Category: National

(WATERBURY, Conn.) — A woman was charged for allegedly holding her “severely emaciated” stepson in captivity for over 20 years, since he was 11 years old, and forcing him to endure “prolonged abuse, starvation, severe neglect, and inhumane treatment,” police said.

The discovery of the now 32-year-old man happened on Feb. 17, when Waterbury Police Department officers in Connecticut, along with personnel from the Waterbury Fire Department, responded to a report of an active fire at a residence on Blake Street at approximately 8:42 p.m.

The fire was quickly extinguished by authorities and two occupants were found inside the home at the time. The first person was identified as 56-year-old Kimberly Sullivan, the owner of the property who called authorities for help, and the second person was identified as a 32-year-old man who was later determined to be Sullivan’s stepson.

Sullivan was evacuated to safety following the fire but the male occupant, who had suffered smoke inhalation and exposure to the fire, had to be assisted from the home by Waterbury Fire Department personnel and was placed in the care of emergency medical services.

However, the case immediately took a turn when police began to speak with the man.

“While receiving medical care, the male victim disclosed to first responders that he had intentionally set the fire in his upstairs room, stating, ‘I wanted my freedom,’” officials said in their statement regarding the case. “He further alleged that he had been held captive by Sullivan since he was approximately 11 years old.”

“Following these alarming statements, the Waterbury Police Department Major Crimes Unit, in collaboration with the Waterbury State’s Attorney’s Office, launched an extensive investigation,” authorities continued. “Detectives determined that the victim had been held in captivity for over 20 years, enduring prolonged abuse, starvation, severe neglect, and inhumane treatment.”

The 32-year-old was also found in a “severely emaciated condition and had not received medical or dental care” during his time in captivity inside the home over the past two decades, according to police.

“Investigators further discovered that he had been provided with only minimal amounts of food and water which led to his extremely malnourished condition,” police continued.

As a result of the investigation, Sullivan was identified as a suspect, and an arrest warrant was issued on Tuesday.

Sullivan was located by police on Wednesday and taken into police custody by the Waterbury Police Department on charges of assault in the first degree, kidnapping in the second degree, unlawful restraint in the first degree, cruelty to persons and reckless endangerment in the first degree, police said.

“The suffering this victim endured for over 20 years is both heartbreaking and unimaginable,” said Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo. “This case required relentless investigative effort, and I commend the dedication of our officers and the Waterbury State’s Attorney’s Office. Their unwavering commitment ensured that justice is served, and the perpetrator is held fully accountable for these horrific crimes.”

Sullivan was subsequently arraigned in court and her bond was set at $300,000. She is now expected to be placed in the custody of the Connecticut Department of Corrections while she awaits trial.

The investigation is currently ongoing.

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(GLASGOW, Ky.) — Eli Heacock was like many 16-year-olds.

The Glasgow, Kentucky, teenager enjoyed playing tennis, telling “dad jokes” and spending time with his father, who his mom said was “his best friend.”

“He was our tornado. He kept us on our toes all the time,” said his mother, Shannon Heacock.

But everything changed in an instant after Eli Heacock died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Feb. 28, his mom told ABC News.

Since his death, his mom said local and federal investigators have said they believe Eli Heacock may have been targeted in an alleged sextortion scheme.

“Eli was on a good track. We had no reason to believe there was an issue at all. We knew nothing about sextortion or how it works,” Eli Heacock’s father, John Burnett, told ABC News.

Sextortion is a term “used to describe a crime in which an offender coerces a minor to create and send sexually explicit images or video,” according to the FBI. Once the offender receives the explicit content from the child, they then threaten to release the compromising content “unless the victim produces additional explicit material,” the FBI said on its website.

One type of sextortion is “financially motivated sextortion,” which follows a similar pattern, but is motivated by the goal of financial gain, not sexual gratification, the FBI said. After receiving explicit material, the offender will threaten to release the content unless a payment is made, the FBI said.

Financial sextortion has resulted “in an alarming number of deaths by suicide,” the FBI said on its website.

But, the explicit pictures do not need to be taken by the child to qualify as sextortion, Burnett said. In his son’s case, he said the offender made AI-generated images of Eli Heacock, sent them to the teenager and demanded $3,000 or else the pictures would be released or his family would be harmed.

“Their intention was to convince Eli their sincerity that they could, in fact, harm him or someone he loved with pictures that they generated,” Burnett told ABC News.

His mother said she regularly checked her son’s phone, but the interaction occurred during the night and the situation must have “put him in panic mode.”

In the text messages she saw, her son sent a portion of money to the offender, to which the anonymous user replied, “This is not enough.”

Eli Heacock’s twin sister discovered her brother’s body, ran to her parents and said “Eli was hurt,” Shannon Heacock said.

The 16-year-old was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to his injuries on Feb. 28, his mother said.

“How can your lives change that fast over merely $3,000 someone wanted off the internet from a kid? I play a lot of ‘What if I did this? What if I did that?’ We don’t need anybody to add to our guilt because we carry it very heavily right now,” Shannon Heacock told ABC News.

Upon arriving at the hospital, a local FBI detective reviewed Eli Heacock’s phone, recognized it as a potential sextortion case and put the teenager’s phone on airplane mode, his mother said.

The investigation into Eli Heacock’s death is still in its beginning stages, his father said, with both local detectives and federal investigators reviewing the contents of the 16-year-old’s phone.

The family has also been in contact with Rep. Steve Riley, a lawmaker in the Kentucky House of Representatives, who has championed a bill in the Kentucky legislature making sextortion a felony and establishing penalties for those convicted of the crime. The bill is now on its way to Gov. Andy Beshear to be signed into law, Shannon Heacock said.

The Heacocks are not the only family mourning the loss of a loved one after a sextortion scheme. In 2023 alone, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received 26,718 reports of financial sextortion — up from 10,731 reports in 2022.

Shannon Heacock urges parents to check their children’s phones at all times because, in her experience, “even the happiest child is hiding something.”

“It’s no longer to be scared of the white van that drives around, you have to be scared of the internet,” Shannon Heacock said.

If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises please call or text 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Reports of a possibly armed person at a San Bernardino, California, hospital sparked a massive law enforcement response Wednesday evening, but authorities later cleared the scene and said it appeared to be the result of a “swatting” call.

The incident began unfolding at the Loma Linda University Hospital Center in the San Bernardino area, east of Los Angeles, around 6:15 p.m. local time.

The Bernardo County Sheriff’s Office said in an post on X it was aware of “reports of a possible armed individual” at the hospital and said deputies were on scene and working to clear the facility.

Police and fire department vehicles surrounded the facility and news helicopters hovered nearby.

About two hours later, authorities said the scene had been cleared.

No shots were fired.

“There are no reported injuries, and the incident appears to be a swatting call,” the sheriff’s office said.

A swatting call refers to an intentional false report to authorities intending to cause a large law enforcement presence.

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(NEW YORK) — A high school track athlete faces a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery after a now-viral video showed her hitting a competitor’s head with her baton during a relay event.

Alaila Everett, a senior at I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, was running the second leg of the 4×200-meter relay when her baton struck Kaelen Tucker, a junior from Brookville High School, in the head. It happened March 4 during the Virginia State High School League Championships at Liberty University in Lynchburg.

Bethany Harrison, the commonwealth’s attorney for the city of Lynchburg, confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday that a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery was issued against Everett in the matter.

Additional details on the case were not immediately available.

Video of the incident showed Tucker staggering and reaching for her head after being hit before going off the track. She dropped her baton and was attended to by medical personnel shortly after the incident. She would later be diagnosed with a concussion, she told ABC affiliate WVEC in Hampton, Virginia.

“I was so in disbelief,” Tucker told WVEC. “I didn’t know what happened.”

Everett contended that baton strike was an accident in an interview that aired Tuesday on “Good Morning America.”

“I would never do that on purpose,” Everett said. “That’s not in my character.”

The 18-year-old said that during the race, her arm became stuck, and her baton inadvertently struck Tucker as they neared the corner of the track.

“Her arm was literally hitting the baton — until she got a little ahead, and my arm got stuck like this,” she said while holding a baton to emphasize the movement.

The Everetts say they believe their video shows that Tucker’s proximity to their daughter led to an accidental collision. According to the family, Tucker was running too close to Everett when she tried to cut ahead, which caused Everett to lose her balance and the baton to make contact with Tucker.

Following the incident, the athletic director at I.C. Norcom High School and Everett’s father apologized to the Tucker family in a phone call, according to Tucker’s parents.

The Virginia High School League told ABC News on Monday that it is reviewing the incident.

“The VHSL membership has always made it a priority to provide student-athletes with a safe environment for competition,” the league said in a statement.

The Portsmouth NAACP said it is also reviewing the incident as well as “racial slurs and death threats” toward the Everett family.

“We are committed collectively to ensuring that the criminal justice system, which we feel is not warranted in this situation, is executed fairly and based on due process,” the organization said in a statement on Wednesday while calling for Everett to be “void of any criminal proceedings.”

“From all accounts, she is an exceptional young leader and scholar whose athletic talent has been well-documented and recognized across our state,” the Portsmouth NAACP said. “She has carried herself with integrity both on and off the field and any narrative that adjudicates her guilty of any criminal activity is a violation of her due process rights.”

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — A USAID directive to destroy classified documents had been “seriously misapprehended,” Trump administration attorneys wrote in a court filing Wednesday in which they insisted that all records were appropriately handled and “did not violate” federal laws dictating the preservation of government documents.

The American Federation of Government Employees, a union that is suing the Trump administration over its cuts to the federal workforce, asked a federal judge late Tuesday to intervene and prevent the agency from “destroying documents with potential pertinence to this litigation” after a senior USAID official issued guidance to USAID staff ordering the destruction of classified records at its Washington, D.C., headquarters as USAID clears out of its office space.

The guidance urged officials to “shred as many documents first” and to “reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,” according to a copy of the message obtained by ABC News.

Justice Department attorneys wrote Wednesday that “trained USAID staff sorted and removed classified documents in order to clear the space formerly occupied by USAID for its new tenant.”

“They were copies of documents from other agencies or derivatively classified documents, where the originally classified document is retained by another government agency and for which there is no need for USAID to retain a copy,” DOJ attorneys wrote.

Trump administration attorneys asserted that “the removed classified documents had nothing to do with” the American Federation of Government Employees’ litigation.

The Trump administration attorneys explained that office space formerly belonging to USAID “is in the process of being decommissioned and prepared for the new tenant,” as ABC News reported Tuesday, and the records needed to be removed from their safes to make room for its new tenants, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Erica Carr, the USAID official who sent the memo ordering the destruction of the documents, wrote in a sworn declaration that “34 employees of USAID, all holding Secret-level or higher clearance, removed outdated and no longer needed derivatively classified documents in classified safes and sensitive compartmentalized information facilities.”

Carr added that most of the records earmarked for destruction remain in burn bags at the agency’s headquarters “where they remain untouched.” She said the documents would not be destroyed until the judge weighs in.

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(NEW YORK) — A federal judge has set an expedited briefing schedule for Mahmoud Khalil — the Palestinian activist who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the campus of Columbia University, despite possessing a green card — saying “there is some need for speed here.”

His attorneys pointed out Khalil is a lawful permanent resident with no criminal record but they declined the Judge Jesse Furman’s invitation to immediately argue the merits of the case. Instead Khalil’s attorneys said they would file an amended petition by Thursday evening.

The government said it would argue Khalil’s petition should be heard either in New Jersey, where he was taken after his arrest Saturday night, or in Louisiana, where he is being held.

With activists like actress Susan Sarandon looking on in court and protesters chanting outside, the judge ordered a phone call be arranged for Khalil on Wednesday after his attorneys argued access to their client is “severely limited.”

“We have literally not been able to confer with our client once since he was taken off the streets,” Khalil’s attorney Ramzi Kassem said.

Khalil is currently being held in Louisiana after being detained in New York earlier this week. His legal team is asking the court to order the government to return him to New York while his legal fight plays out.

Khalil’s wife, who is 8 months pregnant, said the couple have been excitedly preparing for the arrival of their baby.

“Mahmoud has been ripped away from me for no reason at all. I am pleading with the world to continue to speak up against his unjust and horrific detention by the Trump administration,” she said in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday.

“Six days ago, an intense and targeted doxxing campaign against Mahmoud began. Anti-Palestinian organizations were spreading false claims about my husband that were simply not based in reality. They were making threats against Mahmoud and he was so concerned about his safety that he emailed Columbia University on March 7th. In his email, he begged the university for legal support,” she said.

She said Columbia University never responded to that email and he was arrested a day later.

President Donald Trump’s administration has alleged that Khalil — who was a leader of the pro-Palestinian encampment protests on Columbia’s campus — was a supporter of Hamas. Baher Azmy, one of Khalil’s lawyers, called his client’s alleged alignment with Hamas “false and preposterous.”

“Setting aside the false and preposterous premise that advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights and to plead with public officials to stop an ongoing genocide constitutes alignment with Hamas, his speech is absolutely protected by the Constitution, and it should be chilling to everyone that the United States government could punish or try to deport someone because they disapprove of the speech they’re engaged in,” Azmy told ABC News on Monday.

Authorities have not charged Khalil with a crime and the administration has not provided any evidence showing Khalil’s alleged support for the militant group.

The Trump administration said it has the authority to remove Khalil under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

“Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the secretary of state has the right to revoke a green card or a visa for individuals who serve, or are adversarial to the foreign policy and the national security interests of the United States of America,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. “Mahmoud Khalil was an individual who was given the privilege of coming to this country to study at one of our nation’s finest universities and colleges and he took advantage of that opportunity, of that privilege, by siding with terrorists, Hamas terrorists.”

Attorney Amy E. Greer said Khalil’s detention in Louisiana is a “blatantly improper but familiar tactic designed to frustrate the New York federal court’s jurisdiction.”

Khalil’s arrest has prompted protests calling for his release. Fourteen members of Congress have also signed a letter demanding his release.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

ABC News’ Armando Garcia, James Hill, Laura Romero and Ely Brown contributed to this report.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Lyle and Erik Menendez will appear at independent parole board hearings on June 13 as a part of the brothers’ bid for clemency, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced.

“On June 13, we will have the parole hearing board recommendation,” the governor explained Tuesday on his podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom.” “That independent analysis will help guide the decision-making that my office is independently reviewing as it relates to the clemency application.”

The June hearings will follow the 90-day independent risk assessment that Newsom announced two weeks ago. He is ordering the parole board to conduct the assessment to determine whether the brothers pose “an unreasonable risk to the public” if released.

The governor wants an assessment of “the applicant’s current risk level, the impact of a commutation on victims and survivors, the applicant’s self-development and conduct since the offense, and if the applicant has made use of available rehabilitative programs, addressed treatment needs, and mitigated risk factors for reoffending,” his office said in a statement.

Newsom stressed on his podcast Tuesday that his clemency decision will only be “influenced by the facts.”

Celebrity does have “an impact, but in what direction does it weigh?” Newsom said. “Sometimes it’s used actually against people, because they’re so high profile, they’re actually held to a higher level of scrutiny and standards. At the same time, you don’t want that celebrity also to influence on the other side.”

“That’s why I move forward with the Board of Parole hearings to independently review with a group of experts — forensic psychologists and others — the facts of this case,” he said.

Newsom said he has not watched Ryan Murphy’s fictional series, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” which premiered on Netflix in September 2024 and brought new attention to the infamous case.

“I’ve seen a few clips here and there on social media,” he said. “I don’t intend to watch these series because I don’t want to be influenced by them. I just want to be influenced by the facts.”

“I’m obviously familiar with the Menendez brothers, just through the news over the course of many decades,” Newsom added. “But not to the degree that many others are because of all of these documentaries and all of the attention they’ve received. So that won’t bias my independent and objective review.”

Lyle and Erik Menendez are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1989 murders of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez. Over 20 of their relatives are pushing for their release after 35 years behind bars.

Besides clemency, the brothers are pursuing two other paths to freedom: resentencing and a petition to review new evidence.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced Monday that he’s opposed to resentencing, arguing the brothers hadn’t taken responsibility for their actions and calling their claims of self-defense part of a litany of “lies.”

Because the “brothers persist in telling these lies for the last over 30 years about their self-defense defense and persist in insisting that they did not suborn any perjury or attempt to suborn perjury, then they do not meet the standards for resentencing,” Hochman said at a news conference.

Hochman’s decision is an about-face from his predecessor, George Gascón, who announced in October that he supported resentencing for the brothers. Gascón praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and help other inmates.

Newsom said on his podcast that Hochman’s decision won’t impact the clemency process.

The final decision on resentencing is made by the judge; a hearing is set for March 20 and 21.

Hochman is also opposed to the brothers’ habeas corpus petition, which they filed in 2023 for a review of two new pieces of evidence not presented at trial: a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse from his father, and allegations from a former boy band member who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by Jose Menendez.

Hochman announced last month that he’s asked the court to deny the habeas corpus petition, arguing the new evidence isn’t credible or admissible.

ABC News’ Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Evacuation warnings and orders have been issued for parts of Los Angeles County on Wednesday, near burn scar areas from the Palisades Fire, due to high mudslide and debris flow risks, according to the LA Fire Department.

“These are recent burn areas and are especially susceptible to heavy rain,” LAFD said in its warning.

The Los Angeles Police Department has also visited and issued evacuation orders to 133 houses in the warning area that are at high risk, according to Mayor Karen Bass. 

Areas impacted by the Palisades Fire — including the Getty Villa area, Highlands near the burn areas, Bienveneda area near Temescal Canyon Park and Rivas Canyon/Will Rogers State Park area — are included in the warning area.

“While we prepare for another storm headed towards L.A., I want to urge Angelenos to stay vigilant, especially in burn scar areas,” Bass said in a statement. “My number one job is to keep Angelenos safe, so please heed all evacuation warnings, stay vigilant and stay informed.”

Over 20 million people are under a flash flood watch in Southern California due to heavy rain expected in the early morning hours Thursday.

Rainfall rates are expected to approach 0.75 inches per hour in these burn areas, lasting over a two- to three-hour period — from roughly midnight to 3 a.m. local time — and may result in quick accumulations of 1 to 3 inches of rain early Thursday. The heaviest rain will fall in that early morning period, with lighter rain continuing through 6 a.m. or 7 a.m., and then becoming much more scattered in nature through the day on Thursday. Thursday evening looks dry, with another round of light rain arriving for Friday morning and early afternoon. This round is not expected to cause any issues.

On Tuesday, as expected, the Los Angeles area only saw a quarter inch of rain at most in higher elevations, with less than a tenth of an inch at lower elevations like downtown LA. This rain will have actually helped slightly to prep the ground for the rain to come early Thursday, with the rain no longer falling on ground that is as dry and hard as it would have before.

The heavy rain reaches San Diego around 4 a.m. There is also a risk for flooding in San Diego on Thursday morning as this heavy rain reaches the Mexico border. They are also included in the flood watch along with Los Angeles.

The storm pushes into central California on Wednesday morning, with the heaviest rain arriving in San Francisco around noon.

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(LOS ANGELES) — With mass layoffs taking place at the Department of Education, the superintendent for the nation’s second largest public school system says the closure of the department would bring “catastrophic harm” if there is any reduction to the federal funding that students in his district receive.

In a video statement, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the county receives hundreds of millions of dollars for low-income students and others.

“We receive an excess of $750 million earmarked for poor students, English language learners, students with disabilities, and connectivity investments so that students can be connected with their learning, breakfast and lunch programs,” Carvalho said.

The Department of Education initiated mass layoffs on Tuesday night, reducing its workforce by nearly 50%, sources told ABC News.

The “reduction in force” notices began to go out Tuesday at about 6 p.m. ET

Some 1,315 employees were affected by the RIFs, leaving 2,183 employed by the department, according to senior officials at the DOE.

“Any reduction at the federal level, specific to these investments will bring about catastrophic harm in Los Angeles and across the country,” Carvalho said.

A statement released Tuesday from the Department of Education said that the DOE will “continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview, including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking.”

“This is primarily a streamlining effort for internal facing roles and not external facing roles,” a senior DOE official said of the layoffs.

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(NEW YORK) — Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations have been vandalized, suffered arson attacks and faced protests since the company’s CEO Elon Musk began his work with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, leading to mass layoffs of federal workers, authorities said.

The latest suspicious incident occurred overnight in Dedham, Massachusetts, where three Teslas were vandalized, according to the Dedham Police Department. Officials said “words had been spray-painted” on two Tesla Cyber-trucks, with all four tires of the trucks and a Tesla Model S being “reportedly damaged.”

Teslas were also damaged in Seattle on Sunday night, where crews had to extinguish a fire involving four electric vehicles, according to the Seattle Fire Department. Officials said other vehicles were moved away to prevent the spreading of the fire.

There were no buildings involved in the fire nor any injuries, according to the fire department.

The Seattle Police Department said the cause of the fire and whether or not foul play was a factor has not been determined. Other incidents in the U.S. were deliberately aimed at the company and it’s chief executive.

Six Teslas were also vandalized at a Tesla dealership in Lynnwood, Washington, on Saturday, with one black Tesla Cyber-truck graffitied with swastikas, according to the Lynnwood Police Department.

A Tesla charging station in South Carolina was targeted on Friday, where an unknown individual spray-painted an expletive directed at President Donald Trump along with “LONG LIVE UKRAINE” on the ground in red paint and threw homemade Molotov cocktails at the station, according to the North Charleston Police Department.

The suspect fled on foot before authorities arrived on the scene, police said.

Police “cut the power to the three charging stations that were burned by the homemade Molotov Cocktails,” officials said in a statement.

There have been no arrests made for this attack, police said.

Similarly, seven Tesla charging stations sustained heavy fire-related damage in Massachusetts on March 3, according to the Littleton Police Department. Officials determined the fires to be “deliberately” set, and the investigation is still ongoing to find the arsonist.

Shots were also fired at at Tesla dealership in Tigard, Oregon, where seven bullets damaged three cars and shattered windows on March 6, according to the Tigard Police Department.

Police said they are unaware of the motive of this specific incident, but were aware that “other Tesla dealerships have been targeted across Oregon and the nation for political reasons.”

On March 2, another Tesla dealership was spray-painted in Owings Mills, Maryland, where “NO MUSK” was written in red spray paint on the windows, followed by a symbol police originally thought was antisemitic.

“The graffiti was instead used against Elon Musk, and the graffiti was an ‘X’ inside of a circle, which we assume is for Twitter, which Musk owns,” Detective Anthony Shelton said in a statement obtained by Baltimore, Maryland, ABC affiliate WMAR.

Another incendiary event occurred in Colorado, where a woman was arrested on Feb. 27 after police caught her with explosives at a Tesla dealership, according to the Loveland Police Department. Lucy Grace Nelson, 40, was arrested after police launched an investigation following a series of vandalizations at the Tesla dealership, police said.

Nelson was charged with explosives or incendiary devices use during felony, criminal mischief and criminal attempt to commit a Class 3 felony, authorities said.

Protests against Tesla have also occurred at dealerships nationwide. Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs told ABC News the demonstrations and the company’s plummeting stocks — which have tumbled nearly 48% this year — can all “be tied to [Musk’s] time at DOGE.”

“It has been a distraction for the company and it’s been a problem for the brand,” Frerichs said.

Amid the crime sprees and protests, some Tesla owners have even placed stickers on their vehicles that read, “I bought this before Elon went crazy,” ABC News reported.

Trump said on Truth Social on Monday night that he is in support of Musk and is going to “buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk.”

Musk, the owner of X, has reposted some reactions that criticized the attacks and called the incident in Seattle “crazy.”

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene labeled the vandalisms as “domestic terrorism” and urged U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to “prioritize a thorough investigation into these matters” in a letter posted to X on Wednesday.

“These attacks, which seem to involve coordinated acts of vandalism, arson and other acts of violence, seriously threaten public safety,” Greene said in a letter posted to X.

A spokesperson for Tesla did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

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