1 officer dead, 1 injured after shootout with suspect in Georgia
Columbia County Deputy Brandon Sikes, a crime suppression officer with the department since 2018, was killed during a standoff along Interstate 20, according to Columbia County Sheriff Clay N. Whittle on Sunday.
Sikes is survived by his wife, Amber, who is also an employee of the sheriff’s office in Columbia County, Georgia.
Another deputy, Gavin White, who is also a crime suppression offering, was shot during the incident and taken to the hospital for treatment, Whittle said.
The deadly encounter began Saturday afternoon around 6:30 p.m. when the two deputies attempted to serve a temporary protective order to a suspect identified as James Blake Montgomery. During the encounter, both deputies were shot.
Montgomery then barricaded himself inside an RV, police said.
Montgomery tried to drive away under fire, police said, and the RV crashed into a median barrier on I-20, westbound next Exit 194.
Law enforcement quickly surrounded the vehicle, they said, deploying drones and robots to assess the situation. Initially, they said, it was unclear whether Montgomery was alive inside.
After a prolonged standoff, Montgomery was found dead inside the motorhome, officials said. Sheriff’s officials, aided by local, state and federal agencies, discovered multiple pipe bombs and bomb-making materials inside the RV, including at least one device rigged with a remote switch, according to Whittle on Sunday.
Beneath the motorhome, investigators found several propane cylinders, raising concerns about the potential for a catastrophic explosion, the sheriff continued.
Deputy Andrew Brown was among those who engaged Montgomery during the firefight. Whittle credited Brown with saving the life of another wounded deputy, Gavin White, by dragging him across three patrol cars and driving him directly to Doctor’s Hospital while still under fire.
“Probably saving his life, according to the doctors,” Whittle said.
Authorities also recovered an illegally modified fully automatic AR-style rifle, numerous magazines, several handguns and boxes of ammunition from the motorhome, they said.
Investigators also found jars containing unknown liquids, which could be bomb-making materials or related to Montgomery’s previously known illegal steroid operation, Whittle added.
Both Sikes and Montgomery are undergoing autopsies at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab in Atlanta.
Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson posted a statement on Facebook on Saturday, saying, “Heartbroken and praying for the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office and our neighbors in Columbia County. Our prayers are with the families of the fallen, the entire Sheriff’s Office, and all who are grieving this unimaginable loss. We honor their sacrifice and pray for the difficult days ahead.” Columbia County is situated within the Augusta-Richmond County metropolitan area.
Georgia Gov. Brian P. Kemp also shared a statement on X on Saturday, offering condolences and saying that he is “painfully reminded of why those who wear a badge have more than earned our enduring respect and appreciation.”
ABC News’ Mariama Jalloh contributed to this report.
Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain Division via X
(COLORADO SPRINGS, CO) — The Drug Enforcement Administration said it detained more than 200 people — including members of the military — at an unlicensed underground nightclub in Colorado on Sunday, officials told ABC News.
Officials said among those that were detained were active-duty military members. DEA Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Pullen said that alleged members of gangs, including Tren de Aragua and MS-13, were present at the venue.
At approximately 3:45 a.m. on Sunday, officials conducted a “multi-agency enforcement operation” at what they called an underground nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division posted a video on X showing the operation underway on Sunday morning.
Of the hundreds of people inside the nightclub, at least 114 were migrants that DEA officials said were in the country illegally. They are now in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
Close to 300 people were inside the nightclub and 114 illegal migrants were taken into custody, with most from Central and South America, officials said.
“Drugs and weapons have also been seized at this underground nightclub,” the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division said on X.
The operation was led by the DEA and involved around 10 federal agencies along with the local sheriff’s department, officials said. The investigation took several months and included undercover operations, officials said.
Authorities said they used drones, a helicopter and an armored vehicle for the operation.
The Army confirmed that service members from Fort Carson, Colorado, were present at the club and that it is conducting a joint investigation with DEA.
The Army would not say how many service members were allegedly involved, whether any were arrested or remain in custody, or if they were charged.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on Sunday that “cocaine, meth and pink cocaine was seized” during the operation, and that two people were arrested on existing warrants.
“As we approach his 100 days in office @POTUS Trump’s directive to make America safe again is achieving results!” Bondi said.
Officials said they also found evidence of prostitution and suspect human trafficking was at play at the nightclub.
Mike Moon, the property owner, told ABC Colorado Springs affiliate KRDO he had “no idea” what was happening in the space and the tenants’ lease was about to expire at the end of April.
“It’s shocking to me that in this political climate that something like this was even happening and that people thought this was a good idea to do something like this,” Moon said.
The space is an event center with a stage and a bar in the back, but there was no liquor license for the club, officials said.
There were no injuries to law enforcement, but one man suffered life-threatening injuries jumping out of a window trying to flee, officials told ABC News.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report
Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Stephanie Gonzalez says she and her family have endured “heartbreak” since the deportation of her parents, 55-year-old Gladys and 59-year-old Nelson Gonzalez.
“They really did not deserve to be treated as criminals,” Stephanie Gonzalez, 27, told ABC News on Wednesday, describing how she and her sisters, 23-year-old Gabriella and 33-year-old Jessica, have been “devastated” as their parents, who possess no criminal records and have lived in the United States for 35 years, have been transported like “animals” and placed in “inhumane” conditions.
Stephanie Gonzalez said her parents were arrested and detained on Feb. 21 after a routine supervision appointment. That day, Gladys Gonzalez was initially granted a one-year extension to stay in America, prompting her daughter to think that “everything’s gonna be fine, like it always is.”
A few hours later, however, Nelson Gonzalez called to inform the family he was being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and that Gladys’ extension was revoked and she was being detained as well.
“They separated them in separate rooms. They were in rooms alone for hours with no food,” Stephanie Gonzalez said. “They had handcuffed them from their hands or from their wrists and from their ankles.”
She added that it is jarring for her parents to be “treated like criminals,” especially since they had “never, ever been in trouble with the law.”
ICE confirmed to ABC News that Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez do not have criminal records and have been deported to Colombia.
It noted that its “routine operations” involve arresting people who commit crimes as well as “other individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws.”
Stephanie Gonzalez said her parents were transported to detention facilities in different states without knowing where they were going and that she and her sisters had no way of tracking them, calling it “a mess.”
“It baffles my mind how they’re treating people this way,” she said, adding that it’s “so cruel” that they were “literally moving them around like animals.”
Stephanie Gonzalez also said her parents had no way of finding each other while in custody — they just happened to be on the same plane back to Colombia.
“When they got on the plane, everyone started clapping because they knew that they had been reunited after so long,” she said, smiling at this “really sweet moment” among the deportees. She added that she feels relieved they are now together in Colombia.
Nelson and Gladys Gonzalez came to America in 1989, seeking asylum from violence in Colombia, their daughter said.
They then faced multiple instances of “fraudulent” lawyers, she said, including one who wasn’t even an attorney and others who ended up disbarred, consequently preventing the proper citizenship paperwork from being filed. Stephanie Gonzalez described this as “so discouraging when you’re trying so hard … to do the right thing.”
An ICE spokesperson said in a statement that Nelson and Gladys Gonzalez “illegally entered the United States” in 1989. After they appeared before an immigration judge who found “no legal basis” for them to remain in the U.S., ICE said the couple was granted a “voluntary departure” with a final removal in 2000.
Stephanie Gonzalez confirmed that her parents were faced with a voluntary deportation day in 2000, but she added that they subsequently spent over 20 years filing appeals. Though her parents’ cases were closed in 2021, Stephanie Gonzalez said they were instructed simply to continue showing up to their supervision appointments and check in with the appropriate authorities.
During these supervision visits, Nelson and Gladys Gonzalez consistently got approved to stay in the U.S., though the time frame almost always varied, she continued.
“Sometimes, they would get three months. One time, they got one month. One time, I think they got almost three years where they didn’t have to appear before immigration,” Stephanie Gonzalez recounted.
“I think it just shows how broken the immigration system is because there was no set rule,” she said, adding that her family always hoped for a “really nice officer.”
Prior to the supervision visit in February that resulted in her parents’ deportation, Stephanie Gonzalez said she and her sisters “weren’t necessarily nervous” because they had been accustomed to “getting good news that they could stay in the country.”
“When I realized that they had gotten arrested and I wasn’t going to even be able to say goodbye, it was awful,” she said. “The fact that I couldn’t even hug them and just … feel their bodies — like it was really hard on me and my sisters.”
Stephanie Gonzalez said her parents offered to self-deport and pay for their own flights to preserve their “dignity” but the government refused.
She said not only do Stephanie and her sisters now have to grieve their parents’ absence but they are also left to settle their parents’ affairs and belongings, causing the situation to feel “like somebody died.”
Stephanie Gonzalez said it has been difficult given how close-knit her family is, especially as she and her sister Gabriella lived with their parents in an apartment in Orange County, California. She also expressed sadness that her parents cannot spend time with Jessica’s 7-month-old son, their first grandchild.
Her mother was the baby’s primary caretaker, and Gabriella had to quit her job to watch after him once their mother was no longer able to, Stephanie Gonzalez added.
Nelson Gonzalez was a certified phlebotomist who drew blood and conducted life insurance exams, his daughter said. He was also a part-time Uber driver, even working overnight to make extra money, with Stephanie Gonzalez emphasizing what immigrants like her parents “contribute to society.”
She expressed a desire for the public to change the narrative around immigrants, emphasizing that her parents are “hardworking people. … They’ve paid taxes. They’ve raised us three to follow the law. … They love America.”
Stephanie Gonzalez and her sisters started a GoFundMe page, which has raised over $75,000.
She noted that she feels “devastated” to hear “so many parents being taken from their kids, families being separated and broken apart.”
“That is something that should break people’s hearts,” she said.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images, FILE
(WASHINGTON) Hunter Biden may have his freedom, but the son of former President Joe Biden now finds himself mired in debt, without a permanent home, and the target of ongoing attacks from the current president, Donald Trump, and his allies on Capitol Hill, according to a court filing.
In court papers filed Wednesday, Hunter Biden asked a federal judge to dismiss his lawsuit against online provocateur Garrett Ziegler because he “does not have the financial resources to continue litigating this case.”
Amid lagging sales of his art and his memoir, the younger Biden remains “several million dollars” in debt after fighting multiple federal criminal cases, claiming in an affidavit that he only sold one painting for $36,000 since late 2023, after selling 27 paintings in the previous couple of years at an average price of nearly $55,000.
“Given the positive feedback and reviews of my artwork and memoir, I was expecting to obtain paid speaking engagements and paid appearances, but that has not happened,” Hunter Biden wrote Wednesday.
He said that his “lack of financial resources has been exacerbated by the fires in the Pacific Palisades in early January, which has rendered my rental house unlivable for an extended period of time and, like many others in that situation, I am having difficulty in finding a new permanent place to live.”
A person close to Hunter Biden told ABC News that his rental did not burn down, but that immense damage to the surrounding properties had limited his access to his residence.
The affidavit chronicles a series of hardships since his father’s departure from office. Weeks before Trump’s inauguration, then-President Biden pardoned his son shortly before two federal judges were scheduled to sentence him for a pair of criminal convictions in Delaware and California, for which he faced the possibility of substantial prison time.
Hunter Biden has acknowledged taking out millions of dollars in loans from Kevin Morris, a Hollywood attorney who largely bankrolled Hunter Biden’s legal defense over the past five years. In congressional testimony last year, Morris said he expected Hunter Biden to repay those loans beginning in 2025, though it was not clear from the affidavit whether those loan repayments have begun.
Hunter Biden and his legal team are evaluating whether to continue litigating a handful of other lawsuits he filed in recent years against purveyors of his infamous laptop on a “case by case basis,” Hunter Biden wrote in Wednesday’s filing. Ziegler did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
One of those suits targets Patrick Byrne, the founder of Overstock.com and an avid supporter of President Trump. Hunter Biden sued Byrne in late 2023 for defamation for falsely accused Hunter Biden of trying to bribe Iran while his father was president — a claim that Hunter Biden said has subjected him to “harassment, intimidation, and harm.” Byrne has fought the defamation claim in court.
The trail in the case has been repeatedly delayed amid a protracted dispute over depositions from Byrne and an FBI agent that has thrown a wrench into the proceedings.
Byrne’s attorneys claim in court papers that Byrne fled to Dubai after he was told by U.S. officials “that the Venezuelan government has a $25,000,000 bounty on his head,” and said he preferred a deposition over Zoom “out of concern for his personal safety.” The parties ultimately agreed to a remote deposition in December that was expected to span seven hours over the course of three days, though it was unclear from the court docket when exactly the deposition occurred.
In court filings as part of that case, Hunter Biden has echoed his claims of financial hardship. He claimed that because of Byrne’s defamatory statements, he has suffered “lost economic opportunities” to the tune of nearly half a million dollars, citing lost memoir sales, lost art sales, and lost speaking opportunities.
Hunter Biden’s legal team has also subpoenaed the FBI, demanding testimony and documents from an agent whom Byrne claimed on social media could corroborate Byrne’s allegations against the younger Biden. But the FBI has so far rebuffed those efforts, and on Monday the Justice Department filed a motion in federal court in Washington, D.C., urging a federal judge there to quash the subpoena.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden remains squarely on the minds of Trump and his loyalists in Congress. As one of his first acts in office, Trump signed an executive order revoking security clearances for 51 former intelligence officials who signed a letter asserting that the emergence of data from Hunter Biden’s laptop in the weeks leading up to the 2020 election bore similarities to prior Russian misinformation operations.
During a heated Oval Office confrontation between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week, Trump repeatedly invoked Hunter Biden’s name as part of a lengthy diatribe about the Russia investigation led by Robert Mueller:
And on Tuesday, two top Republican lawmakers invited IRS whistleblowers who revealed details of Hunter Biden’s tax filings as guests at Trump’s Joint Address to Congress.
The person close to Hunter Biden told ABC News that the former president’s son will continue pursuing his art career and plans to devote himself to initiatives meant to help people struggling with addiction. And despite the sentiments in his affidavit, Hunter Biden remains in “a good place to rebuild his life,” the person said.
