’s his hope — after a televised trial that turned into a spectacle of a vicious marriage. Throughout the trial, fans — overwhelmingly on Depp’s side — would line up overnight for coveted courtroom seats. And spectators who couldn’t get in would gather on the street to cheer Depp and jeer Heard whenever either appeared outside.

Depp sued Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name.

This is a breaking news update. AP's earlier story follows below.

The jury says it has reached a verdict in Johnny Depp’s $50 million libel lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard, who testified that Depp physically and sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions. The jury also has reached a verdict regarding a $100 million counterclaim Heard filed against Depp.

The verdict will be read around 2 p.m. CT/3 p.m. EST.

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — A Texas law enforcement official says the 18-year-old gunman who slaughtered 21 people at an elementary school entered the building “unobstructed” through a door that was apparently unlocked.

Victor Escalon, a regional director at the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Thursday that Salvador Ramos did not initially encounter any law enforcement officers when he entered Robb Elementary School on Tuesday and opened fire, killing 19 children and two teachers.

This is a breaking news update. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Remembering the victims of the Uvalde school shooting

Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio, 10

Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10

Eliahana Cruz Torres, 10

Eva Mireles, 44

Jose Manuel Flores Jr., 10

NEW YORK (AP) — Even when regular workers win their biggest raises in decades, they look minuscule compared with what CEOs are getting.

The typical compensation package for chief executives who run S&P 500 companies soared 17.1% last year, to a median $14.5 million, according to data analyzed for The Associated Press by Equilar.

The gain towers over the 4.4% increase in wages and benefits netted by private-sector workers through 2021, which was the fastest on record going back to 2001. The raises for many rank-and-file workers also failed to keep up with inflation, which reached 7% at the end of last year.

CEO pay took off as stock prices and profits rebounded sharply as the economy roared out of its brief 2020 recession. Because much of a CEO's compensation is tied to such performance, their pay packages ballooned after years of mostly moderating growth.

Story continues after ranking.

In many of the most eye-popping packages, such as Expedia Group's, valued at $296.2 million and JPMorgan Chase's $84.4 million, boards gave particularly big grants of stock or stock options to recently appointed CEOs navigating their companies through the pandemic or to established leaders they wanted to convince to hang around.

The CEOs often can't cash in on such stock or options for years, or possibly ever, unless the company meets performance targets. But companies still must disclose estimates for how much they're worth. Only about a quarter of the typical pay package for all S&P 500 CEOs last year came as actual cash they could pocket.

Whatever its composition, the chasm in pay between CEOs and the rank-and-file workers they oversee keeps widening. At half the companies in this year's pay survey, it would take the worker at the middle of the company's pay scale at least 186 years to make what their CEO did last year. That's up from 166 a year earlier.

At Walmart, for example, the company said its median associate made $25,335 in compensation last year. That means half its workers made more, and half made less.

That's up 21% from $20,942 a year earlier and came as the company's average hourly U.S. wage rose from $15.25 in March 2021 to more than $17 currently. That increase was bigger than the raise CEO Doug McMillon got, on a percentage basis. But his 13.7% raise netted him a total package valued at $25.7 million.

Story continues after charts

Anger is growing over such an imbalance. Surveys suggest Americans across political parties see CEO pay as too high, and some investors are pushing back.

Workers are trying to organize unions across the country, and the "Great Resignation" has emboldened millions to quit to find better jobs elsewhere. The U.S. government counted more than 4 million quits during April 2021 alone, the first time that happened. The monthly number has since topped 4.5 million twice.

"That is going to add a huge cost to corporate bottom lines, to have these kind of turnover rates," said Sarah Anderson, director of the global economy project at the progressive Institute for Policy Studies.

"They should be thinking about what kind of message they're sending to those people, about whether they're really valued in their jobs," Anderson said. "When the guy in the corner office is making several hundred if not thousands of times more, that's sending a really demoralizing message."

Gains for CEO pay had been slowing in recent years, with the median rise easing from 8.5% in 2017 to 4.1% in 2019. It ticked back up to 5% in 2020, which was a complicated year because the pandemic shut down the economy and profits at many companies tanked.

For 2020, many companies rejiggered the intricate formulas they created to determine their CEOs' pay. The tweaks made up for losses caused by the pandemic, something many boards said was an extraordinary event outside the CEO's control.

Then came 2021. Thanks to a reopened economy, super-low interest rates from the Federal Reserve and other factors, stock prices soared and the S&P 500 jumped nearly 27%, setting records through the year. Earnings per share soared roughly 50%.

Throughout the year, CEOs had to navigate snarled supply chains and shortages of chips and other key materials that impacted businesses across industries, said Dan Laddin, a partner at Compensation Advisory Partners, a consulting firm that works with boards.

"All this led to a desire to really reward" executives, said Kelly Malafis, also a partner at Compensation Advisory Partners, "because the financial performance was there, and the view was that management teams were exceptional in navigating the situation and delivering results."

Last year's 17.1% leap for median pay of S&P 500 CEOs was the biggest since a 23.9% surge for 2010 compensation packages, according to the data analyzed by Equilar.

Consider Marry Barra, CEO of General Motors. Her industry was particularly hard hit by the shortage of computer chips, which snarled auto production.

Even so, GM's board highlighted how the company still delivered record earnings before interest, taxes and some other items. The automaker also accelerated development of its electric vehicles. Those are two of the factors that influence Barra's pay, and her compensation climbed 25.4% to $29.1 million.

"I would hope that the corporation making record profits would recognize that the workers doing the work are the ones generating the revenue," said Dave Green, a hot metal driver at a GM facility in Bedford, Indiana. "We're just trying to get by."

He cited in particular temporary workers making roughly $16 hourly, who have to work years before coming on as full-time employees and don't get many opportunities for days off in the meantime.

"The new people coming in, their kids are not going to be able to have the opportunities my kids had," said Green, who has two daughters and started at GM as a summer helper in 1989.

Closer to the top of the rankings for CEO pay last year was JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, whose compensation package valued at $84.4 million was the fifth-highest in the AP survey. That was up 166.7% from a year earlier, and most of it came from an award of stock options valued at $52.6 million.

The board said it provided the options because of its desire for Dimon, who is 66, to keep leading the company for significantly more years and a "unique inflection point in Mr. Dimon's tenure." It also said the options weren't a part of his regular annual compensation and that he must wait at least five years to begin exercising them.

Even so, only 31% of investors at JPMorgan Chase's annual meeting of shareholders recently gave a thumbs up on Dimon's pay package. The vote is only advisory, though, and doesn't force the company to make changes.

Last year, a median of 92.6% of shareholders approved what's called their "Say On Pay" vote in the AP's survey. That was down just a bit from 93.4% the year before.

The AP's and Equilar's compensation study included pay data for 340 CEOs at S&P 500 companies who have served at least two fiscal years at their companies, which filed proxy statements between Jan. 1 and April 30. Some high-profile CEOs are not included because they don't fit the criteria, such as Amazon's Andy Jassy and Twitter's Parag Agrawal. The survey does not count changes in the value of CEOs' pension benefits and some other items in its totals for compensation.

How the richest person in each state made a fortune

How the richest person in every state made a fortune

Alabama: Jimmy Rane

Alaska: Leonard Hyde, Jonathan Rubini and families

Arizona: Ernest Garcia II

Arkansas: Jim Walton

California: Mark Zuckerberg

Colorado: Philip Anschutz

Connecticut: Ray Dalio

Delaware: Robert Gore and Elizabeth Snyder

Florida: Thomas Peterffy

Georgia: Jim Kennedy

Hawaii: Pierre Omidyar

Idaho: Frank VanderSloot

Illinois: Kenneth Griffin

Indiana: Carl Cook

Iowa: Harry Stine

Kansas: Charles Koch

Kentucky: Tamara Gustavson

Louisiana: Gayle Benson

Maine: Susan Alfond

Maryland: Ted Lerner and family

Massachusetts: Abigail Johnson

Michigan: Daniel Gilbert

Minnesota: Glen Taylor

Mississippi: James and Thomas Duff

Missouri: Pauline Macmillan Keinath

Montana: Dennis Washington

Nebraska: Warren Buffett

Nevada: Sheldon Adelson

New Hampshire: Andrea Reimann-Ciardelli

New Jersey: John Overdeck

New Mexico: Mack C. Chase

New York: Michael Bloomberg

North Carolina: James Goodnight

North Dakota: Gary Tharaldson

Ohio: Les Wexner and family

Oklahoma: Harold Hamm and family

Oregon: Phil Knight and family

Pennsylvania: Victoria Mars

Rhode Island: Jonathan Nelson

South Carolina: Anita Zucker

South Dakota: T. Denny Sanford

Tennessee: Thomas Frist Jr. and family

Texas: Alice Walton

Utah: Gail Miller

Vermont: John Abele

Virginia: Jacqueline Mars

Washington: Jeff Bezos

West Virginia: Jim Justice II

Wisconsin: John Menard Jr.

Wyoming: John Mars

The gunman who massacred 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas had warned on social media minutes before the attack that he had shot his grandmother and going to shoot up a school, the governor said Wednesday.

Salvador Ramos, 18, used an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle in the bloodbath Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. He had legally bought two such rifles just days before the attack, soon after his 18th birthday, authorities said.

About 30 minutes before the bloodbath, Ramos made three social media posts, Gov. Gregg Abbot said. According to the governor, Ramos posted that he was going to shoot his grandmother, then that he had shot the woman, and finally that he was going to shoot up an elementary school.

Abbott said Ramos, a resident of the community about 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio, had no known criminal or mental health history.

Seventeen people were also injured in the attack.

“Evil swept across Uvalde yesterday. Anyone who shoots his grandmother in the face has to have evil in his heart,” Abbott said at a news conference. “But it is far more evil for someone to gun down little kids. It is intolerable and it is unacceptable for us to have in the state anybody who would kill little kids in our schools.”

Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is running against Abbott for governor this year, interrupted the news conference, calling the Republican’s response to the tragedy “predictable.” O’Rourke was escorted out while members of the crowd yelled at him, with one man calling him a “sick son of a bitch.”

As details of the latest mass killing to rock the U.S. emerged, grief engulfed the small town of Uvalde, population 16,000.

The dead included an outgoing 10-year-old, Eliahna Garcia, who loved to sing, dance and play basketball; a fellow fourth grader, Xavier Javier Lopez, who had been eagerly awaiting a summer of swimming; and a teacher, Eva Mireles, with 17 years' experience whose husband is an officer with the school district’s police department.

Here are the latest updates from Texas:

A police captain says three people have been killed in a shooting at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus.

Tulsa police Capt. Richard Meulenberg confirmed the number of dead Wednesday. Meulenberg said the shooter also was dead. It was unclear how the shooter died.

St. Francis Health System locked down its campus Wednesday afternoon because of the situation at the Natalie Medical Building. The Natalie building houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center. Aerial footage from a TV helicopter appeared to show first responders wheeling someone on a stretcher away from the hospital building.

Story below will update as the situation develops.

Read on for more context about mass shootings.