All articles tagged with #us crime and justice
Two people were shot in an encounter with the Secret Service near the White House, prompting a lockdown as officers responded and gunfire was reported. Journalists were sheltered in the White House briefing room, and the lockdown was lifted about 6:45 p.m. ET. The circumstances surrounding the incident remained unclear, with officials from the Secret Service and other agencies seeking comment.
Prosecutors dropped the remaining charges against four activists who protested outside a Broadview federal facility during last year’s immigration crackdown after revelations of grand jury misconduct by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including a prosecutor meeting with a juror outside proceedings. The charges—including a felony conspiracy count and misdemeanor counts for impeding a federal agent—were dismissed with prejudice and won’t be refiled, with defense lawyers arguing the case violated First Amendment rights and highlighted prosecutorial overreach in politically charged crackdown cases.
Arcadia, California, Mayor Eileen Wang will plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned. Federal prosecutors say Wang and Yaoning 'Mike' Sun ran the pro-PRC news site U.S. News Center to promote Beijing's interests from 2020 to 2022, without notifying the U.S. government; Sun is already serving a four-year sentence, and Wang faces up to 10 years in federal prison. The charges concern conduct that ceased after she took office in December 2022, and city officials said no city finances or staff were involved.
Edmond police arrested 18-year-old Jaylan A. Davis on assault with a deadly weapon charges, which are being upgraded to felony murder after Avianna Smith-Gray, 18, died from gunshot injuries in a mass shooting at a weekend Arcadia Lake party that left 1 dead and 22 wounded. Investigators say more than 80 rounds were fired and there may be at least one additional suspect. The incident began with an argument between two women at a large, social-media-promoted gathering, escalated into gang-linked violence, and occurred as officers responded to a noise complaint; organizers had not obtained needed reservations.
A federal grand jury in California indicted Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez on two counts of assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon and one count of destruction of government property after an April traffic stop in which ICE agents fired at him as he allegedly tried to flee; he was hospitalized after being shot multiple times and later taken into FBI custody. While prosecutors described him as an undocumented immigrant potentially linked to a murder investigation in El Salvador, his attorney says there is no evidence he was a gang member. An arraignment is scheduled for Monday amid conflicting narratives and limited clarity from dashcam footage.
A Fort Bragg special-forces soldier, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, pleaded not guilty in New York federal court to charges tied to using classified information from the Maduro raid to place bets on Polymarket, netting more than $400,000 in profits. Prosecutors say Van Dyke placed about $32,000 in bets on US involvement and then transferred the windfall to a foreign crypto vault before moving funds to a new online brokerage; after media reports highlighted the bets, he asked Polymarket to delete his account. He was released on $250,000 bond. The case marks the first known charges over a geopolitical-event prediction market bet, drawing scrutiny of such wagering trends.
Two teenagers were arrested in connection with an alleged plan to attack Congregation Beth Israel in Houston. Angelina Han Hicks, 18, of Lexington, North Carolina, is jailed on a $10 million bond after warrants allege she conspired with two male subjects to murder and assault synagogue members; a juvenile was also arrested in Harris County, Texas, in relation to the plot. The FBI’s Charlotte Joint Terrorism Task Force began the investigation following a tip, and authorities say there was no immediate credible threat at the time. Investigators say the case remains open with Hicks’ next hearing scheduled for May 13.
A string of gun attacks in the Atlanta area left two women dead and a homeless man critically injured, including Lauren Bullis, a Department of Homeland Security employee. Authorities connected the three attacks and charged Olaolukitan Adon Abel, a UK-born man who reportedly became a U.S. citizen in 2022, with two counts of malice murder and related firearms offenses. Investigators are examining whether any victims were targeted, while Bullis’s colleagues and family remember her as warm and dedicated; the case drew attention from Homeland Security leadership.
A class-action filed in Northern California accuses the Justice Department and Google of exposing victim-identifying information in Epstein-related files released in 2025–26, allegedly outing about 100 survivors and enabling further publication by Google. The DOJ says it has removed documents flagged for redaction and continues reviewing for privacy protections, while survivors say the ongoing online publication and low redaction accuracy retraumatizes victims and endangers them.
A man, Kenya Micchell Chapman, was arrested on federal charges for selling the Glock pistol used by Mohamed Bailor Jalloh in the Old Dominion University ROTC shooting. Chapman is charged with making false statements to purchase a firearm and dealing firearms without a license; prosecutors say he had ATF scrutiny for straw purchasing, admitted stealing the gun about a year ago, and sold it to Jalloh for $100 in the week before the attack. Jalloh, a convicted ISIS supporter on probation, opened fire in the ROTC classroom, killing instructor Brandon Shah and wounding others before being killed by police; investigators found Chapman’s number on Jalloh’s phone, linking him to the sale.
A federal magistrate in Virginia ruled the Justice Department may not search the contents of devices seized from Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson as part of a leaked-classified-documents probe, saying allowing a broad review would resemble an unlawful general warrant. The court will conduct the filtering itself to isolate material tied to the case, citing concerns about Natanson’s work product and First Amendment protections. Natanson is not believed to be a target, and the ruling follows a home raid linked to a contractor charged in the leak case, highlighting tensions between leak investigations and press freedom.
A key eyewitness to Ruben Ray Martinez’s fatal shooting by a federal immigration agent last year, Joshua Orta, died in a fiery car crash in San Antonio this weekend. Orta had disputed the government’s narrative that Martinez intentionally ran over a DHS agent, saying the car was barely moving and officers fired without warning. Martinez’s family plans a wrongful-death lawsuit; Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting, and DHS says it stands by its initial account. Orta’s death removes a crucial eyewitness from the case and could affect how the incident is understood and prosecuted.
A Utah County judge declined to recuse the Utah County Attorney’s Office over a lead prosecutor’s child attending the Turning Point USA event where Charlie Kirk was shot, ruling the attendance did not materially influence prosecutors’ decisions. The court allowed the death-penalty case against Tyler Robinson to proceed, noting the prosecutors have no plans to call the child as a witness. The defense argued that the office’s handling of the potential conflict showed bias, but Judge Tony Graf said there was no appearance of bias and kept the office in charge. If needed, the defense can subpoena the child, and Robinson’s preliminary hearing is scheduled to begin May 18 over a multi-day proceeding.
Three weeks after Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson home, CNN outlines a visual guide to the evidence: surveillance footage shows a masked man at the door attempting to block Guthrie’s Nest camera, investigators recovered a backpack and gloves, DNA found on Guthrie’s property has no matches in CODIS, and ransom notes are being scrutinized with genetic genealogy as a potential next step. A private donor has added a $100,000 reward and authorities have boosted the reward to $100,000, bringing total offers to $200,000 as investigators pursue tips and leads.
U.S. prosecutors moved to drop criminal charges against Venezuelan men Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in a Minneapolis ICE shooting case after newly discovered video evidence contradicted the government's initial account and ICE admitted officers made false statements; the dismissal with prejudice underscores credibility concerns about official narratives in federal immigration enforcement cases.