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(NEW YORK) — A man who was seen on video being beaten and wrongfully arrested by two NYPD officers at a liquor store in Brooklyn has filed a notice saying he plans to sue the department over the incident.

Timothy Brown told reporters Tuesday that he felt “humiliated, disrespected and embarrassed” by the arrest and will never be the same after the April 14 incident.

Brown, a home health aide and security guard, was buying wine at the liquor store after work when he was suddenly approached by two plainclothes detectives who allegedly seized him and attacked him as other customers looked on in shock, according to the notice of claim that he filed with the city.

“What happened to me should not happen to anyone else. It was wrong and it was disgusting. My life will never be the same,” Brown, who was seen with an apparent limp in his walk, holding a cane, and wearing an arm brace, said Tuesday.

The New York Police Department has not immediately commented on the notice, which seeks $100 million in punitive damages over several alleged claims including negligence, false arrest, assault and battery.

The incident was filmed by bystanders and the detectives were not wearing body cameras, according to the notice.

The notice states that NYPD policy requires officers to wear or activate body worn cameras during narcotics enforcement operations.

The NYPD claimed that the undercover detectives allegedly witnessed a narcotics purchase of crack cocaine and that the suspect was seen wearing the same clothes as Brown.

Police said there were no drugs or contraband found on Brown after his arrest, and that he was not the suspect they were looking for. However, the NYPD issued Brown a ticket for resisting arrest and obstruction of government administration.

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office ultimately dismissed the charges against Brown.

Brown contests the accusations that he resisted arrest.

“I never resisted arrest not at all,” he said. “There was nothing I could do, I was being beating and battered.”

The detectives did not identify themselves “adequately” when confronting Brown and used “gratuitous and excessive force,”  according to the notice.

The notice contends that Brown was beaten for eight minutes, “slammed into a glass display wall and shelving stocked with glass bottles, causing numerous bottles to shatter” and thrown and dragged across the floor “through broken glass.”

Brown suffered “contusions, lacerations, a black eye, head and facial trauma and injuries to his leg,” according to the notice that he filed.

The two detectives involved in the incident — identified by the department as Volkan Maden and Michael Algerio — are under internal NYPD investigation, had their badges and guns stripped, and are serving on modified duty, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

Additionally, the narcotics module responsible for the incident has been disbanded, the supervising sergeant involved in the incident was placed on modified duty and six other detectives were reassigned, according to the notice. The NYPD has not confirmed these actions.

“We will have more to say about it as the investigation unfolds, but I understand the community’s interest in it, because it is an upsetting video,” Tisch told reporters during an unrelated news conference on April 15.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani echoed that sentiment in a social media post a day after the incident.

“The violence used by NYPD officers in this video is extremely disturbing and unacceptable. Officers should never treat a person this way,” he said.

Detectives Endowment Association President Scott Munro, however, criticized the mayor’s comments in a social media post on April 15 and called for more facts to come out.

“NYPD detectives put their lives on the line daily, doing the dangerous work politicians would never have the courage to do,” he said.

Brown and his mother told reporters that they were disappointed that have not been contacted by the mayor or Tisch.

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(NEW YORK) — A federal grand jury in North Carolina has indicted former FBI Director James Comey over a controversial Instagram post from last year that President Donald Trump and members of his administration claimed was a threat against the president.

Renewing efforts to prosecute one of Trump’s longtime adversaries, Department of Justice prosecutors brought the case after a judge last year threw out an indictment against Comey on unrelated charges.

The new indictment centers on a controversy that erupted nearly a year ago when Comey, in a since-deleted Instagram post, shared a picture showing the numbers “86 47” written in seashells on the beach with the caption “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

Citing the slang meaning of “86” as to “nix” or “get rid” of something, allies of the president alleged that the post was a veiled threat against Trump, and the Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service quickly launched investigations into the posts.

CNN was first to report news of the indictment.

Prosecutors will likely face a high legal bar to prove that the Instagram post constituted a “true threat,” which the Supreme Court in 2023 found required showing an individual understood their message would be perceived as threatening. With the phrase “86 47” increasingly adopted by protesters of the Trump administration, the case could carry sweeping implications for the First Amendment.

When asked about the post last year, Trump suggested that Comey should be prosecuted over the post, which Trump alleged was a call “for the assassination of the president.”

“He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear,” Trump told Fox News last year.

At the time, Trump said he would leave a decision about charging Comey to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, though he insisted that Comey was a “dirty cop.”

“When you add his history to that … he’s a dirty cop. And if he had a clean history, I could understand if there was a leniency, but I’m going to let them make that decision,” Trump said.

Following backlash over the post, Comey removed the photo from Instagram and said he was unaware that the post could be associated with violence.

“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” Comey said on May 15.

The post drew swift criticism from the Trump administration, with White House staff describing the post “deeply concerning” and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard calling for Comey to be imprisoned.

“James Comey in my view should be held accountable and put behind bars for this,” Gabbard told Fox News.

Comey is not the first public figure to face pushback for invoking number “86,” with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer drawing criticism in 2020 for appearing during a television interview with a small figurine of the numbers “86 45” on a table behind her, and similar “86 46” references appearing online during Joe Biden’s presidency.

Comey was indicted last year on unrelated charges for allegedly lying to Congress and obstruction related to his testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020. Comey’s lawyers moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing the case was politically motivated and that the grand jury never saw the charges in their entirety, and the case was ultimately dismissed over issues with the legitimacy of the prosecutor who brought the case.  

The new indictment comes as the Department of Justice in recent weeks has ramped up investigations of some of Trump’s perceived political foes under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is heading up the Justice Department following Trump’s ouster of Pam Bondi.

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice removed a top career prosecutor from a controversial investigation in Florida after sources told ABC News that she had expressed concerns about a rushed effort to bring criminal charges against former CIA Director John Brennan.

Prosecutors in April also secured an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center — frequently criticized by conservatives for their assessment of hate groups — for bank fraud and money laundering offenses related to its paying of informants to infiltrate such groups. The organization has denied all wrongdoing.

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(NEW YORK) — Former NBA player and coach Damon Jones pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges he tipped off sports bettors about an injured LeBron James and used his own celebrity to lure high rollers to rigged poker games.

Jones, 49, is the first defendant in either case to plead guilty following the arrests of nearly three dozen people at the start of the pro basketball season.

Jones, who wore a black suit and black shirt, entered his guilty pleas during back-to-back hearings Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court.

“I would like to sincerely apologize to the court, my family, my peers and also the National Basketball Association,” Jones said during the hearing before Magistrate Judge Joseph Marutollo.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — Attorneys for the Southern Poverty Law Center asked a federal judge Tuesday to demand that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issue a correction to allegedly “false” statements he made in the aftermath of the indictment of the organization last week, according to a legal filing.

In a motion to the judge presiding over their criminal case in the Middle District of Alabama, attorneys for the SPLC accuse Blanche of lying in an interview he gave to Fox News last Tuesday when he claimed the government did not have information showing the organization has shared information it learned from informants with law enforcement.

“Those statements are false,” attorneys for the SPLC wrote. “Weeks before the indictment, undersigned counsel provided information to the government demonstrating unequivocally that the SPLC had shared information from its informants with law enforcement.”

Blanche, who earlier this month replaced Pam Bondi as attorney general, announced last week that a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging the group with wire, bank fraud and money laundering offenses related to its paying of informants to infiltrate hate groups.

The attorneys write that they previously requested Blanche issue a correction to the statements but that counsel for the government refused.

They specifically cite an April 6 meeting that SPLC attorneys had with prosecutors in Alabama in which they explained in detail how some of their past cooperation with the government had resulted in an indictment of a member of a well-known extremist group. 

The SPLC then sent a letter to the DOJ, which they requested it share with the grand jury, detailing six categories that they argued showed the organization using informants to dismantle white supremacist organizations, which they said undercut the core of the government’s case that argues SPLC used the informants to boost such groups. 

The organization is asking the judge overseeing the case to order the disclosure of grand jury transcripts and issue a separate order restricting the government from making further “prejudicial” statements that could taint a possible jury pool. 

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(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York on Tuesday blocked the Justice Department’s attempt to move Maurene Comey’s lawsuit over her firing as a federal prosecutor out of court.

Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, has joined a private law practice but is suing for unlawful termination after she was fired last year from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

The Justice Department argued that her case belongs before the Merit Systems Protection Board and not in federal district court.

Judge Jesse Furman decided the case belongs with him because Comey was fired pursuant to the president’s executive authority and not the usual procedures for civil servants. 

“Maurene Comey was, by all accounts, an exemplary Assistant United States Attorney. In her nearly ten years working at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, she was assigned some of the country’s highest profile cases, and she consistently received the highest accolades from supervisors and peers alike,” the judge’s opinion said.

“Comey was notified by email from Department of Justice officials in Washington, D.C., that her employment was terminated, effective immediately,” the judge wrote. “She was given one and only one reason for her removal: Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which ‘vest[s]’ the ‘executive Power’ in the President.”

The DOJ, in court filings, has characterized Comey’s case as routine.

“A federal employee’s claims that removal from federal service was arbitrary and capricious or conducted in a manner that did not provide the process to which they contend they were due is not a novel issue,” government attorneys said.

Comey, who prosecuted high-profile defendants including Sean Combs, Robert Hadden, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, alleged she was fired “because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both.”

The next hearing before Judge Furman is May 28.

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(WASHINGTON) — Cole Allen, the suspect in the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooting, appears to have been a highly intelligent person, albeit shy, and was at one point a devoted Christian, according to conversations with individuals from his past.

The California native was tackled by law enforcement after the gunfire Saturday night inside the Washington, D.C., Hilton hotel, where thousands of journalists as well as President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet were gathered for the annual dinner. Allen did not reach the ballroom, where the dinner was underway. A Secret Service member was shot during the incident, but the bullet hit the agent’s protective vest, officials said.

Allen, 31, faces three felony counts of attempted assassination of the President of the United States, transportation of a firearm and ammunition over state lines with the intent to commit a felony and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.

Allen’s former pastor, Rev. Movses Janbazian, struggled to square the man described by federal officials as an aspiring killer with the hard-working student who attended sermons each week at Pasadena United Reformed Church in South Pasadena. 

“Nice, gentle, smart young man,” Janbazian told ABC News. “It’s obviously very surprising to hear his name appear in the news in this way.”

Janbazian said Allen joined the United Reformed Church congregation during his time at Caltech, where he studied mechanical engineering. Allen would frequently bring coursework to church — evidence, he said, of what a “competitive program” he was enrolled in. Allen graduated from Caltech in 2017 and he received a master’s degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 2025.

Paul Thompson, a neighbor of the Allen family, described Allen as “not very sociable,” but maintained that he “had no idea that he was capable of that kind of violence.” 

“I’ve seen him a hundred times coming and going … but I’ve never had a conversation with him,” Thompson said. 

Allen’s father, on the other hand, was “kind of like the neighborhood mayor — knows everybody by first name,” Thompson said.

“Everybody likes him. He’s a very sociable guy,” Thompson said of Allen’s father.

“This is going to be very, very difficult … on his family,” Thompson added. 

Allen was most recently working as a tutor and students said he demonstrated a knack for competently teaching a wide range of subjects. A group of high school students who were tutored by Allen shared a statement describing him as “generally very intelligent” and “normal and friendly.”

Joel Devereux, the father-in-law of Allen’s brother, described Allen to ABC News as “very quiet, polite, smart” in their limited interactions, but said he seemed “distant from his family” and “doesn’t normally hang around them.” 

Allen — who officials say traveled by train from California to D.C. — allegedly left a note which said that administration officials were his targets, “not including [FBI Director Kash] Mr. Patel,” and were “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” according to the criminal complaint against him.

Allen allegedly wrote that Secret Service agents were targets “only if necessary, and to be incapacitated non-lethally if possible,” the complaint said.

The note said hotel security, Capitol police and the National Guard were “not targets if at all possible (aka unless they shoot at me),” and hotel employees and guests were “not targets at all,” the complaint said.

The note said he would “go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary,” adding, ‘I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” according to the complaint.

Allen appeared in court on Monday and did not enter a plea. He’s set to return to court for a detention hearing on Thursday.

ABC News’ Susan Zalkind contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Army special forces soldier who was indicted last week on charges of using classified information about the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to make more than $400,000 on Polymarket is set to appear in a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday.

Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke is scheduled to be arraigned following his release last week on a $250,000 bond.

In what is believed to be the first case of insider trading on a prediction market, prosecutors alleged that Van Dyke used classified information from his work in the planning and execution of the Maduro capture to place 13 bets on the outcome of the operation.

Prosecutors allege that Van Dyke placed bets on Dec. 27 through the evening of Jan. 2 — hours before soldiers entered Venezuelan airspace for the pre-dawn operation. After President Donald Trump made the operation public later that day, Van Dyke allegedly profited $409,881 from his $33,034 in bets.

“The defendant allegedly violated the trust placed in him by the United States Government by using classified information about a sensitive military operation to place bets on the timing and outcome of that very operation, all to turn a profit,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said in a statement last week. “That is clear insider trading and is illegal under federal law.”  

The indictment also alleges that Van Dyke attempted to hide the evidence of the illegal trades by attempting to delete his Polymarket account and changing the email address associated with his cryptocurrency exchange account.

Following his arrest on Thursday, Van Dyke briefly appeared in a North Carolina courtroom on Friday. After acknowledging that he understood the charges and potential penalties, he signed a bond and agreed to surrender his passport, limit travel to parts of New York and North Carolina, and no longer possess a firearm unless it is part of his active military service.

His case is being overseen in New York by U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett, who is also presiding over the high-profile federal case against alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione.

Amid mounting criticism of prediction markets for allegedly enabling insider trading, Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan said his company is “constantly” monitoring for suspicious activity and referring cases to authorities. Coplan argued that the public nature of prediction markets makes it easier to crack down on insider trading.

“The transparency afforded by onchain markets makes global compliance more effective than ever. Every trade is public, permanent, and auditable. Bad actors leave a trail,” he said. 

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(BULLHEAD CITY, Ariz) — A 64-year-old man has been arrested in connection to a 1991 cold case murder that rocked Northern California 35 years ago.

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office announced a breakthrough on Monday in the 1991 kidnapping and murder case of Cindy Wanner, confirming that 64-year-old James Lawhead Jr. was arrested by authorities in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Friday.

Wanner was 35 when she vanished from her Granite Bay, California, home on Nov. 25, 1991. Her 11-month-old baby was found abandoned at the home in a highchair. Wanner’s car and coat were still at the home.

Wanner’s body was found three weeks later, strangled to death, in a remote area outside Foresthill, about 40 miles away from her home.

Lawhead Jr. was identified as the suspect by investigators thanks to advanced DNA analysis and testing, authorities said. He was 30 at the time of the crime and had been released from prison in early 1991 after serving 11 years of a 19-year sentence for prior sex crimes involving a child.

He appeared to have vanished completely, with no official documentation of his whereabouts since 2005. It turned out that Lawhead Jr. had been living in Arizona under a new identity as Vincent Reynolds.

In connection with the breakthrough, Lawhead Jr.’s 71-year-old sister, Terry Lawhead Steele, was arrested in South Carolina on Saturday on an accessory charge.

“Although Steele had spoken with law enforcement several times over the years, including with our detectives just weeks ago, and claimed she had not heard from her brother in more than 20 years, investigators discovered James Lawhead had been living in a home she owned,” Placer County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “Evidence also showed the two had remained in communication.”

Detectives served a search warrant at her San Clemente, California, home on Sunday as part of the investigation.

“This is one of the most notorious and heinous cold cases we have here in Placer County. We’ve never given up pursuing justice for Cindy and her family, we hope this is a small step in the healing process,” Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said. “This breakthrough and arrest reflect the commitment of our office to solve cases; it’s why we pin on the badge and take the oath to serve. Our work is not done. James Lawhead will be brought back to Placer County where he will answer to the charges for this crime.”

Lawhead Jr. is currently booked in Arizona, where he will be extradited to Placer County to face charges. Detectives are also exploring the possibility that Lawhead Jr. could be responsible for additional crimes. It is unclear if Lawhead Jr. has obtained a lawyer.

“This arrest is a powerful reminder that time does not erase responsibility, and it does not diminish our commitment,” said Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire. “Cold cases are not forgotten cases—they remain urgent, they remain personal, and they remain a promise we intend to keep.”

“Even when the path is long and difficult, there is hope. We will continue this work — steadfast and unwavering — because you deserve answers, you deserve justice, and you deserve to know that you are never forgotten,” said Gire.

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(NEW YORK) — Marlene Noble, 35, has lived more than 30 years of her life in the United States.

After being abandoned by her biological family after a hurricane hit her home country of Haiti, she was brought by Catholic Charities to the United States, where she was later adopted.

But when she turned 18, she learned that her adoptive family had not properly submitted the adoption and immigration paperwork, leaving her in legal limbo. 

She spent years trying to fix her status — including filing for citizenship on her own in her mid‑20s and consulting multiple lawyers — before eventually applying in 2020 for Temporary Protected Status, which she was granted in 2023.

But now, Noble finds herself again facing uncertainty as the Trump administration’s move to end TPS — which provides work authorization and protection from deportation to people whose home countries are deemed unsafe — faces a high‑stakes test at the Supreme Court amid the administration’s immigration crackdown.

“America is my home, and it has been for 31 years,” Noble told ABC News. “It took three years for me to get granted TPS. So a lot of hard work went into this, just to have it potentially ripped away from me … It’s kind of cruel and inhumane to rip that away from us.”

Noble says she is “scared” about Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing, where the justices will consider whether the administration acted unlawfully in seeking to terminate TPS for Haitians and other groups.

The outcome could directly affect the futures of tens of thousands of TPS holders from Haiti and Syria.

In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said TPS was “never intended to be a de facto asylum program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades.”

“The Trump administration is restoring integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe, and we expect a higher court to vindicate us in this,” the spokesperson said. “We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.”

In previous statements, DHS has also argued that, after reviewing country conditions and consulting with other U.S. government agencies, the DHS secretary determined that Haiti no longer meets the conditions for TPS designation.

But immigrant advocates and plaintiffs in the case argue that Haiti is not safe. They point to the State Department’s “do not travel” advisory that warns Americans not to go to Haiti because of gang violence, kidnapping and political instability. And just last week, the Federal Aviation Administration extended its ban on U.S. aircraft operating in and near Haiti due to safety concerns.

“T​​he State Department advises people to do not go there,” said Vilbrun Dorsainvil, the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case. “They know for sure that if we get back we will get killed, kidnapped.” 

Dorsainvil, a former doctor in Haiti and currently a registered nurse in Springfield, Ohio, told ABC News that when he found out the Trump administration canceled TPS, he “stayed home for, like, for more than two weeks without going outside.”

“I was very scared of what might happen to me,” he said. “I didn’t go to work, I didn’t go to church, you know, visit any friends. I just stayed home because I was very scared that they would take me.”

Dorsainvil said he arrived in the U.S. in March 2021 on a tourist visa and then later was approved for TPS status.

“I bought a house. I have a mortgage,” he said. “I help a lot of people getting better in the hospital. I love the job I’m doing. I am useful here.”

“The idea of going back there right now is scaring me, it’s killing me inside,” Dorsainvil said. “I hope they will see the good we are bringing to the community. I hope they will see the situation in Haiti right now … it’s not safe for anyone … and I pray they would let us stay here.”

While Wednesday’s arguments will focus on the TPS status of Haitians and Syrians, the high-profile case has cast a ripple across other communities who fear they might be the next population to lose their status.

Anil Shahi, a TPS holder from Nepal, said he plans to protest outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday on behalf of the 1.3 million people who rely on TPS. A founding coordinator for United for TPS Nepal — an organization that represents more than 1,400 TPS holders from that country — Shahi said that the Trump administration’s revocation of TPS status has forced TPS holders to live in a state of uncertainty about their legal status. 

“The uncertainty is a huge killer. It’s very painful. You don’t know what’s going to happen … you’re scared,” he told ABC News. “You cannot just pick up and leave.”

DHS designated Nepal for TPS in 2015 following a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake in the country that resulted in more than 8,800 deaths. The Trump administration sought to terminate the country’s TPS status in June 2025, though the change is the subject of an ongoing legal challenge.

According to Shahi, many Nepali TPS holders fear what might come next, in part because their personal information is readily available to authorities. With TPS recipients being vetted every 18 months, their addresses and personal data are known to the federal government. 

“The government knows where we live. They know where we work. They have everything documented, right?” Shahi said. “So we are like a low-hanging fruit for them. It’s really easy for them to come after us if they really wanted to. And that’s what makes people really scared.”

Shahi said that Nepali TPS holders will be anxiously awaiting news from the Supreme Court, believing the outcome of Wednesday’s oral argument could indicate how their own legal fight will end.

At 56 years old, Shahi has lived the majority of his life in the United States and said he can’t imagine relocating to Nepal. He said that many Nepali TPS holders have U.S.-born children, and more than a hundred members of United for TPS Nepal own small businesses like restaurants, convenient stores, and beauty salons.

“I felt like I was a foreigner in my own country,” Shahi said about the last time he visited Nepal. “That was the point I realized I’m like really American, more than Nepali.” 

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(FLORIDA) — The man accused of killing two University of South Florida doctoral students allegedly asked ChatGPT about disposing of a body three days before the victims were last seen alive, according to court filings.

Hisham Abugharbieh, 26, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder with a weapon in the deaths of his roommate, Zamil Limon, and Nahida Bristy, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said. The two 27-year-old students were last seen alive on April 16, and a mutual friend reported them missing the following day after being unable to reach them both, authorities said.

Detectives located Limon’s remains on the side of a Tampa bridge on Friday, according to the motion. His naked body was in “numerous black utility trash bags and was in advanced stages of decomposition,” according to a motion for pretrial detention filed by prosecutors. There were deep cuts at his hips “to permit folding of the legs into the bag,” and his wrists and ankles appeared to be bound, according to the filing. 

The Pinellas County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Limon had sustained numerous lacerations and stab wounds to his abdomen and lower back and his cause of death was “multiple sharp force injuries,” the filing stated.

Human remains were recovered from waterways near the bridge on Sunday amid a search for Bristy, 27, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Positive identification has not been determined at this time, authorities said.

Bristy is “believed to have been disposed of in a similar way’ to Limon, the motion stated.

Motion outlines evidence of alleged premeditated murder

The 23-page motion detailed digital and physical evidence — including phone, shopping and other activity — that prosecutors allege show Abugharbieh committed premeditated murder.

On April 13, three days before the two students were last seen alive, the suspect allegedly asked ChatGPT, “What happens if a human has a put in a black garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster,” according to the motion. 

Prosecutors noted that ChatGPT answered “that it sounds dangerous,” and then Abugharbieh allegedly asked, “How would they find out.”

Two days later, he allegedly asked, “Can a VIN number on a car be changed,” according to the filing.

On the day the two students were last seen alive, detectives determined Abugharbieh’s vehicle was in the same area in Clearwater Beach, around the same time of the last pinged location of Limon’s phone, it noted.

Shortly before 11 p.m. that night, Abugharbieh allegedly received a Doordash delivery at the apartment of items purchased from CVS — “trashbags, Lysol wipes, Febreze, Funyuns, and Irish Spring Body Wash” — according to the motion. He had also allegedly ordered duct tape, fire starter, charcoal, trash bags and lighter fuel from Amazon earlier in the month, according to the motion. 

Around 12:26 a.m. on April 17, he allegedly asked ChatGPT, “are cars checked at the Hillsborough River state park.”

About an hour later, around 1:30 a.m., his phone stopped on the Howard Frankland Bridge, according to the filing. It was on the bridge again nearly three hours later, including in the exact location where Limon’s body was found a week later, according to the filing.

A third roommate in the apartment reported seeing Abugharbieh dispose of multiple cardboard boxes from his room to a compactor dumpster on site sometime late on April 16 or early on the morning of April 17, according to the motion. Limon’s wallet and glasses, bloodied clothing and Bristy’s iPhone case were among the items located in trash bags in the compactor, according to the filing. 

On April 19, the suspect allegedly asked ChatGPT, “will Apple know who is the new iPhone user after the previous user,” according to the filing.

On April 23, he asked, “What does missing endangered adult mean,” according to the filing. That day, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office announced it had elevated the status of the two missing USF students to endangered. 

Other ChatGPT messages noted in the filing focused on firearms, according to the motion. Abugharbieh allegedly asked on April 15 if you can “keep a gun at home with out a license,” and, on April 19, “will my neighbors hear my gun” and “Has there been someone who survived a sniper bullet to the head,” according to the motion.

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Suspect denies any role in disappearance

Blood evidence was uncovered in the apartment, including the suspect’s room, where there were two “distinct patterns on the floor which appeared to have a relatively humansized shape,” the filing stated.

Trash bags found under the suspect’s bed were similar to the ones located in the compactor and on the bridge, according to the filing.

Abugharbieh was interviewed by detectives multiple times and denied having anything to do with their disappearance, according to the motion.

When asked about his vehicle being in Clearwater Beach on April 16, he allegedly initially said he was fishing, according to the filing. When confronted about Limon’s phone also being in the area, he allegedly said he drove Limon and Bristy to Clearwater Beach at Limon’s request, and said that they were “both alive when he dropped them off,” the filing stated. 

When asked about the boxes in the compactor, Abugharbieh “advised he removed old clothing he no longer wanted,” the filing stated.

He had lacerations on his left pinky, which he allegedly told detectives were from cutting onions, as well as his upper tricep area and left and right legs, according to the filing.

“Based on the totality of the circumstances, interviews, evidence, and data, evidence would show Hisham Abugharbieh utilized a bladed instrument to fatally wound Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy multiple times which caused their deaths,” the filing stated.   

The motion does not state an alleged motive in the crime.

Prosecutors seek no bond

Abugharbieh is being held without bond and his next detention hearing is set for Tuesday morning.

The Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office said prosecutors “will argue that Abugharbieh remains a danger to our community and should be held without bond until trial.”

“Our hearts are with both students’ families during this incredibly difficult time, and we are keeping them in our thoughts as they await answers,” State Attorney Suzy Lopez said in a statement.

The suspect has been assigned a public defender. The public defender for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Abugharbieh was arrested on Friday. He had barricaded himself at a residence and surrendered following a brief standoff, authorities said. He was seen exiting the home with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

The suspect is not a current USF student or employee, school officials said.

A family member told investigators that Abugharbieh “was known to struggle with managing his anger and was violent with family in the past,” according to the motion.

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