Off-duty corrections officer killed in ‘targeted’ attack: Police
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(PALM BEACH, Fla.) — An off-duty corrections officer in Florida was shot and killed in a “targeted attack,” according to police.
The incident occurred at 7:32 p.m. when deputies from the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office in Florida were dispatched to reports of gunfire in the 1400 block of NW Avenue D, in Belle Glade, according to a statement from the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday
“The victim is an off-duty PBSO Corrections Deputy, who was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital, but unfortunately was pronounced dead shortly after arriving,” authorities said. “Further investigation determined that this incident was targeted.”
Officials have not yet named the deputy but did confirm that the officer killed was 39-years-old and had been with the agency for three years, police said.
Authorities also did not release any information on their investigation or why they were able to conclude that the attack was targeted at the officer involved.
A ceremonial escort took place on Tuesday evening in honor of the slain offifer from St. Mary’s Hospital to the Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We are distraught to say the least,” said the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities said that additional information will be provided as it becomes available.
(NEW YORK) — Luxury real estate brokers Tal and Oren Alexander, along with their brother Alon, on Friday pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to drug and sexually assault dozens of women nearly two months after their arrest.
The three Alexander brothers arrived in Manhattan federal court together in handcuffs, shackles and drab beige jail clothing.
They pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking charges in their first court appearance in New York after being arrested in Miami in December. Their transfer was delayed for weeks as they tried unsuccessfully to secure bail.
Prosecutors announced plans to file additional charges, stating that more than 60 women alleged they were raped by at least one of the brothers. The three siblings have been accused of luring women to nightclubs and parties, then drugging and sexually assaulting them.
“We do intend to bring a superseding indictment in this case,” prosecutor Elizabeth Espinosa said. “I think we will need another month or two.”
Espinosa said that investigators gathered a “substantial” amount of evidence, including accounts from alleged victims, as well as data from iCloud, Instagram, Facebook, dating apps, cell phones, laptop computers and electronic storage devices.
In a January court hearing, when the brothers were still in Florida, prosecutor Andrew Jones said FBI agents found multiple hard drives in a closet of Tal’s apartment during a search.
They allegedly contained “a large quantity of sexually explicit videos and photos” showing the brothers with drunk, naked women who were unaware they were being recorded. According to prosecutors, some of the women tried to hide or flee from the camera when they realized they were being filmed.
Defense attorney Deanna Paul, who is representing Tal, called the allegations “speculative” and questioned what the videos depict, prompting U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni to interject.
“In my view, having a sex with a woman who is incapacitated is likely rape,” Caproni said.
On Friday, Caproni scheduled the trial for Jan. 5, 2026, anticipating it will last at least a month. Defense attorneys have until early May to file a motion to dismiss. The next in-person court hearing is scheduled for mid-July.
All three brothers face 15 years to life in prison if convicted of the federal charges. Oren and Tal were prominent New York and Miami real estate agents, working with wealthy and celebrity clients.
(WASHINGTON) — The federal judge who oversaw Donald Trump’s election interference case will hear arguments Friday over tech billionaire Elon Musk’s authority to run the Department of Government Efficiency.
Fourteen states filed a federal lawsuit Thursday alleging that Musk’s “expansive authority” is in violation of the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which calls for anyone deemed a “principal officer” of the U.S. government to be formally nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
“[T]he President does not have the constitutional authority to unilaterally dismantle the government. Nor could he delegate such expansive authority to an unelected, unconfirmed individual,” the lawsuit says.
The 14 states filed a motion Friday seeking a temporary restraining order to block Musk and DOGE from continuing to overhaul and cut the federal government.
The motion asks U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan to immediately block Musk from altering the funding for any agency, from placing any employees on leave, from canceling any government contracts, from accessing any sensitive data, and from “asserting control over” any agency.
Chutkan oversaw the 2023 criminal case that charged Trump with undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election in an effort to remain in power. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges, and the case was dismissed following Trump’s reelection in November due to a longstanding Justice Department policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president.
DOGE, led by Musk as the centerpiece of Trump’s campaign promise to trim the federal government, has found itself in the crosshairs of multiple federal lawsuits, which allege that it has improperly accessed sensitive records and is unlawfully gutting government agencies. Federal judges have temporarily blocked DOGE from accessing sensitive data at the Treasury Department, while the Department of Education recently reached an agreement to limit DOGE’s access to student loan records.
In their motion Friday, the 14 states allege that Musk has already “cut billions of dollars from agency budgets, fired agency personnel, and that he has moved to, in his words, ‘delete’ entire agencies. He has canceled government contracts, announced plans to sell government property, and promised to withdraw a multitude of regulations across different agencies. He has installed his own teams into agencies and given them access to the agencies’ most sensitive data.”
“In other words, an individual accountable only to the President — if he answers to anyone at all — is exercising apparently limitless power within the Executive Branch. Mr. Musk’s conduct has wreaked havoc on the federal government and caused mass chaos and confusion for state and local governments, federal employees, the American public, and people around the world who depend on the United States for leadership and support,” the filing says.
(NEW ORLEANS) — Authorities investigating the suspect in the truck attack that killed 14 and injured dozens in New Orleans on New Year’s Day are probing when, where and how his alleged “radicalization” occurred, a local official said on Friday.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran and U.S.-born citizen from Texas, posted several videos online hours before the Bourbon Street attack “proclaiming his support for ISIS” and mentioning he joined ISIS before this summer, according to the FBI.
On Friday, Jabbar’s half-brother told ABC News the suspect traveled to Egypt in 2023 for around a month, telling his family he was going “because it was cheap and beautiful.”
Jabbar’s foreign travel is a part of the ongoing investigation, law enforcement officials told ABC News.
Investigators are working to determine what he did during his travel in Egypt, why he went and who he interacted with while there, multiple sources said. Critical to the probe is whether he had been radicalized prior to the travel or if the travel marked the start of his radicalization.
“This next most important phase of the investigation is to find out how that radicalization happened and if it happened on that trip,” Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams told ABC News.
Jabbar was shot dead in the midst of Wednesday’s attack in New Orleans, after driving a pickup truck onto a sidewalk and around a parked police car serving as a barricade to plow into pedestrians over a three-block stretch on Bourbon Street, police said.
Jabbar then exited the damaged vehicle armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement said. Officers returned fire, killing him.
Officials said the first 24 hours after the ramming attack were occupied by a feverish effort to determine whether there were additional suspects on the loose or if Jabbar worked with accomplices.
Since Thursday, investigators have been focused on piecing together his path to radicalization and the events that led up to his decision to attack Bourbon Street.
Two U.S. officials told ABC on Friday that, though it’s still very early in the investigation, there is evidence at this time that Jabbar had been in contact with a direct ISIS representative.
The officials noted that, two days after the attack, there has been no claim of responsibility by ISIS.
However, investigators are still working through his three phones and two laptops and examining his travel history.
In another update Friday, authorities revealed Jabbar set a small fire in the hallway of the property in New Orleans he rented on Mandeville Street before the attack using “strategically placed accelerants throughout the house in his effort to destroy it and other evidence of his crime,” according to the joint update from FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
However, after Jabbar left the residence, the fire burned itself out before spreading to other rooms. When the New Orleans Fire Department arrived, the fire was smoldering, and investigators were able to recover evidence, including pre-cursors for bomb making material and a privately made device suspected of being a silencer for a rifle.”
Regarding the explosive devices, the FBI said it believes that during the Bourbon Street attack, Jabbar intended to use a transmitter that was later found in the truck to denote the devices.
The transmitter, along with two firearms connected to Jabbar, was being transported to the FBI Laboratory for additional testing, authorities said.
Before the deadly ramming, surveillance footage showed Jabbar placing two improvised explosive devices in coolers in the Bourbon Street area, investigators said. He had a remote detonator in the truck to set off the two devices, but both were rendered safe, officials said.
Inside one of the coolers, investigators found a device consisting of a steel pipe, nails and a relatively rare explosive chemical, a senior law enforcement official told ABC News on Friday. The remote detonation capability apparently failed to work, the official said.
NBC News was the first to report on the rare chemical.
A search of Jabbar’s home in Houston also turned up bomb-making materials, sources confirmed to ABC News on Thursday. The items found were also referred to as “precursor chemicals” by agents in the field, sources said.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning the nation’s 18,000 law-enforcement agencies about potential copycats, ABC News learned.
The bulletin was sent out of an abundance of caution to sensitize law enforcement around the country to be on the lookout for any activity pointing to the use of vehicles as a method to inflict mass casualties, sources told ABC News.
“We advise federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government and law enforcement officials and private sector security partners to remain vigilant of potential copycat or retaliatory attacks inspired by this attack and other recent, lethal vehicle-ramming incidents across the globe,” the bulletin said.
The bulletin notes that ISIS has been promoting the use of vehicles as a terrorism weapon since around 2014.
ISIS has ramped up calls for its supporters to launch low-tech, mass casualty ramming attacks in recent months, sources told ABC News, especially since the most recent Israel-Hamas conflict began in October 2023.
The bulletin stated that Jabbar was inspired by ISIS but that there remains no evidence of any co-conspirators. A senior law-enforcement official told ABC News that there is so far no sign of ISIS claiming responsibility for the New Orleans attack.
“Law enforcement should be aware that in many cases attackers have conducted vehicle-ramming attacks with secondary weapons and may continue the attack with edged weapons, firearms, or IEDs after the vehicle has stopped,” the bulletin said. The tactic could be “attractive” for foreign terrorist organizations and other actors due to its low complexity threshold, the warning said.
An intelligence bulletin from the New York Police Department obtained by ABC News indicated that ISIS supporters did celebrate the attack online. Violent extremists, the bulletin said, “continue to view densely populated walkways, parades, mass gatherings and other outdoor events along streets, especially during holidays, as vulnerable targets of opportunity.”
“This enduring threat underscores the criticality of pre-staged blocker cars and the deployment of other effectively configured countermeasures including heavy block, barriers and bollards,” it added.
Law enforcement cleared and reopened Bourbon Street on Thursday as the investigation continued. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said authorities had the “confidence” to reopen the area to the public ahead of the Sugar Bowl on Thursday afternoon, which was initially scheduled for Wednesday but postponed in the wake of the attack.
“I want to reassure the public that the city of New Orleans is not only ready for game day today, but we’re ready to continue to host large-scale events in our city,” she said. “Our hearts and prayers continue to go out to the victims’ families,” Cantrell added.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will head to New Orleans on Monday to meet with the families and community members, the White House said. Biden said Friday that he has spoken with victims’ families.
There is no apparent direct connection between the New Orleans attack and Wednesday’s Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, which is also being investigated as a possible act of terror, the FBI said Thursday.
