Opera singer stabbed to death in California home, son to be booked for homicide: Police
Jubilant Sykes sings with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass” at Carnegie Hall, October 24, 2008. Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images
(SANTA MONICA, Calif.) — A Grammy-nominated opera singer was stabbed to death inside a California residence, and the 71-year-old’s son has been arrested in connection with the killing, police said.
Jubilant Sykes was killed in a home in Santa Monica on Monday, police said. Officers responded to the residence after a 911 caller reported an assault in progress and found Sykes with “critical injuries consistent with a stabbing,” the Santa Monica Police Department said in a statement on Tuesday.
Sykes’ son, 31-year-old Micah Sykes, was found in the home and taken into custody without incident, police said. He will be booked for homicide, police said.
“The circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation,” police said.
Officers responded to the home around 9:20 p.m. on Monday and the 911 caller directed them inside, police said.
First responders with the Santa Monica Fire Department pronounced Sykes dead at the scene, police said.
Police said the weapon was recovered at the scene, though did not provide additional details.
The case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
“This appears to be an isolated incident occurring within a private residence, and there is no ongoing threat to the community,” police said.
Sykes performed on the Grammy-nominated 2009 recording of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass,” with the Morgan State University Choir and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
A bouquet is left outside of the engineering and physics building at Brown University, the site of a mass shooting yesterday that left at least two people dead and nine others injured, on December 14, 2025, in Providence, Rhode Island. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — New security video released on Monday by the Rhode Island police showed a person of interest wanted for questioning in the deadly mass shooting that erupted over the weekend on the campus of Brown University.
The video was taken shortly after Saturday’s shooting and shows a figure dressed in black walking along Waterman Street, which appears to be about three blocks north of the Brown campus, according to the Providence Police Department.
“We are sharing a video of a person of interest and plan to release additional video as part of the ongoing investigation,” the police department said in a statement, asking anyone who recognizes the individual in the video to contact investigators immediately.
The new video was made public after authorities announced that a person of interest detained early Sunday morning for questioning had been released.
In an interview on ABC News’ “GMA3” on Monday, Rhode Island State Attorney General Peter Neronha said the person initially detained in connection with the mass shooting has been “effectively cleared.”
“The evidence that we have, the scientific evidence that we have available to us, after it was analyzed, made clear that this was not someone who should be detained in connection with this case,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said on ABC News’ “GMA3.” “So we released him and then moved on, looking at other evidence and pursuing other leads pointing at additional potential individuals.”
Investigators are now bringing additional teams to canvass for video, analyze images, and sweep the crime scene for fingerprints as they work to build a more detailed timeline and, potentially, identify a suspect.
ABC News observed members of the FBI evidence response unit using a K-9 on Monday to canvas the area around the crime scene at Brown University. FBI agents were also viewed on campus searching bushes and raking the snow-covered ground for evidence.
“We understand that there’s a high degree of anxiety and after this individual was released last night, I understand that anxiety level has risen in our community,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley told ABC News on Monday. “But it’s no different than a day ago, which is that we’ve received — continue to receive zero credible threats to our community, Brown or the broader community.”
Smiley’s comments came as federal and local law enforcement officials were continuing their investigation early on Monday, two days after the mass shooting in an academic building in Providence on Saturday.
A person of interest in the case, who had been taken into custody early on Sunday, was released later in the day, after authorities said that there was no basis to continue detaining them.
“Tonight, we announced that the person of interest is being released. The investigation has been ongoing and remains fully active between all agencies,” the Providence Police Department said in a statement early on Monday. “Since the first call to 911, we have not received any specific threats to our community.”
Smiley wouldn’t on Monday definitely say whether the person of interest who was released was cleared of all connection to the case. He also declined to say whether the investigation was pointing toward a student or someone from off-campus.
“We cannot comment on that and we’re exploring all possible leads,” he said.
Two people were killed and nine were injured in the shooting, according to officials. The injured victims were transported to local hospitals amid a day of “devastating gun violence,” Christina H. Paxson, the university’s president, said in a statement posted early on Sunday.
“Every year, emergency responders and students drill for the unthinkable — a shooting at our schools,” Gov. Dan McKee said in his own statement. “Yesterday, that action became all too real when a gunman opened fire on a classroom of innocent Brown University students.”
The FBI and other law enforcement officials shared a short video clip of someone whom they described as a person of interest. The individual in the clip is seen dressed in dark clothing, including what appeared to be a hood, as they walk along Hope Street and take a corner heading north.
The person’s right hand appeared to be in their jacket pocket as they walked northward along Waterman Street before exiting from the frame.
Officials said they still believe the person seen in that video is a person of interest in the shooting.
The person of interest who was detained and released on Sunday was initially caught at about 3:45 a.m. at a hotel in Coventry, about 28 miles south of Providence, according to law enforcement sources and Coventry police.
Law enforcement sources described the detained person of interest as a man in his mid-20s from Wisconsin. At the time the person was detained, the individual was allegedly in possession of two guns, according to sources.
There was “no basis” to keep the person detained, Attorney General of Rhode Island Peter Neronha said.
“Sometimes you head in one direction and have to regroup and go in another,” Neronha said. “That’s exactly what’s happened over the last 24 hours or so.”
Police said anyone with information about the case can contact investigators through an online Tip Center at www.fbi.gov/brownuniversityshooting or by calling (401) 272-3121.
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik, Luke Barr and Pierre Thomas contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The Trump administration has moved to dissolve the ban on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s removal so that it can proceed with his deportation to Liberia.
In a series of filings overnight, government attorneys said that the Salvadoran native’s claim of fear of torture or persecution in the African nation was denied after he was interviewed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services last week.
The attorneys for the Department of Justice argued that the preliminary injunction blocking Abrego Garcia’s removal to Liberia should be dissolved because the government received assurances from the government of the West African country that he will not be persecuted or tortured.
The government also said that Abrego Garcia’s lawsuit to stop his removal is improper because he is a member of a separate class action lawsuit in Massachusetts regarding third-country removals. In that case, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to proceed with third-country removals.
“Even if the merits were properly presented here, Petitioner’s claims fail,” the DOJ said. “The Constitution does not entitle Petitioner to process beyond what the political branches have chosen to afford.”
Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution.
He was brought back to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
The DOJ called Abrego Garcia a member of MS-13 and said his removal is “in the public interest.”
On Friday, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis to block his removal to Liberia until an immigration judge reviews the denial of his reasonable fear claim by USCIS.
“The Government insists that the unreasoned determination of a single immigration officer—who concluded that Abrego Garcia failed to establish that it is “more likely than not” that he will be persecuted or tortured in Liberia— satisfies due process,” his attorneys said. “It does not.”
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys also said that the government has “cycled through” four third-country destinations—Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, and now Liberia—without providing “the notice, opportunity to be heard and individualized assessment that due process requires.”
They argued that the government has disregarded their client’s “statutory designation” of Costa Rica, despite the country’s previous assurances that it would accept him and give him refugee or resident status.
Abrego Garcia is currently being held in a detention facility in Pennsylvania.
(LOS ANGELES) — Jake Haro, the father of missing 7-month-old Emmanuel Haro, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to the baby’s murder.
He was also sentenced to over six years in prison for other offenses, to run consecutively.
He is ineligible for probation because he was already on probation for severely abusing another child, the judge said while handing down the sentence on Monday.
His sentence also included more than $20,000 in fines and court fees.
Prior to the sentencing, the defense objected to imposing any court fees or fines, saying Jake Haro is indigent and a public defender client.
In response, the prosecutor said the defendant “deserves no leniency.”
Last month, the 32-year-old father pleaded guilty to all charges, including second-degree murder, assault causing bodily harm to a child resulting in the death of said child and filing a false police report, according to court records.
The father, who previously pleaded not guilty with his wife Rebecca Haro in September, cried in court when he was giving his plea on Oct. 16.
Emmanuel’s mother, 41-year-old Rebecca Haro, pleaded not guilty to an amended complaint in October, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Monday. It remains unclear what is in the complaint, according to Los Angeles ABC station KABC.
The baby’s maternal grandmother, Mary Beushausen, addressed the court during Jake Haro’s sentencing on Monday.
“He destroyed my family,” she told the court. “Everybody in my family, all my children are destroyed by this.”
“He changed my daughter. We don’t know who she is,” she continued. “He kept my daughter away. I don’t know what he did or how he changed my daughter’s life, but she was never that same person after she went to live with him.”
She asked for a lengthy sentence, saying, “I don’t want to give him another chance.”
Officials have not announced whether they have located the baby’s remains.
The 7-month-old was reported missing on Aug. 14 at approximately 7:47 p.m. local time after his mother “reported being attacked outside a retail store on Yucaipa Boulevard,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Aug. 15.
When he was reported missing, Emmanuel’s mother told officials that “while she stood outside her vehicle, changing the child’s diaper, she was physically assaulted by an unknown male and rendered unconscious,” authorities said.
Authorities later said the mother was “confronted with inconsistencies in her initial statement,” leading officials to say they were “unable to rule out foul play in the disappearance of Emmanuel.”
Jake and Rebecca Haro were arrested and charged for the child’s murder on Aug. 22, officials said.
In August, officials announced they had a “pretty strong indication” on the location of the child’s remains and said they believed Emmanuel was “severely abused over a period of time.”
Jake Haro was even seen searching a field near the 60 freeway in Moreno Valley in late August with law enforcement, but no remains were apparently found.
“The filing in this case reflects our belief that baby Emmanuel was abused over time and that eventually because of that abuse, he succumbed to those injuries,” Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said during a press conference in August.
Hestrin said Jake Haro, who he described as an “experienced child abuser,” “should have gone to prison” due to previously abusing another child he had with his ex-wife in 2018, but a judge at the time granted him probation — a ruling Hestrin called an “outrageous error in judgment.” Authorities said the child in that case has been left bedridden.
“If that judge had done his job as he should have done, Emmanuel would be alive today,” Hestrin said in August.
