NEW YORK — A New York police officer who fatally shot a raccoon that aggressively charged toward people has been placed on modified duty while the matter is reviewed.
The shooting occurred around 7:45 a.m. Thursday in Rockaway Beach, shortly after someone called 911 to report a vicious animal, a police department spokesperson said in an emailed statement Monday.
Officers were trying to usher the racoon from a boardwalk to a safe location when the animal suddenly charged. An officer fired his weapon, striking the animal. No people were injured, police said.
The officer’s name has not been released. The department’s Force Investigation Division, which reviews incidents when an officer discharges their weapon, is leading the department’s probe.
It wasn’t clear Monday if officials planned to test the raccoon for rabies.
GLOUCESTER — Merlin Hunt Jr. went out of his way to help others, whether it was part of his Tally’s towing business or just wanting to assist someone in need.
A Marine Corps veteran from Gloucester, he spent six years serving his country during the Vietnam War, likely changing him in ways that most people cannot fathom.
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SALEM, N.H. — Police arrested a Lawrence, Massachusetts, man following a high-speed pursuit on Interstate 93.
Rafy Villa, 25, faces multiple charges after state police said he was speeding in a BMW X2 on Saturday shortly before 11:30 p.m. on I-93 north in Windham. Villa then allegedly sped up when Trooper Alex Guilbeault attempted to conduct a traffic stop.
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Shaida Ghaemi was last seen Sept. 9, 2007, in Wheat Ridge. (Photo courtesy Colorado Bureau of Investigation)
Arash Ghaemi has wondered for 18 years what happened to his mother after she disappeared from a Wheat Ridge motel.
So Ghaemi, an artificial intelligence developer and entrepreneur, turned his profession into his passion.
“What if I can get the case files and run it through AI?” he said of the police investigation into his mother’s disappearance. “Maybe it will show me something and make the connections. If I could build it to solve my mom’s case, I could likely build it to solve other cases.”
Ghaemi launched CrimeOwl, an AI program that searches cold-case files to generate new leads for investigators, last year.
So far, the AI platform is in the hands of a few private investigators who are using it to chase leads on behalf of families searching for missing loved ones. Ghaemi hopes one day the program will have its big break in solving a case, and maybe — just maybe — it will help figure out what happened to his mother, Shaida Ghaemi, when she disappeared in 2007.
Ghaemi, who goes by “Ash,” on Tuesday met with investigators, information-technology staff and commanders at the Wheat Ridge Police Department to show off his AI tool and to ask for an update on his mother’s case.
For now, Wheat Ridge police say CrimeOwl is too unproven to use in the department’s investigations, including Shaida Ghaemi’s disappearance.
And they are tight-lipped about her case.
“We were really happy to meet with Ash. It’s part of our philosophy of relationship policing,” said Alex Rose, a Wheat Ridge police spokesman. “It was a twofold meeting to explain what we could about the case and to give some professional insight on the AI tool so it can become more widespread and of use to agencies across the country.”
‘Still trying to make sense of it’
When Arash Ghaemi was growing up, his mother was almost too good a mother, he said, describing her as “almost overbearing” in taking care of him and his older sister.
But when Arash was 17, his parents divorced, and everything changed.
Shaida Ghaemi became distant from her children. She left home a lot.
“It was weird,” he said. “She went from always needing to be in contact with me and my sister to she could take it or leave it.”
Shaida Ghaemi did not have a permanent home and did not have a job, her son, now 40, said. She traveled between Colorado and Maryland, where her parents lived.
In 2007 — five years after the divorce — she moved into the American Motel in Wheat Ridge with her boyfriend, Jude Peters.
“I am still trying to make sense of it,” he said of the changes in his mother’s behavior.
Arash Ghaemi was a 22-year-old server at a Red Robin restaurant in Highlands Ranch when his grandfather called from Maryland on a September night and told him they were unable to reach his mother. He asked his grandson to call the police.
Shaida Ghaemi, then 44, was last seen on Sept. 9, 2007, by Peters. Drops of her blood were found in their motel room. At the time, Peters told 9News it was menstrual blood and that Ghaemi often left for months at a time.
Wheat Ridge police still consider her disappearance a missing-person case, and there is no “clear indication of foul play,” Rose said. “Jude is not considered a person of interest in this investigation at this time,” Rose said of Peters.
“They still don’t know where she’s at and they don’t have any trace of her,” Ghaemi said.
‘True value’ of AI
Artificial intelligence is gaining ground as a law enforcement tool. Multiple police departments across Colorado are using the technology, most commonly for converting body-worn camera footage into written crime reports. It’s also being used to track license plates and to scan people’s faces.
The Wheat Ridge Police Department uses Axon’s Draft One to help write police reports, based on their body-worn camera footage.
“Our officers know they’re accountable for every single word,” Rose said. “It gives them a who, what, when and where and can save them time, but it’s not a substitution for good police work.”
Ghaemi launched CrimeOwl about six months ago. He is also developing AI programs for the dental industry and a new sports statistics program that could eventually be used by the NBA.
He programmed CrimeOwl to sort through all of the documents in a case file and build a map of the people connected to the missing person, such as partners, family, close friends and neighbors. The AI also creates a timeline of events leading to the disappearance or death and then maps all of the geographic locations connected to the crime, he said.
The platform has a chat function so investigators can ask the AI to sift through files to find answers to their questions.
While CrimeOwl was designed to help with missing-persons cases, Ghaemi said he hopes it can be used to solve other crimes.
No police departments have bought the product so far.
Ghaemi, who lives in Miami, said he tested CrimeOwl on a solved cold case in Florida and, after uploading the police case file into his program, the AI created a list of credible suspects within 30 minutes, he said. Police confirmed it had identified the actual perpetrator, he said.
“It took me 30 minutes to do what it could have taken them weeks or months to do,” Ghaemi said. “That’s the true value here.”
Not ready for police use
CrimeOwl, however, is not ready for active law enforcement investigations, Rose said.
The CrimeOwl platform would need to be secure so no one could tamper with the evidence once it is uploaded, Rose said. It would need to receive various certifications before any law enforcement agency used it, he said.
It would also need to be vetted by lawyers so any leads it generated would hold up at trial, he said.
“There are a lot of details and a lot of hypotheticals that would need to be heavily vetted for AI technology in a real-world police setting,” Rose said.
Still, Wheat Ridge police are intrigued by Ghaemi’s AI tool and were more than willing to offer advice and expertise, he said.
“We’re always going to applaud somebody who is trying to use technology to find ways to help,” Rose said.
Ghaemi said the Wheat Ridge investigators declined to hand over his mother’s case file because of the security concerns. He had wanted to upload those documents into CrimeOwl to see if it could generate new leads.
Police officials also told him that if they used CrimeOwl to identify a suspect, that person’s defense attorney would likely argue bias since the AI platform was built by the missing woman’s son, Ghaemi said.
“My stance is it has been 18 years. You guys have passed it on to other investigators. It’s not solving the case,” he said. “I’m willing to take that risk.”
Ghaemi hopes to overcome the legal barriers and law enforcement skepticism before his new company folds under financial pressure. He said CrimeOwl has a revenue stream, but it loses money every month.
“I built this thing with a mission in mind at first,” he said. “I didn’t really know how it would work or if it would work or if I would go broke. Even if it’s not me and CrimeOwl went broke tomorrow and we had to shutter the doors, I just want investigators to use AI to solve these cold cases.”
LOWELL — The murder retrial of Billy, Billoeum, and Channa Phan is officially ready to proceed.
Jury impanelment is scheduled to begin in Middlesex Superior Court on Monday morning — or Tuesday if the winter storm forces the Kiernan Judicial Center to close.
The schedule was set on Friday during the final pretrial hearing, where Judge Chris Barry-Smith also denied a defense motion to dismiss the indictment against one of the three brothers, each charged with first-degree murder for the shooting death of 22-year-old Tyrone Phet outside his Lowell home in 2020.
Barry-Smith rejected the bid by attorney William Dolan, who represents defendant Channa Phan, ruling that although the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office failed to turn over information tied to a gang-motive theory in a timely fashion, the lapse did not rise to the level requiring dismissal.
Prosecutors have argued the residence functioned as a stash house for the Outlaws, street gang, which they claim the Phan brothers are members of. Due to the shooting, a search warrant was obtained by the Lowell Police for the Wilder Street home, where officers seized guns, ammunition, 200 grams of cocaine, and 100,000 pressed pills containing methamphetamine.
The shooting — allegedly carried out by rival gang Crazy Mob Family — triggered a retaliatory motive for the killing of Phet less than 24 hours later.
Phet was not alleged to be a CMF member, but prosecutors contend he lived in the same Spring Avenue building where a CMF member once resided.
Phet was shot to death in a hail of gunfire while sitting in his car outside the multi-family residence at 55 Spring Ave. Phet — a 2016 Chelmsford High graduate and captain of the football team his senior year — was struck eight times during the shooting.
The Lowell Police recovered 21 spent shell casings at the scene from two different caliber guns.
Barry‑Smith said the prosecution’s decision to pursue a broader gang theory in the retrial “not surprisingly” prompted the defense to seek all information police and prosecutors possessed about the Wilder Street shooting and subsequent search warrant.
Prior to the first trial — which ended in a mistrial after jurors became deadlocked —prosecutors turned over the police report about the incident but not the underlying investigative materials, Barry‑Smith said. That omission was not a major point of contention at the time because the initial trial’s lead prosecutor — former Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Daniel Harren — had elected not to pursue a wide‑ranging gang theory.
Once the new prosecution team sought to expand that scope, Barry‑Smith said, they were obligated to produce the full set of Wilder Street information — something they did not do until recent weeks.
“The Commonwealth’s principal shortcoming is that failure to produce Wilder Street information once it determined Wilder Street was relevant to the case,” Barry‑Smith said, adding that a secondary issue was that prosecutors “were not adequately familiar” with what evidence had been turned over during the first four years of the case, leading to a misunderstanding.
The judge described the discovery violation as the product of “mistake, inadvertence, misunderstanding, and a failure to be fully familiar” with prior disclosures — not an attempt to ambush the defense.
“It was not delivered, nor was it designed to spring evidence upon the defense,” Barry‑Smith said.
The judge reiterated that he has already denied the Commonwealth’s request to expand the scope of gang evidence for the retrial, calling the proposed showing “too thin.”
The Wilder Street material may be considered for rebuttal, but that will depend on how the trial unfolds.
Because prosecutors have since turned over the missing materials, and because the expanded gang theory will not be permitted, Barry‑Smith said dismissal was not warranted.
“I don’t find that the District Attorney’s Office’s conduct was purposeful or egregious,” he said.
As for jury selection, the expectation is it will take two days to get the needed pool of 16 jurors.
The trial will run daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, with an hour‑long lunch break. Barry‑Smith said the case is expected to conclude by the end of the week of Feb. 9.
Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Thomas Brant told Barry-Smith that the prosecution intends to call more than 40 witnesses.
Brant also raised a scheduling wrinkle: Feb. 8 is Super Bowl Sunday, and with the New England Patriots still in contention for a spot in Super Bowl 60 as of the hearing, juror availability and the scheduling of witnesses could be affected.
“I don’t care, and my desire is to move the case as quickly as possible, but …” Brant said.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Barry‑Smith replied, adding that he may delay the Feb. 9 start time to as late as 10 a.m.
“I might delay things on that Monday, but I’m not going to call it off,” he said.’
The Sun will publish weekly wrap-ups on the trial’s progress, with summaries appearing this Sunday and again on Feb. 8. A final story detailing the verdict will follow shortly after the jury reaches a decision, with the latest possible publication date being Feb. 15.
Follow Aaron Curtis on X @aselahcurtis, or on Bluesky @aaronscurtis.bsky.social.
Top Los Angeles federal prosecutor Bill Essayli faced blistering criticism from gun rights groups, including the NRA, after he posted on X Saturday about the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers.
Essayli, the first assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, wrote: “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.”
Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, was believed to be a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry,” according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara. Bystander videos show Pretti holding a phone, but nothing appearing to be a weapon appeared in those that circulated in the hours after the shooting.
In response to Essayli’s tweet, the NRA posted on X: “This sentiment from the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California is dangerous and wrong.”
The post continued: “Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.”
After receiving significant backlash, Essayli accused another gun rights organization of “adding words to mischaracterize my statement.”
“I never said it’s legally justified to shoot law-abiding concealed carriers,” he posted on X. “My comment addressed agitators approaching law enforcement with a gun and refusing to disarm.
“My advice stands: If you value your life, do not aggressively approach law enforcement while armed. If they reasonably perceive a threat and you fail to immediately disarm, they are legally permitted to use deadly force.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in L.A. referred The Times to Essayli’s post on X clarifying what he initially said. He declined further comment.
Gov. Gavin Newsom joined in the criticism, writing on X, “Wow. Even the NRA thinks Trump’s DOJ stooge in California has gone too far for claiming federal agents were ‘legally justified’ to kill Alex Pretti.”
Earlier, a 2nd Amendment lobbying group, Gun Owners of America, also criticized Essayli.
“We condemn the untoward comments of @USAttyEssayli. Federal agents are not ‘highly likely’ to be ‘legally justified’ in ‘shooting’ concealed carry licensees who approach while lawfully carrying a firearm,” the group posted on X. “The Second Amendment protects Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting — a right the federal government must not infringe upon.”
Essayli’s post received a community note — a crowdsourced fact-check — noting that “the U.S. Constitution (particularly the 2nd, 4th, and 14th amendments) prohibit officers from shooting citizens merely for possessing a weapon that is not an “imminent threat.”
The shooting drew a large crowd of protesters in a city that had already seen widespread demonstrations after the fatal shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7.
Essayli, a former Riverside County assemblyman, was appointed as the region’s interim top federal prosecutor by U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi last April.
Since taking office, he has doggedly pursued President Trump’s agenda, championing hard-line immigration enforcement in Southern California, often using the president’s language verbatim at news conferences.
MINNEAPOLIS — Saturday morning started frigid and quiet on Minneapolis’ “Eat Street,” a stretch of road south of downtown famous for its small coffee shops and restaurants ranging from New American to Vietnamese.
Within five hours, seemingly everything had changed. A protester was dead. Videos were circulating showing multiple federal agents on top of the man and gunshots being fired. Federal and local officials again were angrily divided over who was to blame.
And Eat Street was the scene of a series of clashes, federal officers and local and state police pulled back and protesters took over the area.
It all started around 9 a.m. when a federal immigration officer shot and killed a man there, about 1.5 mile (2.4 kilometers) from the scene of a Jan. 7 fatal shooting of a local woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer that sparked outrage and daily protests.
And in just over an hour, anger exploded again in the city already on edge. Even before the current immigration enforcement surge, networks of thousands of residents had organized to monitor and denounce it while national, state and local leaders traded blame over the rising tensions.
Two Associated Press journalists reached the scene minutes after Saturday’s shooting. They saw dozens of protesters quickly converging and confronting the federal agents, many blowing the whistles activists use to alert to the presence of federal officers.
They had been covering protests for days, including a massive one Friday afternoon in downtown Minneapolis, but the anger and sorrow among Saturday’s crowd felt more urgent and intense.
The crowd, rapidly swelling into the hundreds, screamed insults and obscenities at the agents, some of whom shouted back mockingly. Then for several hours, the two groups clashed as tear gas billowed in the subzero air.
Over and over, officers pushed back the protesters from improvised barricades with the aid of flash bang grenades and pepper balls, only for the protesters to regroup and regain their ground. Some five hours after the shooting, after one more big push down the street, enforcement officers left in a convoy.
By mid-afternoon, protesters had taken over the intersection next to the shooting scene and cordoned it off with discarded yellow tape from the police. Some stood on large metal dumpsters that blocked all traffic, banging on them, while others gave speeches at the impromptu and growing memorial for 37-year-old Alex Pretti, the man killed Saturday morning.
People brought tree branches in a circle to cordon off the area while others put flowers and candles at the memorial by a snow bank.
Many carried handwritten signs demanding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement leave Minnesota immediately, using the expletives against ICE that have been plastered all over the Twin Cities for more than weeks.
The mood in the crowd was widespread anger and sadness — recalling the same outpour of wrath that shook the city for weeks after the killing of George Floyd in 2020, although without the widespread rioting that had occurred then.
Law enforcement was not visibly present in the blocks immediately around the shooting scene, although multiple agencies had mobilized and the National Guard announced it would also help provide security there.
At an afternoon news conference Minneapolis police Chief Brian O’Hara said his officers as well as members of the Minnesota National Guard in yellow safety traffic vests were working to keep the area around the shooting safe and avoid traffic interfering with “lawful, peaceful demonstrations.” No traffic except for residents was allowed in a 6-by-7 block area around the scene.
Stores, sports and cultural institutions shuttered Saturday afternoon citing safety. Some stayed open to give a break to the protesters from the dangerous cold, providing water, coffee, snacks and hand warmer packets.
After evening fell, a somber, sorrowful crowd in the hundreds kept a vigil by the memorial.
“It feels like every day something crazier happens,” said Caleb Spike. “What comes next? I don’t know what the solution is.”
NEW YORK — A reality TV series meant to spotlight the New York Police Department has spawned a real-life legal drama involving the city and the show’s producer, Jordan McGraw — the son of TV’s “Dr. Phil” McGraw.
The city sued the younger McGraw and his production company this week for breach of contract and obtained a court order that blocks them, at least temporarily, from selling or disseminating any footage from the unfinished and unaired show, tentatively titled “Behind the Badge.”
“Dr. Phil” McGraw— a clinical psychologist turned TV personality — hosted the series, interviewing officials and showing up to crime scenes. Episodes were slated to air on his MeritTV cable and streaming channels, where he’d previously done segments featuring the police department.
On Thursday, McGraw’s lawyers filed to move the case from New York state court to federal court.
The city abandoned “Behind the Badge” late last year, hours before then-Mayor Eric Adams ceded City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, after saying that it had expressed concerns to McGraw about the documentary-style show’s quality and content.
Episode “rough cuts” provided to the city by McGraw’s company, McGraw Media, were mostly “unedited footage” dumps and included material not allowed under McGraw’s production agreement with the city, such as discussions of sensitive operations and the identities of undercover officers, crime victims and witnesses, the lawsuit said.
“Intended to highlight the extraordinary work of the NYPD” with special behind-the-scenes access, “Behind the Badge” at times portrayed the nation’s largest police force negatively, violating the agreement, the lawsuit said.
Jordan McGraw and McGraw Media have since “disavowed their obligations” and attempted to wrest editorial control over the project from the city, “risking immediate and irreparable harm” to the city, the lawsuit said.
Chip Babcock, a lawyer for Jordan McGraw and McGraw Media, said the lawsuit came as a surprise “as publication of any programming was not imminent.” McGraw Media, he said, “had worked with the city to address the edits requested” and is willing to continue to do so. The company will seek to remove the court order as soon as possible, Babcock said, calling it a presumptively unconstitutional prior restraint.
New York City partnered with McGraw Media on “Behind the Badge” last April, inking a three-year contract a day after a federal judge dismissed federal corruption charges against Adams. The case went away, in part, because the Justice Department had wanted the mayor’s help with President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Last week, WNBC-TV reported that Adams’ campaign paid $500,000 for another Jordan McGraw company, Fairfax Digital, to produce social media ads.
Adams defended Jordan McGraw’s work on “Behind the Badge,” writing in a social media post on Wednesday that he “brought exceptional talent in revealing the inside story of the dangers NYPD officers face every day.”
“He and his team meticulously addressed every concern raised by City Hall,” Adams wrote. “I’m proud that the work they did tells the real story of our brave police officers. Heroes don’t wear capes, they wear blue uniforms. I understood that. I hope America will get to see that too.”
“Dr. Phil” McGraw, who hosted a “Behind the Badge” segment on his daytime talk show, made waves last year when he and a camera crew embedded with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for raids in Chicago and Los Angeles.
In a precursor to a show now pitting the city against his son, he went on a ride-along with the NYPD in 2024 for a segment on his MeritTV show “Dr. Phil Primetime.” In it, he spoke with officers at police headquarters and interviewed two top officials, including former Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry and former Chief of Department John Chell. Dr. Phil’s company, Merit Street Media, filed for bankruptcy last July.
The “Behind the Badge” contract, a five-page production agreement signed by Jordan McGraw and Adams’ chief of staff Camille Joseph Varlack, called for McGraw Media to produce up to 17 episodes per year, but gave the city the right to opt-out by Dec. 31, 2025, the last day of Adams’ term.
On that date, Varlack told McGraw in a letter that the city was “no longer able to fulfill its obligations” to the project. She outlined concerns with the production process, including shoddy editing and the inclusion of content that the city had found objectionable in “rough cuts.”
Under the production agreement, the city reserved the right to nix what it deemed “Non-Usable Content,” including inaccurate or confidential material, footage that revealed investigative techniques and anything that could compromise public safety or public trust.
Among other things, the lawsuit said, the show contained footage of an officer inputting a security code at a police station entrance, discussions of encrypted police communications and the unblurred faces of people who were arrested by police but who have not yet been tried or convicted of crimes.
In her letter, Varlack warned McGraw that releasing any such footage would violate the contract.
According to the lawsuit, McGraw Media indicated that it would not accept any of the city’s edits and that it intended to distribute the flagged material and was looking for a buyer to air the show.
PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s Democratic governor challenged federal immigration officials Thursday to provide arrest warrants, real-time arrest numbers and basic information about who is being detained in a sweeping enforcement operation in her state, saying residents have been left largely in the dark as fear spreads through immigrant communities.
“If they have warrants, show the warrants. In America, we don’t believe in secret arrests or secret police,” Gov. Janet Mills said at a news conference, adding state officials do not know where detainees are being held.
Mills said that President Donald Trump’s office has not returned her phone calls regarding the operation launched this week. Federal officials have said about 50 arrests were made the first day and that roughly 1,400 people are targets of the crackdown in the mostly rural state of 1.4 million residents, 4 percent of whom are foreign-born and fewer here illegally.
The operation in Maine comes as confrontations continue between demonstrators in Minnesota with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. ICE is under scrutiny in that state following an agent’s fatal shooting of Renee Good.
The enforcement activity has sparked anxiety in Maine’s largest cities, including Portland and Lewiston, which are home to sizable immigrant and refugee populations, particularly from African nations. Community leaders say some families are staying indoors, avoiding work and keeping children home from school out of fear of arrest.
Mills said the lack of information has made it difficult for state officials to assess the scope or justification for the operation.
“I’d be curious to know more about their so-called target,” she said. “Why Maine? Why now? What were the orders that came from above? Who’s giving the orders? We’ve reached out, we’ve asked questions. We have no answers.”
Mills said she would be “shocked” if federal agents could substantiate claims that such a large number of people in Maine have criminal charges against them.
“Mostly we’re hearing reports of people who have not been engaged in criminal activity,” she said. “If someone has evidence of criminal activity, we want to hear about it.”
Mills said school districts have gone “on alert,” particularly in Portland and Lewiston, and that some students have not been attending classes. She also said businesses that rely heavily on immigrant labor have reported disruptions.
“People are being torn from their families and from young children, people who are part of the workforce here in Maine — the workforce we desperately need and desperately value,” Mills said.
The enforcement surge has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats in Maine, who say the operation is unnecessarily disruptive in a state with a relatively small undocumented population.
Portland Public Schools said earlier this week that two schools briefly went into a “lockout” to prevent anyone from entering during the school day amid concerns about nearby enforcement activity, though officials said no threat was ultimately found and the lockouts were lifted within minutes.
Mills emphasized that people are legally allowed to record law enforcement activity in public, as long as they do not interfere with officers.
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond Thursday to requests for updated arrest numbers, warrant information or details about where detainees are being held.
DHS previously said the operation targets what it described as “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” citing arrests involving convictions for aggravated assault, false imprisonment and child endangerment.
Maine’s top federal prosecutor has urged any demonstrations to remain peaceful and warned that people who interfere with federal agents could face prosecution. Mills said the state respects the law but questions the need for what she described as a heavy-handed approach.
A small group of demonstrators gathered Thursday afternoon outside an ICE field office in Scarborough. College student Ava Gleason of Scarborough said she joined the protest to signal opposition to what she described as fear spreading through the community.
“Maine is one of those places where you look out for your neighbors,” Gleason said. “We’re a community, and to see people come in and rip that apart is terrifying.”
In downtown Portland, resident Dave Cowie held a cardboard sign reading “Due Process” in red and blue. He said he was concerned about the scope of immigration enforcement and raised questions about whether new recruits were getting enough training.
“People are being snatched off the street, taken to undisclosed locations,” Cowie said. “We’re being told we have to prove our citizenship — not everyone walks around with a passport in their pocket.”
Cowie cited a recently disclosed internal ICE memo o btained by The Associated Press that authorizes agents, under certain circumstances, to forcibly enter homes without a judge’s warrant, relying instead on administrative warrants.
“These agents are not well trained for crowd control, and they believe they have rights they do not,” Cowie said. “It flies in the face of the Constitution.”
Authorities from various agencies served several search warrants across the East Bay Wednesday in connection with an ongoing criminal investigation into organized fuel theft, officials said.
The alleged fuel theft has been affecting communities across multiple counties, according to the Greenfield Police Department, the lead agency in the investigation.
“Organized fuel theft operations often involve the illegal resale of stolen fuel and pose serious public safety risks due to unsafe handling and storage of highly flammable materials,” Greenfield police said in a statement. “These crimes are commonly associated with broader organized criminal activity.”
Wednesday’s search warrants were served at the following locations:
4200 block of Alameda Avenue, Oakland
1000 block of 45th Avenue, Oakland
1600 block of 6th Street, Richmond
3100 block of Alvarado Avenue, San Leandro
The law enforcement activity was not related to immigration enforcement and did not involve U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Greenfield police said.
In addition to Greenfield police, the following agencies were involved in serving the search warrants: FBI Monterey Bay Safe Streets Task Force, Monterey Police Department, Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, Oakland Police Department, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol, and San Leandro Police Department.
An investigation into the alleged fuel theft operation is ongoing. Anyone with information is urged to contact their local law enforcement agency.
PEABODY — A former police officer’s law enforcement certification has been permanently revoked following an investigation by the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.
The commission, in a decision dated Dec. 18, found that Peabody police officer Gerald Fitzgerald Jr. included false information in a police report that led to a woman being arrested and wrongly charged with serious crimes in November 2023. Fitzgerald resigned from the department about a year later.
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STOW — Massachusetts fire and environmental leaders are reminding residents to use caution, care, and common sense if they plan to burn certain agricultural waste during open burning season, which began Thursday and runs until May 1.
State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine, Commissioner Bonnie Heiple of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and Chief Fire Warden David Celino of the Department of Conservation and Recreation said restrictions on open burning are imposed at the state and local levels.
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A man was shot by police at a Longwood gas station after officers responded to a mental health call that escalated into a dangerous situation on Tuesday night. The Longwood Police Department responded to a convenience store at 1001 West State Road 434 around 9:11 p.m. after reports of an armed, suicidal man inside.Once police arrived, they attempted to de-escalate the situation by speaking with the man. However, police said he did not comply and kept his hands hidden inside his waistband. Police said the man then suddenly moved his hands in a way the officer believed was threatening, causing the officer to fire his weapon and strike the man.Officers immediately provided first aid until fire rescue arrived. The man was taken to the hospital and is expected to survive. No officers were injured in the incident.The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting an independent investigation, which is standard in cases like this. Longwood police said this remains an active investigation.
LONGWOOD, Fla. —
A man was shot by police at a Longwood gas station after officers responded to a mental health call that escalated into a dangerous situation on Tuesday night.
The Longwood Police Department responded to a convenience store at 1001 West State Road 434 around 9:11 p.m. after reports of an armed, suicidal man inside.
Once police arrived, they attempted to de-escalate the situation by speaking with the man.
However, police said he did not comply and kept his hands hidden inside his waistband.
Police said the man then suddenly moved his hands in a way the officer believed was threatening, causing the officer to fire his weapon and strike the man.
Officers immediately provided first aid until fire rescue arrived. The man was taken to the hospital and is expected to survive.
No officers were injured in the incident.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting an independent investigation, which is standard in cases like this.
Longwood police said this remains an active investigation.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide the constitutionality of broad search warrants that collect the location history of cellphone users to find people near crime scenes.
The case involves what is a known as a “geofence warrant” that was served on Google in a police hunt for a bank robber in suburban Richmond, Virginia. Geofence warrants, an increasingly popular investigative tool, seek location data on every person within a specific location over a certain period of time.
Police used the information to arrest Okello Chatrie in the 2019 robbery of the Call Federal Credit Union in Midlothian. Chatrie eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.
Chatrie’s lawyers challenged the warrant as a violation of his privacy because it allowed authorities to gather the location history of people near the bank without having any evidence they had anything to do with the robbery. Prosecutors argued that Chatrie had no expectation of privacy because he voluntarily opted into Google’s Location History.
A federal judge agreed that the search violated Chatrie’s rights, but still allowed the evidence to be used because the officer who applied for the warrant reasonably believed he was acting properly.
The federal appeals court in Richmond upheld the conviction in a fractured ruling. In a separate case, the federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled that geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches.
The case is expected to be argued later this year, either in the spring or in October, at the start of the court’s next term.
NEWBURY — A woman’s body was pulled from the water Thursday on Plum Island north of Fordham Way, according to Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker.
Newbury police responded to a call about a body in the water near Harvard Way at 11:46 a.m. The unidentified woman’s body was recovered by the Newburyport Fire Department and transported by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Tucker said in a statement late Thursday.
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MINNEAPOLIS — President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke an 1807 law and deploy troops to quell persistent protests against the federal officers sent to enforce his administration’s massive immigration crackdown.
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Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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By STEVE KARNOWSKI, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, HALLIE GOLDEN and AAMER MADHANI – Associated Press
It’s a measure of President Trump’s lack of self-awareness — a superpower, really, for authoritarian demagogues like him who otherwise would shrink from their worst impulses — that he apparently doesn’t see the evident contradiction in his simultaneous support for protesters in Iran and damnation of those in his own country.
For days, Trump has preened as the all-powerful protector of Iranian protesters against their nation’s repressive regime. (The supposedly “America First” president could strike their country at any moment, if he hasn’t already.) “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” he posted Tuesday. “HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”
But what was on the way to Minneapolis, he’d posted just an hour earlier, was “RECKONING AND RETRIBUTION.” Its citizens — his citizens — were demonstrating in growing numbers against the paramilitary that Trump has created among Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, one of whom last week killed a woman there, Renee Nicole Good. Trump counterproductively increased the ICE deployment in the city, already more than triple the size of the Minneapolis police force.
On Sunday night, Trump had justified Good’s slaying this way: “The woman and her friend were highly disrespectful of law enforcement.” This from the man who watched on TV for three hours on Jan. 6, 2021, as demonstrators at the U.S. Capitol disrespected law enforcement with chemical sprays, poles, planks, fists and bike racks. And he did nothing. Because they were pro-Trump protesters. Once back in office, he pardoned nearly 1,600 of them.
On the fifth anniversary of that Trump-incited insurrection, last week, the White House website rewrote history to obscure what Americans saw in real time — a falsification that truly disrespected law enforcement. In Trump’s version, the heroic Capitol Police were the culprits for “aggressively” firing “tear gas, flash bangs, and rubber munitions into crowds of peaceful protestors.” Funny, not funny: That actually describes what ICE agents have been doing, as photos and numerousAmericans’ videosonsocialmediadocument, and not just in Minneapolis but in Chicago, Portland, Ore., Los Angeles, Memphis, New Orleans.
The “No Kings” rallies last fall? Trump, ever the brander, led his sycophants choir in Congress in renaming those events as “Hate America rallies,” and the 7 million peaceful protesters nationwide who attended them as communists and Marxists.
But here’s what makes the shameless contradictions in Trump’s stance on the right to protest even more nauseating in 2026: This is the year that the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the United States’ foundational act of anti-government protest.
It’s Americans’ bad fortune that such a man as Trump, a wannabe king, is the presider in chief for the yearlong commemorations of the rebellion that ultimately threw off a real king who’d met protesters with force and retribution.
Trump is so eager to be the semiquincentennial’s impresario that he’s already had the U.S. Mint produce a $1 coin with his likeness for the occasion. As if Americans needed a reminder that to Trump it’s all about him.
But he should take the time to actually read the document that this celebration commemorates. If he were self-aware, he’d see that he resembles the king the founders were opposing, and that his actions parallel those the founders cited as grounds for breaking away.
Their list of indictments of King George III include: “The establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.” Think of Trump’s dispatch of federal agents and National Guard troops into blue states and cities, and his threats to send the military, over the objections of their governors and mayors, state legislators and members of Congress.
Then there’s this passage: The king has “sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people.” And this: “He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.” More: He is “protecting them … from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.”
Protecting officers from the consequences of alleged murders? In an all but unprecedented break with usual protocols after a law enforcement action as controversial as Good’s killing, Trump’s administration refuses to cooperate with Minnesota local and state officials in simply investigating the ICE officer who shot Good three times, and is denying them access to evidence. Trump’s Justice Department — and he’s made it his Justice Department — has ruled out the usual civil rights probe. Instead, the administration continues to blame the victim, Good, and is investigating her and her partner in the hope of finding some ties to activist groups.
Fortunately, there’s blowback, which truly does reflect the spirit of 1776.
On Tuesday, at least six federal prosecutors resigned in protest and others in Minnesota and Washington reportedly are expediting plans to quit. Lawyers nationwide condemned White House henchman Stephen Miller for his false, provocative claims that ICE agents have immunity for their acts. Polls show that by wide margins Americans believe Good’s shooting was unjustified. Support for ICE continues to decline; pluralities of Americans now oppose it.
But what has to worry Trump most of all: He’s lost Joe Rogan, uber-podcaster, especially to white males, and a past supporter. “You don’t want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching people up — many of which turn out to actually be U.S. citizens that just don’t have their papers on them,” Rogan said on air this week. “Are we really gonna be the Gestapo, ‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?”
Yes, it is. But as a consequence, protests are sure to continue, and build. What better year for that to be so: it’s not only the semiquincentennial but a midterm election year. As Trump likes to tell those he’s targeted — in Venezuela, Greenland and Iran — they can come around the easy way, or the hard way. The American people are giving him the same choice. He keeps choosing the hard way.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department does not believe there is any basis to open a criminal civil rights investigation of the killing of a woman by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, a top department official said Tuesday.
The decision to keep the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division out of the investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good marks a sharp departure from past administrations, which have moved quickly to probe shootings of civilians by law enforcement officials for potential civil rights offenses.
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By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER – Associated Press