FBI thwarts ‘potential terrorist attack’ in Michigan
FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a press conference on October 23, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(DETROIT) — The FBI has thwarted “a potential terrorist attack” and arrested “multiple subjects” in Michigan, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
“This morning the FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack and arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend,” Patel posted on X.
“Thanks to the men and women of FBI and law enforcement everywhere standing guard 24/7 and crushing our mission to defend the homeland,” Patel continued.
A spokesperson for the FBI Detroit field office confirmed there was law enforcement activity in Dearborn and Inkster on Friday. “There is no current threat to public safety,” the spokesperson added.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Alleged serial killer Rex A. Heuermann is escorted into Judge Tim Mazzei’s courtroom at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead for a frye hearing on July 17, 2025 in Riverhead, New York. (Photo by James Carbone-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A New York judge on Wednesday admitted DNA evidence that Suffolk County prosecutors say links alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann to the murders of at least seven victims.
The defense had challenged the evidence since it was obtained using new DNA technology that had never been used in a New York court.
Prosecutors successfully argued the technology was derived from accepted scientific methods.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Multiple people are dead following a “devastating blast” at an explosives manufacturing plant in Tennessee on Friday, according to authorities.
The explosion occurred Friday morning at Accurate Energetic Systems in McEwen, located about 50 miles west of Nashville.
Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis confirmed there are “some” fatalities, though he did not provide a specific number. Nineteen people are unaccounted for in the blast, he said.
“It’s probably been one of the most devastating situations that I’ve been on in my career,” Davis said during a press update Friday afternoon, getting emotional.
“I always wish for the best. Is there a possibility that somebody might be injured somewhere, or somebody that we don’t know about? Yes,” he later said regarding the missing individuals.
Four to five people were brought to hospitals, according to the sheriff, who did not detail their injuries.
Asked to describe the building where the explosion occurred, he said, “There’s nothing to describe. It’s gone.”
Davis said during an earlier briefing that this is a “very big investigation.”
“This is not going to be something that we’re going to be like a car wreck or something like that, that we’re just going to clean up the debris and leave. We’re going to probably be here for a few days,” he said.
“We’re trying to take as much time as is needed right now. We’re prioritizing people that are involved, their families and trying to be very compassionate toward them,” he continued.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Homeland Security and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are among the agencies that have responded to the scene, Davis said.
The cause of the explosion remains under investigation.
Accurate Energetic Systems is “cooperating with us in any way, in every way possible,” Davis said.
“They’re wanting to figure out this just as much as we are,” he added.
Accurate Energetic Systems manufactures explosives and energetic devices for the military, aerospace, demolition and mining industries, according to its website.
The explosion occurred at 7:48 a.m. local time and destroyed one of the facility’s buildings, officials said.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said he is monitoring the “tragic incident.”
Video from a Nest camera at a home in Lobelville, about 11 miles from the plant, captured shaking as an explosion can be heard.
A McEwen resident who lives several miles from the plant said she felt her whole house shake.
“It felt like our house had some kind of explosion,” Lauren Roark told ABC News. “I jumped out of bed, asked my husband, ‘What was that?'”
Roark found what she believes to be debris from the explosion in her yard — “big chunks of insulation-looking stuff” — which she reported to authorities.
Kadi Arnold, who also lives in McEwan, told ABC News she would sometimes hear explosions from the plant, which is about 4 miles from her home, but “knew this one wasn’t normal.”
“The explosion was so loud and shook my home, I literally thought the back of my house had exploded,” she said.
“Once I realized it wasn’t my home, I immediately knew something terrible had happened at AES,” she said, adding the community is in “shock.”
“We’re a pretty tight-knit community and we’re all just devastated and heartbroken,” she said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — College campuses across America are experiencing an epidemic of hoax calls about bogus shootings and other emergencies following the shooting death of Charlie Kirk this week.
These calls — known as swatting — panicked at least a dozen schools as police rush to campuses, chasing phantom threats with many of them being racially motivated and targeting historically Black colleges and universities.
Activities froze in places like Virginia State University after a swatting call and at Southern University in Louisiana, where classes have already been cancelled through the weekend, another swatting call put the entire campus on high alert.
Police say they must respond to these hoax calls about campus shootings as if they are real as the shootings become more and more common.
The concern, authorities say, is twofold. Swatting wastes law enforcement resources but also ends up sending heavily armed officers into student spaces with guns drawn, a problem highlighted just this week when a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, was shot during a swatting response and had to be flown by helicopter to the hospital.
While these hoaxes mostly ended up being false alarms, experts note that these types of hoaxes are not only a serious crime with substantial penalties for those involved but can also put first responders and bystanders at risk.
“Swatting is not a benign endeavor. Law enforcement is taking it seriously…when they are identified, they are arresting them and prosecuting them,” said John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and a former acting undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security.
Bob Boyce, an ABC News contributor and retired NYPD chief of detectives, said these calls can range from a “simple prank” to revenge, or even a pursuit of notoriety. But regardless of the motive, there are serious penalties at stake for those placing these swatting calls, Boyce said.
Federal charges can include false information and hoaxes; which could lead to up to five years in prison with a “substantial fine;” interstate transmission of threat; which could lead to up to 20 years in jail if there is an injury involved; and wire fraud, which constitutes a “substantial penalty, incarceration and fines,” Boyce said.
In a statement to ABC News last month, the FBI said they are aware of the recent swatting incidents and are “working with our law enforcement partners.”
“The FBI is seeing an increase in swatting events across the country, and we take potential hoax threats very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk. Knowingly providing false information to emergency service agencies about a possible threat to life drains law enforcement resources, costs thousands of dollars, and, most importantly, puts innocent people at risk,” the agency said.
ABC News’ Megan Forrester contributed to this report.
