>> pierre thomas with us again tonight. thank you, pierre. >>> and next this evening, nascar driver bubba wallace is now speaking out. nascar and the fbi revealing wallace was not targeted. tonight, wallace saying he's relieved, and that's not all. here's steve osunsami. >> reporter: federal investigators tonight say that what happened at this alabama racetrack was not a hate crime, and are pointing to this video of the same garage stall where the crew of nascar's only elite black driver discovered a noose on sunday. the video was recorded in october. in a statement, nascar says that this was a "garage door pull fashioned like a noose and had been positioned there since as early as last fall." >> i've been racing since i was 9 years old. i'm 26 now, will be 27 this year, and max, i've never seen a garage pull like that. >> reporter: bubba wallace, who now says that he wasn't targeted, says there's still a concerning issue, and saying whoever put this there is racially insensitive at best. >> when my crew member who seen that

here's abc's chief justice correspondent pierre thomas tonight. >>> tonight, one of the three louisville officers who stormed the home of breonna taylor, fired. >> what's your emergency? >> i don't know what's happening, somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend. >> reporter: officer brett hankison, terminated today, accused of firing ten shots the night taylor was killed in her home, as police were serving a controversial no-knock warrant for someone else. authorities saying, officer hankison showing extreme indifference to human life as he wantonly and blindly fired into taylor's home. taylor, an emt, with dreams of becoming a nurse, fatally shot eight times. >> i think it's insane. why would you want to enter into a home in the middle of the night without announcing yourself? >> reporter: an attorney for taylor calling for the other officers to be fired and "prosecuted for their roles in her untimely death." today the fbi back at the crime scene, gathering evidence as th in louisville and around the country. >> say her name! >> breonna taylor! >> reporter: intensity about tay

>> pierre thomas with us tonight. pierre, thank you. >>> and, of course, all of this playing out as this country now struggles with two major crises at the same time. cases of coronavirus are now on the rise in 15 states, as this country slowly reopens. on that part of the story tonight, here's trevor ault. streets, officials fear one crisis in this country could intensify another. >> if you were out protesting last night, you probably need to go get a covid test this week. >> reporter: these mass demonstrations creating potential hot beds for the virus to spread, in some communities that just lifted stay at home orders. >> two weeks from now, across america, we're going to find out whether or not this gives us a spike. >> reporter: right now, 15 states and puerto rico are already reporting an increase in cases, including mississippi, where tomorrow, every business will be allowed to open in some capacity, despite the state reporting its highest daily case totals friday and saturday. >> every community is one wild week

>> pierre thomas, thank you. >>> and next this evening, nascar driver bubba wallace is now speaking out. nascar and the fbi revealing wallace was not targeted. tonight, wallace saying he's relieved, and that's not all. here's steve osunsami. >>orter: federal investigators toght y that what happened at this alabama racetrack was not a hate crime, the crew of nascar's only elite black driver discovered a noose tobererdedn in atatementna thisas "rage doopu fashioned like a noose and had been positioned there since as early as last fall." >> i've been racing since i was 9 years old. i'm 26, will be 27 this year, and max, i've never seen a garage pull like that. >> reporter: bubba wallace, who now says that he wuntd targeted, says there's still a concerning issue, and says whoever put this here is racially insensitive at best. >> when my crew member who seen that, who happened to be african-american, he did his research first and i was very proud of that. and when he seen that the other garage pulls were basically just a solid piece of rope, no knots in them, and we had a knot that was in th

>> our chief justice correspondent, pierre thomas tonight. thank you, pierre. >>> there's also a major new development in the investigation of the navy captain relieved of duty after sounding the alarm about the safety of his sailors, so many coming down with coronavirus on the uss theodore roosevelt. after talk he might be able to return to his post, tonight the navy now saying it will uphold his firing. here's kyra phillips. >> reporter: he was famously cheered by his sailors as he left the carrier he commanded. but tonight, the navy upholding the firing of captain brett crozier. >> if captain crozier were still in command today i would be relieving him. >> reporter: a stunning reversal for gilday, who earlier recommended crozier be reinstated after an initial navy investigation. >> he did not effectively carry out our guidelines to prevent spread of the virus and failed to move sailors to available safer environments quickly. >> reporter: in a march letter crozier pleaded with navy leadership to get his sailors off the ship due to the rapi

pierre thomas is standing by. >>> the images coming in tonight. the long line of mourners paying respects to rayshard brooks in atlanta. shot twice in the back and killed. tonight, abc news obtaining new video from a witness from the moments after the shooting, what it appears to show. >>> in new york city, a police officer facing possible charges tonight, accused of using a banned choke hold during a confrontation this weekend. the d.a. tonight now investigating. and what we're learning about the officer's past record. >>> and the shark attack on the east coast. the 16-year-old attacked. more than 40 bite marks. saved by his father, punching and kicking the shark. >>> good evening and it's great to have you with us here as we start another week together. and we begin tonight with the alarming news on the coronavirus here in the u.s. cases rising in at least 23 states. florida now surpassing 100,000 cases. in texas, the governor there saying the rate of increase is unacceptable. houston's mayor tonight saying, we are moving very fast in the wrong

let's get right to pierre thomas. what have you learned? >> reporter: david, federal prosecutors are calling u.s. army soldier' than melzer, 22 of lose visit, quote, the enemy from within. the fbi says melzer was allegedly orchestrating an ambush on his own unit deploying to turkey, providing critical details including its location, to the order of the nine angels, a white supremacist group that worships satan. investigators finding this image in melzer's icloud account. the plan allegedly diabolical. the group was to pass the information to jihadist terrorists so they could attack the soldiers. prosecutors claim that when confronted during the interview with the fbi, melzer declared himself to be a traitor. david? >> troubling developments tonight. pierre, thank you. >>> in atlanta tonight, they are preparing to say good-bye to rayshard brooks, and this evening, abc news has obtained new video g a witness from the moments after the shooting. abc's steve osunsami with what it appears to show. >> reporter: people were lined up under the hot

the president's personal attorney, rudy giulianand so we with abc's chief justice correspondent pierre thomas in washington with more. pierre, good morning. >> reporter: whit, good morning. a showdown unfolding between the attorney general and perhaps the most powerful u.s. attorney in the justice department ranks. the intrigue began last night when attorney general william barr put out a statement that the president planned to nominate a new u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york and that the current man on the job, geoffrey berman, would be stepping down. a short while later berman put out a blunt statement in response basically saying this was news to him and that he had no intention of resigning the job. our sources telling us last night that afterward barr was moving to fire berman who has been fiercely independent as u.s. attorney, investigating and convicting the president's former personal attorney michael coh cohen, charging wealthy financier jeffrey epstein, and investigating the president's inauguration and trump's longtime allie and attorney rudy giuliani, whit. >> so

here's abc's chief justice correspondent, pierre thomas. >> just the remembrance of everything that happened here, it's not sk i like to think about often. >> reporter: on this busy suburban road, he remembers a moment he'd rather forget. >> in the back seat. i need you to step out of the car with your hands up. >> reporter: nearly two years ago, he was ride being in the back seat of his white grandmother's car when they were pulled over by police, and he was ordered out of the car. >> that was one of probably the most difficult moments of my life. because i wanted to act out like why are you doing this to my grandma. >> that's your grandson? stop, get down on your knees. on your knees. put your hands up. doesn't move. do you understand? >> reporter: guns drawn, he was handcuffed, detained and forced in the back seat of a squad car. the police in this milwaukee suburb said they were looking for a carjacking suspect. >> at that point i thought i was going to go to jail for nothing. >> reporter: when the police officers are tweeting you that way, there's a feeling of frustration and disrespect

. >> let's take this to our chief justice correspondent pierre thomas and our chief legal analyst dan abrams. pierre, why is the attorney general doing this? isn't he just doing the bidding of the president? >> jon, it wasn't a state secret the president wanted berman out of that job. barr believes it's the president's prerogative to have in this position who he wanted to have. that said, this exploded and became quite the washington controversy. >> dan, this of course is the prosecutor that was investigating the president's personal attorney, sent his former personal attorney to jail. there are suggestions that there may have been other investigations involving the trump organization. what happens from here? what happens with those investigations? >> that's the big question about those other investigations. i think that is why it was so important that attorney general barr agreed to put in the existing deputy audrey strauss into the position for now. it provided a level of assurance to the prosecutors working in that office that those investigations will continue. you talk to people

and pierre thomas,hejustice correspondent for abc news.la, you join us tonight from the white house. you are at the w white housen the president made that decision to walk acrosset laugh fa square. what drove that move inside the west wing? was it a response to reports that he was in the white house bunker on friday night? or was it a deliberate flexing of executive power? paula: a little bit of both. there was a feeling inside the white house that the presidents was being perceived as weak, and he wanted a demonstration of strengthnd he wanted to show support for this historically significant church that had been af part o it -- that had been set on fire the night before. but it was so remarkable because just a few yards from where i am re, the president in the rose garden saying heupported peaceful protest talkingingd about law rder. wile a few yards this way they were using flash bangs to clear peaceful protestors so the president could walk across and ha what i effectively a photo op in front of this church. so thell president rea step

and jonathan martin, amna nawaz, paula reid, and pierre thomas, ank you for joining us.ll keep taking you as close to the news as we can. on the extra, we'll continue our conversation. it airs on our facebook. for now, i'm robert costa. good night from washington. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.visit ncicap.org] >> corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by >> life isn't a straight line, and sometimes you can find yourself heang in a new direction. fidelity is hele to h you work through the unexpected with financial planning in place for today and tomorrow. announcer: kaiser permanee. additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and patricia yuen, through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for pubc broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station fro viewers like you. thank you. >> you're watching pbs. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'

here's pierre thomas. >> reporter: in the wake of the death of george floyd, who died after a minneapolis police officer put his knee on his neck, this controversial police encounter with a young black man in aurora, colorado, is getting new attention. elijah mcclain, a 23-year-old massage therapist who loved playing the violin, is dead because of a misunderstanding. it began with this 911 call last august about a suspicious man walking just after 10:00 p.m. on a saturday night. >> i don't know. he looks sketchy. >> okay. >> he might be a good person or a bad person. >> reporter: mcclain, returning from buying iced tea at a corner store, is wearing a mask. his family says because he often got cold since he's anemic. >> stop right there. hey, stop right there. stop! stop! >> i have a right to go where i'm going. >> stop. i have a right to stop you, because you're being suspicious. >> reporter: in seconds, it escalates. the officer grabs mcclain. >> stop tensing up. >> let go of me. no, i am an introvert. please respect my boundaries that i'm speaking. let go of me! >> reporter: soon, he's

here's our chief justice correspondent pierre thomas now. >> reporter: akil carter was on his way home from church with his white grandmother in 2018 when police pulled them over. >> the person in the car in the back seat, i need you to step out of the car with your hands up. >> reporter: he says the next thing he knew, guns were drawn and he was ordered out of the car. >> i was angry, i was nervous, i was terrified for my grandmother. >> stop. get down on your knees. on your knees. keep your hands up. don't move. you understand? >> this is my grandson! >> reporter: akil was handcuffed, detained and put in the back of a squad car. when he was finally released, police simply said this was a misunderstanding. no apologies. in the suburb of milwaukee where akil was detained, blacks are only 5% of the population, but accounted for 62% of arrests made in 2018. a rate 29 times higher than white arrests. akil's encounter reflective of a broad pattern revealed in an abc news investigation with our owned stations. in 800 jurisdictions, black people were arrested at a rate five times higher than

>> pierre thomas, extraordinary, thanks very much.ll of you at home can see his report tonight on "nightline." we are joined by jay scott thomson. he's the former police chief of camden county, new jersey. thanks for joining us. we want to talk about your experience in camden. back in 2013 you actually disbanded and transformed your police force as your city was facing a public safety crisis, a high murder rate, coupled with scores of complaints about excessive force. what did you learn from it? what did you do? >> so, 2012 was arguably the darkest hour in the city's history, particularly in terms of public safety. we had extremely high levels of mistrust, virtually no legitimacy with the community in and of itself, and a bold political decision was made to disband the police force and try something new. so we created a new policing paradigm and knew we had the rare opportunity to build culture as opposed to the challenge of chalginging cultur. so we really created this organization on three bedrock principles and that was that our of

i want to bring in pierre thomas tonight.ot only are you a dad, but you covered race in america, the justice department in america for so many years. the bottom line, this is not easy. >> david, it's not. many african-americans are old enough or have told their children about the civil rights movement when police unleashed dogs and water cannons. the police were the official forces of oppression. even to this day there are certain communities where the police are seen as okay pieing forces. this is true in communities where it's largely white officers applying black and brown neighborhood ♪ police are there to serve and protect but african-americans feel they're suspects first. >> we have reported so often on how these encounters escalate, how do we try to diffuse that, how to prevent it moving forward. >> reporter: time and time again you see african-americans in routine traffic stops and somehow the situation escalates to where blacks are harmed or killed. in south carolina in 2014 we saw a black man trying to give a white

jon karl, author of the best seller "front row at the trump show," chief justice correspondent pierre thomasor congressional correspondent mary bruce, and making her "this week" round table debut, our abc news multiplatform reporter rachel scott. good morning to you all, and rachel, because it's your first time, i want to start with you. you have been out there covering the protests in washington all week. give us the 50,000-foot view of what you have seen and heard while out in the field. i know you probably heard secretary wolf's description. >> martha, thank you so much for having me. well, the killing of george floyd was really just the boiling point. this is about centuries of systemic racism and racial inequality that has existed in this country, and i think what we are seeing right now is generational exhaustion, and generational uprising. these are young voices that are out there from all different backgrounds demanding for change, and as we see thousands of protesters out there, it's important to note that every single one of them has a story. either they have experienced racism the

. >> sources tell our pierre thomas that peaceful groups and demonstrators have been infiltrated by criminals intent on looting in anarchist forms on the left and right. the sources are concerned about white supremacists getting involved, and new york city police say 1 in 7 people who have been arrested is from outside the city itself. >> disturbing images and things that have happened over the past few days, but when you think about now we have people who, and the police don't know who's doing what or who is inciting what and doing exactly what, and what motives they have when they're out there in the streets. >>> and today marks one week since george floyd's death, and his family is speaking out. >> floyd's brother tells abc's alex perez he wants to see the arrests of the other officers on that scene. terrence floyd is planning to visit the site today and investigators are looking at new video of the deadly encounter. >> reporter: investigators looking at new video showing what appears to be the minutes before george floyd was pinned to the ground and died. floyd can't be seen in the video

our chief justice correspondent pierre thomas has the latest on that side of the story. good morning, pierre. >> reporter: robin, good morning. there's no doubt some undisciplined locals have been involved in throwing debris, vandalism and looting but law enforcement officials also believe outside agitators may be the most violent. in new york city police officials say anarchists have been involved. in parts of minnesota 14% of those arrested have been outsiders. the president has been pointing the finger at antifa but marco rubio, chairman of the senate intelligence committee says, anti-government extremists from the left and the right are playing a role. amy? >> pierre, thank you. >>> all of this is happening with our country still in the grips of the coronavirus emergency. in the past 24 hours there have been more than 19,000 new cases reported here in the united states and 600 new deaths. stephanie ramos has the latest. >> reporter: this weekend, covid crossing yet another alarming milestone. 6 million cases reported worldwide, and with more than 100,000 deaths in the

our chief justice correspondent pierre thomas has the details. good morning, pierre. >> reporter: george, good morning. there is increasing concerns some of these violent opportunists may be hunting law enforcement. a new bulletin from the fbi's boston office warns police operatives may be tracking public payroll records to find out some of the home addresses of officers. authorities are urgently trying to figure out what may be going on here. this as there's an expanding list of attacks on police across the nation. from north carolina to new york to las vegas, evidence of police being targeted. in recent days an officer was shot in the head. police vehicles have been shot at and officers have even been hit by cars. robin? >> all right. pierre, thank you. >>> even though most protests have been peaceful, some of those taking part have gotten injured during clashes in the streets, just not the police that pierre was referring to. t.j. holmes has their stories and some videos we have to warn you can be difficult to watch. good morning, t.j. >> repor

our chief justice correspondent pierre thomas has the latest from washington. good morning, pierre. >> reporter: george, good morning. in a damning statement to congress in just a little while, aaron zelinsky, a key prosecutor in the roger stone case, will say his bosses at the justice department were, quote, afraid of the president and that he felt pressured to give roger zelinsky's recommendation for a long sentence was overturned by attorney general barr raising questions of favoritism for the president's political ally. barr said that zelinsky's recommendation was overzealous and points out the judge in the case agreed with his assessment and this morning doj is pushing back hard saying there was never any direct pressure on zelinsky and that he provides no specific evidence to back up that claim. we'll see shortly what zelinsky has to say. a dramatic day ahead. george. >> extraordinary situation, pierre, thanks very much. will increase the pressure on the attorney general to testify as well. thank you. michael. >>> george, now to the surprising result of th