82-year-old woman dies from injuries suffered in Boulder Molotov cocktail attack: Prosecutors
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(BOULDER, Colo.) — An 82-year-old woman hurt in the Molotov cocktail attack in Boulder, Colorado, has died, prosecutors announced, as they updated an attempted murder charge to a murder charge.
Karen Diamond “died tragically as a result of the severe injuries that she suffered” on June 1, the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office said.
She is the only person to die from the attack, prosecutors said.
“Our hearts are with the Diamond family during this incredibly difficult time,” District Attorney Michael Dougherty said in a statement. “Our office will fight for justice for the victims, their loved ones, and the community.”
The district attorney’s office also said it has found 14 more victims during the investigation and added 66 counts to the state indictment against Mohamed Soliman.
On June 1, Soliman allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at a group of marchers who were advocating for the release of the Israeli hostages outside the Boulder courthouse, prosecutors said. More than a dozen people were injured, officials said.
Soliman allegedly yelled “Free Palestine” during the attack, which he told police he was planning for one year, according to court documents.
Soliman allegedly told police “he wanted to kill all Zionist people,” court documents said. He also allegedly said “this had nothing to do with the Jewish community and was specific in the Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine),” documents said.
State charges against Soliman include first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and first-degree assault, prosecutors said. Soliman’s preliminary hearing in the state case is set for July 15.
All evacuation warnings have been lifted regarding the Canyon Fire in California after firefighters appeared to gain the upper hand in battling the wildfire, which broke out amid a heatwave and rapidly spread to over 5,300 acres in two days and destroyed at least seven structures, including two homes, authorities said.
As of Sunday morning, fire crews had increased containment on the blaze from 28% on Saturday evening to 62%, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). The fire also spread into Los Angeles County, endangering homes and forcing thousands of evacuation over the weekend near the city of Castaic.
“As of this morning, all evacuation warnings in Los Angeles and Ventura counties have been lifted,” Cal Fire said in an updated statement on Sunday morning.
As of Sunday, the fire had burned 5,370 acres, according to Cal Fire.
On Thursday, a local emergency proclamation issued by officials enabling the county to “expedite access to critical resources and cut through bureaucratic red tape to enhance firefighting and recovery efforts,” according to a statement from Los Angeles County.
The Canyon Fire had grown to over 5,000 acres in a matter of hours and was 25% contained, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department Friday morning. On Thursday, the fire had burned 1,500 acres.
At least two homes and five small outbuildings were burned in the flames, officials said.
More than 1,100 firefighters are battling the blaze, which broke out in extremely hot weather — accompanied by minimal humidity — which officials said are the perfect conditions for the flames to increase.
Evacuation zones and shelters At the height of the fire on Friday and Saturday, more than 5,700 homes and structures in Los Angeles County were threatened and and nearly 8,000 residents were forced to evacuate, officials said.
Many residents of Ventura County were also initially under evacuation orders or evacuation warnings, which have all been cancelled, officials said.
The emergency declaration issued by officials granted authorities the flexibility to “coordinate across agencies, mobilize additional firefighting personnel and equipment, and streamline procurement processes,” officials said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, according to Cal Fire.
Firefighters were also making progress in containing the Gifford Fire, which as of Sunday had burned 114,621 acres, mostly within the Los Padres National Forest in Solvang, California, according to Cal Fire. The wildfire, which began on Aug. 1 and became the largest wildfire in the years, was 21% contained as of Sunday morning, officials said.
(TIPTONVILLE, Tenn.) — A manhunt is underway for a 29-year-old man who allegedly killed four people and left their baby alive, Tennessee authorities said.
Austin Robert Drummond is considered armed and dangerous following the killings of 21-year-old James M. Wilson, 38-year-old Cortney Rose, 20-year-old Adrianna Williams and Williams’ brother, 15-year-old Braydon Williams, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.
The three adults and the teenager were killed on Tuesday and found along a road in Lake County, in northwest Tennessee near the state’s borders with Arkansas, Missouri and Kentucky, authorities said.
The same day, Wilson and Williams’ baby girl was left in a car seat in a “random individual’s front yard” in nearby Dyer County, according to the Dyer County Sheriff’s Office and Danny Goodman, district attorney for Dyer and Lake counties.
The infant was safe and treated by paramedics, authorities said.
Authorities believe Drummond knew the victims, Goodman said.
Drummond is wanted on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, four counts of felon in possession of a firearm and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, the TBI said.
A reward of up to $15,000 is available for information leading to his arrest, the TBI said.
Drummond is believed to be driving a 2016 Audi A3. The car has damage to the driver’s side and has a Tennessee license plate RI 01896, police said.
Authorities urge anyone with information to call 1-800-TBI-FIND.
(NEW YORK) — Outside a nondescript building in downtown Manhattan, Ambar was pleading to God and immigration authorities that her husband Jaen would not walk out the doors of the Elk Street facility in handcuffs.
“It’s the only thing I ask of God and them, to have mercy for his family. I don’t have anyone else. I’m alone with my daughter, I don’t want to be separated from him,” Ambar told ABC News with tears welling up as her daughter Aranza kept herself distracted on an iPad.
But her prayers were not answered. That afternoon, Jaen and two other men were brought outside by masked agents in plainclothes and quickly ushered into unmarked vehicles, with Ambar wailing and making a last plea. Aranza, 12, tried to push past the agents to prevent them from leading him toward the vehicles, tears streaming down her face.
ABC News observed the emotional moments as an uncontrollably distraught Ambar threw herself on the ground pleading for her husband to be released.
The masked individuals did not respond to multiple questions asked by ABC News regarding what agency they belonged to, why they were covering their faces, and which authority was being invoked to detain the men. But Jaen’s lawyer, Margaret Cargioli, says his detention follows a growing pattern of migrants being detained during check-ins with the Department of Homeland Security and being quickly deported under expedited removal.
DHS did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
In 2023, ABC News did a sit-down interview with the Colombian-Venezuelan family about their tearful reunion after being separated at the border by U.S. authorities in Texas. Jaen, Ambar and Aranza made the dangerous journey from Colombia hoping to seek asylum in the U.S.
“[It was] traumatic,” Jaen said during the interview. “It was a risky decision. We knew we had someone to take care of, our daughter. As a family, we felt we didn’t have another option.”
Once they reached the border the family said they were separated and were placed in different types of removal proceedings. Ambar and her daughter said they were eventually released and placed on a bus to Los Angeles, funded by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star.
Jaen was issued a removal order under the expedited removal process, but Cargioli and other attorneys with Immigrant Defenders Law Center were able to successfully challenge the separation and he was released on humanitarian parole for one year.
Cargioli says Jaen has petitioned for asylum, a renewal of parole and a stay of removal but all are pending.
Jaen was scheduled for a check-in on June 16 as part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) — an alternative to the detention program run by ICE — but was unexpectedly told to come in on June 3 or 4, Ambar told ABC News.
That raised major red flags for his legal team, who has been monitoring increasing incidents of the Trump administration detaining migrants in the interior of the country and placing them on “expedited removal.” The process allows the government to remove migrants in a streamlined manner without requiring them, in some cases, to go before a judge.
Under the Biden administration, the process applied to migrants who had entered the U.S. within 14 days and within 100 miles of the border. Under the Trump administration, it has been expanded to apply to migrants anywhere in the interior who have arrived within two years.
Jaen and his family entered the United States on June 4, 2023, exactly two years before his latest detention, leading Cargioli to fear he’s being placed in expedited removal. Despite asking the ISAP officers where he was going to be detained, and if it was through expedited removal, the attorney says she has not received an answer.
Jaen spoke with Ambar on the phone after his detention and said he did not know where he was, but that he was being held at a facility close to where he was detained, Ambar said.
Ambar and Aranza have an asylum hearing scheduled for June 2028. Cargioli believes Jaen would be with his family if they had not been separated at the border.
“If he had not been separated from his family at that stage and put into expedited removal, he would have his case in immigration in New York, in immigration court with her, with both of them,” she told ABC News.
ISAP check-ins are carried out through a government contractor called BI Incorporated, according to DHS reports. Jaen has been regularly checking in at the Elk Street office since his initial detention, Ambar said.
Families with loved ones checking in stand outside the facility hoping they will not be detained. On Wednesday, ABC News saw one woman cry with joy when a relative and her baby walked out with no handcuffs in sight. Another woman was shocked to see her mom being quickly led into one of the vehicles waiting outside the building.
“Mom what happened, what is this,” the woman asked. The masked agents did not respond to her repeated questions about why her mom was being detained.
“I don’t understand,” the woman yelled. “She didn’t do anything. She has a work card.”
“Who do we speak to…what is going on,” she asked as the agents closed the car door and drove off with her mother.
