DHS arrests another student involved in Columbia university protests

(CANYON VILLAGE, Wyo.) — In a new court filing, federal prosecutors allege the suspect who took a hostage and got into a shootout with Yellowstone National Park rangers in July ranted that he “refuse[s] to fraternize with race-traitors that support non-whites or Jews.”

The Wyoming U.S. Attorney made the filing on Monday in an attempt to gain ownership over the suspect’s guns and vehicles, which are in the possession of the federal government but not owned by them. In the filing, federal prosecutors call the suspect’s actions an act of terrorism.

Samson Fussner, the suspect who died in the shootout, allegedly made inflammatory comments about immigrants, African Americans and Jews while holding a woman hostage in her dorm room and in texts ahead of the shootout, according to federal prosecutors.

The filing claims Fussner had engaged in the “planning of and preparation to carry out a terrorist attack against the United States, its citizens and their property,” ultimately culminating in the events of the shootout and hostage kidnapping.

Fussner complained in texts to his brother about the local diversity, saying he lived in a “hellscape” and would “go postal” if he stayed in Yellowstone longer.

He allegedly also texted his brother that he was obsessed with the woman he later kidnapped for a couple of hours, calling her “German stock.” During the kidnapping, he told the woman he did not like “how America was bringing in non-Americans” and wanted to “make a statement because politics in America are messed up,” the complaint read.

Fussner had also been spewing white supremacist and antisemitic views for months before the shootout, according to the filing.

Just after midnight on July 4, Yellowstone’s 911 dispatch center received a report that a woman had been held against her will by a man with a gun in her dorm residence. She reported that Fussner threatened to kill her and others, including plans to allegedly carry out a mass shooting.

Fussner, of Milton, Florida, was confronted by Yellowstone law enforcement rangers early the next morning July 4 while allegedly shooting a semi-automatic rifle toward a dining facility at Canyon Village, according to NPS. Approximately 200 people were in the facility at the time, NPS said.

During an exchange of gunfire, Fussner was shot by law enforcement rangers and died at the scene, NPS said. A ranger was also shot in a lower extremity, the service noted.

Fussner was an employee of Xanterra Parks and Resorts, a private business authorized to operate in Yellowstone.

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(PHILADELPHIA) — Investigators have located the engines and cockpit voice recorder from the small medical transport jet that crashed in Philadelphia Friday evening, killing seven people.

The jet, which was carrying a child and her mother along with four other people, was in the air for less than a minute after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport before coming down in a fiery “high-impact” crash.

The Learjet 55, operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, took off at 6:06 p.m. Friday, climbed to about 1,500 feet and then rapidly descended, according to National Transportation Safety Board investigator Bill Hicks.

“The entire flight lasted less than a minute,” Hicks said.

All six people aboard the jet died in the crash, including the child, who had just received care from Shriner’s Hospital in Philadelphia and was returning home to Mexico with her mother. There were also four crew members on board. All were Mexican citizens, according to a statement from the Mexican government.

NTSB investigators announced on Sunday that the aircraft’s engines and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) had been recovered from the crash.

The CVR was located at the site of initial impact, at a depth of eight feet, according to investigators.

The airplane’s enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS), which could also contain flight data was recovered Sunday as well, officials said. Both components will be sent to the NTSB Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington, D.C., for evaluation.

During a Sunday morning news conference, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said all those aboard the jet were Mexican citizens.

Jet Rescue Air Ambulance identified those aboard the crashed jet as 11-year-old pediatric patient Valentina Guzman Murillo and her 31-year-old mother, Lizeth Murillo Ozuna; Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, paramedic Lopez Padilla, flight Capt. Alan Alejandro Montoya Perales and co-pilot Josue De Jesus Juarez Juarez.

Jet Rescue Air Ambulance said Montoya Perales, 46, had worked for the company since 2016, and that 43-year-old Juarez Juarez had been with the company since December 2023. Arredondo, 41, has been flying with the air ambulance company since 2020 and 41-year-old Padilla has been with the company since November 2023.

The mayor of Ensenada, Mexico, a city in the state of Baja California, confirmed two of the victims as Valentina Guzman Murillo and her mother.

Ensenada government officials said the plane was bound for Tijuana, Mexico. The plane was scheduled to make a stopover in Springfield, Missouri, before continuing to Tijuana, officials said.

In addition to those aboard the aircraft, at least one person in a vehicle died in the crash. The identity of the person has not been disclosed.

Parker said Sunday that the number of people injured on the ground had risen from 19 to 22. She said five people remained hospitalized as of Sunday, including three in critical condition.

There was no indication of a problem radioed from the flight deck of the jet back to air traffic control before the crash, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters. “In fact, in the recording that we have, there is an attempt by air traffic controllers to get a response from the flight crew that they didn’t receive,” she said.

The NTSB has classified the crash as an accident.

The “high-impact” crash left debris scattered across four to five city blocks, Homendy said.

At least five homes caught fire in the aftermath of the crash, Philadelphia officials said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is assisting in the investigation.

The crash of the medical jet came just two days after an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a regional American Airlines jet near Reagan National Airport just outside Washington, D.C., killing 67 people.

Homendy said her agency is able to carry out both investigations simultaneously.

“We are a highly skilled agency,” she said, adding that it’s not unusual for the board to investigate two incidents.

In a message posted on X, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the back-to-back disasters a “heart-wrenching week.”

Regarding the Philadelphia crash, Duffy said, “We’re not going to have answers right away. It’s going to take time. But as I get those answers, I’m going to share it with all of you.”

ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Among the first executive orders signed by President Donald Trump was an order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the newly named “Gulf of America.”

“President Trump is bringing common sense to government and renewing the pillars of American civilization,” the newly inaugurated president’s executive order said.

Trump also called for Alaska’s 20,000-foot mountain, Denali, to be reverted back to Mount McKinley, which was its name before former President Barack Obama had it changed in 2015.

Trump’s executive order calls for the U.S. secretary of the interior to change the names on federal maps.

He has appointed former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for the position.

During his January press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump declared he would change the name, saying the gulf is currently run by cartels and that “it’s ours.”

“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory, the Gulf of America,” Trump said at the time. “What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”

Presidents do have the authority to rename geographic regions and features, but it needs to be done via executive order.

The U.S. Board of Geographic Names typically has the jurisdiction for geographic names.

The Gulf of Mexico is one of the largest and most important bodies of water in North America. It’s the ninth-largest body of water in the world and covers some 600,000 square miles.

Half of the U.S. petroleum refining and natural gas processing capacity is located along the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and it supplies about 40% of the nation’s seafood, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

Following Trump’s inauguration on Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order on winter weather in the state that already refers to the gulf as the “Gulf of America.”

While referring to a weather system that could impact the state beginning Tuesday, DeSantis’ executive order said, “An area of low pressure moving across the Gulf of America, interacting with Arctic air, will bring widespread impactful winter weather to North Florida.”

“For us and the whole world, it is still the Gulf of Mexico,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday in a response to Trump’s various decrees.

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