WJPA News

HICKORY, Pa. (WPXI) — Police are investigating an officer-involved shooting that left one man dead in Washington County on Saturday. According to police, troopers responded to the Franklin Mall for a report of a theft from Rural King. Police gathered information on the suspect’s car that fled the scene. A trooper saw the car in Mount Pleasant Township and conducted a traffic stop at Westland Road at Main Street. Police said the driver was taken into custody during the traffic stop but the passenger, identified as 26-year-old Dennis Fonoimoana by the Washington County Coroner’s Office, refused to exit the car. Fonoimoana brandished a firearm during a verbal fight with the Trooper, also refusing to drop the gun when told to. The trooper fired their gun, which hit Fonoimoana. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The involved trooper has been placed on administrative duties as per Pennsylvania State Police’s regulations. The Washington County District Attorney’s Office was notified and responded to the scene. This investigation is ongoing.

WASHINGTON, Pa. — Washington City Police have arrested another alleged shooter in the murder of Kristin Barfield. Police Chief Dan Rush confirmed with WJPA News that Brandon Allen (Pictured Right), 30, was taken into custody without incident Friday night around 11:00 p.m. on the 500 block of Fayette Street. Earlier in the week, Police arrested and charged 15-year-old Tyriq Moss of Washington for his alleged role in the shooting. Barfield was sitting on the porch of her Ridge Avenue home with her boyfriend around five p.m. on May 11th, when a car drove by and multiple shots were fired, killing Barfield.  Police have said the men in the vehicle were trying to shoot Barfield’s son Trey Willis.  According to authorities, that car was being driven by Allen.  There was also another person in the same area, believed to be Trey Willis.  Police said that Moss and Allen agreed they were going to shoot that person.  According to court documents, Moss and Allen fired shots that missed and ultimately hit and killed Barfield.  Police say another man, 27-year-old Javarr Thomas, is still at large.  Their car, a 2006 Chrysler 300, was found abandoned last weekend in Mt. Pleasant Township. Thomas is described as black, 5′4″ and weighing 130 pounds.  Police say the Thomas should be considered armed and dangerous.  Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh says Moss, whom they believe was one of the shooters, has been charged with homicide as an adult and is being held without bond in the Washington County Jail.

WASHINGTON, Pa. — Multiple crews were called to the scene of a house fire in the City of Washington early Saturday morning. Reports say the flames broke out on the first floor of a house along Campbell Avenue off of Maiden Street. Crews were alerted to the call just before 2:00 a.m. City of Washington Fire was joined by North Strabane, Canton and Peters Township on scene. South Strabane was added on the 2nd alarm just before 3:30 a.m.  There is no word on what caused the fire, and no injuries were reported.

BUFFALO TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A multi-vehicle accident with injuries closed the Interstate 70 westbound lanes early Saturday morning on the border of Buffalo and North Franklin Township.  According to reports on scene, two vehicles rolled over and a victim was ejected from a car around 3:00 a.m. Other injuries were reported. Washington County 911 requested medevac services to airlift a patient from the scene, which landed on the interstate to get to the incident and the victim was reportedly flown to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. Claysville Fire Department was joined by North Franklin Fire crews while responding to the accident along with the Pennsylvania State Police. There is no word on what caused the crash.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for an open U.S. Senate seat is too close to call and is likely headed for a statewide recount to decide the winner of the contest between heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick. A recount would mean that the outcome of the race might not be known until June 8, the deadline for counties to report their results to the state. Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, led McCormick by 1,079 votes, or 0.08 percentage points, out of 1,340,248 ballots counted as of 5 p.m. Friday. The race is close enough to trigger Pennsylvania’s automatic recount law, with the separation between the candidates inside the law’s 0.5% margin. The Associated Press will not declare a winner in the race until the likely recount is complete. Both campaigns have hired Washington-based lawyers to lead their recount efforts, and both have hired Philadelphia-based campaign strategists who helped lead the operation to observe vote-counting on Election Day for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2020. The two campaigns combined already had hundreds of lawyers and volunteers fanned out around the presidential battleground state as election workers and election boards toiled through the remaining ballots.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — One is a restaurateur who fled Belarus when he learned he was about to be arrested for criticizing President Alexander Lukashenko. Another was given the choice of either denouncing fellow opposition activists or being jailed. And one is certain his brother was killed by the country’s security forces. What united them is their determination to resist Lukashenko by fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine. Belarusians are among those who have answered a call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for foreign fighters to go to Ukraine and join the International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine. And volunteers have answered that call, given the high stakes in a conflict which many people see as a civilizational battle pitting dictatorship against freedom. For the Belarusians, who consider Ukrainians a brethren nation, the stakes feel especially high. Russian troops used Belarusian territory to invade Ukraine early in the war, and Lukashenko has publicly stood by longtime ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, describing him as his “big brother.” Russia, for its part, has pumped billions of dollars into shoring up Lukashenko’s Soviet-style, state-controlled economy with cheap energy and loans.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — One man was killed and eight people were wounded during an overnight shooting at a party that drew about 100 people to a Southern California hookah lounge, police said Saturday. San Bernardino police officers dispatched late Friday found a man shot in the parking lot outside the strip mall lounge, where the party had been advertised on social media in the city east of Los Angeles, Sgt. Equino Thomas said. The man, Allen Gresham, 20, was pronounced dead at the scene, a police statement said. Eight people who were shot and wounded were treated at hospitals. Some were taken by ambulance and others went on their own, he said. Police said their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. Two people were detained and one was arrested on suspicion of possessing a stolen gun, the police statement said. They were not identified. The shooting involving at least two people started inside the hookah lounge after an argument and people spilled into the parking lot, where more shots were fired, Thomas and the statement said.

DENVER (AP) — A late spring Colorado snowstorm dumped several inches in the Denver metro area Saturday and knocked out electricity for about 210,000 customers, officials said. The wet snow weighed down tree branches and sent them toppling onto power lines, the KUSA television station reported. Much more snow fell in mountainous regions of Colorado. By Saturday night, power had been restored to 160,000 customers but about 50,000 still did not have it back, the Xcel Energy Colorado utility said in a statement. The small Colorado community of Cripple Creek near the base of Pike’s Peak got 20 inches (51 centimeters) of snow, KUSA reported.

PYEONGTAEK, South Korea (AP) — President Joe Biden said Sunday that recent cases of monkeypox that have been identified in Europe and the United States were something “to be concerned about.” In his first public comments on the disease, Biden added: “It is a concern in that if it were to spread it would be consequential.” The president was asked about the disease as he spoke to reporters at Osan Air Base in South Korea, where he visited troops before taking off for Japan to continue his first trip to Asia as president. “They haven’t told me the level of exposure yet but it is something that everybody should be concerned about,” Biden said. He added that work was underway to determine what vaccine might be effective. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters aboard the flight to Tokyo that the United States has a supply of “vaccine that is relevant to treating monkeypox.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rudy Giuliani, who as a lawyer for then-President Donald Trump pushed bogus legal challenges to the 2020 election, met for hours with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a person familiar with the interview said Saturday. The interview with Giuliani took place virtually and lasted for much of the day on Friday, according to the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting. A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment. Giuliani had been scheduled to meet with the committee earlier this month, but a spokesperson for the panel said that meeting was rescheduled. The former New York mayor is seen as a critical aide for the committee, which has interviewed nearly 1,000 witnesses, including family members of Trump and advisers in his inner circle. The panel plans a series of hearings in June. In January, the committee subpoenaed Giuliani and other members of the Trump legal team who sought to overturn election results in battleground states through lawsuits that made unsupported claims of vast election fraud. Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr, has said there were no widespread irregularities that could have affected the outcome of the race won by President Joe Biden, and judges across the country have dismissed the allegations.