Inmate on the run after escaping custody at Seattle-Tacoma Airport: Police
Port of Seattle Police
(SEATTLE) — Port of Seattle Police are searching for an inmate who escaped custody while being transported at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport on Sunday morning.
A contracted agent was attempting to move the suspect — Sedrick T. Stevenson — who is wanted on warrants from Kentucky, police said.
The escape occurred around 11 a.m. Sunday during the check-in process at a ticket counter at the airport, according to Port of Seattle Police.
The agent lost control of the suspect, who then fled the area toward the light rail station, according to police.
The agents pursued but were unable to capture Stevenson, police said.
Port of Seattle Police confirmed through security footage that the suspect boarded the light rail train headed north.
Sound Transit security further confirmed he was seen departing the Capitol Hill station in Seattle.
He was last seen wearing a white shirt, a white zip-up hoodie and grey pants, according to police.
Stevenson is wanted on warrants out of Bowling Green, Kentucky, for second-degree escape, police said.
Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images
(BOULDER, CO) — The wife and children of Boulder, Colorado, terrorism suspect Mohamed Soliman are in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the family is being processed for expedited removal, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Tuesday. “I am continuing to pray for the victims of this attack and their families. Justice will be served.”
Soliman — who was arrested after allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails in an “act of terrorism” during a pro-Israel demonstration on Sunday — has been in the U.S. on an expired tourist visa, officials said
The father of five was granted a work permit, but that had also expired in March.
Soliman was born in Egypt and lived in Kuwait for 17 years before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, court documents said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media on Monday, “In light of yesterday’s horrific attack, all terrorists, their family members, and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump Administration we will find you, revoke your visa, and deport you.”
Soliman allegedly said he had been planning Sunday’s attack for one year but waited until his daughter graduated from high school last Thursday to carry it out, state and federal documents said.
Omer Shachar, a co-leader of Run for Their Lives in Boulder, told ABC News he was standing in front of the group outside the Boulder courthouse Sunday afternoon when a man threw a Molotov cocktail under their legs.
Shachar felt “panic right away” as his friends caught fire in front of his eyes.
“They’re literally on fire,” he said. “I don’t know if I can express it enough — literally on fire and trying to pull my friend out of the fire.”
“Once someone could help her, I was reaching out to the [attacker] and try, I don’t know what I thought, but maybe to tackle him … but we saw that he’s approaching to a container full of bottles and realized that it’s not a good idea, so we stepped back,” Shachar said. “We’re trying to keep people away as much as possible, although some of them couldn’t walk. One of them was on the ground where the fire is.”
Shachar said passersby stepped in with water bottles to try to help put out the blaze.
Twelve people were injured, officials said. Two victims remain in the hospital.
Authorities are reviewing a newly released video showing the chaos and panic in the attack’s aftermath.
Soliman, who allegedly disguised himself as a gardener during the attack, told police “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” court documents said. “SOLIMAN stated he would do it (conduct an attack) again.”
He “said this had nothing to do with the Jewish community and was specific in the Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine),” documents said.
Shachar said Run for Their Lives holds a peaceful walk every Sunday to raise awareness about the hostages who remain held in Gaza by Hamas since Oct. 7, 2023.
Participants include those who are “Jewish and non-Jewish, right and left, Israelis and non-Israelis, Americans and non-Americans,” he said. “And people are coming for the same cause — to bring those hostages back home.”
Shachar said he hopes the group can return to their walks soon.
“At the moment, Run for the Lives, the international group, asked to stop walking until we understand better safety arrangements and security arrangements,” he said. “However, personally, I will say that as long as we can do it, and as long that we’re working with the police and we can do it, I will walk until the last hostage is back home.”
Soliman had taken a concealed carry class to learn how to fire a gun, but “had to use Molotov cocktails [for the attack] after he was denied the purchase of a gun due to him not being a legal citizen,” state court documents said.
Sixteen unused Molotov cocktails were within “arm’s reach” of the suspect when he was arrested, FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek said on Monday.
The unlit Molotov cocktails were “comprised of glass wine carafe bottles or Ball jars containing clear liquid and red rags hanging out of the bottles,” court documents said. Police also found a “backpack weed sprayer, potentially containing a flammable substance. The clear liquid in the glass bottles and weed sprayer were determined to be 87 octane gasoline, which was determined to contain xylene.”
Soliman has been charged with a federal hate crime and state charges including 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder, according to court documents. He appeared in court virtually on Monday. He has yet to enter a plea.
(MORRIS COUNTY, NJ) — Drivers riding on Interstate 80 spotted an unexpected present the morning after last Christmas — a sinkhole just feet away from where cars were passing by in suburban New Jersey.
“Look at how far it goes under there,” a man says in police video footage obtained by ABC News on Friday. “They may have to shut the whole [expletive] road down.”
It was a prediction that turned out to be true.
Ever since the sinkhole was spotted along one of the busiest highways in the Northeast on Dec. 26, 2024, parts of I-80 have been closed to drivers on and off.
The closures have angered local business owners and caused congestion on detour routes that frequently paralyzes the streets of Wharton along with surrounding communities in Morris County.
The formation of the sinkhole was quickly linked to the region’s mining heritage, with the collapse of an abandoned mineshaft under I-80 identified as the cause. Additional sinkholes have popped up in the time since December’s collapse.
The video footage, which was recorded by a New Jersey State Police trooper and released in response to a request filed by ABC News under New Jersey state law, shows two drivers standing steps from the sinkhole in shock.
“We just went by and were like, ‘holy [expletive],’” one man tells the trooper while steam appears to be rising from the sinkhole in front of them.
“I’ve never seen nothing like this,” another man says.
Within a few minutes, troopers shut down two of the eastbound lines of the highway.
“The entire shoulder seems to have collapsed,” a trooper says over his police radio.
This stretch of I-80 is frequently used by both local commuters along with long-distance drivers traveling between the New York metropolitan area and Pennsylvania, Upstate New York or the Midwest.
Commuters impacted by detours were encouraged to ride New Jersey Transit trains since the agency has a station in Mount Arlington, west of the area where the sinkholes formed, but rail service is currently suspended due to a strike by engineers.
In a press release issued Friday, the New Jersey Department of Transportation announced that two eastbound lanes on I-80 may reopen as soon as May 21, with the entire highway slated to reopen by June 25.
(LOS ANGELES) — The U.S. military presence in Los Angeles is being reduced by almost half as the Pentagon confirms that 2,000 California National Guard members are being withdrawn from the mission to protect federal buildings and personnel that followed protests of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Los Angeles.
“Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding. As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th [Infantry Brigade Combat Team]) from the federal protection mission,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement provided to ABC News.
Nearly 4,700 personnel had been provided to that mission with 700 of them being active-duty Marines and the remaining 4,000 coming from the California National Guard.
The initial deployment of 2,000 California National Guard members to Los Angeles was announced on June 7.
At the time, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media that he was prepared to send active-duty Marines “if violence continues.” Two days later, U.S. Northern Command announced that 700 Marines from Twentynine Palms in California were being deployed to Los Angeles.
An additional 2,000 National Guard members were later mobilized for the mission in Los Angeles.
Some of the Guard members later received specific training to provide perimeter security during ICE operations and were not carrying out law enforcement duties. However, they were authorized to temporarily detain individuals if needed and then quickly turn them over to law enforcement personnel.
