Semi-truck driver accused of causing 8 crashes then trying to strangle other driver in road rage incident
The booking photo for Hassan Moutassim. (Illinois State Police)
(CHICAGO) — A semi-truck driver has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly causing multiple crashes on a Chicago highway and then trying to strangle another driver, according to police.
The alleged road rage incident occurred Tuesday morning on Interstate 57, Illinois State Police said.
The semi-truck driver — identified by authorities as 25-year-old Hassan Moutassim of Jersey City, New Jersey — allegedly caused eight separate crashes while driving north on I-57, police said.
After the last crash, Moutassim stopped, exited the semi-truck and then allegedly removed a driver from one of the crashed vehicles “and began battering the driver, including an attempt to strangle the victim,” Illinois State Police said in a press release on Thursday.
The victim was transported to an area hospital with unspecified injuries.
Officers took Moutassim into custody at the scene and he was charged Wednesday with attempted murder, aggravated battery on a public way and aggravated battery-strangulation, police said.
He is being held pending his first court appearance, police said. It is unclear if he has an attorney at this time.
People dressed as Santa Claus take part in the annual SantaCon celebration in New York City, December 13, 2025. (Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Federal prosecutors arrested the organizer of New York City’s controversial SantaCon bar crawl Wednesday after they say he allegedly kept a lot of the holiday joy for himself.
Stefan Pildes, 50, is facing federal wire fraud charges that accuse him of siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars in charitable funds for his own use, including for concert tickets and vacations.
SantaCon is an event held annually in December in which thousands of attendees dress as Santa Claus and other holiday characters and travel to bars and restaurants throughout the day.
The event is billed as “a charitable, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus convention that happens once a year to spread absurdist joy” that charges attendees tickets that cost between $10 and $20, the indictment said.
“When one Attendee, for example, asked what she would receive for purchasing a ticket, the SantaCon Email responded, in part, ‘your donation goes to charity and it is only a few bucks and that good feeling will warm your heart faster than whiskey and gingerbread,'” the indictment said.
But of nearly $3 million Pildes raised since 2019, he allegedly diverted more than half to an entity he used as a slush fund, according to an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court.
Prosecutors allege Pildes used the money for personal expenses, including $365,000 to renovate a lakefront property in New Jersey, $124,000 toward the lease of a “luxury Manhattan apartment,” a “$100,000 investment in a boutique resort in Costa Rica founded by a personal friend,” and a nearly $3,000 birthday dinner, the indictment said.
Pildes was expected to appear in court later Wednesday, and it was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.
He is charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The bar crawl has become a controversial event in Manhattan with complaints from local leaders and residents accusing some intoxicated Santa-dressed revelers of causing disturbances during the day
The NYPD has issued several summonses and made some arrests at past SantaCons.
-ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
U.S. Secret Service agents (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(GLYNCO, Ga.) — A Secret Service agent in training who previously worked as an analyst with the presidential protection team was arrested this week on charges of felony eavesdropping at the nation’s premiere federal law enforcement training academy.
Police reports from Glynn County, Georgia, said the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center student, Joel Lara Canvasser, secretly filmed his suitemate’s every move with a spy camera hidden in a phone charger. Canvasser allegedly targeted the roommate with a weekslong campaign of harassing text messages written to suggest the roommate was being watched by a stalking stranger who could see into his suite and even the bathroom.
Canvasser was arrested Wednesday and charged with unlawful eavesdropping or surveillance, according to police records. He posted bond of $8,458. Canvasser did not respond to messages seeking comment from ABC News.
Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn called the charges against Canvasser “deeply troubling.”
“On April 8, disturbing facts involving a Secret Service trainee assigned to a special agent training class at FLETC in Glynco, Georgia, were brought to light,” Quinn said in a statement to ABC News. “An initial investigation by the Secret Service and FLETC led to the individual’s arrest by local authorities. The charges are deeply troubling and raise significant concerns about the individual’s character and fitness to serve. As this matter is now before the courts, we will allow the facts to be presented through the judicial process. We commend the swift actions of Secret Service trainers and FLETC personnel, whose prompt response ensured the matter was quickly brought forward and addressed through appropriate legal channels.”
The agency also confirmed that the incident occurred between Canvasser and his suitemate, also a Secret Service trainee.
Before applying to be a special agent, Canvasser was a civilian employee assigned to the Office of Strategic Information and Intelligence, which monitors and assesses threats to the president and others under Secret Service protection.
Canvasser started with the Secret Service in the fall of 2025, the agency said — but now in addition to the criminal charges he faces, his access to all Secret Service sites and systems has been revoked while his work status and security clearance is suspended.
According to police, Canvasser in March offered his suitemate a phone charger after the roommate’s charger seemed to have disappeared. Canvasser, police said, told the roommate “the cleaning ladies may have taken it.”
Police said the roommate plugged the charger in below the TV, giving the hidden camera a vantage point that had “coverage of the entire room.”
“Roughly a week after [the roommate] plugs in the charger, he begins receiving odd text messages from various numbers. In the beginning he believed they were spam messages, however over time he began to realize whoever was texting him was simultaneously watching him,” the police report said. “At first, he assumed whoever was texting him had compromised his phone,” so he “placed a Band Aid over the camera.”
The roommate sought Canvasser’s help with what he thought was his hacked device, the report said. Canvasser “has a cyber background and is supposedly good with technology which is why [the roommate] had gone to him for help.”
Canvasser told the suitemate he was probably the victim of malware and offered to help reset the phone, according to the report. But afterward, the roommate noticed the refreshed phone had suddenly and automatically connected to Canvasser’s personal WiFi account — something he found “odd,” according to the report.
The roommate’s reprieve from the harassing messages was short-lived, the report said: the texts “made a return” a week later.
“There was a specific instance where [the roommate] was using the bathroom and his phone was in his pocket. When he finished, he checked his phone and saw a message referencing him using the bathroom. It was at this point that [the roommate] realized the individual was not watching him through his phone camera but instead from another device,” according to the report.
Upon examining the borrowed charger, the roommate noticed it had an unusual glint, and “realized it was a camera,” the report said. “When he had pulled it out of the wall, the light hit the device in such a way that made the lens visible.”
Canvasser’s alleged harassing voyeurism did not stop at the surreptitious filming, according to the report: the roommate told police that “during the past month, Mr. Joel has gone into [his] room on multiple occasions while he’s been sleeping at night. For this reason, [the roommate] has been locking his things up in attempts to prevent these events.”
The trainee’s alleged violations of both privacy and the law are another black mark for the agency tasked with protecting top officials, including the president, vice president, their families and foreign dignitaries visiting the U.S.
The Secret Service had faced intense scrutiny since a gunman attempted to assassinate Donald Trump, then a former president running to return to the White House, while he campaigned at a Pennsylvania rally two years ago. That incident, which prompted the ouster of the agency’s director, was called a “historic security failure by the Secret Service” in an independent review by the Department of Homeland Security.
It also comes after a Secret Service agent tasked with protecting former President Barack Obama knowingly breached his duties while trying to woo a love interest and living a double life, according to a memoir from the agent’s ex-girlfriend. That prompted an internal probe once the agency became aware, after which the agent was ultimately fired.
Tiger Woods is shown in the back of a patrol car during his arrest in Juniper, Florida, on March 27, 2026. (Martin County Sheriff’s Office)
(MARTIN COUNTY, Fla.) — Body camera footage has been released showing Tiger Woods’ arrest for driving under the influence following his rollover crash in Florida last week.
The footage from the Martin County Sheriff’s Office shows the legendary golfer undergoing a field sobriety test, being placed into handcuffs and then driven from the scene in the back of the patrol vehicle following Friday’s crash.
One of the first deputies to arrive at the scene is seen talking to a man who says he pulled up after the incident and that no one is in the vehicle, which is seen on its side.
“Who’s involved?” the deputy asks.
“It’s Tiger Woods,” the man says.
“Oh, s—, all right,” the deputy says.
When a deputy responds to conduct a field sobriety test as part of a DUI investigation, Woods tells her he was “looking down at my phone, about ready to change the radio station,” when the crash occurred.
He tells the deputy that he had no alcohol to drink that day and takes “a few” medications, several of which are redacted in the video. He says he does not take any illegal substances.
He is seen hiccuping throughout the field sobriety test, at the end of which he is placed in handcuffs, with the deputy telling him she believes his “normal faculties are impaired” due to an “unknown substance.”
“I’m being arrested?” Woods asks.
“Yes, sir,” the deputy responds, saying he is being arrested for DUI.
Woods was charged with driving under the influence with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test following last Friday’s accident in Jupiter Island, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said. No one was injured, officials said.
He was released on bail later Friday.
Woods waived his right to an arraignment and entered a not guilty plea earlier this week, according to court documents.
The accident unfolded when Woods tried to pass a truck in front of him, authorities said. Woods clipped the back of the truck’s trailer, causing the golfer’s SUV to tip on its side, authorities said.
Woods told deputies he was looking down at his phone and changing the radio station and didn’t realize the truck in front of him had slowed down, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Two hydrocodone pills were found in Woods’ pants pocket, the probable cause affidavit said. Hydrocodone is a prescription medication intended to treat severe, chronic pain and common side effects include dizziness and drowsiness.
The golfer had “bloodshot and glassy” eyes and “extremely dilated” pupils, the probable cause affidavit said. Woods’ movement was “lethargic,” but he was also “extremely alert and talkative,” the document said.
A breathalyzer showed no alcohol in his system, but Woods refused to take a urine test, which is used to detect drugs or medication, authorities said.
Woods broke his silence about the crash on Tuesday, saying in a statement, “I know and understand the seriousness of the situation I find myself in today. I am stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health.”
“This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work toward lasting recovery,” he said.
On Wednesday, a Marin County judge granted Woods permission to travel out of the U.S. to begin “comprehensive inpatient treatment,” court records show.
Woods won’t participate in the Masters, which begins April 9, tournament officials said.
The PGA Tour said in a statement, “Our focus is on his health and well‑being. Tiger continues to have our full support as he takes this important step.”
