Southeast
Charlotte's deadliest police shootout: New timeline shows how 4 officers were killed over 20 minutes
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A new timeline released Friday shows how four law enforcement officers were killed over the course of 20 minutes on April 29 while serving a search warrant in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Gunman Terry Hughes Jr., 39, killed Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas M. Weeks Jr., North Carolina Department of Adult Correction (NCDAC) Officers Sam Poloche and William “Alden” Elliott, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) Officer Joshua Eyer. Four other officers were wounded in the line of duty that Monday.
“This is the deadliest attack on law enforcement in Charlotte’s history. It is one of the deadliest, single incident attacks on law enforcement across our country,” Daniel Redford, president of the Charlotte Fraternal Order of Police lodge, told Fox News Digital. “We’ve had to say goodbye to four heroes. If there’s anything we can learn from this incident, as we do with so many other incidents, to prevent this from happening again and save officers’ lives, first responders’ lives, that would be the only takeaway.”
Here’s the latest timeline of the shootout released by Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer B. Merriweather III as part of his investigation into 23 officers who returned fire at Hughes on April 29:
April 29, 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. that Monday, members of the U.S. Marshals Service Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force arrived at Hughes’ residence on Galway Drive in East Charlotte to serve a warrant for a felon in possession of a firearm.
CHARLOTTE OFFICER KILLED IN LINE OF DUTY REMEMBERED IN MEMORIAL AS MAN WHO’D GIVE ‘THE SHIRT FROM HIS BACK’
(L-R) Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas M. Weeks, Investigator William “Alden” Elliott, Police Officer Joshua Eyer and Investigator Samuel “Sam” Poloche were killed in a police shootout in Charlotte, North Carolina on Monday, April 29, 2024. (U.S. Marshals Service via AP/NCDAC/Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department/Sean Rayford via AP/Getty Images)
“For the officers that were on this task force that were showing up at this house on that morning, they’ve probably done it 100 times or more,” Redford said of the situation officers thought they were walking into that afternoon. “Similar … charges against the individuals to arrest. They’ve done it 100 to 200 times before, and it ended safely. You always keep in the back of your mind the dangers that you’re going into. But you can’t always think about the danger because then you’re not going to be able to think clearly if that’s all you’re focused on.”
“They’ve done it 100 to 200 times before, and it ended safely.”
Hughes was standing in the threshold of the side door of his home when officers arrived at his home, which is located in a residential neighborhood near a public park.
CHARLOTTE POLICE CHIEF BREAKS DOWN REMEMBERING 4 SLAIN OFFICERS, SAYS SUSPECT HAD ‘EXTENSIVE’ CRIMINAL HISTORY
Charlotte residents were shocked after the deaths of four officers following a shootout on April 29, 2024. (Charlotte resident)
When he saw officers arrive at his home, Hughes — a career criminal — retreated inside, and task force members used a loudspeaker to announce their presence and demanded Hughes exit the residence, Merriweather wrote in a letter to CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings to explain the results of his investigation. Shortly afterward, Hughes opened fire with a “Radical Arms RF-15 rifle.”
North Carolina public records show Hughes had previously been charged with eluding arrest, looting, marijuana possession and manufacturing, driving with an expired registration, driving while impaired and more out of several different counties.
Hughes “then moved to fire from an upstairs side window and subsequently alternated between firing from the rear and side windows.”
More than 100 rounds were fired during the fatal Charlotte shootout. (Audrey Conklin/Fox News Digital)
Weeks was struck as he and Poloche took cover behind a tree in Hughes’ backyard while Hughes fired from his upstairs windows. Elliott and another task force member were then struck “at the fence line on the west side of the home.”
1:33 p.m.
Eyer — the only CMPD officer on the NCDAC task force — was positioned in the front of Hughes’ home and relayed to CMPD dispatch that shots had been fired and officers were down, Merriweather said. Eyer had access to a CMPD radio channel that task force members were not monitoring.
CHARLOTTE SHOOTING: 4 LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS KILLED, 4 INJURED AS US MARSHALS TASK FORCE SERVED WARRANT
Charlotte police responded to a deadly shootout on Galway Drive on April 29, 2024. (Charlotte resident)
1:35 p.m.
Just two minutes after Eyer called in the shooting and reported officers down, “the first of hundreds” of CMPD officers began to arrive at the scene to help the fallen officers.
CHARLOTTE SHOOTOUT: 4 SLAIN OFFICERS SERVING WARRANT HAD ‘GREAT DISADVANTAGE,’ EXPERT SAYS
“Officer Eyer and numerous other CMPD officers approached the rear of the decedent’s residence through the backyard of an abutting home, searching for a safe route to get to the three downed officers,” Merriweather wrote.
1:46 p.m.
About 10 minutes after calling for backup, Eyer and other officers went to the treeline in Hughes’ backyard where Weeks was struck by gunfire. Eyer and Poloche “were struck by additional shots fired by the decedent as they took cover behind this tree,” Merriweather said.
The deadly shootout occurred at a house on Galway Drive in East Charlotte on April 29, 2024. (Audrey Conklin/ Fox News Digital)
“Three additional CMPD officers were also shot as they took cover in various locations behind the house,” the DA wrote.
CHARLOTTE RESIDENTS SHOCKED AFTER 4 LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS DIE, 4 OTHERS INJURED IN SHOOTOUT
1:50 p.m.
Approximately 20 minutes after Hughes began firing, he jumped out of a second-story window on the front side of his house while still holding his AR-15.
“At 1:50:28 p.m., officers in front of the residence communicated over CMPD radio that the decedent was down,” Merriweather said. “Although officers in the rear of the residence received this information, officers on the side of the residence did not. Officers positioned in the backyard then began to evacuate TFO Poloche and Officer Eyer.”
The home where four law enforcement officers were killed remains destroyed in Charlotte, North Carolina on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Four officers were killed in a shootout a day earlier while trying to serve a search warrant. (Audrey Conklin/Fox News Digital)
The officers on the side of the residence who did not receive communication that the gunman was down “attempted to reach the injured TFO on the fence line to render aid,” according to the DA.
At 1:50:42 p.m., while authorities were attempting to reach the injured officer, another officer saw movement in the upstairs side window where Hughes had been firing and shot a single bullet at the window.
Redford, the local FOP president, said communication becomes an unintentional issue with officers from so many different agencies all responding to a large attack.
“Communication in a situation like this is one of the more important things to do because that’s how you relay dangers.”
“That’s how you relay where you need to go to where you shouldn’t go to,” Redford explained. “The one thing we always find in these mass incidents like this is: officers are responding, and we end up unintentionally blocking roads. You have 100 police cars parked alongside the road, which makes it harder for paramedics, fire departments, stuff like that to get through.”
Kelly Weeks, center, the widow of slain Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks Jr., glances over at attendees of her husband’s memorial service at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, N.C. on Monday, May 6, 2024. (Jeff Siner/The Charlotte Observer via AP)
1:50 to 2 p.m.
“Over the course of the next ten minutes, officers in the rear of the residence discharged cover fire at the rear window of the home as they evacuated [Poloche, Eyer and Weeks],” Merriweather wrote. “Officers on the side of the residence discharged cover fire as they evacuated the injured task force officer. At 1:59 p.m., CMPD officers used an armored utility vehicle to drive to the side fence line and evacuate [Elliott].”
2:39 p.m.
Hughes’ girlfriend calls 911 and tells dispatch she is hiding in a closet in his residence with her 17-year-old daughter.
CHARLOTTE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS WHO DIED IN SHOOTOUT IDENTIFIED: ‘FOREVER INDEBTED’
Police console each other at the memorial to fallen CMPD officer Joshua Eyer at First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, Friday, May 3, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
2:20 to 8:25 p.m.
Elliott, Poloche, Weeks and Eyer were pronounced dead from the hospitals they were transported to over the course of the next six hours.
Merriweather ultimately cleared the officers who returned fire at Hughes of any wrongdoing after completing his investigation into the shootout, saying “there is no question that the 23 officers who returned fire during this lengthy encounter did so in defense of themselves and of their fellow officers.”
“This incident signifies the single deadliest assault on law enforcement in our community’s history,” the DA said in the conclusion of his letter to Jennings. “If law enforcement officers had not responded to an imminently deadly threat with lethal force, as difficult as it is to imagine, the outcome could have been even more catastrophic. Accordingly, this review finds that the use of deadly force by law enforcement officers, resulting in the death of Terry Hughes Jr., was justified under the law.”
Police console each other at the memorial for fallen CMPD officer Joshua Eyer at First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, Friday, May 3, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Jennings also responded to the DA’s findings, saying in an Aug. 1 statement that the four deceased officers “displayed the epitome of bravery” while assisting with the deadliest attack on officers in Charlotte’s history on April 29.
“We will not forget their ultimate sacrifice for our community’s safety,” Jennings said. “I am extremely grateful to the dedicated members of our Homicide Unit, Crime Lab and Crime Scene Investigations as well as the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office who have carefully and meticulously reviewed approximately 1,100 videos and examined approximately 10,000 pieces of evidence.”
Redford noted that many of the officers who responded to the shootout on April 29 were not on duty that day.
“I think that shows you the dedication to law enforcement is that many of the officers who responded that day were on their days off, either at home somewhere with their family, caught wind of what was going on and put their uniforms on, got in their cars and drove into work, knowing they didn’t have to, but that they came in because that’s how important this was,” Redford said. “That’s how dedicated the men and women in this profession are to each other and to keeping our community safe.”
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Southeast
Virginia prosecutor’s record on violent offenders scrutinized after illegal immigrant charged in mom’s murder
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A prosecutor in Virginia is facing criticism after a Fairfax County Police Department officer warned the county’s commonwealth attorney about a criminal illegal immigrant who has racked up over 30 arrests before allegedly killing a mother.
Abdul Jalloh, 32, was charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed a mother to death while at a bus stop in Fairfax County, Virginia, on Feb. 23. Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano’s office, however, was warned several times about how dangerous Jalloh is, and dismissed many of his previous criminal charges.
Jalloh’s case is far from the only controversial actions by Descano’s office, which even includes a plea deal with a murder suspect that allows him the chance at freedom.
POLICE WARNED PROSECUTORS 3 TIMES ABOUT VIOLENT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT BEFORE HE ALLEGEDLY KILLED VIRGINIA MOTHER
Here’s a list of controversial cases handled by Descano’s office:
Abdul Jalloh
Abdul Jalloh, 32, is accused of killing Stephanie Minter, 41, at a Virginia bus stop. (Fox 5 DC)
Jalloh, 32, was charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed a mother to death while at a bus stop in Fairfax County, Virginia, on Feb. 23. The victim, 41-year-old Stephanie Minter, was found dead with multiple stab wounds to her upper body, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Jalloh has a violent rapsheet dating back to 2014 and includes over 30 arrests with several charges dismissed by Descano’s office.
Jalloh was arrested the next day while he was allegedly trying to steal from a liquor store when an employee called 911. Officials said Jalloh came to the U.S. illegally in 2012 from Sierra Leone under the Obama administration.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer on Jalloh in 2020, and he was later issued a final order of removal allowing him to be deported to any country other than Sierra Leone. Despite that order, he was not deported.
A police major for the Fairfax County Police Department even warned Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano about Jalloh on at least three separate occasions, according to emails obtained by WJLA.
In one email to Fairfax County Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands, the police major said Jalloh “is one of the repeat (and violent) offenders” that they had discussed before.
TRAVIS COUNTY DA FACES RENEWED ‘SOFT ON CRIME’ CRITICISM AFTER CAREER CRIMINAL CHARGED WITH MURDER
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano speaking at an event. (Sarah Voisin/Getty Images)
“I wanted to get your background on why he is out so soon and ask if his prior suspended sentence (of I believe 5 years) was pursued by your office? Unfortunately, based on MTV Station’s numerous dealings with him, it is not a question of if, but rather when he will maliciously wound (or worse) again. My role of keeping the public safe, prompts me to follow up on his status,” the major wrote.
A Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the office “was aware of Jalloh’s criminal history and shared police concerns about potential future dangerousness. That is why our Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney personally handled these cases.”
The spokesperson added that prosecutors “will often explore many different pathways to successful prosecution, but, at the end of the day, our decisions are constrained by what testimony is available and what is legally permissible and practicable in Fairfax courts.”
Joshua Danehower
In 2022, Joshua Danehower was arrested for the murder of Gret Glyer. (Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office)
In 2022, Danehower was charged with Gret Glyer’s murder. According to WUSA 9, Glyer, who owned the donation platform DonorSee, was shot 10 times as he slept next to his wife on June 24, 2022.
Prosecutors alleged Danehower killed Glyer because of an obsession with his wife. The suspect allegedly became fixated with her after a church function, and according to her family, the two had gone on a date about a decade ago.
Danehower was given a plea deal by Descano’s office, which found him not guilty by reason of insanity in February.
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Virginia law requires Danehower to be sent to a psychiatric hospital, where his status will be evaluated on an annual basis for the next five years, then every two years afterward. If he’s deemed no longer a threat to himself or others, he’d have an opportunity to be released from the psychiatric hospital.
Heather Glyer, the victim’s wife, said while on the witness stand, “I was robbed of my life partner.”
“My kids were robbed of their father,” she added.
Wilmer Osmany Ramos-Giron
Wilmer Osmany Ramos-Giron pleaded guilty to lesser charges. (DHS)
In January 2025, according to a report by former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, Ramos-Giron, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, choked his ex-wife during an argument and pulled out a knife.
He was charged with felony abduction by force, felony strangulation, and misdemeanor assault and battery against a family member after the incident, but Descano’s office allowed him to plead to lesser charges of misdemeanor battery and brandishing a bladed weapon.
In a statement released by Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Deputy Chief of Staff and Public Information Officer Laura Birnbaum, according to the report, the plea agreement “achieved the outcomes that the victim wanted.”
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However, when the victim spoke with 7News, she refuted Birnbaum’s statement, saying she didn’t agree to the plea deal.
“He’s dangerous,” she said, fearing another violent incident would happen.
“If I die, who is going to take care of them?” the victim asked, referring to her children.
Ronnie Reel
Ronnie Reel accepted a plea deal by Fairfax county prosecutors. (Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office)
In July 2021, Reel was arrested on charges of sexual penetration, forcible sodomy and aggravated sexual battery against a minor, according to the Fairfax County Times.
During Reel’s trial on Sept. 13, 2022, Chief Judge of the Fairfax County Circuit Court Penney Azcarate ruled that the Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney’s office had missed an evidentiary deadline, meaning confessions, including a call from Reel to a defendant’s mother where he allegedly confessed, as well as other evidence and witnesses couldn’t be used in court.
According to the outlet, that meant the case would rely on the victim’s testimony entirely.
As a result, Reel was offered a plea deal and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and battery and was sentenced to one year in prison, but was released on time served. He also wasn’t required to register as a sex offender, according to FOX 5.
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The mother, who asked to be identified as Amber, told FOX 5 the case has had a big impact on her son.
“I was really upset. This is my child, this is my baby,” she said while crying. “And he got no justice. So he continues to see me cry and everything. He held his own, he stayed strong. He’s always trying to be strong for mom.”
“He was confessing every little detail that he did, and it was making me sick to my stomach,” she added. “It was horrible. He literally confessed to me why he did it.”
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
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Southeast
MIKE DAVIS: Virginia returns to the Confederacy with a seditious conspiracy against ICE
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Immigration enforcement is a core federal power. Under Article I of the Constitution, Congress has the duty to write our federal immigration laws. Under Article II, the President has the duty to enforce them. States cannot meddle and certainly not obstruct. Unfortunately, many Democrat states, especially Virginia, are on a deadly collision course with the federal government.
American voters gave President Trump and the Republican-led Congress a broad electoral mandate to reverse the disaster the Biden-Harris border policy caused in every state in America by mass importing as many as 20 million illegal aliens, including the worst of the worst around the world.
Activist judges and other Democrat politicians and election deniers have done everything they can fathom to thwart Trump’s constitutional duty to expel these dangerous illegal aliens.
TRUMP URGES DHS, ICE TO PUBLICIZE ARRESTS, SAYS CRACKDOWN IS ‘SAVING MANY INNOCENT LIVES’
The latest example is Virginia, which is passing a series of unconstitutional laws that would dangerously and illegally obstruct ICE. These proposals include criminal penalties, meaning that state law enforcement would attempt to arrest and jail ICE agents for simply doing their jobs.
This effort is seditious, insurrectionist, extremely dangerous and blatantly unconstitutional. For the sake of the Republic, the Justice Department must immediately and aggressively quell this Virginia seditious conspiracy.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Davis Spanberger laughs aloud during a ceremony in a Virginia court in Richmond. (Mike Kropf-Pool/Getty Images)
Fairfax County District Attorney Steve Descano is the Soros puppet Democrat prosecutor in the DC suburb, an uber-wealthy Democrat enclave that is an albatross around Virginia’s neck. Abdul Jalloh is an illegal alien who invaded our country in 2012. Jalloh settled in Virginia and began wreaking havoc on the good citizens there, racking up a whopping 30 arrests. These included one for rape and four charges for stabbing Americans.
Yet, thanks to the willful ineptitude of Fairfax County’s Democrat regime, Jalloh only had one felony conviction. He violated his probation, spent three months in jail and went free because of a deal between his lawyer and Descano’s office. Sanctuary jurisdictions like Fairfax County do not notify ICE when detaining or releasing illegals like Jalloh, who had a final order of removal from 2020.
Police in Fairfax repeatedly warned Descano’s office via email that Jalloh’s release would endanger the public, but the pleas fell on deaf ears. Earlier this week, Jalloh allegedly stabbed to death 41-year-old innocent mother Stephanie Minter at a bus stop.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger ran as a moderate Democrat. But after her inauguration this year, she immediately showed her true leftist colors. She issued an order prohibiting cooperation between state officials and ICE.
Several anti-ICE bills await Spanberger’s signature: (1) a prohibition against ICE arrests at courthouses (where these alleged dangerous criminal illegals visit daily); (2) a prohibition against ICE arrests within 40 feet of polling places (where illegals violate federal criminal laws by voting); and (3) criminal penalties for ICE agents who wear masks (because they don’t want to get doxxed and killed).
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano (Sarah Voisin/Getty Images)
If Spanberger signs these unconstitutional state laws, the Trump Justice Department should immediately sue and seek to enjoin them in court. A Virginia federal judge should issue an injunction, following the lead of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which fully stayed California’s unconstitutional prohibition against ICE agents’ use of masks.
But civil enforcement is not enough. Virginia Democrat officials plotting to arrest ICE agents for doing their jobs (seditious conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 2384) — and especially those who cause the arrests (insurrection under 18 U.S.C. § 2383, assault, kidnapping, harboring, conspiracy, and more) — must go to federal prison for their serious federal felonies. If anyone gets killed in a deadly standoff between these new Virginia confederates and ICE, these Virginia Democrat officials must face felony murder charges.
VIRGINIA LAWMAKERS UNLEASH ON VCU NURSE FIRED OVER ‘HEALTHCARE TERRORISM’ ENCOURAGING HARMING ICE AGENTS
Former President Biden and his missing-in-action border czar Kamala Harris allowed millions of illegal immigrants, including the most violent and dangerous criminals in the world, to pour across our borders. Trump is doing everything in his power to fulfill his broad electoral mandate and undo the damage by arresting and deporting these illegals.
Virginia’s proposed laws do not merely prohibit communication between state officials and ICE; rather, they criminalize federal law enforcement actions that are plainly within the scope of federal immigration enforcement power.
Abdul Jalloh has racked up over 30 arrests since entering the U.S., according to officials. (DHS)
States do not have to help ICE by, for instance, providing law enforcement resources to assist in ICE apprehensions of illegals. But states certainly cannot subvert or obstruct these federal efforts. This is especially true of Virginia’s attempt to arrest ICE agents in the line of duty, which could justify their use of deadly force.
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Virginia’s attempt to subvert and obstruct federal law must fail. We fought the Civil War because the Confederacy, headquartered in Virginia, sought to nullify federal law with respect to slavery. Today’s Virginia Democrats are reverting to their confederate roots.
Just as the federal government did during the Civil War and for a century after when segregationist states continued their efforts to nullify federal law, the federal government now must stand strong against Virginia’s sedition and insurrection. The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution makes plain that federal law is supreme in areas where the federal government has authority.
If Virginia gets away with effectively nullifying federal immigration enforcement, other states can nullify any other federal law that it finds distasteful. Let’s hope Abigail Spanberger comes to her senses and vetoes this insanity. If she does not, the federal government must use all tools at its disposal, including the Insurrection Act of 1807 and other federal criminal statutes, to preserve federal law.
Virginia state officials must go to federal prison for engaging in seditious conspiracy, insurrections and other very serious federal felonies. Anything less would threaten the existence of the Republic.
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Southeast
South Carolina pastor describes evacuating members from Middle East after war broke out during Israel trip
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SUMMERVILLE, S.C. – Dozens of members of a South Carolina church are finally back in the United States after Operation Epic Fury left them stranded in Israel for nearly a week after their flight was supposed to depart.
Forty members of Calvary Chapel Summerville landed in Israel on Feb. 20 for eight days of exploration in the Holy Land.
The group was set to fly home on Feb. 28 and had arrived at the airport three hours before their scheduled departure when the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran. The attack prompted the closure of Israel’s airspace and the group had to evacuate the airport.
“It felt like the weight of the world on my shoulders and I just prayed and prayed and prayed and asked God to give me wisdom,” said Vic Carroll, pastor at Calvary Chapel Summerville in South Carolina.
TRAVELERS STRANDED IN DUBAI PAYING HUGE SUMS TO FLEE ON PRIVATE CHARTER FLIGHTS AMID OPERATION EPIC FURY
Members of Calvary Chapel Summerville visit Al-Khazneh in Petra. (Melanie Carroll)
Carroll said the group had to shelter-in-place in Israel, going in and out of bomb shelters for several days. He then had to face the decision of the group staying or taking a bus to Jordan to have a shot at getting a flight back to the United States.
“We ultimately, you know, made the decision between what was bad and what was worse. I thought the worst would be to stay,” the pastor said.
“We were instructed that if a siren goes off while we were on the road, the bus would pull over, we would all need to get on the ground, lay on the ground face-down for at least 10 minutes until the threat was gone, and then be on our way,” he continued.
STATE DEPARTMENT USES PATRIOTS TEAM PLANE TO EVACUATE AMERICANS FROM MIDDLE EAST
The members of Calvary Chapel Summerville sightseeing in the Holy Land. (Melanie Carroll)
Fortunately, that did not happen and the group made it to the airport in Jordan to hop on a flight out of the Middle East Thursday morning.
Before the flight, Carroll said it was frightening, but their faith was greater than their fear.
“We’re just having to trust that we’re making the right decision, and this is our only option to get home, so we [were] just trusting in God,” he said.
AMERICAN STUCK IN MIDDLE EAST ESCAPES IN RACE TO REACH CRITICALLY ILL HUSBAND IN CALIFORNIA
The group returned to the U.S. on Thursday night, landing at JFK in New York.
Melanie Carroll, the pastor’s wife, texted, “We are so thankful!!!!! It’s surreal!!”
Melanie and Vic Carroll while visiting The Holy Land. (Kailey Schuyler)
The unexpected extension of the trip caused the price tag to increase significantly. Melanie created a GoFundMe, writing, “The path to get us home between lodging, flights and transfers will be upwards of $2500 per person.”
The group was able to raise their goal of $100,000 in less than three days.
Melanie said the group is continuing to pray for everyone trying to get out of the Middle East.
Nearly 24,000 Americans have returned to the U.S. after fleeing the Middle East since Operation Epic Fury began last week, according to the State Department.
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