Talk of the Town
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has reached an agreement with President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn to pay him roughly $1.2 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the former general claiming he was politically targeted for prosecution during Trump’s first administration, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(BATON ROUGE, La.) — A 17-year-old girl, Martha Odom, has been identified as the victim killed in a shooting at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, officials said Friday, and a 17-year-old suspect is in custody.
Five others were wounded when gunfire broke out during a fight between two groups in the food court on Thursday afternoon, police said.
One of the injured, a 43-year-old man, remains in the hospital in critical condition, Baton Rouge Police Chief T.J. Morse said.
Lafayette’s Ascension Episcopal School described Odom, a senior at the school, as a “joyful presence whose kindness and infectious enthusiasm brought light to all who knew her.”
The school said two students were wounded and two others were witnesses.
One suspect in the shooting, 17-year-old Markel Lee, turned himself in on Friday, and faces charges including first-degree murder and multiple counts of attempted murder, Morse said at a news conference.
Morse said police are asking for the public’s help to find a second suspect wanted in connection with the shooting.
The five people detained on Thursday have been released pending further investigation, Morse said.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called the shooting a “deeply troubling act of violence” that appears to have been driven by “neighborhood gang disputes that seem to want to spill out in our public places, putting innocent people in danger and taking the life of an innocent young lady.”
“This conduct is not going to be tolerated in this state,” he said at the news conference.
An employee at the mall at the time of the shooting told ABC Baton Rouge affiliate WBRZ, “I heard a loud ‘pop’ and then another ‘pop.’ … I turn around and I see people dropping to the floor and then I saw the gun. … And he was turning around, shooting randomly.”
“I called security and said, ‘Shots fired in the food court, people are down, people are hit.’ And then the cops came and it was just total chaos … blood was everywhere,” she said.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” she said.
The Mall of Louisiana is closed on Friday “out of respect for the victims.”
“Our deepest sympathies are with everyone who was impacted by the senseless act of violence that took place here today,” the mall said in a statement.
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(NEW YORK) — A Federal Aviation Administration employee was arrested Monday after he allegedly threatened to harm the president and used a work computer to research his plans, prosecutors said.
Dean DelleChiaie, 35, of Nashua, New Hampshire, was slated to appear in federal court Tuesday on charges of communicating an interstate threat.
Prosecutors allege DelleChiaie used his government computer to search the internet for how to get a gun into a federal facility.
The suspect allegedly also made other incriminating searches on the device, including previous assassination attempts against Trump, the percentage of the population that wants the president dead and the phrase, “I am going to kill Donald John Trump,” according to the criminal complaint.
The Secret Service met with DelleChiaie in February, and he allegedly admitted to conducting those searches on his work computer, according to the complaint.
He also told the Secret Service he owned three firearms, including a handgun he kept inside a safe at home, prosecutors allege.
On April 21, DelleChiaie allegedly used his personal email to transmit a threat across state lines to the White House’s email address, prosecutors said.
The email had for a subject, “Contact the President,” and said, “I, Dean DelleChiaie, am going neutralize/kill you — Donald John Trump — because you decided to kill kids — and say that it was War — when in reality — it is terrorism. God knows your actions and where you belong,” according to the complaint.
Attorney information for the suspect was not immediately available.
DelleChiaie faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, if convicted.
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(NEW YORK) — The judge overseeing Luigi Mangione’s murder case in the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson is set to issue a critical ruling Monday on what evidence and testimony prosecutors can use during the accused assassin’s murder trial.
New York Judge Gregory Carro is considering Mangione’s request to prohibit prosecutors from using the evidence that police seized from Mangione’s backpack — including the alleged murder weapon and writings that prosecutors say amount to a confession — as well as Mangione’s statements to law enforcement when he was apprehended at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after the shooting.
Mangione’s state murder trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 8, and Carro’s decision will help define the contours of the high-profile criminal trial. If he limits the use of evidence from Mangione’s backpack, prosecutors would be barred from showing the jury the purported murder weapon, writings allegedly outlining his escape route, a fake driver’s license, and thousands of dollars in cash.
Prosecutors would still have available surveillance footage of Thompson’s shooting death, as well as fingerprint and DNA evidence and a phone retrieved by police.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett — who is overseeing Mangione’s federal stalking case — reached a ruling in January allowing the use of the same evidence during Mangione’s federal trial, which is scheduled to begin in January 2027. In that case, Judge Garnett decided that the evidence in the backpack would have inevitably been discovered by law enforcement.
However, defense lawyers have argued that the search of the backpack without a warrant violated Mangione’s rights, and have repeatedly urged Judge Carro to block prosecutors from using the evidence.
“At the hearing, Altoona law enforcement officers repeatedly attempted to justify their warrantless search of Mr. Mangione’s backpack … instead, all these officers demonstrated was an utter disregard for a defendant’s constitutional rights and a shocking ignorance of basic search and seizure caselaw,” Mangione’s attorneys wrote in a state court filing.
Lawyers from the Manhattan district attorney’s office pushed back on those claims, arguing the officers acted “in deliberate and painstaking fashion” when they searched the backpack.
“At every step, the Altoona officers responded to this unexpected and alarming situation reasonably,” Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann wrote in a court filing, adding that officers later obtained a warrant for the bag “establishing an independent source for recovering the backpack’s contents.”
Mangione pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges after he was arrested for allegedly gunning down Thompson, a husband and father of two, on a Midtown Manhattan street in December 2024.
As Mangione prepares for his upcoming trial in September, his supporters continue to fund part of his legal defense. Earlier this month, on Mangione’s 28th birthday, his legal defense fund surpassed $1.5 million.
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