Woman stabbed to death at Barnes & Noble store in Florida: Police
The booking photo for Antonio Moore. Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office
(PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla.) — A 65-year-old woman was fatally stabbed at a Barnes & Noble store in Florida, authorities said.
A suspect is in custody, according to police.
The incident occurred shortly before 8 p.m. on Monday at a Barnes & Noble in Palm Beach Gardens, according to police.
Officers responding to the stabbing found the victim — identified by police as Rita Loncharich — inside the store and “immediately rendered aid,” the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department said.
She was transported to a local hospital, where she died from her injuries, police said.
The suspect allegedly ran out of the store following the stabbing, according to police.
Witnesses provided a description and investigators located the suspect — identified by police as 40-year-old Antonio Moore — a short time later, authorities said.
Moore was booked Tuesday morning on a charge of first-degree premeditated murder and is being held without bond, online jail records show.
“This investigation is active and ongoing,” the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department said in a press release on Tuesday. “Investigators are still trying to determine a motive for this attack.”
ABC News has reached out to Barnes & Noble for comment.
In this June 25, 2018, file photo, an entrance to Fort Bliss is shown, in Fort Bliss, Texas. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images, FILE)
(EL PASO, Texas) — Several detainees at a Texas immigration detention facility claim in sworn court declarations that they heard a Cuban immigrant, whose death was later ruled a homicide, pleading for medication shortly before hearing what sounded like guards slamming him to the ground.
Geraldo Lunas Campos died in ICE custody on Jan. 3 at Camp East Montana, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
He is the third detainee to die at the detention center since it opened last year as a tent facility on the grounds of the Fort Bliss Army base outside El Paso.
In an autopsy report released last week, the El Paso County deputy medical examiner determined that Campos died from “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.”
Attorneys for the Campos family filed an emergency petition last week to prevent alleged witnesses from being deported. The petition, which was granted by a federal judge, cites reports alleging that guards at the facility choked and asphyxiated Campos.
Some of those witnesses submitted sworn declarations this week alleging that they heard Campos ask guards for his asthma medication on the day he died.
“The guard then said, ‘Shut up or we’re going to make you faint,'” wrote Henry Bolano, a detainee, in English and Spanish. “The last thing I heard was Geraldo speak in a voice that sounded like he couldn’t breathe. He said, ‘Let go of me. You’re asphyxiating me.'”
“Then there was silence,” Bolano wrote.
Santo Jesus Flores, another detainee, said he heard a “struggle ensue” that sounded like “the slamming of a person’s body against the floor or the wall” after Campos asked for his medication.
“I heard Geraldo scream that he could not breathe,” Flores said. “I could hear them trying to revive him, but they could not keep him alive.”
A DHS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News regarding the detainees’ sworn declarations.
According to DHS, Campos was detained in July during an immigration enforcement action in New York. He had prior convictions including sexual contact with a minor and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the DHS and court records.
In a statement released following his death, a DHS spokesperson said Campos was pronounced dead after “experiencing medical distress.”
“Lunas became disruptive while in line for medication and refused to return to his assigned dorm,” the statement said. “He was subsequently placed in segregation. While in segregation, staff observed him in distress and contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance.”
In this April 5, 2025, file photo, guests ride Stardust Racers, a new dueling roller coaster ride in Celestial Park during a preview day for Universal Epic Universe in Orlando, Fla. Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images, FILE
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — Investigators have found no criminality in the death of a 32-year-old man who was found unresponsive after riding a roller coaster at Universal’s Epic Universe theme park in Florida in September, authorities announced on Thursday.
Kevin Rodriguez Zavala died after sustaining multiple blunt impact injuries while riding the Stardust Racers roller coaster at the Universal Orlando Resorts park on Sept. 17.
He was pronounced dead at a hospital that night, authorities said.
Following a monthslong investigation, an Orange County Sheriff’s Office report found the “case was deemed an accidental death and was closed accordingly.”
“Because it was determined that no criminal acts occurred in this case, this concludes the Orange County Sheriff’s Office role in this case,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Following his death, the local medical examiner determined that Zavala died from multiple blunt impact injuries and that the manner of death was accidental.
The sheriff’s office investigation’s finding was based on sworn statements, video surveillance, the medical examiner’s findings and the “standard operating procedures provided by Epic Universe,” among other evidence, the report stated.
One person who responded to the scene said in a sworn statement that Zavala was found unresponsive with “severe facial trauma,” and he was still secured in the ride via the lap bar, according to the report.
Zavala’s girlfriend, who was with him on the ride, told authorities in a sworn statement at the hospital that on the first drop he “partially came up out of his seat and hit his head on the metal bar in front of them,” and he “continually hit his head on the bar in front of them as the ride descended.”
She said the ride operator pushed on the lap bar three times until it locked in place, and that he was in the seat correctly, “she just felt the lap bar was too low.”
In the wake of his death, Zavala’s family retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who said they are conducting an independent investigation to get to the “truth” and determine if anything could have prevented his death.
Zavala’s father, Carlos Rodriguez Ortiz, said in a press briefing in September that his son was born with a spinal cord atrophy. He used a wheelchair but was “not under any medical restrictions that would have prevented him” from riding the Stardust Racer, Crump said.
His mother said he “loved theme parks” and roller coasters and was excited to go to Universal’s Epic Universe with his girlfriend.
An internal review found the ride systems “functioned as intended,” the “equipment was intact” during the ride and park employees followed procedures, according to a memo sent in the wake of Zavala’s death from Universal Orlando Resort President Karen Irwin to staff.
A Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News following the death that the department’s current findings “align with those shared by Universal after monitoring the same tests and reviewing the same information.”
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 18, 2025 in New York City. (Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione should stand trial in State Supreme Court in New York starting July 1, at least three months ahead of when the accused killer could stand trial in federal court, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a letter Wednesday.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges stemming from the assassination-style killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan in December 2024.
Federal judge Margaret Garnett said Mangione would stand trial in October if she eliminates the death penalty as a possible sentence, as the defense has sought. Otherwise, she said at a hearing last week, Mangione would stand trial in January. Either way, she set jury selection for Sept. 8.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office said there are “significant state interests” in putting Mangione on trial sooner.
“This heinous crime happened in midtown Manhattan, one of the busiest commercial areas in this County and spread fear and shock throughout Manhattan. New York State unquestionably has a deep interest in, upholding the fundamental right to life, maintaining public order, and delivering justice for a murder committed in its jurisdiction,” assistant district attorney Joel Seidemann wrote.
“Federal law supports our request that we proceed first and our right to a speedy resolution of this case would be severely compromised should the federal trial proceed first,” he said.
Judge Gregory Carro, the judge for the state case, is weighing a defense request to suppress evidence pulled from Mangione’s backpack, including the alleged murder weapon, a notebook and writings. After a three-week hearing, the judge said he would accept written submissions by March and issue a ruling in May.
The district attorney’s office told Carro the case is otherwise ready for trial.
“It is entirely natural then that the state case would proceed to trial prior to the federal case,” Seidemann’s letter said. “And, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York has said that it expects the State case to proceed to trial first.”
Mangione has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since his return to New York from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested at an Altoona McDonald’s following a five-day manhunt.
Defense attorneys have said police waited too long to read Mangione his rights and unlawfully searched his backpack without a warrant. Prosecutors have argued the Altoona police officers were justified in searching the bag because the search pertained to a lawful arrest.
