(MADISONVILLVE, La.) — A Louisiana dad has been arrested for second-degree murder after he allegedly left his 1-year-old daughter in a hot car for over nine hours, authorities said.
The incident unfolded after Joseph Boatman “consumed multiple alcoholic beverages” and then went to pick up his 21-month-old daughter from a relative’s house shortly after 2:30 a.m. Sunday, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
Boatman, 32, allegedly strapped his daughter into her car seat, went inside the Madisonville home and didn’t return to the car, the sheriff’s office said.
More than nine hours later, deputies were sent to the house after a family member found the toddler unresponsive in the car, authorities said.
The temperature in Madisonville climbed to 95 degrees on Sunday; the heat index — what temperature it feels like — reached 105 degrees.
“This is a devastating loss that no family ever wants to face,” Sheriff Randy Smith said in a statement. “When a child is left in a vehicle, especially on a day when the heat index climbs over 100 degrees, the outcome can turn deadly in a matter of minutes. This case involved compromised judgment, and the result was heartbreaking.”
The girl is the fifth child to die in a hot car in the U.S. this year, according to national nonprofit KidsAndCars.org.
On average, 38 children die in hot cars every year in the U.S. About 88% of them are 3 years old or younger, KidsAndCars.org said.
Click here for hot car safety tips to keep in mind this summer.
(WASHINGTON) — NASA is planning on decommissioning the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of 2030. But before that happens, Axiom Space, a privately funded space infrastructure company based in Houston, wants to build a replacement. The company has begun construction of the world’s first commercial space station, Axiom Station.
But Axiom isn’t waiting for their station to be completed before transporting people into space. The company has been launching teams of private astronauts to the ISS since 2022, allowing them to conduct research, train, and participate in scientific activities. And on Wednesday at 8 a.m., Axiom Space will attempt to send its fourth crew to the ISS as part of its AX-4 mission.
“The AX-4 crew represents the very best of international collaboration, dedication, and human potential. Over the past 10 months, these astronauts have trained with focus and determination, each of them exceeding the required thresholds to ensure mission safety, scientific rigor and operational excellence,” said Allen Flynt, Axiom Space’s chief of mission services, during a pre-launch press conference on Monday.
The four-person crew will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and travel to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched into orbit by a Falcon 9 rocket. It will be the maiden mission for an updated Dragon capsule.
“This is the first flight for this Dragon capsule, and it’s carrying an international crew—a perfect debut. We’ve upgraded storage, propulsion components and the seat lash design for improved reliability and reuse,” said William Gerstenmaier, SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability.
The mission will be led by Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and the director of human spaceflight at Axiom. During her career at NASA, Whitson completed three long-duration space flights, spending a total of 665 days in orbit. She also commanded Axiom’s AX-2 mission, adding another 10 days in space to her already impressive total. Whitson now holds the record for the most time spent in space by a woman.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Peggy Whitson back. This will be her fifth trip to space—three with NASA and now two with Axiom,” Dana Weigel, NASA’s manager of the International Space Station Program, said. “She’s made substantial contributions to ISS and now helps lay the foundation for future commercial missions.”
Joining Whitson on the AX-4 mission are astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary. This will be the first time that nationally sponsored astronauts from those countries have visited the ISS. It has also been more than 40 years since those three countries sent someone into space.
Indian Air Force pilot and astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, the mission’s pilot, will be the second person from India to go to space and the first since 1984. Polish engineer Sławosz Uznański, a mission specialist and a European Space Agency project astronaut, will be the second person from his country to head to space and the first since 1978. And Tibor Kapu, a mechanical engineer and mission specialist, will be the second Hungarian astronaut to rocket into space. That country’s last space mission was 45 years ago.
“For India, Poland, and Hungary, this mission marks a return to human spaceflight after more than 40 years, and their first missions to the ISS. It’s a powerful reminder of what we can achieve when we work together across borders, disciplines, and cultures,” Flynt said.
The AX-4 mission will last up to 14 days, during which the crew will conduct about 60 scientific studies and experiments. The company said 31 countries have contributed to the research plan and that the projects will focus on biological, life and material sciences, as well as Earth observation. Axiom said that the work done at the station will help the company advance its goal of building Axiom Station, which would be the world’s first commercial space station.
To lay the foundation for its space station, Axiom plans to attach several of its commercial modules to the ISS while it’s still operational. When the ISS is decommissioned, those modules will detach from the station and become part of the privately run Axiom Station.
Unlike space tourism, which is operated independently of NASA and government support, the Axiom mission is part of NASA’s private astronaut mission program. This private-public partnership provides selected commercial space companies with access to the ISS and technical and logistical support from NASA.
“NASA’s framework for private astronaut missions gives industry responsibility for launch, free flight, and landing,” Weigel said.
“It’s an incredible time for spaceflight. These missions help train teams, build partnerships and shape the future of low Earth orbit,” she added.
(LOS ANGELES) — The Marines and the National Guard personnel deployed amid the protests in to Los Angeles will operate under the same rules of force and will not be engaging crowds unless necessary, according to two U.S. officials.
That means they are tasked with protecting federal buildings and federal personnel only — they will not patrol U.S. streets or try to detain protesters to assist police, the officials said.
While all the troops are carrying weapons, their guns will not have ammunition loaded in the chamber, officials said, but will carry ammunition as part of their regular uniforms that can be used in the rare case of needed self-defense.
They will not use rubber bullets or pepper spray, either, they said.
The officials noted these rules would change if President Donald Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, which he has not done.
The rules of force the personnel are operating under call for them to de-escalate the situation as much as possible.
“The arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles — absent clear coordination — presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city,” Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement.
“The Los Angeles Police Department, alongside our mutual aid partners, has decades of experience managing large-scale public demonstrations, and we remain confident in our ability to do so professionally and effectively,” he continued. “That said, our top priority is the safety of both the public and the officers on the ground. We are urging open and continuous lines of communication between all agencies to prevent confusion, avoid escalation, and ensure a coordinated, lawful, and orderly response during this critical time.”
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Edmonds, a former vice commander of the Michigan Air National Guard, told ABC News, “If I were an on-scene commander in my previous life as a [National] Guard officer, I would immediately demand clarification, for my people’s sake. I would be saying, so what, when do we use deadly force?”
Edmonds said it appears the military is “defining the mission as non-law enforcement.”
“But they’re putting them with law enforcement personnel as their ‘protection.’ And I don’t see the distinction there between if I’m engaged in protecting a federal officer [or] federal building, [and if] I’m engaged in enforcing the law.”
The Marines and Guard troops being sent to Los Angeles are being led by Army Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, who is deputy commander of U.S. Army North, officials said.
In total, there are 4,800 troops operating under Title 10 status: 4100 of them National Guard soldiers and 700 active-duty Marines.
Title 10 of the U.S. Code contains a provision that allows the president to call on federal service members when there “is a rebellion or danger of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States” or when “the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”
The deployment of the 700 Marines was to ensure “adequate numbers of forces to provide continuous coverage” of the area, according to U.S. Northern Command.
The deployed force is known as “Task Force 51” and officials insist the troops have been trained in de-escalation, crowd control, and standing rules for the use of force.
(NEW YORK) — The walls were closing in on Sean “Diddy” Combs, his former girlfriend testified Monday, and the rap mogul turned fashion tastemaker was allegedly lashing out.
“I remember we were sleeping and one of the sons knocked on the door and said that something happened, and then I was just by myself,” the former girlfriend told a hushed Manhattan courtroom. “I went downstairs and could see everyone speaking amongst each other.”
Combs was huddling with his team and his family. They needed a response — urgently. A hotel security video obtained by CNN was being played repeatedly on national television, and it showed Combs kicking and beating another of his former romantic partners, the singer Cassie Ventura.
“They were trying to come up with some kind of sincere apology post or something regarding the video,” she said.
Testifying under the pseudonym “Jane,” the woman offered jurors a window into the last two years of Combs’s life, as legal troubles and bad publicity threatened to unravel his music empire and fiercely protected reputation.
Until that point, she said that Combs had not resorted to the type of violence Ventura said she suffered at Combs’ hands. But she told the jury she was subjected to the same coerced and degrading sex on demand with male prostitutes to satisfy Combs’ urges — just as Ventura has testified in her own account.
“I just couldn’t sleep. I was just reading these pages and going through a nightmare,” Jane testified, explaining her first reaction after reading Ventura’s 2023 lawsuit in which Ventura narrated a story that Jane said was painfully similar to the life she had been forced to lead. “I can’t believe I am reading my own story.”
Ventura’s lawsuit, settled only hours after it was filed for $20 million, was the first domino to fall, as Combs faced a wave of public criticism, a federal investigation, and criminal indictment. He is accused of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted on all counts. He denies all charges.
The emotional and graphic testimony from Jane comes as jurors are entering the fifth week of testimony in Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial. His lawyers have told jurors that Combs is a flawed and violent man who has abused drugs and his romantic partners, but they insist he did not commit the crimes he is being tried for.
“Jane” testified that Ventura’s lawsuit was like “reading my own sexual trauma.”
Jane testified that she reached her breaking point with Combs by October 2023, after three years of what she believed was unrequited love. She told jurors how nearly every one of their dates or romantic getaways would become an opportunity for Combs to push her to have sex with male escorts during marathon sex parties she called “hotel nights” that could last days and were often fueled by drugs and booze.
“I’m not a porn star. I’m not an animal. I need a break. I don’t want to do anything. I’ve hit a wall,” Ventura texted Combs after he asked her to arrange a marathon evening of sex with a male prostitute while Combs watched and masturbated. “It’s been three years of me having f— strangers. I’m tired.”
Her testimony grew more emotional as she read aloud texts she sent Combs in 2023 in which she tried to salvage a relationship with the rapper without having to participate in the alleged prolonged orgies.
“My spirit and my soul is tired. I need a break,” she wrote in one message. “I can’t be used like this anymore. I wanted to make you happy but it’s creating a war inside me.”
As their relationship deteriorated, Jane told jurors that learning of Ventura’s lawsuit in November 2023 prompted her to look at her own relationship with Combs in a new light. She testified she nearly fainted when she recognized her own relationship with Combs in the pages of Ventura’s retelling.
“I can’t believe I am reading my own story,” Jane told jurors about learning about Ventura’s allegations.
In one of her messages to Combs, Jane wrote, “I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma.”
Jurors hear recording of Combs allegedly pressuring her into silence about sexual encounters
Three days after the lawsuit was filed, Combs and Jane spoke on the phone about the allegations. The jury heard a recording of the phone call taken from the phone of Combs’ top assistant after it was seized at the airport in Miami. Jane testified she did not know she was being recorded.
“This is when I need you to be there for me,” Combs is heard saying, as the recording echoed through the hushed courtroom. “You know we did all that s— together.”
“You know, I have been feeling so manipulated. What am I to do with that feeling? Who is there for me?” Jane is heard saying back.
Prosecutors then played for the jury a second recording of a call Combs made to Jane 22 minutes later.
“I need your friendship right now,” Combs is heard saying. “I can’t even talk on the phone. Please don’t send no texts.”
“I just needed to tell you that I need your friendship,” Combs is heard saying. “You know you ain’t got to worry about nothing else, you feel me?”
Jane testified she believed Combs was offering to continue paying her $10,000 monthly rent. Prosecutors have argued the recording is proof that Combs tried to tamper with Jane’s testimony by attempting to pressure her into saying their sexual interactions were consensual.
“Jane” said Combs threatened to release her sex tapes
As her relationship with Combs deteriorated in the days after Ventura’s lawsuit was filed, Jane testified that Combs escalated his threats. For the first time, she told jurors that Combs threatened to release videos he recorded of her having sex with male prostitutes.
She told the jury that Combs’ first threatened to release the tapes after he offered her money to end their relationship quietly.
“I remember he said, ‘Charge me, charge me, charge me for your resentment. I don’t want any loose ends,'” she alleged Combs said over a video call.
But after Jane requested hundreds of thousands of dollars to end the relationship — saying she deserved compensation for the three years she lost during their relationship — she testified that Combs erupted.
“F—- you. I am blocking you,” Combs texted Jane. “Leave me alone. Con artist.”
“You keep describing yourself. You conned me into…having strangers run trains on me,” she wrote back.
As their fight escalated — and Jane texted Combs that she would kill herself — Jane testified that Combs began to threaten to release the recordings of her having sex with other men.
“At the height of this anger, he said I am just going to show your child’s father these tapes. I have nothing to lose,” Jane testified.
She told the jury that she tried to contact Combs’ chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, to defuse the situation and stop Combs from releasing any of the tapes.
“Why did you reach out to [Khorram] after Sean threatened to release your tapes?” prosecutor Maureen Comey asked.
“Because [Khorram] is like his right brain – she is one of the people he listens to,” Jane testified.
Despite the threats to release her sex tapes and her concerns about the allegations in Ventura’s civil lawsuit, Jane told jurors that she reconciled with Combs by February 2024. She testified that she resumed participating in hotel nights — now hosted in private residences instead of hotel rooms — and spending time with Combs, even as negative publicity stemming from Ventura’s lawsuit was growing.
On the day in 2024 that federal agents raided Combs’ residences, she said an agent from Homeland Security Investigations left a card at her home. Jane testified she contacted Combs, who got her a lawyer, and that the rap mogul continues to pay for her legal expenses, even as her testimony is being used by prosecutors trying to lock Combs up for life.
“Jane” testified Combs attacked her, forced her to participate in sex with male escort
After the hotel video was broadcast, Jane testified she watched Sean Combs pledge in an Instagram post to become a “better man,” and next saw Combs in person on June 18, 2024.
“It was a very terrible day,” Jane testified.
She told the jury she had been “bottling up a lot of resentment and anger towards him” and confronted him about a younger woman who had accompanied him on a recent trip.
“I said, ‘You’re a pedophile,'” Jane testified. The woman he had been with was over 18, but “I felt like he was 25 or 27 years her senior,” Jane explained.
Jane told jurors that she initiated the fight, pushing Combs’ head into a counter and throwing candles at him. She said she retreated to her bedroom, shouting “just leave, just leave,” when he kicked open the door. She went into the bathroom, where, she said, Combs then kicked the bathroom door “literally off the hinges.”
Jane testified that Combs “kicked me on the back of my thigh,” causing her to fall. “He put me in a chokehold on the ground, and I couldn’t breathe,” she said.
Jane testified she managed to escape, hide for about two hours and return, thinking he would be gone. But, she testified, Combs once again found her and chased her to the backyard of the residence, where she balled herself up to protect her face from Combs’ attack.
Jane testified that Combs punched and kicked her while she was on the ground, grabbed her by the hair and arm and dragged her toward the house. Inside the house, Jane said she noticed Combs’ phone and tried to call the woman she believed Combs had travelled with.
“I took his phone, and I ended up calling the girl I assumed he was with,” Jane testified. “Sean was holding me down and making me listen to her insults.”
In the bathroom later, Jane testified she noticed two welts on her forehead and a black eye forming. She went to take a shower, where she testified that Combs slapped her face three times, causing her to lose balance.
“Sean said just put some ice on it and put an outfit on,” Jane testified, saying that she covered her bruises with makeup before a male escort, Anton, arrived.
In the bathroom preparing for the evening, Jane said she remembered Combs telling her, “Take this f—— pill. You’re not going to ruin my f—— night. Get out there and suck his d—.. F— him. I don’t care.”
“I don’t want to, I don’t want to, I don’t want to,” Jane said she responded. She told the jury that Combs got right in her face and asked, “Is this coercion?” before forcing her to take ecstasy and perform oral sex on Anton.
“For how long?” Comey asked.
“It just felt like forever,” Jane answered.
She said she received about $12,000 in cash from Combs’ bodyguard the next day to cover the damage to her home and the cost of the male escort. The jury saw multiple photos of the doors damaged by what she testified was “Sean’s kick,” which Jane said she sent to a repair company.
Jane testified she saw Combs a few days later at his home. The jury saw a video she took that captured her alleged injuries through the foundation and concealer she told the jury she had put on. The jury saw a second selfie video that also briefly captured the injuries she testified Combs inflicted.
“Jane” tells jury about her final interactions with Combs before his arrest
At the end of July 2024, Jane testified she visited Combs in Miami where she said he gave her the drug “liquid molly” and she had “high octane” sex with a male escort named Paul.
She said the final trip to see Combs in Miami occurred in August 2024, when she testified she had sex with a male escort named Don.
She told the jury that she originally planned to visit Combs in New York in September 2024, as Combs was staying at a hotel, on the verge of being arrested by federal authorities.
Their plans were cut short by agents who took him into custody.
“I guess he got arrested,” she told the jury.
She said she hasn’t seen Combs since August 2024 but has met with his defense attorneys as recently as April of this year. She testified that his lawyers were the first people she told about the violent incident in June 2024.
Jane said she has been in therapy for about three months and hired her own lawyer, though Combs still pays her legal bills and rent.
To conclude the direct questioning, a prosecutor asked Jane the pointed question: “Sitting here today, how do you feel about Sean now?”
“I just pray,” Jane testified, “for his continued healing and I pray for peace for him.”
(NEW ORLEANS) — The girlfriend of one of the two remaining inmates who broke out of a New Orleans jail last month has been arrested for allegedly helping in his escape, officials said Monday.
Derrick Groves is among 10 inmates who escaped from the Orleans Justice Center on May 16, according to Louisiana State Police. Eight of the inmates have since been captured, but Groves and another inmate — Antoine Massey — remain on the run, police said.
Over a dozen people have been arrested on suspicion of helping the escapees, including another inmate in the jail and a jail maintenance worker who is accused of shutting off water to the toilet, allowing escapees to remove it.
Most recently, Darriana Burton, 28, of New Orleans, was arrested on Monday for allegedly helping Groves escape, the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office announced.
Burton is a former Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office correctional employee, according to the office, which described her and Groves as having an on-again, off-again relationship for three years.
She allegedly had an “active involvement in the planning phase of the escape,” according to the affidavit for her arrest warrant, including relaying “escape-related information” and coordinating communications between Groves and people outside the jail.
Two days before the escape, Groves and Burton had a FaceTime video call via the facility’s iPads during which Burton “was observed holding a secondary device in front of the camera” that displayed an unknown man in a separate FaceTime call, according to the affidavit.
“This conversation remained intentionally vague, as Groves, Burton and the unknown male appeared to recognize the call was being recorded,” the affidavit stated, noting that it was implied that Burton and the unknown man would have a separate, unmonitored call to allegedly discuss details of the escape.”
Shortly after the initial video call, the three were present on another call during which the unknown man “advised against the escape, calling it a ‘bad move’ and warning that it would trigger a ‘manhunt,'” the affidavit stated.
“This exchange confirmed that Burton had already disclosed the escape plan to the outside contact, actively soliciting his involvement,” the affidavit stated. “It further demonstrates her direct role in facilitating communication and supporting the coordination of Groves’ escape.
Burton has been transported to the Plaquemines Parish Jail and faces a felony charge of conspiracy to commit simple escape, officials said.
“We will continue to pursue anyone and everyone who has aided and abetted these criminals. We will find you, arrest you, and prosecute you to the full extent of the law,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement. “We will arrest all aiders and abettors, and we will eventually get Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves back to prison where they belong.”
Burton was employed at the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office from August 2022 until her termination in March 2023, the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office said. She was arrested and charged for allegedly bringing contraband into the jail and “malfeasance in office,” though the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office refused the charges, according to the state attorney general’s office.
The reward for the arrest of Groves and Massey increased to $50,000, authorities announced late last month, as police said they believe they are closing in on the “dangerous” fugitives.
Groves was convicted last year of two counts of second-degree murder in a 2018 Mardi Gras Day shooting and faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said. Unrelated to that case, he also subsequently pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter, online court records show.
(MILWAUKEE, WI) — Federal prosecutors argued Monday that a court should reject a Wisconsin judge’s attempt to have the obstruction case against her dismissed based on judicial immunity.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, 65, was arrested by the FBI on April 25 and is charged with concealing a defendant, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, to prevent his arrest by immigration authorities.
Prosecutors contend that her motion to dismiss the charges ignores “well-established law that has long permitted judges to be prosecuted for crimes they commit,” according to court documents.
“Her state judicial post is not a license to engage in conduct that violates federal criminal law,” wrote Richard Frohling, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
The government’s filing also takes aim at Dugan’s claim that federal agents on April 18 disrupted active proceedings in her courtroom when they showed up in the courthouse seeking to arrest Flores-Ruiz on alleged immigration violations, arguing that it was Dugan “who took it upon herself to interfere with the federal agents’ performance of their responsibilities,” according to the filing.
Prosecutors allege that “Dugan chose to pause an unrelated case, leave her courtroom, disrupt proceedings in a colleague’s courtroom to commandeer her assistance, and then confront agents in the public hallway.”
The filing goes on to allege that Dugan directed agents through a set of double doors to the chief judge’s office even though she knew the chief judge was not in the office. “Dugan quickly returned to her courtroom and, among other things, directed E.F.R.’s attorney to ‘take your client out and come back and get a date’ and then to go through the jury door and ‘down the stairs’ before physically escorting E.F.R. and his attorney into a non-public hallway with access to a stairwell that led to a courthouse exit,” stated the filing, which refers to Flores-Ruiz by his initials. “She did this all just days after thanking a colleague for providing information which explained that ICE could lawfully make arrests in the courthouse hallway.”
The filing is the first time federal prosecutors have alleged that Dugan instructed the man to go “down the stairs,” and the first time they have referenced access to a stairwell leading to an exit.
Video from more than two dozen surveillance cameras at the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, obtained by ABC News through a public records request, shows the man and his attorney did not, in fact, take the stairs after the encounter with the judge but exited a private door that led to a public hallway. From there, the video shows the man and his attorney take the elevator down to the court’s main floor while being followed by federal agents. The videos obtained by ABC News do not have sound.
Flores-Ruiz, who was due to appear before Dugan that day on a battery charge, was captured outside the court building after a brief foot chase.
“Put simply, nothing in the indictment or the anticipated evidence at trial supports Dugan’s assertion that agents ‘disrupted’ the court’s docket; instead, all events arose from Dugan’s unilateral, non-judicial, and unofficial actions in obstructing a federal immigration matter over which she, as a Wisconsin state judge, had no authority,” prosecutors said in the filing.
In the filing, the prosecution argues that even if judicial immunity applied in this case, it would “not help Dugan” because her actions “went well beyond her official role when she endeavored to prevent federal law enforcement officers from executing a valid arrest…in a public area of the Milwaukee County Courthouse.”
Dugan has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and a trial date is set for July 21.
Lawyers for Dugan, in part citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in President Donald Trump’s immunity case, have argued she has judicial immunity for official acts and that her prosecution is unconstitutional.
“The problems with this prosecution are legion, but most immediately, the government cannot prosecute Judge Dugan because she is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts,” her attorneys wrote in a motion to dismiss filed last month. “Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or court; it is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset. The prosecution against her is barred. The Court should dismiss the indictment.”
The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan in the wake of her arrest, stating in an order that it found it was “in the public interest that she be temporarily relieved of her official duties.”
(LOS ANGELES) — President Donald Trump defended his decision to send the National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quash protests that turned violent, saying in a social media post on Sunday that “if we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.”
Trump alleged the nation’s second largest city, which covers more than 500 square miles, had been “invaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals” and that he had directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi to coordinate with all relevant agencies to “take all such actions necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion, and put an end to these Migrant riots.”
While Trump has painted Los Angeles as being under siege and out of control, most of the demonstrations this past weekend over his administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration has been concentrated in downtown Los Angeles near the federal building and federal detention center. Other protests have also occurred outside of the downtown area, one in the Los Angeles County city of Paramount, about 14 miles from downtown, and another in Compton, which is next to Paramount, and about 12 miles from downtown LA, according to local law enforcement.
Meanwhile the rest of Los Angeles appeared to go about life as normal over the weekend. The city’s annual Pride Parade even took place on Sunday without incident in Hollywood about 7 miles from downtown.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have accused Trump of making sensational public claims about how widespread the violence has been, and both have said the Los Angeles police and sheriff’s departments could handle the unrest on their own.
“He flamed the fires and illegally acted” by mobilizing the National Guard to go to LA without the conscent of local and state officials, Newsom said of the president in a statement on Monday posted on social media. “The order he signed doesn’t just apply to CA. It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing. We’re suing him.”
On Monday, a U.S. official confirmed that 700 Marines in California have been ordered to assist in Los Angeles and they’re expected to arrive over the next 24 hours, a U.S. official confirmed.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell has decried the escalation of violence during the protests, saying officers had been targeted with Molotov cocktails, fireworks and rocks.
But he also said Monday that the arrival of the military troops in Los Angeles “presents a significant logistical and operation challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city.”
“The Los Angeles Police Department, alongside our mutual aid partners, has decades of experience managing large-scale public demonstrations, and we remain confident in our ability to do so professionally and effectively. That said, our top priority is the safety of both the public and the officers on the ground,” McDonnell said.
At a news conference Monday evening, as the protests entered their fourth night — with some tense confrontations between protesters and police leading to the firing of less lethal munitions by police — Bass insisted the city could handle the unrest on its own.
Asked about the deployment of the Marines, Bass responded incredulously.
“We didn’t need the National Guard,” she told reporters. “Why on earth — what are they going to do? Do you know what the National Guard is doing now? They are guarding two buildings. They’re guarding the federal building here in downtown and they’re guarding the federal building in Westwood. That’s what they’re doing. So they need Marines on top of it, I don’t understand that.”
Trump bypassed Newsom and activated 2,100 California National Guard troops, including 1,700 on the ground in Los Angeles as of Monday night and the remainder on standby to be sent there, the U.S. Northern Command said in a social media post late Monday night. It marks the first time a president has mobilized troops without a governor’s consent since President Lyndon B. Johnson did so in 1965, when he sent National Guard troops to Alabama to protect civil rights activists marching from Selma to Montgomery.
Protest erupts
The protests erupted on Friday in downtown Los Angeles after word filtered into the community that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were conducting raids on multiple locations in the downtown area without the consent of city officials, including a Home Depot in the Westlake neighborhood near downtown. The raids resulted in the arrests of 40 people, 35 of them Mexican citizens, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Sunday.
Dozens of protesters began gathering in the Fashion District of downtown, where one of the raids occurred at an apparel business, officials said. Around 3 p.m. local time on Friday, aerial footage taken by ABC Los Angeles station KABC, showed what appeared to be ICE agents loading two white vans with people in handcuffs. As the vans left the apparel business, protesters tried unsuccessfully to stop them, including one individual who was seen lying down the road in the path of one of the vans.
As the raids were unfolding on Friday, Mayor Bass, issued a post on X, condemning ICE’s actions, writing, “we will not stand for this.”
Around 6 p.m. on Friday, crowds gathered outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and the U.S. Courthouse downtown and began vandalizing the buildings, spay painting profanities directed at ICE on the facade and clashing with ICE agents. Federal authorities asked the LAPD to assist around 6:30 p.m., but it took city officers about an hour to arrive at the scene due to “significant traffic congestions, and the presence of demonstrators, and notably, by the fact that federal agents had deployed irritants into the crowd prior to LAPD’s arrival.”
The LAPD declared the protest an “unlawful assembly” soon after officers arrived on scene on Friday night, writing on social media that “officers are reporting that a small group of violent individuals are throwing large pieces of concrete” and warning protesters that “the use of less lethal munitions has been authorized by the Incident Commander” to disperse the crowd.
“Within 55 minutes of receiving the call, we began to disperse the hostile and riotous crowd,” the LAPD said.
Video showed police in riot gear confronting protesters with batons and firing what appeared to be tear gas canisters and flash bangs at the demonstators.
Around the same time, a protest broke out in neighboring Compton, where a vehicle was set ablaze in the street near the iconic Dale’s Donuts sign, according to video taken at the scene.
Demonstration moves to Paramount
On Saturday, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department received calls around 10:15 a.m. that a “significant” crowd was gathering in Paramount and obstructing traffic and that deputies observed the presence of federal agents in the area.
“As the situation escalated, the crowd of protesters became increasingly agitated, throwing objects and exhibiting violent behavior toward federal agents and deputy sheriffs,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement. “In response, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) requested additional resources countywide, deploying additional deputies to maintain order.”
The sheriff’s department said it responded to the scene to protect federal agents under attack, but emphasized, “This does not mean that we are assisting with their immigration actions or operations.”
Bass said that there were no ICE raids in Paramount or anywhere else in Los Angeles County on Saturday. She said the building that protesters gathered near was being used as a staging area for federal resources.
The LAPD said 29 people were arrested during Saturday’s protest, mostly for failing to disperse, but overall it said in a statement that demonstrations across the city of Los Angeles on Saturday “remained peaceful, and we commend all those who exercised their First Amendment rights responsibly.”
Trump deploys National Guard
On Saturday night, Trump signed a presidential memorandum authorizing the deployment of National Guard members to Los Angeles, saying it was necessary to “address the lawlessness” in Los Angeles.
Newsom called Trump’s move, “purposely inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”
Bass agreed and issued a plea to the White House to reverse the decision.
“Deploying federalized troops on the heels of these raids is a chaotic escalation,” Bass said in a statement posted on social media on Saturday afternoon. “The fear people are feeling in our city right now is very real — it’s felt in our communities and within our families and it puts our neighborhoods at risk. This is the last thing that our city needs, and I urge protestors to remain peaceful.”
Newsom called the president’s decision “an alarming abuse of power.”
Around 2:18 a.m. local time time on Sunday, the LAPD issued a traffic advisory, reporting that demonstrators were approaching the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles and warned that the unlawful assembly order declared on Friday was still in effect. Around the same time, the LAPD said it received reports that demonstrators were jumping onto the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation tracks near the Little Tokyo Train Station downtown, causing all trains to be halted as officers reponded.
The National Guard began arriving in Los Angeles around 4 a.m. on Sunday, taking up a position outside the Roybal federal building.
Protesters who defied the order to stay away, assembled in front of the Roybal federal building and detention center, heckling National Guard members and police within earshot. Around 3:30 p.m., the LAPD issued another traffic advisory that a group of demonstrators was marching into the downtown area.
Later Sunday, demonstrators began approaching to 101 Freeway and eventually got onto the southbound lanes of the freeway, prompting authorities to close the freeway in both directions, police said.
The protest soon devolved into demonstrators standing on an overpass throwing concrete, bottles and other objects at officers attempting to remove demonstrators from the freeway.
As the protest grew more rowdy, several Waymo autonomous vehicles were set on fire in the downtown area, prompting the company to halt service to downtown LA. Police said protesters threw fireworks at officers during the standoff and police said stores were looted in the downtown area.
Officials said two LAPD officers were injured by motorcyclists attempting to breach a skirmish line police had established.
The LAPD said 21 people were arrested on Sunday on charges ranging from attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail to looting to failure to disperse. The California Highway Patrol said 19 people were arrested for disobeying orders to disperse from the 101 Freeway.
The LAPD announced on Monday that the police force was going on “Tactical Alert,” meaning all personnel are to remain on duty as the city braced for another evening of protests.
As protests in Los Angeles entered their fourth night, photos from the scene showed tense moments as demonstrators confronted authorities.
At one point, police said protesters near Temple Street and Los Angeles Street in downtown LA began throwing objects at police and police authorized the use of “less lethal munitions” in response.
(DETROIT) — A Michigan man has been arrested after missing his flight to Los Angeles and calling in a fake bomb threat after being made to book another flight, officials said.
The incident took place last Thursday at approximately 6:25 a.m. at Detroit Metropolitan Airport when an individual, later identified as 23-year-old John Charles Robinson of Monore, Michigan, “used a cell phone to call into Spirit Airlines and conveyed false information about a bomb threat to Flight 2145 departing from Detroit Metro bound for Los Angeles,” according to a statement from United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. from the Eastern District of Michigan United States Attorney’s Office.
“During the call, Robinson stated in part, ‘I was calling about 2145… because I have information about that flight,’ and ‘there’s gonna be someone who’s gonna try to blow up the airport,’ and ‘there’s gonna be someone that’s gonna try to blow up that flight, 2145,’” according to the affidavit. “After giving a description of an individual, he then stated: ‘they’re going to be carrying a bomb through the TSA,’ and ‘they’re still threatening to do it, they’re still attempted to do it, they said it’s not going to be able to be detected. Please don’t let that flight board.’”
The flight was immediately canceled, officials said and the flight’s passengers and crew were deplaned for safety precautions.
“Bomb sniffing dogs and FBI agents were deployed to sweep the airplane, officials said. “No bomb or explosives were found.”
Federal agents investigating the bomb threat soon learned that Robinson was booked on Flight 2145 but missed the flight and was told at the gate that he needed to rebook.
“FBI agents subsequently arrested Robinson when he returned to the airport to depart on another flight bound for Los Angeles,” officials said.
After taking Robinson into custody, authorities played back the phone call that was made for him.
“Robinson listened to the above-mentioned recording and confirmed he was the one that made the recorded phone call to Spirit Airlines,” officials said. “Robinson also stated that the phone number that called the bomb threat in to Spirit Airlines was his phone number (and had been for approximately 6 years), that the target cellular device was his device, and he gave written consent for a search of his device.”
Robinson was subsequently charged with two charges. The first being use of a cellphone to threaten/maliciously convey false information concerning an attempt or alleged attempt to damage/destroy an airplane by means of an explosive and the second being false information and hoaxes.
“No American wants to hear the words ‘bomb’ and ‘airplane’ in the same sentence. Making this kind of threat undermines our collective sense of security and wastes valuable law enforcement resources,” said U.S. Attorney Gorgon.
“Anyone who threatens to bomb an aircraft and endanger public safety will be swiftly investigated and brought to justice,” said Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office. “The alleged bomb threat prompted a coordinated response by our FBI Detroit Joint Terrorism Task Force, in partnership with the Wayne County Airport Authority Police Department and the U.S. Federal Air Marshal Service, leading to the arrest of John Robinson as he attempted to board another flight at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. We remain committed to protecting the public and confronting those who seek to spread fear in our communities.”
Robinson appeared in federal court in Detroit on Friday afternoon and was released on a $10,000 bond, according to court documents. His next court appearance will be June 27 for a preliminary examination.
The case against Robinson is being investigated by special agents from the FBI and is currently ongoing.
(NEW YORK) — More than 50 million people from Mississippi to western New York are under a slight risk Monday of receiving damaging wind, large-sized hail, flash flooding and a few tornadoes.
Storms were already rolling through east Texas and Louisiana early Monday morning, prompting a severe thunderstorm watch. Storms are forecast to continue to move through the South, with the severe weather extending through Monday afternoon.
A cold front spanning the East from western New York to the Gulf Coast is expected to produce strong to sever storms Monday afternoon and into the evening.
A flood watch is also in place for parts of central and western New York, including the cities of Syracuse and Rochester, where 1 to 3 inches of rain could fall in a short span of time through Monday evening and could lead to flooding of rivers, streams, and other low-lying areas.
Overnight, there were more than 240 damaging storm reports from Texas to Virginia, including reports of large-sized hail, destructive wind and a few tornadoes.
Hail the size of grapefruit was reported on Sunday near Amarillo, Texas. Thunderstorms accompanied by wind gusts up to 90 mph swept across the Texas panhandle, causing widespread power outages.
A local state of disaster was declared Sunday by the mayor of the City of Canyon, Texas, a suburb of Amarillo, due to “significant storm damage” caused large-sized hail across the city.
More than 200 homes in the City of Canyon were damaged by hail that also left numerous vehicles with shattered windows, ABC affiliate station KVII in Amarillo reported.
Severe weather damage was also reported in the Dallas suburb of Bonham, Texas, where high winds partially ripped the roof off an ice cream store, according to ABC Dallas affiliate station WFAA.
One person was killed in Lafayette County, Mississippi, on Saturday when a tree fell on a vehicle during a storm, according to Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves. Multiple tornado warnings were issued across northern Mississippi on Saturday.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said one person was also killed in Georgia on Saturday night. The Georgia Emergency Management said the fatality occurred in Banks County when a tree fell on a vehicle.
Meanwhile, the west was dealing with extreme heat over the weekend that broke daily high-temperature records on Sunday in Seattle, which reached 90 degrees, and Portland, Oregon, which hit 96 degrees.
The hot weather is forecast to continue throughout the West through at least Tuesday.
Record high temperatures are possible on Monday in Oregon, including the cities of Portland, Eugene and Medford. Spokane, in northeast Washington, and Boise, Idaho, could also break high temperature records on Monday.
Las Vegas will be under an extreme heat warning on Monday and Tuesday with temperatures expected to reach 110.
At Death Valley National Park in Southern California, known as one of the hottest places in the world, temperatures could approach 120 degrees this week.
(CHELAN COUNTY, Wash.) — Three young sisters who were found dead near a Washington campground after they left home for a “planned visitation” with their father died from suffocation, authorities said Monday.
Paityn Decker, 9; Evelyn Decker, 8; and Olivia Decker, 5, were located on June 2 near the Rock Island Campground in Chelan County, Washington, following a search, police said.
An autopsy completed on Friday determined the girls’ cause of death to be suffocation and the manner of death is homicide, according to the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office.
The girls had each been found with plastic bags over the heads and their wrists were zip-tied, according to court documents previously obtained by ABC News.
Their father, Travis Decker, who is wanted for their murders, remains at large.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
