Fake guns found at home of 13-year-old who allegedly planned to scare students at elementary school: Police
Teen believed to be armed stopped from entering Wisconsin elementary school. Via Kenosha Police Department
(KENOSHA, Wis.) — Several replica guns have been recovered from the home of a 13-year-old who allegedly planned to scare students at a Wisconsin elementary school, but was stopped from entering the building, according to police.
The 13-year-old tried to enter his former school, Roosevelt Elementary School, around 9 a.m. Thursday, carrying a backpack and duffel bag, Kenosha police said.
The teen attempted to enter through other doors, but was not able to get in, Kenosha Unified School District Superintendent Jeffrey Weiss told reporters. He then approached the front entrance and was buzzed into a vestibule area. Two school employees confronted the student, who got nervous and then fled, Weiss said.
The suspect, who was taken into custody at his home on Thursday, has been charged with one count of terroristic threats, Kenosha police said.
In a search at the suspect’s home, police said they discovered several air soft replica handguns and a replica rifle.
No real guns were found, police said, and the suspect’s mother told authorities the teen doesn’t have access to guns.
The suspect told police he went to the school that day to sell candy, police said. The teen “later told a social worker that he went to the school with the intent to scare students,” police said in a statement.
The teen is expected to make his first court appearance on Friday, police said.
Police said the suspect looked up school shootings online and made comments to fellow students for weeks leading up to the incident.
“We narrowly missed a tragedy,” Kenosha Police Chief Patrick Patton told reporters at a news conference on Thursday, before police determined the guns were not real.
“I can’t stress … really how heroic our office staff was,” Weiss said, adding, “They helped avert a disaster.”
Kenosha is located about 40 miles south of Milwaukee.
(NEW YORK) — With Election Day around the corner, American parents may be considering paying for childcare to ease the voting process. But in some states, heading to the polls while your child is being cared for can be free of charge.
In swing state North Carolina, 11-time Olympic track and field medalist Allyson Felix paired up with the nonprofit Chamber of Mothers to offer up to two hours of paid child care through Politisit.
In Western North Carolina, which was devastated by the impacts of Hurricane Helene, Politsit is offering parents reimbursement for up to a full day’s worth of childcare.
“You should never have to choose between your profession, your passions, and motherhood,” Felix said in a statement. “I’m honored to partner with Chamber of Mothers to tell moms that this election, you don’t have to choose between voting and motherhood. This election, you can do both.”
A Knight Foundation study released in 2020, which surveyed 12,000 non-voters, found that more than 60% of the most disconnected non-voters are women, and within that figure, many were single women with children.
For reimbursement, eligible parents can fill out this Politsit form and indicate how much the childcare will cost.
In California, the company Bumo, which offers education-based child care for children six months to six years of age, has donated $20,000 in free childcare services that are being offered in Los Angeles and San Francisco on Election Day.
Similarly, Los Angeles-based child care center Brella is offering up to a full day of free child care for kids three months to six years of age.
New York-based Vivvi child care centers are offering caregivers in New York City and Westchester who are headed to the polls a full day of free services.
Politisit and partner organizations are also offering free care opportunities in California, Houston, Texas, Chicago, Illinois, New York City and Brooklyn, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.
“Childcare is expensive and shouldn’t be a barrier to voting,” the organization said on its website, adding, “We believe that parents shouldn’t have to choose between voting and care for their children.”
(BOISE, Idaho) — The venue will be changed in the University of Idaho quadruple murder trial, Judge John Judge has ruled.
The judge said, “Considering the undisputed evidence presented by the defense, the extreme nature of the news coverage in this case, and the smaller population in Latah County, the defense has met the rather low standard of demonstrating ‘a reasonable likelihood’ that prejudicial news coverage will compromise a fair trial in Latah County. Thus, the Court will grant Kohberger’s motion to change venue for presumed prejudice.”
The new location was not immediately clear. The decision will be left up to Idaho’s highest court.
Lawyers for the suspect, Bryan Kohberger, pushed to move the trial to Boise, arguing the local jury pool in Latah County, which encompasses Moscow, was tainted by pretrial publicity.
Defense lawyers surveyed Latah County residents and said their results found that the “pressure to convict” Kohberger was shown to be “so severe” that the venue couldn’t be impartial.
The defense said one respondent answered they would “burn the courthouse down” if he were not convicted. The same survey, according to the defense, found “much less emotional” responses from people living closer to Boise, which is about 300 miles south of Moscow.
The prosecution has said the case has national and international interest, and that the case has been covered plenty in Boise, so a change of venue would not solve any problem.
The relatives of victim Kaylee Goncalves said they’re “incredibly disappointed” that the venue will be changed.
“As victims’s families you are left to just watch like everyone else and really you have little rights or say in the process and at the same time you are the most vested in the outcome,” the family said in a statement on Monday. “We have always felt that a fair and impartial jury could be found in Latah County and still believe that is where the trial deserves to be held to help the community heal.”
Moscow Mayor Art Bettge said in a statement in August that, if the case stayed in Latah County, “I firmly believe people would be able to set aside any personal feelings they have … set aside any information they may have read or heard … and make a determination of guilt or not guilty based on the evidence presented in the courtroom and deliberate according to the instructions provided to them.”
The trial is set to begin on June 2, 2025, and run until Aug. 29, 2025. The judge said in June that if the venue changed, the trial date would still hold.
Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in an off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Kohberger was a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time.
Kohberger was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
(NEW YORK) — A New York-based Iranian journalist who was the target of an alleged failed assassination attempt that federal prosecutors say involved an Iranian general said she has “been given a second life.”
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced criminal charges against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Brig. Gen. Ruhollah Bazghandi in connection with the alleged murder plot against Masih Alinejad, a prolific journalist and human rights activist who has been critical of the Iranian government, in particular the status of women’s rights.
The charges name Bazghandi and six other Iranian operatives who federal prosecutors said plotted to kill Alinejad.
In response to the charges, Alinejad said it was a “beautiful day” in a statement on X on Tuesday while posting a video of herself riding a bicycle, smiling, and saying, “I love my life.”
Asked by ABC News’ Diane Macedo about the joyful video during an interview on ABC News Live on Wednesday, Alinejad said, “I’ve been given a second life. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stay forever, but it is a beautiful day for me and I have to celebrate it because, look, the Iranian regime actually showed that how far they can go.”
“When I read the details, I was like, ‘Wow, the high-ranking member of Revolutionary Guards actually were in charge to kill me?'”
Alinejad said she met with members of the FBI and the Department of Justice about the case.
“When they named Ruhollah Bazghandi, I was screaming out of joy because it is beautiful,” she said. “You have to be a woman from Iran, from the Middle East, to understand when a killer [gets stopped], how it feels.”
“I smiled. But at the same time, I am very sad because I know that this is happening to my women inside Iran,” she continued. “They are facing the same killers every day.”
Alinejad, 48, fled Iran in 2009 in the aftermath of the country’s disputed presidential elections. Her 2018 memoir, “The Wind in My Hair,” detailed how she helped spark an online movement against the compulsory hijab as the founder of the My Stealthy Freedom campaign.
Alinejad, who lives in exile in New York City, said she has moved 21 times between safe houses in the past three years, following an alleged Iranian plot to lure and kidnap her in 2021.
Since at least July 2022, the Bazghandi network sought to assassinate Alinejad, as directed by individuals in Iran, according to the federal indictment, which was released on Tuesday.
The indictment details how the network of operatives surveilled Alinejad and quotes them talking about her in July 2022.
“I’m close to the place now brother I’m getting even closer,” the indictment quotes one operative as saying.
In response, another said, according to the indictment, “OK my brother dear don’t let her out of your sight. Let’s not delay it my brother dear.”
The operative — Khalid Mehdiyev — was disrupted when he was arrested near the victim’s home on July 28, 2022, while in possession of an assault rifle, along with 66 rounds of ammunition, approximately $1,100 in cash, and a black ski mask, according to the indictment.
The operatives were members of an Eastern European crime group allegedly contracted by the Bazghandi network to kill Alinejad, according to the indictment.
“The Islamic Republic hired criminals to do their dirty job on U.S. soil to get away with it, to get away from accountability,” Alinejad said. “But now, the law enforcement actually found the high-ranking members of the Revolutionary Guards that were behind this assassination plot.”
“I’m not carrying weapons. I’m only 45 kilos. But they were trying to kill me,” she said.
Tehran has not responded to the recent charges.
The FBI released a wanted poster for Bazghandi, who is based in Iran and is being sought on charges including murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement Tuesday that the indictment “exposes the full extent of Iran’s plot to silence an American journalist for criticizing the Iranian regime” and that the FBI will “work with our partners here and abroad to hold accountable those who target Americans.”
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
