Federal prosecutors charge Ryan Routh with attempted assassination of Donald Trump
(WASHINGTON) — Federal prosecutors have officially charged Ryan Routh with attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump, a source familiar with the matter confirms to ABC News.
The move was expected and previewed both by prosecutors in a court hearing yesterday and by Attorney General Merrick Garland in a news conference this afternoon.
The charging documents have not yet been officially updated on Routh’s court docket. He is expected to be arraigned on the charges in a court hearing Monday.
(BALTIMORE) — One man was killed and seven others were injured in a shooting in Baltimore late Sunday night, police said.
Several firearms were found at the scene of the shooting on the 1300 block of Spring Street when police arrived after 8 p.m., Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said at a press conference.
“There was a gathering over on Spring Street, and at some point, it looks like multiple people opened fire, and we end up with eight people shot and one deceased,” Worley said, as reported by ABC News’ Baltimore affiliate WMAR.
The man who was killed was 36 years old, police said. A woman and six men aged between 22 and 45 were injured, police said. Their conditions ranged from critical to stable, with all taken to local hospitals, police said.
Officials also said there was “no indication” that any of the people who were shot were simply passing by, or not involved in the gathering that was taking place before the shooting.
There was no immediate information released on possible suspects. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting with the investigation, which was in its preliminary stages.
Faith Leach, Baltimore’s chief administrative officer, said that under the direction of Mayor Brandon Scott the administration was launching “community neighborhood stabilization efforts right here in this community in the days ahead.”
“Please know that the Scott administration will be here. We will be here in the immediate aftermath of this incident, but we will also be here for the long term to address your challenges, your needs, and to also help the community heal,” Leach said.
ABC News’ Megan Wordell contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog says it has uncovered an “urgent issue” with how immigration officials handle cases involving unaccompanied migrant children, warning in a new report that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has been unable to keep track of all unaccompanied minors released from government custody.
The interim report, sent to Congress on Tuesday and obtained by ABC News, said that — in the past five years — more than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children failed to appear for their immigration court hearings, and ICE was “not able to account” for all of their locations.
“Without an ability to monitor the location and status of [unaccompanied migrant children], ICE has no assurance [they] are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor,” Inspector General Joseph Cuffari wrote in his interim report.
He urged ICE to “take immediate action to ensure the safety of [unaccompanied children] residing in the United States.”
Cuffari’s report is part of a broader audit of ICE’s ability to track unaccompanied migrant children who have been released or transferred from U.S. custody after entering the country.
According to the interim report, immigration officials transferred more than 448,000 unaccompanied migrant children from 2019 to 2023, spanning both the Trump and Biden administrations. After interviewing more than 100 officials and visiting ten ICE field offices, the inspector general found that immigration officials “cannot always monitor the location and status of unaccompanied migrant children who are released … and [then] did not appear as scheduled in immigration court.”
When unaccompanied migrant children do not show up to court, federal judges will often issue several continuances — to postpone the hearings for months — until they are left with no choice but to issue deportation orders.
Earlier this year, ABC News attended several hearings at immigration court in Hyattsville, Maryland, where federal judges were forced to issue removal orders for unaccompanied migrant children who did not appear for their scheduled hearings. And for those who do appear, only 56% are represented by counsel, according to the Department of Justice.
ABC News previously reported that tens of thousands of unaccompanied young migrants are representing themselves before federal immigration judges due to a litany of issues crippling the court system.
In his interim report, Cuffari said that as of May 2024, more than 291,000 unaccompanied children had not been placed into removal proceedings because ICE had not served them notices to appear or scheduled a court date for them. Accordingly, the number of unaccompanied children who failed to appear for their court dates “may have been much larger” than 32,000 had ICE issued notices or scheduled court dates for those 291,000 children.
“Immigration court hearings are often ICE’s only opportunity to observe and screen [children] for trafficking indicators or other safety concerns,” the interim report said.
So, according to the report, when ICE fails to service notices to appear, or schedule court dates, that “reduces opportunities to verify their safety.”
The report cited a number of key challenges for ICE, noting that, among other issues, “ICE still lacks adequate staffing, which can limit officers’ time and ability to check the location or immigration case status of migrants.”
“Resource constraints also impact [their] ability to issue [notices] to all [unaccompanied children] after their release from HHS’ custody,” the report said.
The report also said that ICE is burdened by “manual, multi-step processes to share information on [children] who do not appear in court.”
The watchdog suggested that Homeland Security officials “develop and implement an automated system to document court appearances and maintain address information of unaccompanied migrant children.”
Agency officials agreed with the watchdog’s recommendation to incorporate an automated tracking mechanism, according to a brief response included with the 18-page interim report. But they also suggested that the assessments in the watchdog’s interim report failed to articulate some structural challenges that complicate their ability to track migrant children and “therefore lead to misunderstandings about the process.”
(KENT, Wash.) — DNA evidence from a discarded cigarette has helped investigators finally solve the murder of a 33-year-old woman in Washington state after 44 years.
Kenneth Kundert was arrested in Arkansas on a nationwide murder warrant out of Washington, police said. He is expected to be charged with first-degree murder, according to a spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
His bail is set at $3 million and he is awaiting extradition, according to police.
On Feb. 23, 1980, after 10 p.m. Dorothy “Dottie” Maria Silzer left work at a pizza place to head home. That was the last time she was seen alive, according to police.
She was reported missing by her co-workers three days later after she failed to show up for work two days in a row, which was “hugely unusual” for her, Kent, Washington, Police Chief Rafael Padilla said at a press conference.
Police performed a welfare check at her condo, where she was found murdered, Padilla said.
Evidence, including DNA, was collected from the scene and preserved.
“It was their extensive and exhaustive work to collect and preserve that evidence that made the eventual identification of Dottie’s murderer possible,” Padilla said.
The Kent County medical examiner later determined the cause of death was asphyxia by means of cervical compression. There was also blunt-force trauma to her head, according to Padilla.
Crime lab investigators determined that DNA evidence collected at the scene of the crime belonged to an unknown man.
In 1996, additional DNA evidence from the case was examined, but investigators still came up empty.
Over the years, DNA from persons of interest were submitted to compare, but none were a match, Padilla said. The case dragged on unsolved for so long that many of the officers who worked on it had retired and a couple of them had even died, he added.
Finally, a breakthrough came in 2022, when the rapidly advancing field of genetic genealogy, in which DNA is submitted to public databases to find familial connections, identified 11 potential suspects.
Investigators said they then began to collect DNA samples to eliminate suspects from the group.
Two of the suspects identified were Kurt and Kenneth Kundert, brothers who lived in Arkansas, police said. Investigators discovered the brothers were both in custody on unrelated charges stemming from an assault.
Kurt Kundert agreed to provide police with a DNA sample voluntarily, but Kenneth Kundert did not, police said. Kurt Kundert’s DNA did not match the sample.
Investigators said they were able to determine Kenneth Kundert had ties to Washington and worked in the state in 1987. The brothers also lived in an apartment complex about 1,200 feet away from where the murder took place, authorities said.
In March, police were able to obtain a discarded cigarette belonging to Kenneth Kundert and it was compared to the DNA sample found at the crime scene and came back a match.
On Aug. 20, police found and arrested Kenneth Kundert in Arkansas. He is now at a Van Buren correctional facility awaiting extradition.
Silzer was originally from North Dakota where she graduated from high school before working at a school district in the state. She later moved to Washington and lived in the Seattle area for about 12 years, police said.
She had just purchased a condo in Kent, Washington, just before she was killed. Silzer was a training supervisor at Boeing and worked at a pizza place on weekends, according to police.