5 people shot at Connecticut shopping center, person of interest in custody: Police
(WATERBURY, CT) — Five people were shot at a Connecticut shopping center on Tuesday, police said.
Officers responded to the Brass Mill Center in Waterbury at approximately 4:40 p.m. following reports of a “disturbance,” Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said during a press briefing. They found several victims suffering from gunshot wounds, he said.
The victims were transported to local hospitals for medical treatment. There are no fatalities at this time, according to Spagnolo.
A person of interest was identified by detectives and taken into police custody Tuesday evening, Waterbury Police said in a statement.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the person of interest was one of the five injured.
The shooting was not a random act of violence, Spagnolo said, adding, “We believe this started as a conflict and it escalated.”
Police believe the suspect and victims knew each other. A semi-automatic pistol was used in the shooting, the chief said.
State police and federal agencies are assisting in the investigation, including clearing the mall and collecting digital evidence, the chief said.
“There’s a tremendous amount of law enforcement here right now,” Spagnolo said. “We’re following some very strong leads.”
Spagnolo said he does not believe there’s any threat in the immediate area.
(FRISCO, Texas) — A 17-year-old student charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of another student at a track meet allegedly confessed to the killing and officers say he told them he was protecting himself, according to the arrest report.
The incident occurred Wednesday morning at a Frisco Independent School District stadium during a track and field championship involving multiple schools in the district.
Austin Metcalf, 17, an 11th grader at Frisco Memorial High School, died after police said another student stabbed him during an altercation in the bleachers at the meet.
The suspect in the deadly stabbing — Karmelo Anthony, a student at Frisco Centennial High School — has been charged with first-degree murder, police said.
One officer who responded to the scene said Anthony told him unprompted, without being asked any questions about the incident, “I was protecting myself,” according to the arrest report.
When the officer advised another responding officer that he had “the alleged suspect,” Anthony reportedly responded, “I’m not alleged, I did it,” according to the arrest report.
As he was walking toward the squad car, Anthony “was emotional,” reportedly saying unprompted, “He put his hands on me, I told him not to,” according to the arrest report. Once in the back seat, he also reportedly asked if Metcalf was “going to be OK,” according to the report.
Anthony “made another spontaneous statement” and reportedly asked an officer if what happened “could be considered self-defense,” according to the arrest report. Another officer reported that the suspect was “crying hysterically” while being walked away from the stadium, the report said.
Anthony is being held in the Collin County jail on $1 million bond, court records show. When reached for comment on Friday, his attorney told ABC News he had been on the case for only a few hours and needed to catch up.
Anthony’s father told ABC News on Thursday that they do not have a statement to make at this time.
The stabbing occurred under the Memorial High School tent in the stadium bleachers at approximately 10 a.m. on Wednesday, according to the arrest report.
Responding officers say they spoke to multiple witnesses, including one who reported that the altercation began after Metcalf told Anthony to move out from under their team’s tent, according to the arrest report.
The witness reported that Anthony allegedly reached inside his bag and said, “Touch me and see what happens,” according to the arrest report.
According to a witness, Metcalf grabbed Anthony to move him, and Anthony allegedly pulled out what the witness described as a black knife and “stabbed Austin once in the chest and then ran away,” the arrest report stated.
An officer recovered a bloody knife in the bleachers, according to the report.
Metcalf was transported to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:53 a.m. on Wednesday, according to the arrest report.
His twin brother, Hunter Metcalf, was also at the meet and spoke to officers at the scene. He said that after his brother told Anthony he had to leave the tent because he didn’t go to Memorial, the two “went back and forth and then Austin stood up and pushed the male to get him out of the tent,” according to the arrest report.
“I tried to whip around as fast as I could, but I didn’t see the stab,” Hunter Metcalf told Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA. “It was really senseless. I don’t know why a person would do that to someone, just over that little argument.”
The track meet has been postponed to Monday and will be held at a new location, WFAA reported. Frisco ISD will share more details on updated security measures with families, according to the station.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and his administration officials warned that the use of the military in response to protests against his immigration crackdown may not be limited to just Los Angeles, saying it could be the first “of many” — and that protesters could be met with “equal or greater force.”
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday that his administration was going to enforce its deportation policy strictly and that it would not tolerate violent protests against ICE officers.
“This is the first, perhaps, of many,” Trump said of the deployment of 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 Marines to Los Angeles as demonstrators clash with law enforcement amid the protests.
Demonstrators have clashed with law enforcement sporadically for days, and Trump called in the National Guard, against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wishes, in an attempt to quell the violence and allow immigration enforcement to continue.
“You know, if we didn’t attack this one very strongly, you’d have them all over the country, but I can inform the rest of the country, that when they do it, if they do it, they’re going to be met with equal or greater force,” Trump continued.
The president’s threats come as California’s leaders and 22 Democratic governors decry Trump’s show of force as a breach of the state’s sovereignty and a provocative escalation.
Trump’s words were echoed in testimony given by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill earlier in the day.
“So in Los Angeles, we believe that ICE, which is a federal law enforcement agency, has the right to safely conduct operations in any state, in any jurisdiction in the country,” Hegseth said. “ICE agents should be allowed to be safe and doing their operations, and we have deployed National Guard and the Marines to protect them in the execution of their duties, because we ought to be able to enforce … immigration law in this country.”
The president suggested he is open to invoking the Insurrection Act in response to the protests. The act authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the United States to suppress rebellion or violence.
The National Guard and Marines, under Trump’s current authorization, are not allowed to act in a law enforcement capacity because of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act.
“There were areas of Los Angeles last night where you could call it an insurrection,” Trump said.
Trump repeated claims, without evidence, that the protesters are “paid insurrectionists.” He decried some protesters who were damaging streets and targeting members of the National Guard.
Despite claims from Trump that there were fires and “bad scenes” on Monday night, there wasn’t anything all that violent. ABC News observed police moved protesters using skirmish lines and less lethal rounds around the city for a few hours, but there was no widespread violence compared to the weekend.
And although Trump claimed that Los Angeles was “under siege,” the incidents had been confined on Sunday and Monday to a relatively small area of downtown Los Angeles — about a 10-block area.
So far, the National Guard’s presence and role in handling the protests appears to have been minimal.
ABC News observed National Guard troops standing outside of a federal building and the Los Angeles Police Department and other local agencies clearing the streets and interacting with protesters.
The administration has not immediately provided details about the guardsman’s actions from Monday.
Congressional Republicans — including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune — backed the president’s use of the military in the situation.
“Clearly, the local officials there, for whatever reason, didn’t seem up to the task of getting the job done there,” Thune told reporters Tuesday.
Although Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said “violence in the riots is outrageous,” he called Trump’s order to send in troops “provocative” and “dangerous.”
“It really threatens the bedrock of our democracy,” the New York Democrat said.
Trump said the National Guard will be in the Los Angeles area “until there’s no danger,” declining to put a timetable on ending the deployment.
“It’s easy. Look, it’s common sense. … When there’s no danger, they’ll leave,” he said.
ABC News’ Alex Stone, Lalee Ibssa, Isabella Murray and Kelsey Walsh and contributed to this report.
Barry Williams / New York Daily News via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Two men accused of torturing an Italian businessman in a luxe New York City townhouse to obtain his cryptocurrency have pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, assault and coercion as prosecutors said there are other possible victims and even shared a photo that allegedly depicted the victim on fire.
John Woeltz and William Duplessie, both handcuffed and in jumpsuits, were arraigned in a Manhattan courtroom Wednesday after a grand jury indicted them on a dozen charges.
Judge Gregory Carro ordered them to remain held without bail through their next court appearance on July 15.
A prosecutor, Sarah Kahn, shared graphic details of the alleged abuse during the hearing. She showed the judge a photo that she said depicted the alleged victim on fire and said the defendants would pour tequila on him, light him on fire and then put the fire out — sometimes by urinating on him.
Woeltz and Duplessie pistol-whipped the victim with a gun, cut him with a small chainsaw and used various other instruments as part of the torture, Kahn said.
She said prosecutors have had conversations with other, unnamed law enforcement agencies that indicated Woeltz and Duplessie have tortured people before. She did not elaborate.
The defense pushed back, saying there is video of the alleged victim “having the time of his life” and engaging in activity at odds with having been tortured.
The defense attorneys said they obtained a different video from an eyeglass store taken 36 hours before the alleged victim left the townhouse that purportedly shows him smoking a cigarette by himself on the street.
“The story that he is selling just doesn’t make sense,” defense attorney Sam Talkin, who represents Duplessie, told the judge.
Prosecutors have not seen the video and Kahn said, “Victims of abuse are not always going to act in a way that we expect people to do.”
Woeltz and Duplessie were arrested last month. The indictment, which was unsealed on Wednesday, alleges they held the man against his will “with intent to terrorize him” and assaulted him with a chainsaw, pistol and cattle prod.
Their attorneys have previously declined to comment on the case.
Prosecutors have said Woeltz and Duplessie lured the alleged victim — a 28-year-old man who is not identified in the indictment — to New York by allegedly threatening to have his family killed.
The man told police he arrived in New York on May 6 and went to Woeltz’s eight-bedroom SoHo townhouse, where he was allegedly tortured over his Bitcoin password, according to a complaint.
After more than two weeks, police said the man escaped from the townhouse on May 23 and ran to a traffic enforcement officer for help. Woeltz and Duplessie were subsequently arrested on charges including kidnapping, assault and unlawful imprisonment.
