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People embrace Thursday after a school shooting at Rigby Middle School in Rigby, Idaho.
(AP/The Idaho Post-Register/John Roark)
People embrace Thursday after a school shooting at Rigby Middle School in Rigby, Idaho. (AP/The Idaho Post-Register/John Roark)

Gunshots hit pupils, custodian; girl held

BOISE, Idaho — Authorities say a sixth-grade girl took a gun to her Idaho middle school, shot and wounded two students and a custodian and then was disarmed by a teacher.

Officials said at a news conference Thursday that the three are expected to survive their injuries. Jefferson County Sheriff Steve Anderson said the girl pulled a handgun from her backpack and fired rounds inside and outside Rigby Middle School in the small city of Rigby, about 95 miles southwest of Yellowstone National Park.

A female teacher disarmed the girl and held her until police arrived and took her into custody, authorities said, without giving other details.

All three victims were shot in their extremities. Authorities say they’re investigating the motive for the attack and where the girl got the gun.

Anderson told The East Idaho News that the suspect was a student at the school.

“Today we had the worst nightmare a school district could encounter. We had a school shooting here at Rigby Middle School,” Jefferson County School District Superintendent Chad Martin said in a statement. “What we know so far is the shooter has been apprehended. There is no further threat to the students.” Students were moved to the nearby high school, where their parents were to pick them up, according to media reports.

Wall-project exec now facing tax case

PENSACOLA, Fla. — The co-founder of the We Build The Wall project aimed at raising money for a border wall was indicted Thursday on tax charges, adding to the fraud charges he already faces.

Prosecutors said that Brian Kolfage underreported his taxable income, in 2019. The indictment also accuses Kolfage of failing to report “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in contributions to the project that were funneled into his personal account.

An attorney for Kolfage was not listed in court records.

The other case against Kolfage is in New York. In August, a grand jury indicted Kolfage and Steve Bannon, former adviser to former President Donald Trump. Bannon was pardoned by Trump on his last day in office. The case still continues against Kolfage and others.

The New York prosecutors say Kolfage and others worked to divert some of the $25 million raised for the wall project for their own personal use.

They are charged in that case with one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Kolfage pleaded innocent to the charges and is free on bond.

Vehicle strikes crowd, killing woman

KATY, Texas — One woman died and several other people were injured when a driver struck people in the parking lot of a suburban Houston restaurant after a reported fight early Thursday, police said.

Investigators believe the driver, who is about 20 years old, intentionally struck the crowd, Harris County sheriff’s office Sgt. Jason Brown said.

People were gathered outside Pinchy’s Tex-Mex Restaurant in Katy about 1 a.m. when they were struck, authorities said. One woman, believed to be about 35, was pronounced dead at a hospital. Another person was in serious condition while several others suffered minor injuries, Brown said.

The driver initially fled but returned to the parking lot, where he was taken into custody, Brown said.

A fight inside the restaurant had spilled out into the parking lot before the people were struck, Houston TV station KTRK reported. Investigators were working to determine any relationship between the driver and those who were struck, Brown said.

Home’s occupants sickened; one dies

LEXINGTON, Ind. — A woman died and six other people, including three children, received medical treatment after apparently being sickened by carbon monoxide fumes from a gasoline-powered generator set up inside a southern Indiana home, police said.

Scott County deputies who were called early Wednesday to the home found that the generator was being used indoors, police said.

Terri Hart, 51, was found dead inside the home, while a 23-year-old and three children ages 6, 4 and 3 months, were taken to hospitals, police said. Two other people were treated at the scene.

Hart’s cause of death will not be determined until autopsy results are received, but authorities said a preliminary investigation revealed signs of carbon monoxide poisoning.

“The rest of the folks in the home are going to be OK and as time goes on, they are going to recover,” Scott County Sheriff Jerry Goodin told WLKY-TV. The home in the unincorporated community of Lexington, about 25 miles north of Louisville, Ky., did not have electricity service, Goodin said.

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