‘Complete chaos’: 3 adults charged after brawl breaks out during youth hockey game
Obtained by ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Three adults were charged on Wednesday after a brawl broke out during a youth hockey tournament in New Jersey, according to the Egg Harbor Township Police Department.
The incident, which was captured on video, occurred on March 29, when the Philadelphia Frenzy Cadet A team competed against the Maple Shade Cadet A team in the Veterans Memorial Invitational Tournament, officials said.
Several youth hockey players started to get in an altercation, which escalated when parents and coaches ran onto the court, leading to “complete chaos,” according to Egg Harbor Township Police Sgt. Ben Kollman.
The video shows one adult falling to the ground, with a woman jumping on top of that individual and repeatedly punching him.
“The three people that are being charged were involved in most of the fighting,” Kollman told ABC News. “Others that were on the court, some people did go out there and assist to break up the fight, as well as assist to remove some kids and get them to a safer place.”
Philadelphia residents Colleen Biddle, 41, and Justin Pacheco, 38, along with Robert Schafer, 38, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, have been charged with “simple assault at a youth sporting event and disorderly conduct,” police said.
Kollman said it was “sad to watch some of the video and see some of the kids trying to pull their parents off of other people” and hopes that parents and coaches learn to “control themselves.”
Both the Philadelphia Frenzy Hockey Board and the Maple Shade Hockey Board released statements saying they will be accepting any disciplinary action by the American Ball Hockey Alliance Board.
The ABHA said in a statement that violence is “NEVER condoned in our sport” and that both teams are now suspended from the Veterans Memorial Invitational Tournament. The board also said a Maple Shade Cadet A assistant coach has been suspended from the ABHA.
“The incident was instigated by out-of-town teams and, as such, does not reflect the values or behavior of the host facility, Egg Harbor Township Street Hockey, their teams, or their families,” the board said.
A 2023 NASO National Officiating Survey found that parents are blamed for nearly 40% cases involving bad sportsmanship, with players causing less than 10% of those incidents.
(NEW ORLEANS) — During the ongoing massive manhunt for 10 inmates who escaped from a New Orleans jail last week, authorities say the use of facial recognition cameras run by a private organization helped lead to the recapture of one of the fugitives — even as the police department has come under scrutiny by critics from civil rights organizations to conservative politicians over its use of the technology.
Earlier this week, New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told ABC News that facial recognition cameras maintained by Project N.O.L.A. had been used in the New Orleans manhunt despite the fact that she recently ordered a pause in the automated alerts her officers had been receiving from the group, which operates independently of the police department.
Kirkpatrick recently told The Washington Post she ordered the alerts to officers turned off until she is “sure that the use of the app meets all the requirements of the law and policies.”
Citing the New Orleans Police Department’s partnership with Project N.O.L.A., the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement it is believed to be the first known widespread effort by a major American law enforcement agency to use artificial intelligence technology to identify suspects in an assortment of crimes across the city.
In a statement, the ACLU said the use of live facial recognition raises constitutional and privacy issues and “is a radical and dangerous escalation of the power to surveil people as we go about our daily lives.”
Critics of the New Orleans Police Department’s use of facial recognition cameras said that the average citizen should understand that they are not opting in or are being made aware that they are being scanned by the cameras.
“Facial recognition technology poses a direct threat to the fundamental rights of every individual and has no place in our cities,” Alanah Odoms, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said in a statement about the city’s partnership with Project N.O.L.A. “We call on the New Orleans Police Department and the City of New Orleans to halt this program indefinitely and terminate all use of live-feed facial recognition technology.”
Some Republicans in Congress also opposed the unchecked use of the technology, most notably Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Steve Daines of Montana.
In a March 27, 2025 letter to Kash Patel, who was then acting director of the federal Bureau Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms Explosives, Biggs, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, and Davidson raised concerns over news reports indicating the ATF utilized facial recognition technology to identify gun owners. “The Subcommittee has concerns about ATF’s use of facial recognition and Al programs and the effects that its use has upon American citizens’ Second Amendment rights and rights to privacy,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter, requesting documents on policies and training in the use of facial recognition technology.
Democrats, including Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon have also joined bipartisan efforts to curtail the use of such surveillance.
How authorities are using live facial recognition
The 10 inmates escaped from the Orleans Justice Center in New Orleans on May 16, officials said. Five of the fugitives have since been recaptured, leaving five others, including three charged with murder, still on the run as of Thursday afternoon.
Kirkpatrick told ABC News this week that one of the fugitives was caught and another narrowly got away after live facial recognition cameras operated by Project N.O.L.A. located them while scanning crowds in the French Quarter.
Bryan Lagarde, executive director of Project N.O.L.A., told ABC News that after being notified of the jailbreak on Friday, state police gave his group a list of the escapees.
“We put that into our facial recognition. It took approximately four minutes to do that and within, literally, less than a minute later we started tracking two of the escapees,” Lagarde said.
He said the information about fugitive Kendall Myles and another escaped inmate, who he said is facing attempted second-degree murder charges, was sent to state police investigators who confirmed the two men were part of the jailbreak.
“Then they immediately went out to the French Quarter, which is where we were tracking them walking down Bourbon Street,” Lagarde said.
Myles was arrested after police found him hiding under a car. The second escapee, however, managed to get away.
“I’m sure they knew there were cameras because they were walking around with their faces held down and things like that. All it takes is just a second for them to look up and then there’s facial recognition,” Lagarde said.
Citing the ongoing investigation, Lagarde declined to say if his cameras have located any of the other escapees.
Group operates 200 facial recognition cameras in New Orleans Largarde said that his organization has been using live facial recognition cameras in New Orleans for the past two years.
In response to potential privacy concerns, Lagarde said, “As far as the facial recognition is concerned, it’s scanning your face, my face, everyone’s faces. If you’re wanted and we know that you’re wanted, you’re going to be in trouble. If you are not wanted, its going to instantly disregard your face and just move on to the next person.”
He said his group maintains about 5,000 cameras in New Orleans, including 200 that have facial recognition capabilities. He said the facial recognition cameras not only scan faces, but also clothing, vehicle and license plates.
“We work a very large number of the major crimes here in New Orleans: Homicides, shootings, stabbings, home invasions, rapes, robberies all the way down to the thefts and the burglaries,” Lagarde said.
Project N.O.L.A. works with the New Orleans Police Department and the Louisiana State Police but does not have an official contract with either agency, officials said.
Before the manhunt, the New Orleans police had appeared to distance themselves from Project N.O.L.A..
The police department “does not own, rely on, manage, or condone the use by members of the department of any artificial intelligence systems associated with the vast network” of Project N.O.L.A.’s cameras, a spokesman for the police department agency said in a statement to The Washington Post.
Kirkpatrick, the New Orleans police superintendent, said her agency has operated surveillance cameras across the city, many in the entertainment districts, but none of them have facial recognition capabilities. According to the New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation, the city has about 3,600 police operated cameras across the city.
What local laws say
While the city has an ordinance on the use of facial recognition technology, Kirkpatrick said there are exceptions to the rules.
“Sometimes, people think that we have a total ban on the use of facial recognition and that is not quite accurate,” Kirkpatrick said. “There are exceptions, and I think that this one would meet the exception of those ordinances.”
According to the city ordinance, “Evidence obtained from facial recognition alone shall not be sufficient to establish probable cause for the purpose of effectuating an arrest by the NOPD or another law enforcement agency. The source of the image and the underlying reasons for the requested use of facial recognition systems as an investigative lead shall be documented in a police report.”
The ordinance says “facial-recognition technology, shall not be used as a surveillance tool.” But the ordinance also states that “nothing in this section shall prohibit NOPD from requesting the use of facial recognition technology in the investigation of the prior occurrence of the following significant crimes as defined in Louisiana Revised Statute,” including murder, manslaughter, solicitation of murder, first-degree robbery, drive-by shootings and carjackings.
“They had my permission, that’s for sure,” Kirkpatrick said of the use of facial recognition technology in the manhunt.
Three of the five escaped inmates still being sought on Friday have been have been charged with murder or attempted murder, including one who was convicted in a double homicide, authorities.
A ‘dragnet system?’
The Washington Post investigation published this week reported that New Orleans police were using Project N.O.L.A.’s network of facial recognition cameras to monitor the streets for wanted suspects over the past two years in ways that appeared “out of step” with the local ordinance.
In the interview with ABC about the manhunt, Kirkpatrick said that Project N.O.L.A. is a “useful partner” but stressed that it is not law enforcement and is not bound by the local ordinance, raising issues of accountability about Project N.O.L.A. and the data it collects on ordinary citizens who are being surveilled in this untargeted manner.
“I’m very supportive of any technology that we can use to bring violent people back in, and then we can deal with the issues later, but we actually operate within the boundaries of the law,” she said. “As long as it’s constitutional, ethical, we’re going to stay within the boundaries. But this is a bigger topic and discussion, mainly for our politicians to decide what kind of laws they want.”
Other police departments across the country have faced questions over their use of the technology.
The use of facial recognition software by U.S. businesses has also grown sharply in recent years, analysts and privacy advocates told ABC News.
The uses range from tech companies securing personal devices and retailers scanning for potential shoplifters to e-commerce giants tracking delivery drivers. Retailers are also using facial recognition scanning on shoppers to adjust pricing in stores.
Companies contend that the technology helps them achieve a safe and efficient operation, benefiting consumers and employees alike. Critics say the powerful tool encroaches on the privacy of everyday people, risking undue punishment or discrimination, the experts said.
Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Security and Surveillance Project, said facial recognition cameras are an “unproven, error-prone tool.”
“This is the first documented case in the U.S. of police using untargeted facial recognition, which countries like China employ to track people across cities and surveil their Uyghur citizens,” Laperruque said in a statement to ABC News regarding New Orleans’ police use of the technology. “This kind of dragnet system belongs in a dystopian sci-fi movie, not in American cities. Average pedestrians shouldn’t have to worry that untested AI technology will set off alarm bells and send police after them.”
One of the key issues of facial recognition and AI is that studies have shown that it can be racially biased and is particularly error prone with people of color, older people and women.
“There’s been error rates between 80 and 90%. That means nine out of every ten times that the system says, ‘Hey, here’s someone from our watch list,’ it’s actually a false alarm,” Laperruque said of the use of these cameras as untargeted or real-time surveillance tools based on pilot programs run in the United Kingdom.
“Facial recognition could be used to catalog attendees at a protest or political rallies of any affiliation, individuals going to a church, people visiting a medical clinic, or an array of other sensitive activities,” Laperruque told ABCNews.
He added, “Given these risks it’s no surprise that surveillance reform in general — and placing guardrails on facial recognition in particular — has support from across the political spectrum, including some of the most progressive and conservative members of Congress — just last month at a Congressional hearing conservative members of Congress highlighted the dangers of facial recognition and other unchecked forms of surveillance.”
(WASHINGTON) — Escalating an ongoing clash between President Donald Trump’s administration and Harvard University, the Department of Education announced an immediate pause on Harvard’s grant funding — making the school ineligible for new research grants until it agrees with compliance criteria.
“Harvard is not eligible for any new grants from the federal government until they demonstrate responsible management of the university,” a senior official from the Department of Education said on a call with reporters on Monday.
The pause extends to medical research funding, according to the senior official, but does not impact federal student aid.
The official said public confidence in the university is at an all-time low — and that Harvard has failed to combat antisemitism and discrimination on its campus.
It has also abandoned the rigor of academic excellence and has become a leftist institution with “zero viewpoint diversity,” according to the official, who said that only 3% of Harvard’s faculty identifies as conservative.
“Today, we received another letter from the administration doubling down on demands that would impose unprecedented and improper control over Harvard University and would have chilling implications for higher education,” Harvard said in a statement to ABC News.
The statement called the move retaliatory and implied that its efforts are illegal.
“Harvard will continue to comply with the law, promote and encourage respect for viewpoint diversity, and combat antisemitism in our community,” it said, adding that the school would “continue to defend against illegal government overreach.”
The weeks-long feud between Trump and Harvard stems from several investigations by federal agencies, including the Department of Education and the Health and Human Services Department. They are probing into accusations ranging from failure to disclose foreign gifts to discrimination on the basis of race within the Harvard Law Review.
The administration has also launched a wide-reaching antisemitism task force review, which froze 2.2 billion dollars in funding for the institution last month.
But the university has refused to comply with demands, with Harvard President Alan Garber claiming that Trump has exceeded his executive authority.
“No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Garber wrote in a statement to the Harvard community in April.
In order for Harvard to return to compliance under federal law, the university would have to come into agreement with the administration, according to the senior official.
There was no announcement about the university’s tax-exempt status, which Trump threatened to take away on May 2.
The president can’t unilaterally revoke a school’s tax-exempt status under federal law, but sources told ABC News that the Internal Revenue Service is considering revoking the school’s status.
A Harvard spokesperson told ABC News last week that there’s no “legal basis” to rescind the university’s tax-exempt status and that it would endanger the school’s ability to carry out its mission.
“The tax exemption means that more of every dollar can go toward scholarships for students, lifesaving and life-enhancing medical research, and technological advancements that drive economic growth,” the spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.
The move would not only lead to “lost opportunities for innovation” for Harvard itself, the spokesperson said.
“The unlawful use of this instrument more broadly would have grave consequences for the future of higher education in America,” they explained.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement over the weekend that he wanted to reopen and expand the notorious Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay is drawing new attention to the infamous prison.
Alcatraz closed its doors as a federal prison 60 years ago after housing some of America’s most infamous criminals, including Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. During its 29-year run as a federal penitentiary from 1934 to 1963, Alcatraz earned a reputation for being the final stop for inmates who couldn’t be controlled at other facilities, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
The island’s enduring mystique has also attracted Hollywood, most notably for the 1962 film “The Birdman of Alcatraz,” starring Burt Lancaster, and the 1996 action thriller “The Rock,” starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage. The production team filmed significant portions of “The Rock” on location at the actual prison.
Despite its fearsome reputation, Alcatraz was never the prison portrayed in Hollywood films. According to the Bureau of Prisons, the facility maintained a surprisingly small population, averaging between 260 and 275 inmates — less than 1% of the federal prison population at the time. Some inmates even requested transfers to Alcatraz, attracted by conditions that included single-occupancy cells.
What made Alcatraz unique was its strict regimen. Prisoners were granted just four basic rights: food, clothing, shelter and medical care. Everything else, from family visits to library access, had to be earned through good behavior.
The system was designed to teach compliance, with inmates typically spending five years on the island before being transferred back to other facilities, according to the BOP.
The prison’s isolation in San Francisco Bay contributed to its mystique, particularly regarding escape attempts. Over its operational history, 36 men attempted to flee in 14 separate incidents, according to the Bureau of Prisons. While officially no one ever succeeded in escaping, five prisoners remain “missing and presumed drowned” to this day.
Contrary to popular belief, the BOP said that man-eating sharks didn’t patrol the waters around Alcatraz. The real challenges for would-be escapees were the bay’s frigid temperatures (averaging 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit), powerful currents and the 1.25-mile distance to shore.
According to the National Park Service, Alcatraz Island receives approximately 1.2 million visitors annually as a national park site, offering tours of the former prison and serving as a symbol that prompts visitors to contemplate issues of crime, punishment and justice — themes that have resurged in the national conversation following Trump’s announcement.
The island’s history extends beyond its prison years. Fortified initially as a military installation in the 1850s, Alcatraz formed part of San Francisco Bay’s coastal defense system and housed the West Coast’s first operational lighthouse, according to the BOP.
The Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala first named the island “Alcatraces” in 1775, according to the BOP, meaning “pelicans” or “strange bird” — a far cry from the ominous reputation it would later acquire as America’s most notorious federal penitentiary.
