A shelter-in-place order in Champlin, Minnesota, is expected to be lifted Friday night after a reported stabbing prompted it, city officials said.
Officers responded to the incident on the 7100 block of 120th Avenue at 5:54 p.m. They requested the shelter-in-place order for anyone who lived within a 1-mile radius of Andrews Park “out of an abundance of caution” while they searched for the suspect, the city said in a Facebook post.
According to the city, the suspect and the victims know each other, though officials haven’t said whether anyone was hurt.
“As of 7:20 p.m., investigators believe the suspect has left the City of Champlin,” the Facebook post said.
The city said the shelter-in-place order would “be rescinded,” and that the investigation is ongoing.
A judge sentenced four former Milwaukee hotel workers accused of killing a man in a suffocating dogpile to a mix of probation and time served Wednesday, sparing them any more time behind bars.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Swanson handed down the sentences in D’Vontaye Mitchell’s June 2024 death during a series of hearings that lasted all day. The orders bring an end to a case that drew comparisons to the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.
The judge ordered former Hyatt security guard Todd Erickson to serve two years in prison but stayed the sentence and placed him on probation for two years. Another former security guard, Brandon Turner, got a year in prison, but Swanson stayed that sentence, too, and placed him on probation for a year.
Former bellhop Herbert Williamson was sentenced to 10 days in jail with credit for 10 days already served. Former front desk worker Devin Johnson-Carson was ordered to serve four days in jail with credit for four days already served.
From top left, Devin Johnson-Carson, Herbert Williamson, Brandon Turner and Todd Erickson.
Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office via AP
Attorneys for Erickson, Turner and Williamson didn’t immediately return messages. Johnson-Carson’s attorney, Craig Robert Johnson, said in an email to The Associated Press that the sentence was appropriate given that Johnson-Carson was trying to protect hotel guests and staff and never intended to seriously injure Mitchell.
According to investigators, Mitchell ran into the Hyatt’s lobby and went into the women’s bathroom. Two women later told detectives that Mitchell tried to lock them in the bathroom. The women told police that Mitchell had entered the bathroom frantically, seemingly to run from the security guard, and appeared to be trying to lock the bathroom door to keep the guard out.
Turner pulled Mitchell out of the bathroom and together with a guest dragged him out of the lobby onto a hotel driveway. Turner, Erickson, Williamson and Johnson-Carson struggled with Mitchell before taking him to the ground and piling on top of him.
Hotel surveillance video shows Johnson-Carson holding Mitchell’s legs while Erickson, Turner and Williamson held down his upper body. They kept him pinned for eight to nine minutes. By the time emergency responders arrived, Mitchell had stopped breathing.
A medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, finding that Mitchell’s immediate cause of death was suffocation and toxic effects of cocaine and methamphetamine.
Prosecutors initially charged all four employees with being a party to felony murder. Turner and Erickson both pleaded guilty to that count. Williamson and Johnson-Carson pleaded guilty to a reduced count of misdemeanor battery.
Attorneys for Mitchell’s family likened his death to the murder of Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death sparked a national reckoning on racial relations.
“The fact that D’Vontaye was held face down on the pavement for eight to nine minutes –– just like George Floyd –– is a sobering reminder of the urgent need for accountability and justice,” family attorney Benjamin Crump said after the incident.
Mitchell was Black. Court records identify Erickson as White and Turner, Williamson and Johnson-Carson as Black.
The workers told investigators that Mitchell was strong and tried to bite Erickson, but they didn’t mean to hurt him. Johnson-Carson, Erickson, Turner and Williamson were fired from their positions at the Hyatt Regency, said Aimbridge Hospitality, which operates the hotel and employs its staff.
Karl Gregory, 46, was killed the June 13, 2024 during an encounter with Woodbridge and New York City police at the Royal Albert’s Palace hotel on King Georges Post Road.
According to the investigation, on June 12, 2024, officers from the Edison Police Department received information from an automated license plate reader that Gregory’s vehicle, which was sought in connection with a shooting that occurred in New York City and left the victim with life-threatening injuries, was in the area.
At approximately 8:20 p.m. officers from the Edison and Woodbridge police departments responded to the Royal Albert’s Palace Hotel, where they located the unoccupied vehicle in the hotel parking lot. Authorities notified the NYPD.
At approximately 12:19 a.m. law enforcement at the hotel were investigating when they were alerted that Gregory was captured on surveillance walking down the hallway toward the elevator.
At approximately 12:21 a.m. the hotel’s elevator doors opened, and Gregory exited toward the lobby holding multiple bags. Upon seeing officers in the lobby, Gregory dropped his bags and reached into a black backpack. Officers yelled, “Show your hands!” and “Drop the bag!” and Gregory produced a handgun. Gunfire was then exchanged for approximately 20 seconds between Gregory and Woodbridge Officers Drew Krupinski and Justin Nerney and NYPD Detective Matthew Mauro.
During the gunfire exchange, Gregory was struck. Woodbridge police officers rendered medical aid to Gregory until the arrival of EMS personnel. Gregory was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:42 a.m. A handgun located near Gregory was recovered, and ballistically matched to spent shell casings at the scene. Authorities later recovered additional rounds of ammunition in Gregory’s backpack and vehicle.
Nerney and Mauro were also struck by gunfire during the exchange. Both were hospitalized in connection with their injuries and have since been released.
State law requires that the death of any civilian in a police encounter be investigated by the Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability.
Email: sloyer@gannettnj.com
Susan Loyer covers Middlesex County and more for MyCentralJersey.com. To get unlimited access to her work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Police officers will not be back inside Seattle schools for the start of the school year on Sept. 3rd, but the school board could vote this month to allow a pilot program at Garfield High School.
Despite an effort from the district, city, and the Seattle Police Department that KIRO 7 first broke in May, lifting a 2020 moratorium that bans police inside Seattle Public Schools is still up in the air.
Instead, on September 9th, the Garfield community will have one more chance to weigh in.
Parents, students, and community activists have strong feelings about the proposal.
“The violence that Garfield faces stems from the outside community and bleeds into the school,” Garfield graduate Athena McDermott told the school board at its August 27th meeting. “Kids will not stop getting shot and killed at Garfield because of counselors alone.”
“Students don’t need to be policed, but protected,” Garfield graduate Rilan Springer said. “When letting an SRO back in, we demand they remain around campus, not inside the building… SPD should not be there to punish students, should not able to punish students.”
“I see the introduction of SEOs as oppression of black people at Garfield,” Sonya Herrera, a member of the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, said.
“Parents and students have already fought to get cops out of schools once before,” Jonathan Toledo, also a member of the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, told the board.
“We don’t want cops at all,” Seattle Student Union President Leo Falit-Baiamonte said.
He told KIRO 7 some students at Garfield shared their discomfort with the idea of a police officer back inside the school. And the group has a lot of questions if the pilot program at Garfield does move forward.
“Where would this money be coming from to hire this cop?” he asked. “How will we make sure that cops do not play a part in discipline? If it’s at Garfield, what stops it from going to other schools?”
The student union’s fight began this spring.
“Yeah, so after we saw on KIRO News that Police Chief Barnes intended to bring cops back into school, that was a shock for many organizers in the Seattle area,” he said.
That was when KIRO 7 reporter Linzi Sheldon sat down exclusively with Deputy Mayor Tiffany Washington and Chief Barnes.
“When I talk to people, they want us to return to the schools in some capacity,” Barnes said then.
SPS Executive Director of Safety and Security Jose Curiel Morelos told Sheldon that a memorandum of understanding to lift the current moratorium was ready for the school board to consider.
That was back in May.
“We believe that it is enough time, at least for Garfield, to have somebody in place by the start of the school year,” Morelos said.
So why is it September and no decision?
“Why are we continuing to spin our wheels?” Garfield PTSA board member Alicia Spanswick asked. She’s been waiting for an officer since last year. Her daughter is a senior at Garfield this fall.
“We can’t be lulled into thinking that crisis is over, and we can just go back to whatever we were doing before,” she said, “because I do think that it will spill back onto campus.”
“Some people might look at this and say, why is it taking so long?” Sheldon asked SPS Interim Superintendent Fred Podesta.
“So, we did bring it to the board in June, introduced it,” Podesta said. He said based on the testimony they heard at that meeting and feedback at the board, they needed to do more engagement.
SPS held a meeting with the Garfield community in July and will hold another session on September 9th.
SPS Accountability Officer Ted Howard, a former principal at Garfield, tried to assure board members about the role of an office there.
“Who picks the officer? Well, that happens jointly between SPS and SPD,” he said. “Are they directly involved in discipline? They’re not. Not at all.”
The city of Seattle said if the pilot program does move forward, funding would come from SPD’s budget.
But some board members appeared unconvinced about lifting the moratorium and leaning toward an exception for Garfield alone.
“Would that mean then that the moratorium would stay in place and there would be a narrow agreement just for Garfield?” Sheldon asked Podesta.
“I mean, we haven’t worked through the mechanics yet,” he said, “but I think there’ll be a space in that moratorium to allow for a pilot at Garfield and I expect that the board will then want us to explain, well, how did that work out before we consider other campuses.”
The school board is expected to discuss the school engagement officer proposal at its next regular meeting on September 17th. It could vote on the pilot program then.
An 11-year-old boy died in a Houston hospital Sunday after he was shot while carrying out a “ding dong ditch” prank the previous night, police said. The boy hasn’t been identified.
The Houston Police Department said the boy had been playing the prank with friends late Saturday, which entails ringing the doorbell of a home and running away before anyone inside comes out to answer it. A witness saw the boy ring a doorbell in east Houston and flee the property before he was struck by gunfire, according to a police statement.
Officers received a call about the shooting just before 11 p.m. local time. Police said the boy was wounded when they arrived and taken to a nearby hospital, where he died on Sunday. Sgt. Michael Cass, a Houston homicide detective, told CBS News affiliate KHOU that a witness had recalled someone exiting the house that was pranked and “shooting at the kids running down the street.”
Cass told KHOU that “unfortunately, sadly enough, one of the boys, who was 11 years old, was shot in the back.”
A man was detained at the home where the shooting happened and questioned by homicide detectives on Sunday, KHOU reported. But Houston police later said the person was released after questioning. They asked anyone with information about the case to contact the department as their investigation into the shooting continues.
“Ding dong ditch” pranks have culminated in deadly shootings before.
In 2023, a California man was found guilty of murder for intentionally ramming the car of three teen boys who rang his doorbell as a prank, killing all of them, the Associated Press reported. More recently, in May, a man was charged with second-degree murder in Virginia after he shot and killed a teenager who had filmed a TikTok video of himself playing the doorbell prank on the man’s home, according to The New York Times.
Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She typically covers breaking news, extreme weather and issues involving social justice. Emily Mae previously wrote for outlets like the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.
TUPPER LAKE — On Wednesday, the three candidates to be Tupper Lake Central School District’s new school safety officer were interviewed at a public forum where members of the school community could hear how they would act in the new position and give the district feedback on which candidates they thought would be the best fit.
The candidates — corrections officer David “Haji” Maroun, retired state trooper Mike Kohan and retired Sunmount safety chief Mike Godin — spoke to a small group of town residents, school administrators, police officers and board members, who each filled out a form at the end reviewing their thoughts on each candidate’s responses to the questions.
TLCSD Superintendent Jaycee Welsh said, ultimately, this hiring decision will be made by the school board. But they will take into account the feedback from the public.
Next, the hiring committee will meet with school board members to determine if they are ready to make a decision. Welsh hopes to have an officer before school starts on Sept. 4.
Earlier this month, the Tupper Lake Village Police let the district know that, because of ongoing staffing shortages, they won’t be able to provide a school resource officer as they have since 2019. In the years since, the district went from having two SROs to one as the police department’s staff shrank. Last year, the district had one sworn police officer stationed between its two school buildings during regular hours through a services contract paid by the district.
Now, the district is looking to create a new in-house position to fill this role.
The first round of interviews was handled by district staff. This round included public-submitted questions on mental health, prevention strategies, the change from an SRO to an SSO, how the candidates would deal with students with disabilities having a disability-related outburst and how they would respond to an altercation between students.
Members of the public judged the candidates on their communication skills, problem-solving ability, empathy and de-escalation skills, knowledge of the school and community, approach to student relationships and overall demeanor.
Maroun, a village trustee and a corrections officer for 20 years, said he’d like to become part of the school community. He’s well-known, has a background in safety and is first aid trained.
At the prisons he worked at, he broke up fights between inmates, “which happened a lot,” he said.
For two-and-a-half years, the prison he worked at held juvenile inmates, so Maroun said he has experience working with 16- and 17-year-olds, specifically those with behavioral issues.
He said he’d prefer working with kids more than incarcerated individuals. And he’d like to work close to home, helping his community.
Maroun said he wants to address bullying. It is a big issue for safety, he said.
Maroun said if he saw a fight in progress, he would try to end it first with verbal commands and then physically separate the parties with himself in the middle before waiting for administrators to take over.
He’d like to educate students, the community and staff about safety and how to recognize mental health issues.
He’d have eyes on what happens in school and at school events, and wants to be a mentor and role model for the students. He’s been a coach and feels he has a good rapport with kids. He likes to have fun with them and let them feel safe around him.
It’s important to him that the officer keep the kids’ trust, so they know who he is and see him as a helper, and so he can learn who they are and what their needs are.
A school safety officer is different than a school resource officer in that they are an employee of the district, not an outside resource, Maroun said. He’d like to be involved in school business and offer input on safety practices. He’d also like to get specialized training for the position, focused on working with kids with behavioral issues.
Maroun said he’d like to work with the administrators every day to discuss safety.
Kohan
Kohan spent five years in the Marines, including a deployment during Desert Storm, as well as several years with the United States Postal Service, where he worked some rough routes downstate. He joined the New York State Police in 2003 and retired in 2020.
He has three kids in the district — in grades 5, 7 and 9.
“I’m the school safety officer at home already,” Kohan said with a laugh.
He spoke about how he believes technology exacerbates behavioral problems because it disconnects kids from the real world and instills the idea that things are temporary. One of his goals would be to build camaraderie with students, to remind them that the real world is different than the digital world.
He’d advocate for in-person activities and encourage connection among students.
Since a school safety officer, as opposed to an SRO, does not have police powers and cannot make arrests, he said taking preventative measures is as important as ever. This is easier said than done, he acknowledged.
Kohan said he’d be a calm presence in the school.
“Calm is contagious,” he said.
This might be easier without a uniform, he said. SROs wore uniforms. SSOs will not.
If he needs to de-escalate an altercation, he said he’d intervene without physically involving himself — unless there is an “imminent threat” to someone’s safety. He said knowing the school policy on physical intervention would be very important.
Responding to things as a trooper is different than as a school safety officer, he said. He’d take a calmer approach to working with a kid with disabilities. His goal would be to keep the student who has an outburst safe, as well as others.
He said he’d like to directly report to the principals, who then report to the superintendent.
Kids like consistency, he said, so he would be consistent.
Godin
Godin retired after 36 years of working at the Sunmount State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities facility in 2021. He spent many years as a chief safety officer and said he could bring what he learned there to the school — to teach the “safety mindset” to everyone there.
The district is in a unique, transformative time as the officer’s job shifts from the police to the district. He said it is a good time to capitalize on that and reevaluate school safety, he said. The job would be to worry about safety, find issues and fix them.
Knowledge is important to him. He would want to know all the Individualized Education Program plans students have. Godin also said just because someone is not diagnosed with a mental or behavioral health disability, it does not mean they don’t have one. Often, there are late diagnoses caught in the later years of school, he said.
One of his goals would be to listen — listen a lot. The more he knows the better, he said. He’d want to spend a lot of time on his feet just being around the buildings. He is a believer in having an “open door policy.” He wants kids to be comfortable around people in authority.
Godin described himself as an “easygoing, outgoing” guy. When he worked in Albany, people thought he was strange because he’d say “hello” to everyone he passed.
If he saw an altercation, Godin said he would be stern verbally to de-escalate and then dig down to figure out why the fight happened. He doesn’t believe it when people say a fight happened for “no reason.”
He said the scene of an altercation isn’t always as it seems at first. There’s a lot behind the scenes that isn’t obvious. Godin said he’d pay attention to kids to see if they are having a hard time. Stress at home creates pressure at school, he said.
Godin said his daughters and friends told him to apply for the job. He said he likes helping and believes in doing the right thing.
Godin said he’d like to have weekly meetings with administrators at first, but imagines there would be less need for them as time goes on and procedures become cemented.
Policy
Since the person who ultimately fills the position will be a school employee, as opposed to being directly employed by a law enforcement agency, TLCSD adopted a use-of-force district policy for the authorized carrying of firearms on Aug. 4.
The policy stipulates that the employee must be “properly trained and certified” to carry a firearm and will have to perform the qualifications, at a minimum, on an annual basis with a state-certified range instructor in accordance with state law.
To read more about the specifics of this position and policy, go to tinyurl.com/3t857nh8.
Athens-Clarke police are investigating an armed robbery of a convenience store in Athens that officers said was perpetrated by a man armed with a staple gun.
Police were dispatched to the Citgo Food Mart at 790 Hawthorne Ave. at about 1 a.m. Friday, after the clerk reported being robbed by a man who threatened to kill him, according to the police report. The clerk told the officer he couldn’t see what type of weapon the man had, but that the robber had threatened his life.
“He was afraid he was about to die, so he just opened the drawer,” the officer reported about the victim.
Police were able to view the security camera footage, which shows the robber coming into the store, walking behind the counter, and grabbing the clerk with one hand, while holding a staple gun behind his back.
After taking the cash, the robber left on foot. Other police officers had arrived and searched the area, but did not find a suspect.
The robber was described as a Black male, wearing a white T-shirt with a graphic, yellow, orange, and black shorts, a black do-rag, and black Jordan shoes.
In an unrelated robbery, police reported a 44-year-old Winder man said he was robbed Thursday in Athens shortly after he arrived to meet with a prostitute.
The man said he contacted the woman on a website, and they agreed to meet at the Howard Johnson’s on Broad Street. After he arrived, he was later met by the woman’s companion, who showed him a gun and demanded the money he planned to pay her for sex, according to the report.
After the man reported he turned over the money, he drove to a nearby gas station and called 911 for help.
Police located the suspected robber and prostitute, both from Athens, and transported them to a police precinct for questioning, according to the report.
Federal prosecutors are seeking a 41-month sentence for the woman who pleaded guilty to illegally buying weapons for her children’s father, who then used them in the killing of three Burnsville, Minnesota, first responders in 2024, according to court records filed Wednesday.
Ashley Dyrdahl pleaded guilty in January to two counts of straw purchasing in the fatal shooting of Burnsville police officers Matthew Ruge and Paul Elmstrand, and firefighter and paramedic Adam Finseth. According to the plea agreement, four other counts of straw purchasing and five counts of making false statements during the purchase of a firearm were dropped.
Court records said Dyrdahl bought five firearms, including two AR-15-style assault rifles, for her on-again, off-again boyfriend Shannon Gooden between September 2023 and January 2024.
U.S. Attorney’s Office
On Feb. 18, 2024, police were called to Gooden’s residence on a report of a sexual assault, which led to an hourslong standoff where he fired over 100 rounds at first responders.
Ruge, Elmstrand and Finseth were fatally wounded in the shooting. Sgt. Adam Medlicott was injured but survived.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Gooden then fatally shot himself in front of his two children.
Burnsville police officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, and paramedic Adam Finseth. (left to right)
City of Burnsville
Dyrdahl initially pleaded not guilty to all 11 charges in November 2024. She’s scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 10.
“The sentence in this case must serve as a deterrent against the escalating armament of prohibited violent convicted felons,” U.S. attorneys said in the court document filed Wednesday.
Note: The above video first aired on Jan. 14, 2025.
When police officers responded to a disturbance call at a home in Tremonton, Utah, on Sunday, a man there immediately started shooting at them. Two officers were killed, a sheriff’s deputy was wounded and a police dog was also hospitalized with injuries.
It was an ambush.
Mayor Lyle Holmgren said the suspect’s “intention was to cause harm to as many police officers and public servants as possible.”
The shooting was the latest in a growing trend of ambush attacks against police officers nationwide. Shootings against police have jumped 60% since 2018, according to data tracked by the Fraternal Order of Police, a law enforcement member organization that’s been tracking the shootings since 2015 — and the percentage of ambush-style attacks is steadily growing.
At least 56 law enforcement officers have been shot in 45 ambush-style attacks in 2025 through July 31, more than 28% of total officers shot, according to data collected by the organization and analyzed by CBS News. Five years earlier, just over 20% of police officers shot in the line of duty were struck in ambush-style attacks.
The Fraternal Order of Police’s national president, Patrick Yoes, wrote a letter to Congress in March advocating for the “Protect and Serve Act,” which would create a new federal law against knowingly assaulting law enforcement. He said the deliberate attacks are contributing to a crisis in recruiting the next generation of officers and holding onto those who are currently serving.
In July, after a week of violence in which 10 police officers were shot, three fatally, Yoes wrote: “How many more officers must die before Congress acts? Our men and women in law enforcement deserve better.”
“Send everyone”
Often, what seem like routine calls are the precursors to planned bloodshed, like what happened to police officers in Fargo, North Dakota, when they responded to a car accident on July 14, 2023.
The call came in from dispatch: a BMW sport utility vehicle crashed into a Mazda on 25th Street in South Fargo, one of the city’s busiest streets. Newly minted Fargo police officer Tyler Hawes and his training officer, Andrew Dotas, headed to the scene to assist and interview the drivers and passengers involved.
Right away, Hawes, who graduated from the Fargo Police Academy seven weeks earlier, radioed dispatch for a second officer. He figured they could use some extra help speaking to witnesses and controlling traffic.
Officers Zachary Robinson and Jake Wallin arrived in about 10 minutes. Hawes, who attended the police academy with Wallin, recalled his friend and colleague asking as soon as he got there, “What do you need?”
Less than two minutes later they were ambushed.
Wallin, 23, was killed, and Hawes and Dotas were injured when a man named Mohamad Barakat opened fire from his 2006 Mercury Grand Marquis in a surprise attack, using an Anderson manufacturing rifle with a Bushnell scope. One other person at the scene, Karlee Koswick, was wounded, shot twice on the sidewalk as she tried to flee.
Fargo police officers were ambushed during a routine traffic stop on July 14, 2023. One officer, Jake Wallin, was killed, and two were injured.
Fargo Police Department
One witness, Kim Hauger Sr., heard what he said felt like the sound of a machine gun. Hauger told investigators he saw two police officers moving from the parking lot toward the boulevard, and then saw the officers fall to the ground.
Robinson radioed dispatch, saying shots had been fired.
“Send everyone,” he said, before opening fire on the suspect. “I shot like four times at him at that point,” he said, before reloading and killing Barakat.
The suspect had nothing to do with the vehicle crash. Investigators later found Barakat had been searching online for details on mass shootings, loaded his vehicle with rifles, two tactical vests, thousands of rounds of ammunition and a live grenade.
When he spotted the police officers, he decided to turn his deadly weapons on them — joining a steadily rising list of shooters who have deliberately ambushed law enforcement.
An upward trend — and training to respond
The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division launched an investigative study in 2025 in response to the troubling trend. Federal agents have begun interviewing offenders in a first-of-its-kind effort to piece together what can be learned about the rise in attacks on law enforcement officers nationwide.
Prior to the recent study, there has been scant research about ambush attacks against law enforcement and why these are happening.
One earlier study from the International Association of Chiefs of Police found 68% of ambushes were considered spontaneous, like the 2023 Fargo ambush, and 32% were planned. The report, published in 2014, analyzed data from 1990 to 2012, a year when six law enforcement officers were killed in ambushes.
According to the IACP, an ambush is defined by four components: an element of surprise, concealment of the assailant, suddenness of the attack, and a lack of provocation. Ambushes can be classified as either premeditated or spontaneous.
The FBI released a report in 2018 showing ambush attacks on law enforcement doubled from 1996 to 2016. It found that while fewer police officers were being killed overall, surprise attacks in which officers are killed were steadily increasing. (The FBI’s data counts officers killed in ambushes, while the FOP data counts all officers shot.)
There was a large spike in ambush-style attacks in 2023, when 138 officers were shot.
Texas has had more recent incidents than any other state; so far this year, eight officers there have been shot in seven ambush-style attacks. It’s followed by California and Ohio, each with four ambush-style attacks.
FBI law enforcement operations specialist Kevin Harris has been researching ambush attacks for several years, and he trains police around the country on how to prepare and respond.
“Just speaking in general, it’s been an upward trend that seems to just continue upward and has been for the last several years,” said Harris, who describes an ambush as an instance “where an officer is lured into a place where they can be attacked.”
His training sessions involve analyzing and discussing different ambush attacks that have occurred in recent years. Harris said he wants officers to know “they’ve always got to have that situational awareness.”
“I try to tell officers, ‘Look, you’ve got to find that fine line between being hypervigilant and dying of a heart attack at a young age,’” Harris said.
Lives changed forever
The trauma of these attacks ripples through families, police departments and communities around the country.
“Those lives are impacted forever,” said Harris.
Two years have passed since the Fargo attack and the officers who survived can now speak about what happened to them that day.
Officers Dotas and Hawes spent weeks in the hospital. Hospital staff, family, friends and other officers gathered to applaud as Dotas, wearing a “We are Fargo PD” sweatshirt, finally left the facility with his wife and young son, AJ, by his side.
Officer Jake Wallin, 23, was killed during an ambush-style attack in 2023.
Fargo Police Department
Dotas, who said he joined the police force because he wanted to live “a meaningful life,” told CBS News about some of the challenges he faced during his long road to recovery.
“I didn’t really get a chance to be a protector anymore. I had to rely on, like, on everyone else to protect me,” he said.
He credits his faith and his family for pulling him through. He also said, looking back on that fateful day, “There was a lot of miracles that took place that day.” Dotas said the medics already being at the scene for the vehicle crash when the shooting happened probably helped save their lives.
Hawes said in an interview released by Fargo police that they were lucky there were two trauma rooms open and two fully staffed medical teams ready to help.
“This event affected everyone that lives here,” said trauma surgeon Dr. Enej Gasevic, who cared for the officers in a statement. He said it feels like the incident took away some of the innocence of living in the area.
Officer Wallin left behind his parents, brother and fiancée. Dotas, who returned to the force in February 2025, and many other Fargo police officers wear bracelets in his honor.
“It’s so hard because we lost Jake Wallin that day and his family will never have be able to hold him and be able to talk to him and be with him,” said Dotas. “He was a brand new guy,” he added, noting that he related to Wallin because they both served in the military.
Dotas said he often looks down at the bracelet when he’s working to remember Wallin and his willingness to serve.
“He gave his all, and that’s something that can never be taken away from him,” said Dotas.
Laura Geller is a multi-award-winning investigative journalist. She joined the CBS News and Stations Innovation Lab as a national investigative producer in September 2023.
A Rhode Island special assistant attorney general was arrested in Newport after failing to leave after being trespassed, and becoming defensive with police officers asking her to leave.
Special Assistant Attorney General Devon Hogan Flanagan was arrested Aug. 14 outside the Clarke Cooke House restaurant and charged with trespassing, according to a police report. The incident was recorded on an officer’s body camera.
“Buddy, you’re gonna regret this. You’re gonna regret it,” Flanagan is heard saying in the body camera video. “I’m an A.G.”
She was arrested along with another woman, who was identified as a friend from college.
The incident is under review by the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office.
“Ms. Flanagan has been employed with the Office for approximately 7 years and is currently assigned to Appellate Unit of the Criminal Division,” the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement. “The Office immediately began a review of the incident, which we anticipate will conclude within the next few days.”
The office said it was unable to comment further on the incident as it relates to “personnel issues.”
Special Assistant Attorney General Devon Flanagan, left, seen on Newport Police body camera footage outside the Clarke Cooke House on Aug. 14 prior to her arrest for trespassing.
What police say happened that night
At around 9:51 p.m. that night, officers responded to the restaurant at 24 Bannister’s Wharf for a report of an “unwanted party,” the Newport Police Department said.
Police reports for both Flanagan and the involved friend state that alcohol was involved.
Two women, later identified as Flanagan and the other party, can be seen on police body camera video standing outside the restaurant as an officer pulls up.
As the officer gets out of his cruiser, Flanagan tells him she wants him to “turn his body cam off.”
“Protocol is that you turn it off if a citizen requests to turn it off,” Flanagan, of Warwick, says.
“They want you guys to leave. Let’s just leave. Let’s just make it easy,” an officer can be heard saying on the video.
The officer then walks over to the restaurant’s host station.
“You guys just want them out? Do you want them trespassed?” the officer asks.
“Anything we can do. Trespass, yeah. Cuff ’em. Please,” a man at the host station says.
Both women put into police cruisers, body cam video shows
Flanagan was handcuffed and placed into a police cruiser first, the video shows.
“I’m an A.G., I’m an A.G,” Flanagan repeats as the cruiser door shuts.
Has Flanagan been placed on leave?
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha went on talk radio Tuesday morning and addressed the incident.
“Look, she’s put me in a bad position. She’s embarrassed herself, humiliated herself, treated the Newport Police Department horribly,” Neronha said during the Aug. 19 interview on WPRO. “She is going to take some steps to try to address that in the next day or so.”
While he did not say what the “steps” would entail, he did say an apology to the Newport Police Department was “clearly necessary, and she understands that.”
Neronha said Flanagan would “take responsibility for her conduct and then we’ll go from there,” adding that he hadn’t yet decided what to do as far as discipline.
“It was inexcusable behavior,” he said. “She knows better … I’ve got 110 lawyers. She embarrassed all of them, in a sense.”
Neronha also said Flanagan “misstated” body camera protocol.
“Look, it’s my office that drove that body cam program in the first place. So I’m really glad that they’re on every police officer in the state,” Neronha said.
Stark County prosecutor Kyle Stone told reporters Saturday that the charges against Canton officers Beau Schoenegge and Camden Burch were brought by a grand jury in the April 18 death of Frank Tyson, a 53-year-old East Canton resident taken into custody shortly after a vehicle crash that had severed a utility pole.
Police body-camera footage showed Tyson, who was Black, resisting and saying repeatedly, “They’re trying to kill me” and “Call the sheriff” as he was taken to the floor, and he told officers he could not breathe.
Officers told Tyson he was fine, to calm down and to stop fighting as he was handcuffed face down, and officers joked with bystanders and leafed through Tyson’s wallet before realizing he was in a medical crisis.
The county coroner’s office ruled Tyson’s death a homicide in August, also listing as contributing factors a heart condition and cocaine and alcohol intoxication.
Stone said the charges were third-degree felonies punishable by a maximum term of 36 months in prison and a $10,000 fine. He said in response to a question Saturday that there was no evidence to support charges against any bystander.
The Stark County sheriff’s office confirmed Saturday that Schoenegge and Burch had been booked into the county jail. An official said there was no information available about who might be representing them. The Canton police department earlier said the two had been placed on paid administrative leave per department policy.
Tyson family attorney Bobby DiCello said in a statement that the arrests came as a relief because the officers involved in what he called Tyson’s “inhumane and brutal death will not escape prosecution.” But he called it “bittersweet because it makes official what they have long known: Frank is a victim of homicide.”
The president of the county’s NAACP chapter, Hector McDaniel, called the charges “consistent with the behavior we saw.”
“We believe that we’re moving in the right direction towards transparency and accountability and truth,” McDaniel said, according to the Canton Repository.
Tyson had been released from state prison on April 6 after serving 24 years on a kidnapping and theft case and was almost immediately declared a post-release control supervision violator for failing to report to a parole officer, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Jennifer Mayerle happily returned to Minnesota and WCCO, where she began her career as an intern. The Emmy and Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist joined WCCO as a reporter in May 2014. She also anchors "WCCO Saturday Morning" from 8-9 a.m.
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — A suburban police force is dealing with a dramatic number of departures.
City records obtained by WCCO show 19 patrol officers have left the Brooklyn Park Police Department since the start of 2023, in addition to a sergeant and four cadets. With current staffing in the low- to mid-90s, that’s roughly 20% of the force.
“We’ve lost some folks to retirement,” said Inspector Elliot Faust. “Several officers that have gone on to other careers, gotten out of this line of work. Some officers have decided to go to other agencies, so yeah, it’s been a high number, difficult to keep up with.”
Five of the 19 who have left didn’t last a year on the job. Two others didn’t make it past two years.
Faust says most of those decided the job wasn’t for them, and with others, the department made that decision for them.
“Things just don’t go as planned,” he said.
But amid the number crunch, both overall crime and violent crime are down this year compared to last.
WCCO asked BPPD how necessary more officers are.
“There’s a smaller number of officers working way more hours, and that’s just something we realize that’s not sustainable,” Faust said. “I would suspect [the decrease in crime] has a little less to do with the number of officers on the street and more to do with ebbs and flows of society.”
Faust says reinforcements are on the way. Thirteen new officers have started this year, and 10 more will start next month.
“That’s the most we’ve ever hired, so we’ve got some good news there,” Faust said.
David joined the WCCO team in April 2020, previously working at CBS 58 in Milwaukee. Prior to that, he worked in Las Vegas. While there, David covered several stories in the national spotlight, including the October 1 mass shooting and political visits from President Barack Obama and candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has identified the two officers who fired at the suspect in Thursday’s deadly mass shooting.
Nick Kapinos fired his department handgun while Luke Kittock fired his department rifle, according to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension says officer Jamal Mitchell responded to a shots fired call at an apartment complex in the 2200 block of Blaisdell Avenue around 5:15 p.m. Upon arrival, Mitchell said over radio that he saw two men injured in the street. One of those men was later identified as 35-year-old Mustafa Mohamed.
Mitchell approached Mohamed and asked if he was hurt and needed help, authorities say. In response, Mohamed shot Mitchell, who later died from his injuries. Mohamed allegedly continued to shoot Mitchell after he fell to the ground.
Kapinos and Kittock arrived as Mohamed had been shooting Mitchell. As they approached, Mohamed began to shoot at them. That’s when the two officers returned fire, striking Mohamed, according to investigators.
Officers rendered aid to Mohamed, but he died at the scene. Kittock had also been injured in the shooting but has since been released from the hospital.
Kapinos has 10 years of law enforcement experience and Kittock has nine. Both are on critical incident leave.
A firefighter also suffered injuries that were not life-threatening in the shooting. A bystander who had been shot remains in critical but stable condition at the hospital.
During a search of the apartment building, police found two people who had been shot. One of the victims, Osman Said Jimale, died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner. The other person was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is reviewing body camera and squad car camera footage of the incident as part of its investigation.
Riley Moser is a digital producer who covers breaking news and feature stories for CBS Minnesota. Riley started her career at CBS Minnesota in June 2022 and earned an honorable mention for sports writing from the Iowa College Media Association the same year.
MINNEAPOLS — Through hugs and tears, officers from Minneapolis, St. Paul and the extended law enforcement community gathered not far from where Officer Jamal Mitchell lost his life, to mourn and come together.
Mitchell represented everything right about the profession, officers said during the Saturday afternoon gathering.
“It was very tough, not only for me, but many others that knew him,” said Minneapolis police officer Krystal Scott.
Officer Scott is a friend of Mitchell’s. Scott said she got to know Mitchell through his volunteer work.
“I think that he sees that he had people behind him that didn’t even know him,” said Scott.
Officers paid tribute Saturday afternoon with bouquets of flowers. They shared personal stories of Officer Mitchell’s impact and held hands in prayer.
WCCO
“Police officers are people and they are hurting right now,” said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara. “I think he is representative of the vast majority of the men and women of this police department that continue to put their lives on the line for the people of this community.”
“It’s a conversation that no mayor wants to have,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Both Mayor Frey and Chief O’Hara said they’ve had heart-wrenching conversations with Mitchell’s grieving loved ones.
WCCO
“Just to let them know that they are loved, they are supported, they are appreciated,” said O’Hara.
“Jamal Mitchell will be remembered forever in the city of Minneapolis,” said Frey.
An outpouring of support for not only a model officer, but a father and hero.
“He was a staple. He’s our changemaker. He should be everybody’s change maker,” said Scott.
The millions of people who crowd into New York City’s busiest subway stations every day have recently encountered a sight reminiscent of a frightening, bygone era: National Guard troops with long guns patrolling platforms and checking bags.
After 9/11 and at moments of high alert in the years since, New York deployed soldiers in the subway to deter would-be terrorists and reassure the public that the transit system was safe from attack. The National Guard is now there for a different reason. Earlier this week, Governor Kathy Hochul sent 1,000 state police officers and National Guard troops into the city’s underground labyrinth not to scour for bombs but to combat far more ordinary crime—a recent spate of assaults, thefts, and stabbings, including against transit workers.
The order, which Hochul issued independently of the city’s mayor, Eric Adams, prompted immediate criticism. Progressives accused her of militarizing the subways and validating Republican exaggerations about a spike in crime, potentially making people even more fearful of using public transit. Law-enforcement advocates, a group that typically supports a robust show of force, didn’t like the idea either.
“I would describe it as the equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a hemorrhage,” William Bratton, who led the police departments of New York, Boston, and Los Angeles, told me. “It will actually do nothing to stop the flow of blood, because it’s not going to the source of where the blood is coming from.”
Bratton’s success in reducing subway crime as the chief of New York City’s transit police in the early 1990s led then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani to appoint him as NYPD commissioner. He returned to the post under a much different mayor, Democrat Bill de Blasio, nearly two decades later. During a 40-minute phone interview yesterday, Bratton acknowledged that many New Yorkers perceive subway crime to be more pervasive than it really is; rates of violent crime in New York City (and many other urban centers) have come down since the early months of pandemic and are much lower than they were in 1990, when he took over the transit police.
Bratton is most famous—and, in the minds of many, notorious—as a practitioner of the “broken windows” theory of policing, which calls for aggressive enforcement of minor crime as a precondition for tackling more serious offenses. The idea has been widely criticized for being racially discriminatory and contributing to mass incarceration. But Bratton remains a strong proponent.
He blamed the fact that crime remains unacceptably high for many people—and for politicians in an election year—on a culture of leniency brought on by well-intentioned criminal-justice reformers. Changes to the bail system that were enacted in 2019—some of which have been scaled back—have made it harder to keep convicted criminals off the streets, Bratton said, while city leaders are more reluctant to forcibly remove homeless people who resist intervention due to mental illness. Bratton said that police officers are less likely to arrest people for fare evasion, which leads to more serious infractions. “We are not punishing people for inappropriate behavior,” Bratton said.
The subways need more police officers, Bratton said, and Adams had already announced a deployment of an additional 1,000 last month. But an influx of National Guard troops won’t be as effective, he argued. They can’t arrest people, and the items they are looking for in bags—explosive devices and guns, mainly—aren’t the source of most subway crime. The highest-profile incidents have involved small knives or assailants who pushed people onto the subway tracks. “What are the bag checks actually going to accomplish?” he asked. “The deterrence really is not there.”
Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Russell Berman: What did you think of the governor’s decision to send the National Guard and the state police into the subways?
William Bratton: I would describe it basically as a public-relations initiative that is the equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a hemorrhage. It will actually do nothing to stop the flow of blood, because it’s not going to the source of where the blood is coming from.
The problem with crime in the subways, as with crime in the streets, is the idea that we are not punishing people for inappropriate behavior, whether it’s as simple as a fare evasion or something more significant—assaults and robberies and, in some instances, murders.
The presence of the National Guard in the subway system is not needed, not necessary; nor are, for that matter, state troopers. The NYPD and the MTA are fully capable of policing the subways and the train systems.
Berman: This is going to remind people of what New York was like in the months and years after 9/11, when you routinely saw National Guard troops doing bag checks in busy stations. Was it more effective to do that then, because people were worried about what was in those bags? Now they are more worried about other things.
Bratton: That was appropriate then. People understood that what the National Guard was looking for in that era were bombs. So the bag checks made sense. It wasn’t so much the level of crime in the subways. What they were fearful of was terrorists, so the use of the National Guard for that purpose was appropriate at that time.
What is the problem in terms of crime in the subway? It is the actions of the mentally ill, who have been involved in assaults and shoving people onto the tracks. It is the actions of a relatively small number of repeat criminals. And what are the bag checks actually going to accomplish? If you are carrying a gun, if you’re carrying a knife, you walk downstairs and see a bag check, you’re going to walk back up the stairs and down the block and go in another entrance and go right on through. So the deterrence is really not there.
Berman: Did those bag checks back then after 9/11 ever find anything significant, or was it mostly for making people feel like someone was watching?
Bratton: I’m not aware that anything was ever detected. Might something have been deterred? Possibly somebody who was coming into the subway with a device and decides, Well, I’m not going to do it after all. But I can’t say with any certainty or knowledge.
Berman: Governor Hochul is also proposing a bill that would allow judges to ban anyone from the public-transit system who has been convicted of assault within the system. What do you make of that?
Bratton: It would be difficult to enforce. They’d be banned from the system, but if they’re on the system behaving themselves, who’s going to know?
Berman: Earlier you mentioned that law enforcement should be punishing fare evasion more than they do. When people hear that, they might think of the “broken windows” theory of policing. These people aren’t necessarily violent; they’re just jumping the gate. Is your argument that you’re trying to address higher-level crime by prosecuting lower-level crime?
Bratton: “Broken windows” is correcting the behavior when it’s at a minor stage before it becomes more serious. Somebody who’s not paying their fare might be coming into the subway system with some type of weapon. Oftentimes they’re coming into the system to commit a crime—or, if they encounter a situation in the subway, out comes a box cutter, out comes the knife, out comes the gun. The situation escalates.
Two police officers and a first responder were shot and killed early Sunday and a third officer was injured at a suburban Minneapolis home in an exchange of gunfire while responding to a call involving an armed man who had barricaded himself inside with family, including seven children. The suspect in the shooting also died, officials said.The shootings took place in a suburban neighborhood in Burnsville, Minnesota, which was ringed with police cars that kept the press and public away from the scene where the shootings took place.City officials said in a news release that it started as a report of a domestic situation. “After arriving, the situation escalated into gunfire with responders,” the statement said, adding that the officers and first responder “were killed by the gunman during the response.”The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association said negotiations with the suspect went on for four hours before a SWAT team entered the home. Seven children were inside the house, but the city said the family was able to leave the home safely.Details on how the suspect died were not immediately released.City officials identified the slain officers as Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27. Adam Finseth, 40, a firefighter and paramedic, also was killed. Another police officer, Sgt. Adam Medlicott, was injured and being treated at a hospital with what are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries, the city said.The shooting happened in a tree-lined neighborhood with two-story homes. A police armored vehicle parked nearby had bullet damage to its windshield, but there was no confirmation on whether that was the result of the incident. The street was lined with police cars, firefighters and ambulances.Police scanner recordings on Broadcastify.com capture a rattled man saying, “I need any ambulance,” as he struggled to catch his breath. Someone later could be heard talking about three being loaded into ambulances, uttering the word “critical.””We must never take for granted the bravery and sacrifices our police officers and first responders make every day,” said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. “My heart is with their families today and the entire State of Minnesota stands with Burnsville.”Other law enforcement agencies immediately began posting messages of condolence on social media, including images of badges with blue bars through them. It is a mark of solidarity in mourning.As the bodies of the dead left a hospital, officers saluted, before they were taken in a convoy to the medical examiner’s office. Medical staff watched in scrubs.The Law Enforcement Labor Services represents rank-and-file officers and the supervisors of the Burnsville Police Department. The organization’s executive director, Jim Mortenson, said in a statement that “thoughts and prayers are with the family of the officers and first responder” who responded.The State’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a news release that it was asked to investigate the shooting. It said it would provide more information later. The statewide agency provides investigative and other services to help solve crimes, often to back up smaller law enforcement agencies that lack sufficient resources.In neighboring Goodhue County, Sheriff Marty Kelly wrote that it was closely monitoring the situation as it unfolds.”In times like these,” Kelly said, “it is essential to come together as a community and support one another through the uncertainty and grief.”Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota said in a statement that she had been in touch with the mayor, police chief and state officials to offer any federal resources needed.”Today,” she said, “serves as another solemn reminder that those who protect our communities do so at great personal risk.”Burnsville, a city of around 64,000, is located about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of downtown Minneapolis.
BURNSVILLE, Minn. —
Two police officers and a first responder were shot and killed early Sunday and a third officer was injured at a suburban Minneapolis home in an exchange of gunfire while responding to a call involving an armed man who had barricaded himself inside with family, including seven children. The suspect in the shooting also died, officials said.
The shootings took place in a suburban neighborhood in Burnsville, Minnesota, which was ringed with police cars that kept the press and public away from the scene where the shootings took place.
City officials said in a news release that it started as a report of a domestic situation. “After arriving, the situation escalated into gunfire with responders,” the statement said, adding that the officers and first responder “were killed by the gunman during the response.”
The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association said negotiations with the suspect went on for four hours before a SWAT team entered the home. Seven children were inside the house, but the city said the family was able to leave the home safely.
Details on how the suspect died were not immediately released.
City officials identified the slain officers as Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27. Adam Finseth, 40, a firefighter and paramedic, also was killed. Another police officer, Sgt. Adam Medlicott, was injured and being treated at a hospital with what are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries, the city said.
The shooting happened in a tree-lined neighborhood with two-story homes. A police armored vehicle parked nearby had bullet damage to its windshield, but there was no confirmation on whether that was the result of the incident. The street was lined with police cars, firefighters and ambulances.
Police scanner recordings on Broadcastify.com capture a rattled man saying, “I need any ambulance,” as he struggled to catch his breath. Someone later could be heard talking about three being loaded into ambulances, uttering the word “critical.”
“We must never take for granted the bravery and sacrifices our police officers and first responders make every day,” said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. “My heart is with their families today and the entire State of Minnesota stands with Burnsville.”
Other law enforcement agencies immediately began posting messages of condolence on social media, including images of badges with blue bars through them. It is a mark of solidarity in mourning.
As the bodies of the dead left a hospital, officers saluted, before they were taken in a convoy to the medical examiner’s office. Medical staff watched in scrubs.
The Law Enforcement Labor Services represents rank-and-file officers and the supervisors of the Burnsville Police Department. The organization’s executive director, Jim Mortenson, said in a statement that “thoughts and prayers are with the family of the officers and first responder” who responded.
The State’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a news release that it was asked to investigate the shooting. It said it would provide more information later. The statewide agency provides investigative and other services to help solve crimes, often to back up smaller law enforcement agencies that lack sufficient resources.
In neighboring Goodhue County, Sheriff Marty Kelly wrote that it was closely monitoring the situation as it unfolds.
“In times like these,” Kelly said, “it is essential to come together as a community and support one another through the uncertainty and grief.”
Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota said in a statement that she had been in touch with the mayor, police chief and state officials to offer any federal resources needed.
“Today,” she said, “serves as another solemn reminder that those who protect our communities do so at great personal risk.”
Burnsville, a city of around 64,000, is located about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of downtown Minneapolis.
A group of illegal immigrants were seen attacking two NYPD officers outside a migrant shelter in Times Square, New York City.
The incident occurred when the officers attempted to advise the illegal aliens to move along. They then appear to attempt to subdue one of the individuals.
As the officers attempted to make an arrest, the suspects reportedly kicked and punched them in the head and body. The attack was captured on video and then shared on social media.
Four suspects were arrested a little while later and identified as aging in the range from 19 to 24.
“They were kicking and punching one of the cops,” a security guard nearby told the New York Daily News. “They mobbed [the cops]. It was wild.”
A large group of migrants assaulted two NYPD officers on 42nd street. This is the result of migrants arriving into an environment where it feels as if there are no consequences for committing crimes.
The New York Daily News report seems more concerned about how this assault by illegal immigrants is going to reflect on the debate regarding the border crisis.
The incident, they fret, is “likely to raise the temperature of the already heated debate surrounding the migrant crisis, in which more than 100,000 migrants came to the city last year.”
Yea, probably. Seeing video of animals assaulting police officers in the hopes that they can free one of their own based on overwhelming numbers seems concerning – especially when they number in the hundreds of thousands in NYC alone, millions across the country.
If they’re brazen enough to go after law enforcement, what will they do to the average person walking down the street?
⚡️ VIDEO: A group of migrants pummel NYPD cops outside a Times Square shelter
They tried to arrest one, when a group of men attacked.
They kicked and punched the officers in the head and body, video showshttps://t.co/7pVLMYoXtf
Astoundingly, the illegal immigrants clearly caught on tape trying to assault police officers were, according to the report, “released without bail following arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.”
Even better? One of those arrested and released without bail has two pending cases in Manhattan for assault and robbery.
A statement from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office explains the illegal immigrants may have been released due to a lack of information on them at the time of the arrest.
“We now have additional video surveillance that was not available at the time of arraignment and are continuing to speak to witnesses in order to determine the specific role of each defendant,” the statement reads, according to Fox News.
What are the odds they track these guys – who are, by the left’s definition, undocumented – down? We’d wager the next time they are seen is when they end up assaulting somebody else, or worse, murdering them.
Bragg, you may recall, has been heavily criticized for his ‘soft on crime’ policies and was eviscerated by the wife of a fallen NYPD officer at his memorial.
NYPD officer Jason Rivera was murdered in the streets of Harlem. His widowed wife addressed DA Alvin Bragg:
“The system continues to fail us. We are not safe anymore. I hope [Bragg] is watching you speak through me right now.” pic.twitter.com/Fg3Zx2xp8V
In another shocking video to emerge Tuesday, two illegal immigrants driving a van unlicensed and uninsured almost took out a little girl and a bus full of schoolchildren in upstate New York.
Meanwhile, the New York City Council has maintained its focus on reining in the NYPD, not illegal immigrants who haven’t met a law they’re seemingly unwilling to break.
While these illegal aliens remain on the streets undocumented and out on bail, police officers in New York City will be forced to document every single interaction they have with the public.
If you want to know why the city in chaos, why criminals have no fear of consequences, why our streets are flooded with illegals and homeless, why cops are attacked openly, why our subways are a disaster, why our kids can’t read, and why our tax base is fleeing… here you go. https://t.co/2cmB4xcDap
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Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox… More about Rusty Weiss
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A Florida man described by prosecutors as one of the most violent rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison, court records show.
Kenneth Bonawitz, a member of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group’s Miami chapter, assaulted at least six police officers as he stormed the Capitol with a mob of Donald Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. He grabbed one of the officers in a chokehold and injured another so severely that the officer had to retire, according to federal prosecutors.
Bonawitz, 58, of Pompano Beach, Florida, carried an eight-inch knife in a sheath on his hip. Police seized the knife from him in between his barrage of attacks on officers.
“His violent, and repeated, assaults on multiple officers are among the worst attacks that occurred that day,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean McCauley wrote in a court filing.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb sentenced Bonawitz to a five-year term of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, according to court records.
The Justice Department recommended a prison sentence of five years and 11 months for Bonawitz, who was arrested last January. He pleaded guilty in August to three felonies — one count of civil disorder and two counts of assaulting police.
Bonawitz took an overnight bus to Washington, D.C., chartered for Trump supporters to attend his “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6.
Bonawitz was one of the first rioters to enter the Upper West Plaza once the crowd overran a police line on the north side. He jumped off a stage built for President Joe Biden’s inauguration and tackled two Capitol police officers. One of them, Sgt. Federico Ruiz, suffered serious injuries to his neck, shoulder, knees and back.
“I thought there was a strong chance I could die right there,” Ruiz wrote in a letter addressed to the judge.
Ruiz, who retired last month, said the injuries inflicted by Bonawitz prematurely ended his law-enforcement career.
“Bonawitz has given me a life sentence of physical pain and discomfort, bodily injury and emotional insecurity as a direct result of his assault on me,” he wrote.
After police confiscated his knife and released him, Bonawitz assaulted four more officers in the span of seven seconds. He placed one of the officers in a headlock and lifted her off the ground, choking her.
“Bonawitz’s attacks did not stop until (police) officers pushed him back into the crowd for a second time and deployed chemical agent to his face,” the prosecutor wrote.
More than 100 police officers were injured during the siege. Over 1,200 defendants have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. About 900 have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials. Over 750 have been sentenced, with nearly 500 receiving a term of imprisonment, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.
Dozens of Proud Boys leaders, members and associates have been arrested on Jan. 6 charges. A jury convicted former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and three lieutenants of seditious conspiracy charges for a failed plot to forcibly stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden after the 2020 election.
Bonawitz isn’t accused of coordinating his actions on Jan. 6 with other Proud Boys. But he “fully embraced and embodied their anti-government, extremist ideology when he assaulted six law enforcement officers who stood between a mob and the democratic process,” the prosecutor wrote.
Bonawitz’s lawyers didn’t publicly file a sentencing memo before Wednesday’s hearing. One of his attorneys didn’t immediately respond to emails and a phone call seeking comment.
Washington’s federal courthouse remains flooded with trials, guilty plea hearings and sentencings stemming from what has become the largest criminal investigation in American history. And the hunt for suspects is far from over.
“We can not replace votes and deliberation with violence and intimidation,” Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters on Thursday.
Authorities are still working to identify more than 80 people wanted for acts of violence at the Capitol. And they continue to regularly make new arrests, even as some Jan. 6 defendants are being released from prison after completing their sentences.
The cases are playing out at the same courthouse where Donald Trump is scheduled to stand trial in March in the case accusing the former president of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in the run up to the Capitol attack.
Here’s a look at where the cases against the Jan. 6 defendants stand:
BY THE NUMBERS
More than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes in the riot, ranging from misdemeanor offenses like trespassing to felonies like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy. Roughly 730 people have pleaded guilty to charges, while another roughly 170 have been convicted of at least one charge at a trial decided by a judge or a jury, according to an Associated Press database.
Only two defendants have been acquitted of all charges, and those were trials decided by a judge rather than a jury.
About 750 people have been sentenced, with almost two-thirds receiving some time behind bars. Prison sentences have ranged from a few days of intermittent confinement to 22 years in prison. The longest sentence so far was handed down to Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys national chairman who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors described as a plot to stop the transfer of power from Trump to President Joe Biden.
Many rioters are already out of prison after completing their sentences, including some defendants who engaged in violence. Scott Fairlamb — a New Jersey man who punched a police officer during the riot and was the first Jan. 6 defendant to be sentenced for assaulting law enforcement — was released from Bureau of Prisons’ custody in June.
ALL EYES ON THE SUPREME COURT
Defense attorneys and prosecutors are closely watching a case that will soon be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court that could impact hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants. The justices agreed last month to hear one rioter’s challenge to prosecutors’ use of the charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, which refers to the disruption of Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Trump.
More than 300 Jan. 6 defendants have been charged with the obstruction offense, and so has Trump in the federal case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Lawyers representing rioters have argued the charge was inappropriately brought against Jan. 6 defendants.
The justices won’t hear arguments in March or April, with a decision expected by early summer. But their review of the obstruction charge is already having some impact on the Jan. 6 prosecutions. At least two defendants have convinced judges to delay their sentencings until after the Supreme Court rules on the matter.
RIOTERS ON THE LAM
Dozens of people believed to have assaulted law enforcement during the riot have yet to be identified by authorities, according to Graves. And the statute of limitations for the crimes is five years, which means they would have to be charged by Jan. 6, 2026, he said.
Several defendants have also fled after being charged, including a Proud Boys member from Florida who disappeared while he was on house arrest after he was convicted of using pepper spray gel on police officers. Christopher Worrell was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison after spending weeks on the lam.
The FBI is still searching for some defendants who have been on the run for months, including a brother-sister pair from Florida. Olivia Pollock disappeared shortly before her trial was supposed to begin in March. Her brother, Jonathan Pollock, is also missing. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $30,000 for information leading to the arrest of Jonathan Pollock, who is accused of thrusting a riot shield into an officer’s face and throat, pulling an officer down steps and punching others.
Another defendant, Evan Neumann, fled the U.S. two months after his December 2021 indictment and is believed to be living in Belarus.
Investigators have spent thousands of hours over the last three years doing interviews and combing through evidence and tips from the public, said David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office.
“We urge anyone who may have previously hesitated to come forward or who may not have realized they had important information to contact us and share anything relevant,” he said in an emailed statement on Thursday.
The explosive devices were placed outside the two buildings between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2021, but officers didn’t find them until the next day. Authorities were called to the Republican National Committee’s office around 12:45 p.m. on Jan. 6. Shortly after, a call came in for a similar explosive device found at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The bombs were rendered safe, and no one was hurt.
Video released by the FBI shows a person in a gray hooded sweatshirt, a face mask and gloves appearing to place one of the explosives under a bench outside the DNC and separately shows the person walking in an alley near the RNC before the bomb was placed there. The person wore black and light gray Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers with a yellow logo.
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Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press reporter Lindsay Whitehurst contributed from Washington.
