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Another shutdown likely after ICE killings in Minnesota prompt revolt by Democrats
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WASHINGTON — The killing of a second U.S. citizen by federal agents in Minneapolis is deeply complicating efforts to avert another government shutdown in Washington as Democrats — and some Republicans — view the episode as a tipping point in the debate over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
Senate Democrats pledged to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security unless changes are made to rein in the federal agency’s operations following the killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse.
The Democratic defections threaten to derail passage of a broad spending package that also includes funding for the State Department and the Pentagon, as well as education, health, labor and transportation agencies. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) released a statement Monday calling on Republican Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to avert another shutdown by separating funding for DHS from the full appropriations package.
“Senate Democrats have made clear we are ready to quickly advance the five appropriations bills separately from the DHS funding bill before the January 30th deadline. The responsibility to prevent a partial government shutdown is on Leader Thune and Senate Republicans,” Schumer said.
The standoff also revealed fractures among GOP lawmakers, who called for a federal and state investigation into the shooting and congressional hearings for federal officials to explain their tactics — demands that have put unusual pressure on the Trump administration.
Senate Republicans must secure 60 votes to advance the spending measure in the chamber — a threshold they cannot reach on their own with their 53 seats. The job is further complicated by a time crunch: Lawmakers have until midnight Friday to reach a compromise or face a partial government shutdown.
Senate Democrats already expressed reservations about supporting the Homeland Security funding after Renee Good, a mother of three, was shot and killed this month by federal agents in Minneapolis. But Pretti’s killing led Democrats to be more forceful in their opposition.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Sunday he would oppose funding for the agencies involved in the Minneapolis operations, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
“I’m not giving ICE or Border Patrol another dime given how these agencies are operating. Democrats are not going to fund that,” he said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think anyone who votes to give them more money to do this will share in the responsibility and see more Americans die in our cities as a result.”
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said in a statement last week that he would not “give more money to CBP and ICE to continue terrorizing our communities and breaking the law.” He reiterated his stance hours after Pretti’s killing.
“I will vote against any additional funding for Trump’s ICE and CBP while they act with such reckless disregard for life, safety and the Constitution,” Padilla wrote on social media.
While Senate Republicans largely intend to support the funding measure, some are publicly raising concerns about the Trump administration’s training requirements for ICE agents and calling for congressional oversight hearings.
“A comprehensive, independent investigation of the shooting must be conducted in order to rebuild trust and Congressional committees need to hold hearings and do their oversight work,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) wrote on social media. “ICE agents do not have carte blanche in carrying out their duties.”
Similar demands are being made by House Republicans.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, formally sought testimony from leaders at ICE, Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, saying his “top priority remains keeping Americans safe.”
Homeland Security has not yet provided a public confirmation that it will attend the hearing, though Garbarino told reporters Saturday he has been “in touch with the department” and anticipates a full investigation.
Many Republican lawmakers expressed concern over federal officials saying Pretti’s killing was in part because of him having a loaded firearm. Pretti had a permit to carry, according to the Minneapolis police chief, and videos show him holding a cellphone, not brandishing a gun, before officers pushed him to the ground.
“Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence, it’s a constitutionally protected God-given right, and if you don’t understand this you have no business in law enforcement of government,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) wrote on social media.
Following pushback from the GOP, President Trump appears to be seeking ways to tone down the tensions. The president said Monday he had a “very good call” with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat he clashed with in recent weeks, and that they “seemed to be on a similar wavelength” on next steps.
If Democrats are successful in striking down the Homeland Security spending package, some hinted at comprehensive immigration reforms to follow.
California Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) detailed the plan on social media over the weekend, calling on Congress to repeal the $75 billion in supplemental funding for ICE in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year. The allocation roughly tripled the budget for immigration enforcement.
The shooting came as a slate of progressives renewed demands to “abolish ICE” and replace it with an agency that has congressional oversight.
Congress must “tear down and replace ICE with an agency that has oversight,” Khanna said. “We owe that to nurse Pretti and the hundreds of thousands on the streets risking their lives to stand up for our freedoms.”
Democrats also are focusing on removing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. This month Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) introduced a measure to impeach Noem, saying she brought a “reign of terror to Minneapolis.” At least 120 House Democrats supported the measure, according to Kelly’s office.
Party leaders recently called for an end to controversial “Kavanaugh stops,” which became central to ICE procedure following a September decision in Noem vs. Vasquez Perdomo by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. It allows for agents to stop people based on perceived race or for engaging in activities “associated with undocumented people,” like speaking a foreign language.
Progressives also have endorsed the reversal of qualified immunity protections, which shield agents from misconduct lawsuits.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) backed the agenda and called for ICE and Border Patrol agents to “leave Minnesota immediately.”
“Voting NO on the DHS funding bill is the bare minimum. Backing Kristi Noem’s impeachment is the bare minimum. Holding law-breaking ICE agents legally accountable is the bare minimum. ICE is beyond reform. Abolish it,” she wrote Sunday on social media.
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Ana Ceballos, Gavin J. Quinton
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Arrest Made In Connection To Shooting Of Two Portland Police Officers – KXL
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Portland Police say two officers were shot by a man in NE Portland Monday evening.
PORTLAND, Ore. – An arrest has been made in the shooting of two Portland Police officers on January 19th.
A person was taken into custody around 7 in the morning on Monday, January 6th.
The arrest happened during a tactical operation on Northeast 82nd Avenue.
More details will be released in the coming hours.
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Grant McHill
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Fact-check: Trump officials’ Alex Pretti claims vs. video
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Video footage of the fatal shooting of Minnesota resident Alex Pretti by a federal immigration officer contradicts Trump administration officials’ claims about the event.
Since Pretti’s Jan. 24 killing in Minneapolis, the federal government has provided no evidence to substantiate early statements and shared no details about what happened before the confrontation and in the moments leading to a Border Patrol officer firing his gun.
Pretti, 37, was a U.S. citizen who worked as an Intensive Care Unit nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti was “brandishing” a handgun and “attacked” officers. Social media videos verified by multiple news organizations show Pretti, who had a concealed carry permit, holding a cell phone as he directed traffic and tried to help a woman pushed to the ground by an officer.
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller called Pretti a “domestic terrorist,” the same term some Trump officials used to describe Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis woman killed Jan. 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Noem, Miller and Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino said that because Pretti was carrying a handgun and ammunition, he planned to assassinate law enforcement — statements that incensed some Republicans who support Second Amendment rights.
“The suspect put himself in that situation,” Bovino said. “The victims are the Border Patrol agents there.”
Pretti’s parents called their son a “kindhearted soul” and said Trump officials were not telling the truth. “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” their Jan. 25 press statement said.
With many questions remaining unanswered, here’s how Trump administration officials’ explanations conflict with available information.
Video does not show Pretti approaching immigration agents with handgun
Noem said Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.”
Bovino said, “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
News outlets’ analysis of videos of the incident from several angles do not show Pretti approaching immigration officials with a handgun.
Videos analyzed by The New York Times, CNN, NPR, ABC, Reuters and Bellingcat show Pretti holding a cellphone horizontally in his right hand.
In the footage, Pretti stands between an officer and two civilians. The officer disperses pepper spray at Pretti and the people standing behind him. A still image from bystander video shows Pretti holding up his left arm in reaction.
Several agents tackle Pretti to the ground. One officer appears to remove a gun from Pretti’s hip and walk across the street away from the group. Quickly after another officer fires several shots at Pretti as he is restrained by agents.
“What the videos depict is that this guy did not walk up to anybody from (Customs and Border Protection) in a threatening manner,” former acting DHS undersecretary for intelligence John Cohen told ABC News. “For (DHS) to construe that he arrived at that location with the intent to shoot those border patrol officers, there’s nothing in the video evidence that we’ve seen thus far that would support that.”
CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan asked Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara if he had seen any evidence that Pretti was “brandishing” a gun, as Noem said.
“You have a Second Amendment right in the United States to possess a firearm. And there are some restrictions around that in Minnesota,” O’Hara said Jan. 25 on “Face the Nation.” “And everything that we see that we are aware of shows that he did not violate any of those restrictions.”
Trump administration officials called Pretti a ‘domestic terrorist’
Miller described Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” who “tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.”
In a press conference after the shooting, Noem said Pretti “came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers.” She said Pretti “committed an act of domestic terrorism. That’s the facts.”
“When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism,” Noem said.
It’s the second time in a month that Noem said a person shot and killed by immigration officers was a domestic terrorist, before any investigation had taken place.
The FBI defines domestic terrorism as acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state criminal laws and appear intended to intimidate or coerce civilians; influence government policy by intimidation or coercion; or affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.
Legal experts questioned the characterization of Good as a domestic terrorist, telling PolitiFact the label was prejudicial and an attempt to malign her.
Editor’s note: This story will be updated with additional statements and analysis. Check back later Jan. 26.
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Minneapolis man says he was detained for hours after witnessing Alex Pretti shooting
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New affidavits filed in court detail how witnesses were arrested immediately after the shooting of Alex Pretti.
One of those witnesses, who asked to be called Javier for safety reasons, said he was among dozens of what he overheard agents referring to as “USCs” — United States citizens in custody.
“I’m not going to be intimidated by them,” Javier asserted to WCCO News. “My father always told me never to be scared of a person that believes as much as you do. Everybody in this world believes as much as I do, and that’s my sense of security right now.”
He lives a few blocks from where Saturday’s shooting took place at 26th and Nicollet; he recalled arriving at the scene after neighbors alerted him to an ongoing raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“At that point in time, it’s not about me,” he said. “It’s about the cause — our people being protected. It’s about these people coming here to better their lives.”
Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse who worked at the Minneapolis VA hospital, was identified as the man killed by a Border Patrol agent on the south side of Minneapolis Saturday morning.
The Department of Homeland Security said the agent acted in self-defense after attempting to disarm Pretti, but Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said that account was “nonsense” after reviewing videos of the shooting.
Saturday’s incident happened less than three weeks after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good and amid an ongoing surge in immigration enforcement action across the city.
“I watched the agent shoot him,” Javier said. “Whether I knew him or not, he died for the cause.”
After the shooting, Javier said agents turned on him and others in the vicinity. They were taken to the Whipple Building and held for several hours.
“It’s just cold all around, bro,” Javier said. “It just sucks the life out of you. You lose all hope.”
Federal court records show no formal charges have been filed against Javier. He said he was held here first by himself, then with almost two dozen others from the scene. They were given water, food and medical attention before being released.
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Jonah Kaplan
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Phan brothers murder retrial set to begin Monday, weather permitting
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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.
The motion stemmed from the prosecution’s recent attempt to broaden the scope of gang‑related evidence in the retrial, namely introducing details about a Sept. 13, 2020 drive‑by shooting at 478 Wilder St.
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.
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Aaron Curtis
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Videos and witness accounts of deadly Minneapolis shooting at odds with official statements
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Videos quickly emerged Saturday showing the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis protester by a Border Patrol agent.
Bystander videos verified by CBS News show the scene from multiple angles, starting shortly before the encounter that ended in the shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an American citizen who worked as an ICU nurse.
The events unfolded at around 9 a.m. Saturday. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said officers were pursuing a man in the country illegally who was wanted for domestic assault. Protesters have been trying to disrupt such operations amid an ongoing federal immigration crackdown, and a group of people in the area sounded high-pitched whistles, honked horns and yelled out at the officers.
Among them was Pretti. At one point, video shows Pretti standing in the street and holding up his phone with his right hand; his left hand appears empty.
VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS
He comes face-to-face with an officer in a tactical vest, who places his hand on Pretti and pushes him toward the sidewalk. Pretti is talking to the officer, though it is not clear what he is saying.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem later said Pretti “approached” officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, but did not say whether he “brandished” the weapon. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said he was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.
Videos filmed before the shooting show Pretti did not have a gun in his hands.
Protesters can be seen wandering in and out of the street as officers persist in trying to talk them back. One protester is put in handcuffs. Some officers are carrying pepper spray canisters.
Pretti comes into view again when the video shows an officer wearing tactical gear shoving a protester. The protester, who is wearing a skirt over black tights and holding a water bottle, reaches out for Pretti.
The same officer shoves Pretti in his chest, leading Pretti and the other protester to stumble backward.
A different video then shows Pretti moving toward another protester, who falls over after being shoved by the same officer.
VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS
Pretti moves between the protester and the officer, reaching his arms out toward the officer. The officer deploys pepper spray, and Pretti raises his hand and turns his face. The officer grabs Pretti’s hand to bring it behind his back, and deploys the pepper spray canister again and then pushes Pretti away.
Seconds later, at least a half-dozen federal officers surround Pretti, who is wrestled to the ground and hit several times. Several agents try to bring Pretti’s arms behind his back, and he struggles.
VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS
Videos show an officer in a gray jacket, who is hovering over the scuffle with his right hand on Pretti’s back, reaching into the scuffle empty-handed and then backing away from the group with what appears to be a gun in his right hand.
Someone shouts “gun, gun.” It is not clear if that’s a reference to the weapon authorities say Pretti had.
The agent is holding that gun and turning away from the man when the first shot is fired. Videos show the agent in the gray jacket then running across the street as numerous shots can be heard.
Videos do not clearly show who fired the first shot. In one video, seconds before the first shot, one officer reaches for his belt and appears to draw his gun. That same officer is seen with a gun to Pretti’s back as three more shots ring out. Pretti slumps to the ground. Videos show the officers backing away, some with guns drawn.
At a briefing Saturday afternoon, Noem shared an image of the gun she said was recovered. She said officers attempted to disarm the man but he “reacted violently,” and “fearing for his life and the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots.”
Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who said he watched one of several videos, said he saw “more than six masked agents pummeling one of our constituents, shooting him to death.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said, “I’ve seen the videos, from several angles, and it’s sickening.”
Sworn statements from witnesses
Sworn declarations submitted in federal court Saturday night by people who said they witnessed the shooting contradict key points of the events presented by federal officials.
One witness described seeing Pretti observing and filming the scene “just with his camera out. I didn’t see him reach for or hold a gun.”
An agent “shoved one of the other observers to the ground” and then pepper sprayed several people, the witness said. “The man with the phone put his hands above his head and the agent sprayed him again and pushed him.”
The witness continued: “The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn’t see him touch any of them — he wasn’t even turned toward them. It didn’t look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn’t see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times.”
Another witness, a pediatrician, described watching out their apartment window and seeing “one civilian … yelling at the ICE agents, but I did not see him attack the agents or brandish a weapon of any kind.”
Suddenly, the witness said, an agent “shoved him to the ground. My view of the altercation was partially obstructed, but after a few seconds, I saw at least four agents point guns at the man. Then I saw the agents shoot the man six or seven times.”
“Initially I was stunned,” the witness continued. “From what I could see from my apartment, there was absolutely no need for any violence, let alone lethal force by multiple officers.”
The witness then described rushing down to the scene, telling officers they were a doctor and performing CPR until an EMS crew arrived. The man had at least four bullet wounds and no pulse, the witness said.
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Quiet candlelight vigils honoring Alex Pretti light street corners across Twin Cities
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People in neighborhoods around the Twin Cities gathered on sidewalks, in parks and on street corners Saturday night to mark the death of another person killed by federal agents in Minneapolis.
Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse who worked at the Minneapolis VA hospital, was identified as the man killed by a Border Patrol agent on the south side of the city Saturday morning. The Department of Homeland Security said the agent acted in self-defense after attempting to disarm Pretti, but Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said that account was “nonsense” after reviewing videos of the shooting.
Saturday’s incident happened less than three weeks after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Renee Good and amid an ongoing surge in immigration enforcement action across the city.
Neighbors, many with small candles nestled in their hands, gathered near Summit Avenue and Lexington Parkway in St. Paul, Minnesota.
WCCO
WCCO
WCCO
Other people gathered quietly in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis and near Lake Nokomis, as well.
WCCO
A group that organized a march and rally against ICE on Friday spread the word on social media, asking people to go to their sidewalks with lighted candles.
Pretti’s family said in a statement that Pretti was “a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital.”
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John Daenzer
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Latest details after another Minneapolis resident killed by federal agents
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Latest details after another Minneapolis resident killed by federal agents – CBS News
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Man fatally shot by federal officer in Minnesota worked as an ICU nurse, his parents say
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Family members say the man killed by a federal officer in Minneapolis on Saturday was an intensive care nurse at the Veterans Administration who cared deeply about people and was upset by President Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city.
The Associated Press reported that the man, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, was an avid outdoorsman who loved getting in adventures with Joule, his beloved Catahoula Leopard dog who also recently died. He had participated in protests following the killing of Renee Good, who was shot behind the wheel of her SUV by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Law Enforcement officer earlier this month.
“He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” said Michael Pretti, Alex’s father. “He felt that doing the protesting was a way to express that, you know, his care for others.”
Pretti was a U.S. citizen, born in Illinois. Like Good, court records showed he had no criminal record and his family said he had never had any interactions with law enforcement beyond a couple of traffic tickets.
In a recent conversation with their son, his parents, who live in Wisconsin, told him to be careful when protesting.
“We had this discussion with him two weeks ago or so, you know, that go ahead and protest, but do not engage, do not do anything stupid, basically,” Michael Pretti said. “And he said he knows that. He knew that.”
The Department of Homeland Security said that the man was shot after he “approached” U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. Officials did not specify if Pretti brandished the gun, and it is not visible in bystander video of the shooting obtained and verified by CBS News, The AP and other outlets.
Family members said Pretti owned a handgun and had a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Minnesota. They said they had never known him to carry it.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara also said police believed he was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.
The shooting came one day after tens of thousands of people marched through downtown Minneapolis to protest ICE’s presence in the city.
The family first learned of the shooting when they were called by an Associated Press reporter. They watched the video and said the man killed appeared to be their son. They then tried reaching out to officials in Minnesota.
“I can’t get any information from anybody,” Michael Pretti said Saturday. “The police, they said call Border Patrol, Border Patrol’s closed, the hospitals won’t answer any questions?”
Eventually, the family called the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, who they said confirmed had a body matching the name and description of their son.
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Another person was shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. Here’s what to know.
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A man is dead after a shooting in Minneapolis on Saturday involving federal immigration agents from Customs and Border Protection, officials said.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a news briefing that the man was 37-year-old American citizen who lived in Minneapolis.
Two Department of Homeland Security officials told CBS News that the man had a firearm and two magazines.
O’Hara said police believe he was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry. He did not identify the man but said his only previous interaction with law enforcement was traffic violations.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that officers were conducting a “targeted operation against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault” when “an individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.” McLaughlin said the officers attempted to disarm the subject but the person “violently resisted.” McLaughlin said an agent fired “defensive shots” because he feared “for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers.”
First aid was rendered, but the man died, officials said. McLaughlin said he was pronounced dead at the scene, while O’Hara said he was pronounced dead at a hospital.
McLaughlin said the person had no identification and said it looked “like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
Video footage verified by CBS News shows an altercation between several officers and a person on the ground before shots are heard.
O’Hara said that Minneapolis police have not been provided with “any public safety statement around the incident, what happened,” by federal agents.
“We do not know what happened prior to the recording,” O’Hara said. The police chief said the FBI and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the state’s criminal investigative bureau, were on the scene.
The Minneapolis Police Department said the shooting took place near Nicollet Avenue and 26th Street. Police urged people to avoid the area. Video footage from CBS Minnesota station WCCO showed standoffs between protesters and federal officers. Airborne chemical irritants were being discharged, and whistling and shouting were audible on the video. Protesters were also seen setting up barricades of trash cans. One person told the station they wanted to keep ICE out of their community.
Law enforcement declared an unlawful assembly. McLaughlin referred to protesters as “rioters.”
During his remarks, O’Hara called for calm.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who also spoke at the news conference with O’Hara, called for an end to the federal operation in Minnesota.
“I just saw a video of more than six masked agents pummeling one of our constituents and shooting him to death,” said Frey. “How many more residents, how many more Americans, need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end? How many more lives need to be lost before this administration realizes that a political and partisan narrative is not as important as American values? How many times must local and national leaders must plead with you, Donald Trump, to end this operation and recognize that this is not creating safety in our city?”
Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino was expected to hold a separate news conference shortly.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said earlier that he had spoken to the White House about the shooting.
“Minnesota has had it. This is sickening. The President must end this operation,” Walz said on social media. “Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota.”
This is the second time a person has been shot and killed by immigration officials in the city this month. Renee Good was shot and killed behind the wheel of her SUV earlier in January by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross.
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5 injured in shooting after fight on Metrobus in Northwest DC – WTOP News
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Police said five people were shot in Northwest D.C. on Thursday.
Five people were shot after a fight broke out on a Metrobus in the Brightwood neighborhood of D.C. on Thursday.
Interim Chief of Police Jeffery Carroll said at a news conference on Thursday night that during a dispute on a Metrobus around 5:40 p.m., the bus stopped at the 16th Street and Military Road stop. When the bus stopped, Carroll said, the argument among passengers spilled out onto the sidewalk, and that’s when gunshots rang out.
Five people, two juveniles and three adults, were shot and treated for non-life-threatening injuries at a local hospital.
Carroll said they are looking for one suspect, who fled the scene on foot.
“This is not the way we resolve disputes. If there’s any sort of conflict, obviously we work things out. We don’t pull out gunfire, and that’s the issue we have — too many illegal firearms here in the community,” Carroll said.
The roads in the area of the investigation are closed in both directions and motorists are warned to avoid the area.
Below is the area where the shooting happened:
(Courtesy Google Maps) Police are asking anyone with information in this case to contact their Real Time Crime Center at 202-727-9099.
This is a developing story. Stay with WTOP for the latest.
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Ciara Wells
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Suspect killed in San Jose after car chase, multiple shootouts with Bay Area officers
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A suspect in a carjacking was killed in San Jose after leading several Bay Area law enforcement agencies on a car chase, San Jose police said.
San Jose police Sgt. Jorge Garibay said the incident began at a San Jose dealership when the suspect entered with a gun and stole a vehicle around 2 p.m. The suspect then left the city and was spotted by a San Jose police helicopter in San Benito County.
Hollister police said they and San Benito County deputies were told around 2:48 p.m. that a San Jose police helicopter was following a vehicle that was taken by an armed carjacker. Hollister officers found the vehicle just before 3 p.m. near Central Avenue and Miller Road.
A slow-speed car chase ensued and ended near Buena Vista Road, at Westside Boulevard, when, for unknown reasons, the vehicle became disabled. Hollister police said the suspect got out of the car with a gun, and a shooting then occurred. No Hollister officers were injured.
Hollister police said the carjacker left the area following the shooting and was found by San Benito County deputies near Line Street, where another shooting happened. No deputies were injured, Hollister police said.
The suspect then took another vehicle at gunpoint and drove out of Hollister. While driving toward San Jose, the carjacker shot at California Highway Patrol officers. No CHP officers were injured, Hollister police said.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office said the chase ended in San Jose near Highway 87 and Julian Street.
CBS News Bay Area spoke to a witness at the scene who said he was driving on Notre Dame Avenue in San Jose when he saw two patrol cars speed past him and then stop at the nearby intersection. He said multiple other patrol cars then arrived in the area.
“About 40 rounds of gunfire popped off,” Grant Messinger said. “It lasted maybe 30, 45 seconds of a firefight.”
Garibay said the suspect had come to a stop after crashing into another vehicle. He then got out of his vehicle and shot at officers, who returned fire. He then tried to carjack another driver but was run over by a patrol vehicle, Garibay said. He died at the scene.
Cellphone video obtained by CBS News Bay Area shows the suspect trying to get into a patrol vehicle in San Jose, running toward a different vehicle, but falling to the ground. He was then run over by a patrol vehicle, video shows.
A San Jose police sergeant was shot during the shootout near Highway 87 and Julian Street and is expected to survive.
This is a developing story.
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Jose Fabian
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Top 25 roundup: UCLA stuns No. 4 Purdue with late trey
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(Photo credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images)
Tyler Bilodeau hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 8.4 seconds remaining and finished with 14 points as UCLA pulled off a signature victory by getting past No. 4 Purdue 69-67 on Tuesday at Los Angeles.
Donovan Dent scored 23 points with 13 assists and Eric Dailey Jr. added 12 points with seven rebounds, as the Bruins (13-6, 5-3 Big Ten) improved to 1-3 against ranked teams this season.
UCLA shot 56.9% from the floor in the game and 65.2% in the second half, closing on an 8-0 run over the final 1:32 to pull off the upset.
C.J. Cox scored 16 points and Braden Smith added 12 with four assists for the Boilermakers (17-2, 7-1), who saw their nine-game winning streak come to an end. Trey Kaufmann-Renn scored 10 points with seven rebounds and five assists.
No. 3 Michigan 86, Indiana 72
Elliot Cadeau scored a game-high 19 points and Yaxel Lendeborg added 15 to boost the Wolverines to their third straight win with a victory over the Hoosiers in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Aday Mara chipped in 13 points and Trey McKenney followed with 10, as Michigan (17-1, 7-1 Big Ten) controlled the game throughout and wasn’t in danger even when going 7:36 without a field goal down the stretch.
Indiana (12-7, 3-5) lost a season-high fourth straight game as it struggled to find a shooting rhythm. The Hoosiers shot 40.4% compared to 50.9% for the Wolverines. Tucker DeVries had 15 points to lead the Hoosiers.
No. 9 Iowa State 87, UCF 57
Joshua Jefferson posted his second triple-double of the season to help the Cyclones snap a two-game skid with a blowout of the Knights in Ames, Iowa.
Jefferson finished with 17 points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds and four steals, as Iowa State (17-2, 4-2 Big 12) ended the first half on a 13-0 run for an 18-point halftime lead. Milan Momcilovic scored 20 points and made four of his team’s nine 3-pointers.
Riley Kugel and Jordan Burks (seven rebounds) each had 15 points as UCF (14-4, 3-3) shot 36.8% from the floor (21 of 57) and turned over the ball 19 times.
No. 10 Michigan State 68, Oregon 52
Carson Cooper scored a career-high 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting to lead the Spartans to a victory over the short-handed Ducks in Big Ten play at Eugene, Ore.
Coen Carr added 15 points and eight rebounds and Jeremy Fears Jr. had 14 points, as the Spartans (17-2, 7-1 Big Ten) recorded their fifth straight double-digit victory. Michigan State has won by an average of 18.6 points during the streak. Cooper also collected seven rebounds and had a career-best four blocked shots.
Takai Simpkins had 15 points and seven rebounds as the Ducks (8-11, 1-7) lost their fifth straight game.
No. 12 Texas Tech 92, Baylor 73
Christian Anderson scored 26 points and poured in a career-high eight 3-pointers and the Red Raiders shot their way to a dominating win over the struggling Bears in a Big 12 clash in Waco, Texas.
Texas Tech (15-4, 5-1 Big 12) used a blistering proficiency from beyond the arc to build a 19-point halftime lead and kept its collective foot on the accelerator throughout the second half, capturing its fourth straight win and eighth in its past nine outings. The Red Raiders tied a program record with 17 3-pointers.
Cameron Carr had 18 points, Dan Skillings Jr. scored 12 and Isaac Williams hit for 11 points for Baylor (11-7, 1-5), which has dropped two straight and five of its past six games.
No. 20 Arkansas 93, No. 15 Vanderbilt 68
Darius Acuff Jr. scored 17 points and added five assists, Malique Ewin and Karter Knox scored 16 points apiece, and the Razorbacks overwhelmed the Commodores at Fayetteville, Ark.
Trevon Brazile had 10 points and 14 rebounds, Meleek Thomas had 13 points and D.J. Wagner added 11 for Arkansas (14-5, 4-2 SEC), which had lost two of three.
Tyler Nickel scored 17 points and made five 3-pointers, Tyler Tanner scored 11 points and Devin McGlockton added 10 for Vanderbilt (16-3, 3-3), which has lost three in a row after tying the school record with a 16-0 start.
No. 16 Florida 79, LSU 61
Rueben Chinyelu matched his career high with 21 rebounds and scored 15 points for his fourth consecutive double-double, and the Gators won for the ninth time in 10 games in Gainesville, Fla.
Urban Klavzar contributed five triples and a game-high 18 points off the bench as Florida (14-5, 5-1 SEC) extended its current winning streak to five games. The Gators also made it 16 consecutive home victories at Exactech Arena — dating back to last January. Chinyelu, who on Monday was named SEC Player of the Week for the first time in his career, helped the Gators enjoy a 50-30 rebounding advantage over the Tigers (13-6, 1-5).
Point guard Dedan Thomas Jr. returned to the lineup for LSU after missing the previous five games with a lower-leg injury. Thomas came off the bench early in the first half and finished 1-of-8 shooting for two points with three assists and two rebounds in 17 minutes.
North Carolina State 80, No. 18 Clemson 76 (OT)
Ven-Allen Lubin scored 22 points and the Wolfpack and North Carolina State got a needed resume-boosting road win while snapping the Tigers’ nine-game winning streak.
Darrion Williams posted 17 points, Quadir Copeland added 16 and Paul McNeil Jr. provided 10 points as the Wolfpack topped a ranked team for the first time in four chances this season and made up for a dismal home loss to Georgia Tech three days earlier.
NC State (13-6, 4-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) gained its first road triumph against a ranked team since February of 2021 while knocking Clemson (16-4, 6-1) out of a chance to stay even atop the conference standings. RJ Godfrey collected 16 points and Carter Welling 14 points for the Tigers.
No. 19 Kansas 75, Colorado 69
Melvin Council Jr. had 18 points and seven rebounds as the Jayhawks beat host Colorado without coach Bill Self, who did not travel with his team to Boulder after an illness that required him to be hospitalized Monday.
Self mentioned in a statement Tuesday that he was ‘feeling much better’ after receiving IV fluids. Kansas assistant Jacque Vaughn, a former Jayhawk standout who has experience coaching in the NBA, served as the acting head coach.
Tre White finished with 17 points, 15 rebounds and four assists for Kansas (14-5, 4-2 Big 12). Darryn Peterson added 16 points and six rebounds. Isaiah Johnson led Colorado (12-7, 2-4) with 19 points and Barrington Hargress added 17 points.
No. 21 Georgia 74, Missouri 72
Marcus Millender converted a three-point play with 5.5 seconds left to lift the Bulldogs to a victory over the Tigers at Columbia, Mo.
Millender led Georgia (16-3, 4-2 SEC) with 18 points, delivering the game-winning points after Missouri took a 72-71 lead with 18 seconds left on a Jacob Crews 3-pointer. Jeremiah Wilkinson scored 14 points and Kanon Catchings added 12 for the Bulldogs.
Mark Mitchell scored 18 points and Jayden Stone added 13 points, eight rebounds and six assists for the Tigers (13-6, 3-3), who took their first loss in 12 home games.
No. 24 Saint Louis 81, Duquesne 77
Trey Green had 14 points and four steals on Tuesday, helping the Billikens stave off the Dukes for a victory in their first game as a ranked team since January 2021 in Pittsburgh.
Robbie Avila and Dion Brown added 14 points apiece for Saint Louis (18-1, 6-0), which won its 12th straight game. Brady Dunlap scored 11 and Kellen Thames 10 off the bench.
Jimmie Williams led Duquesne (10-9, 2-4) with 28 points, while Tarence Guinyard scored 14. David Dixon chipped in nine points and 10 boards for the Dukes, who dropped their fourth game in five tries.
No. 25 Miami (OH) 107, Kent State 101 (OT)
Luke Skaljac forced overtime with a clutch bank shot and added five more points in the extra session to help keep the RedHawks unbeaten with a win over host Kent State.
Peter Suder tallied 27 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for Miami (20-0, 8-0 Mid-American Conference), which became the first team in MAC history to start a season 20-0. Eian Elmer added 25 points while Skaljac had 18 points and eight assists.
Rob Whaley Jr. set career highs of 27 points and 14 rebounds to lead Kent State (14-5, 5-2), while Cian Medley added 23 points, Morgan Safford had 18 and Delrecco Gillespie netted 17 for the Golden Flashes.
–Field Level Media
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Police arrest second suspect in death of two at Stop Six Park in Fort Worth
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Star-Telegram illustration/Ricky Moon photo
Fort Worth police arrested a second man Monday in a shooting that killed a 17-year-old girl and 18-year-old man three weeks ago in an east Fort Worth park.
Dontae Woods, 17, was booked at the Fort Worth Police Detention Center Monday in connection with the Dec. 29 shooting deaths of Cyanna Boone and Frank Price Jr. at Stop Six Park in the 1500 block of Liberty Street, according to police records.
Woods’ arrest comes three days after police arrested Ricco Henderson, 18, in connection to the shootings.
Police said that around 20 people met at the park on Dec. 29 and an argument led a gunman to begin shooting a handgun at victims. Police have not further described the details of the argument.
Boone was pronounced dead at the park, while police found Price at the 1700 block of Handley Drive in a parked car. He later died at a hospital.
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Samuel O’Neal
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Judge, wife shot in home in Lafayette, Indiana
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A judge and his wife were shot and wounded in their home on Sunday in Lafayette, Indiana, officials said.
The Indiana Supreme Court said Tippecanoe Superior Court 2 Judge Steven Meyer and his wife, Kim, were shot at their home, and the shooter was “purportedly still at large” as of Monday, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush said in a statement.
Lafayette Police said they responded to the home on Mill Pond Lane on Sunday afternoon and found the two victims, who are receiving medical treatment and in stable condition. Police said Steven Meyer suffered an injury to his arm and Kim Meyer had an injury to her hip.
“This remains an active and ongoing joint investigation” involving local and state police, the county sheriff’s office, county prosecutors and the FBI, Lafayette Police said Monday.
Tippecanoe County Sheriff Robert Goldsmith told CBS News there will be extra security at the courthouse for the foreseeable future. He said they aren’t aware of any threats against the judge or others in the courthouse.
“I worry about the safety of all our judges. As you work to peacefully resolve more than 1 million cases a year, you must not only feel safe, you must also be safe. Any violence against a judge or a judge’s family is completely unacceptable,” Indiana Chief Justice Rush said. “I know you join me in praying for Steve and Kim and their speedy recovery. Meantime, please remain vigilant in your own security.”
Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski said his thoughts and prayers are with the Meyer family.
“I want to ensure the community that every available resource is being used to apprehend the individual(s) responsible for this senseless and unacceptable act of violence,” the mayor staid in a statement. “I have tremendous confidence in the Lafayette Police Department and want to thank all of the local, state, and federal agencies who are assisting in this investigation.”
Court cases will go forward in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, where the chief judge has readied the state Supreme Court Office of Judicial Administration to assist.
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Gov. Jared Polis stops releasing prisoners who’ve spent decades behind bars for youthful crime
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Gov. Jared Polis unilaterally stalled a specialized prison program aimed at rehabilitating and releasing people who have served decades behind bars for crimes they committed as juveniles and young adults, The Denver Post found.
Polis has not approved any of the program’s graduates for early release since 2023 — an about-face from the prior three years, during which the governor approved releases for all 17 such prisoners, according to records kept by the Colorado Department of Corrections.
The governor’s inaction has created a backlog of 11 prisoners who have completed the three-year program and have gone before the Colorado State Parole Board but are nevertheless still incarcerated, waiting for Polis to sign off on their freedom.
“The uncertainty of the situation is one of the scariest things I have ever gone through, because it pertains to the emotion of hope,” said prisoner Rory Atkins, 55, who was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for a murder he committed in 1988, when he was 18. “Many of us with long sentences in prison kind of accept that hope is painful. You learn to be fearful of having high hopes.”
Colorado lawmakers created the Juveniles and Young Adults Convicted as Adults Program, or JYACAP, in 2016 after the U.S. Supreme Court found that children are constitutionally different from adults and should not be automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Lawmakers that year also changed Colorado law to prohibit such punishment.
Initially limited to juveniles, the program was expanded in 2021 to include prisoners who committed a crime when they were 20 or younger and who have served at least 20 years of their sentence. The prisoners must also meet a variety of other conditions to enter the three-year program, which focuses on building life skills and preparing for life outside of prison.
After prisoners finish the program, the governor — after receiving a recommendation from the parole board — must give the final approval for them to be released on early parole.
“For whatever reason, there was this dollop of mercy that was required (in the law),” said Ann Roan, a retired attorney who represented a program participant. “And for years it has worked well. … So to have the brakes put on it so suddenly, with no explanation whatsoever, has really upended everyone’s justified expectations.”
Shelby Wieman, a spokeswoman for Polis, said in a statement that the prisoners’ applications are still under review, that the governor “takes these decisions very seriously” and that the serious nature of prisoners’ crimes requires “careful deliberation.”
“The governor’s office has also previously expressed discomfort with the governor’s role in the process, and proposed legislative changes to this program in the past, which the legislature declined to address,” Wieman said, apparently referring to a failed 2024 bill that would have cut the governor out of the process and shifted full authority for early releases to the parole board.
“We look forward to continuing to explore potential improvements with legislators and stakeholders,” Wieman said.
She did not answer questions about what changed from the program’s first few years, when Polis routinely approved graduates’ releases.
‘Like we are being just dropped’
The governor’s inaction comes as he considers whether to commute the sentence for Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk serving a nine-year prison sentence for crimes related to unauthorized access to state voting machines, and as he did not issue end-of-year pardons and sentence commutations for the first time in his tenure.
The state’s prisons are also nearly at capacity and are projected to run out of beds in the coming months.
“We feel like we are being just dropped,” said Rose Martinez, who is waiting for the release of her cousin, Daniel Reyes, 56. He is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for a 1987 homicide he committed during a robbery when he was 18.
Martinez has, over the last decade, watched her cousin yearn for release as his 2027 parole eligibility date has drawn closer.
“I’ll never forget the day he told me, ‘I can’t wait until I can be outside of these walls and I can actually lean up against a tree,’” she said. “That was probably five years ago.”
Reyes has been waiting for the governor’s sign-off since April, he said. Atkins’ wait began in July, when the parole board recommended his release, he said. Others in the program, like Raymond Gone, who killed a Denver police officer in 1995 when he was 16, have been waiting on the governor for more than a year, he said.
“What would I say to the critics who say the crime I was convicted of was so serious that I should finish my entire sentence? Honestly, I would agree with them, if all I knew was that I was convicted of such a horrible crime,” said Gone, now 47. “…I know I am responsible, I am the cause, for an unfathomable amount of trauma in so many people’s lives. There isn’t any amount of time I could spend in this place to make up for what I did.
“But the opportunity I have been given through JYACAP was only made available to me because of a Supreme Court ruling… someone way above me decided that my life was worth saving and should be given a second chance.”
Since 2017, 112 prisoners have applied to participate in the JYACAP program; 44 were accepted, according to the Department of Corrections. Prisoners were denied for poor behavior in prison, the nature of the crimes they committed, and for not meeting the program’s basic eligibility requirements.
Last year, 40-year-old Raul Gomez-Garcia, who killed a Denver police officer in 2005 when he was 19, was denied entry to the program after his application stirred outrage within the slain officer’s family and the police department.
None of the 17 people released after completing the program have had their parole revoked, said Alondra Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections. One participant had “subsequent involvement with the criminal justice system,” she said, but it did not prompt parole revocation. She did not answer follow-up questions about that participant.
“Nobody reoffends, because they’ve grown up,” said Roan, who previously represented Gone. “…Every one of us at some point has been 16, and a lot of us who have children have watched what it is to be 16 from that perspective, and I don’t think anyone would say that is who you are for the rest of your life.”
‘A program that he signed into law’
Phillip “Mike” Montoya went into the JYACAP program after he’d spent 26 years behind bars. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison after he participated in a 1993 gang shooting as a 16-year-old, although he did not actually fire the fatal shot.
He found the program to be too basic at times, with tedious instruction on very basic tasks like how to brush your teeth or how to use a spatula. The curriculum wasn’t tailored to each individual, he noted.
“If you go inside the prison at 16 years old and maybe you never done anything in your life prior, like cook for yourself, do your own laundry, go to a grocery store and buy your own food, then maybe you are going to need a lot more assistance,” he said. “But for someone like me, I pretty much had to raise myself. I had to raise my brother and sisters. So going into prison, even though I went in at such a young age, I had a lot of knowledge of the world.”
Still, he is quick to praise the program’s pathway to release and the second chance it gives people who have been imprisoned since they were teenagers. Montoya has been working as a barber since he got out in August 2023, about three years before his parole eligibility date. He ultimately served 30 years and two days.
He’s tried to advocate for the program’s other participants, he said, seeking out meetings with officials and stakeholders.
“The response has always been the same, that (Polis) doesn’t want to deal with it for political reasons,” he said. “…We’re talking about a program that he signed into law that he doesn’t believe in now.”
Gone, Atkins and Reyes will each become eligible for parole in the coming years, prison records show. Reyes will be eligible in 2027, while Gone and Atkins will be eligible in 2030. Once they hit that mark, the parole board can release them without the governor’s sign-off.
Already, the parole board released two prisoners in 2024 and 2025 who completed the JYACAP program and reached their regular parole eligibility dates while waiting for Polis’ approval for early release, Gonzalez said.
For T’Naus Nieto, whose father is about to finish the program and join the small number of prisoners waiting for Polis’ final approval, the difference between an early release through JYACAP and a regular release when his father reaches parole eligibility in 2032 is significant.
Nieto wants his own children to grow up with their grandfather.
“My youngest is 5 and I have my daughter who is 8,” Nieto said. “So you are talking about a difference of six years. Six years to an 8-year-old. Do the math, and you miss out on their entire childhood. So just the fact that he could be in their lives for just a few short years makes a huge difference for a child.”
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Pennsylvania woman’s final moments captured on home security video. Will it help prove she was murdered?
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On a steamy August night in 2013, Melissa Rocuba was airlifted to a hospital still clinging to life with a bullet wound to her head. Her then 22-year-old daughter Chelsea Cicio, who lived next door, was already there when the helicopter arrived.
Chelsea Cicio: I had no idea how I got down there. … I was just panicked and frantic.
Her sister Sabrina Rocuba, who lives in Wisconsin, sped to the airport in tears.
Sabrina Rocuba: It was just a lot of me just praying to God that my mom was gonna be OK.
Melissa’s sister Joanne Swinney, and their father — then a police sergeant in another county — raced to Melissa’s bedside.
Anne-Marie Green: It’s a few hours of driving.
Joanne Swinney: Not that night. … we got there really fast.
AN ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING?
Bruno was being treated at a different hospital, where specialists operated on his hand.
Sabrina Rocuba: He had a hole through the middle of his hand.
Chelsea Cicio/Facebook
Pennsylvania State Police detectives wanted to know how the bullet went through Bruno’s palm and hit Melissa in the head.
Less than 15 hours after the shooting, with Bruno’s hand freshly bandaged and Melissa on life support, detectives asked Bruno to walk them through his house and explain what happened after the couple arrived home from a night out with friends.
BRUNO ROCUBA (to detectives): Got home from work at 3:30 in the afternoon.
BRUNO ROCUBA: And we came home just before 10, and after that we went downstairs, washed up, came up to go to bed.
Using a toy gun provided by police, Bruno demonstrated how he claims his .40 caliber pistol went off accidentally.
BRUNO ROCUBA (to detectives): My wife was home alone all last week. So, I left it in the top drawer on the nightstand for her because of recent break-ins.
He said their grandson was coming over the next day, and he wanted to safely store the gun.
BRUNO ROCUBA: I went to check the, um, chamber to see if there was a round in there.
TROOPER MCGURRIN: OK.
Sitting on the mattress still stained with his wife’s blood, Bruno tried to show them what happened.
Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office
Bruno demonstrated how he says he was sitting, pointing his gun to the left side of the bed with his right hand. He said Melissa was sitting in bed, watching TV, when she leaned back and that’s when he “must have pulled it away and then shot through my hand.”
Earlier, investigators had gone through the house shooting video of the scene and collecting evidence and didn’t note any signs of a struggle. Hospital staff found no other injuries on Melissa, and Bruno said they had been getting along just fine.
TROOPER MCGURRIN: Any discussions or any arguments or anything —
BRUNO ROCUBA: No.
TROOPER MCGURRIN: — before that happened?
BRUNO ROCUBA: No. There was nothing.
Sabrina Rocuba: He looked me in my face and said, “we walked in the house holding hands … there was no arguments that night.”
Jack Wilczewski and his wife Tonia were out to dinner with Bruno and Melissa that evening, and he says everything seemed fine.
Anne-Marie Green: No arguing?
Jack Wilczewski: No arguing. No nothing. They were fine that night.
The day after the shooting, Bruno agreed to a polygraph exam. According to police records, the results were inconclusive. Worried about her father, Chelsea says she suggested he speak with attorney Joe D’Andrea.
Anne-Marie Green: Did you wonder why he was calling you?
Joe D’Andrea: Well, I’m a fairly well-known criminal defense lawyer around … and, uh, police had talked to him … without my participation or knowledge. … I guess he was curious if there was anything he had to worry about.
Melissa spent several days in intensive care.
Sabrina Rocuba: I remember talking to … the neurologist, and I was like, there’s gotta be something you can do. … And they were just trying to calm me down and tell me that there’s no hope.
Three days after the shooting, Melissa’s family made the agonizing decision to take her off life support.
Joanne Swinney: We knew she was — she was suffering.
Sabrina Rocuba
It was Aug. 10, 2013, at 1:45 a.m., when Melissa passed away. Joanne says they were all in shock, and even though no one in the family wanted to believe Bruno had deliberately shot Melissa, they were surprised when he was never arrested.
Sabrina Rocuba: My grandfather said … if that happened in Bucks County where my grandfather was a police, he was like, your dad would have instantly been in cuffs. He was like, he didn’t spend a single night in jail, which is really weird.
Joe D’Andrea says the District Attorney’s Office felt they didn’t have enough evidence to charge Bruno with murder — and decided not to charge him at all.
Joe D’Andrea: They were convinced … that they couldn’t prove a case.
Melissa’s death certificate listed her cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head. The manner of death was left pending.
Anne-Marie Green: No one said to you, we’ve concluded, it was an accident —
Chelsea Cicio: No. It was just still an open — open case.
But as the family began to catch their breath and process Melissa’s death, they slowly started comparing notes about Bruno’s version of what happened and his behavior before and after the shooting — and a case for murder began to unfold.
Chelsea Cicio: I just couldn’t — I couldn’t justify any of his stories.
“IT’S LIKE HE WANTED HER ERASED”
The daughters of Melissa and Bruno Rocuba say they grew up believing they had the ideal family.
Sabrina Rocuba: So did all my friends. I remember my best friends were like … your family’s so loving and happy and you guys do everything together.
Joanne Swinney: I always wanted my sister’s life. She had the kids, she had the marriage, the good guy.
The couple met in the summer of 1988. Back then, Melissa, who was just 19, was a police officer. Bruno, 22, was enlisted in the Navy.
Anne-Marie Green: And what did you think of Bruno when you met him?
Joanne Swinney: I loved him. … He seemed to love my sister.
Sabrina Rocuba: She loved being a wife and she loved being a mother.
Chelsea Cicio: She was an amazing mom.
And Bruno was a great dad, says Sabrina.
Sabrina Rocuba
Sabrina Rocuba: My dad was wonderful. I mean, I can’t complain about him as a dad.
Chelsea Cicio: We went hunting together. We went fishing together. … When I was really young, I wanted to cut my hair to be like my dad, like that’s how close we were.
But as the girls grew older, and became parents themselves, they say they began to see flaws in their parent’s marriage.
Sabrina Rocuba: We had moved in there, me and my ex-husband, with my parents, when my daughter … was … about nine months old … And it was like all the time they were constantly arguing. … The breaking point was when they got really drunk one night … And my dad grabbed her by the back of the hair, and he whipped her into the wall. … It made a really loud thud, and she couldn’t breathe. … I was like, we can’t stay here anymore. This isn’t healthy.
Sabrina Rocuba: I tried talking to my mom … and she was just like, well, everybody has, like, disagreements, and, like, she downplayed, she never wanted to talk bad about our dad to us.
Two weeks before the shooting, Chelsea says her mother shared a startling secret about something Bruno had done to her.
Chelsea Cicio: She took me for ride in the car and told me, you know, that he had pulled a gun on her before.
Sabrina Rocuba: My mom told my sister … that my mom didn’t want to have sex with my dad one night. And my — my dad pulled a gun on my mother over this.
Chelsea Cicio: Why would she tell me this now? She’s never said a bad word about him before. And all of a sudden it was, “Chels, I just need you to know that like your dad’s not always who you think he is.”
Chelsea admits that she had a bad feeling about her mother’s shooting from the start but stayed silent for the sake of her father.
Chelsea Cicio: I didn’t wanna just say something that would’ve put him in jail if he really didn’t do it.
Joanne says she also had her doubts about her sister’s death, because just months before the shooting, Melissa told her she wanted out of her marriage.
Joanne Swinney: She was questioning things. … and asked … how she would be able to — to do it on her own.
Anne-Marie Green: Was Bruno controlling?
Joanne Swinney: Very … My sister couldn’t go anywhere without him knowing her every move.
Joanne says it wasn’t long after Melissa’s death, when her mind began to race.
Joanne Swinney: I started playing back everything. Everything that I could remember.
For starters, says Joanne, Bruno spent very little time by his wife’s side as she lay dying.
Joanne Swinney: He would come there, maybe stay like an hour … and then leave.
Joanne Swinney: When she died, he wasn’t there, he was at the house.
Chelsea says her father’s behavior began to haunt her as well. For instance, just hours after the shooting, Chelsea says her father asked her to bring him her mother’s cell phone, which had not been collected by police. She says her father wanted to erase a few text messages that he feared investigators might take the wrong way.
Chelsea Cicio: It was like, I don’t want them to think anything because of like a little like argument or something they had, maybe it was that week or day.
Anne-Marie Green: Did that strike you as odd at the time?
Chelsea Cicio: It did, but … you don’t want to believe it.
With their mother still in intensive care and with the police finished collecting evidence, the girls say their father had another strange request.
Chelsea Cicio: He asked us to get rid of the mattress.
Bruno asked his girls to clean his house and get rid of the blood-stained mattress.
Chelsea Cicio: He’s like … I can’t go home to that. … I don’t want to see all the blood. And here I am, 21, 22. … Now as an adult, I’m like, wow, I can’t believe he asked us to do that. … But I just kept going and I kept wanting to make sure he was OK.
Sabrina Rocuba: We were so concerned cause he kept making comments that he was gonna take his own life, that he couldn’t deal with this.
Anne-Marie Green: How did you get rid of that mattress?
Chelsea Cicio: We took it in the back of a truck … and we burned it in the woods.
Chelsea and Sabrina say that before their mother was even buried, their father asked for help purging all traces of her.
Chelsea Cicio: He wanted us to get rid of everything. It’s like he wanted her erased.
Joanne Swinney: All my sister’s clothes. We had to go down to the thrift store where they donated the clothes … and I had to get clothes for my sister to bury her in.
Bruno even got rid of Melissa’s dog, Zeus.
Melissa Rocuba/Facebook
Sabrina Rocuba: Mom loved that dog. And my dad got rid of him right after my mom died.
It wasn’t long before Joanne says she began to suspect that Bruno had another motive for erasing the memory of Melissa.
Joanne Swinney: My sister’s best friend … said that Bruno contacted her not too long after my sister had passed away and said, how long do you think it is before, you know, you could kind of like go public with dating someone? And she said, are you freaking kidding me? … And he was dead serious.
Bruno was talking about Tonia Wilczewski, Jack Wilczewski’s wife. The couple that Bruno and Melissa were out to dinner with on the night of the shooting.
Jack Wilczewski: We were together 15 years at that time.
Jack says he has no idea when the relationship began, but says he started noticing a big difference in his wife’s relationship with Bruno the day after the shooting — when he walked into Melissa’s hospital room and found Tonia and Bruno.
Jack Wilczewski: I thought they were kissing. … Of course, they said they were talking in each other’s ear, but they were embraced with each other.
Jack says in the weeks after the shooting, he would often come home from work and find Bruno’s car in his driveway.
Jack Wilczewski: And after a couple times I was like … why are you coming here? Why — can you wait until I get home at 5 o’clock or 4 o’clock?
Anne-Marie Green: And how did Tonia explain it?
Jack Wilczewski: Of course, they always made me out like I was the fool. I was seeing things I didn’t see.
Within months of Melissa’s death, Jack says his wife went missing from their home — and he knew exactly where to find her.
Jack Wilczewski: I woke up 2 in the morning and she wasn’t there. So, I’m thinking go to Bruno’s house. I went and … pulled out in front, and I blew the horn and she come walking out with her purse with barely any clothes on. … Got in her car, drove to our house … packed her bags and moved in with him right there.
Chelsea now had a new neighbor: Tonia Wilczewski.
Chelsea Cicio: I remember looking out my window and she was cooking Christmas dinner in my mom’s kitchen. I wasn’t invited.
Chelsea says she forced herself to accept what was, because she didn’t want her father to be alone. Then, about a year-and-a-half later, she says her father casually revealed an alarming new detail about her mother’s shooting.
Chelsea Cicio: I kind of always knew … and I didn’t want to believe it. But when I heard it come from his own mouth … I couldn’t get past it.
BRUNO ROCUBA’S CHANGING STORY
As the months ticked on, it was now 2015 — about a year-and-a-half since Bruno Rocuba had allegedly, accidentally, shot and killed his wife, Melissa. His daughter Chelsea says she was still struggling with her father’s relationship, with Tonia Wilczewski.
Chelsea Cicio: I had to live here. I had to see her. She cut her hair like my mom. She would go get her nails done like my mom. She sat on my mom’s front porch … in my mom’s chair.
With the passage of time, she says she finally had the courage to ask her father for an explanation about his actions on the night of the shooting, and says she got an astonishing answer.
Chelsea Cicio: He said, I didn’t mean to kill her. I just tried to scare her.
Chelsea says that Bruno changed his story and admitted that he and Melissa had been arguing the night of the shooting. The gun, he said, was just meant to frighten her. Then, Chelsea says her father abruptly changed the subject.
Chelsea Cicio: He said … he had groceries in the car, and he turned around and walked out like he hadn’t just said what he said to me. … That’s when I knew he actually held a gun to my mom on purpose. And I couldn’t ever look at him the same.
Chelsea says she spent months agonizing about what to do next and then told her father she was going to share their conversation with investigators.
Chelsea Cicio: And he … was like, go ahead, anything you tell them, I’ll ruin your credibility … and nobody will believe you.
Chelsea says she was now determined and went down to the state police barracks and filled out a report, which included information about the incident she says her mother shared not long before her death: about that time Bruno threatened her with a gun when she refused to be intimate with him.
Anne-Marie Green: It took a lot for you to go down there. What were you hoping would’ve happened?
Chelsea Cicio: I was hoping they would have reopened it …
Anne-Marie Green: And what actually happened?
Chelsea Cicio: Nothing happened.
Chelsea recalls being told that it was her word against her father’s and she says an investigator suggested that her coming forward could have been motivated by money.
Chelsea Cicio: And at that point I had no idea I was even entitled to my mom’s inheritance.
Chelsea Cicio
Melissa left behind a will and over $300,000, meant to be divided between her husband and daughters. But not long after Melissa’s death, Bruno had his daughters sign paperwork that gave him complete control of their mother’s estate.
Sabrina Rocuba: He had sent me a paper in the mail, said do not look at it. … go get this notarized and sign and send it back to me, which I did. I didn’t question; it’s my dad.
Sabrina says she knew she was signing away her rights to the money — but felt pressured to do it.
Sabrina Rocuba: He was so good at manipulating me and making me feel guilty.
Chelsea signed those same papers, but says she was in shock, and didn’t understand the consequences.
Chelsea Cicio: That hurt, that he would take from us. And especially from his grandson.
The sisters say they began to wonder if money had been a motive for their mother’s shooting. But without police action, they felt they had to move on.
Chelsea Cicio: So, I kind of started letting it go.
Chelsea says she even let her son Greg build a bond with his grandfather.
Chelsea Cicio
Chelsea Cicio: I hated him for taking my mom from me, but I loved how good he was to my son.
Four years later in 2020, Corporal Greg Allen was assigned to investigate open-cases for the Pennsylvania State Police and says this case caught his eye.
Anne Marie Green: What about this case stood out to you?
Cpl. Greg Allen: To me, it was the original 911 call.
911 OPERATOR: What’s the problem there?
BRUNO ROCUBA: A gunshot wound. My wife.
Cpl. Greg Allen: On the 911 call, I hear three different accounts of what happened.
911 OPERATOR: OK. Was it self-inflicted?
BRUNO ROCUBA: No, we were fighting.
Cpl. Greg Allen: He says, “we were fighting.”
When questioned, Bruno quickly changed his story.
911 OPERATOR: You said you guys were arguing?
BRUNO ROCUBA: No, we were — we were playing around with the gun when we were shootin’ it. We were gonna go shooting, and I – and I pulled the trigger, and went through my hand.
He also offered this version:
BRUNO ROCUBA (911 call): I was playing with the gun, and I let it go off.
Bruno knew his way around guns, says Allen. So, why would he have his finger on the trigger of a gun that was loaded?
Crime Unit Supervisor Corporal Dan Nilon was asked by Allen to examine all the evidence, beginning with Bruno’s police interview.
BRUNO ROCUBA (to detectives) : My wife was sitting on the bed on that side. I was on this side. I went to check the, um, chamber to see if there was a round in there.
TROOPER MCGURRIN: OK.
BRUNO ROCUBA: My wife leaned back toward me. Maybe she didn’t know I was doing it, and I pulled the trigger by accident or else I let the slide go and it discharged.
Cpl. Dan Nilon: There were so many red flags … that we knew he wasn’t telling the truth.
To begin with, says Nilon, if Bruno was really trying to clear the gun’s chamber, he would have ejected the magazine.
Cpl. Dan Nilon: The first thing you’re going to do when you unload the gun is drop the magazine out of it.
Pennsylvania State Police
There were also two safeties on the gun. Nilon showed “48 Hours” just how hard it is to discharge the weapon, accidentally.
Cpl. Dan Nilon: So, your grip, your hand would have to be on the grip. Additionally, there is a trigger safety. There is a small piece of the trigger that has to be depressed in order for the gun to fire. So, both things need to occur.
There were also questions about where Bruno and Melissa were sitting when the fatal shot was fired. Allen and Nilon reviewed Bruno’s walkthrough video with police with “48 Hours.”
BRUNO ROCUBA (to detectives): I went like this, and she was sitting on the bed there.
Cpl. Greg Allen: So, you see the way that he’s holding the gun? He is pointing it to the opposite side of the bed.
But Nilon and Allen say there was blood and ballistics evidence on the wall behind Bruno, not the opposite side of the bed.
Anne Marie Green: So, the evidence is here and here. (points to the wall behind the bed)
Cpl. Dan Nilon: Yes.
Cpl. Greg Allen: Everything is behind him right now.
Anne-Marie Green: But he says he shot this way. (points to the left of where Bruno was sitting in the video)
Cpl. Greg Allen: Correct.
They would need DNA testing and a forensic expert to confirm their suspicions that Bruno was lying.
But, in the meantime, Nilon found a key piece of evidence that he says no one had ever examined. Video and audio from the night of the shooting recorded on a home security system.
MELISSA ROCUBA (home security video, talking to Bruno): What is wrong with you?
Turns out that a security camera mounted to the front of the house, had recorded Melissa Rocuba’s last words.
MELISSA ROCUBA’S LAST MOMENTS CAUGHT ON TAPE
The final images of Melissa Rocuba were recorded on this the couple’s home security camera and saved to a DVR.
Corporal Dan Nilon says when he first discovered the recording, he could see Melissa and her husband Bruno arriving home from their night out. But it was difficult to make out most of what they were saying.
CPL. DAN NILON: I remember sitting in our office with the door closed, headphones on … the office refrigerator unplugged, trying to get as many words as I could.
Corporal Greg Allen says that one thing was clear.
Cpl. Greg Allen: There was definitely an argument that happened between them.
MELISSA ROCUBA (home security video): What is wrong with you?
Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office
Allen says the original investigators told him they had no way to review the recording, because they didn’t have access to the necessary technology. But Allen’s team did — and could now see that the recording begins in the driveway, where you can hear the couple arguing.
MELISSA ROCUBA (home security video): What?
BRUNO ROCUBA: Next time you get your own f*****’ ride.
MELISSA ROCUBA: Whatever.
BRUNO ROCUBA: Yep, Whatever.
But it doesn’t seem to end there. Once inside the house, Melissa and Bruno are no longer visible, it sounds like they’re still arguing, says Allen.
Cpl. Greg Allen: That time of year, their … window was open, so you could also pick up sound, audio from inside … as well.
The sound was just much harder to hear. But with Bruno’s changing stories, and possible evidence of an argument, investigators were now treating Melissa Rocuba’s death as a possible murder.
Cpl. Dan Nilon (watching footage): This is the last time she’s ever seen…
Cpl. Greg Allen: Dan and I have been doing this a long time and we saw that and … the evidence speaks for itself.
Then-Lackawanna County District Attorney Mark Powell agreed.
Mark Powell: My gut reaction was this is probably a case that should have been charged back in 2013. … and I can only guess … that they thought it didn’t warrant charges because he shot himself through the hand.
Anne-Marie Green: Because who would purposely shoot themselves in the hand?
Mark Powell: Sure. Sure.
With Powell’s team now onboard, Melissa’s family was informed that the case was once again active.
Sabrina Rocuba: I was like, this is different … they are very, very sure about themselves. … That this was a crime. My dad did this on purpose.
Chelsea Cicio says she now had mixed feelings about her relationship with her father.
Chelsea Cicio: I live next door, so my son’s very close with him. It’s not black and white.
Investigators then sent a portion of the DVR recording to an FBI crime lab for enhancement.
Cpl. Dan Nilon: I remember thinking the chances of this helping us are probably slim because … this system is old.
DNA testing was also ordered on some of the blood evidence and a forensic expert was hired to help determine how the shooting took place.
Mark Powell: We retained the services of Dr. Wayne Ross. who is a highly respected forensic pathologist … and a blood pattern expert.
About a month later the enhanced DVR audio was back and Dan Nilon says it was clear the couple had been arguing right up until the moment the gun went off.
MELISSA ROCUBA (home security audio): F*** you.
Anne-Marie Green: What do you hear on that tape?
Cpl. Dan Nilon: Lots of curses back and forth, yelling, screaming …
MELISSA ROCUBA (home security audio): Shut up.
It’s still hard to make out every word, but the official police transcript notes that Bruno and Melissa can be heard cursing and calling each other names. The transcript also notes the sound of a “dog barking.” Then Melissa shouts, “I didn’t do anything.”
Nearly 30 minutes after they first pulled into the driveway, Melissa told Bruno that he had to leave because of something he’d previously done, “hundreds of times,” said Melissa.
A bit later, Melissa can be heard talking. Then, it’s sounds like things are being thrown. Just seconds later, the gun goes off.
Cpl. Dan Nilon: It was not an accident. They were fighting the entire time. And then a gunshot goes off.
Joanne says she hasn’t been able to listen to the recording but has read the transcript.
Joanne Swinney: I was horrified, of course I cried. … and I can picture my sister yelling at him and screaming and — and those very last few moments realizing that this is it.
Also horrifying is the sound of Chelsea screaming after her father called her over — and she first discovered her mother.
CHELSEA CICIO (home security audio): Mommy! Mommy! (Crying)
She says she doesn’t remember questioning her father that night, but she did.
And Bruno’s answer gave police yet another version of his story.
CHELSEA CICIO (home security audio): Dad, why did this happen?
BRUNO ROCUBA: We came home and she wanted to take the gun out and play, and I told her no, we’re not doing that.
He implied that Melissa had been the one holding the gun.
BRUNO ROCUBA (home security audio): She wanted to go shoot.
CHELSEA CICIO: No, no, this isn’t —
BRUNO ROCUBA: She’s alright. I know —
CHELSEA CICIO: This isn’t real.
BRUNO ROCUBA: I know.
A little over two weeks later, Powell says forensic expert Dr. Wayne Ross confirmed what Allen and Nilon had suspected about how all the blood got on the wall behind Bruno.
Mark Powell: It’s very clear that he was on top of his wife, that he was using his hand to hold her and threaten her with a gun.
Anne Marie Green: And so where do you say Bruno was at that time?
Cpl. Dan Nilon: Almost in the middle of the bed.
Cpl. Greg Allen: Turned around.
Cpl. Dan Nilon: Turned around, facing the headboard.
The theory is that Melissa tried to escape Bruno’s grip and there was a struggle.
Mark Powell: And through … a struggle … His hand gets loose. He fires the gun at the same time.
CBS News
Cpl. Dan Nilon (Watching video of Bruno Rocuba’s walkthrough with detectives): There’s blood evidence that starts here and travels in a right to left pattern … and that is … Bruno’s blood. … And the only way that that could be explained is if Bruno did a motion like this (demonstrates sweeping motion) with his hand after the bullet struck it.
Mark Powell: I don’t know how you have an accidental shooting when you’re standing over your wife with a gun threatening to shoot her and you discharge a bullet by pulling the trigger. So, I — in my world, that’s not accidental. That’s murder with malice.
Anne-Marie Green: What do you think your sister would say about all of this?
Joanne Swinney: Oh, um … If she was here, she would say lock his ass up and get away from my kids and my grandkids.
On June 2, 2022, a warrant was issued for Bruno Rocuba’s arrest. Chelsea says her father was well aware and well prepared.
Chelsea Cicio: He had guns all over … his nightstand was all pictures of my mom. They were never there.
JUSTICE FOR MELISSA ROCUBA
On the morning of June 3, 2022, two Pennsylvania State Police troopers followed Bruno Rocuba on his way to work. Corporal Greg Allen says they weren’t taking any chances with Bruno’s arrest.
Anne-Marie Green: Chelsea said he had a lot of guns. Were you concerned something … could go wrong?
Cpl. Greg Allen: Whenever … you have an arrest warrant in your hand … you try to take every precaution that you can.
In the end, they pulled Bruno Rocuba over in a traffic stop on his way to work.
TROOPER (dash cam video): Who got your license plate out here?
BRUNO ROCUBA: Where? What?
TROOPER: Yeah.
TROOPER: Alright, hold up, right here. Hey, you have a gun, or any guns on you?
BRUNO ROCUBA: No, no, no.
TROOPER: Alright, put your arms behind your back.
BRUNO ROCUBA: OK.
Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office
It was June 3, 2022, nearly nine years after Melissa’s death, and Bruno Rocuba was charged with her murder. There was also a charge of theft, for the money prosecutors say he took from his daughters.
Cpl. Dan Nilon: And he — he lawyered up.
Anne-Marie Green: Lawyered up right away?
Cpl. Dan Nilon: Within … Couple minutes –
Cpl. Greg Allen: — within a few minutes.
Chelsea, who was still feeling conflicted, decided to help her father pay his legal bills.
Chelsea Cicio: I loved him. I still, I – I didn’t want it to be worse.
Bruno Rocuba once again hired Joe D’Andrea and pleaded not guilty.
Anne-Marie Green: Is Bruno still telling you the same story?
Joe D’Andrea: He never wavered from his story … that it was an accident.
But D’Andrea says he was now seeing and hearing the evidence for the first time — and says there was a lot to explain to a jury. Like the various versions of Rocuba’s all captured on tape.
TROOPER (police walkthrough video): Any discussions, or any arguments, or anything?
BRUNO ROCUBA: No.
TROOPER: Before that happened?
BRUNO ROCUBA: No.
The most challenging, says D’Andrea, was that police walkthrough.
Joe D’Andrea: If Bruno didn’t make a statement — he probably would never have gotten charged.
Also concerning to D’Andrea was how a jury would feel about Bruno Rocuba’s relationship with Tonia Wilczewski, and the question of when it began.
Anne-Marie Green: Possible motive?
Joe D’Andrea: Oh, clearly. … if not a motive … the jury sure wasn’t going to like him for doing it.
Tonia Wilczewski declined “48 Hours”‘ requests for an interview, but sent a text saying, “there was never an affair.” Bruno Rocuba never responded to our requests for an interview.
But D’Andrea says he was most concerned about how a jury would react to Melissa’s final moments.
Joe D’Andrea: When you hear screaming and … somebody’s shot, the jury could conclude you shot her on purpose. … I didn’t want … to … take any chance of being, uh, found guilty of first-degree murder and spend the rest of his life in jail.
D’Andrea says he spent the next two years building his case around his best evidence: that bloody wound to his client’s hand.
Joe D’Andrea: Who would … put a bullet through their hand to — to kill somebody?
But in May 2024 — two years after his arrest — as Bruno Rocuba’s trial approached, both sides agreed to a plea deal: third-degree murder and no charge of theft.
Joe D’Andrea: It wasn’t that he intentionally killed Melissa … his actions were reckless.
Anne-Marie Green: Having a gun, drinking, bullet in the chamber, safeties off, in a pretty passionate argument?
Joe D’Andrea: That’s a prescription for some bad stuff to happen, which it did.
MELISSA ROCUBA (home security video): What is wrong with you?
Anne-Marie Green: It may very well be your sister’s own voice that ultimately put him behind bars.
Joanne Swinney: I never really thought about it like that. Yeah.
On Jan. 8, 2025, Joanne attended Bruno’s sentencing hearing and read him her victim impact statement.
Joanne Swinney: I looked at him first and made him look at me, cause I know it’s like seeing a ghost, because I look like my sister.
Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom, so Joanne shared her statement during our interview.
Joanne Swinney (reading): Through all of this you have never shown an ounce of remorse. … As far as what you did to your daughters, Bruno, you killed their mother. … You tried to erase her existence, but you cannot erase her memories.
Anne Marie Green: If there was a trial, would you have testified against him?
Chelsea Cicio: Yes.
Anne Marie Green: You said that quickly.
Chelsea Cicio: Yeah, I would’ve. … you know, my mom deserves justice. And my mom — she should be here.
Bruno Rocuba was sentenced to 12 to 40 years behind bars. With time served, he will be up for parole starting in 2035.
Joanne Swinney: Now that he’s gone, we can breathe a little bit better … but it doesn’t change the hurt or the pain, or what we have to work through as a family. … And we’ll revisit this in 10 more years because … every single time he comes up for parole, I will be there to protest it.
Chelsea and Sabrina both say they have very mixed feelings about their father — and what justice looks like.
Sabrina Rocuba: He took someone’s life … And it wasn’t an accident. He doesn’t deserve to get out. … I want him to get out at the same time because I love him and miss him.
Chelsea Cicio: Everybody’s like, oh, we finally get justice. Good for you. … I got justice for my mom, but now I just lost my father, my son lost his grandfather. … and it’s hard on my son. That’s who I have to protect.
CBS News
Anne-Marie Green: How are you keeping your mom’s memory alive?
Sabrina Rocuba: I have all of her pictures all over my fridge. … And I tell my daughter how wonderful her grandmother was and … how much — how much my mom loved being a grandmother.
Chelsea Cicio: She cared about my son more than anything. She loved that little boy.
Chelsea Cicio: And I think she wouldn’t want my son to hurt the way this has hurt him.
Chelsea Cicio
Just weeks after “48 Hours”‘ interview, on March 10, 2025, Chelsea says her son Greg was out riding his All-Terrain Vehicle, when he collided with an SUV and died. He was just 13 years old. Another tragic loss for a family that had already lost so much.
Joanne Swinney: It’s something that you read in a book or see on TV, not your own life … it just doesn’t feel like this should be our story as a family.
Produced by Judy Rybak. Emily Wichick Hourihane is the field producer. Michelle Sigona is the development producer. Michelle Harris, Diana Modica, Michael Baluzy and Jake Day are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior broadcast producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
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