Memorial Day mass shooting leaves 2 dead, 9 injured in Philadelphia park
(PHILADELPHIA) — Two people are dead, and nine others have been injured in a Memorial Day mass shooting in Philadelphia, authorities said.
The shooting took place at Fairmount Park in Philadelphia on Monday evening, the final day of the long Memorial Day weekend, when gunfire erupted at approximately 10:27 p.m. on Lemon Hill Drive at Poplar Drive, according to the Philadelphia Police Department.
Two people – an unnamed adult man and woman — were killed and at least nine others were injured in the shooting, including three teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said.
Multiple rounds were fired, Bethel said, and investigators are working to determine if several different weapons were involved.
No one is in custody, Bethel confirmed, and no weapons have been recovered.
Fairmount Park was busy during the day, according to ABC News’ Philadelphia station WPVI, as families and members of the community gathered for Memorial Day cookouts and barbecues.
The names of the victims have not been released.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LOS ANGELES) — Eight relatives of the Menendez brothers sat down with ABC News in an exclusive interview the night before the case returns to court to show they are unanimous in supporting Erik and Lyle Menendez’s release from prison.
This marks the first time the brothers’ aunt, Jose Menendez’s sister, Terry Baralt, has spoken out in decades.
“They are like the boys that I didn’t have,” she told ABC News.
“It’s time — 35 years is a long time,” she said. “It’s a whole branch of my family erased. The ones that are gone and the ones that are still paying for it, which were kids.”
Baralt, who is battling colon cancer, said she’s concerned she might not live to see her nephews be released from prison.
“I have tried to go see them as much as I can, but it’s hard because I live in New Jersey and I’m 85. I don’t have that much time,” she said.
“When kids are little and they come to you, you fix the problem. I can’t help them. … There is nothing I can do — just go visit them and cry when I leave,” she said, overcome with emotion. “This is why I don’t give interviews. It’s hard.”
Lyle and Erik Menendez — who are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1989 murders of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez — are fighting to be released after 35 years behind bars.
A hearing will be held on Friday’s on Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s motion to withdraw the brothers’ resentencing petition. Depending on what the judge decides, another resentencing hearing may be set for April 17 and 18.
Last month, Hochman asked the court to withdraw the motion from the previous district attorney, which was in support of resentencing. Hochman argued the brothers hadn’t taken responsibility for their actions and called their claims of self-defense part of a litany of “lies.”
Because the “brothers persist in telling these lies for the last over 30 years about their self-defense defense and persist in insisting that they did not suborn any perjury or attempt to suborn perjury, then they do not meet the standards for resentencing,” Hochman said.
Hochman told ABC News last month that he would reconsider resentencing only if the brothers admitted to “the full range of their criminal activity and all the lies that they have told about it.”
In October, Hochman’s predecessor, George Gascón, announced he supported resentencing the brothers.
Gascón recommended their sentences of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and said they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, they would be eligible for parole immediately with the new sentence.
Gascón’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and help other inmates.
Over 20 Menendez relatives are pushing for the brothers’ release, arguing they endured horrific abuse, have admitted guilt and apologized, and have used their decades behind bars to help others.
Ahead of Thursday night’s interview, Erik Menendez asked his cousin, Diane VanderMolen, to pass along a message to ABC News.
“They are truly, deeply sorry for what they did. And they are profoundly remorseful,” she said. “They are filled with remorse over what they did. And through that, they have become pretty remarkable people.”
Resentencing is one of three possible paths to freedom for the brothers.
Another path is the brothers’ request for clemency, which has been submitted to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom announced in February that he was ordering the parole board to conduct a 90-day “comprehensive risk assessment” investigation into whether Lyle and Erik Menendez pose “an unreasonable risk to the public” if they’re granted clemency and released.
After the risk assessment, the brothers will appear at independent parole board hearings on June 13, Newsom said.
The third path is the brothers’ habeas corpus petition, which they filed in 2023 for a review of two new pieces of evidence not presented at trial: a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse from his father, and allegations from a former boy band member who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by Jose Menendez.
In February, Hochman announced that he was asking the court to deny the habeas corpus petition, arguing the brothers’ new evidence wasn’t credible or admissible.
ABC News’ Matt Gutman and Ashley Riegle contributed to this report.
Alfredo Pacheco, a Venezuelan migrant who earlier this year was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure, displays a photo of himself and his brother Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, March 26, 2025, in Cicero, Illinois. Gonzalez, also a migrant from Venezuela, was set to donate a kidney for his brother but was arrested and now detained by ICE. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(BROADVIEW, Ill.) — A man who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this month is expected to be released on Friday from a facility in Broadview, Illinois, after community advocates and officials appealed for his release so he can resume the kidney donation process in hopes of saving his brother’s life.
ICE records show that Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, a native of Venezuela who was detained on March 3 in Illinois, is being held in the Clay County Jail in Brazil, Indiana. But Peter Meinecke, an attorney representing Gonzalez, told ABC News on Wednesday that his client is expected to be released from ICE detention by Friday.
“I was in communication with the officer assigned to his case today. It sounds like they are going to release him under humanitarian parole, so that is still being coordinated,” Meinecke said. “The logistics of his release are not yet confirmed with ICE, but potentially as early as Friday, he could be released, and at which point he would be able to pursue the kidney donation. I don’t have any specifics regarding the duration of release.”
The duration and the conditions of Gonzalez’s expected release are unclear. ABC News reached out to ICE, but requests for comment were not returned.
Meinecke, an attorney with The Resurrection Project — a group advocating for Gonzalez’s release — told ABC News that Gonzalez’s brother, Jose Alfredo Pacheco, who suffers from kidney failure, reached out to the group earlier this month seeking support after Gonzalez was detained.
Speaking in Spanish, Pacheco addressed a crowd of supporters during a press conference on Monday and called for his brother’s release.
“My health is at serious risk—I have 100% kidney failure and depend on dialysis three times a week,” he said, according to a translation provided by The Resurrection Project.
“It’s extremely difficult—sometimes, I can barely get out of bed. I have three children, nine-year-old twins and a 17-year-old back home, and I want to live to see them grow up. My brother used to take me to my appointments, but now I’m alone. My brother is a good man, not a criminal in Venezuela or here—he came only with the hope of donating his kidney to me. I thought I was alone, but seeing the support of this community has moved me deeply.”
Meinecke said that he had been in touch with Gonzalez’s ICE officer over the past few weeks and submitted a request for release on temporary humanitarian parole on March 25.
“He needs to show that his release is either in the public interest or is necessary for like, urgent humanitarian factors. And in his case, we argue both,” Meinecke said. “You know, obviously, the medical conditions kind of speak to both. They’re both urgent humanitarian factors by now, but organ donation is in the public interest as well.”
Meinecke explained that Pacheco was admitted into the U.S. from Venezuela in 2023 and was permitted to apply for asylum, so he has a work permit while his asylum application is pending. His wife and three children remain in Venezuela. But soon after he arrived in the U.S., he suffered from stomach pain and was diagnosed with “end-stage kidney failure,” Meinecke said.
“He went to the hospital with severe abdominal pain, which is when he was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure,” Tovia Siegel, director of organizing and leadership at the Resurrection Project, told ABC News on Wednesday. “At the time, he was told he had 2 percent functioning of his kidneys and would need dialysis consistently, multiple times a week to survive, and really, his best chance to live a full, healthy life would be a kidney transplant.”
Since his diagnosis in 2023, Pacheco’s condition has deteriorated, Siegel said.
“[Alfredo] currently receives [dialysis] three times a week, from 4 am to 8 am, and his brother Jose came here to help care for him, and with the intention of being able to donate his kidney and save Alfredo’s life,” Siegel said. “And so for the last year, Jose has essentially been a full-time caretaker for Alfredo, helping with cooking, cleaning, etc, and with the intent to donate his kidney.”
But unlike Pacheco, when Gonzalez arrived to the U.S. from Venezuela “primarily to assist” his brother, he failed to pass the credible fear screening, which did not allow him to apply for asylum like Pacheco had done, according to Meinecke, so he was detained by ICE for several months and then he was granted temporary supervised release but still faced a pending removal order. During his time on supervised release, Gonzalez routinely checked in with his ICE officer, provided his address and wore an ankle monitor, Meinecke said.
Siegel said that Gonzalez was detained while the brothers were leaving their home to go to Pacheco’s kidney dialysis appointment.
“It was shocking and devastating,” she said. “They had been living life together, and an incredibly difficult life where one of the brothers was undergoing incredible medical distress and suffering.”
“They were taking care of one another and surviving for a year together,” she added. “And during that time, clearly, you know, caring deeply for one another, loving each other as family members do. Jose [Gregorio] had no contact with police, the criminal legal system, and then one morning, with, you know, completely unexpected, ICE came to their home.”
Gonzalez’s expected release comes after ICE denied on Monday a stay of removal request submitted by his attorneys and then the case was elevated to an ICE Chicago Field Supervisor, according to The Resurrection Project.
“This is literally a matter of life and death,” said Erendira Rendón, vice president of Immigrant Justice at The Resurrection Project. “ICE has the discretionary authority to release Mr. Gonzalez on humanitarian grounds. Every day he remains detained is another day his brother’s life hangs in the balance.”
(TALLAHASSEE, FL) — A now-suspended Florida sheriff accused of helping expand and protect an illegal gambling operation was granted $1 million bond on Friday.
Marcos Lopez, 56, was arrested and charged Thursday with racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering, both first-degree felonies, in connection with what prosecutors called a “massive” illegal gambling operation in Central Florida, including Lake and Osceola counties.
The operation generated more than $21.6 million in illicit proceeds, according to the Florida Attorney General’s Office.
Lopez, who was first elected to serve as the sheriff of Osceola County in 2020, allegedly took campaign contributions and personal payments from the operation before going on to play a “multifaceted role in expanding and protecting this illegal enterprise, using his office to shield the enterprise from law enforcement,” the office said.
The charging document alleges Lopez and others charged in the case committed money laundering, operated a gambling house in Kissimmee and illegally possessed slot machines. Lopez is also accused, in his capacity as sheriff of Osceola County, of receiving “unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior” and using confidential information with the intent to obstruct a criminal investigation, according to the document.
The allegations in a 255-page affidavit detail an “extreme breach of public trust,” prosecutor Panagiota Papakos said during Lopez’s first court appearance on Friday.
Text messages between Lopez and his alleged co-conspirators dating back to 2019 show his alleged involvement in the illegal enterprise, including sourcing new locations and screenshots of slot machines, according to Papakos. Lopez allegedly used his influence as sheriff to “facilitate this illegal enterprise” and “potentially obstruct criminal investigation into these businesses in Osceola County,” she said.
Since 2020, he allegedly obtained $600,000 to $700,000 in cash payments from the illegal enterprise, Papakos said.
The state requested $600,000 bond for each count, for a total of $1.2 million, citing in part the seriousness of the alleged offenses.
Lopez’s defense attorney argued that such a bond would be very high for the nature of the crime and “tantamount to no bond,” given what his family could afford. She asked for $25,000 bond for each count, for a total of $50,000, citing his lack of criminal history, “extreme ties” to the community and the non-dangerous nature of the offenses. She also asked that the court not treat Lopez any differently, merely because of his title, and still look at him “as a regular individual.”
Judge Emily Curington ultimately set his bond at $500,000 for each count, with conditions including that he undergo GPS monitoring and surrender his passport should he post bond. She also asked that the source of the funds be shown to the state, after Papakos expressed concerns about them coming from “any illegal enterprise or illegal proceeds.”
During the hearing, Lopez asked the judge how he would start the bond process. He currently remains in custody, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office’s website.
His next court date has been scheduled for June 30. He has yet to enter a plea.
BREAKING! Osceola County Sheriff Marcos R. Lopez was arrested by @HSITampa following an investigation into a criminal organization operating an illegal gambling enterprise throughout Central Florida, particularly in Lake and Osceola Counties, which generated $21.6+ million in… pic.twitter.com/hVazzAo5Ba
The investigation remains ongoing, and other charges may be announced at a later date, the Florida Attorney General’s Office said.
“This is a solemn day for Florida and our law enforcement community. We put great trust in our constitutional officers, especially those who are our communities’ first line of defense,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a statement on Thursday. “However, the law must be applied equally, regardless of position, power, or branch of government. Public servants should never exploit the public’s trust for personal gain.”
Lopez has been suspended per an executive order from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office. Christopher Blackmon, the Central Region chief for the Florida Highway Patrol, was appointed as the Osceola County sheriff, according to DeSantis’ order.
