ABC11 Eyewitness News - Eyewitness News at 11pm - September 9, 2026

Episode Date: September 10, 2026

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Right now, live coverage from your local news leader, preparing you for tomorrow starting tonight and your first alert forecast. Here's what's happening where you live. This is ABC 11 eyewitness news. And tonight on eyewitness news, you'll meet the history-making teenage girls here in the triangle who are playing in the first high school varsity flag football games, and you'll see the connection to the NFL. But first, calls for mental health services are growing in Durham, and the heart program is the one responsible. to thousands of calls coming in every year. We're glad you're joining us here for eyewitnesses at 11. I'm Steve Daniels. And Lauren Johnson tonight, new numbers shared

at a community conversation reveals just how helpful the city of Durham's heart program has been. The concept was born in 2022 as an alternative for crisis response. So when you call 911, who responds to your crisis could look different and now expansion conversations are happening. Jamice Price joins us in studio.

Jemise, you were there for that conversation today and some leaders want to see it expand. That's right, Lauren. Right now the heart program is only in Durham City but not in the county. The hope is to expand his reach and hours of operation. Public safety leaders say the program has helped with the growing demands for service in the city, allowing police to handle other law enforcement needs. When you call for help in Durham, the city's heart program could be the one to respond.

We go to calls that involve someone trespassing. Very often that involves someone who is maybe unhoused or living unsheltered. We go to mental health calls or suicide threat calls. The team responds to mental health crises or even a welfare check. It's a branch of public safety that's able to complement first responders, and it comes when there's more calls for service in a city that's growing. Wednesday night, the city's community safety director explained how the program worked at a community conversation event hosted by the NAACP of Durham. Since we started to over 30,000 calls that law enforcement would have had to go to that they don't.

Last year alone, we saved law enforcement over 8,000. and hours in response time. That's time that frees up law enforcement to be available for other calls where we need them most. And so that's a direct public safety benefit. But there are calls to see the same benefit outside the city limits and into the county. Durham County Commissioner Stephen Valentine says the community conversation is a good start. I see heart now more and more responding to crisis situations, low level and high level. So I've been impressed by their involvement in our community and now I want to take a look, a closer look at their effectiveness. The county authorized a feasibility study to determine if the Hart program could work in the

county. We'll have to make an assessment as to whether that's a good fit for the county or not. We understand that there are many competing priorities within city and county, but when there are resources to do that, we will be ready to respond. Eyewitness news has reported that city data shows the Hart program has reduced crime reports by nearly 60% and arrest by 56% while improving response times by more than three minutes. And residents are taking notice. The heart program is a program that steps in and helps our public safety individuals. So a very important conversation tonight that was supported by the new police chief,

Stephanie Martiz. And so she was in attendance at tonight's event. Did we hear from her? No, she did not talk, but she did go one-on-one with a lot of folks who were there engaging. She sat from Roe really listening and taking on just this conversation and learning about the impact of this program in the community. A lot of success, a lot to celebrate, and it really is in place of what was previously the DPD response in many of these cases to those 911 calls a completely new direction with the heart program and it's interesting to see the impact.

An appropriate response for some of those phone calls. Absolutely. Jemise, thank you. Thank you. It has now been more than five months since off-duty The Comberland County Sheriff's Deputy Captain Adam Bean was shot and killed. Tonight, the long-awaited answer in that case. In North Carolina, state trooper is now charged with murdering him. State Highway Patrol Sergeant Nickyme Oxendine has been indicted on a charge of first-degree murder in Bean's death. The 44-year-old and 18-year veteran of the patrol was being held without bond. The indictment comes more than five months after Bean's shooting death outside a home in Hope Mills.

Investigators believe Bean went to the home on March 27th and became upset after seeing Oxendine's truck. there. According to search warrants, Oxendon walked outside, fired a shot into the ground, and then fired several more shots, hitting Bean. Being a 20-year veteran at the sheriff's office died at that scene. The woman who lived at the home was performing CPR when officers arrived. She was described in court documents as a domestic violence victim. And according to the news and observer is the sister of Highway Patrol commander, Colonel Freddie Johnson Jr. The FBI led the investigation today. Eyewitness news asked what new evidence resulted in this murder charge, the agency says it is not releasing additional details at this time. Oxendine

has been on administrative duty since that shooting. State Highway Patrol says its internal investigation remains underway. In your voice, your vote, Republicans kicked off the first night of their first ever midterm convention in Dallas, Texas. And the Republican nominee for Senate here in North Carolina, Michael Watley spoke at the event, and he's hoping to win that Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Tom Tillis. Wotley is locked in a competitive race against former Governor Roy Cooper. Cooper is leading in the latest polling by eight percentage points. Wotley used his time on the convention stage to praise Republican tax cuts as well as continuing to raise questions about Cooper's record on crime. This is the radical Democrats playbook to raise costs

on our families to impose a reckless tax and spend agenda to release violent criminals from prisoners like Roy Cooper did in North Carolina. In his statement, a Cooper can't, a Cooper can't The campaign spokesperson responded to Watley's comments saying, quote, independent fact checkers have called these attacks false, while Roy spent his career putting rapists and violent criminals behind bars and signing tough-on-crime laws as governor. The state of North Carolina is suing TikTok and its parent company, bite dance, saying the app is addictive for children and demanding the company change its practices. And today, attorneys on both sides made arguments in front of the North Carolina Supreme Court. It's centered around whether a state court is the proper venue to hear a case. alleging TikTok is designed in a way to be addictive, particularly to young people. It's the latest action targeting a social media company.

Today's hearing comes just weeks after attorneys general from across the country and META announced a settlement agreement, which would see that company enact new restrictions for users. There's a strong connection in the academic research between frequent social media use and poor mental health outcomes. And we also know from other data that teens in North Carolina are using some. social media platforms at very high rates. ABC 11 reached out to TikTok for a statement, but have not heard back at this time. The court did not issue a ruling. It's an historic night here in North Carolina, and we're shining a spotlight on the teenage

girls who are trailblazers playing in the first high school flag football games that are officially sanctioned as a varsity sport. A number of schools hit the field in the triangle tonight. Proud parents cheering on the girls from the sidelines, and the NFL is a big supporter of the sport. In fact, the Carolina Panthers helped kickstart this sport. in North Carolina. Elena Athens is live in Raleigh with all the details. Tell us about it, Elena. Yeah, it was an exciting day. North Carolina is now the 22nd state in the country

to sanction this sport. Coaches tell us that some of these student athletes have been playing for years, but today was the official kickoff. Eye witness news was there as Jordan High School in Durham hosted Apex and Green Level for the official opening night of girls flag football. It's really exciting time. It's really great to see these kids finally compete and see this sport grow as it is right now. The North Carolina High School Athletic Association officially sanctioned Girls Flag Football as a varsity sport this past May. They are now more than 150 high schools with teams statewide.

Last year, when the sport was not sanctioned, a little more than 60 schools competed for the state championship. One coach says the change has brought him more student athletes. We did see a large number of ladies more interested, so that was the biggest, I would say, change from last year to this year. But for us, our mission is to continue to grow, continue to develop the kids from freshmen to their senior year. So it was just business as usual. All right, so these ladies are all playing to win. We do have the schedule for the upcoming inaugural season.

Playoffs will start on October 31st. and then the state championship scheduled to take place on November 14th. We're live in Raleigh, Elena, Athens, ABC 11, eyewitness news. Pretty cool to be a part of a groundbreaking sport in North Carolina. Elena, thank you. And you know what's really cool, there are 100 colleges and universities that have women's flag football teams, and it's going to be an Olympic sport in 2028 out in LA, so they're on the right track right there. Paving the way.

That's right. All right, still to come in 11. He quit his job and sounded the alarm, a former anthropic employee, speaking out about the perils of AI research. And we'll have the latest. on what he said about the future of AI and the similar concerns other people are voicing as well. And Don checking those temperatures outside. Yeah, a little warmer out there tonight. Still dry on the first alert Doppler network, but that's going to change. We have some rain showing up in the seven-day forecast. We'll time it out for you. Next.

Tonight we're diving into the new and alarming warning about artificial intelligence from an industry insider. A researcher at Anthropic, the company behind Claude is quitting the AI industry. And it comes with a stark warning that AI could, quote, kill us all by the end of the decade, and he's not the lone voice raising worries over this technology. ABC's Matt Rivers has the latest. Tonight, an industry insider issuing a dire warning about the potential dangers of AI, accusing the company's building advanced AI models of putting humanity at risk in their race to develop the technology.

AI researcher Jacob Coxon resigning from his position at Anthropic, the maker of Claude, writing in a statement, the people building AI earnestly believed that it could kill by the end of the decade. No other human activity poses this level of danger. The alarm comes after Anthropic and fellow AI giant OpenAI disclosed separate incidents earlier this year, in which some of their AI models chose to gain unauthorized access to the internet and then hacked other organizations. Anthropic CEO recently telling our Lindsay Davis, the government should play a role in overseeing safe AI development. Where is the responsibility to make sure that you're creating a safe product that doesn't create a worst case scenario.

Yeah, I mean, I think we're building it. The on us, right? I think the government has a role in setting standards in helping us identify and track down threats. Now, Anthropic did not respond to our request for comment, but earlier today, a top safety researcher at the company posting online that he agrees that AI could one day kill all humans and puts it at a greater than 10% chance that that happens within the next decade.

Matt Rivers, ABC News in New York. The community is pushing back on data centers and Raleigh dozens packed into city council chambers to say no to data centers and really press city leaders to impose a moratorium. It's important to note Raleigh has not adopted a data center pause like they have in Durham County and in other communities like Apex Carey and Holly Springs.

That's in part what led to a large turnout for public comment at last night's city council meeting as local residents urged leaders to pass a similar pause and prevent any data Center construction in Raleigh. Several speakers also brought up concerns about climate change after drought conditions led to water restrictions in Raleigh this summer. These centers will consume 5 million gallons of our water a day, equivalent to the use of a town with 10 to 50,000 people during a severe drought. Not to say anything of the risk of soil and

groundwater contamination in the neighborhood where so many families live. Last week, Kerry passed an 18-month pause on data center construction. The moratoriums in Holly Springs and in apex are up in 12 months. Durham County has its own pause on data centers, but that only is applying to facilities larger than 100,000 square feet. We've reached out to the mayor and Raleigh, Janet Cowell and several city council members to get their thoughts about a pause in Raleigh. So far we have not heard back. Tonight we have an update on a dog that was abandoned in a dumpster in Durham at the shops at Lakewood. We now know the dog is recovering well. And the Durham County Sheriff's Office is searching for a person of interest tied to this animal

cruelty case. Deputies want to talk to this man after the dog was found trapped inside a dumpster. Responding deputy was able to pull the dog out of the dumpster. Anyone who recognizes that man is asked to contact the Durham County Sheriff's Office. Tonight, the Animal Protection Society of Durham is naming the dog Kingston and they say he's frightened but otherwise doing pretty well. They say if his recovery continues is expected, he'll be ready for adoption beginning on Saturday. I say he is actually making progress and cuddling up with some of the workers there. But he does look a little frightened, doesn't he? No.

On Friday, a new ABC News, primetime special is airing right here on ABC 11. It's called 9-11 Tribute in Light, live from Lower Manhattan. And it was created in partnership with the 9-11 Memorial and Museum. Live performances are planned. Earlier today, we spoke with World News Tonight anchor David Muir about the special. Well, you know, I think we'll revisit the history of that day. It's important to do that, I think. you know, one of the things that we've noticed and putting together this special is that we

we have all reported on this for so many years and still to this day when we're in that edit room and we're seeing those images and working on these stories all over again. It's profound. And I think that there, I've been thinking about this. And I'm convinced there's a reason for that. There's a reason why those images are seared in all of our memories together as a country because we're supposed to remember. We're never forget. And I think one of the things that we'll do in this special is we'll lift up, you know, all these fans. families forever changed by that day and and show that their resiliency and strength not only help them to get through these 25 years, but it's been sort of a symbol of the strength

of the country. 9-11 Tribute in Light Live from Lower Manhattan airs this Friday at 8 p.m. right here on ABC 11 and wherever you stream. All right, let's talk about the weather. Don says, hey, yeah, this fake fall we've had for a couple days is pretty nice, but things are changing summer's on the way back. I bet that's the one big thing tonight. Yes, unfortunately, the one big thing is to get ready for the heat working in. As a matter of fact, we are back into the 90s across the region tomorrow.

We did touch 90 in Raleigh, but that was it. Tomorrow, everybody could get a taste of this warmer weather and higher humidity. Live look at first alert Doppler. Tonight's scanning the skies not seeing any rainfall out there. We are dry. We'll head live to the southern part of the viewing area. Hay Street, the self-help sky cam in downtown Fayetteville, 74 right now, clear skies south wind of five.

Then we'll go to the northern part of the viewing area. uptown Roxborough, 72, clear skies and a south wind at three miles per hour. Madyota Murphy tonight, 70s across the state, 60s out in the mountains, 78 in Charlotte, 75 in the triad, 74, Greenville, Lumberton, 76 in Chase City. Overnight, we'll see those numbers into the 60s, normal for the sum of years 65. We've been below average the past couple of nights. Tonight will stay above average by a degree or two. Durham will actually flirt with 70 all night long as well. as Fayetteville, 67 Clinton to Raleigh, 68 and Rocky Mount.

How about the fitness forecast? Head out the door in the morning. You'll see temperatures across the region in the 70s until about 9 o'clock. Then those numbers will jump up by lunchtime. We're up to 88 degrees and even warmer air on the way. Satellite radar composite looks like I forgot to turn it on. I did just not a lot of cloud cover out there tonight. Very clear skies across the region.

Shows and storms up through central Pennsylvania and the Allegheny Mountains. and then back into the Midwest parts of Missouri and Kansas tonight with some strong storms running between Kansas City and St. Louis. Closer to home, we will stay dry. Your first alert predictor forecast model as we go through the overnight. We'll start tomorrow in the 70s. We'll end tomorrow in the 90s. You can see 90s popping up across the region. Factor the humidity in it will feel like the upper 90s in spots tomorrow. You notice one or two little spots of green. I don't think we'll see any rain tomorrow afternoon. This is just the model trying to show that humidity moving back. in trying to deal with it. Now, Friday is a different story. We'll start off dry again,

but by Friday afternoon, we do start to see some scattered showers and thunderstorms late in the day. And then Saturday, by the afternoon, we'll see more storms popping up across the region. I do think we'll see some showers, more widespread showers on Saturday. This cold front tries to push down into us as we head through the day on Friday, but we're going to stay in the warm sector. It's just not strong enough to get us down into that cooler air. As a matter of fact, this warm air pushing up from the south will actually make that front kind of nudge up a little bit. And as this warm air runs into the frontal boundary, it will create clouds. It will create showers on Saturday.

Eventually the cooler air does work in, but then we're back into the 90s later next week. Forecast looks like this for tomorrow. 94 degrees in Raleigh, 94 Durham, 93 in Fayetteville. Looking at numbers from across the region, sunny, warmer, more humidity, 92 in Clinton, 93 in Lillington and Fort Bragg, 92 in Sanford and Pittsburgh. 93 Wendell, 92 in Holly Springs and Bahama. You go north, 94 out your door in Roanoke Rapids, 93 in Wilson. Your seven-day forecast powered by Accuilweather.

90s on Friday, Saturday, the better chance of more widespread showers. Friday, the rain chances are more triangle south. Saturday, anyone could get a shot of showers. Sunday, most of it moves out. 89. We dry out, but we stay warm. 90, Monday, Tuesday, 92 on Wednesday. to just two days of the next seven in the 80s,

and that's because of the rain chances working in. All right, 90s making their comeback. Don, thank you. Still ahead, a community of caregivers connecting over their work, Duke Health, offering resources and guidance, what we're learning about North Carolina compared to Florida when it comes to aging adults. And remember, you can always watch ABC 11,

Eyewitness News, live on ABC 11, Disney Plus, and wherever you stream. Eyewitness News. We are Local News, Week Nights 4 to 630, and 11. All across North Carolina, more than 1.3 million people provide care for the people they love. We're talking about aging parents and spouses and other loved ones. And today Duke Health brought together those caregivers from all across the region to connect them with resources and support and expert guidance. Yeah, the crowds gathered near RTP for the Duke caregiver community event.

More than 100 organizations were on hand to offer information and services for family caregivers. Nationally, one in four adults now serves as a caregiver. So the event comes when the need for these kinds of services continues to grow. Estimates show family caregivers provide an estimated $1 trillion worth of unpaid care every year. The roles include helping loved ones manage medications, coordinate medical appointments, and navigate complex health conditions, often while trying to balance careers and family responsibilities of their own. Our area is among one of the fastest growing aging populations in the United States. As a matter of fact, we've surpassed Florida. And we have a whole bunch of people that,

that are all in sort of that sandwich generation where they're caring for aging parents and they're also caring for children at the same time. And so organizers say events like this help connect caregivers with practical tools, community resources and a network of support. All right, bottoms up if you're into sports because there is a new way to toast to the tar heel. Yeah, UNC Athletics has teamed up with Cape Fear Distillery to create the Spirit of Carolina collection. There are four tar heel branded spirits that celebrate UNC's traditions and culture. First, there's Chapel Thrill vodka that's inspired by the town's energy, and there's Old East Whiskey, named for the university's oldest residence hall. You can also indulge in Ramshead, silver rum, and best blue coconut cream. The collection goes on sale on Saturday in Keenan Stadium at UNC Football's first home game of the season.

They're taking on East Tennessee State University. We also want to remind you about a powerful evening of remembrance that's coming to Durham. Yeah, the Coral Society of Durham and the Durham Symphony Orchestra are performing Mozart. its requiem to mark 25 years since the 9-11 terrorist attacks. That free performance is tomorrow night, September 10th at 7.30 at the Durham Armory. ABC 11 is proud to sponsor this special community.