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U.S. intercepts Russian, Chinese bombers off Alaskan coast
The U.S. military intercepted several Russian and Chinese bombers in international airspace near the coast of Alaska Wednesday.
Two Russian Tu-95s and two Chinese H-6s entered what is known as the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement Wednesday night.
The aircraft were “detected, tracked and intercepted,” NORAD said. They remained in the Alaska ADIZ and did not enter U.S. airspace.
The bombers were intercepted by U.S. F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, along with Canadian CF-18s and other support aircraft, a U.S. defense official confirmed to CBS News.
The official said that this marks the first time ever that Russian and Chinese aircraft have jointly entered the Alaska ADIZ, and the first time Chinese H-6s have encroached off Alaska.
While the Alaska ADIZ is considered part of international airspace, it is defined as an area where sovereign U.S. airspace ends but “that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security,” according to NORAD.
The activity from the Russian and Chinese bombers was “not seen as a threat,” NORAD noted.
Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
In February, the U.S. detected four Russian warplanes flying in the Alaska ADIZ, as was another Russian military aircraft in May 2023.
And in February 2023, Russian warplanes were intercepted there twice in one week. And that same month, a Chinese spy balloon was detected near Alaska before eventually making its way across the continental U.S. and being shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
— Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.
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Charges against Georgia high school shooter’s dad echo precedent set in historic Crumbley case
(CBS DETROIT) – The father of the 14-year-old accused of killing two students and two teachers at a Georgia high school was charged in connection with the shooting. His charges follow in the wake of the convictions of two Michigan parents after a school shooting carried out by their child.
Colin Gray, 54, has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, in the shooting that happened at Apalachee High School Wednesday morning. The 14-year-old suspect was charged with four counts of felony murder.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said the charges come from Colin Gray “knowingly allowing his son to possess a weapon.” The father was in court Friday morning, where a judge told him he could face up to 180 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
The father of the shooting suspect being charged comes after the historic case of James and Jennifer Crumbley, who were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter, becoming the first parents in the U.S. to be convicted in a mass school shooting carried out by their child.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were held responsible for their roles in the Oxford High School shooting that killed four students — Justin Shilling, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre and Hana St. Juliana — and injured seven other people on Nov. 30, 2021.
During their trials, the prosecution argued that the Crumbley parents ignored their son’s mental health needs and purchased the gun that he used in the shooting.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, the prosecutor in the Crumbley case who set the precedent for prosecuting parents in mass school shootings, reacted to the news that the Georgia suspect’s father was charged in an interview with CNN Thursday.
“My reaction is rage because you know it the prosecution of the Crumbleys was never, ever meant to be a floodgate of charges against parents, because it was such an egregious set of facts,” said McDonald. “I share the emotions of the entire country that, even after that well-publicized case, we’re still here.”
Former federal prosecutor and defense attorney Rick Convertino, appearing on CBS News Detroit to discuss the shooting at Apalachee before it was revealed that the shooter’s father had been charged, noted the differences between the gun laws in Georgia and Michigan and claimed “gun culture” is different in Georgia than it is in Michigan. Georgia passed a law in 2022 that allowed residents to carry without a permit, which means adults do not need to have a permit to buy or carry buy rifles, shotguns or handguns.
One of the most significant differences, according to Convertino, is with the gun storage laws. “In Georgia, there’s no specific child-preventive act that requires the guns to be secured and safe from unrestricted children to have access to it,” said Convertino.
There is also no gun lock law in Georgia or any “red flag” laws that allow for the removal of guns from someone who is determined to be a risk for harming themselves or other people. Georgia’s laws are among the least strict in the nation, according to a CBS News analysis.
“We’ve seen this 14-year-old shooter had made threats a year before. The father apparently said to the police that he bought the AR-style weapon for a Christmas present for his minor child,” Kris Brown, president of gun control advocacy organization Brady, told CBS News’ Natalie Brand, drawing a parallel to the Crumbley case.
Brown said Colin Gray’s arrest and the convictions of James and Jennifer Crumbley send a message.
“If you have a firearm in the home, you better safely store that firearm, or you will have a risk if something happens of being criminally charged,” she said.
Michigan’s new gun safety laws went into effect in February, a little over two years after the Oxford High School shooting.
