Florida State shooting suspect makes 1st appearance in court after weeks in hospital
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(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — The 20-year-old who allegedly killed two and wounded several others in a mass shooting on the Florida State University campus last month made his first appearance in court on Tuesday after spending weeks in the hospital.
The suspect, FSU student Phoenix Ikner, was shot and wounded by officers minutes after he allegedly opened fire on the Tallahassee campus on April 17, officials said.
Ikner was released from the hospital on Monday and taken to a detention facility on two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder, Tallahassee police said.
He made his first court appearance remotely on Tuesday as victims watched the proceedings in person and on Zoom.
Ikner was held on no bond and is prohibited from contacting any victims, their families or potential witnesses.
Ikner’s stepmother, Jessica Ikner, is a deputy with the local Leon County Sheriff’s Office. Phoenix Ikner had access to one of his stepmother’s personal guns, which was one of the weapons found at the scene, Sheriff Walter McNeil said.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge appeared inclined Wednesday to enter a permanent ruling barring the Trump administration from implementing an executive order targeting the law firm of Perkins Coie, after repeatedly pressing a government attorney over whether President Donald Trump’s sweeping efforts to target the legal community run afoul of the Constitution.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who Trump criticized on social media earlier Wednesday over her assignment to the case, suggested repeatedly in the hearing that the administration’s efforts to target law firms who had represented or hired Trump’s political opponents echoed the repression of McCarthyism and the “Red Scare” era in American history.
Trump’s executive order, which cited Perkins Coie’s former representation of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, sought to strip security clearances from the firm’s layers, virtually halt any dealings with the federal government and restrict its attorneys from accessing most federal buildings.
Trump has issued similar executive orders targeting four other law firms, while at least nine law firms have entered into controversial deals with the White House, offering millions of dollars in pro bono work on causes supported by conservatives to avoid being targeted.
Howell and three other federal judges overseeing legal challenges brought by law firms targeted by the White House have voiced concerns about the constitutionality of the White House’s actions, and have granted requests from the firms to temporarily bar the administration from enforcing them as litigation plays out.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Deputy Associate Attorney General Richard Lawson repeatedly sought to defend the executive order as lawful, arguing that Trump’s views about the firm reflected his right to free speech and that the administration has broad discretion to raise national security concerns about a law firm’s work.
But Howell was highly skeptical of those defenses and only grew more frustrated as Lawson refused to answer direct questions about the purpose of the executive order.
“The purpose was not to force Perkins to its knees?” Howell asked.
“I don’t view it that way,” Lawson replied.
At one point in the hearing, Judge Howell chastised the government for a memo sent to government agencies in the wake of her initial temporary restraining order that included “extra language” stating that the administration took the position Trump’s executive order was lawful and they believed her TRO was “erroneous.”
“I’ll be honest — it struck me as sort of a temper tantrum by the Department of Justice and OMB,” Howell said, referencing the Office of Management and Budget. “Worthy of a three year old — not the Department of Justice and OMB.”
Dane Butswinkas, a lawyer for Perkins Coie, argued the executive order plainly retaliates against Perkins Coie, and that the Trump administration has failed to demonstrate how the move protects national security.
“This is exactly the kind of conduct the Constitution forbids,” Butswinkas said, calling the order a “complete sham.”
Comparing the order to the worst of the government’s actions during the Red Scare, Butswinkas urged Judge Howell to defend the rule of law by blocking the order from taking effect.
“Silence and fear are the playbook of authoritarianism,” Butswinkas said before thanking the other law firms, media organizations, and professors that have pushed back against the order. “Democracy may bend, it may get bruised, but what 250 years has shown is it will not break.”
(NEW CASTLE COUNTY, Md.) — A Maryland mother has been charged with the murder of her 3-year-old daughter after falsely reporting to police that the child was kidnapped at gunpoint, according to Maryland State Police.
Darrian Randle, 31, was charged with first- and second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse resulting in the death of a minor under 13 and “other related criminal charges,” police announced on Wednesday. She was also charged with filing a false police report in Delaware, according to Philadelphia ABC station WPVI.
Randle previously reported to police on Tuesday that her daughter, 3-year-old Nola Dinkins, had been kidnapped at gunpoint, which led to the issuing of an Amber Alert in Newark, Delaware, police said. Information “gleaned throughout the investigation revealed the initial report provided by Randle was false” and the Amber Alert was subsequently canceled, police said in a press release.
Through their search efforts, officials located human remains that are “consistent with that of a child” in a vacant lot in North East, Maryland, on Wednesday afternoon, police said. The identification of the remains — and whether or not they are Dinkins’ — is pending autopsy results by the medical examiner, police said.
Randle previously stated she and Dinkins had left her apartment complex and arrived at a dead-end road, with the child beginning to “cry for an unknown reason,” according to the arrest warrant.
While Randle was trying to figure out why her daughter was crying, she said an unknown black SUV with “either rust or dirt on its sides” pulled up behind Randle’s vehicle, with a male voice asking if she was OK, according to the warrant.
Randle replied that she was OK and then “directed her attention back to looking in her car” to her crying child, the warrant said.
While she was looking inside her vehicle, she said an “unknown white male, approximately 40 years of age,” wearing a black hoodie and gray shorts, exited the SUV and approached Randle’s vehicle, she told police.
The male once again asked if Randle was OK and then removed a “black handgun from his shorts” and pointed it at the mother and the child, according to the warrant. She told police the male said he was “not going to hurt them,” but then grabbed the child, “picked her up, placing her underneath his arm” and retreated to the SUV, which was driven by a white female.
At the time of the report, police issued an Amber Alert and an intensive search began overnight. The Amber Alert was canceled after police determined the mother lied to police, with the case then being investigated as a homicide, New Castle County Police said.
Randle later admitted to police she was lying about the kidnapping and the suspects involved, saying she made up the report to “divert attention from her then boyfriend,” who was identified as 44-year-old Cedrick Antoine Britten, police said.
Britten was also arrested and charged with accessory to first- and second-degree murder, failure to report the death of the child and “other related criminal charges,” police said.
Randle is currently being held at the Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution in Delaware, with her preliminary court hearing scheduled for June 23, according to jail records. Britten remains in police custody in Maryland awaiting transport to the Cecil County District Court for an initial appearance, police said.
Additional details on what led to the murder charges have not been revealed by officials.
It was not immediately clear whether Randle or Britten have attorneys who can speak on their behalf.
(FRISCO, Texas) — The 17-year-old student charged with murder in the stabbing of another student at a Texas high school track meet has been released from jail after his $1 million bond was reduced, online records show.
Karmelo Anthony, a student at Frisco Centennial High School, was detained following the deadly stabbing, which occurred at a Frisco Independent School District stadium on April 2 during a track and field championship involving multiple schools in the district.
Austin Metcalf, 17, an 11th grader at Frisco Memorial High School, died after police said another student stabbed him during an altercation in the bleachers at the meet.
Anthony was initially held on $1 million bond. During a hearing on Monday, a Collin County judge set his bond at $250,000, online court records show. He was released from the Collin County Jail that day, online jail records show.
As part of his bond conditions, he has been ordered to be on house arrest, be supervised by a parent or designated adult at all times and have no contact with Metcalf’s family, according to court records. He also needs prior court approval to leave the house and must check in with the court bailiff weekly until the case is indicted into a different court, the court records show.
Judge Angela Tucker said she considered several factors in setting the new bond amount, including Anthony’s age, lack of past criminal history and close ties to the community, Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA reported.
Members of both teens’ families attended the hearing, according to WFAA.
Anthony is newly represented by Dallas defense attorney Mike Howard, who asked for $150,000 bond, according to WFAA. The prosecution argued the Anthony family was able to pay the $1 million bond through funds raised through the platform GiveSendGo, according to WFAA. The fundraiser had more than $416,000 in donations as of Monday afternoon. Anthony’s father told the court the family doesn’t have access to those funds yet, WFAA reported.
ABC News reached out to Howard for comment but has not received a response.
The Dallas-based social justice organization Next Generation Action Network, which is advocating for Anthony, said in a statement on X that the reduced bond “gives Karmelo and his family a much-needed window of relief and a chance to prepare for the road ahead.”
The organization said it was working with the Anthony family to process the bond.
The stabbing occurred under the Memorial High School tent in the stadium bleachers at approximately 10 a.m. on April 2, according to the arrest report.
Responding officers said they spoke to multiple witnesses, including one who reported the altercation began after Metcalf told Anthony to move out from under their team’s tent, according to the arrest report.
The witness reported that Anthony allegedly reached inside his bag and said, “Touch me and see what happens,” according to the arrest report.
Metcalf grabbed Anthony to move him, according to a witness, and Anthony allegedly pulled out what the witness described as a black knife and “stabbed Austin once in the chest and then ran away,” the arrest report stated.
Anthony allegedly confessed to the killing and officers say he told them he was protecting himself, according to the arrest report.
