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Inside the final hours of Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa
SANTA FE, N.M. ― One of the last times anyone saw Betsy Arakawa in public, she was strolling through the aisles of a CVS Pharmacy in Santa Fe, her face covered by a mask, likely due to the virus ravaging her lungs.
Within hours, she was dead.
Security cameras captured Arakawa’s image during her visit to the pharmacy on Feb. 11, the last day she is believed to have been alive. The longtime wife and main caregiver of actor Gene Hackman, Arakawa had busied herself with errands that day: Sending an email, stopping at the pharmacy, doing some grocery shopping.
Most notable was what she didn’t do. She failed to swing by Gruda Veterinary Hospital in southwest Santa Fe to pick up the prescription dog food and medication she had ordered for one of her three dogs, Zinna, Bear and Nikita.
Arakawa had been taking her dogs to that vet for years and never once missed a food or meds pickup. The following week, sometime after Feb. 17, Gruda’s staff tried calling Arakawa on her cell phone to remind her the food was ready. No one picked up.
“She was devoted to those dogs,” Robert Gruda, the hospital’s owner, told USA TODAY in an interview. “She was consistent, predictable. We knew something was wrong when she didn’t pick up the food on time.”
Unbeknownst to Gruda and his staff, Arakawa, 65, was already dead, splayed on a bathroom floor of the Santa Fe home she shared with Hackman, seized by a rare but potentially lethal disease spread by rodents.
Hackman, 95, racked by advanced Alzheimer’s disease, lived another week after his wife expired, then died in a mudroom on the other side of the house, a cane and sunglasses nearby. What exactly did Hackman do during that time? Did he even know his wife was dead? Was he aware that one of the couple’s dogs, Zinna, a 12-year-old Australian Kelpie mix, had also died while locked in a crate in the home?
News of the couple’s twin deaths has rattled and baffled the Santa Fe community, where they were at once pillars and reclusive. On Friday, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza and other officials held a press conference to reveal details on the causes and dates of their deaths.
Yet, more questions remain. How and why, for example, did Arakawa, by all accounts a youthful, energetic woman, contract the hantavirus and die so suddenly?
“I’m more confused and really devastated even more,” Santa Fe restaurateur Doug Lanham, a close friend of the couple and Hackman’s former business partner, said after the press conference. “How do you connect all these dots?”
Gene Hackman arrives at the 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, Calif., on Jan. 19, 2003.
‘An excellent dog owner, excellent caretaker’
Arakawa began bringing her dogs to the Gruda Veterinary Hospital several years ago and quickly became a favorite at the animal hospital. She reliably brought the dogs to appointments and chatted with staff and Gruda. She regularly called Zinna by her full name, Zinfandel, and confided to Gruda that she was named after Hackman’s favorite wine varietal.
“She was an excellent dog owner, excellent caretaker to those dogs,” he said. “She really doted on them.”
One of the last times the hospital staff saw Arakawa was in late January, when she came in to pick up Zinna, who had had “major surgery,” Gruda said. She was her typical, alert self, he said.
The staff instructed her to confine Zinna to a crate, to keep her from running around and undoing the effects of the surgery, Gruda said.
“She was friendly, dutiful,” he said of Arakawa. “That’s how we make a living, with owners that care for their animals and see us consistently.”
Timeline: The deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife: What we know
By this time, even the couple’s closest friends were seeing them less and less around town. Lanham, who used to golf regularly with Hackman and dine with the couple, hadn’t seen them in more than five years.
A few weeks after picking up Zinna from the hospital, on Feb. 11, Arakawa began her day by exchanging emails with a massage therapist around 11:21 a.m., according to Mendoza, the sheriff. She later shopped at a Sprouts Farmer Market grocery store between 3:30 and 4:15 p.m., then visited a CVS Pharmacy. Surveillance footage showed her wearing a mask, he said.
Arakawa returned home around 5:15 p.m. and used a remote to open the gate at Santa Fe Summit, the gated community in the foothills just outside of Santa Fe where the couple had lived for decades.
She made it inside the sprawling, 9,000-square-foot home. But by now, the hantavirus was clawing its way into her lungs. Her hours were numbered.
Tough guy, everyman: Gene Hackman pursued anonymity and a private artist life in Santa Fe
A rare but deadly rodent disease
First discovered in 1993, the hantavirus began spreading from the Southwest to across the U.S. Humans contract it by breathing in aerosolized urine, feces or saliva from a rodent – in New Mexico, the tiny deer mouse is usually the culprit.
Cases are rare. As of 2024, New Mexico had seen only 136 infections over the past 50 years, with just five of those in Santa Fe County, according to Erin Phipps, the state public health veterinarian. Dogs don’t get the disease, and the strain found in the U.S. can’t spread from human to human, she said.
Symptoms are akin to getting the flu: body aches, fever, abdominal pain. But the disease could quickly turn deadly. After incubation the virus for anywhere from three to four weeks and up to eight weeks, an infected person’s lungs will begin to fill with fluids that escape through capillaries, triggering coughing and shortness of breath, said Greg Mertz, professor emeritus of internal medicine and former chief of the division of infectious diseases at the University of New Mexico.
Hantavirus has a staggering mortality rate of between 35% and 50%, according to health officials.
“Unfortunately, it could progress to cardiogenic shock over a period of a few hours,” he said. “Even in a hospital, most deaths occur within the first day.”
During cardiogenic shock, the heart stops pumping adequate blood supply to the organs. Blood pressure plummets and the patient lapses into cardiac arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat. From there, it’s very difficult to save an infected person, Mertz said.
The virus is difficult to detect, as many of the symptoms are akin to the flu, he said. There is no medicine to combat it and, once it spreads, it’s hard to stop it from overwhelming the body.
Mertz said he was treating a patient once with hantavirus at University of New Mexico Hospital. The patient was sitting on a hospital bed and began complaining about feeling ill. Their blood pressure dropped and they went into shock, he said. Within 20 minutes, the patient was dead.
“It’s a pretty horrific progression,” Mertz said. “There aren’t a lot of diseases with higher mortality rates.”
Deadly disease: Gene Hackman’s wife died from Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome. What to know about disease
‘Come over here! Come over here!’
Around 1:43 p.m. on Feb. 26, a maintenance man who had done work on the Hackman home for years visited the property and found the front door ajar. He peeked through a window and saw Arakawa lying on the floor. He then notified another maintenance man who works for the subdivision, who called 9-1-1.
Paramedics with the Santa Fe Fire Department arrived at the scene, pushed open the front door and saw Arakawa lying on the nearby bathroom floor, Fire Chief Brian Moya said. She looked deceased, so they retreated back outside and radioed the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office for backup, as per protocol.
Backed by several sheriff’s deputies, the two paramedics and three other Santa Fe firefighters inspected Arakawa’s body, which had noticeable signs of decomposition. A bottle of prescription thyroid medication was on the bathroom counter, loose pills spread across the countertop.
The first responders then fanned out through the sprawling four-bedroom home, meticulously checking bedrooms, hallways, bathrooms and closets for other people or signs of foul play, Moya said. Thirty minutes passed without a sign of anyone else.
Mistaken identity Sheriff’s office makes error about Gene Hackman’s dog in initial death report
As they searched, one of the couple’s dogs kept running up to them, barking and running off in a different direction, he said. At first, paramedics thought the dog wanted to play. Then, they realized it wanted them to follow.
“They realized [the dog] was trying to say, ‘Hey, come over here! Come over here!’” Moya said.
The dog led them to a mudroom in the far end of the home, next to the kitchen. It then sat next to the body of Hackman, who was crumpled on the floor. Sunglasses and a cane laid nearby. His hands were blackened and showed signs of decomposition, Moya said. A back door was propped open, allowing the dogs to go in and out of the home.
Firefighters went through the home and two detached structures on the property with handheld six-gas monitors, measuring oxygen levels and looking for signs of harmful gases, such as carbon monoxide. The readings were nothing out of the norm, Moya said. The gas company later did its own inspection and also found no harmful levels of gases.
The two workers who first alerted police to the home told investigators they rarely saw the owners while conducting maintenance around the house, according to a search warrant affidavit. They said they mostly communicated via phone calls or text and primarily with Arakawa.
First responders noted how clean and organized the home appeared, Moya said. “It was very neat, organized with no clutter,” he said.
The two surviving dogs, Bear and Nikita, were rounded up and transported to a local pet daycare facility. Hackman’s and Arakawa’s bodies were taken to the state Office of the Medical Investigator at the University of New Mexico for autopsies.
Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office officials and New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator officials hold a press conference on the death of actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa, who were found dead on February 26, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, March 7, 2025.
Finally, some answers
At 2 p.m. Friday, outside the sheriff’s office in Santa Fe, Heather Jarrell stepped before the cameras. For over a week, media from all over the world had descended upon the New Mexico capital, all looking for answers to the same question: How did Hackman and Arakawa die?
Jarrell, New Mexico’s chief medical examiner, had led the queries into the couple’s deaths from her lab in Albuquerque. Finally, she had some answers.
How did he die? Gene Hackman cause of death released
Hackman’s heart showed signs of previous heart attacks, a pacemaker and multiple heart surgeries, as well as a scarred kidney due to chronic high blood pressure. Hackman’s cause of death was cardiovascular disease. He also had advanced Alzheimer’s disease, she said, which contributed to his death.
In other, less-experienced medical examiners’ offices, Arakawa’s cause of death may have gone undetected. But Jarrell and her staff knew enough to recognize the microscopic evidence revealed in the patient’s lungs. Arakawa tested negative for COVID-19 and influenza but positive for the hantavirus, Jarrell said. Cause of death: hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.
Her lungs had crashed as the virus branched through her body.
As Jarrell examined the patients, she received a phone call from one of Hackman’s doctors.
His pacemaker, the doctor said, had shown activity as recently as Feb. 17.
After further inspecting the device, Jarrell and investigators noticed Hackman’s heart also showed an atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat, the following day, on Feb. 18. That’s likely when he died, Jarrell said.
Mendoza said authorities are still waiting on more data from two cell phones collected at the home, as well as results from a necropsy on Zinna. But the medical examiner’s information answered a lot of the questions they had, he said.
Hackman was in the house for seven days after Arakawa died. There were no cameras inside the house to record his movements.
In that time, he didn’t make any phone calls or otherwise ask for help, authorities said. He hadn’t eaten but had somehow managed to stay hydrated.
Clouded by Alzheimer’s and struggling with a scarred heart, he was alone while his wife and main caregiver was dead on the bathroom floor near the front of the home.
It’s likely, authorities said, Hackman never knew his wife was already gone.
Follow Jervis on X: @MrRJervis.
CONTRIBUTING Javier Zarracina/USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What happened to Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa: The final hours
All but one of the world’s top 20 most polluted cities last year were in Asia, a new study shows.
The majority of these cities – 13 – are in the world’s most populous country, India, where booming economic growth is fired largely by coal and where hundreds of millions live in traffic-clogged and congested megacities.
Another four are in neighboring Pakistan, with one in China and Kazakhstan respectively.
The only city outside of Asia featured on the list is N’Djamena, the capital of Chad in central Africa – which was named the country with the worst air pollution.
Meanwhile the cities with the worst pollution in North America were all in California.
The report by IQAir, a Swiss company that tracks global air quality, looked specifically at fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, one of the smallest but most dangerous pollutants.
PM2.5 comes from sources like the combustion of fossil fuels, dust storms and wildfires. It is so tiny – 1/20th of a width of a human hair – that it can travel past your body’s usual defenses into your lungs or bloodstream.
The particles cause irritation and inflammation and have been linked to respiratory problems and chronic kidney disease. Exposure can cause cancer, stroke or heart attacks and has been associated with a higher risk of depression and anxiety.
A bird flies through a thick layer of smog in New Delhi, India, on November 20, 2024. – Manish Swarup/AP/File
N’Djamena, Chad, was ranked as the most polluted city in 2024. – Irem Demir/Anadolu/Getty Images
The World Health Organization (WHO) says average annual levels of PM2.5 should not exceed 5 micrograms per cubic meter.
Byrnihat, an industrial town in northeast India recorded a PM2.5 concentration of 128.2 last year – more than 25 times the WHO’s standard.
“It feels very sad and helpless that Byrnihat keeps topping the list ,” Suman Momin, 26, who lives in the city of around 70,000, told CNN.
She blamed factories around the town and a booming construction industry and trees being felled as contributing to the toxic air.
“The pollution is particularly bad right now, visibility is not great, there is dust everywhere, my eyes also burn,” she said.
“I do not leave home without a mask.”
Twelve other cities in the top 20 are in India.
Its capital New Delhi featured as the world’s most polluted capital for the sixth consecutive year, with a PM2.5 concentration of 91.8. The report also listed six satellite cities – Faridabad, Loni, Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Greater Noida – making the list.
Just last November, a throat-searing blanket of smog settled over Delhi, disrupting flights, blocking buildings from view and prompting the city’s chief minister to declare a “medical emergency.”
But overall, India – the world’s most populous nation with 1.4 billion people dropped from third to fifth place from the previous year, according to the report.
But the report said air pollution “remains a significant health burden… reducing life expectancy by an estimated 5.2 years.”
A man wears a mask as he walks past a small iron factory in Lahore, Pakistan, on January 16, 2024. – K.M. Chaudary/AP
India’s neighbors Bangladesh and Pakistan – together home to some 400 million people – were second and third-most polluted countries globally in terms of PM2.5 molecules, according to the report.
China – which used to dominate global rankings of the world’s worst air – noted a small improvement, the report said.
Its national annual average PM2.5 concentration decreased from 32.5 micrograms per cubic meter to 31, with air quality improving in megacities like Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the report said.
China is the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitter but in recent years has waged a campaign against air pollution, particularly in the cities that have fuelled its economic growth, and has pushed a massive expansion in solar and wind power.
But last month two clean-energy groups raised alarm over what they said were plans by China’s power industry to build nearly 100 gigawatts of new coal plant capacity last year, the most in nearly a decade.
All 20 of the world’s most polluted cities last year exceeded WHO PM2.5 guidelines by over 10 times, the IQ Air report showed.
Data gaps
“Air pollution remains a critical threat to both human health and environmental stability, yet vast populations remain unaware of their exposure levels,” said Frank Hammes, Global CEO of IQAir.
Iran and Afghanistan did not feature in this year’s report due to a lack of data availability.
Air quality monitoring in Southeast Asia is also a problem, with nearly all countries having “significant gaps in government-led initiatives,” the report found.
Vehicles drive amid high levels of air pollution in Hanoi, Vietnam, on March 5, 2024. – Nhac Nguyen/AFP/Getty Images
In 2024, 173 out of 392 cities in the region lacked government monitoring stations, while Cambodia had none, it said.
Those problems are likely to be exacerbated after the US announced earlier this month that it would stop sharing air quality data gathered from its embassies and consulates worldwide due to “funding constraints” the Associated Press reported.
“Air quality data saves lives,” said Hammes.
“It creates much needed awareness, informs policy decisions, guiding public health interventions, and empowers communities to take action to reduce air pollution and protect future generations.”
Worst cities in North America
Only 17% of 8,954 cities analyzed globally by IQAir recorded air quality which met WHO pollution guidelines, the report said.
The cities with the worst air pollution in North America were Ontario, Bloomington and Huntington Park – all in California, the report said.
Overall the United States saw a significant reduction in PM2.5 levels last year, with the annual average dropping 22% from 2023.
Northern America has long boasted vigorous air quality monitoring systems, contributing 56% of the total number of ground-based air quality monitoring stations included in the IQ Air report – helping scientists with their continued research on air quality and aiding policymakers to make decisions about public health.
Only 12 countries, regions, and territories recorded PM2.5 concentrations below the WHO guidelines, most of which were in the Latin America and Caribbean or Oceania region.
The report called on governments to dedicate funding for renewable energy projects and “strengthen emission limits for vehicles and industrial activities.”
Advice Suman wishes authorities in Byrnihat would take to save her city from appearing at the top of the most polluted list again next year.
“People around have developed breathing issues over the years as well,” she told CNN.
“This is my birthplace. I am a local. I do not want to leave this area. We want the governments to do more, come together and work for us.”
Aishwarya S Iyer contributed reporting
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By Karen Lema
MANILA (Reuters) – Former Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte left Manila on a jet on Tuesday bound for The Hague, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said, hours after he was arrested at the request of the International Criminal Court over a “war on drugs” that defined his presidency.
Duterte, a firebrand ex-mayor and former prosecutor who led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was arrested at a Manila airport early on Tuesday, in a major step in the ICC’s investigation into thousands of killings in an anti-drugs crackdown that caused shock and condemnation around the world.
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“I am confident the arrest was proper, correct and followed all necessary legal procedures,” Marcos told a press conference confirming Duterte had left the country bound for the Netherlands.
“We did not help the International Criminal Court in any way. The arrest was made in compliance with Interpol.”
The “war on drugs” was Duterte’s signature campaign platform that swept the mercurial crime-buster to power and he soon delivered on promises he made during vitriolic speeches to kill thousands of drug pushers and users.
Duterte has long insisted he instructed police to kill only in self-defence and has always defended the crackdown, repeatedly telling his supporters he was ready to “rot in jail” if it meant ridding the Philippines of drugs.
Veronica Duterte, the 79-year-old’s youngest daughter, said on Instagram her father had boarded the jet but the family had not been informed of its destination.
“The airplane used to kidnap my dad just left minutes ago,” she posted.
Duterte could become Asia’s first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.
RIGHTS GROUPS
His arrest follows years of him rebuking and taunting the ICC since he unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the court’s founding treaty in 2019 as it started looking into allegations of systematic murders of drug dealers on his watch.
The ICC, a court of last resort, is probing alleged crimes against humanity and says it has jurisdiction to investigate alleged crimes that took place while a country was a member.
Duterte and his family and allies expressed fury at the arrest, calling it unlawful.
A lawyer petitioned the Supreme Court on Duterte’s behalf on Tuesday seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent authorities from complying with the ICC’s request.
A copy of the warrant, seen by Reuters, said Duterte is accused of criminal responsibility for the murder of at least 43 people between 2011 and 2019, which would include time when he served as mayor of southern Davao City.
Human rights groups and families of victims said his detention was a key step towards accountability for the killings of thousands of people in the Philippines, where police investigations have moved at a snail’s pace. Duterte has not been charged with any crimes locally.
According to police, 6,200 suspects were killed during anti-drug operations under Duterte’s presidency that they say ended in shootouts. But activists say the real toll of the crackdown was far greater, with many thousands more slumland drug users, some named on community “watch lists”, killed in mysterious circumstances.
The prosecutor of the ICC has said as many as 30,000 people may have been killed by police or unidentified individuals.
Police have rejected allegations from rights groups of systematic murders, staged crime scenes and fabricated incident reports.
(Reporting by Karen Lema, Adrian Portugal and Mikhail Flores; Additional reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Alison Williams)
Three people died after a medical transport helicopter crashed in Madison County, Mississippi, on Monday afternoon, according to the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
The aircraft was a Eurocopter EC-135 helicopter, which crashed into a wooded area around 1:15 p.m. local time, the Federal Aviation Authority said in a statement.
It was owned and operated by Med-Trans, UMMC said.
PHOTO: Gravelines Nuclear Power Station (Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)
MORE: Small plane crashes with 5 aboard in Pennsylvania
UMMC confirmed that no patients were on board, and that the victims were two crew members and a pilot. Their families were being contacted, the medical center said.
“Earlier this afternoon, AirCare 3, our Columbus-based medical transport helicopter, had an accident in rural Madison County, north of the Reservoir,” UMMC said in a statement on Facebook. “Sadly, there were no survivors.”
MORE: DC plane crash marks first major commercial crash in US since Buffalo crash in 2009
The FAA was investigating in the immediate aftermath of the crash, and the National Transportation Safety Board said it was “launching a go-team to investigate” starting Tuesday.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves released a statement on X saying, “It’s a tragic reminder of the risks Mississippi’s first responders take every day to keep us safe. Our state will never forget the sacrifice of these heroes.”
ABC News’ Benjamin Stein and T. Michelle Murphy contributed to this report.
Medical transport helicopter crash leaves crew members, pilot dead originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Breaking News
New details emerge in search for missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki in the Dominican Republic
Missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki’s clothes were found on the Dominican Republic beach where authorities believe she was last seen going for a swim, two police sources with knowledge of the investigation told ABC News on Monday.
The 20-year-old Konanki, a legal permanent U.S. resident and an Indian citizen, vanished early Thursday while she and a group of students were on a spring break trip to a resort in Punta Cana, according to the Loudoun County, Virginia, Sheriff’s office.
Konanki and one of her traveling companions were Loudoun County residents, the sheriff’s office said.
PHOTO: Sudiksha Konanki is seen in this undated photo shared to Meta. (Sudiksha Konanki via Meta)
Konanki’s clothes were discovered on a portable beach bed close to the beach where she went missing, the sources told ABC News. Police have found no evidence of violence, according to the sources.
After going to a nightclub on Wednesday night, Konanki and a group of people went to the beach about 4 a.m. local time on Thursday, the sources said. The other women traveling with Konanki went back to their hotel about 5:55 a.m. and were captured on security camera returning to their rooms, the sources noted.
A man stayed behind with Konanki on the beach, according to a Dominican Republic investigative police report. The man, whose name was not released, told police that he and Konanki went for a swim and got caught by a big wave, the police report said.
MORE: Mother of 2 dies mysteriously while on flight back from Dominican Republic
The man, according to sources, told police that when he got back to the beach he threw up and went to sleep on a beach bed. When he woke up, Konanki was nowhere to be seen, the sources said.
Security video showed the man coming back to his hotel room at 9:55 a.m., according to the sources.
The man is not considered a suspect in Konanki’s death, the chief of the Civil Defense in the Dominican Republic told ABC News on Monday.
Right now, the investigation is being treated as an accident, the chief said.
MORE: 2 bodies found confirmed as New York couple missing in Dominican Republic
Law enforcement authorities are increasing the perimeter of the search area of beaches and water in the ongoing operation to find Konanki, according to the chief.
Three Dominican officials involved in the investigation told ABC News over the weekend that Konanki is believed to have drowned in the ocean.
The last time Konanki was seen on the beach on security camera footage was around 4:15 a.m. Thursday, the Dominican Republic Public Ministry told ABC News.
The Public Ministry was first contacted by the U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic on Friday, the Ministry said.
Officials said Konanki’s friends who were with her around the time of her disappearance were questioned by police and have not been charged with crimes.
A joint investigation Konanki’s disappearance is being conducted by the FBI, the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic, the Dominican National Police and the Dominican Prosecutor’s office, sources close to the investigation told ABC News.
The investigators will question everyone involved in the incident again, including hotel employees and the man Konanki’s friends say she was with before she disappeared, the sources said.
All security camera footage since the day Konanki and her five friends arrived on the island is now being analyzed, sources said.
New details emerge in search for missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki in the Dominican Republic originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
WASHINGTON – The shrill, metallic banging noises of a jack hammer echoed around the White House on Monday as crews started removing the large, yellow Black Lives Matter mural down the street from the president’s home.
The city erected the artwork in 2020 amid sweeping, nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by Minneapolis police.
But Mayor Muriel Bowser announced plans to replace the mural last week after Republican lawmakers threatened to revoke millions of dollars in transportation funding for the capital city if it wasn’t removed.
The move comes as President Donald Trump and his fellow GOP leaders have widely targeted diversity efforts – in the federal government, schools, private businesses and more.
As the sun beat down on Monday afternoon, a crew of around seven men in yellow safety vests tore up pavement and uprooted black barricades that surrounded the 50-foot-wide artwork.
Most of the people who stopped to watch the work told USA TODAY they were sad to see the installation go. Sitting on a nearby bench, Karen Long, a former D.C. resident who moved back to neighboring Arlington, Virginia, two years ago, described the construction scene as “somber.”
Long, 55, said she heard about the demolition on the morning news and needed to see it for herself. Although disheartened by the effort, Long said she viewed the mural’s removal as part of the long “moving process” of change.
Black lives, she said, would matter regardless of yellow paint on the ground.
More: Donald Trump says he isn’t considering pardoning Derek Chauvin in George Floyd’s murder
“There was a movement, and there’s still going to be a movement,” she said. “This is not the end of it. This is just somebody saying, ‘Hey, I don’t like that symbol being there’ because they feel some kind of way about it, so let them have it.”
Sharifa Ganthier, a DJ, walked to the mural with her husband Marvin from their home near D.C.’s Union Market. When the mural was constructed in 2020, Ganthier, 37, said it brought a bit of “togetherness” to a city that saw turmoil during the COVID-19 pandemic and protests over racial injustice.
But Trump – and his fellow Republicans who control the House and Senate – have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion pushes, many of which were ushered in during the demonstrations after Floyd’s death.
“We have ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and, indeed, the private sector and our military,” Trump said during his joint address to Congress last week. “And our country will be woke no longer.”
Crews begin the process to remove the yellow Black Lives Matter mural that was erected one block from the White House during racial justice protests in 2020 on Monday, March 10, 2025. The mural is being removed after congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump have threatened to interfere with the city’s management. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., introduced legislation that would require the city to repaint and rename the plaza or else lose millions of dollars in transportation funding.
Bowser ordered the painting of the mural in June 2020. It came after protesters were removed from the area with smoke canisters and pepper spray just before the president, who was in his first term, walked through Lafayette Park to pose for photographs at a nearby church.
The mayor’s chief of staff at the time said she wanted to make it “abundantly clear” the street belonged to the city and its residents. The plaza quickly became a symbol of defiance for Democrats against the Trump administration in the deep-blue capital.
‘Distraction’
Not all of Washington’s residents were happy with the artwork, however. And not all of the mural’s critics came from the right.
The D.C. chapter of Black Lives Matter has long criticized the artwork, calling it in 2020 “a performative distraction from real policy changes” and alleging Bowser was not doing enough to help Black people in the city.
More: America’s largest companies hired more Black executives. Then came the DEI backlash.
Black Lives Matter D.C. did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the mural’s demolition.
Many Republican lawmakers have also been critical of Black Lives Matter Plaza, though for different reasons. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., recently introduced legislation that would require the city to repaint and rename the plaza or lose federal funding, alleging the Black Lives Matter movement is corrupt.
“Our capital city must serve as a beacon of freedom, patriotism, and safety — not wokeness, divisiveness, and lawlessness,” Clyde said in a statement announcing the bill.
Marvin Ganthier, 37, said he couldn’t understand criticisms of the mural while standing nearby on Monday.
“I don’t see why anyone would have a problem with it,” said Ganthier, a DJ alongside his wife and a lifelong resident of the district. “They’re not saying your lives don’t matter.
Taking down the mural was a “waste of resources,” that would be better used to fix broken sidewalks elsewhere in the city, he argued.
Removing the mural near the White House is expected to take about six weeks. Bowser said the plaza will be repainted as part of a citywide mural project for the country’s 250th birthday next year.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DC begins removal of Black Lives Matter mural near White House
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Monday he’s asking the court to withdraw the previous district attorney’s motion for resentencing for Lyle and Erik Menendez, calling the brothers’ claims of self-defense part of a litany of “lies.”
“Our position is that they shouldn’t get out of jail,” Hochman said at a news conference Monday. “We bring that position to the court. The court can agree with it, the court can disagree with it or modify it in some respect.”
Hochman said his office is “prepared to go forward” with the hearing regarding their resentencing case.
The hearing is set for March 20 and 21 for the brothers, who are serving life without the possibility of parole for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez.
PHOTO: In these booking photos taken Oct. 10, 2024, Erik and Lyle Menendez are shown. (CRDC)
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Hochman argued that because the “brothers persist in telling these lies for the last over 30 years about their self-defense defense and persist in insisting that they did not suborn any perjury or attempt to suborn perjury, then they do not meet the standards for resentencing. They do not meet the standards for rehabilitation.”
“If the Menendez brothers, at some point, unequivocally, sincerely and fully accept complete responsibility for all their criminal actions, acknowledge that the self-defense defense was phony and their parents weren’t going to kill them … and finally come clean with the court, with the public, with the DA’s office, with their own family members and acknowledge all these lies … in the future, the court can weigh these new insights into making a determination as to whether they now qualify for rehabilitation and re-sentencing. And the [DA’s office] will do the same,” Hochman said.
The DA said his decision comes after reviewing trial transcripts, prison records and videotaped trial testimony, as well as meeting with Menendez family members, defense attorneys and past prosecutors.
Hochman stressed the premeditation, noting the brothers drove to San Diego days before the murders to buy shotguns with a fake ID, and on the night of the murders, they planned an alibi and went to buy movie tickets, he said.
PHOTO: Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman talks about the resentencing of Erik and Lyle Menendez for the murders of their parents during a news conference in downtown Los Angeles, Jan. 3, 2025. (Damian Dovarganes/AP, FILE)
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After Jose and Kitty Menendez were fatally shot, the brothers allegedly shot them again in the kneecaps to try to make the slayings look like a gang shooting, Hochman said.
The brothers “also had the presence of mind to pick up all the shotgun shells” to try to hide their fingerprints, and then they ditched their bloody clothes and the weapons, Hochman said.
Hochman said the brothers told 20 lies and have since admitted to only four; he said 16 lies remain “unacknowledged.”
PHOTO: Erik Menendez, left, and is brother Lyle, in front of their Beverly Hills home on Nov. 30, 1989. (Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, FILE)
The brothers initially proclaimed their innocence and said the murders may have been Mafia hits.
The truth about the brothers being responsible came after Erik Menendez confessed to his therapist and that confession tape was turned over to the police.
“They convinced, not just the media, not just the police, but their family and their friends that they were 100% innocent of these crimes, until eventually these tapes came out,” Hochman said.
The “next iteration of the story” was when Lyle Menendez allegedly asked his girlfriend to claim Jose Menendez drugged and raped her, Hochman said.
The brothers later said Erik Menendez was raped by their father and Lyle Menendez was raped by their mother, he said.
MORE: Menendez brothers timeline: From the 1989 murders to their new fight for freedom
At trial, the brothers claimed self-defense, saying they were victims of sex abuse from their father and believed their parents were going to kill them.
But Hochman claimed “the self-defense defense was a fabrication.”
Self-defense wasn’t mentioned in the confession to the therapist, according to Hochman.
“What Erik said is that [his father] was a controlling, dominating force, and that is the reason,” Hochman said. “He said the mother would be a witness to the crime, so she had to die, [and she] was so miserable because the father had an affair … [and] the mother could not live without the father.”
PHOTO: Erik Menendez with his attorney Leslie Abramson and his brother Lyle Menendez in Los Angeles, March 9, 1994. (Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images, FILE)
The “brothers have never come clean and admitted that they lied about their self-defense as well as suborned perjury and attempted to suborn perjury by their friends for the lies, among others, of their father violently raping Lyle’s girlfriend, their mother poisoning the family, and their attempt to get a handgun the day before the murders,” the DA said in a statement.
Hochman said the brothers “lied when they testified that when they burst into the den with their shotguns, that it was too dark to see and their parents were standing up or moving.”
“Expert testimony showed that, at all times, the parents were seated on the couch” or wounded on the ground when shot, he said.
The brothers also “lied when they testified that they thought their parents were going to kill them” on their family fishing trip one day before the murders, Hochman said.
MORE: Menendez brothers: Newsom orders parole board to investigate whether they’d pose ‘unreasonable risk’ to public if released
After Hochman’s press conference, Lyle Menendez posted on Facebook that “of all those ‘lies’ [Hochman] talked about, several of them were admitted/stipulated to in the first trial. … And several other ‘lies’ were absolutely disproven or reasonably disputed.”
Menendez family members who want the brothers released also slammed the DA’s announcement, saying Hochman is ignoring “the fact they were repeatedly abused, feared for their lives, and have atoned for their actions.”
“Erik and Lyle are not the same young boys they were more than 30 years ago,” the family said in a statement. “They have apologized for their actions, which were the results of Jose’s sexual abuse and Kitty’s enablement. They have apologized for the horrific actions they took. They have apologized to us. And, they have demonstrated their atonement through actions that have helped improve countless lives. Yet, DA Hochman is effectively asking for them to publicly apologize to a checklist of actions they took in a state of shock and fear.”
The family also attacked Hochman for what they called his “not-so-veiled insistence” that the brothers weren’t sexually abused.
Hochman “sent a message to every young boy who’s the victim of abuse that they should not come forward,” the family said.
PHOTO: Joan Andersen VanderMolen, center, speaks to the media surrounded by family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez during a news conference after a hearing in Los Angeles, Nov. 25, 2024. (Damian Dovarganes/AP, FILE)
At Monday’s news conference, Hochman frequently referenced California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2022 decision to deny parole to Robert F. Kennedy’s killer, Sirhan Sirhan, citing that case as the precedent the judge should consider with the Menendez brothers.
Although Sirhan — like the Menendez brothers — spent decades in prison rehabilitating himself, including achieving degrees and participating in prison programs, and he had letters of support, Newsom denied Sirhan parole because he “failed to exhibit insight and completely accept responsibility,” making him “an unreasonable risk of danger to the community,” Hochman said.
MORE: Menendez brothers case: DA asks court to deny their petition for new trial
The court needs to “analyze whether the Menendez brothers’ lack of full insight and lack of complete responsibility for their murders overcomes … the other factors justifying a resentencing like the Menendez’s length of time in prison, their age at the time of the murders, their upbringing and any sexual abuse they experienced, their extensive rehabilitation efforts in prison including getting educational degrees and involvement in community and prison programs, any supportive letters from prison officials and victim family members, their health, and the low prison risk score,” Hochman said.
In October, then-LA County District Attorney George Gascón announced he supported resentencing for the brothers. Gascón recommended their sentences of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and said they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately with the new sentence.
The DA’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and help other inmates.
PHOTO: Erik Menendez and his brother Lyle (R) listen during a pre-trial hearing, Dec. 29, 1992, in Los Angeles after the two pleaded innocent in the August 1989 shotgun deaths of their parents, Jose and Mary Louise Menendez. (Vince Bucci/AFP via Getty Images)
Weeks after Gascón’s announcement, he lost his race for reelection to Hochman. When Hochman came into office on Dec. 3, he promised to review all the facts before reaching his own decision.
Hochman’s announcement on Monday comes days after one of the brothers’ cousins, Tamara Goodell, slammed the DA in a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Civil Rights Division.
Goodell accused Hochman of being “hostile, dismissive and patronizing” during two meetings in January with family members who want the brothers released. She said the “lack of compassion was palpable, and the family left feeling not only ignored but further intimidated and revictimized.”
Goodell wants Hochman removed and the case turned over to the attorney general’s office.
Besides resentencing, the brothers have been pursuing two other paths to freedom.
One is their habeas corpus petition, which they filed in 2023 for a review of two new pieces of evidence not presented at trial: a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse from his father, and allegations from a former boy band member who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by Jose Menendez.
Hochman announced in February that he’s asked the court to deny the habeas corpus petition, arguing the new evidence isn’t credible or admissible.
The third path to freedom is through the brothers’ request for clemency, which has been submitted to Newsom.
On Feb. 26, Newsom announced that he’s ordering the parole board to conduct a 90-day “comprehensive risk assessment” investigation into whether the brothers pose “an unreasonable risk to the public” if they’re granted clemency and released.
“There’s no guarantee of outcome here,” Newsom said. “But this process simply provides more transparency … as well as provides us more due diligence before I make any determination for clemency.”
Menendez brothers case: DA asks court to withdraw resentencing motion, calls self-defense claims ‘lies’ originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
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