Student in custody after allegedly stabbing 2 children, 1 adult at middle school: Sheriff
In this image released by the Walton County Sheriffs Office, law enforment vehicles are shown at the scene of a stabbing investigation at Walton Middle School in Defuniak, Fla., on March 24, 2026. (Walton County Sheriff’s Office, Florida)
(DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, Fla.) — A middle school student is in custody after allegedly stabbing two children and one adult at his Florida school on Tuesday, authorities said.
The attack — which happened in less than 45 seconds — unfolded after the suspect was dropped off at 7:17 a.m. at Walton Middle School in DeFuniak Springs in the Florida Panhandle, Sheriff Michael Adkinson said.
The school was not fully open at the time and there were about 40 students in the building, Adkinson said at a news conference.
The suspect allegedly went into a bathroom and then emerged a few minutes later wearing a mask and armed with a “sharp implement,” the sheriff said.
The boy allegedly went up to a fellow student and stabbed them multiple times, Adkinson said. He then allegedly went down the hall and attacked an adult, and then stabbed another child, the sheriff said.
The suspect fled but was apprehended near the school about seven minutes after the stabbings, Adkinson said.
The two children were seriously injured: one was life-flighted to a hospital in Pensacola and the other was taken to Fort Walton-Destin Hospital, a level two trauma center, the sheriff said. The wounded adult was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, he said.
The sheriff did not discuss a potential motive.
The school canceled classes for the day, the sheriff’s office said.
Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition figure and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, attends a press conference on December 11, 2025 in Oslo, Norway. (Rune Hellestad/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said Friday she was “absolutely grateful” to President Donald Trump after meeting with him Thursday and presenting him with her Nobel Peace Prize medal. The president called it a “wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”
“María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. He also said that Machado was a “wonderful woman who has been through so much” and that it was a great honor to meet her.
Machado, in turn, said Friday it “took a lot of courage” for Trump to take action against Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Following the Thursday meeting, a White House official confirmed to ABC News that Trump did accept the medal.
Further details about the closed-door meeting were not immediately revealed by the White House. Asked about the meeting by ABC News’ Mary Bruce, Trump said it went “great.”
Machado told reporters as she was exiting the White House that she presented Trump with her prize and reflected on the history between the two countries.
“I told him this … Listen to this — 200 years ago, General Lafayette gave Simon Bolivar a medal with George Washington’s face on it. Bolivar, since then, kept that medal for the rest of his life,” she told reporters.
“Actually, when you see his portraits, you can see the medal there. And it was given by General Lafayette as a sign of the brotherhood between the United States, people of United States, and the people of Venezuela in their fight for freedom against tyranny. And 200 years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington, a medal, in this case a medal of a Nobel Peace Prize, and a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom,” she added.
Simon Bolivar liberated Venezuela and several other Latin American countries from Spanish rule in the 1800s. The Marquis de Lafayette was a French national who volunteered to fight with American colonists during the Revolutionary War and eventually rose to be one of George Washington’s most trusted generals.
Machado didn’t offer any more details about her meeting with Trump.
She won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for her work “promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela” and her push to move the country from dictatorship to democracy.
Machado dedicated the prize to Trump, along with the people of Venezuela, shortly after it was announced in October 2025.
She said last week that she would like to give or share the prize with Trump, who oversaw the successful U.S. operation to capture Maduro. Maduro faces drug trafficking charges in New York, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
“I certainly would love to be able to personally tell him that we believe — the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people — certainly want to, to give it to him and share it with him,” Machado told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday. “What he has done is historic. It’s a huge step towards a democratic transition.”
The Norwegian Nobel Institute issued a statement last week saying that once the Nobel Peace Prize is announced, it “can neither be revoked, shared, nor transferred to others. Once the announcement has been made, the decision stands for all time.”
When asked earlier this month whether Machado could become the next leader of Venezuela, Trump said it would be “very tough for her” because she “doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country.”
Trump said Wednesday he had a “great conversation” with Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, their first since authoritarian Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was seized by the U.S. on Jan. 3.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during a bill signing in the Oval Office. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
The president said last week on his social media platform that he had “cancelled the previously expected second Wave of Attacks” on Venezuela after the government released several political prisoners, but he added that “all ships will stay in place for safety and security purposes.”
Trump has coveted and openly campaigned for winning the Nobel Prize himself since his return to office. White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung slammed the Nobel Committee for its decision after Machado was announced as the most recent winner.
“[Trump] has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” Cheung said in an X post. “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”
Jorgen Watne Frydens, the Nobel Committee chair, was asked about Trump’s “campaign” for the prize last year but denied it had any impact on the decision-making process.
“We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what, for them, leads to peace,” Frydens said. “This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. We base only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.”
People walk along snow covered streets as snow falls during a blizzard on February 23, 2026 in the Flatbush neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A quick-moving storm is making its way into northern Minnesota and Wisconsin from Canada on Tuesday and is expected to hit the Great Lakes dumping between 3 to 6 inches in the region.
The brief storm is expected to move into the Northeast around midnight on Wednesday and reach Pittsburgh around 1 a.m. followed by Philadelphia and New York City by around 5 a.m.
Snow will end for Philadelphia and New York City a few hours later at approximately 11 a.m. on Wednesday, while snow should end around 1 p.m. in Boston with a few lingering snow showers will last through the night over interior New England.
All three cities should expect no more than an inch of snow to accumulate, including Rhode Island as they continue to dig out of their 2.5 feet of snow from Monday.
Further inland, however, 1 to 3 inches of snow could be possible with higher elevations in the Northeast seeing up to 3 to 6 inches of snow.
Elsewhere, a storm currently in the Pacific Northwest will move across the country in the coming days and is expected to be shoved south by high pressure over the northern U.S. as it moves east.
This will lead to rain over the upper South on Thursday morning, with heavy rain possible for Kentucky and Tennessee and east through North Carolina.
On Thursday evening, that rain could be heavy over Tennessee as the storm moves north along the mid-Atlantic into Virginia, Delaware and Maryland.
By about 9 p.m. on Thursday, there is a chance this moisture is in line somewhere between Washington, D.C. and New York City with the potential of a wintry mix that could make roads slick.
If temperatures drop low enough, snow is also possible Thursday night for the region between Washington, D.C. to New York City. This could lead to a few inches of wet snow for the New York area, northern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania by Friday morning.
The system is expected to move out of the area by midday on Friday and, by the afternoon, the weather could warm up a bit, with highs in the upper 30s.
Temperatures will reach the upper 30s and lower 40s this week in New York City and Boston as well, meaning some of the snow that has blanketed the region could begin to melt with some refreezing possible overnight.
A memorial dedicated to the 19 children and two adults murdered on May 24,2022 during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School is seen on January 05, 2026 in Uvalde, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(UVALDE, Texas) — Javier Cazares, whose 9-year-old daughter Jackie was killed in the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting, said he feels failed again after a jury on Wednesday night acquitted former school district police officer Adrian Gonzales on all 29 counts of child endangerment.
“We had a little hope, but it wasn’t enough,” Cazares said outside court. “Again, we are failed. I don’t even know what to say.”
Prosecutors had alleged Gonzales did not follow his training and endangered the 19 students who died and an additional 10 students who survived the May 24, 2022, Robb Elementary School mass shooting. Gonzales’ lawyers argued he was unfairly blamed for a broader law-enforcement failure that day.
Cazares said he was hopeful that the jury might have reached a different conclusion, but “prepared for the worst.”
“I need to keep composed for my daughter. It has been an emotional rollercoaster since day one. I am pissed,” he said.
Jackie’s uncle, Jesse Rizo, told reporters he was concerned about the message the verdict might send to police officers who respond to future mass shootings.
“I respect the jury’s decision, but what message does it send?” he said. “If you’re an officer, you can simply stand by, stand down, stand idle, and not do anything and wait for everybody to be executed, killed, slaughtered, massacred.”
Jackie’s aunt, Julissa Rizo, pushed back on the defense narrative that Gonzales responded as best he could, telling ABC News, “That’s not true.”
“There were two monsters on May 24. One was the shooter, and the other one was the one that never went in, that could have avoided this,” she said.
Defense attorney Jason Goss told reporters that he believes the acquittal clears Gonzales’ name.
“The evidence showed that not only did he not fail, but he put himself in great danger,” Goss said.
Gonzales told ABC News he plans on “picking up the pieces and moving forward.”
Defense attorney Nico LaHood said he will continue to pray for the victims’ families.
“We understand that their separation from their loved one is going to be felt as long as they walk on this earth, and we don’t ignore that. We acknowledge that,” he said. “We’re just going to continue to pray for them.”
Cazares said he will attend the trial of the other officer charged, former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo.
Arredondo, who was the on-site commander on the day of the Robb Elementary shooting, is also charged with endangerment or abandonment of a child and has pleaded not guilty. His case has been delayed indefinitely by an ongoing federal lawsuit filed after the U.S. Border Patrol refused repeated efforts by Uvalde prosecutors to interview Border Patrol agents who responded to the shooting, including two who were in the tactical unit responsible for killing the gunman at the school.
ABC News’ John Quiñones and Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
