FBI on scene of ICE-involved shooting in Patterson, California
Mountains outside Patterson, California. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(PATTERSON, Calif.) — The FBI is at the scene of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement-involved shooting that happened in Patterson, California, on Tuesday near the I-5, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement.
According to Lyons, ICE officers were attempting to arrest a man they claimed was an 18th Street gang member when he “weaponized his vehicle” and attempted to run over an officer.
Lyons claimed that the suspect is wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection with a murder.
“Following their training, our officers fired defensive shots to protect themselves, their fellow agents and the public,” Lyons said.
The motorist was taken to a local hospital, Lyons said. The individual’s condition is unclear.
Earlier Tuesday, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement saying they were assisting with the shooting and had closed the on and off ramps in the area.
Patterson is an agricultural city in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court, December 18, 2025 in New York City. (Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York on Friday dismissed the death-eligible counts from Luigi Mangione’s indictment, clearing the way for his federal trial to begin in October.
“Tortured and strange” though she said her conclusion may be, U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett ruled stalking is not a crime of violence and, therefore, not a predicate to make the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson a capital crime.
“No one could seriously question that this is violent criminal conduct,” Garnett wrote. However, her opinion said that the U.S. Supreme Court requires her to analyze the allegations in a way that is “totally divorced from the conduct at issue.”
Garnett said crimes of violence must, by definition, involve force and, theoretically, stalking could be committed without it.
The defense wanted the death penalty taken off the table, arguing that stalking “fails to qualify as a crime of violence” and therefore cannot be the predicate to make Mangione eligible for the death penalty if he is convicted of the federal charges. The defense also argued that the decision to seek the death penalty was political and circumvented the federal government’s protocols.
Mangione, who is accused of stalking and killing Thompson in Midtown Manhattan in December 2024, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges.
With the death penalty off the table, Garnett said Mangione’s federal trial will begin with opening statements on Oct. 13. Garnett said jury selection will begin on Sept. 8.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office is separately trying to convince a state judge to put Mangione on trial on July 1, before the federal case.
Garnett on Friday also declined to suppress evidence seized from Mangione’s backpack when he was apprehended in Altoona, Pennsylvania. This ruling will allow prosecutors to use key evidence at trial, including the alleged murder weapon and writings that prosecutors say amount to a confession.
Garnett said the search fell within multiple exceptions to the requirements for obtaining a search warrant, including the discovery of the weapon and the likelihood that the evidence would have been discovered inevitably.
Mangione’s lawyers had argued the backpack search was illegal.
ABC News’ Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has fired two immigration judges who earlier this year dismissed the deportation cases of students advocating for Palestinian rights, the union representing immigration judges confirmed Monday.
Roopal Patel, who was appointed as an immigration judge in 2024, ruled in February that there were no grounds to deport Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University. Ozturk was held in detention in Louisiana for 45 days.
Nina Froes, who was also appointed as a judge in 2024, dismissed deportation proceedings against Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student who was arrested by immigration authorities immediately following his citizenship interview last April.
Froes and Patel are among 113 immigration judges who have been fired during the current Trump administration. According to the National Association of Immigration Judges, six judges were terminated this past weekend alone.
It’s unclear if the two judges were terminated directly because of their rulings in the deportation cases of the students.
News of the dismissals was first reported by The New York Times.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration court judges, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., said on social media that the firings “violated every basic due process.”
“Donald Trump is purging immigration judges who aren’t rubber stamps for his cruel, inhumane mass deportation agenda,” Goldman said. “In just over a year in office, he has fired more than 100 judges and threatened others who refused to comply with his wishes.”
Matthew Perry attends the GQ Men of the Year Party 2022 at The West Hollywood EDITION on November 17, 2022 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for GQ)
(NEW YORK) — The woman reportedly known as the “Ketamine Queen” is set to be sentenced on Wednesday for providing the ketamine that killed Matthew Perry.
Jasveen Sangha admitted in a plea agreement to working with another dealer to provide the “Friends” actor with dozens of vials of ketamine, including the dose that led to his fatal overdose in October 2023 at the age of 54.
Sangha pleaded guilty last year to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
Sangha faces a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday morning local time in Los Angeles federal court.
Prosecutors said in court filings ahead of Sangha’s sentencing that she should serve 15 years in prison for her “cold callousness and disregard for life,” and that she’s shown little remorse, pointing to recorded jail communications in which, they say, Sangha talked about “obtaining ‘trademarks’ and securing book rights on the events of the case.”
In a sentencing memorandum filed last month, prosecutors said Sangha ran a “high-volume drug trafficking business out of her North Hollywood residence,” where she stored, packaged and distributed drugs, including ketamine and methamphetamine, since at least 2019. Prosecutors said Sangha continued to sell “dangerous drugs” even after learning she had sold ketamine that contributed to the overdose deaths of two men: Perry and, years earlier, Los Angeles resident Cody McLaury. McLaury died hours after Sangha sold him four vials of ketamine in 2019, prosecutors said.
“She didn’t care and kept selling,” prosecutors wrote. “Defendant’s actions show a cold callousness and disregard for life. She chose profits over people, and her actions have caused immense pain to the victims’ families and loved ones.”
Sangha “had the opportunity to stop after realizing the impact of her dealing – but simply chose not to,” which warrants a “significant” sentence, prosecutors also said.
The defense, meanwhile, said Sangha, who has been behind bars since her arrest in August 2024, should receive a sentence of time served due to her “demonstrated rehabilitation.”
“She has maintained sustained and exemplary sobriety, and actively engaged in recovery-oriented and rehabilitative programming while in custody, and has tremendously strong family and community support to facilitate successful reentry and reduce the risk of recidivism,” her attorneys, Mark Geragos and Alexandra Kazarian, wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed last month.
In response to the defense sentencing memorandum, prosecutors continued to argue that Sangha has shown a lack of remorse and claimed she has attempted to minimize the harm she’s caused.
“For example, defendant harmed two overdose victims, but her sentencing briefing does not even mention Cody McLaury and only references Matthew Perry in passing, in the context of defendant attempting to downplay her role in his death and to heap the blame on others,” prosecutors wrote in their response, filed last week.
They also argued that Sangha “expressed a similar lack of remorse in recorded jail communications” – including one on Dec. 25, 2024, during which prosecutors said an individual stated, “We’re gonna sell those book rights,” and Sangha allegedly responded, “Oh I know, the plan is in, the f—— trademark is going down,” according to the filing.
“Even if said in jest, this conversation suggests defendant does not appreciate the severity of her offenses, and instead sees her crimes as a potential future revenue stream,” prosecutors wrote. “It also shows that time in custody has, thus far, failed in getting defendant to adequately reflect upon the grave harms she has caused.”
Geragos has previously said that Sangha “feels horrible.”
“She’s felt horrible from day one,” Geragos told reporters outside the courthouse last year following Sangha’s guilty plea. “This has been a horrendous experience.”
In a victim impact statement filed ahead of the sentencing, Perry’s stepmother, Debbie Perry, said the pain caused by the defendant is “irreversible.”
“Please give this heartless woman the maximum prison sentence so she won’t be able to hurt other families like ours,” she wrote.
In addition to Sangha, four other people were charged and pleaded guilty in connection with Perry’s death: the other dealer, Erik Fleming; Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s live-in personal assistant; and two doctors, Mark Chavez and Salvador Plasencia.
Prosecutors said Sangha worked with Fleming to distribute ketamine to Perry, and that in October 2023, they sold the actor 51 vials of ketamine that were provided to Iwamasa.
“Leading up to Perry’s death, Iwamasa repeatedly injected Perry with the ketamine that Sangha supplied to Fleming,” the DOJ said in a press release last year. “Specifically, on October 28, 2023, Iwamasa injected Perry with at least three shots of Sangha’s ketamine, which caused Perry’s death.”
Iwamasa pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 22.
Fleming pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death and is set to be sentenced on April 29.
Chavez and Plasencia have also been convicted for their roles in what prosecutors called a conspiracy to illegally distribute ketamine to Perry.
Chavez, who once ran a ketamine clinic, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and was sentenced to eight months home confinement in December 2025.
Plasencia, who briefly treated Perry prior to the actor’s death, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to four counts of distribution of ketamine and was sentenced to 30 months in prison in December 2025.
