ICE officer fatally shoots man who resisted arrest, dragged agent with car: DHS
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(CHICAGO) — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a man who was resisting arrest and subsequently dragged the agent with his car, according an ICE spokesperson.
ICE officers were conducting a vehicle stop in a Chicago suburb on Friday morning when the suspect — identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Silverio Villegas-Gonzales — “resisted and attempted to drive his vehicle into the arrest team,” subsequently dragging the agent, ICE said.
DHS said the suspect dragged the ICE officer “a significant distance.”
“Fearing for his life, the officer discharged his firearm and struck the subject,” ICE said.
Both the officer and Villegas-Gonzales “immediately” received medical treatment and were transported to a local hospital.
The suspect was pronounced dead at the hospital, while the officer suffered serious injuries but is now in stable condition, ICE said.
“We are praying for the speedy recovery of our law enforcement officer. He followed his training, used appropriate force, and properly enforced the law to protect the public and law enforcement,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Villegas-Gonzales “entered the country at an unknown date and time” and has “a history of reckless driving,” DHS said in a press release.
ABC News’ Laura Romero contributed to this report.
(JONES, OK) — A farmer in Oklahoma has been killed by two water buffaloes after becoming trapped inside their enclosure, police said.
The incident occurred on Friday evening in Jones, Oklahoma, at approximately 8:35 p.m. when officers from the Jones Police Department and the Jones Fire Department responded to an emergency call regarding an individual who had been attacked by two water buffalo at a farm located at 7501 North Henney Road, officials said.
“Upon arrival, first responders were initially unable to reach the victim due to the aggressive behavior of the animals,” said the Jones Police Department in a statement on social media released on Monday. “One water buffalo was immediately dispatched to allow safe access to the scene.”
But when responders gained entry to the enclosure, they discovered that the victim, named as Bradley McMichael, had sustained “multiple deep lacerations that proved to be fatal,” officials said.
“While investigators were processing the scene, a second water buffalo became increasing agitated and posed a threat to emergency personnel,” police said. “For the safety of those on site, the second animal was also dispatched. Evidence gathered at the scene confirmed that the water buffaloes were responsible for Mr. McMichael’s fatal injuries.”
Police discovered during the investigation that McMichael had purchased the two water buffaloes just the day before at a livestock auction and that it is believed he became trapped inside their enclosure while tending to the animal, according to the Jones Police Department.
The office of the chief medical examiner subsequently took custody of McMichael and transported him to their facility for further examination.
Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
(FALL RIVER, Mass.) — Shirley Chambra was outside smoking a cigarette when she saw sparks and then flames at her home: the Gabriel House assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, according to her nephew, Ken Pelletier.
“I’m sure she felt so helpless being outside,” Pelletier told ABC News. “She’s lived there long enough she knows probably everybody there.”
Responders found multiple people “hanging out of the windows, screaming and begging to be rescued,” Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said.
About 70 people lived in the building, many of whom are immobile and have oxygen tanks, officials said.
Without responders’ quick actions, “we would’ve seen an even far — an unimaginable loss of life here, given the vulnerability of this population,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said.
When Pelletier saw the news of the fire, he said he rushed over to the facility and found his aunt on a bus with other residents, some of whom were covered in soot.
“She looked like she was in shock,” he said. “She was scared.”
“I’m sure when she left last night to go have a cigarette, she only left with what she has on her back, and, you know, her walker,” he added.
Pelletier said it was a relief to see Chambra alive.
“You have all those thoughts and things running through your mind, you know, worst case scenario,” he said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. The Bristol County District Attorney’s office said it “does not appear to be suspicious.”
The DA’s office identified the residents killed as: 64-year-old Rui Albernaz, 61-year-old Ronald Codega, 69-year-old Margaret Duddy, 78-year-old Robert King, 71-year-old Kim Mackin, 78-year-old Richard Rochon, 86-year-old Eleanor Willett. The names of the other two victims — a 70-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man — have not been released.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — In a series of final rulings ahead of Bryan Kohberger’s capital murder trial, Judge Steven Hippler said lawyers for the man who could be executed, if convicted, won’t be permitted to present to the jury the theory that some unknown person is the real killer.
The trial in the Idaho college killings case will begin Aug. 18, a week later than originally planned, a judge ruled Thursday.
With jury selection starting on Aug. 4, a series of final rulings has cleared the path for the trial of Bryan Kohberger as Judge Steven Hippler said lawyers for the man who could be executed, if convicted, won’t be permitted to present to the jury the theory that some unknown person is the real killer.
However, Kohberger’s defense will be allowed to press investigators on whether they followed up on all plausible leads enough, beyond simply pursuing Kohberger, the judge said.
“Nothing links these individuals to the homicides or otherwise gives rise to a reasonable inference that they committed the crime; indeed, it would take nothing short of rank speculation by the jury to make such a finding,” the judge said.
Kohberger’s lawyers had offered the judge, under seal, what they said were four other people who might have killed Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in an off-campus house on Nov. 13, 2022.
Kohberger’s attorneys — who insist he is innocent — did acknowledge that they didn’t have enough to pursue that strategy at the trial’s outset and wanted the judge to give them “latitude” in building that theory when they cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses.
The judge rejected the proof they offered as paper-thin at best, and “entirely irrelevant.”
“At best, [Kohberger’s] offer of proof can give rise to only wild speculation that it is possible any one of these four individuals could have committed the crimes,” Judge Steven Hippler said, adding the defense can’t “merely offer up unsupported speculation that another person may have committed the crime, which is all [Kohberger] has done here.”
In his ruling, Hippler said allowing the defense to indulge that theory would risk leading the jury “astray” and waste their “precious time,” the judge said.
Kohberger’s defense previously suggested there could be someone else behind the killings, pointing to the other unidentified male DNA samples found in the crime scene area. But, the judge noted, each of the four people proffered as alternates had cooperated with authorities, provided their DNA and fingerprints and that forensics had already excluded their DNA from the samples taken from the crime scene and victims.
The fourth individual offered as an alternate had a “passing connection” to one of the victims, the judge said: he “noticed her shopping at a store approximately five weeks prior to the homicides.”
“He followed her briefly out the exit of the store while considering approaching her to talk. He turned away before ever speaking to her,” the judge said.
Hippler added that the event was “captured on a surveillance camera,” and that this man had cooperated with authorities. His DNA had already been excluded from those taken from the crime scene.
In another new filing just posted to the docket, Judge Hippler also denied the defense’s attempt to further delay the trial.
Kohberger “has not made a showing that there is good cause to continue the trial,” Hippler said.
Kohberger’s lawyers had pushed for another delay, citing a massive trove of records turned over by the prosecution in such a high-stakes case, the “inflammatory” media coverage potentially biasing the jury, and because they needed more time to prepare their case for sentencing, should he be convicted.
The judge itemized the extensive investigation that Kohberger’s lawyers had already done to prepare for a possible sentencing phase that show an “expansive understanding” of who the man is and the world he’s been living in.
The list includes his educational, medical and mental health records; his father’s military records; “multiple” interviews with Kohberger himself as well as family members, two of his fourth-grade teachers, his former boxing coach, and a psychologist who evaluated Kohberger in 2005; interviews with his former Masters’ degree professor/advisor; and letters and jail calls between Kohberger and his family.
There is also a lengthy redacted section discussing “speculation” Kohberger’s lawyers want to “chase down,” which the judge calls “unsupported suspicions” that “smacks of tactical gamesmanship and delay.”
If they were “truly struggling” to be ready for an August trial, they should have said so sooner, before all the deadlines had passed, the judge said. Kohberger’s lawyers have “robustly litigated” this case so far, amassed dozens of experts and other team members and filed numerous briefs.
The judge also said he doubted the national media attention on the case would decrease with a delay.
“Four college students in a small Idaho college town were brutally stabbed to death by an unknown perpetrator,” the judge said. “It was an immediate media sensation and garnered widespread attention that not only continues to persist, but continues to grow.”
