Roughly 210 households in Whitewater Township, about 22 miles west-northwest of Cincinnati in an area near the city airport and the Kentucky state line, were under evacuation orders, officials said Tuesday night. Other residents were under shelter-in-place recommendations, they said at a news conference.

Colorless, odorless gas spewing from the tanker at State Route 128 and U.S. Route 50 was reported to first responders shortly after 1 p.m., Chief Mike Siefke of the Little Miami Joint Fire and Rescue District said during a pair of news conferences.

Authorities determined the chemical is styrene, he said. It’s used in the production of plastic, rubber, fiberglass and other structural material.

The chemical can irritate the respiratory system, cause headaches and disorient those who breathe it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Long-term exposure has been associated with some forms of cancer, the CDC says, but it’s not known as a direct killer.

The threat for the community 22 miles east-northeast of Cincinnati is that the rail car tank has been heating up and will explode if it continues, Siefke said. Firefighters were dousing the container with water in an attempt to reverse its temperature rise, he said.

“This will be a long, long event,” Siefke said.

Environmental officials were taking parts-per-million measurements in the community in an attempt to determine the leak’s impact, the fire chief said.

Some residents may have sought treatment for unknown ailments, but the number of patients and exact nature of their potential injuries was unconfirmed, he said.

Area public schools, the Three Rivers Local School District, shut down instruction early on Tuesday and canceled instruction and all activities scheduled for Wednesday, according to the district website.

It wasn’t yet clear who owns the rail car or its cargo, officials said Tuesday night. A spokesperson for Central Railroad of Indiana said in a statement it was cooperating with first responders.

State Route 128 and U.S. Route 50, which takes motorists from coast to coast, were shut down in both directions near the incident site, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Whitewater Township and Hamilton County officials said the situation will likely remain static overnight as they await input from environmental agencies.

“We’re waiting for the partners that are mitigating this to come up with a strategy,” Hamilton County Director of Communications Andrew Knapp said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Ryan Routh, arrested near Trump’s Florida golf course, is charged with attempted assassination
• Haitian group in Springfield files criminal charges against Trump and Vance after false pet claims
• Israeli woman freed from Hamas captivity recalls brutal conditions inside tunnels

The news conference, hosted by the National Haitian American Elected Officials Network (NHAEON), addressed “the insecurity to the entire Springfield community caused by the xenophobic and racist lies recklessly recounted by  former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance.”

The local leaders in attendance included North Miami Vice Mayor Mary Estimé-Irvin, who chairs NHAEON, U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-District 20) and Florida state Sen. Dotie Joseph (D-District 108).

“I want to highlight that immigrant labor, just as with Black America, has literally built this country,” Joseph said. “Make no mistake: without the immigrant labor force filling key jobs that U.S. citizens don’t want… America would be in economic freefall. So I want people to understand what we’re talking about. This is a community in economic decline that has proactively sought more labor.”

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Vance posted on X on Sept. 9 about the influx of Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, where officials said around 20,000 migrants have arrived in the city of about 60,000 residents in the past few years.

“Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio,” Vance’s post read. “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?”

Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.

Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country. Where is our border czar? pic.twitter.com/rf0EDIeI5i

— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024

Vance’s post comes after several viral stories that likely began when a man claimed at a Springfield City Commission meeting back on Aug. 27 that Haitian migrants were taking ducks from local parks so they can eat them.

“They’re in the park grabbing up ducks by they neck and cutting they head off and walking off with them and eating them, like,” the man said.

A Facebook post later claimed a friend’s cat went missing and was eaten by a Haitian migrant.

Springfield Police have denied those reports in a statement.

“In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” the statement read. “Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes. Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic.”

According to a Bedford Police Department service report obtained by TODAY.com, officers responded to a 911 call on Sept. 15 just before 9 a.m. after the family discovered the girl was missing.

They reported that the 8-year-old was last seen by the family nearly two hours earlier.

A neighbor gave the family and responding officers their Ring camera footage of the young girl getting into a 2020 Nissan Rogue by herself and driving off around 7 a.m.

Police in the area searched for the missing child before officers in neighboring Bainbridge spotted the car in a Target parking lot.

The Bainbridge Target is just over 11 miles southwest of the child’s home, according to the police report. Google Maps estimates the fastest route — following the average speed limit — would take an adult driver around 25 minutes.

Officers found the girl inside of the Target and her family came to pick her and the car up.

According to the report, the child said that she hit a mailbox on her way to the store.

On Facebook, the Bedford Police Department joked about the incident.

“Not sure what she bought or if she was even able to use her Target app to save 5%,” Bedford Police Dept. wrote in the post. “We did let her finish he Frappuccino. We’re not mean.”

Many commenters noted how impressed they were that a child that young could make the journey behind the wheel.

“This is the best out of all the kids driving stories,” wrote one commenter. “Long distance and she got everything correctly.”

“Not gonna lie. That sounds like something my 8-year-old self would have done,” wrote another.

This article first appeared on TODAY.com. Read more from TODAY here:

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Roughly 210 households in Whitewater Township, about 22 miles west-northwest of Cincinnati in an area near the city airport and the Kentucky state line, were under evacuation orders, officials said Tuesday night. Other residents were under shelter-in-place recommendations, they said at a news conference.

Colorless, odorless gas spewing from the tanker at State Route 128 and U.S. Route 50 was reported to first responders shortly after 1 p.m., Chief Mike Siefke of the Little Miami Joint Fire and Rescue District said during a pair of news conferences.

Authorities determined the chemical is styrene, he said. It’s used in the production of plastic, rubber, fiberglass and other structural material.

The chemical can irritate the respiratory system, cause headaches and disorient those who breathe it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Long-term exposure has been associated with some forms of cancer, the CDC says, but it’s not known as a direct killer.

The threat for the community 22 miles east-northeast of Cincinnati is that the rail car tank has been heating up and will explode if it continues, Siefke said. Firefighters were dousing the container with water in an attempt to reverse its temperature rise, he said.

“This will be a long, long event,” Siefke said.

Environmental officials were taking parts-per-million measurements in the community in an attempt to determine the leak’s impact, the fire chief said.

Some residents may have sought treatment for unknown ailments, but the number of patients and exact nature of their potential injuries was unconfirmed, he said.

Area public schools, the Three Rivers Local School District, shut down instruction early on Tuesday and canceled instruction and all activities scheduled for Wednesday, according to the district website.

It wasn’t yet clear who owns the rail car or its cargo, officials said Tuesday night. A spokesperson for Central Railroad of Indiana said in a statement it was cooperating with first responders.

State Route 128 and U.S. Route 50, which takes motorists from coast to coast, were shut down in both directions near the incident site, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Whitewater Township and Hamilton County officials said the situation will likely remain static overnight as they await input from environmental agencies.

“We’re waiting for the partners that are mitigating this to come up with a strategy,” Hamilton County Director of Communications Andrew Knapp said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Ryan Routh, arrested near Trump’s Florida golf course, is charged with attempted assassination
• Haitian group in Springfield files criminal charges against Trump and Vance after false pet claims
• Israeli woman freed from Hamas captivity recalls brutal conditions inside tunnels

“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Erika Lee, a Springfield resident, told NBC News on Friday.

Lee recently posted on Facebook about a neighbor’s cat that went missing, adding that the neighbor told Lee she thought the cat was the victim of an attack by her Haitian neighbors.

Newsguard, a media watchdog that monitors for misinformation online, found that Lee had been among the first people to publish a post to social media about the rumor, screenshots of which circulated online. The neighbor, Kimberly Newton, said she heard about the attack from a third party, NewsGuard reported. 

Newton told Newsguard that Lee’s Facebook post misstated her story, and that the owner of the missing cat was “an acquaintance of a friend” rather than her daughter’s friend. Newton could not be reached for comment.

Lee said she had no idea the post would become part of a rumor mill that would spiral into the national consciousness. She has since deleted the Facebook post. 

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Other posts have also contributed to the false allegations, including a photo of a man holding a dead goose that was taken in Columbus, Ohio, but was spread by some online as evidence of the claims about Springfield. Graphic video of a woman who allegedly killed and tried to eat a cat was also found not to have originated in Springfield but in Canton, Ohio, and does not have any connection to the Haitian community.

Local police and city officials have repeatedly said there is no evidence of such crimes in Springfield, but that hasn’t stopped the lies from spreading across the country and igniting a national frenzy that landed on the presidential debate stage this week. Former President Donald Trump and his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who was born less than an hour away from Springfield, have repeated the baseless allegations.

Lee said she never imagined her post would become fodder for conspiracy theories and hate.

“I’m not a racist,” she said through heavy emotion, adding that her daughter is half Black and she herself is mixed race and a member of the LGBTQ community. “Everybody seems to be turning it into that, and that was not my intent.”

The anti-immigrant fervor in Springfield led to school and municipal building closures on Thursday and Friday after city officials received bomb threats. 

Lee said she pulled her daughter out of school and is now worried about her safety with so much attention on her family. She is also concerned for the safety of the Haitian community, which she said she did not intend to villainize en masse. 

“I feel for the Haitian community,” she said. “If I was in the Haitians’ position, I’d be terrified, too, worried that somebody’s going to come after me because they think I’m hurting something that they love and that, again, that’s not what I was trying to do.”

Immigrant advocacy groups have said these kinds of claims can be dangerous.

“The Haitian-American community in Springfield, OH and around the country is feeling targeted and unsafe because dehumanizing, debunked and racist conspiracies are being advanced at the highest levels of American politics and are still being repeated,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice, a nonprofit that advocates for immigration reform said in an email. “The false claim that Black immigrants are violently attacking American families by stealing and eating their pets is a powerful and old racist trope that puts a target on people’s backs, and it is turbo-charged in the era of MAGA when political violence has become commonplace and we have already witnessed violent incidents incited by such rhetoric.”

Lee said that there are very real problems related to Springfield’s population boom that caught the struggling city off guard. Springfield was not prepared to address the housing, health care and other service needs that came with the sudden increase of new residents over the last five years when Haitians arrived, many of them with protected status under federal law. 

Still, she never imagined that her Facebook post would set off a national news cycle.

“I didn’t think it would ever get past Springfield,” she said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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Students at Perrin Woods and Snowhill Elementary Schools in Springfield “were evacuated from their buildings to an alternate district location,” school district spokesperson Jenna Leinasars said.

Roosevelt Middle School had already been “closed prior to the beginning of the school day in relation to the information received from the” Springfield Police Department, Leinasars added.

In addition to those school evacuations, several city commissioners and a municipal employee were the target of an emailed bomb threat, city spokesperson Karen Graves said.

A second email threatened multiple locations that included Springfield City Hall, Cliff Park High School, Perrin Woods Elementary School, Roosevelt Middle School, the Bureau of MotorVehicles and the Ohio License Bureau Southside, Graves added.

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“As a precaution, all affected buildings have been evacuated. Authorities, with the support of explosive detection canines, have conducted thorough inspections and cleared the facilities listed in the threats,” Graves said in a statement.

Local police and FBI agents based in Dayton are working “to determine the origin of these email threats,” the city official said.

The city just west of Columbus has been the focal point of a national political firestorm that has included false rumors that Haitian immigrants have been stealing and eating household pets. City officials and police have said there is no credible information to support those outlandish claims.

Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have pushed those false claims as part of a broader effort to use Springfield as an example for what they say are the harmful consequences of immigration.

“Springfield is a beautiful community and your pets are safe in Springfield, Ohio,” Springfield Mayor Rob Rue told MSNBC‘s “Katy Tur Reports” on Friday.

“We’ve made that known publicly and we’re asking people to understand and believe the reports that we’re sharing with them.”

The mayor pleaded for this misinformation to stop.

“We need those that have a national stage that have a mic, with millions and millions (of followers), we need them to understand what their words are doing to cities like Springfield, Ohio,” Rue said. “What we need is help. We don’t need this misinformation.”

Vance has also said there’s been a “massive rise in communicable diseases” in Springfield, but Clark County Combined Health District Commissioner Chris Cook said Friday that’s not accurate.

“Overall, we have not seen a substantial increase in all reportable communicable diseases,” Cook said. “In fact, if you look at all reportable communicable diseases together (minus COVID) for the year ending 2023 you will see that we are at our lowest rate in Clark County since 2016.”

A representative for Vance, the U.S. senator who who grew up about 50 miles from Springfield in Middletown, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Alicia Victoria Lozano reported from Springfield, Ohio, and David K. Li reported from New York City.

Matthew Mata and Alec Hernández contributed.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News here:

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The emailed threat was also sent to media outlets, according to the city commission office, and prompted a large police response as local and regional law enforcement agencies investigate.

“Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of our employees and residents,” the office said. “We are working to address this situation as swiftly as possible. We ask the community to avoid the area surrounding City Hall vicinity while the investigation is ongoing and to report any suspicious activity to the Springfield Police Division.”

The City of Springfield posted to social media that City Hall would be closed for the remainder of the day.

The predominantly white, blue-collar city of about 60,000 was thrust into the national spotlight this week during the presidential debate when Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump amplified the false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are eating their neighbors’ pets.

While its not yet known if the bomb threats and the rhetoric at the debate are connected, and authorities have made no such links as of Thursday afternoon, it comes as right-wing politicians, including Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, have widely shared false claims about Haitian immigrants.

Bryan Heck, the city manager in Springfield, has said there is no credible or detailed reports of any pets being abducted or eaten. In a video statement posted to Facebook Wednesday, Heck said it was “disappointing” that the narrative about the city had been “skewed by misinformation circulating on social media and further amplified by political rhetoric in the current, highly charged presidential election cycle.”

In the past few years, roughly 15,000 immigrants have arrived in Springfield, drawn by good jobs and the city’s relative affordability.

But a rising sense of unease has crept in as longtime residents increasingly bristle at newcomers taking jobs at factories, driving up housing costs, worsening traffic and straining city services.

At the city’s Haitian Community Help and Support Center on Wednesday, Rose-Thamar Joseph said many of the of immigrants are now saying they are scared for their life.

Melanie Flax Wilt, a Republican commissioner in the county where Springfield is located, said she has been pushing for community and political leaders to “stop feeding the fear.”

“After the election and everybody’s done using Springfield, Ohio, as a talking point for immigration reform, we are going to be the ones here still living through the challenges and coming up with the solutions,” she said.

Ariel Dominique, executive director of the Haitian American Foundation for Democracy, said she laughed at first at the absurdity of the false claims. But seeing the comments repeated on national television by the former president was painful.

“It is so unfair and unjust and completely contrary to what we have contributed to the world, what we have contributed to this nation for so long,” Dominique said.

The falsehoods about Springfield’s Haitian immigrants were spread online by Vance on the eve of Tuesday’s debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s part of a timeworn American political tradition of casting immigrants as outsiders.

“This is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame,” Trump said at the debate after repeating the falsehoods. When challenged by ABC News moderator David Muir over the false claims, Trump held firm, saying “people on television” said their dogs were eaten, but he offered no evidence.

Many Haitians have come to the U.S. to flee poverty and violence. They have embraced President Joe Biden’s new and expanded legal pathways to enter, and have shunned illegal crossings, accounting for only 92 border arrests out of more than 56,000 in July, the latest data available.

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The Biden administration recently announced an estimated 300,000 Haitians in the U.S. could remain in the country at least through February 2026, with eligibility for work authorization, under a law called Temporary Protected Status. The goal is to spare people from being deported to countries in turmoil.

Springfield, about 45 miles from the state capital of Columbus, suffered a steep decline in its manufacturing sector toward the end of the last century, and its population shrank as a result. But its downtown has been revitalized in recent years as more Haitians arrived and helped meet the rising demand for labor as the economy emerged from the pandemic. Officials say Haitians now account for about 15% of the population.

The city was shaken last year when a minivan slammed into a school bus, killing an 11-year-old boy. The driver was a Haitian man who recently settled in the area and was driving without a valid license. During a city commission meeting on Tuesday, the boy’s parents condemned politicians’ use of their son’s death to stoke hatred.

Last week, a post on the social media platform X shared what looked like a screengrab of a social media post apparently out of Springfield. The post claimed without evidence that the person’s “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” saw a cat hanging from a tree to be butchered and eaten, outside a house where it claimed Haitians lived. It was accompanied by a photo of a Black man carrying what appeared to be a goose by its feet.

On Monday, Vance posted on X: “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.” The next day, he posted again, saying his office had received inquiries from Springfield residents who said “their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants.”

Long-time Springfield resident Chris Hazel, who knows the park and neighborhood where the pet and goose abductions were purported to have happened, called the claims “preposterous.”

“It reminds me of when people used to accuse others and outsiders as cannibals. It’s dehumanizing a community,” he said of the accusations against the city’s Haitian residents.

Sophia Pierrilus, the daughter of a former Haitian diplomat who moved to the Ohio capital of Columbus 15 years ago and is now an immigrant advocate, agreed, calling it all political.

“My view is that’s their way to use Haitians as a scapegoat to bring some kind of chaos in America,” she said.

With its rising population of immigrants, Springfield is hardly an outlier. So far this decade, immigration has accounted for almost three-quarters of U.S. population growth, with 2.5 million immigrants arriving in the United States between 2020 and 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Population growth is an important driver of economic growth.

“The Haitian immigrants who started moving to Springfield the last few years are the reason why the economy and the labor force has been revitalized there,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, which provides legal and social services to immigrants across the U.S.

Now, she said, Haitians in Springfield have told her that, out of fear, they are considering leaving the city.

Nathan Clark, of Springfield, denounced the Republican presidential ticket and asked Trump and Vance to apologize in an impassioned speech before the City Commission after Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, mentioned the death of Clark’s son Aiden as a reason to oppose Haitian immigration. 

“Using Aiden as a political tool is, to say the least, reprehensible for any political purpose,” Clark said during the commission’s public comment period, according to a livestream of the meeting. 

“This needs to stop now,” he added. “I will listen to them one more time to hear their apologies.” 

Asked for comment on Clark’s statement, Luke Schroeder, a spokesperson for Vance, said that Vice President Kamala Harris should apologize to people who are victims of crime allegedly committed by immigrants — some of whom have blamed the Biden administration and testified before Congress. 

“They hold her and her open borders policies accountable for the deaths of their children,” Schroeder said in an email.

“The Clark family is in Senator Vance’s prayers,” he said.

Campaign representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Tuesday, as Trump was preparing to debate his Democratic opponent, Harris.

Earlier Tuesday, the Trump-Vance campaign thrust the 11-year-old boy and his family into the nation’s political spotlight. Vance alluded to Aiden in a post on X, writing that “a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant.” On Monday, an X account used by the Trump campaign posted a tweet about Aiden.

Aiden died in August 2023 on the first day of school when a minivan driven by a Haitian immigrant hit the bus he was riding in. The driver, Hermanio Joseph, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and vehicular homicide and sentenced to nine to 13 years in prison. 

The crash, in which more than 20 other students were injured, has fueled anger at a wave of recent Haitian immigrants in Springfield. In recent days, that anger has become a national political issue, and it has included the spread of baseless rumors on social media about immigrants’ harming other people’s household pets. 

The Trump campaign promoted the false claims about Haitian immigrants Monday and Tuesday, using the rumors to attack Harris’ record on immigration, though NBC News has not seen any statements that mentioned the Clark family. Trump on Tuesday also posted what appeared to be artificial intelligence-generated images to Truth Social showing him with cats and other animals, an apparent nod to the false rumors.

The Clarks have repeatedly asked people not to connect their son’s death with immigration or use his death to support hatred against Haitians. 

Clark, with his wife, Danielle, by his side at Tuesday’s meeting, said it was not true that his son was “murdered,” as Vance said. 

“My son Aiden Clark was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti. This tragedy is felt all over this community, the state and even the nation, but don’t spend this towards hate. In order to live like Aiden, you need to accept everyone,” he said. 

Clark named four politicians who he said were “morally bankrupt” for referring to his son: Trump, Vance, Ohio’s Republican nominee for the Senate, Bernie Moreno, and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas. 

“They have spoken my son’s name and used his death for political gain,” he said. 

“They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members. However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio,” he said. 

Earlier in the day, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said longtime Springfield residents’ complaints about immigration should be taken seriously. 

“We didn’t manufacture this. This was brought to the attention of us by residents in Ohio,” Leavitt said in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press NOW.” She added that those people “deserve a voice.” 

Nathan Clark did not respond to a request for additional comment.

Moreno posted on social media this week that Haitian immigrants were “sucking up social services” and repeated the baseless claim about household pets. Roy has also criticized Haitian immigrants in Springfield on X. 

Representatives for Moreno and Roy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Clark said the rise in anti-Haitian hatred was enough to make him wish that his son had been “killed by a 60-year-old white man” so “hate-spewing people would leave us alone.” 

“The last thing that we need is to have the worst day of our lives violently and constantly shoved in our faces,” he said.

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The video shows the moments leading up to the death of Michael Jones, 54, on Aug. 17, including the attempt to arrest him, and the moments immediately afterward. Police released body camera video from two officers on the scene and security video from the gas station where the shooting took place.

Jones was shot by an Akron police veteran who has been at the department for 2½ years. The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave under police department procedure, police said.

Police have not publicly identified the officer.

Officers were at the gas station at about 1 a.m. investigating a stolen vehicle, which they had seen in the gas station’s parking lot, police said in the initial news release about the shooting.

The vehicle was rented and then wasn’t returned to U-Haul on the agreed upon date, prompting U-Haul to report it stolen, Akron police spokesperson Michael Miller said.

In the first of the two body camera videos released Saturday, an officer approaches Jones in the driver’s seat of a U-Haul vehicle at a gas station. The officer knocks on and then opens the driver’s side door.

The officer repeatedly asks Jones to step out of the vehicle and tells him he is under arrest. After he unbuckles his seat belt, Jones asks, “For what?”

When Jones does not immediately get out of the truck, the officer tries to grab him and yank him out while a struggle ensues. The video then appears to show the truck driving away while the officer hangs out the open driver’s side door.

The officer warns “you’re about to get f—— shot” as Jones continues to drive before he fires twice at Jones’ side. Jones’ head falls back, and his arms rise in the air before he slumps to his side, the video shows.

Jones is dragged out of the car by the officers, who handcuff him, the video shows.

Officials said in the initial police news release that the officers “immediately administered emergency first aid, which included applying at least one chest seal,” and that Jones was pronounced dead at the scene “a short time later.”

The body camera video shows one of the officers walking away to retrieve the medical kit from their vehicle about 55 seconds after the first shot was fired. That officer then calls for emergency services about 10 seconds later — more than a minute after Jones was shot.

Police also said in the initial release that a loaded firearm was recovered in the U-Haul vehicle. The firearm was shown in the body camera video, but police clarified in an updated release Saturday that “an officer found the firearm on or near Mr. Jones after he was removed from the vehicle,” not in the vehicle.

Akron police also said they received two 911 calls in the moments after the shooting. The police department said one of the callers described events that appeared to be consistent with those in the body camera video.

“The other caller, an unidentified woman, alleged during the call that Mr. Jones was shot while handcuffed,” police said. “The later caller’s claims are inconsistent with the body camera footage, and the shooting of Mr. Jones occurred inside the vehicle. He was not handcuffed at the time.”

The state Bureau of Criminal Investigation is conducting the investigation. Akron police said the bureau also responded to the scene. When the investigation is complete, the case will be turned over to the state attorney general’s office for review before it is submitted to the Summit County Grand Jury for evaluation.

The police department said its Office of Professional Standards and Accountability is conducting a separate internal investigation. Results will be reviewed by the police chief and the city of Akron police auditor.

Mayor Shammas Malik said in a statement Saturday that his heart goes out to Jones’ family.

“While it is never easy to watch someone’s last moments, I believe it is important that our community has a clear picture of what we know so far,” Malik said. “I am committed to making sure our community continues to have robust, open conversations about public safety, in order to strengthen a collective sense of safety in Akron.”

Bobby DiCello, the attorney representing Jones’ children, did not immediately reply to a request for comment from NBC News.

In a statement shared with NBC affiliate WKYC of Cleveland, DiCello said Jones’ children were “devastated by what they saw.” He said it appears officers used an electric gun on Jones and shot him, which caused him to lose control of the truck.

Jones’ children “struggle to understand why the officers leapt into the truck, why they then tased him, and why they shot him, especially when Michael made no threats toward them of any kind,” the statement said.

“Michael’s children are committed to getting justice for Michael, and they urge the City of Akron to hold the officers accountable,” DiCello said in the statement.

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Young was suspected of stealing bottles of alcohol when Blendon Township police officer Connor Grubb and a fellow officer approached her car. The other officer ordered her out. Instead, she rolled forward toward Grubb, who fired a single bullet through her windshield into her chest. The daughter she was expecting three months later also died.

A Franklin County grand jury indicted Grubb on charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault. He is scheduled to be arraigned in court Wednesday.

Brian Steel, executive vice president of the union representing Blendon Township police, called the indictment deeply disappointing. “Like all law enforcement officers, Officer Grubb had to make a split-second decision, a reality all too familiar for those who protect our communities,” he said in a statement.

Young’s grandmother, Nadine Young, said the officer never should have pulled his gun when he first confronted her.

“He took a lot from us,” she said on Tuesday. “Its not fair. We don’t have her or the baby.”

The last year has been difficult for the family, including her granddaughter’s two young sons, she said. “It’s been agony, it’s been like a whirlwind of hurt and pain,” she said.

Family members called for the officer to be charged shortly after the Aug. 24 shooting. After viewing bodycam footage showing the officer firing the gun, the family called his actions a “gross misuse of power and authority,” especially given that Young had been accused of a relatively minor crime.

In the video, an officer at the driver’s side window tells Young she’s been accused of shoplifting and orders her out of the car. Young protests, both officers curse at her and yell at her to get out, and Young can be heard asking them, “Are you going to shoot me?”

Seconds later, she turns the steering wheel to the right, the car rolls slowly forward and Grubb fires his gun. Moments later, after the car comes to a stop against the building, they break the driver’s side window. Police said they tried to save her life, but she was mortally wounded.

Sean Walton, the family’s attorney, said the law is clear on when an officer can use deadly force.

“In no scenario does someone shoplifting contribute to their murder by a police officer,” he said. “She bears no responsibility.”

Some departments around the U.S. prohibit officers from firing at or from moving vehicles, and law enforcement groups such as the Police Executive Research Forum say shooting in such circumstances creates an unacceptable risk to bystanders from stray gunfire or the driver losing control of the vehicle.

The Blendon Township police department’s use of force policy says officers should try to move away from an approaching vehicle instead of firing their weapons. An officer should only shoot when he or she “reasonably believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the imminent threat of the vehicle, or if deadly force other than the vehicle is directed at the officer or others.”

The encounter between Young and police was among a troubling series of fatal shootings of Black adults and children by Ohio officers, and followed various episodes of police brutality against Black people across the nation over the past several years.

The charges came after prosecutors presented evidence to the grand jury over two days. Grand juries don’t consider guilt but instead look at whether someone should be tried in a criminal case.

Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford said the department has started a disciplinary review now that Grubb has been indicted.

“No one at Blendon Township has passed any judgment on whether Officer Grubb acted within the law,” the police chief said in a statement. “However, since people who’ve been indicted may not legally possess a firearm, the indictment against him leaves us with no choice but to begin the disciplinary process.”

___

Seewer reported from Toledo.

The boy was unharmed, police said, and no other injuries were reported.

Alexa Stakely, 29, of Pickerington, was at an apartment complex in Columbus to pick up her son from a babysitter around 1:30 a.m. Thursday. A single mother who was a speech-language pathologist for the Canal Winchester Local Schools district, Stakely also worked as a waitress and had just finished a shift for that job, Columbus police said.

Stakely initially brought the sleeping boy to her car, which she had left running, then returned to the babysitter’s unit to get the child’s belongings, police said. As she returned to her vehicle, Stakely saw someone starting to back it out onto the roadway and she ran toward the car, screaming for her son and telling the driver to stop.

Stakely was struck by the car and knocked to the pavement, suffering a head injury. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The two men abandoned the car a short distance away from where Stakely was struck, then ran past her as they fled by jumping a fence and heading into a neighboring apartment complex, police said. They remained at large Friday.

Surveillance video had recorded a group of men looking into apartments in another nearby complex earlier that morning, according to police, who said they matched the description of the men later seen running past Stakely.

The 38-year-old man appeared to have entered a fenced area at Kings Island Wednesday night, according to a statement issued by the park near Cincinnati. He was found on the ground with an injury, but details on his condition were not been disclosed. He remained hospitalized.

The man dropped his keys while riding the Banshee, an inverted roller coaster where the train dangles from the track, and then went into the restricted area and was struck by the coaster, according to Mason police.

According to the park’s website, the Banshee is the world’s longest steel inverted roller coaster and reaches speeds of 68 mph (109 kph).

The roller coaster was shut down and will remain closed while the investigation continues. No other injuries were reported.

The park is in Mason, which is about 24 miles (38 kilometers) northeast of Cincinnati.

City operations have been hampered all week by the threat, which was first detected Sunday.

A spokeswoman for Democratic Mayor Justin Bibb told Cleveland.com on Friday that the ransomware has since been “contained,” but she couldn’t say whether the city has agreed to pay the ransom or will consider paying it. She also declined to say how much ransom was sought, adding that there was little she could disclose to the public because of the ongoing investigation by state and federal authorities.

After shutting down most systems and closing City Hall and a second government location to both residents and employees early in the week, Bibb tried bringing employees back on Wednesday. A host of problems ensued, including trouble processing building permits and birth and death certificates in two of the city’s busiest departments.

Bibb’s administration said the city had made encouraging progress on its first day back and characterized Wednesday’s events as “expected challenges” as systems are recovered. But he again ordered City Hall closed to the public, and officials said Friday it will remain closed on Monday. It’s not yet known how long the closure will continue, but employees are back on the job.

Cleveland officials were referring residents to the neighboring cities of Parma and Lakewood for some services, and certain online options appeared to be functional.

Akron had to shut down some city functions after a cyberattack in 2019.

“This was a tragic incident which impacts our entire community,” Mayor Shammas Malik said. “The sheer number of victims is shocking and disconcerting. I want to be very clear: Anyone who was involved in last night’s shooting will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

The shooting killed a 27-year-old man, whose identity was not immediately released. The wounded ranged in age from 19 to 43, Police Chief Brian Harding said.

There were 25 victims, including the man who died, and at least two wounded victims remained in critical condition. Others had non-life-threatening injuries, Akron police Capt. Michael Miller said Sunday.

No arrests were immediately reported and police asked anyone with information to call detectives.

Rewards totaling $22,500 for information leading to the arrest of a suspect were offered by three agencies: $5,000 from Summit County Crime Stoppers, $7,500 from the U.S. Marshal’s Service and up to $10,000 from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Akron officials said.

“We have to hold people accountable when they commit violence. That’s the only way to keep our communities safe,” Malik said.

Investigators found two handguns and more than 35 bullet shell casings at the scene of the outdoor party where the shooting took place, Harding said.

Local hospitals told emergency dispatchers soon afterward that multiple victims with gunshot wounds were arriving in their emergency departments, police said.

There was a street party in the area before the gunfire broke out and an unnamed witness at the scene said hundreds of people were enjoying themselves with everyone in white T-shirts and “women on top of vehicles dancing,” WEWS-TV reported.

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Roughly 210 households in Whitewater Township, about 22 miles west-northwest of Cincinnati in an area near the city airport and the Kentucky state line, were under evacuation orders, officials said Tuesday night. Other residents were under shelter-in-place recommendations, they said at a news conference.

Colorless, odorless gas spewing from the tanker at State Route 128 and U.S. Route 50 was reported to first responders shortly after 1 p.m., Chief Mike Siefke of the Little Miami Joint Fire and Rescue District said during a pair of news conferences.

Authorities determined the chemical is styrene, he said. It’s used in the production of plastic, rubber, fiberglass and other structural material.

The chemical can irritate the respiratory system, cause headaches and disorient those who breathe it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Long-term exposure has been associated with some forms of cancer, the CDC says, but it’s not known as a direct killer.

The threat for the community 22 miles east-northeast of Cincinnati is that the rail car tank has been heating up and will explode if it continues, Siefke said. Firefighters were dousing the container with water in an attempt to reverse its temperature rise, he said.

“This will be a long, long event,” Siefke said.

Environmental officials were taking parts-per-million measurements in the community in an attempt to determine the leak’s impact, the fire chief said.

Some residents may have sought treatment for unknown ailments, but the number of patients and exact nature of their potential injuries was unconfirmed, he said.

Area public schools, the Three Rivers Local School District, shut down instruction early on Tuesday and canceled instruction and all activities scheduled for Wednesday, according to the district website.

It wasn’t yet clear who owns the rail car or its cargo, officials said Tuesday night. A spokesperson for Central Railroad of Indiana said in a statement it was cooperating with first responders.

State Route 128 and U.S. Route 50, which takes motorists from coast to coast, were shut down in both directions near the incident site, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Whitewater Township and Hamilton County officials said the situation will likely remain static overnight as they await input from environmental agencies.

“We’re waiting for the partners that are mitigating this to come up with a strategy,” Hamilton County Director of Communications Andrew Knapp said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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Kristel Candelario, 32, pleaded guilty last month to aggravated murder and endangering children in connection with the death of her 16-month-old daughter, Jailyn, last year.

Candelario left for vacation June 6 and left Jailyn alone. She visited Detroit and Puerto Rico, the prosecutor’s office said.

When she returned on June 16, she found Jailyn dead and called police, authorities said.

Jailyn died of starvation and severe dehydration due to pediatric neglect, Dr. Elizabeth Mooney, the deputy Cuyahoga County medical examiner, said in court Monday. The manner was ruled homicide.

The child was extremely dehydrated and emaciated, weighing 13 pounds, 7 pounds less than in her last doctor’s visit less than two months before, Mooney said.

Mooney, who conducted the autopsy, called Jailyn’s death “one of the most tragic and unfortunate cases I’ve had in my career thus far.” She said the child could have suffered for possibly a week.

In a statement Monday, prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley called Jailyn “a beautiful baby girl who was taken from this world due to her mother’s unimaginable selfishness.”

Candelario told the court Monday that “every day I ask forgiveness from God and from my daughter Jailyn.”

She also asked forgiveness from her other daughter and from her parents.

Candelario’s attorney, Derek Smith, said that no one was trying to excuse her behavior but that Candelario was struggling emotionally and was overwhelmed as a single mother of two children.

Candelario had tried to harm herself earlier in 2023 and she had been placed on antidepressants, which she stopped taking without tapering down in dosage as required, which can cause side effects, Smith told the court. Candelario was “not thinking clearly,” he said.

“I am not trying to justify my actions, but nobody knew how much I was suffering and what I was going through,” Candelario said through an interpreter.

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Anna Faraglia told the court Monday that Candelario had left Jailyn alone for two days immediately before she left on vacation.

“The thought of this child dying every day while she’s having fun — humanity can’t stomach that,” Faraglia said. “And those are the actions that need to be punished. She abandoned her daughter and left her for dead.”

In sentencing Candelario, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Brendan Sheehan noted that the police and the medical professionals involved called it one of the most horrific cases they’d ever seen.

“It stunned people across this world, because it defies one of the basic human responsibilities,” Sheehan said. He called it “the ultimate act of betrayal.”

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Despite the urgent medical attention, family members, including Coleman’s rescued mother, believe he will pull through, manager Michael DiSabato said late Tuesday.

The blaze took place around 4 a.m. when Coleman was awakened by the barking of the family’s dog, Hammer, which prompted him to pull his father and then his mother out of the burning home, DiSabato said, adding that Coleman’s family said the fire began in the kitchen.

Coleman, 59, went in a third time to rescue Hammer but was unsuccessful, and the dog died, he said.

It wasn’t clear whether Coleman collapsed inside or outside the home. DiSabato said that the roof collapsed when the first firefighters arrived and that Coleman suffered from the effects of smoke inhalation.

He was rushed to a Toledo hospital by helicopter, DiSabato said. His parents were not seriously injured.

Daughter Morgan Coleman said on Instagram that he was “fighting for his life.”

Coleman’s mother, Connie Foos Coleman, had a hopeful tone on Facebook late Tuesday: “I am going to bed! Thank God we are alive. Prayers for Mark ! Thank you to all the firefighters. And sheriffs dept. EMS Red Cross. and especially my family. Could not do this without you!”

Fire officials did not immediately respond to a request for information.

DiSabato sent photos of the home, which was nearly burned to the ground. What was left of the residence was completely charred.

Coleman was one of the UFC’s earlier breakout stars, having started in 1996, the year Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., described the sport as “human cockfighting.”

Coleman and contemporaries like Randy Couture helped professionalize the sport and expand it, even as they dazzled crowds with some tools better suited to street fighting.

Coleman’s UFC record was 16-10-0 in the four years he fought in the organization. He also fought for Pride Fighting Championships, winning the promotion’s Grand Prix tournament in 2000.

Before he switched to mixed martial arts, Coleman was a standout amateur wrestler, winning an NCAA championship at Ohio State in 1988 and competing at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

He later had stints in the world of scripted professional wrestling.

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Scott Varner, spokesperson for Franklin County Children Services, said the child was reported missing by his parents on Sunday. It’s believed he spent the night at the location, police told NBC affiliate WCMH of Columbus.

Varner said by email, “This was a runaway situation.”

There were no reports the boy was harmed, the station said.

Police spokesperson Jennifer Watson said by email Monday, “The child’s parents are happy that he is safe and that he will be returning home shortly.”

Staff at the store, which is on the east side of Columbus, on the border with Reynoldsburg, “immediately contacted law enforcement upon finding this child and cared for him until authorities arrived,” Target said in a statement.

“The well-being of our guests is our top priority,” the company said.

The Columbus Division of Police logged the store’s call about 6:15 a.m., Watson said.

Responding officers searched the area, which includes a number of retailers, for the boy’s parents unsuccessfully before handing him off to Franklin County Children Services, she said.

He was reunited with his parents at a children’s services facility Monday afternoon, Varner said.

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The pair, Loreen B. Feralo, 55, and Karen Kasbohm, 63, found the man dead Monday and took his body to a bank, where they had previously accompanied him, Ashtabula Police Department Chief Robert B. Stell said in a statement.

With the help of a third, unnamed person, the roommates carried the body to the front seat of the dead man’s car so bank staff could see him, and drove to the familiar bank branch, where they withdrew an undisclosed amount, the chief said.

The pair previously withdrew money from the man’s account with him present and approving, Stell said. The chief told the Star Beacon, a daily news platform in Ashtabula, the suspects used the bank’s drive-thru teller window.

The alleged caper unraveled when the duo dropped the body off at Ashtabula County Medical Center after the withdrawal and left quickly — without giving hospital staff information about the man, Stell said in the statement.

One of the two later called the facility with some of the man’s story, he said, and the body was identified as Douglas Layman, 80, the chief said.

Officers went to Layman’s Ashtabula home, where the roommates told them about the bank trip, Stell said.

The suspects have appeared in court, police said, though it was not clear if they entered pleas or were assigned attorneys. The county public defender’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NBC affiliate WKYC of Cleveland, about 60 miles southwest of Ashtabula, reported Casbohm’s bond was set at $5,000, and Feralo was ordered to appear for arraignment next week.

Stell said in the statement that additional charges were possible. The county prosecutor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

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The spectacle unfolded along Interstate 90 in the downtown area, and it was all captured on a nearby Ohio Department of Transportation Traffic camera. Footage shows the two horses trotting into oncoming traffic as drivers stop in their tracks.

An officer tries to block the horses from continuing on the interstate and directs them into an adjacent grassy area. The duo parades on the grass for a bit, but not long after gets back onto the roadway. The escapade takes a different turn as the horses leave the interstate, trot through the grass and pass through a nearby intersection.

They were apparently captured a short time later.

Police told WKYC, the NBC affiliate in Cleveland, that two department horses escaped during routine care and exercise. Both escapees were “promplty recovered…ensuring their safety, and no further incidents ensued.”

While law enforcement might not be thrilled by the escapade, others had a little fun with it on social media — especially knowing the horses weren’t hurt.

“They’re training for the Kentucky Derby,” one Facebook user wrote.

Another said, simply, “We’re free!”

Even ODOT joined in the horseplay, writing, “Some real horsepower on I-90 in downtown Cleveland today. Any injuries? Neigh.”

The rules proposed by two state departments would have required the psychiatrists, endocrinologists and medial ethicists to have roles in creating gender-affirming care plans for clinics and hospitals. And patients under 21 would have been required to receive at least six months of counseling before starting hormone treatment or receiving gender-affirming surgery.

The Department of Health and Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services both issued revised proposals Wednesday after gathering public comment. Both said in memos that they were swayed by what they had learned as transgender people and care providers weighed in. The Health Department said it received 3,900 comments. In the new versions, the rules would apply only to the care of minors, not adults.

Over the last few years, 21 states have adopted laws banning at least some aspects of gender-affirming care for minors. Some are so new they haven’t taken effect yet, and a ban in Arkansas was struck down in court. But so far, only Florida has restricted care for adults.

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The departments said the rules will now advance to the next step of review before being implemented.

The draft rules would still require that patients under 18 receive at least six months of mental health counseling before they can receive gender-affirming medications or surgeries. The revisions made Wednesday also expand the list of mental health professionals qualified to provide the required counseling, adding clinical nurses, social workers, school psychologists and some physicians.

Further, a medical ethicist would no longer be required to have a role in developing facility-wide treatment plans for the care. In a memo, the Health Department said that change was made partly because institutions already use medical ethics professionals to develop policies.

In a statement, Siobhan Boyd-Nelson, co-interim executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Ohio, said the changes “will be a massive relief to thousands of transgender people receiving care in Ohio who have spent the last few weeks scrambling to make contingency plans in case their care is cut off.”

But she said major concerns remain about the remaining provisions and that it would have been better for the agencies to rescind the draft rules entirely.

Some parts of the rules regarding care for minors could have a muted effect. Last month, the Legislature banned gender-affirming surgeries and hormone therapies for minors by overriding DeWine’s December veto of that measure, which would allow children already receiving treatment to continue.

That law will take effect in April.

Kennedy, who is only going by her first name, is sharing her story to warn others of the dangers of a commonly used flammable liquid.

Kennedy told doctors she was in her room removing her nail polish before a school basketball game on Jan. 5. The teen is on the cheerleading squad and had to take it off in order to comply with her school’s cheerleading uniform.

While removing the polish near a lit candle, the fumes from the acetone vapor in the nail polish remover ignited the candle and bottle “exploded,” setting Kennedy on fire, according to Shriners Children’s Ohio in Dayton.

“As I was setting the bottle of nail polish remover down on my bed the fumes kind of just mixed together and the bottle exploded in my hand,” Kennedy told People Magazine. “It caught me and everything near me on fire.”

The fire gave her second and third degree burns on her hands, arm, thighs and stomach – roughly 13% of her body was scorched. 

Her parents were at work at the time the fire broke out. As she tried to smother the flames, her siblings rushed into her bedroom to help and called 911. Before paramedics arrived, they put out the fire on Kennedy’s body but closed the door to her burning bedroom, according to People. 

Kennedy was taken to Shriners, a pediatric facility that specializes in burn care, for treatment. Doctors there had to perform major a procedure to clean her wounds and remove the dead skin.

“It was a horrific scene of her being covered in bubbles and welts and her skin being melted away,” Kennedy’s mother, Brandi, told People. “It was a wild experience.”

A little over 10 days later, Kennedy had her first skin graft surgery on her arm, abdomen, hip and upper thigh. A skin graft involves taking healthy skin from one part of the body and moving it to an area with damaged or missing skin, according to the Cleveland Clinic. 

She was discharged soon after and is continuing her treatment with physical and occupational therapy. The hospital says she is “healing remarkably well” as she is determined to get back to cheerleading and to her other favorite hobby, playing the saxophone. 

Videos shared by the hospital show nurses changing her wound dressing and Kennedy successfully completing several therapy tasks. 

“Kennedy’s a little warrior. She really has pushed through everything and they’re really surprised at how well she’s healing,” Brandi told People. “Three weeks later… it’s just amazing how it looks now. Doctors say she’s going to have minimal scarring, minimal everything. Their goal is to make sure she’s comfortable with her body afterwards so we are very appreciative of them.”

Her family is currently living in a nearby hotel because their house was heavily damaged by the January fire. 

Kennedy said she hopes her story will serve as a warning to other families about nail polish’s flammability and the possible injuries that it could cause. 

Acetone, the primary ingredient in nail polish remover, makes it highly flammable. Experts warn that acetone evaporates quickly, creating a flammable vapor that can be ignited by static discharge.

Safety officials say to never use nail polish remover near an open flame and ensure you have proper ventilation to prevent a build up of acetone vapor.

Roughly 210 households in Whitewater Township, about 22 miles west-northwest of Cincinnati in an area near the city airport and the Kentucky state line, were under evacuation orders, officials said Tuesday night. Other residents were under shelter-in-place recommendations, they said at a news conference.

Colorless, odorless gas spewing from the tanker at State Route 128 and U.S. Route 50 was reported to first responders shortly after 1 p.m., Chief Mike Siefke of the Little Miami Joint Fire and Rescue District said during a pair of news conferences.

Authorities determined the chemical is styrene, he said. It’s used in the production of plastic, rubber, fiberglass and other structural material.

The chemical can irritate the respiratory system, cause headaches and disorient those who breathe it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Long-term exposure has been associated with some forms of cancer, the CDC says, but it’s not known as a direct killer.

The threat for the community 22 miles east-northeast of Cincinnati is that the rail car tank has been heating up and will explode if it continues, Siefke said. Firefighters were dousing the container with water in an attempt to reverse its temperature rise, he said.

“This will be a long, long event,” Siefke said.

Environmental officials were taking parts-per-million measurements in the community in an attempt to determine the leak’s impact, the fire chief said.

Some residents may have sought treatment for unknown ailments, but the number of patients and exact nature of their potential injuries was unconfirmed, he said.

Area public schools, the Three Rivers Local School District, shut down instruction early on Tuesday and canceled instruction and all activities scheduled for Wednesday, according to the district website.

It wasn’t yet clear who owns the rail car or its cargo, officials said Tuesday night. A spokesperson for Central Railroad of Indiana said in a statement it was cooperating with first responders.

State Route 128 and U.S. Route 50, which takes motorists from coast to coast, were shut down in both directions near the incident site, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Whitewater Township and Hamilton County officials said the situation will likely remain static overnight as they await input from environmental agencies.

“We’re waiting for the partners that are mitigating this to come up with a strategy,” Hamilton County Director of Communications Andrew Knapp said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Ryan Routh, arrested near Trump’s Florida golf course, is charged with attempted assassination
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The suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with inducing panic and with disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors, for allegedly making a detailed plan to shoot members of Temple Israel in the city of Canton, south of Akron.

He is accused of sharing his plan on the online chat platform Discord, which has been used by previous mass shooters to discuss their plans and in some instances their extremist ideologies before their attack was executed.

The suspect’s “detailed plan to complete a mass shooting” at Temple Israel “was reported to law enforcement and required an immediate investigatory response,” said a Stark County Family Court filing, submitted by the Stark County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office learned of the plot on Sept. 1 and notified the school system, “which caused significant public alarm within those agencies,” the filing said.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

Roughly 210 households in Whitewater Township, about 22 miles west-northwest of Cincinnati in an area near the city airport and the Kentucky state line, were under evacuation orders, officials said Tuesday night. Other residents were under shelter-in-place recommendations, they said at a news conference.

Colorless, odorless gas spewing from the tanker at State Route 128 and U.S. Route 50 was reported to first responders shortly after 1 p.m., Chief Mike Siefke of the Little Miami Joint Fire and Rescue District said during a pair of news conferences.

Authorities determined the chemical is styrene, he said. It’s used in the production of plastic, rubber, fiberglass and other structural material.

The chemical can irritate the respiratory system, cause headaches and disorient those who breathe it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Long-term exposure has been associated with some forms of cancer, the CDC says, but it’s not known as a direct killer.

The threat for the community 22 miles east-northeast of Cincinnati is that the rail car tank has been heating up and will explode if it continues, Siefke said. Firefighters were dousing the container with water in an attempt to reverse its temperature rise, he said.

“This will be a long, long event,” Siefke said.

Environmental officials were taking parts-per-million measurements in the community in an attempt to determine the leak’s impact, the fire chief said.

Some residents may have sought treatment for unknown ailments, but the number of patients and exact nature of their potential injuries was unconfirmed, he said.

Area public schools, the Three Rivers Local School District, shut down instruction early on Tuesday and canceled instruction and all activities scheduled for Wednesday, according to the district website.

It wasn’t yet clear who owns the rail car or its cargo, officials said Tuesday night. A spokesperson for Central Railroad of Indiana said in a statement it was cooperating with first responders.

State Route 128 and U.S. Route 50, which takes motorists from coast to coast, were shut down in both directions near the incident site, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Whitewater Township and Hamilton County officials said the situation will likely remain static overnight as they await input from environmental agencies.

“We’re waiting for the partners that are mitigating this to come up with a strategy,” Hamilton County Director of Communications Andrew Knapp said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Ryan Routh, arrested near Trump’s Florida golf course, is charged with attempted assassination
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The Waverly Police Department said the woman told officers who responded shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday that the 2-year-old boy took her Taurus 9mm firearm from her purse, and it went off.

Police said the bullet went into the ceiling of the store, and the child was left with a minor injury to his forehead “due to contact with the magazine.”

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Police said the woman, whose name wasn’t released, was taken into custody and charged in Pike County Court with endangering children. The boy was released to the care of a guardian and taken to an urgent care facility, police said.

Waverly police said in a statement on their Facebook page that such incidents “underscore the need for heightened awareness and safety measures” and the department “emphasizes the importance of responsible firearm ownership and storage, especially those with children.”

Five vehicles were involved in the crash, including a Pioneer Trails charter bus carrying students and chaperones from the Tuscarawas Valley Local School District in eastern Ohio, said Licking County Emergency Management Agency Director Sean Grady.

Three passengers on the bus, which was carrying a driver and 54 students and chaperones, were pronounced dead at the scene, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said Tuesday night. They were identified as John W. Mosely, 18, of Mineral City; Jeffery D. Worrell, 18, of Bolivar; and Katelyn N. Owens, 15, of Mineral City.

“This is our worst nightmare, when we have a bus full of children involved in a crash,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said during a news conference at the scene. “Prayers go out to the families, everyone who was on the bus.”

A total of 15 students and the bus driver were brought to area hospitals, while other students were taken to a reunification site, officials said.

All three people in one of the passenger vehicles involved were also pronounced dead at the scene, the highway patrol said. They were identified as Dave Kennat, 56, of Navarre; Kristy Gaynor, 39, of Zoar; and Shannon Wigfield, 45, of Bolivar.

The driver of the other passenger vehicle was also taken to a hospital. Of the drivers of the commercial vehicles involved, one was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening and the other was treated at the scene, the highway patrol said.

All of the vehicles were traveling westbound on I-70 in Licking County, about 26 miles (42 kilometers east) of Columbus, about 9 a.m. when the chain-reaction crash happened, and at least three subsequently caught fire as a result of the crash, the highway patrol said. The cause of the crash is under investigation. A team of National Transportation Safety Board investigators was headed to the scene.

The bus was carrying the students and chaperones to an Ohio School Boards Association conference in Columbus, Tuscarawas Valley Superintendent Derek Varansky said.

“Right now, our focus is on getting in touch with our Tusky Valley families who had loved ones on the bus and providing support to our entire school community,” Varansky said in a Facebook post.

The conference was canceled after organizers learned of the crash, said spokesperson Jeff Chambers.

In a written statement, Pioneer Trails offered its condolences to those affected by the crash and said it was cooperating with authorities, but would have no further comment pending the investigation.

The Red Cross sent 30 units of blood to a hospital in the Mount Carmel Health System to help victims, said Marita Salkowski, regional communications director for the American Red Cross of Central and Southern Ohio. A center was set up at a United Methodist Church in Etna where bus passengers not in need of medical attention could go to contact loved ones, she said.

As a line of cars snaked into the Tuscarawas Valley Middle-High School parking lot Tuesday morning, school officials spoke with parents before they went inside to pick up their kids, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

“I’m sick. I’m sick to my stomach,” the newspaper quoted parent Laurie Fragasse as saying when she picked up her daughter.

Numerous emergency workers responded to the crash scene, and Ohio Department of Transportation cameras from the area showed smoke coming from the crash site. Police officers were blocking nearby entrance ramps to I-70 East and West, increasing traffic along the road leading to the interstate.

The Ohio collision was the second recent fatal crash in the U.S. involving high school students on a charter bus. In September, two people were killed and several others injured when a charter bus carrying high school students to band camp veered off a New York highway.

___

Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Ron Todt in Philadelphia; and Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

Roughly 210 households in Whitewater Township, about 22 miles west-northwest of Cincinnati in an area near the city airport and the Kentucky state line, were under evacuation orders, officials said Tuesday night. Other residents were under shelter-in-place recommendations, they said at a news conference.

Colorless, odorless gas spewing from the tanker at State Route 128 and U.S. Route 50 was reported to first responders shortly after 1 p.m., Chief Mike Siefke of the Little Miami Joint Fire and Rescue District said during a pair of news conferences.

Authorities determined the chemical is styrene, he said. It’s used in the production of plastic, rubber, fiberglass and other structural material.

The chemical can irritate the respiratory system, cause headaches and disorient those who breathe it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Long-term exposure has been associated with some forms of cancer, the CDC says, but it’s not known as a direct killer.

The threat for the community 22 miles east-northeast of Cincinnati is that the rail car tank has been heating up and will explode if it continues, Siefke said. Firefighters were dousing the container with water in an attempt to reverse its temperature rise, he said.

“This will be a long, long event,” Siefke said.

Environmental officials were taking parts-per-million measurements in the community in an attempt to determine the leak’s impact, the fire chief said.

Some residents may have sought treatment for unknown ailments, but the number of patients and exact nature of their potential injuries was unconfirmed, he said.

Area public schools, the Three Rivers Local School District, shut down instruction early on Tuesday and canceled instruction and all activities scheduled for Wednesday, according to the district website.

It wasn’t yet clear who owns the rail car or its cargo, officials said Tuesday night. A spokesperson for Central Railroad of Indiana said in a statement it was cooperating with first responders.

State Route 128 and U.S. Route 50, which takes motorists from coast to coast, were shut down in both directions near the incident site, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Whitewater Township and Hamilton County officials said the situation will likely remain static overnight as they await input from environmental agencies.

“We’re waiting for the partners that are mitigating this to come up with a strategy,” Hamilton County Director of Communications Andrew Knapp said.

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Aimenn D. Penny, 20, of Alliance, Ohio, threw Molotov cocktails at the Community Church of Chesterland on March 25, hoping to torch it because it had scheduled upcoming drag events, according to court documents.

Penny pleaded guilty to using fire and explosives to commit a felony and to violating the Church Arson Prevention Act, legislation President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1996 in response to a string of attacks on Black churches.

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Penny faces up to 20 years behind bars, according to the Justice Department. His sentencing was set for Jan. 29.

When Penny was arrested this year, federal agents searched his home and found a “hand-written manifesto that contained ideological statements, a Nazi flag, Nazi memorabilia, a White Lives Matter of Ohio T-shirt, a gas mask, multiple rolls of blue painters tape and gas cans,” a criminal complaint said.

The court document called “White Lives Matter” a group with “racist, pro-Nazi, and homophobic views.”

Read the full story on NBCNews.com.

Breanne McKean, a senior at Mapleton High School, collapsed on the field shortly after she was announced as a contender for homecoming queen, Superintendent Scott Smith said.

The school district said McKean suffered a medical emergency.

“Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to the McKean family, friends and the Mapleton community,” the district said in a statement posted to Facebook.

Read the full story on NBC News.com here

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Brooklyn High School coach Tim McFarland and his players repeatedly used the word “Nazi” as a play call in a game against Beachwood High School. Beachwood, a Cleveland suburb, is roughly 90% Jewish, according to the latest survey published in 2011 by the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

The Brooklyn team stopped using the term in the second half of the game after Beachwood threatened to pull their players from the field, according to statement from Beachwood Schools Superintendent Robert Hardis. However, several Brooklyn players continued to direct racial slurs at Beachwood players during the game, the statement read.

McFarland handed in his notice of resignation Monday morning. Brooklyn Schools Superintendent Ted Caleris said in a statement that McFarland “expresses his deepest regret” and that he and the school apologize for “hurtful and harmful speech” that will “not be tolerated.”

Caleris also stated that Brooklyn High School has been contacted by the Anti-Defamation League of Ohio and hopes to use them as a resource going forward from the incident.

Hardis confirmed in a statement that the two school districts are in close contact and that Brooklyn has been “appropriately concerned and apologetic.”

“This is not the first time Beachwood student-athletes have been subjected to antisemitic and racist speech,” Hardis also said. “We always hope it will be the last.”

The statements did not mention disciplinary action toward the players involved.

Antisemitism in the United States has risen significantly in recent years, with no signs of declining, according to a study by Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League. From 2021 to 2022, the number of antisemitic incidents rose by 35%.

Samantha Hendrickson 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.

Body camera footage obtained by The Associated Press showed the Sept. 15 interaction between the father and two officers. The father angrily closed the door after one of the officers told him his daughter could face charges for producing or recording child sexual abuse images despite being a victim.

The parent posted to TikTok a now-viral security video of the conversation, which has generated widespread criticism of the police’s response.

The officers’ conduct is being investigated, as well as any crime that may have been committed against the girl, Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said in a statement late Tuesday. She also said the department reached out to apologize to the father.

Police have not released the father’s name, and the AP does not identify victims of alleged sexual abuse or domestic violence. He didn’t immediately respond to phone messages or on social media from the AP on Wednesday seeking comment.

WHAT OFFICERS SAID

Both the security video and the audio from the redacted body camera footage show the officers talking with the father outside his home after midnight.

He tells the officers his daughter is already asleep, and that he had hoped they could help talk to her about the seriousness of the situation. The female officer quickly tells him that his daughter could be charged with creating sexually explicit content.

The father protests and says that she is a child who was manipulated by an adult, according to the police report and the father’s TikTok video. The officer asks him if she was taking pictures, and the father ends the conversation.

In audio of the body camera footage, the female officer can be heard asserting again as she walks away from the house, “She’s taking pictures of herself naked. She’s creating child porn.”

In a preliminary incident report, the officer lists the possible charge under investigation as “pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor” for creating or producing material, and cites a portion of the Ohio law that prohibits the creation, recording or publishing of child sexual abuse materials. A separate portion of the law that wasn’t cited prohibits knowingly soliciting, receiving, purchasing or possessing that material.

In a statement Tuesday, the police chief repeatedly referred to the 11-year-old as the victim of a crime. She said that the officers’ conduct did not live up to her expectations that officers “treat every victim of crime with compassion, decency and dignity.”

WHAT RECORDS SHOW

The AP also obtained the audio from the father’s police call and a dispatch log with notes called in from the responding officers.

According to the dispatch log, the father called 911 around 6:50 p.m. on Sept. 14 and was told they would send a female officer. He called again at about 7:50 p.m. to say the response was taking too long. Officers showed up at the family’s home more than five hours later, after midnight on Sept. 15.

Video footage shows the father informing the officers his daughter is asleep and saying he wasn’t sure what they could do.

The police report identifies the officers as Kelsie Schneider and Brian Weiner. A number listed for Schneider went straight to voicemail. Weiner answered a call but asked a reporter not to contact him.

The notes from officers in the log and in the incident report place blame on the father for ending the conversation before they could discuss possible outcomes, saying he became “immediately upset.”

REMAINING QUESTIONS

Despite the police chief’s statement referring to the child as a victim, Columbus police have not responded to questions about whether she could still face charges.

A police spokesperson has also not answered whether any other children have faced charges in Columbus under Ohio’s laws about child sexual abuse material. It was unclear whether the department has a policy regarding charging minors with those crimes.

Police said the actions of the officers was referred to the Inspector General’s office and are under review.

One of the responding officers wrote in the incident report that she had contacted detectives in the sexual assault section, citing “the severity of the crime and the lack of cooperation” and had been advised to “take a miscellaneous incident report.” It was unclear why an officer from the sexual assault section or child exploitation division did not respond to the call as well as why the response was so delayed.

“When you’re talking about air taxis, that’s the future,” Republican Gov. Mike DeWine told The Associated Press. “We find this very, very exciting — not only for the direct jobs and indirect jobs it’s going to create, but like Intel, it’s a signal to people that Ohio is looking to the future. This is a big deal for us.”

Around the world, electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL aircraft are entering the mainstream, though questions remain about noise levels and charging demands. Still, developers say the planes are nearing the day when they will provide a wide-scale alternative to shuttle individual people or small groups from rooftops and parking garages to their destinations, while avoiding the congested thoroughfares below.

Joby’s decision to locate its first scaled manufacturing facility at a 140-acre site at Dayton International Airport delivers on two decades of groundwork laid by the state’s leaders, Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said. Importantly, the site is near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the headquarters of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratories.

“For a hundred years, the Dayton area has been a leader in aviation innovation,” Husted said. “But capturing a large-scale manufacturer of aircraft has always eluded the local economy there. With this announcement, that aspiration has been realized.”

The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, lived and worked in Dayton. In 1910, they opened the first U.S. airplane factory there. To connect the historical dots, Joby’s formal announcement Monday took place at Orville Wright’s home, Hawthorn Hill, and concluded with a ceremonial flypast of a replica of the Wright Model B Flyer.

Joby’s production aircraft is designed to transport a pilot and four passengers at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, with a maximum range of 100 miles. Its quiet noise profile is barely audible against the backdrop of most cities, the company said. The plan is to place them in aerial ridesharing networks beginning in 2025.

The efforts of the Santa Cruz, California-based company are supported by partnerships with Toyota, Delta Air Lines, Intel and Uber. Joby is a 14-year-old company that went public in 2021 and became the first eVTOL firm to receive U.S. Air Force airworthiness certification.

The $500 million project is supported by up to $325 million in incentives from the state of Ohio, its JobsOhio economic development office and local government. With the funds, Joby plans to build an Ohio facility capable of delivering up to 500 aircraft a year and creating 2,000 jobs. The U.S. Department of Energy has invited Joby to apply for a loan to support development of the facility as a clean energy project.

Joby CEO JoeBen Bevirt told the AP that the company chose Ohio after an extensive and competitive search. Its financial package wasn’t the largest, but the chance to bring the operation to the birthplace of aviation — with a workforce experienced in the field — sealed the deal, he said.

“Ohio is the No. 1 state when it comes to supplying parts for Boeing and Airbus,” Bevirt said. “Ohio is No. 3 in the nation on manufacturing jobs — and that depth of manufacturing prowess, that workforce, is critical to us as we look to build this manufacturing facility.

JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef noted that its dedication to aviation has carried the Dayton area through serious economic challenges. That included the loss of tens of thousands of auto and auto parts manufacturing jobs in the early 2000s and the loss of ATM maker NCR Corp.’s headquarters to an Atlanta suburb in 2009.

“This marries that heritage and legacy of innovation in aviation with our nuts and bolts of manufacturing,” Nauseef said. “It really marries those two together, and that’s never been married together before — not in this town. For a community the size of Dayton and Springfield, (whose people) take great pride, (and) have had rough, rough decades, it’s a wonderful project.”

Bevirt said operations and hiring will begin immediately from existing buildings near the development site, contingent upon clearing the standard legal and regulatory hurdles. The site is large enough to eventually accommodate 2 square feet of manufacturing space.

Construction on the manufacturing facility is expected to begin in 2024, with production to begin in 2025.

Toyota, a long-term investor, worked with Joby in 2019 to design and to successfully launch its pilot production line in Marina, California. The automaker will continue to advise Joby as it prepares for scaled production of its commercial passenger air taxi, the company said.

The announcement comes as a bipartisan group of Ohio’s congressional representatives has recently stepped up efforts to lure the U.S. Air Force’s new U.S. Space Command headquarters or Space Force units to Ohio. There, too, state leaders cite the aerospace legacy of the Wrights, as well as Ohio-born astronauts John Glenn and Neil Armstrong.

Jose Ervin Jr. and his fiancée, Scierra Blair, celebrated their birthday on Aug. 18 by welcoming newborn twins Jose Ervin III and his slightly younger sister A-ria, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

For their family, that day each year will now include a lot of cake, presents and birthday song renditions.

“We can just do one big celebration, do it all at one time, and that would be beautiful,” Ervin told People.

Blair’s due date was not until the end of the month, but she was told by her doctor on Aug. 17 that she needed to go to the hospital for a cesarean section because one of the babies was in a breech position, according to People. 

After arriving at the hospital at around 4:30 p.m., and ensuring there was no further risk involved, Ervin asked the soon-to-be mother of his children if she could hold out until after midnight so all four family members will have been born on the same day, per People.

“Since she was in good health and wasn’t stressed, and the kids were in good health and weren’t stressed, I thought, ‘Why not wait?’” Ervin told People.

Jose was born at 12:35 a.m. and A-ria followed one minute later, with each weighing in at just over five pounds. That made their mom’s 32nd birthday and their dad’s 31st birthday a very memorable one.

“Best birthday present ever,” Ervin said.

Trooper Tyler Ross of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said there were 52 children from Northwestern Local Schools and a driver on the bus at the time of the crash shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday on Route 41 in Lawrenceville.

He said an eastbound minivan went into the lane of the westbound bus, which veered onto the shoulder but was unable to avoid contact with the minivan and overturned. One student ejected from the bus was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.

Thirteen children were taken to hospitals by emergency medical personnel and 10 others were brought to hospitals by family members or other personal means. Of the 23 total injuries among those on the bus, 22 were described as non-life-threatening and one child was seriously injured and was taken to Children’s Hospital.

The minivan driver and a passenger were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

A third-grader who was on the bus described the crash in an interview with NBC affiliate WLWT. She said when the van hit them, “we bounced a couple of times. Then, next thing we knew, we were upside down. Everyone was screaming and crying.”

The girl’s mother, who asked to only be identified by her first name, Kirsten, told the station that her daughter is scarred emotionally by the crash and no longer wants to ride the bus to school.

“They were all excited. It was the first day of school, and they didn’t even make it down the road,” Kristen said. “They’re all going to be traumatized.”

The school district, where classes were to begin today, said a parent reunification center was set up at the nearby German Township Firehouse.

Mackenzie Shirilla, 19, faced life in prison after she was convicted in a bench trial on Aug. 14 on 12 counts, including murder, for the July 2022 crash.

Shirilla, then 17, drove without braking into a brick building in the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville. Her boyfriend Dominic Russo, 20, and his friend Davion Flanagan, 19, were pronounced dead at the scene. 

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret said at Shirilla’s verdict: “She had a mission, and she executed it with precision. The mission was death.”

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Mackenzie Shirilla, 19, was found guilty of 12 counts last Monday, including four counts of murder, in the July 2022 crash in Strongsville, Ohio, which killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and his friend Davion Flanagan, 19.

Prosecutors argued at the four-day trial that the couple fought and that Shirilla made violent threats — including once threatening to crash her car with Russo in it, which she ultimately deliberately did to end their tumultuous relationship.

“We put plenty of that sort of evidence in front of the judge,” Tim Troup of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office told NBC affiliate WKYC of Cleveland after the verdict. “There is no doubt that this happened because of the relationship with Dominic, and the defendant’s intent was clearly to end that, and she took everybody that was in the car with her.”

During the trial, security video of the crash played in the courtroom — showing her vehicle zoom on a street and crash with a roar into a building, with no signs of slowing down.

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But Frank Russo, 61, the father of her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, doesn’t support sending Shirilla to jail for life. 

“It’s horrible for everybody. Yeah, I lost my son, it’s harder on our family, but I don’t want the rest of her life ruined too. It isn’t going to make me feel any better,” he told NBC News Friday. 

 “The whole thing’s just a shame,” he added.

Shirilla was 17 when she crashed into a building around 5:30 a.m. on July 31, 2022, in Strongsville, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb. The passengers — Russo and Davion Flanagan, 19 — were pronounced dead at the scene. She miraculously survived.

Last week, a judge found Shirilla, now 19, guilty of 12 counts — including four counts of murder — after a four-day bench trial. Her sentencing is set for Monday.

Read the full story at NBCNews.com here.

Congress passed the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act in 2000. It allows the government to auction or give away “federally-owned historic light stations that have been declared excess to the needs of the responsible agency.”

“I thought a lighthouse would be a great opportunity to combine a summer home and my love of historic preservation,” Consaul tells CNBC Make It.

Consaul had previously restored a historic home and the idea of taking on a lighthouse sounded fascinating.

The Fairport Harbor West Lighthouse in Ohio became available at auction and Consaul started bidding in 2009. She landed the winning bid of $71,010 in 2011.

Built in 1925, the lighthouse has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, three floors, and is almost 3,000 square feet. It was abandoned in the late 1940s and Consaul is the first person to live in the lighthouse since then.

Consaul lives in the lighthouse from May to October and it sits empty when she’s at her primary home outside of Washington D.C.

When Consaul took possession of the structure that had been abandoned for over 70 years, it needed a lot of work. All of the windows were broken, plaster was falling off the walls, and it “needed painting, desperately,” she says.

To purchase the lighthouse and to pay for the initial renovations, Consaul used a home equity loan of $200,000, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Consaul started renovating in the summer of 2012, and over 10 years later, the project is almost done. “The renovation process has been long and arduous,” she says.

The property is a half mile from the nearest parking lot in Headlands Beach State Park, so big appliances like the stove and refrigerator needed to be transported by boat and then delivered by crane onto the platform of the lighthouse.

Since buying the lighthouse, Consaul estimates she has spent over $300,000 renovating it.

Most of that money went towards adding an eat-in kitchen, state-of-the-art water treatment equipment, rewiring all of the electrical, plumbing, redoing the windows, and refurbishing the wooden floors.

Other than the extensive work the lighthouse needed, Consaul says her biggest challenge so far is that the lighthouse is completely off the grid. She depends on her gasoline-powered generator, solar power, and wind power.

Despite going over her initial $200,000 renovation budget, for Consaul the time and effort has been worth it. “This was a great challenge, a great opportunity, and I loved every minute of it,” she says.

Though Consaul owns the lighthouse itself, the land it sits on belongs to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which means she had to pay $2,500 for a 25-year lease.

Fairport Harbor West Lighthouse is still a working lighthouse and is used as an aide to navigation, so Consaul has the responsibility of working with the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Weather Service, and the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office when necessary.

The lighthouse’s beacon is still maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard. The light turns on every night at dusk and goes off at dawn.

When Consaul bought the lighthouse, she knew that it was also a beacon for her new community. It’s why she has hosted open houses to celebrate the lighthouse’s birthday, June 9, nearly every year since 2012.

“One thing that was very important to me when I bought this lighthouse was that I understood that this was part of this community of Fairport Harbor,” she says.

As long as she owns the lighthouse, Consaul will continue offering private tours and said that if she lives out the 25-year lease, she plans to renew.

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The defeat of Issue 1 keeps in place a simple majority threshold for passing future constitutional amendments. It would have raised that to a 60% supermajority, which supporters said would protect the state’s foundational document from outside interest groups.

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While abortion was not directly on the special election ballot, the result marks the latest setback for Republicans in a conservative-leaning state who favor imposing tough restrictions on the procedure. Ohio Republicans placed the question on the summer ballot in hopes of undercutting a citizen initiative voters will decide in November that seeks to enshrine abortion rights in the state.

Dennis Willard, a spokesperson for the opposition campaign One Person One Vote, called Issue 1 a “deceptive power grab” that was intended to diminish the power of the state’s voters.

“Tonight is a major victory for democracy in Ohio,” Willard told a jubilant crowd at the opposition campaign’s watch party. “The majority still rules in Ohio.”

A major national group that opposes abortion rights, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called the result “a sad day for Ohio” while criticizing the outside money that helped the opposition. In fact, both sides relied on national groups and individuals in their campaigns.

Other states where voters have considered abortion rights since last year’s Supreme Court ruling have protected them, including in red states such as Kansas and Kentucky.

Interest in the special election was intense, even after Republicans ignored their own law that took effect earlier this year to place the question before voters in August. Voters cast nearly 700,000 early in-person and mail ballots ahead of Tuesday’s final day of voting, more than double the number of advance votes in a typical primary election. Early turnout was especially heavy in the Democratic-leaning counties surrounding Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.

One Person One Vote represented a broad, bipartisan coalition of voting rights, labor, faith and community groups. The group also had as allies four living ex-governors of the state and five former state attorneys general of both parties, who called the proposed change bad public policy.

In place since 1912, the simple majority standard is a much more surmountable hurdle for Ohioans for Reproductive Rights, the group advancing November’s abortion rights amendment. It would establish “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom” with “reasonable limits.”

Voters in several states have approved ballot questions protecting access to abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, but typically have done so with less than 60% of the vote. AP VoteCast polling last year found that 59% of Ohio voters say abortion should generally be legal.

The result came in the very type of August special election that Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a candidate for U.S. Senate, had previously testified against as undemocratic because of historically low turnout. Republican lawmakers just last year had voted to mostly eliminate such elections, a law they ignored for this year’s election.

Voters’ rejection of the proposal marked a rare rebuke for Ohio Republicans, who have held power across every branch of state government for 12 years.

Ohio Right to Life, the state’s oldest and largest anti-abortion group and a key force behind the special election measure, vowed to continue fighting into the fall.

But some riders got more than that earlier this week when Cedar Point’s Magnum XL-200 roller coaster malfunctioned near the top of its 205-foot peak.

While approaching the top of the roller coaster, the train abruptly stopped and riders were forced to evacuate by walking down a steep incline of steps on the side of the track.

Josh Lett, a visitor at the park, posted the video of riders walking down the roller coaster on his Facebook page.

A park spokesman blamed a mechanical issue for the “standard ride stoppage” as everyone got down safely.

Cedar Point, an amusement park located in Sandusky, Ohio, opened the Magnum XL-200 in 1989 as the fastest and steepest complete-circuit coaster in the world.

The Butler County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Friday that searches of two locations tied to the nonprofit Helping Hands for Furry Paws also turned up 90 living dogs kept in inhumane conditions.

Suspect Rhonda Murphy is described as the organization’s owner and operator. She faced “dozens of charges of neglect and cruelty to companion animals, both felony and misdemeanor,” the office said.

It wasn’t clear if she was arrested, booked, or formally charged. Court records turned up no information on the matter, and Murphy wasn’t listed as an inmate.

It wasn’t clear if Murphy had legal representation. The public defender for the area did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The sheriff’s office said its dog wardens and humane officers found the dead dogs at a rescue location that was one of two addresses searched in Madison Township.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

The Circleville Police Department said Ryan Speakman “did not meet the standards and expectations we hold for our police officers” and his termination is “effective immediately.” His firing comes a day after the department said he was on paid administrative leave, which is standard during use-of-force investigations.

The town’s civilian police review board has found Speakman didn’t violate department policy when he deployed the dog, Wednesday’s police statement said, adding that the review board doesn’t have the authority to recommend discipline.

Department officials said they would have no further comment on the matter “at this time” since it’s a personnel matter. Messages seeking comment from Speakman were not immediately returned.

The Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, a police union Speakman belongs to, said Wednesday it had filed a grievance on his behalf and that he was fired without just cause.

Speakman, who joined the Circleville department in February 2020, deployed his police dog following a lengthy pursuit on July 4 involving the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The episode was captured on a police body camera.

Troopers tried to stop a commercial semitruck that was missing a mudflap and failed to halt for an inspection, according to a highway patrol incident report. The nearby Circleville Police Department was called in to assist.

The 23-year-old truck driver, Jadarrius Rose of Memphis, Tennessee, initially refused to get out of the truck and later defied instructions to get on the ground, according to the incident report and the body cam video. Rose eventually got on his knees and raised his hands in the air.

The body camera video shows Speakman holding back the K9, and a trooper can be heard off-camera repeatedly yelling, “Do not release the dog with his hands up!” However, Speakman deploys the dog and it can be seen in the video attacking Rose, who yells “Get it off! Please! Please!”

Rose was treated at a hospital for dog bites.

He was charged with failure to comply, and hasn’t responded to an email sent Monday seeking comment. Attorney Benjamin Partee, who is representing Rose, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It’s not clear why he refused to stop for police. Rose is Black, and Speakman is white. Rose told The Columbus Dispatch that he couldn’t talk about why he didn’t stop. But when asked about the video, told the newspaper: “I’m just glad that it was recorded. What you saw is what, pretty much, happened.”

Audio recordings of 911 calls show Rose told emergency dispatchers that the officers pursuing him were “trying to kill” him and he didn’t feel safe pulling over. He also said he was confused about why the officers were trying to stop him and why they had their guns drawn after he briefly stopped the truck before driving away.

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Samantha Hendrickson 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.

The lengthy pursuit on July 4 and the ensuing attack were captured on a police body camera. Authorities said the chase began on state highway 35, when officers tried to stop a commercial semitruck that was missing a mud flap and had failed to stop for an inspection.

State troopers were called in to help with the chase, authorities said. The driver, Jadarrius Rose, 23, of Memphis, Tennessee, who is Black, initially refused to get out of the truck and later defied directives to get on the ground, according to an Ohio State Highway Patrol incident report.

“The suspect failed to stop for marked patrol units with lights and sirens activated,” the report said. He eventually got on his knees and raised his hands in the air. NBC News reported that Rose told a trooper who was instructing him to get out of his vehicle that he was on the phone with 911, according to the report.

The body cam video shows an officer with the Circleville Police Department holding back the K9, and a trooper can be heard repeatedly yelling, “Do not release the dog with his hands up!” However, the officer deployed the dog, and it can be seen in the video attacking Rose.

A trooper can be heard yelling repeatedly, “Get the dog off of him!” and Rose appears to be in pain and yelling “Get it off! Please! Please!” before the attack ends. Rose was treated at a hospital for dog bites.

Rose was charged with failure to comply. A phone number or other contact information for Rose could not immediately located. It’s not clear why he refused to stop for the inspector and police. He told The Columbus Dispatch that he couldn’t talk about why he didn’t stop but, when asked about the video, told the newspaper “I’m just glad that it was recorded. What you saw is what, pretty much, happened.”

The name of the Circleville officer has not been released, although NBC News identifies him as R. Speakman.

Officials in the Circleville department have not said if he’ll face any disciplinary action. They also declined to comment on the investigation.

Police said preliminary information indicated someone opened fire toward a group of people in the Warehouse District shortly before 2:30 a.m. Sunday as the clubs were closing. The suspect apparently fled.

Chief Wayne Drummond of the Cleveland police department said seven men and two women between the ages of 23 to 38 were struck. One of the men was seriously wounded while injuries to the others were minor, he said.

Officers assigned to the district’s weekly detail arrived quickly to help the victims, after which they were taken to MetroHealth Medical Center. A suspect was being sought and investigators were looking for surveillance video from the many cameras in the area.

Police said there was no indication a confrontation at any of the area clubs preceded the gunfire.

No arrests were immediately reported. Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to contact them.

Mayor Justin Bibb called it a “tragic and sad day” that “truly shows the massive gun problem we have, not just in Cleveland, not just in Ohio, but across this nation.” Bibb called on state and national legislators to give city leaders more tools to crack down on the proliferation of firearms.

“I am sick and tired of getting these calls late at night,” he said. “I am sick and tired of hearing from our residents and victims of gun violence, and Republicans blaming us as mayors for violent crime. We need their help.”

Officials said a large police presence is on hand in the district every weekend and officers and first responders responded immediately, as did the sheriff’s department.

The shooter fired into a crowd despite the visible presence of police officers, Drummond said, adding that even “2,000 more officers” wouldn’t have stopped what happened. He called for a “wholistic” approach including “economic development, prevention, intervention, opportunities” to help turn things around.

The shooting occurred at 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning in the city’s warehouse district, the Cleveland Police Department said in a press release. There were no fatalities in the incident, but all nine victims did have gunshot wounds.

Investigators interviewed the victims and are reviewing video evidence. Police have not identified a suspect or given a description of the shooter.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

Johnathan Baker, 23, allegedly took the girl after a dispute with his girlfriend Tuesday in the village of North Baltimore, the police chief in Tiffin, roughly 90 miles southwest of Cleveland, said in a statement Wednesday that

Hours after the fatal crash, the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office said that the man who abducted the child “was feeling homicidal and suicidal. He also claimed to have killed the baby.”

After the local police department sent out a “be on the lookout” alert, an off-duty officer in Tiffin, roughly 30 miles away, spotted the Camaro and provided its location for responding officers and deputies, the sheriff’s office said.

When an officer and deputy approached the car, it accelerated “at a high speed and erratically drove off the roadway striking a house at full speed,” the sheriff’s office said.

No one was home at the time, Pauly said.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

Kristel Candelario, 31, was arrested and charged with murder after her baby girl, Jailyn, was found unresponsive at their home at 3129 W. 97th St., police said.

There were “no signs of trauma,” and the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office’s investigation revealed that “the child had been left alone and unattended for approximately 10 days and had subsequently died,” police said in a statement.

Candelario had been vacationing in Puerto Rico and Detroit, according to a police affidavit written in support of her arrest.

Candelario admitted to police that she left Jailyn “at home, all alone and unattended,” the affidavit written by Detective Thelemon Powell Jr. revealed.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

Police Chief David Smith of Norwalk told reporters Tuesday that he was one of the officers who responded shortly after 1 p.m. Friday after multiple calls to 911 from the woman.

The 31-year-old victim told 911 operators she had been shot in the back, went into shock and couldn’t breathe, Smith said. Police found her still conscious on her bedroom floor with a Sig Sauer Micro 9mm gun resting on the nightstand.

“She explained she was 33 weeks pregnant, and her 2-year-old just accidentally shot her in the back,” Smith said.

The victim was rushed to Fisher-Titus Medical Center for an emergency cesarean section, but doctors weren’t able to save the baby. The mother died three hours later, authorities said.

Smith said the house was full of safety features, but baby gates that were usually closed had been left open. The victim was doing laundry in the bedroom, which was usually locked, and apparently didn’t realize the child had followed her before he started playing with the gun and it discharged, Smith said.

Police said a loaded shotgun and rifle were also found in the home. Smith urged families to lock up guns and never leave them loaded and unattended. No arrests have been made in the case.

“Trigger locks, gun safes, there’s a million varieties, and they aren’t that expensive. At the very least, leave them unloaded,” he said.

“Words truly cannot express how heartbreaking this is, and we cannot imagine the pain and heartache,” the department said in a statement.

Police responded to the home in Monroe Township shortly before 4:30 p.m., WKRC-TV reported.

Officers found three boys, ages 3, 4 and 7, outside the home with gunshot wounds and performed life-saving measures but the children died at the scene, the station reported.

Police said a 34-year-old woman, who was not immediately identified, was outside the home suffering a gunshot to the hand and was transported to hospital, WKRC reported.

Chad Doerman, 32, was taken into custody at the scene and was believed to be the father of the children. He was charged with three counts of aggravated murder, WKRC reported.

A pair of 911 calls reported children had been shot and a girl was running down the street saying her father was killing people, the station reported.

The Clermont County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a message from The Associated Press seeking confirmation of the news report and additional details of the shooting.

Monroe Township is located about 75 miles (120 km) west of Columbus, Ohio.