Passenger arrested after trying to divert flight in Mexico to United States
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(TIJUANA, MEXICO) — A 31-year-old man was arrested for allegedly trying to hijack a Mexican domestic commercial flight and reroute the aircraft to the U.S. Sunday morning, according to Mexican authorities and the airline, Volaris.
At some point after the flight took off this morning from León traveling to Tijuana, the Mexican man — identified by authorities only as Mario N — attacked a flight attendant and tried to storm the cockpit.
The plane was diverted to Guadalajara, where the Mexican National Guard arrested him.
It’s unclear the exact motive, but Mexico’s federal Department of Security said that airline personnel reported the man said that a close relative had been kidnapped and shortly before takeoff he received a death threat if he traveled to Tijuana.
The man was traveling with his wife and two children, Mexican authorities said.
Once the suspect was arrested in Guadalajara, the plane continued on to Tijuana without incident.
(NEW YORK) — Svetlana Dali, the woman who stowed away on a Delta Air Lines flight to France, was arrested by the FBI upon her return to New York, an official confirmed.
She returned to John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday, once again flying Delta, but this time escorted by U.S. law enforcement, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
The TSA confirmed that its inspectors, along with other law enforcement officials, were there to meet Dali at the gate for questioning when she deplaned.
The stowaway’s name was confirmed Tuesday by her daughter and ex-husband, although authorities had yet to verify her identity at the time of her return to the U.S.
Dali had previously been described only as a Russian national who had been caught traveling without proper documentation on Delta Flight 264. The flight was scheduled to fly between New York City and Paris on Nov. 26.
According to a statement from the French Interior Ministry, “She was not admitted to French territory due to lack of a valid travel document (visa) and was placed in the waiting area for the time necessary for her re-routing to the United States since she held a valid US residence permit.”
Dali will be making her initial appearance in Brooklyn Federal Court on Thursday, officials have confirmed.
However, the charges against her have not been made public as of the time of her arrest.
It is therefore unknown if the appearance is related to the civil case that the TSA told ABC News it was preparing against Dali.
“TSA opens a civil case against any passenger when there is evidence that TSA regulations may have been violated,” the spokesperson said in a statement on Monday.
Upon Dali’s reentry to New York on Wednesday night, Delta issued a statement thanking French and U.S. authorities for assisting in the incident.
“Our review affirms that Delta’s security infrastructure, as part of our Safety Management System framework, is sound and that deviation from standard procedures is the root cause of this event,” the statement said.
“We are thoroughly addressing this matter and will continue to work closely with our regulators, law enforcement and other relevant stakeholders,” it continued. “Nothing is of greater importance than safety and security.”
Details about how she was able to originally sneak onto an international flight remain under investigation.
Christopher Looft and Ayesha Ali contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — New video obtained by ABC News shows UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer waiting for him moments before shooting him outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel.
The video shows others pass by, and then, when the masked gunman sees Thompson, he runs across the street and opens fire.
The video, which has not previously been seen publicly, appears to support the police narrative that the shooter targeted Thompson in the Wednesday morning attack because he loitered while others wandered by.
Police haven’t established a motive but said they haven’t uncovered evidence that would show the killing had anything to do with Thompson’s private life.
The unidentified suspect appeared to have planned his movements with precision, but law enforcement is “on the right track,” Mayor Eric Adams told New York ABC station WABC on Sunday.
“As I say, the net is closing and closing,” Adams said. “This was an extremely challenging investigation. A fully masked person. The amount of detective work it took to put the pieces together — we feel we’re getting closer and closer.”
NYPD detectives arrived this weekend in Georgia. Investigators have said the suspect took a bus to New York, arriving on Nov. 24 from Atlanta, although it was unclear if his travels began in that city. And the FBI is assisting the nationwide manhunt, according to law enforcement sources.
Back in New York on Sunday, members of the New York Police Department’s dive team were again searching underwater in the Central Park. They were seen in the water near the Bethesda Fountain.
The masked gunman shot Thompson at point-blank range at 6:44 a.m. on Dec. 4 outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson’s company was holding an investors conference. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the attack as “brazen” and “targeted.”
Adams on Sunday declined to comment on specific evidence, saying only that “every piece is important.” And he spoke generally about the ongoing underwater search.
“Everywhere is important. Everyplace is important,” Adams said, adding a moment later, “It’s dark down there, you know.”
The suspect’s backpack — with Monopoly money inside — was found nearby in Central Park. Police have not yet recovered the distinctive gun used in the shooting.
On Wednesday morning, right after the shooting, the suspect fled by bike through Central Park to the Upper West Side. He then took a taxi to the Port Authority bus facility at 178th Street and boarded a bus out of New York City, according to police.
NYPD officials released new images this weekend of the suspect in the back of a taxi, where he could be seen peering through the open slider in the partition between the seats. Another photo appeared to show the man walking by the window of a cab.
“I don’t want to do anything that’s going to tip him off that we’re on his trail, but we feel really good where we are,” Adams said on Sunday. “Finding the knapsack, getting the cab photos, looking at some of the evidence that we have available to us, we feel really good where we are.”
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson, Jon Haworth, Ivan Pereira and David Brennan contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES) – The judge overseeing Bryan Kohberger’s murder case has ruled the death penalty will remain on the table as the case moves forward, rejecting a request from Kohberger’s defense attorneys.
In June 2023, prosecutors announced they intended to seek the death penalty against the onetime Ph.D. student accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students — Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20 — in November 2022.
This September, lawyers for Kohberger made a sweeping play to get capital punishment tossed out, arguing — in hundreds of pages of court filings — that Kohberger’s life should not be on the line because, among other things, the death penalty would violate his constitutional rights as well as contemporary standards of decency.
However, in a lengthy filing Wednesday, Judge Steven Hippler ruled against all twelve of Kohberger’s motions challenging various aspects of Idaho’s capital punishment scheme.
In his 55-page decision Judge Hippler “concludes relief in [Kohberger’s] favor is not warranted on any of the motions.”
Among other things, defense attorneys had argued that the death penalty is out of step with current social mores. However, the judge ruled “there is no basis to depart from settled law upholding Idaho’s death penalty statute as constitutional,” and it remains “consistent with contemporary standards of decency.”
Defense attorneys also argued that capital punishment should be stricken in this case on the basis of execution methods — specifically, citing the shortage of lethal injection drugs, and arguing that firing squad executions which, last year, became legal in Idaho are “cruel and unusual.” And, they argued, letting their client wait on death row without knowing “how he will be executed” is itself an “unconstitutional” form of torment.
But the judge again disagreed — siding with prosecutors that that argument “is not ripe” for discussion, because Kohberger hasn’t been convicted yet. And, the judge continued, even if it were appropriate to address now, both the firing squad and lethal injection have been found constitutional and are allowed in the state.
The judge also ruled against each of the defense’s attempts to strike the aggravating factors prosecutors had found, which made Kohberger eligible for the death penalty.
Kohberger was arrested following a six-week manhunt in December 2022.
A criminology student at nearby Washington State University at the time of the crime, Kohberger was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
