4 arrested after ‘suspicious device’ thrown during protest outside NYC mayor’s home
Right-wing influencer Jake Lang walks with a goat and supporters at a protest organized by the influencer on March 7, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Police arrested four people after a smoke-generating “suspicious device” was thrown during a protest at the New York City mayor’s residence Saturday.
It was not immediately known if Mayor Zohran Mamdani or his wife, Rama Duwaji, were inside Gracie Mansion at the time. Mamdani had no public events announced but was in the city, according to his public schedule released Friday night.
Police sources told ABC News that the anti-Muslim protest was organized by a “known agitator.”
The NYPD bomb squad was investigating if the device was a smoke bomb, after some smoke started coming out of the device before the crowd was moved back, sources said.
No injuries were reported during the incident.
The mayor’s office did not immediately return messages to ABC News for comment.
Two unidentified people arrested were accused of throwing a suspicious device, police sources said.
One person was arrested for disorderly conduct and another person was arrested for deploying pepper spray, according to sources.
A man is facing murder charges after a social worker he allegedly attacked and stabbed repeatedly in a ward at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center died from her injuries, Dec. 6, 2025, according to police. (Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — A social worker, described by colleagues as “remarkable” and “compassionate,” has died from stab wounds she suffered when a patient armed with a steak knife allegedly attacked her inside a San Francisco hospital, according to authorities.
The victim, whose name has not been released, was pronounced dead on Saturday, two days after she was stabbed repeatedly inside Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, according to the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office.
The victim was described by the sheriff’s office as a 51-year-old University of California, San Francisco, social worker. The victim’s age was initially reported by police as 31.
The suspect was identified as 34-year-old Wilfredo Tortolero Arriechi, according to the San Francisco Police Department, whose officers also responded to the hospital and took the suspect into custody.
Arriechi was initially arrested on charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, mayhem, and being armed during the commission of a felony.
The attack unfolded around 1:39 p.m. local time on Thursday in the hospital’s Ward 86, which, according to the medical facility’s website, is an HIV/AIDS clinic on the facility’s sixth floor.
Before the attack, a sheriff’s deputy was called to the hospital after the suspect, who was at the hospital for a scheduled appointment, allegedly threatened a doctor, according to a sheriff’s department statement.
“While providing security for the doctor, our sheriff’s deputy heard a disturbance unfolding in the hallway involving the suspect, who was attacking a social worker,” according to the sheriff’s office statement. “The deputy intervened immediately, restraining the suspect and securing the scene.”
The victim, according to he sheriff’s office, suffered multiple stab wounds to the neck and shoulder.
A five-inch kitchen knife believed to have been used in the attack was recovered at the scene, according to the sheriff’s office.
UPTE-CWA 9119, the union representing professional and technical employees at the University of California, released a statement on social media demanding a “full investigation and reliable, consistent, and transparent safety protocols that ensure every worker comes home safely at the end of their shift.”
“We at UPTE-CWA 9119 are devastated to learn of the death of a remarkable, compassionate, and dedicated social worker, who was beloved by their family, friends, colleagues, and fellow union members,” Dan Russell, UPTE president, said in a statement.
The San Francisco Deputy Sheriff’s Association union also released a statement, criticizing the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH), which runs the hospital, for recently reducing the number of deputy sheriffs assigned to the hospital and shifting to a “response-only” security model.
“This was not a random unforeseeable incident,” Ken Lomba, president of the deputy sheriff’s union, said in a statement.
Lomba added that the hospital’s own data shows “years of serious assaults and weapons on campus.”
In a statement to ABC News on Sunday, the San Francisco Department of Public Health said, “Keeping our staff, patients, and community safe is our highest priority.”
DPH said it has taken steps to bolster security at the hospital, including adding more security officers, limiting access points and speeding up the installation of weapons detection systems.
“We are also conducting a full investigation and are committed to making both immediate and long-term safety improvements at all our facilities,” DPH said. “This tragic event underscores the urgency of our ongoing efforts to strengthen protections for every member of our workforce.”
The agency added, “We are committed to doing everything necessary to ensure that no one fears for their safety while providing care to the people of San Francisco.”
A large portion of the damaged plane fuselage is lifted from the Potomac River during recovery efforts after the American Airlines crash, Feb. 3, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. government admitted some failures and accepted liability for its role in the deadly Jan. 29 mid-air crash over the Potomac River between a commercial jet and an Army helicopter, according to a filing in a civil suit, but pushed back on a number of claims that were made.
The filing came in response to a suit brought by the family of one of the 67 people killed in the crash between a U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight operated by a regional carrier. The family’s lawsuit serves as the “master complaint” on behalf of all deceased passengers.
The regional jet and Black Hawk helicopter both crashed into the icy Potomac River after colliding in midair, launching an overnight search and rescue mission, with no survivors found. Sixty-four people were on the plane and three Army soldiers were aboard the helicopter, which was on a training flight at the time, officials said.
The government attorneys, in their 209-page filling on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, said that the pilots of both the Black Hawk and the regional jet “failed to maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid each other.”
And it admitted that the Black Hawk pilots’ failure to maintain vigilance was “a proximate cause” of the accident.
“The United States admits that it owed a duty of care to Plaintiffs, which it breached, thereby proximately causing the tragic accident on January 29, 2025,” the government said in the filing.
The government also conceded that the air traffic controller at Reagan National Airport did not comply with regulations that state “[i]f aircraft are on converging courses, inform the other aircraft of the traffic and that visual separation is being applied.”
But it did not concede, as alleged, that the actions of the controller were responsible for the crash.
“The United States denies that any alleged negligence of the air traffic controllers on position in Washington Tower during the accident was a cause-in-fact and a proximate cause of the accident and the death of DECEDENT,” the filing says.
And it denied, as alleged in the suit, that the extremely busy airspace above Reagan National Airport presented an “accident waiting to happen.”
The government conceded that while the airspace above Reagan National is “busy at times and the risk of midair collision cannot be reduced to zero” and “that aircraft have come into close proximity to other aircraft within the Class B airspace near DCA on certain occasions” it did not admit to “collective failures” that led to the crash.
The original lawsuit as it was filed says that among the factors known to the military was that there had been “a substantial number of ‘near miss’ events in and around DCA, which were required to be analyzed to ensure that a mid-air collision did not occur and required Defendants to exercise vigilance when operating and/or controlling aircraft in the vicinity of DCA.”
But the government denied the statement that those known misses “were required to be analyzed to ensure that a mid-air collision did not occur and required Defendants to exercise vigilance when operating and/or controlling aircraft in the vicinity of DCA.”
An attorney for one of the plaintiffs in the case, Rachel Crafton, said in a statement responding to the U.S. filing, “These families remain deeply saddened and anchored in the grief caused by this tragic loss of life.”
“We continue to investigate this matter to ensure all parties at fault are held accountable, and we await additional findings from the NTSB in an anticipated January 26 hearing on this matter in Washington, D.C,” said attorney Robert A. Clifford, who represents Crafton.
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to release its final report with the probable cause and its recommendations by the anniversary of the crash on Jan. 29, 2026.
District Judge Ana C. Reyes, who was appointed in 2023, is presiding over the case, according to court records.
Editor’s Note: A prior version of this story incorrectly attributed allegations from the family’s “master complaint” to the U.S. government, which had reprinted those allegations in its Wednesday filing in order to respond to them.
Savannah Police are looking for a suspect in conjunction with a crime where police say a woman had an unknown chemical poured on her. Savannah Police Department.
(SAVANNAH, Ga.) — A woman is recovering after officials say she was the victim of a chemical assault in Savannah, Georgia.
The victim suffered burns in the incident, officials said. She was walking around Forsyth Park near West Waldburg and Whitaker streets just before 8 p.m. on Wednesday when a man came from behind and poured a chemical on her, according to police.
The victim did not know the man, officials said, and no arrests have been made yet. On Thursday, Savannah police released an image of a man in dark clothing they are trying to locate.
Savannah resident Grace Warner told WJCL that the incident shocked her.
“I walk around this park a lot, even at night,” she said. “You just don’t expect something like this to happen here.”
Savannah Police Chief Lenny B. Gunther noted in a press release that local authorities are investigating the incident.
“Our first priority is the well-being of the victim, and our detectives are working around the clock to determine exactly what happened,” he said. “While this was a disturbing incident, we want to reassure our community that we are actively investigating and have increased patrols in our parks out of an abundance of caution.”
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson also released a statement on social media decrying the incident.
“City leadership is working closely to ensure SPD has every resource needed, from personnel to technology, to bring resolution to this case swiftly,” he said in the Facebook post. “We will continue to keep our community informed, and we thank everyone who has already stepped forward to assist.”
