Man charged with ethnic intimidation after allegedly stabbing Philadelphia park ranger
Philadelphia Police Department
(PHILADELPHIA) — A man accused of stabbing a Philadelphia park ranger on Sunday has been charged with ethnic intimidation, police said.
The suspect — 34-year-old Thomas Riceman — also faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and terroristic threats, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department told ABC News.
Police said they responded to reports of an assault Sunday afternoon in Rittenhouse Square, where they found the victim in the park’s security booth suffering from multiple stab wounds.
The victim, who had been working inside the security booth, told police the suspect had entered the booth and laid down before the alleged attack.
When the victim asked the suspect to leave, the suspect “suddenly attacked,” stabbing the victim in the face and head with scissors, police said.
According to police, the ethnic intimidation charge was filed because the suspect allegedly told the park ranger to “go back to his own country.”
Despite being injured, police said the victim managed to handcuff the suspect and hold him until police arrived.
The victim was transported to a hospital, where police said he was last listed as being in stable condition.
ABC News wasn’t immediately able to determine if the suspect had retained legal counsel.
Evidence photo shows Brendan Banfield and his au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhaes. (Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office)
(NEW YORK) — A grand jury has indicted 39-year-old Brendan Banfield in the stabbing death of his wife and murder of another man in the couple’s bedroom 19 months after the killing, according to Virginia’s Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Office.
Banfield is accused of fatally stabbing 37-year-old Christine Banfield and shooting Joseph Ryan, 38, in February 2023.
Banfield’s charging in the case comes months after the family’s 24-year-old live-in au pair was charged in the case.
“We know Brendan Banfield and Juliana Magalhaes, the family au pair, were involved in a romantic relationship at the time of the murders,” Fairfax Police Chief Kevin Davis said at a press conference Monday.
Banfield was indicted on four charges of aggravated murder and one charge for the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He is accused of the premeditated murder of the two.
If convicted, he could face a life sentence without the possibility of parole. For the firearm charge, he could face a mandatory minimum of three years.
“The great investigative work of the Fairfax County Police Department led us to new information which was instrumental in securing today’s indictment,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said during the press conference.
Investigators would not reveal what new information led to Monday’s arrest.
ABC News has reached out to an attorney for Brendan Banfield for comment.
The Banfield couple were married and living in their family home with their then-4-year-old daughter at the time of the murders.
Police responded to a 911 call from the home on Feb. 24, 2023, and found Ryan dead in an upstairs bedroom as a result of gunshot wounds. Christine Banfield was stabbed.
She was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to police.
Police said they recovered two firearms and a knife from the home at the time of the murder.
Police also carried out another search warrant at Banfield’s house on Monday.
Magalhaes has been in custody since her arrest, according to police. Her trial is scheduled to begin in November.
The two are being held in the same adult detention center, according to Descano.
(JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo.) — A Colorado teenager who was shot in the face while looking for a place to take homecoming photos said he knew he was bleeding and told deputies he screamed “I was going to die,” according to an affidavit.
The teenager is hospitalized with serious injuries, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Medical professionals told the sheriff’s office they believed there was a fragment of a bullet in the teen’s head, according to the affidavit.
Officers responded to a report of two trespassers on a property on Tuesday to find one of two teens shot in the face. The homeowner had also called her boyfriend to report the trespassers, according to the sheriff’s office.
A 17-year-old and his friend left a Colorado high school around 3:30 p.m. and went looking for a place to take homecoming pictures this weekend, the affidavit said.
The teens drove around and saw a house with a lake and a dock. They stopped to try to contact the homeowner to get permission to take photos near the lake, according to an affidavit.
The boys parked in front of the gate, walked up the driveway to the house and knocked on the door, but received no answer, the affidavit said.
They then walked down the driveway and returned to the car, which was parked on the roadway near the property. One of the boys then took out his school binder and was writing a note to leave for the homeowner when they saw a truck pull up and block their car, the affidavit said.
The driver then got out of the truck and walked toward the front of the car, pulled a handgun from his holster and pointed it toward the boys. They then heard the handgun go off and saw the windshield glass shatter, the affidavit said.
The boys told authorities they heard the truck driver say ‘oh s—, my gun went off,” according to the affidavit.
The boy in the passenger seat then got out of the car, took off his shirt and ran around to the driver’s side and began to help his friend, applying pressure to his wounds, according to the affidavit.
The driver then tried to assist in rendering aid, but the boy pushed him away and asked why he shot his friend, the affidavit said.
The victim told the sheriff’s office he did not think the man “intentionally shot him,” and he didn’t see the gun but heard the shot. After the gun went off, the shooter tried to help the boy, according to the affidavit.
The victim was “bleeding heavily from his face and had blood running down his arm” when officers responded to the scene, according to an affidavit. The 17-year-old’s friend was holding a white t-shirt up to his face to put pressure on the wound, the affidavit said.
An apparent bullet hole in the windshield of the car was centered where the driver’s seat was located.
When an officer tried to ask the man — 38-year-old Brent Metz — if he had shot a gun, he did not answer the question and said he wanted to speak to his lawyer, the affidavit said.
Metz told authorities the gun was in the truck for safety purposes and he was placed in handcuffs, according to the affidavit.
Metz was then arrested and transported to the sheriff’s office, where he was booked into jail for first degree assault, felony managing, illegal discharge of a firearm and reckless endangerment, according to the sheriff’s office.
(MARCO ISLAND, Fla.) — Marco Island, a barrier island off southwest Florida, is under a mandatory evacuation ahead of Hurricane Milton’s anticipated landfall late Wednesday.
Though not everyone has evacuated.
Michael Sean Comerford, 65, told ABC News he decided to stay and watch his parents’ condo on the 23rd floor of a building while they evacuated to Naples, where his sister lives.
“I’m prepared,” he said Wednesday. “The island is closed. I have food and water for the next two days.”
Comerford said he’s not the only one who stayed behind in the building, which he said is expected to suffer a power outage in the storm.
“I feel like I’m going to survive it,” he said. “We’re not going to get the worst of it, but it’s going to be uncomfortable, given that there’s going to be power outages and it’ll be hot and dark.”
Comerford said he wanted to document what he sees for a book he’s writing about climate change, in which he talks to people on the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts.
Milton is expected to make landfall on Florida’s west coast Wednesday night, likely as a Category 3 hurricane.
The storm is forecast to make landfall farther north of Marco Island, though Comerford said there is still the “fear of the unknown.”
“If it takes a turn here this way, I don’t know what could happen,” he said. “I just don’t know. We’re getting all sorts of alarming warnings, but I think they’re directed at the people north of us.”
Comerford said he is preparing himself for “dramatic” storm surge. Marco Island could see 5 to 8 feet, according to forecasts.
“It’s going to be not insubstantial here,” he said. “The whole island could go underwater.”
ABC News’ Mark Guarino contributed to this report.
