2 charged in connection with alleged explosive device at MacDill Air Force Base: FBI
(WASHINGTON) — The FBI has announced charges against a brother and sister in connection with an alleged improvised explosive device that was found near the visitors center at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida last week.
Alen Zheng was charged by indictment with one count of attempted damage of government property by fire or explosion, one count of unlawful making of a destructive device and possession of an unregistered destructive device.
Ann Mary Zheng was also indicted on charges alleging that she was an accessory after the fact and tampered with evidence by attempting to destroy, mutilate and conceal a 2010 black Mercedes GLK 350.
“A brother and sister have now been indicted,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X on Thursday. “One is in custody for accessory and evidence tampering and the primary suspect is charged with explosives offenses and is currently in China.”
A possible IED was discovered outside the visitor’s center at MacDill AFB on March 16, though it is unclear when the device was placed. Court records indicate that March 10 is a date associated with the siblings’ alleged conduct.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Immigrant woman and children walk across a field as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Enforcement and Removal Operations hosts a media tour at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, TX. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(DILLEY, Texas) — Olivia Mabiala Andre made her youngest brother, Manuel, a promise.
“We’re going to go to the United States and we’re going to get you a bike,” the 19-year-old said she told him.
The promise of the bike for her brother and stability for her entire family of five, Andre said, kept them focused on their plan to travel from their home country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, through South America and toward the United States. But three days into their journey, Manuel drowned while crossing a river in Colombia.
“He was the happiness of my house. He was the cutest boy you can imagine, he was our sunshine,” Andre said, speaking to ABC News from detention at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.
Now more than three years after reaching the U.S., Andre and her family are facing deportation to their home country after the U.S. federal government denied their asylum request.
Andre, who was studying to be a nurse, has been detained since November 2025 and was only briefly reunited with her family. She says it is taking a toll.
According to a habeas petition, an independent expert confirmed Andrew “meets the diagnostic criteria for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” and “has repeatedly expressed suicidal ideation.” Andre also displayed depression symptoms, the court filing claimed.
Their case is receiving national attention, with lawmakers and prominent figures like children’s educator and YouTube star Ms. Rachel calling for Andre’s release.
“It doesn’t make sense to hold this caring, wonderful person who wants to be a nurse who’s been through so much trauma. It’s just cruel to hold her there, especially while she’s having a mental health crisis, and she’s having suicidal thoughts,” said Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Anne Accurso, in an interview Thursday with ABC’s Diane Macedo.
Accurso says she has been keeping in touch with Andre while she remains detained.
“She’s overflowing compassion and faith and strength and it was a privilege to talk with her. I was so in awe of her,” Accurso said.
Attorneys representing the Andre family tell ABC News they fled their home country after Andre’s mother says she faced direct threats by high-level government officials.
“Her mother has suffered brutal abuse and torture, which led both her mother and her family to need to flee for their lives. They took a difficult journey to the United States, and along the way, Olivia witnessed her eight year old brother who she loved so much, drown on the journey, and it has caused devastating sadness for Olivia, her mother and her two siblings,” their attorney Elora Mukherjee said.
According to court documents, the Andre family entered the U.S. in December 2022 and applied for asylum, settling in Portland, Maine. An immigration judge denied their asylum petition, in part, because they believed they couldn’t provide enough corroborating evidence to support their claim and ordered them deported in February 2025.
The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) later affirmed the immigration judge’s decision, finding that her mother could not provide enough corroborating evidence to support her petition, the documents state.
Todd Pomerleau, who is now representing the family’s asylum case in immigration court, says a language barrier and interpretation issues contributed to the asylum claim being denied.
Days after the BIA denied the family’s appeal, Mukherjee said they attempted to cross into Canada to seek asylum there, but were prevented from doing so, because of a treaty between the two countries called the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement. The treaty prevents some immigrants from seeking asylum in Canada if they’ve been denied a U.S. claim.
“Olivia and her family were desperate in their search for safety, because they know they cannot return to the Democratic Republic of Congo, they’re going to be killed there,” Mukherjee said.
Transfer to Dilley Detention Center
After being transferred to the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on Nov. 12, 2025, Andre said she was detained apart from the rest of her family, the habeas petition says.
“They just took them away and put me on a different plane,” Andre said.
According to Andre, she was sent to four different facilities over the course of the following two weeks. She said she would ask personnel at the facility where her family was, but claims she never received an answer.
Andre was then sent to the immigration facility in Dilley, but said she did not know where the rest of her family was being held.
Two weeks later, Andre said she and a friend she made at the detention center were walking to the library when she heard her name being called. Her friend encouraged her to see a counselor at the facility who later determined that the rest of the family was also being held there. They were finally reunited, but held in different sections of the facility, according to her attorneys.
Andre’s mother and two siblings were held in areas reserved for family units, while Andre was held with other single adult women, the attorneys said.
Andre said she later found out that her sister would yell her name out into the yard of the facility every day since being detained in hopes that she would end up at the same facility and hear her.
Andre and her family are now challenging their asylum claim denial. In February, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals barred the Trump administration from deporting the family until they rule on the case, which could take several months.
Mukherjee filed a request to temporarily release the family while the court case continues. In March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released Andre’s mother and siblings, but she remains in detention.
Spotlight on the family’s case
Andre’s supporters highlight her accomplishments in the more than three years since coming to the U.S.
According to court documents, Andre graduated from high school in one and a half years. She completed a rigorous training program to become a certified nursing assistant and was in college studying to become a nurse at the time she was detained. She knows multiple languages, which she says can help her treat people from all over the world.
The loss of her brother inspired her to get into the medical field, Andre said.
“When I lost my brother, I was, like, I have to work and do something to help people,” she said.
To date, her attorneys say they have not received a formal reason for why she remains detained despite the government being prohibited from deporting her while her case unfolds in court.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told ABC News the Andre family has “received full due process” and the government will continue trying to deport the family.
“The facts are Olivia Mabiala Andre is an adult illegal alien with a final order of removal and no right to remain in the U.S. If we encounter illegal aliens who should have been detained but were instead released into the country by the Biden administration, we will detain them. The Trump administration is not going to ignore the rule of law,” the spokesperson said.
At times, Andre worries that she’ll be deported back to the Congo and what that would do to her mother.
“She already lost one child, she cannot lose another one,” she said.
Law enforcement respond near Temple Israel following reports of an active shooter on March 12, 2026 in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Police continue to investigate as emergency personnel remained on the scene. (Photo by Emily Elconin/Getty Images)
(WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich.) — Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun said that 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali — the suspect involved in the shooting and vehicle-ramming attack at a Detroit-area synagogue on Thursday — had “lost several members of his own family … in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon.”
Strongly condemning the attack, Baydoun said “everyone deserves to worship in peace and we must unequivocally condemn any attack on a house of worship or the people within it.”
“We learned that the individual responsible for the incident that took place at Temple Israel Synagogue in West Bloomfield was a resident of Dearborn Heights,” Baydoun continued. “He died at the scene. Earlier this month, he lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon.”
Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin also vehemently condemned the attack, saying she is “so sick” of these incidents happening both within her community and across the country.
“Everyone deserves the right to worship in peace. Everyone. An act of antisemitism, an act of violence, of hate, should be treated to the fullest extent of the law,” Slotkin told ABC News on Thursday. “And I’m so sick of another one of these incidents all the time in my community, across the country. And I just — I think we need to acknowledge that we have a problem, and I’m just sick about it.”
Ghazali, who was armed with a rifle, died after a shootout with security at the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, a senior federal law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said earlier.
Nobody inside the synagogue was hurt, and the synagogue noted that all 140 students as well as staff, teachers and “heroic security personnel” were accounted for, according to Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.
“This tragedy comes at a time when communities everywhere are confronting rising hate and senseless violence. No matter where violence occurs, whether in West Bloomfield or anywhere around in the world, harm against innocent people is something we must all stand firmly against,” Baydoun said. “The tensions we see across the world too often find their way into our own neighborhoods, reminding us how deeply connected our shared safety is.”
The sheriff said one synagogue security guard was hit by the suspect’s truck in the incident and was “knocked unconscious” but was expected to be okay.
There were no other injuries in the attack, though 30 law enforcement officers were transported to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation, according to Bouchard.
“I want our community to know that we are working closely with our police department and regional partners to protect the safety of every house of worship in our city,” said Baydoun. “I urge residents to stay aware and vigilant, especially as we gather during these sacred final days of Ramadan. Let’s continue to care for one another and pay attention to anything that feels out of place … “My heart is with everyone affected by these deeply painful events.”
A Frontier Airlines Airbus A320neo plane, owned by the Bank of Utah Trustee, taxis to a gate at Denver International Airport (DEN) on March 23, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — A Frontier Airlines flight taking off for Los Angeles from Denver International Airport on Friday night struck an individual walking on a runway, according to the airline and airport officials.
The incident occurred shortly after 11:00 p.m. local time on Runway 17L, the airline said in a statement early Saturday. There were 224 passengers and 7 crew members on board, Frontier said.
The person struck was at least partially consumed by one of the engines, an official confirmed to ABC News, causing a brief engine fire.
According to air traffic control audio obtained by ABC News, pilots reported an engine fire and smoke inside the aircraft following the incident.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Saturday the victim had breached airport security, deliberately scaled a perimeter fence and ran onto the runway.
The person was struck by the plane during takeoff at high speed, Duffy said.
Preliminary reports are that 12 were injured and five were taken the hospital, according to the secretary.
“Emergency response and investigation are ongoing,” the Denver International Airport said earlier. “The NTSB has been notified. Runway 17L will remain closed while the investigation is conducted.”
A source briefed on the incident told ABC News that airport security was inspecting the east perimeter fence on Saturday morning for gaps and the person struck did not appear to be connected to the work occurring on a parallel runway.
“We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities,” Frontier Airlines said. “We are deeply saddened by this event.”
Local law enforcement handles airport security and is investigating the breach with support from the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration, Duffy said.
