Man charged after altercation, shooting at pro-Israel rally: Official
(NEWTON, Mass.) — A 47-year-old Massachusetts man has been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after he allegedly shot another individual during an altercation at a pro-Israel demonstration in Newton, officials said Thursday night.
The individual who was shot sustained life-threatening injuries, authorities said at a brief news conference Thursday night. The man is being treated at a local hospital, an official said.
The incident happened around 6:40 p.m. ET when Newton Police responded to calls at Washington and Harvard Street, where a small group of individuals were engaged in a pro-Israeli demonstration on one side of the street, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said.
An individual was “completely randomly” walking down the opposite side of the street, and words were exchanged between the two parties, she explained.
That individual, who Ryan said was not part of the demonstration group, began crossing the street, went back to his side of the street, and then went back across the street again and “ultimately jumped upon one of the demonstrators,” Ryan said, leading to a “scuffle.”
“During that scuffle, the individual who had come across the street was shot by a member of the demonstrating group,” she said.
The 47-year-old alleged shooter was arrested and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and violation of a constitutional right causing injury, Ryan told the media.
His arraignment will occur Friday in the Newton District Court, she said.
Ryan said it is still early in the investigation, which remains ongoing.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES) — Five people are now facing federal charges in connection with the ketamine death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry, ABC News has learned.
The arrests were made in an early morning operation Thursday, according to law enforcement sources.
Five people — including two doctors — have been charged with conspiracy to distribute ketamine, according to a federal source. The indictment alleges that the two doctors were the initial sources of supply, but at one point federal officials believe the drugs became too expensive and Perry switched to a new source, including a woman known as the “Ketamine Queen of Los Angeles,” according to the federal source.
The charges will also include the death of another person who is referred to in the indictment by the initials C.M., according to the federal source.
The charges will be announced at a news briefing later on Thursday with the U.S. attorney for Los Angeles and the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Perry died on Oct. 28, 2023, at the age of 54. He was discovered unresponsive in a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home, police said. An autopsy report revealed he died from the acute effects of ketamine.
Perry had high levels of ketamine in his blood, likely lapsed into unconsciousness and then went underwater, according to the autopsy report.
He was reported to have been receiving ketamine infusions for depression and anxiety, with the most recent therapy coming 1 1/2 weeks before his death, according to the autopsy report. However, the medical examiner wrote the ketamine in his system at death could not have been from that infusion therapy, as ketamine’s half-life is three to four hours or less.
His method of intake was listed in the report as unknown.
The autopsy report also listed drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects as contributing factors not related to the immediate cause of death. The manner of death was ruled an accident.
Prescription drugs and loose pills were found at his home, but nothing near where he was found dead, according to the autopsy report.
Multiple agencies have been investigating in the months since his death, including the DEA, Los Angeles Police Department, United States Postal Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Perry was known for playing Chandler Bing on the hit sitcom “Friends,” which ran from 1994 to 2004.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who came under scrutiny for the agency’s failure to prevent the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, has resigned.
Cheatle had faced calls to step down since the shooting at a Trump rally on July 13, which left one attendee dead and two others critically injured.
She announced her resignation Tuesday morning in an email to Secret Service employees, which was obtained by ABC News.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders and financial infrastructure. On July 13th, we fell short on that mission,” she wrote. “The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases. As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse.”
In a statement following her resignation, President Joe Biden said he was “grateful” to Cheatle for her service and that the independent review into the shooting would continue.
“As a leader, it takes honor, courage, and incredible integrity to take full responsibility for an organization tasked with one of the most challenging jobs in public service,” Biden said.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas thanked Cheatle for her “lifelong devotion to our country” and for leading “the Secret Service with skill, honor, integrity, and tireless dedication.”
“She is deeply respected by the men and women of the agency and by her fellow leaders in the Department of Homeland Security,” Mayorkas said in a statement. “I am proud to have worked with Director Cheatle and we are all grateful for her service.”
In an interview with ABC News after the attack, Cheatle called the incident “unacceptable” and said it was her responsibility to ensure nothing like it would happen again.
“The buck stops with me,” she said. “I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary.”
Cheatle said during the interview she would not resign from her role — a claim she repeated during House testimony on Monday.
During the contentious hearing, Cheatle called the assassination attempt on Trump the “most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13, we failed,” Cheatle said in her testimony before the House committee. “As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse. We are fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. We must learn what happened.”
Cheatle told the committee that she would move “heaven and earth” to ensure that what occurred will never happen again.
“Our mission is not political. It is literally a matter of life and death, as the tragic events on July 13 remind us of that,” she said. “I have full confidence in the men and women of the Secret Service. They are worthy of our support in executing our protective mission.”
Cheatle had faced calls to resign from both Republicans and Democrats after the shooting. John Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told Cheatle in his opening statement at the hearing that he was among those who believe she should resign.
By the end of the hearing, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member of the committee, joined in the calls for Cheatle to resign, saying that the director “has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and tender moment in the history of the country and we need to quickly move beyond this.” Following the hearing, Raskin joined Comer in sending Cheatle a letter requesting her resignation.
Critics questioned how the Secret Service could have failed to safeguard the rally area from such an attack, particularly following reports the shooter had been spotted before he opened fire and identified as potentially suspicious.
Cheatle previously told ABC News “a very short period of time” passed between then and the shooting.
“I don’t have all the details yet, but it was a very short period of time,” she said. “Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time, and it makes it very difficult.”
Cheatle also said that local authorities were tasked with securing the building where the alleged shooter fired the shots before being taken out by a Secret Service sniper, and confirmed that local police were present inside the building while the shooter was on the roof.
“In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter,” Cheatle said. “And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter. There was local police in that building — there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building.”
Some of the criticism of Cheatle has focused on her being a woman, with prominent conservatives, like Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., calling her a “DEI hire” and female Secret Service agents in general as having “physical limitations” that should prevent them from serving.
Cheatle testified before the GOP-led House Oversight Committee on Monday. In a statement announcing the hearing, chairman Comer said, “Americans demand answers” from Cheatle.
“The United States Secret Service has a no-fail mission, yet it failed on Saturday when a madman attempted to assassinate President Trump, killed an innocent victim, and harmed others,” Comer said. “We are grateful to the brave Secret Service agents who acted quickly to protect President Trump after shots were fired and the American patriots who sought to help victims, but questions remain about how a rooftop within proximity to President Trump was left unsecure.”
Cheatle, who was appointed by Biden in 2022, was one of only two women to ever serve as director of the Secret Service. Previously, she had been the first woman to serve as the agency’s assistant director of protective operations.
Before her appointment, she was the senior director in global security at PepsiCo. Before that, she had served with the Secret Service for more than 25 years, including on Biden’s security detail while he was vice president.
(PITTSBURGH) — Helen Comperatore and her daughters are remembering Corey Comperatore, the volunteer fire chief who was killed when he died protecting his family during the gunfire at Donald Trump’s political rally last month in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“He definitely was a hero. He saved his wife, he saved his child and he was just the best guy,” Helen Comperatore, Corey’s surviving wife, told ABC News’ Pittsburgh affiliate WTAE. “He was just the best.”
Corey’s daughter Allyson recalls the moment shots rang out, a memory which she says is still vivid and painful.
“I was the one that my dad threw down,” said Allyson. “That was when he was shot. He ended up falling onto me. I was, like, confused. And I went, “dad?” And when I turned is whenever he fell down.”
“That’s when I started screaming,” Allyson continued. “I was instantly like, I was trying to keep him from bleeding. And somebody had thrown down a towel. So somebody behind us must have seen what was going on, and I was just, I was holding it there and just screaming for anybody to help.”
Helen says she still struggles with what happened that day.
“I’m angry. You know, obviously, my husband took a bullet for [Donald Trump],” Helen said. “That, unfortunately, was the plan that day.”
Corey Comperatore’s family say that they want him to be remembered as more than the person killed in the assassination attempt of the former president.
“He isn’t just the guy that got shot at the rally,” said Corey’s other daughter, Kaylee. “He was a husband, a father, a son, an uncle. And he was the glue to our family. He was our strength. He was everything to us and that is what got taken from this world.”