Sonya Massey murder trial: Juror, Massey family cry during closing arguments
In this July 30, 2024, file photo, Donna Massey, the mother of shooting victim Sonya Massey, is comforted during a press conference at New Mount Pilgrim Church in Chicago. (Scott Olson/Getty Images, FILE)
(NEW YORK) — Closing arguments began Tuesday morning in the trial of a former Illinois sheriff’s deputy accused of shooting and killing a Black woman in her home.
The trial began last week for Sean Grayson, the former Sangamon County deputy accused of fatally shooting Sonya Massey in July 2024 after she called 911 to report a possible intruder at her home in Springfield, Illinois.
“When you threaten to shoot someone in the face, and you do, that’s first-degree murder,” Sangamon County Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Beth Rodgers said during closing arguments, according to ABC affiliate WICS in Springfield, Illinois.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The suspect accused of placing two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic National Committees the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, made his initial appearance in court Friday.
Brian Cole Jr. of Virginia was arrested by federal authorities Thursday following a massive probe that had stymied investigators for almost five years.
Members of his family seated in the gallery audibly gasped and broke down in tears as Cole entered the courtroom and sat down next to his attorney, John Shoreman.
Cole’s legs and arms were shaking throughout the duration of the hearing as he listened to the judge read him his rights and detail the two charges Cole currently faces, which carry a maximum sentence of up to 30 years if he is convicted.
Cole did not enter a plea in court.
During the hearing, government attorneys said that Cole sat for an interview with the FBI for four hours Thursday after his arrest, and that they plan to provide a transcript of the interview to Cole’s attorneys over the weekend.
Law enforcement sources tell ABC News that Cole admitted to investigators that he planted the bombs, but investigators have not yet officially identified a motive.
According to sources, investigators who interviewed Cole feel initial indications are that Cole believed there was fraud in the 2020 election.
Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told ABC News’ Pierre Thomas on Friday that Cole told investigators he was “disappointed in various aspects of the election.”
Counsel for the government told the court that they will seek Cole’s continued detention through trial, based on the seriousness of the offenses he now faces. The judge set a detention hearing for Dec. 15.
As Cole departed the courtroom members of his family stood up and shouted, “We love you Brian!” Another shouted, “We’re here for you, baby!”
Family members and Cole’s attorney declined to comment to reporters outside of court after the hearing concluded.
The U.S. Department of Justice is seen on September 26, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Samuel Corum/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has indicted a former Navy petty officer and four others for allegedly leading an online extortion group that authorities say later helped spawn the global extremist network known as “764,” which the FBI now describes as “modern day terrorism” for its sadistic and violent tormenting of teens online.
An indictment unsealed Tuesday alleges that the earlier group, calling themselves “Greggy’s Cult,” engaged in a criminal enterprise that pushed young victims they found online to create child pornography, and then blackmailed them into engaging in self-harm, “masochistic abuse,” and other extreme “acts of degradation” — live on camera — simply for “the enjoyment of members of the Enterprise.”
Between January 2020 and January 2021, members of the group allegedly worked together “to find and recruit minor victims on Discord or online gaming platforms,” and even urged victims as young as 11 to abuse their siblings and to kill themselves, telling one minor victim to overdose on medication or hang themself from a ceiling fan, the indictment alleges.
Members of “Greggy’s Cult” would host sexually explicit “live events” with victims on Discord and record the sessions, using those recordings to then blackmail victims into engaging in even more extreme acts, according to the indictment.
The indictment charges 22-year-old Camden Rodriguez of Longmont, Colorado; 22-year-old Rumaldo Valdez of Honolulu, Hawaii; 26-year-old Zachary Dosch of Albuquerque, New Mexico; 28-year-old David Brilhante of San Diego, California; and 29-year-old Hector Bermudez of New York with a total of 10 counts related to engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, producing child pornography, and making threats across state lines. Not all five men face all 10 counts.
They were arrested on Tuesday throughout the United States, according to the Justice Department.
The top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, where the indictment was filed, called their alleged conduct “depraved” and “monstrous.”
“I strongly urge parents and caregivers to have conversations with their children about the dangers of communicating online with strangers and individuals who seek to cruelly exploit them,” the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Joseph Nocella Jr., said in a statement.
For much of the past year, federal authorities have been issuing similar warnings about online predators operating much like “Greggy’s Cult,” especially members of the online extremist network 764, who often extort young victims into self-harm but also desensitize them with neo-Nazi or other extremist propaganda and push victims to commit extreme acts of violence against others, including mass shootings.
Members of “Greggy’s Cult” became “prominent members of 764,” the Justice Department said on Tuesday.
The 764 network was started in late 2020 or early 2021 by Bradley Cadenhead, a 15-year-old in Stephenville, Texas, who named it after the first three digits of his local ZIP code. He later pleaded guilty to child pornography-related charges and is serving an 80-year prison sentence in a Texas state prison.
In the midst of his case, Cadenhead told a clinical psychologist that after starting 764 he emulated “Greggy’s Cult” because it received so much media attention for blackmailing people into self-harm, but that 764 was meant to “take it to a whole different level … a lot worse,” according to court documents filed in the case.
Since then, according to authorities, 764 has grown into more of an ideology than a singular group, inspiring offshoots and subgroups around the world that mirror 764 but use different names to help keep social media companies and law enforcement from tracking them.
Testifying to a Senate panel in September, FBI Director Kash Patel described 764 as “modern day terrorism in America.”
As ABC News has previously reported, the FBI is conducting more than 350 investigations across the United States tied to 764 and similar networks. Even before the latest indictment, the Justice Department had publicly charged at least 30 people in recent years with suspected ties to 764 or affiliated networks.
Two of those previously charged were Valdez and Dosch, who were both named in the indictment unsealed in New York on Tuesday.
Valdez was first arrested by the FBI in May on separate charges filed in Hawaii, where he had been serving as a petty officer at a Naval station in Wahiawa. He recently pleaded guilty to one child pornography-related charge in that case, but he is now facing new charges.
Dosch was first arrested by federal authorities in June 2021 on separate charges filed in New Mexico. A year later, he pleaded guilty to cyberstalking and child pornography-related charges, admitting in court that he coerced minors online into self-harm and sexual activity, and he was released pending sentencing.
However, as of Tuesday — three years later — Dosch had yet to be sentenced in that case. It’s unclear why his sentencing never happened.
But charging documents filed against Valdez in May said that an unnamed member of an online group — identified to ABC News as “Greggy’s Cult” — had provided the FBI with information about the conduct of Valdez and others on Discord.
An attorney representing Dosch declined to comment when contacted by ABC News.
In a recent statement to ABC News, a Discord representative said the service is “committed to user safety” and that the “horrific actions of groups like this have no place on Discord or anywhere in society.”
According to a Discord spokesperson, the platform invests “heavily” in specialized teams and newly-developed artificial intelligence tools that can “disrupt these networks, remove violative content, and take action against bad actors on our platform.” Discord also said it shares intelligence with other platforms, which can help identify bad actors even before Discord has spotted them.
Discord also said it cooperates with law enforcement, proactively providing tips and other information to them, and quickly responds to subpoenas.
According to court documents, Discord’s tips have led to many arrests, including the arrest of Cadenhead, the Texas teen who started 764, and Dosch’s initial arrest in 2021.
Dosch and the other four men charged in the latest indictment will appear in federal court in New York at a later date, according to the Justice Department.
Attorneys for Valdez, Bermudez and Rodriguez did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News. As of Wednesday morning, it was unclear if Brilhante had been assigned an attorney.
(NEW YORK) — Hundreds of 911 calls during the July 4 Texas flood that devastated the Hill Country have been released from hard-hit Kerr County
The Kerrville Police Department released the calls late Thursday following Freedom of Information Act requests from eight media outlets.
“We want to caution the public that what you will hear on these calls is distressing. Some callers did not survive,” Kerrville Police Chief Chris McCall said in a video message on Thursday ahead of the release.
The first call related to flooding in western Kerr County came in to the police department’s 911 center at 2:52 a.m. on July 4, according to McCall.
Over the next six hours, the center, which receives all 911 calls for Kerr County, answered 435 calls, he said.
In the heart-wrenching 911 calls, many people said they weren’t able to get to safety due to the quickly rising waters.
“There’s no place for us to go,” one man can be heard saying in a call made at 3:35 a.m. that day.
“There’s no way to get out,” he said.
Another man called at 3:49 a.m., pleading for help.
“I need everything, sir. My house is so flooded,” the caller said. “The water is 3 feet up. I’ve got children here. I just need someone to be aware. I’m afraid this is all gonna go.”
One woman who called at 4:16 a.m. said she was in the attic of a house.
“The river has flooded the whole house. We’re trapped. We can’t get out,” she said.
Another woman called at 4:05 a.m. saying her children were stuck in a flooded house and were on the second floor.
“They’re right on the water. Our house is right on the water,” she said.
The operator said, “Just know we have everyone heading that way.”
At 4:19 a.m., a caller said they rescued a pair of young girls who had been swept away from Camp Mystic, a Christian all-girls sleepaway camp located along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County that saw devastating, deadly flooding.
“We’re OK, but we live about a mile down the road from Camp Mystic and we’ve already got two little girls who have come down the river and we’ve gotten to them, but I’m not sure how many else are out there,” the woman said.
The operator assured her that someone will be en route.
“The flooding is very, very bad,” she said.
Two people were working at the time when the calls started coming in regarding the flood, the police chief said while commending the operators for their handling of “extraordinary call volumes.”
“I’m immensely proud of our telecommunications operators,” he said. “These public safety team members showed incredible perseverance as they faced high call volumes and did their best to provide assistance and comfort to every caller.”
Some calls were transferred to neighboring dispatch centers based on the protocols regarding high volume, he said. Once they obtained critical information from callers, the operators “were faced with the difficult decision to disconnect and move on to the next call,” McCall said.
The 911 calls were released in their entirety, without redaction.
“The recordings contain disturbing content, which our community, employees, and family and friends of loved ones lost may find highly distressing,” the police department said in a statement. “Listener and audience discretion is advised.”
Over 130 people were killed in flash flooding across the Hill Country region, including at least 117 in Kerr County, officials said. At Camp Mystic, 28 people — including 25 campers, two counselors and the camp’s director — died as rapidly rising floodwaters inundated the camp.
Thursday’s release follows the release of 911 from other counties in the Hill Country, including Gillespie and Kendall counties.
