Person arrested at UnitedHealthcare headquarters after allegedly making ‘threats of violence’
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(MINNETONKA, Minn.) — An individual was arrested near UnitedHealthcare’s headquarters in Minnesota on Monday after officials said they “issued threats of violence” directed at the facility, but stressed the person had no “specific grievances” with the company.
The suspect contacted the FBI Minneapolis Field Office at approximately 10:47 a.m. to issue the threats “if specific demands were not met,” the FBI and Minnetonka Police Department said in a joint statement.
Officials said a crisis negotiator then spoke with the individual by phone while a multi-agency response was deployed to the facility.
The FBI and police said the suspect voluntarily surrendered and was taken into custody without incident within around 45 minutes of the initial response.
The incident comes several months after the health insurance provider’s late CEO, Brian Thompson, was gunned down in Manhattan and as the trial surrounding his accused killer, Luigi Mangione, continues to capture the nation’s attention.
The FBI and police, however, said in the statement Monday that early investigations into the incident indicate that there’s “no indication” the suspect had “specific grievances” against UnitedHealthcare.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing, officials said.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. District Judge Amir Ali denied the Department of Justice’s request to push the midnight deadline by which the Trump administration needs to pay more than $1.9 billion in foreign aid.
The case is now in the hands of a panel of three appellate judges – each nominated to the bench by Democratic presidents – who will decide whether to issue an emergency stay of the deadline.
In his decision denying the request to stay his deadline, Judge Ali criticized the Trump administration for waiting until Tuesday to raise the argument that they lack the ability to restart the funding.
“This is not something that Defendants have previously raised in this Court, whether at the hearing or any time before filing their notice of appeal and seeking a stay pending appeal. That is so even though Plaintiffs’ motion to enforce explicitly proposed compliance on this time frame,” Ali wrote.
Ali ordered the Trump administration on Tuesday to dole out delayed payments that could total nearly $2 billion, according to a USAID official, to multiple nonprofit groups, determining the Trump administration violated the terms of a temporary restraining order issued two weeks ago regarding freezing foreign aid.
A top official with the United States Agency for International Development claims that complying with Tuesday’s court order would require paying foreign aid groups nearly $2 billion, arguing the payments “cannot be accomplished” in the timeframe set by the court.
Lawyers with the Department of Justice asked Ali in a late-night filing on Tuesday to issue a stay of his order that requires the Trump administration to pay by Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. any outstanding debts to foreign aid groups for work completed prior to Feb. 13. The Trump administration initially tried to freeze the payments via an executive order before Judge Ali ordered the payments to resume two weeks ago.
DOJ lawyers argued that fulfilling the payments is not only technically impossible but would also prevent the Trump administration from ensuring the payments are “legitimate.”
“The order apparently requires the Government to expend taxpayer dollars without regard to any processes for ensuring that the expenses are legitimate—even though Executive Branch leadership harbors concerns about the possibility of waste and fraud and is in the process of developing revised payment processing systems to address those concerns,” DOJ attorney Indraneel Sur wrote in a late-night filing.
According to Peter Marocco, the deputy administrator of USAID and director of foreign assistance at the State Department, complying with the court order would require dispersing $1.5 billion between 2,000 payment requests at USAID and an additional $400 million in payments at the State Department.
Judge Amir Ali, a Biden-era appointee, excoriated Trump administration attorneys during a lengthy hearing on Tuesday over its failure to pay the groups for work they conducted prior to President Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order, which froze all foreign aid for 90 days. Ali also signed an order to enforce a temporary restraining order he signed on Feb. 13, ruling the groups must be paid by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.
“Plaintiffs submitted evidence that defendants have not lifted the suspension or freeze of funds as the [temporary restraining order] required. Defendants have not rebutted that evidence, and when asked today, defendants were not able to provide any specific examples of unfreezing funds pursuant to the Court’s TRO,” Judge Ali said after a two-hour hearing today.
Lawyers with the Department of Justice acknowledged that the Trump administration ignored the temporary restraining order, which prohibited them from freezing foreign aid funds since the order was issued. Instead, they argued that they should not be required to pay back the money because of “sovereign immunity.”
During an extended exchange with Ali, a DOJ lawyer struggled to answer basic questions about the Trump administration’s compliance with the temporary restraining order, which prevented the administration from freezing funds.
“I’m not sure why I can’t get a straight answer from you on this. Are you aware of an unfreezing of the disbursement of funds for those contracts and agreements that were frozen before February 13?” Ali asked. “Are you aware of steps taken to actually release those funds?”
“I’m not in a position to answer that,” DOJ attorney Indraneel Sur said.
“We’re 12 days in and you’re here representing the government…and you can’t answer me whether any funds that you’ve kind of acknowledged or covered by the court’s order have been unfrozen?” Judge Ali responded.
“All I can do, really, is say that the preparations are underway for the joint status report on compliance,” Sur said.
At one portion of the lengthy court hearing, Sur attempted to offer a legal justification for the Trump administration’s noncompliance, prompting a stern response from the judge about his order, the terms of which he said were “clear as day.”
“The purpose of this hearing is to understand and to hear arguments on the motion to enforce TRO. It is not an opportunity to re-litigate the TRO,” Ali said.
The DOJ filed a notice of appeal Tuesday.
A lawyer representing the nonprofits who brought the case argued that the lack of a response from the Trump administration amounts to defiance of the court order.
“What the court’s colloquy with the government has revealed is that the government has done nothing to make the flow of payments happen,” he said. “As far as we are aware, there’s been zero directives from the agency with respect to the unfreezing of funds.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said in his speech to a joint session of Congress that he’ll work to protect and support police. But his words set off a backlash that included a Democratic lawmaker accusing him of the “height of hypocrisy” and a former Capitol Police officer noting that Trump pardoned 1,500 people who attacked him and his colleagues during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Harry Dunn, a former Capitol Police Officer who risked his life to defend the Capitol Building as Trump’s supporters rioted in 2021, slammed Trump in a series of posts on the social media site Bluesky as the president was addressing Congress Tuesday night.
“Trump threatens public safety,” Dunn said in one post.
In an expletive-laced post, the 41-year-old Dunn, wrote in all capital letters, “YOU PARDONED OUR ATTACKERS.”
During his speech Tuesday night, Trump did not mention the insurrection, of which, according to the House Jan. 6 committee’s final report, he allegedly engaged in a criminally “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol.
In his address, the president spoke about getting police officers nationwide “the support, protection and respect they so dearly deserve.”
“They have to get it. They have such a hard, dangerous job,” Trump said. “But we’re going to make it less dangerous. The problem is the bad guys don’t respect the law, but they’re starting to respect it, and they soon will respect it.”
In the first two months of 2025, at least 58 police officers have been shot in the line of duty, including eight who were killed, according to a report released on March 3 by the National Fraternal Order of Police. The report showed that the number of police shootings is down 11% from this time in 2024.
Among the officers killed this year are Virginia Beach Police Officers Cameron Girvin, 25, and Christopher Reese, 30, who authorities said were shot at point-blank range on Feb. 25 as they were already lying on the ground wounded and defenseless following a traffic stop. The suspected killer, who police said died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was identified as 42-year-old John McCoy III, a convicted felon.
Trump said that one of the first steps he has taken since returning to the White House is signing an executive order requiring a mandatory death penalty for anyone convicted of murdering a police officer.
“And tonight, I’m asking Congress to pass that policy into permanent law,” Trump said.
Trump cited the March 25, 2024, fatal shooting of New York Police Officer Jonathan Diller, who was gunned down while conducting a traffic stop in Queens — becoming the first NYPD officer killed in the line of duty in two years. The suspect, who was shot and wounded by Diller’s partner, was identified as 34-year-old Guy Rivera.
Rivera, who has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge, was previously arrested 21 times, according to police records. Also arrested in the fatal shooting, was 41-year-old Lindy Jones, who was in the car with Rivera at the time of the shooting. Jones pleaded not guilty to a charge of being a criminal possession of a weapon and possession of a defaced firearm. Jones had 14 prior arrests including attempted murder and robbery, and was out on bail in connection to a separate crime at the time of the shooting, police records indicate.
“We’re going to get these cold-blooded killers and repeat offenders off our streets. And we’re going to do it fast. Gotta stop it,” said Trump, who attended Diller’s wake.
Trump called on Congress to pass a new crime bill aimed at “getting tougher on repeat offenders while enhancing protections for America’s police officers so they can do their jobs without fear of their lives being totally destroyed.”
Following Trump’s speech, Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, posted a statement on social media accusing Trump of “the height of hypocrisy.”
“Trump talks a big game about standing with … the blue, yet on the first day of his administration he pardoned hundreds of cop-beaters who tried to steal an election on January 6, 2021,” Garcia wrote.
Rep. Judy Chu, D-California, who walked out of Trump’s speech with other Democrats, also took to social media, posting, “Trump insults the American people by saying, ‘let’s bring back law and order.’ Among his first acts as president? Pardoning 1500 violent felons involved in the January 6 attacks on our U.S. Capitol and democracy.”
Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., cited the hundreds of FBI agents and Department of Justice employees who have lost their jobs in the Trump administration’s sweeping reduction in the federal workforce being overseen by billionaire Elon Musk and the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“Purging hundreds of FBI and DOJ agents who investigated the Jan 6 insurrection — career law enforcement officers, not political appointees — does not make us safer, more secure, or prosperous,” Frankel wrote on social media.
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — The Florida State University community is reeling and police are searching for a motive after a gunman opened fire on the Tallahassee campus on Thursday, killing two and injuring six.
When the suspect, 20-year-old FSU student Phoenix Ikner, was confronted by responders, he didn’t comply with commands and was shot by officers, authorities said. He’s expected to survive, Tallahassee police said.
Police have not identified the two people killed but said they were not students.
Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare said two of the six injured victims are expected to be discharged on Friday. Three patients have improved and are in good condition, while one victim remains in fair condition, the hospital said Friday.
McKenzie Heeter, a 20-year-old junior, told ABC News she was just feet away from the gunman when he shot a woman wearing scrubs by the student union.
The shooter was “waving around a bigger rifle … and then he pulled out the handgun and shot that woman,” Heeter said.
“Her back was to him, she was just walking. I don’t even think she registered what happened,” she said. “That’s what I just keep thinking about.”
Heeter described sprinting across campus in sheer panic.
“I did a four-minute mile in sandals. I’ve never run that fast in my life,” she said. “I felt like I have got to leave, or else it could be me next.”
Officials revealed that the suspect’s stepmother, Jessica Ikner, is a current deputy with the local Leon County Sheriff’s Office. While authorities identified Jessica Ikner as the suspect’s mother, court documents indicate she is his stepmother.
Phoenix Ikner had access to one of his stepmother’s personal weapons, which was one of the weapons found at the scene, Sheriff Walter McNeil said.
The suspect was also a “long-standing member” of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office’s Youth Advisory Council, McNeil said.
He was “engaged in a number of training programs that we have,” the sheriff said, adding, “Not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons.”
In a statement to the Florida State University community, President Richard McCullough called the shooting a “tragic and senseless act of violence.”
FSU has canceled classes and sporting events through the weekend. A vigil is set for Friday at 5 p.m.
President Donald Trump said Thursday he has an “obligation to protect” the Second Amendment when asked by a reporter in the Oval Office if he sees anything “broken” with America’s current gun laws.
“Look, I’m a big advocate of the Second Amendment. I have been from the beginning. I protected it, and these things are terrible, but the gun doesn’t do the shooting. The people do. It’s a phrase that’s used probably too often,” Trump said.
“I will tell you that it’s a shame,” he said of the shooting.
ABC News’ Faith Abubey and Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.
