Escaped California inmate wanted for killing Mexican police commander caught, officials say
Abigail Esparza Reyes was killed in a shootout while trying to arrest an escaped inmate from California on Wednesday, officials said. ABC News
(TIJUANA, Mexico) — An escaped U.S. inmate, who was wanted for killing a Mexican police commander — or a “Gringo Hunter” — during a shootout last week, has been caught in Tijuana, officials said.
Cesar Hernandez, who had been convicted and sentenced for murder in California, allegedly killed Abigail Esparza Reyes, who was part of a specialized Mexican state police unit responsible for locating foreign fugitives who cross the border, during a shootout on April 9, officials said.
Surveillance footage reviewed by ABC News showed an individual, who authorities identified as Hernandez, changing into bright yellow worker’s clothing, seeming to blend in after the shooting in Mexico.
In a statement released on Friday, the Baja California State Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed Hernandez was arrested on Thursday evening.
“These actions reflect the outstanding intelligence and investigative work carried out by personnel from the State Attorney General’s Office, whose coordinated efforts, tactical analysis strategies and data collection made it possible to accurately locate the person arrested today,” the Baja California prosecutor’s office said.
Officials in Mexico said Hernandez is currently facing criminal proceedings and “his legal situation will be determined in accordance with the law.”
Hernandez escaped from custody on Dec. 2, shortly after arriving for a court appearance in Delano, California, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Upon arrival, Hernandez “evaded staff custody, jumped out of the van and is currently at large,” officials said at the time.
He had been arrested in 2019 for murder in Los Angeles County and sentenced to 80 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole, officials said. He received 25 years for first-degree murder, a sentence “doubled because it was a second strike,” and discharging a firearm during the crime, officials said. Hernandez also received five years for a prior offense, officials said.
Reyes and the team of “Gringo Hunters” were featured in a “Nightline x Impact” episode in 2024 that highlighted their work to catch fugitives who evade law enforcement by fleeing to Mexico.
In the episode, Reyes is seen leading a mission to arrest a fugitive charged with murder who was found in Tijuana.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment regarding Hernandez’s arrest.
ABC News’ Sara Sandrick, Ellie Kaufman, Jen Watts and Alondra De La Cruz contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES) — Demonstrations have gripped Los Angeles for several days in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the sanctuary city, with some protesters clashing with police.
Tensions escalated after President Donald Trump called up the National Guard over the objections of state and city leaders to address what the White House referred to as the “lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.”
Solidarity protests against ICE have broken out in other cities in the wake of the federal response, which has also included deploying hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles.
Here’s a look at how the protests began and what demonstrators are calling for.
How did the LA protests start?
On Friday, federal agents executed search warrants authorized by a Los Angeles federal judge at four businesses suspected of unlawfully employing undocumented immigrants and falsifying employment records, according to a criminal complaint.
On social media, “word quickly spread about ‘ICE raids’ taking place throughout Los Angeles,” according to the complaint.
Video showed federal agents conducting the operations, including at a Home Depot in Westlake and the clothing manufacturer Ambiance Apparel in downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she was “deeply angered” over the raids.
“These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city,” she said in a statement on Friday. “We will not stand for this.”
Local activists and family members of the workers showed up at the locations, confronting agents about the arrests. A prominent union leader — Service Employees International Union California President David Huerta — was arrested on Friday outside Ambiance Apparel and charged with conspiracy to impede an officer following an altercation with a law enforcement officer, according to the complaint. SEIU President April Verrett told ABC News that Huerta was “exercising his constitutional right to peacefully protest and be an observer on a sidewalk in the city of Los Angeles.”
Following the raids, protesters also gathered outside federal buildings in downtown Los Angeles that are home to an immigration court and a detention facility, holding signs that said “ICE out of LA!”
“Our community is under attack and is being terrorized,” Angelica Salas, the executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said during a press conference in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. “These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop. Immigration enforcement that is terrorizing our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now.”
Hours later, amid ongoing protests in downtown LA, the LAPD declared an unlawful assembly Friday evening following reports that a “small group of violent individuals are throwing large pieces of concrete,” and officers in riot gear moved in to disperse the crowd.
‘We’re going to keep showing up’
Protests against immigration raids continued into the weekend in downtown LA, as well as Los Angeles County cities including Compton and Paramount.
“We have a very beautiful community, a very strong community. And this is why we show up and we’re going to keep showing up,” Paramount demonstrator Nabil Shukir told ABC Los Angeles station KABC over the weekend. “It is an obligation and a duty for each and every one of us to be here and fight against the oppression and these kidnappings.”
On Saturday, the White House said Trump signed a memorandum deploying thousands of National Guardsmen to Los Angeles after “violent mobs” attacked ICE officers — over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
The following day, some protesters were seen hurling scooters and bottles at patrol vehicles and several of the self-driving car company Waymo’s vehicles were set on fire.
Amid the protests, LAPD said officers have arrested dozens of people for failure to disperse, as well as looting. Other charges have included attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail and assault with a deadly weapon, police said.
Bass has condemned the violence while noting in a call with KABC on Monday that the majority of people protesting have been peaceful and that the more-violent protesting and vandalism were happening “late at night.” She added that she assumed violent protests weren’t being led by people supporting immigrants, but rather by “fringe groups.”
Bass has also blamed Trump for the escalation and has continued to call on the Trump administration to stop immigration raids in the city, saying the fear and uncertainty they have created have led to the unrest.
“It makes me feel like our city is actually a test case, a test case for what happens when the federal government moves in and takes the authority away from the state or away from local government,” she told reporters during a news conference Monday. “I don’t think that our city should be used for an experiment.”
Newsom has called the deployment a “complete overreaction.” He and California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on Monday that they have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the “illegal and unnecessary takeover” of the California National Guard that has “needlessly escalated chaos and violence in the Los Angeles region.”
“Let me be clear: There is no invasion. There is no rebellion. The President is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends,” Bonta said in a statement.
Protests over the federal response and continued ICE raids in the Los Angeles area have been ongoing. Demonstrations have also been held at Los Angeles International Airport against Trump’s new travel ban, which went into effect on Monday and bars nationals of 12 countries from entering the U.S.
SEIU held a large rally in downtown LA on Monday in support of Huerta, who was released from federal custody on a $50,000 bond that day.
Bass said Tuesday it is unclear how many people have been detained by ICE.
“On Thursday of last week, Los Angeles was peaceful. There was nothing going on here that warranted the federal intervention that took place the very next day,” she said during a press briefing. “If we want to look at the cause of what is happening here, I take it back to raids that took place on Friday, and the uncertainty and the fear and the fact that families across the city are terrified that they don’t know if they should go to work, they don’t know if they should go to school.”
Trump on Tuesday defended his decision to send in the National Guard and Marines, saying the situation in LA was “out of control.”
“All I want is safety. I just want a safe area,” he told reporters. “Los Angeles was under siege until we got there. The police were unable to handle it.”
Trump went on to suggest that he sent in the National Guard and the Marines to send a message to other cities not to interfere with ICE operations or they will be met with equal or greater force.
“If we didn’t attack this one very strongly, you’d have them all over the country,” he said. “But I can inform the rest of the country that when they do it, if they do it, they’re going to be met with equal or greater force than we met right here.”
Why are people protesting ICE?
Since Friday, other demonstrations have broken out across the country in solidarity, protesting ICE activity in their communities and the federal response in Los Angeles. On Monday, protests were held in cities including New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Dallas, and, in California, San Jose and Santa Ana.
Protesters turned out in San Francisco on Sunday outside of an Immigration Services building to rally in solidarity against ICE raids and deportations.
“We’ve been watching what’s going on in LA, and we’re like, no,” protester Nancy Kato told ABC San Francisco station KGO. “The whole thing about going after immigrants and people who are undocumented, the most vulnerable of our populations, that is so wrong.”
Nellie Wong told KGO she was there “to protest the outrageous attacks on undocumented immigrants.”
“This has been going on for some time, but the events that have been going on in Los Angeles, I just find horrifying,” another protester, Amy Gray-Schlink, told KGO. “We need a united front of everyone who wants to oppose the scapegoating of immigrants.”
In San Diego County, protesters gathered near the main gate of Camp Pendleton on Sunday to stand against any military activation.
“We want to show our support to the military members that work here. We want to kind of remind them of what their duty is to us,” one of the demonstrators, Air Force veteran Patrick Saunders, told ABC San Diego affiliate KGTV. “But additionally, we want to make it very publicly known that we condemn any sort of action by the administration of using active duty or National Guard troops on U.S. citizens.”
(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.
(NEW YORK) — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is leading a U.S. delegation to Singapore this week to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier security summit, another signal of the Trump administration’s intensified focus on the Indo-Pacific region.
The summit will convene more than 550 delegates from 40 nations, including military, intelligence, business and security leaders, from across the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America, a source familiar with plans told ABC News.
Gabbard will be joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the 22nd annual summit, hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which runs from May 30 to June 2 in Singapore.
Gabbard is expected to “discuss major security challenges” with leaders, a source familiar with Gabbard’s plans told ABC News. This year’s U.S. delegation includes higher-level representation than in previous years, the source added.
The Shangri-La Dialogue is considered Asia’s top defense summit, comparable to the Raisina Dialogue and the Munich Security Conference, both of which Gabbard attended earlier this year.
This trip marks Gabbard’s second trip to Asia in recent weeks, seemingly reinforcing the Trump administration’s renewed focus on the region.
Shortly after her confirmation, Gabbard traveled to India and met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of President Donald Trump’s bilateral meeting with Modi in February.
Her relationship with Modi spans more than a decade, dating back to 2013 when she became the first Hindu member of Congress. They met again during her 2014 visit to India at Modi’s invitation.
Earlier this year, Gabbard accepted an invitation from Modi to speak at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi, a multilateral conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics, but, before returning to Washington, D.C., Gabbard made stops in Japan, Thailand and France. Her diplomatic tour began in Honolulu, Hawaii — her hometown — where she represented the state in Congress for eight years.
While in Hawaii, Gabbard met with intelligence community partners and visited United States Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) headquarters in Honolulu.
In Singapore this week, she will hold bilateral meetings with regional leaders to “explore opportunities to chart a path that advances mutual interests of security, peace, and prosperity in the region,” according to a source familiar with the agenda.
Long before taking the helm of the intelligence community, Gabbard was already on the ground in Southeast Asia and, in 2019 while she was running for president, she paused her campaign for two weeks to serve on active duty with the U.S. Army National Guard in Jakarta, Indonesia, becoming the first candidate in modern history to do so.
Now, as director of national intelligence, her return to the region marks a shift from military service to high-stakes diplomacy, an evolution that underscores not only her long-standing personal and strategic ties to the Indo-Pacific, but also hints the administration’s broader efforts to elevate U.S. engagement in the region.
