William “Billy” Schmidt, 22, was shot in the chest at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, according to Philadelphia police.
Authorities have not announced any arrests or any motive.
Billy Schmidt had been watching the NBA Finals game with his friends at a bar and was walking home when he was shot, his father, Bill Schmidt, told Philadelphia ABC station WPVI.
“He was a really good person who cared about everybody,” Bill Schmidt said. “… For him to get shot like that is a travesty.”
The vigil and protest, called “Justice for Billy,” will be held Thursday evening in Philadelphia.
“We are taking our streets back. … we won’t stop until our community is safe,” the flyer said.
The 22-year-old was studying digital journalism and media at Penn State World Campus, according to the university.
“We are heartbroken over the tragic death of William Schmidt, and we share our deepest condolences with his family and friends,” a Penn State spokesperson said in a statement.
ABC News’ Jessica Gorman contributed to this report.
FBI personnel walk towards the house connected to Cole Tomas Allen, the shooting suspect at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, in Torrance, CA on Saturday night, April 25, 2026. (Robbin Goddard / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Cole Allen, the suspect in the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday night, is expected to be arraigned in U.S. District Court on Monday.
Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, is a trained mechanical engineer working as a tutor who traveled across the country to perpetrate “as much damage as he could,” sources and officials said.
Local authorities said the suspect was tackled by law enforcement after gunfire inside the Washington Hilton, where thousands of journalists as well as President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet were gathered for the annual event.
Allen was detained near the main magnetometer area for the event, with surveillance video showing the suspect running past security officials. Interim D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Chief Jeffrey Carroll told reporters that the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives. Carroll said the preliminary information is that he was a “lone actor.”
Law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation said that Allen was declining to answer questions but allegedly made some non-specific reference to targeting administration officials.
A Secret Service member was shot during the incident but the bullet hit the agent’s protective vest, Trump said after the incident. The president said he spoke with the agent and he was in good spirits.
Shortly before the White House press briefing, Trump posted a video showing agents subduing the suspect, who he said “charged a security checkpoint armed with many weapons.”
Law enforcement officials said that Allen is believed to have booked a room in the Washington Hilton, where the dinner took place, in early April.
Investigators believe the suspect arrived in Washington by train, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday during an interview on ABC News’ “This Week” with anchor George Stephanopoulos.
“We believe he traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington, D.C.,” Blanche said.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro told reporters Saturday night, “It is clear, based upon what we know so far, that this individual was intent on doing as much harm and as much damage as he could.”
Pirro said the suspect was being charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. She said additional charges could follow.
Allen is a trained mechanical engineer working as a tutor, according to a LinkedIn page connected to him.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Allen graduated in 2017 from CalTech, where he listed memberships in the school’s Christian Fellowship and Nerf Club. He graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering before earning a master’s degree from Cal State-Dominguez Hills in 2025, the profile said.
Allen characterized himself on LinkedIn as an “Indie Game Developer” who created a video game he described as “a skill-based, non-violent asymmetrical fighting game loosely derived from a chemistry model that is itself loosely based on reality,” according to the game’s Steam page.
Allen’s current employer, C2 Education, named Allen its “Teacher of the Month” in 2024, according to a post on LinkedIn. The tutoring company said in a statement that they were cooperating “fully” with law enforcement and denounced the “horrifying incident” at the dinner, but omitted in its statement details of Allen’s work history.
A group of high school students who were tutored by Allen shared a statement late Sunday describing Allen as “generally very intelligent” and “normal and friendly.”
Allen is not registered with any political party; his voter registration in Los Angeles County lists him as “no party preference,” according to voter registration records viewed by ABC News.
A Secret Service after-action review examining the security and possible lapses is already underway, according to officials briefed on internal procedures at the agency. The review is being conducted as a matter of standard procedure, which dictates that such a probe must be done whenever there is an “attack on a protectee.”
The review will go step-by-step through security planning and preparation, the deployment and assignment of personnel, as well as what occurred once the suspect rushed the Secret Service checkpoint. The Secret Service declined to comment on the after-action review.
ABC News’ Lauren Minore, Luke Barr, Nicholas Kerr, Ivan Pereira, Aaron Katersky, Josh Margolin, John Santucci, Michelle Stoddart, Lucien Bruggeman, Oren Oppenheim, Katherine Faulders and Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.
Texas State Troopers arrive in a Dilley I.S.D. school bus before dispersing a crowd protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the South Texas Family Residential Center on January 28, 2026 in Dilley, Texas. (Joel Angel Juarez/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Joaquin Castro, along with more than 110 Democratic members of Congress, has sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin urging the shutdown of the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas.
The facility, which is the only family detention center in the country, was closed during the Biden administration but was reopened last year as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
In the letter, which was first obtained by ABC News, they write, “There is no humane way to imprison a child and their family. It is nothing more than a trailer prison that detains families. In fact, the Dilley facility is the only place in the United States dedicated to detaining families with children who have not been charged with a crime.”
“Former and current detained families describe horrific conditions perpetuated by CoreCivic and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that are meant to strip them of their dignity and make them feel hopeless,” the letter says.
The letter outlines how parents have described “horrendous conditions at Dilley,” including allegations of food “contaminated with worms and mold,” drinking water that leaves detainees feeling sick, lights that stay on through the night and inadequate education and medical care that has led to “severe depression, hopelessness and suicidal ideation amongst their children,” according to the letter.
Medical care “is delayed, denied, and in many cases outright dismissed, even when children are suffering life threatening medical emergencies,” the letter says, describing an alleged incident in which a young boy was not taken to the hospital until after several days of “severe stomach pain,” after which he was diagnosed with appendicitis and required surgery.
Immigrant advocates, medical professionals and lawmakers have previously raised concerns about conditions at the South Texas facility.
ABC News in February interviewed a couple who said their 1-year-old daughter contracted COVID-19 and RSV during their 60-day detention. The family alleged that medical staff at Dilley dismissed their daughter’s symptoms.
Rep. Castro raised his own concerns about a 2-month old he encountered while visiting another family at the facility in February.
At the time, the top medical official at the Department of Homeland Security, which operates the nation’s migrant detention centers, disputed any suggestion that detainees are being denied proper care.
“These allegations of illegal aliens being denied proper medical care in ICE custody are FALSE,” DHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sean Conley told ABC News in a statement. “It is both policy and longstanding practice for aliens to receive timely and appropriate medical care from the moment they enter ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, women’s health, mental health services, any needed follow up medical appointments, as well as 24-hour emergency care.”
“This is better, more responsive health care than many aliens have ever received in their entire lives,” Conley’s statement said.
“These representatives remain quiet about the humanitarian crisis that was manufactured by the Biden Administration’s open border policies over the last four years and the scores of children exploited, trafficked and missing,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Do they plan to mention the psychiatric impact on the tens of thousands of children who were smuggled across the border — many by human and sex traffickers?”
“We’ve jumpstarted our efforts to rescue children who were victims of sex and labor trafficking by working with our state and local law enforcement partners to locate these children. President Trump and DHS are laser-focused on protecting children and will continue to work with federal, state, and local law enforcement to reunite children with their families,” the spokesperson said.
The Democrats’ letter also claims that children are held at the Dilley facility beyond the general 20-day limit established under the Flores Settlement Agreement, a legal settlement from the 1990s that outlines appropriate protections and conditions for detaining minors.
“Families at Dilley report being held well beyond that limit with no clear timeline or explanation,” the letter says. “In February and March 2026, the government has stated that children’s average time in custody at Dilley was approximately 57 days, and the median time in custody was approximately 44 days, with 92 children being detained for 61-90 days, and 80 children detained for more than 91 days.”
A DHS spokesperson, responding to a February ABC News report about the extended custody times, said, “For years, the Flores consent decree has been a tool of the left to promote an open borders agenda. It is long overdue for a single district in California to stop managing the Executive Branch’s immigration functions. The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our immigration system.”
“No child should be in a place like the Dilley Trailer Prison,” Castro said in a statement. “Under Trump, ICE is ripping children away from their families, school, and lives. They should be treated like kids — not criminals. I am grateful that over 100 of my colleagues in Congress are joining the fight to shut down the Dilley Trailer Prison.”
In addition to shuttering Dilley, the letter demands that DHS terminates the contract it has with CoreCivic, the private prison contractor that operates the Dilley facility. The letter alleges that “CoreCivic is prioritizing profits over humane treatment of its detainees.”
“No child and family should be imprisoned for seeking safety by legitimately following United States immigration laws,” the letter says. “The United States has the tools, the resources, and the legal framework to process these families without detention.”
In this Dec. 3, 2019, file photo, Jack Avery of Why Don’t We performs onstage during 106.1 KISS FM’s Jingle Ball 2019 at Dickies Arena in Dallas, Texas. (Cooper Neill/Getty Images for iHeartMedia, FILE)
(LOS ANGELES) — A social media influencer is accused of plotting to kill a pop singer in an alleged murder-for-hire conspiracy that prosecutors say stemmed from a “bitter custody dispute” over their daughter.
The influencer, 24-year-old Gabriela Gonzalez, allegedly conspired with her father and then-boyfriend to hire a hitman to kill Jack Avery, the father of her 7-year-old daughter, several years ago, prosecutors in Los Angeles County said in a press release this week.
Avery, 26, is a former member of the boy band Why Don’t We, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office confirmed in a press release.
Sometime between 2020 and 2021, Gabriela Gonzalez allegedly sought the help of her boyfriend at the time, 26-year-old Kai Cordrey, to hire someone on the dark web to kill Avery, prosecutors said.
She allegedly repeatedly told one witness that she wanted Avery dead and discussed hiring a hitman and that the “intended killing was discussed as occurring in Los Angeles and being made to look like a car accident,” the warrant for her father’s arrest stated.
Her father, 59-year-old Francisco Gonzalez, was “deeply involved in the custody conflict” and was the alleged source of the funds for the murder-for-hire plot, according to his arrest warrant.
Francisco Gonzalez allegedly sent Cordrey $10,000 back in April 2021 “as front money to use in locating, hiring and paying someone to kill Avery,” the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release on Tuesday.
Two months later, Francisco Gonzalez allegedly sent Cordrey another $4,000 “after the alleged hit man asked for the additional funds,” the office said.
“Several days later, Cordrey allegedly requested that Avery be killed within a couple of days,” prosecutors said.
Cordrey spoke to an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a hitman about the alleged murder-for-hire plot in September 2021, during which he allegedly said Avery was the target and “discussed payment and proof of death,” prosecutors said.
“In a subsequent conversation, Cordrey allegedly told the purported hitman that Gabriela Gonzalez wanted the murder to happen and Francisco Gonzalez could pay for the expense,” prosecutors said.
Gabriela Gonzalez, her father and Cordrey have been charged with one count each of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation of murder.
Gabriela Gonzalez was arrested on Monday and is being held on no bail, online jail records show. She was arraigned on Tuesday. Attorney information was not immediately available.
Her father was arrested in Florida and is awaiting extradition to Los Angeles County. Court records show he is being represented by a public defender. ABC News has reached out to the public defender’s office for comment.
It is unclear if Cordrey is in custody at this time.
If convicted as charged, all three face 25 years to life in state prison.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the FBI began the “lengthy investigation” before the case was turned over to his office.
“This is a case where the defendants are accused of going to great lengths to find someone to commit murder,” Hochman said in a statement. “Most fathers raise their children to respect the law, but here we have a dad who allegedly helped his daughter and her boyfriend break the law in the most sinister way imaginable.”
Gabrielle Gonzalez has nearly 1 million followers between her Instagram and TikTok accounts.
Her father has a law practice in Seminole County. His firm had no comment on his charges.
ABC News has reached out to Avery for comment.
In an interview on “The Zach Sang Show” last year, Avery said two FBI agents showed up at his residence and that “someone hired someone to kill me.” He did not publicly identify any suspects.
He said he was “traumatized.”
“I stayed in my house for like a month straight. I didn’t leave,” Avery said during the interview. “I was so scared. I was looking out my window every night.”
