States to have rapid-response National Guard units for civil disturbances by Jan. 1: Official
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(NEW YORK) — The National Guard is planning to train as many as 500 troops per state to serve as part of a rapid-response force focused on civil disturbance missions, according to a U.S. official.
The move follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in August that called for each state to have National Guard quick reaction forces that could be deployed on short notice for “quelling civil disturbances and ensuring the public safety and order.”
Each state will be required to have a quick reaction force ready by the start of next year with most states required to have 500 personnel assigned to the force.
The development was first reported by The Guardian which obtained a copy of an Oct. 8 internal memo from the National Guard detailing each state’s allotment. The Guardian posted the memo on its website.
Each of the 50 states and four territories with National Guards already have dedicated quick-reaction forces that assist with natural disasters and civil disturbances.
It is unclear if the forces outlined in the memo are in addition to those — or a larger version specifically trained for civil disturbances.
It is also unclear how the force would be different from existing quick-reaction forces already available to each state.
Over the summer, Trump deployed thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles amid protests over the surge of immigration enforcement there and later to Washington, D.C., as part of what he called a crime-fighting initiative.
The Trump administration has also sought to deploy Guard troops in Chicago and Portland.
(FORT PIERCE, Fla.) — The notoriety surrounding the man who is accused of trying to kill Donald Trump on his golf course last year is affecting efforts to pick a jury in his criminal case.
One hundred and twenty potential jurors are in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida, Tuesday for the second day of jury selection in the criminal trial of Ryan Routh, who is representing himself despite not being a lawyer and having limited legal experience.
At least one potential juror told U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that she could not be fair because of her affinity for Trump and her preexisting knowledge of the case.
“I am MAGA,” said the juror, who recalled seeing the news of the attempted assassination. “I feel it would be very hard to sway how I feel.”
The juror, an older woman who works in the insurance industry, is all but guaranteed to be removed from the pool of prospective jurors as each side questions the prospects to determine their fitness to serve.
As of Tuesday morning, 21 prospective jurors had signaled that they have scheduling issues or financial concerns that would merit their removal from consideration.
Judge Cannon — who oversaw and dismissed one of Trump’s criminal cases — said she hopes to have a jury finalized by Wednesday afternoon, with the trial expected to take approximately three weeks.
The jury selection process so far has gone slowly, with Routh requesting to ask potential jurors questions that Cannon deemed “politically charged” and irrelevant.
Among the questions Judge Cannon has barred Routh from asking are those involving jurors’ stance on Palestine, their opinion of Trump’s proposed acquisition of Greenland, and what they would do if they were driving and they saw a turtle in the middle of the road — which Routh said could speak to jurors’ character and mindset.
After a full day of jury selection on Monday, prosecutors successfully challenged twenty potential jurors due to concerns that they could not judge the case fairly, with Routh agreeing to all but one of the removals. Routh signaled he plans to challenge seven of the jurors.
Prosecutors allege that after planning his attack for months, Routh hid in the bushes of Trump’s Palm Beach golf course with a rifle in the predawn hours of Sept. 15.
With Trump just one hole away from Routh’s position, a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle poking out of the tree line and fired at him, causing him to flee, according to prosecutors. Routh was subsequently arrested after being stopped on a nearby interstate.
Routh has pleaded not guilty to five criminal charges that risk sending him to prison for life, including attempting to kill a presidential candidate and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Butler County district attorney Richard Goldinger said the shooter is dead after injuring former U.S. President Donald Trump, killing one audience member and injuring another in…Show more Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
(DALLAS, Texas) — As the motive in the fatal sniper-type shooting at a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office this week becomes clear, law enforcement experts said the incident is part of a frightening trend of rifle-wielding shooters targeting politicians, police and others from long distances.
The Dallas shooter, according to authorities wanted to “terrorize” ICE officers not just in Dallas, but around the country. The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas made clear on Thursday that the shooter “hoped to minimize any collateral damage or injury to the detainees and any other innocent people. It seems that he did not intend to kill the detainees or harm them. It’s clear from these notes that he was targeting ICE agents and ice personnel.” Authorities say the suspect’s writings showed he had an anti-ICE bias.
Since an alleged would-be assassin attempted to kill President Donald Trump during a July 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, at least seven sniper-type incidents have unfolded across the country, including the Sept. 10 shooting that claimed the life of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, according to reporting by ABC News.
While such shootings have been part of America’s history, including the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, law enforcement experts told ABC News that they have never seen so many sniper-type incidents occurring in such a short amount of time.
“I believe this is the next chapter, if you will, in our history of violence, specifically active-shooter-type situations,” Jesse Hambrick, a retired Georgia deputy sheriff and counter-sniper expert, told ABC News.
The latest incident occurred on Wednesday morning when the 29-year-old suspect, identified by federal authorities as Joshua Jahn of Fairview, Texas, opened fire on a Dallas ICE facility, killing a detainee and leaving two others critically wounded, officials said. The victims were shot in an uncovered sallyport at the facility, officials said.
Jahn allegedly planned the attack for months and opened fire from the rooftop of a private office building overlooking the ICE facility, using an 8mm bolt-action rifle he legally purchased in August, Joe Rothrock, the FBI special agent in charge of the bureau’s Dallas office, said at Thursday afternoon’s news conference.
Rothrock described the shooting as a “targeted, ambush-style attack” and that the suspect engaged in a significant, high-degree of pre-attack planning, including researching the targeted building and using apps to track the location of ICE agents.
Federal officials said the suspect, a U.S. citizen who died by suicide, sprayed the length of the building with gunfire and left behind writings leading investigators to believe he wanted to shoot ICE agents, not detainees, and cause terror, federal officials said.
“Hopefully this will give ICE agents a real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with AP [armor-piercing] rounds on the roof?” the suspect allegedly wrote in one handwritten note, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
Patel disclosed in a social media post on Thursday that the suspect also conducted multiple searches on ballistics and the ‘Charlie Kirk Shot Video’ before carrying out the attack.
Like the suspect in the Kirk shooting who engraved shell casings found at the scene with messages — including “Hey fascist! CATCH! — authorities said the suspect in the shooting at the Dallas ICE facility also wrote a message on at least one bullet casing found at the crime scene that read, “ANTI-ICE.”
Like some of the other sniper shooters who have carried out recent attacks, the suspect seemed prepared to die, Hambrick told ABC News.
“Here’s the reality, very honestly, if someone has no fear of losing their own life, it makes them dang near impossible to prevent from taking somebody else’s life,” Hambrick said.
The shooting at the ICE facility came just two weeks after a gunman perched atop a building at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, shot and killed Kirk as the 31-year-old co-founder of the conservative grass roots organization Turning Point USA was speaking to a large crowd at an outdoor event. The suspect, identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was arrested and charged with capital murder.
“The long-range threat is new, and I think that’s all stemming from Butler,” said Don Mihalek, a former senior U.S. Secret Service Agent, referring to the July 2024 attack on Trump, which killed one rallygoer and injured two others before the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crook, was fatally shot by a Secret Service counter sniper. “I think the Butler incident is being copycatted in many ways by other people.”
Less than a month after the assassination attempt on Trump, a sniper armed with an AR-15 rifle opened fire from an overpass along Kentucky’s Interstate 75 near London, hitting a dozen vehicles and injuring eight people, authorities said. The suspect, 32-year-old Joseph Couch, a former member of the Army Reserve, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound following an 11-day manhunt, officials said.
On Sept. 15, 2024, just two months after the first attempt on Trump’s life, a Secret Service agent foiled another assassination attempt on the president at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. The agent spotted the barrel of a rifle sticking out of the fence line and opened fire on the shooter, identified as 59-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, causing him to flee the area. Roth was convicted by a jury on Tuesday and faces a sentence of life in prison.
Several of the recent sniper attacks have targeted firefighters and law enforcement officers. On June 29, 2025, a 20-year-old suspect, identified as Wess Roley, allegedly ambushed and killed two firefighters in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, after he set a fire they responded to, officials said. Roley was later found dead from suicide, authorities said.
On Aug. 7, a gunman identified by authorities as 61-year-old Carmine Faino shot and wounded two Pennsylvania state troopers in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, with a rifle he allegedly fired “from a position of tactical superiority” after calling 911 to report shots fired near a home he shared with a girlfriend he allegedly killed, officials said. Faino was fatally shot by a special emergency response team, officials said.
Three days after the Pennsylvania attack, a sniper opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention campus in Atlanta, authorities said. The suspect, 30-year-old Patrick White, who officials said blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him sick and depressed, died by suicide.
Mihalek said such sniper shootings present a “tremendous challenge” for law enforcement to prevent, particularly at a time when ambush attacks on law enforcement are dramatically increasing.
In a report released on Sept. 2, the National Fraternal Order of Police stated that 229 officers have been shot in the line of duty thus far in 2025, 31 fatally. In 2024, 342 officers were shot in the line of duty, including 50 who were killed, up from 46 in 2023, according to the report.
There have been at least 50 ambush-style attacks on law enforcement this year, resulting in 66 officers being shot, 15 of them fatally, according to the report. In all of 2024, there were 61 ambush-style attacks on law enforcement officers nationwide, resulting in 79 officers shot, 18 fatally, according to the National Fraternal Order of Police.
Amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants in the country, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement this week that ICE officers are facing a 1,000% increase in assaults against them since January.
In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said security protocols are being ramped up at ICE facilities across the country.
“Obviously, the next step for us is making sure our officers are safe. That’s my biggest fear every night, especially with these increases [in assaults], that everyone gets home safe every night. We’ve got to make sure our buildings and facilities are protected,” said Lyons.
Hambrick told ABC News that in the current threat environment, law enforcement agencies nationwide should be reevaluating their security tactics, including working with property owners in their communities to prevent easy access to rooftops.
“Law enforcement has to think now, ‘When I walk into a setting where I’m going to be, I’ve got to look up, and that’s not natural,” Hambrick said. “I’ve got to look around 360 degrees, and I need to secure those roofs.”
Mihalek said he believes the use of drones to scan the tops of buildings could become routine and help law enforcement agencies protect officers.
“Drones may become standard procedure in a lot of these law enforcement operations, especially for ICE,” Mihalek said.
(WASHINGTON) — A jury found Sean Charles Dunn, the man accused of throwing a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent in Washington, D.C., not guilty of misdemeanor assault after three days of testimony and dozens of exhibits.
After the verdict, Dunn hugged his attorneys and said, “I’m relieved and look forward to moving on with my life.”
“I’m so happy!” his lawyer Sabrina Shroff shouted as she left the courtroom.
Dunn, a former Department of Justice staffer, had been hit with the misdemeanor count after a grand jury failed to indict him on a felony assault charge for throwing a Subway sandwich at the agent during the federal law enforcement surge in August. Video of the encounter went viral after Dunn’s arrest.
According to the earlier felony criminal complaint, Dunn allegedly approached the officer and shouted, “Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!”
After several minutes of confrontation, Dunn threw the sandwich, striking the officer in the chest, the complaint said.
Defense attorney Sabrina Shroff signaled her strategy immediately in her closing arguments on Wednesday, saying, “This case, ladies and gentlemen, is about a sandwich,” she said. “A sandwich that landed intact, still in its Subway wrapping.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael DiLorenzo opened the government’s closing argument by urging jurors to find Dunn, better known online as “Sandwich Guy,” guilty of misdemeanor assault.
“This case is not about strong opinions,” DiLorenzo said. “It’s not about immigration.” Instead, he argued, Dunn crossed a line the night he threw the sandwich at a CBP agent.
The government said Dunn caused a “seven-minute disturbance” designed to pull attention away from CBP and the Metropolitan Police Department during a “high-visibility” operation. “Distract the officers, move them from their post,” DiLorenzo told jurors.
Prosecutors then played a video of Dunn admitting to officers, “I did it. I threw a sandwich. I did it to draw them away from where they were. I succeeded.”
The government argued that intent, not the menu item, is what matters. “Even with a sandwich, you don’t have the right to touch another person,” DiLorenzo said.
At several points, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols reminded jurors that their verdict must rest on the evidence presented.
When Shroff continued her argument, she turned the government’s framing on its head, not by disputing the sandwich, but by arguing its legal meaning.
She showed photos of the sandwich on the ground after it hit the CBP agent and then pointed to something the government had not, the agent’s own mementos from the incident. The agent, she said, later received a fake Subway sandwich and a “felony footlong” badge from co-workers, both of which he displayed at work.
“If someone assaulted you, if someone offended you, would you keep a memento of that assault?” Shroff asked. “Would you stick it on your lunchbox and carry it every day? Of course not.”
Shroff argued the sandwich caused no injury, was not a foreseeable weapon, and that Dunn was engaged in protected political speech. She compared the incident to “a kid throwing a stuffed toy in the middle of a bedtime temper tantrum.”
Dunn waived his right to testify in court Wednesday ahead of closing arguments.
-ABC News’ Alex Mallin contributed to this report.
