Seattle police arrest armed man during New Year’s Eve celebration
Jeremy Hogan/Getty Images
(SEATTLE) — Police in Seattle have arrested a 21-year-old man armed with a shotgun, pistol, and carrying multiple rounds of ammunition near the Space Needle during Seattle’s New Year’s Eve celebration, authorities said.
On New Year’s Eve at approximately 7:20 p.m., patrol officers in Seattle responded to reports of a man sitting on a bench near the Pacific Science Center holding a partially concealed shotgun, according to a statement from the Seattle Police Department.
“Witnesses saw him holding the gun by the grip, causing alarm, while facing the area where spectators were gathering for the fireworks display,” police said. “The suspect, wearing all black clothing and a red hat with “WAR” written on it, cooperated with police.”
Officers safely recovered the shotgun and the suspect, who was also armed with a handgun, had a valid concealed carry permit, police said.
Police assigned to the event center arrested the man without incident, authorities said.
Seattle Police Department’s arson bomb squad were able to locate the suspect’s vehicle and swept the car for potential weapons or explosives, though none were found and it was determined the vehicle did not pose a threat, officials confirmed.
Police subsequently booked the suspect into the King County Jail for unlawful use of weapons and detectives reviewing the case referred criminal charges to the City Attorney’s Office, authorities said.
The investigation into the incident is currently ongoing.
Waters of Monterey Bay, Monterey, California, August 5, 2025. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
(MONTEREY, Calif) — A body has been discovered near where a swimmer who may have been attacked by a shark went missing last week, officials in California said in an update on Sunday.
The woman’s body was recovered from the ocean south of Davenport Beach, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.
Due to the close proximity to the recent shark attack victim in Monterey County, the agency said it is working closely with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and the Pacific Grove Police Department regarding the recovery.
The swimmer — who was identified by officials as 55-year-old Erica Fox — was reported missing just after noon on Dec. 21 at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove in Monterey Bay, according to a joint statement from the Coast Guard and the cities of Pacific Grove and Monterey.
Fox’s father confirmed to ABC’s Santa Cruz affiliate KSBW on Sunday that family members identified the body as Fox, based on the clothing she was wearing.
Fox was wearing a shark deterrent anklet when she disappeared, family members said, according to KSBW.
After her disappearance, two witnesses said the swimmer “may have encountered a shark,” the statement said. One person reported seeing a shark with a body in its mouth before it submerged, a Coast Guard official said.
A decision to suspend the search last week was made following a total of more than 15 hours of search operations covering an area of more than 84 square nautical miles, according to officials.
Lovers Point Beach in Pacific Grove and McAbee Beach and San Carlos Beach in Monterey were closed through Tuesday, the officials said.
ABC News’ Tristan Maglunog and Amanda Morris contributed to this report.
Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are seen in handcuffs after landing at a Manhattan helipad, escorted by heavily armed Federal agents as they make their way into an armored car en route to a Federal courthouse in Manhattan on January 5, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by XNY/Star Max/GC Images)
(NEW YORK) — After three months in jail, ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro appeared thinner and grayer, but still in command, as he appeared in federal court in Manhattan for a status conference on Thursday.
Maduro — was shackled at the ankles and wearing a beige smock over an orange shirt — nodded to the gallery and said “good morning,” in English.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein said he would not dismiss the narcoterrorism and other charges Maduro faces, but appeared to wrestle with how to assure Maduro had access to sufficient counsel.
The defense argued the case must be tossed because the Treasury Department had not given the government of Venezuela a special license to fund Maduro’s defense with funds subject to U.S. sanctions.
“I’m not going to dismiss the case,” Hellerstein said. However, the judge questioned the national security need for sanctions now that Maduro is no longer in charge and he and his wife, Cilia Flores, are in American custody.
“I see no abiding interest in national security in the right to defend yourself,” Hellerstein said. “The right to defend is paramount.”
A federal prosecutor said Maduro should not be allowed to use Venezuelan funds after he was accused of plundering the country’s wealth.
“A defendant has no right to spend a third party’s money,” prosecutor Kyle Wirshba said.
Defense attorney Barry Pollack said the quality of Maduro’s defense would suffer with court-appointed counsel, whose taxpayer-funded resources are often limited.
Pollack said the allegations “against these defendants occurred in Venezuela.”
Hellerstein agreed that defending Maduro would come at “great expense” and deplete the resources of most public defenders.
“Truthfully, we have no case like this,” Hellerstein said.
President Donald Trump said at a Cabinet meeting Thursday that he was hopeful that additional charges will be brought against Maduro and said Maduro should be charged for facilitating the transport of people and drugs into the U.S.
“I hope that charge will be brought at some point,” Trump said.
“He emptied his prisons into our country and was a major purveyor of drugs coming into our country. … I would imagine there are other trials coming,” Trump said.
Maduro and his wife pleaded not guilty to federal charges including narco-terrorism during their first appearance in court in January, and their attorneys have since pushed to have the case dismissed over concerns that the Trump administration is blocking the Venezuelan government from paying their legal fees.
For more than a decade, Maduro enjoyed an opulent life as Venezuela’s president, living in the neoclassical palace in Caracas and accruing a net worth reportedly in the millions. He allegedly owned multiple mansions, two private jets, millions in jewelry and cash, a horse farm, and a fleet of luxury vehicles.
But he’s pushing to have his case dismissed by arguing he doesn’t have enough money to pay for his own legal defense — and his lawyers argue his due process rights will be violated if Venezuela is unable to pay for his lawyers because of U.S. sanctions on the country.
“I understand that the government of Venezuela is prepared to fund my legal defense and it is my expectation that it will,” Maduro said in a sworn declaration. “I have relied on this expectation and cannot afford to pay for my own legal defense.”
As the Trump administration gradually warms relations with Venezuela, Thursday’s hearing marks the second time that the ousted Venezuelan leader has appeared in a U.S. courtroom since special operations forces captured him in Caracas in January.
The Department of Justice initially brought an indictment against Maduro and 14 other Venezuelan officials in March of 2020, arguing they committed narco-terrorism by conspiring with drug cartels to allow the flow of cocaine into the United States.
Nearly six years later, prosecutors filed a new indictment charging Maduro, Flores, Maduro’s son, and three others with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons offenses.
Maduro “sits atop a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking,” the indictment said.
Prosecutors alleged that Maduro allowed “cocaine-fueled corruption to flourish for his own benefit,” including by providing diplomatic cover to drug traffickers and money launderers. Maduro has pleaded not guilty and denies being involved in drug trafficking.
“[Maduro] is at the forefront of that corruption and has partnered with his co-conspirators to use his illegally obtained authority and the institutions he corroded to transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States,” the indictment said.
-ABC News’ Emily Chang, Michelle Stoddart and Fritz Farrow
New York Attorney General Letitia James stands silently during a press conference at the office of the Attorney General, on Dec. 15, 2025, in New York. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images, FILE)
(NEW YORK) — Subpoenas issued to New York Attorney General Letitia James as part of a civil rights investigation into her fraud case against Donald Trump are invalid because the U.S. attorney in Albany who issued them lacked lawful authority, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
“The subpoenas are unenforceable due to a threshold defect,” U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield determined, writing that John Sarcone “was not lawfully serving as Acting U.S. Attorney when the subpoenas were issued.”
Sarcone’s appointment bypassed the requirements that govern who can exercise the power of a U.S. attorney, the judge said, similar to the way a judge ruled in November that Lindsey Halligan lacked the authority to bring charges against James and former FBI Director James Comey in Virginia.
Sarcone, like Halligan, was neither Senate confirmed nor appointed by the federal judiciary in the Northern District of New York.
Sarcone issued subpoenas to James as part of an investigation into whether she violated President Trump’s civil rights when she sued him over a decade’s worth of alleged business fraud.
Trump was found liable in 2024 for overstating his net worth, resulting in banks and insurance companies giving him more favorable terms. The half billion-dollar judgment was subsequently thrown out on appeal and is currently before the state’s highest court, though the finding stands.
James argued that Sarcone’s subpoenas were issued as an act of retaliation, but Judge Schofield said she did not need to address that at this stage because her ruling tossed out the subpoenas due to the faulty “workaround” Trump used to try to give Sarcone authority he did not have.
“Since August 2025, courts in New Jersey, Nevada and California have held that similarly installed acting U.S. Attorneys lacked lawful authority,” Schofield said, referencing, among other examples, Trump’s unsuccessful attempt to install his former personal attorney Alina Habba as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey.
“This decision is an important win for the rule of law and we will continue to defend our office’s successful litigation from this administration’s political attacks,” a spokesman for James said Thursday.
