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(NEW YORK) — Stephanie Gonzalez says she and her family have endured “heartbreak” since the deportation of her parents, 55-year-old Gladys and 59-year-old Nelson Gonzalez.

“They really did not deserve to be treated as criminals,” Stephanie Gonzalez, 27, told ABC News on Wednesday, describing how she and her sisters, 23-year-old Gabriella and 33-year-old Jessica, have been “devastated” as their parents, who possess no criminal records and have lived in the United States for 35 years, have been transported like “animals” and placed in “inhumane” conditions.

Stephanie Gonzalez said her parents were arrested and detained on Feb. 21 after a routine supervision appointment. That day, Gladys Gonzalez was initially granted a one-year extension to stay in America, prompting her daughter to think that “everything’s gonna be fine, like it always is.”

A few hours later, however, Nelson Gonzalez called to inform the family he was being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and that Gladys’ extension was revoked and she was being detained as well.

“They separated them in separate rooms. They were in rooms alone for hours with no food,” Stephanie Gonzalez said. “They had handcuffed them from their hands or from their wrists and from their ankles.”

She added that it is jarring for her parents to be “treated like criminals,” especially since they had “never, ever been in trouble with the law.”

ICE confirmed to ABC News that Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez do not have criminal records and have been deported to Colombia.

It noted that its “routine operations” involve arresting people who commit crimes as well as “other individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws.”

Stephanie Gonzalez said her parents were transported to detention facilities in different states without knowing where they were going and that she and her sisters had no way of tracking them, calling it “a mess.”

“It baffles my mind how they’re treating people this way,” she said, adding that it’s “so cruel” that they were “literally moving them around like animals.”

Stephanie Gonzalez also said her parents had no way of finding each other while in custody — they just happened to be on the same plane back to Colombia.

“When they got on the plane, everyone started clapping because they knew that they had been reunited after so long,” she said, smiling at this “really sweet moment” among the deportees. She added that she feels relieved they are now together in Colombia.

Nelson and Gladys Gonzalez came to America in 1989, seeking asylum from violence in Colombia, their daughter said.

They then faced multiple instances of “fraudulent” lawyers, she said, including one who wasn’t even an attorney and others who ended up disbarred, consequently preventing the proper citizenship paperwork from being filed. Stephanie Gonzalez described this as “so discouraging when you’re trying so hard … to do the right thing.”

An ICE spokesperson said in a statement that Nelson and Gladys Gonzalez “illegally entered the United States” in 1989. After they appeared before an immigration judge who found “no legal basis” for them to remain in the U.S., ICE said the couple was granted a “voluntary departure” with a final removal in 2000.

Stephanie Gonzalez confirmed that her parents were faced with a voluntary deportation day in 2000, but she added that they subsequently spent over 20 years filing appeals. Though her parents’ cases were closed in 2021, Stephanie Gonzalez said they were instructed simply to continue showing up to their supervision appointments and check in with the appropriate authorities.

During these supervision visits, Nelson and Gladys Gonzalez consistently got approved to stay in the U.S., though the time frame almost always varied, she continued.

“Sometimes, they would get three months. One time, they got one month. One time, I think they got almost three years where they didn’t have to appear before immigration,” Stephanie Gonzalez recounted.

“I think it just shows how broken the immigration system is because there was no set rule,” she said, adding that her family always hoped for a “really nice officer.”

Prior to the supervision visit in February that resulted in her parents’ deportation, Stephanie Gonzalez said she and her sisters “weren’t necessarily nervous” because they had been accustomed to “getting good news that they could stay in the country.”

“When I realized that they had gotten arrested and I wasn’t going to even be able to say goodbye, it was awful,” she said. “The fact that I couldn’t even hug them and just … feel their bodies — like it was really hard on me and my sisters.”

Stephanie Gonzalez said her parents offered to self-deport and pay for their own flights to preserve their “dignity” but the government refused.

She said not only do Stephanie and her sisters now have to grieve their parents’ absence but they are also left to settle their parents’ affairs and belongings, causing the situation to feel “like somebody died.”

Stephanie Gonzalez said it has been difficult given how close-knit her family is, especially as she and her sister Gabriella lived with their parents in an apartment in Orange County, California. She also expressed sadness that her parents cannot spend time with Jessica’s 7-month-old son, their first grandchild.

Her mother was the baby’s primary caretaker, and Gabriella had to quit her job to watch after him once their mother was no longer able to, Stephanie Gonzalez added.

Nelson Gonzalez was a certified phlebotomist who drew blood and conducted life insurance exams, his daughter said. He was also a part-time Uber driver, even working overnight to make extra money, with Stephanie Gonzalez emphasizing what immigrants like her parents “contribute to society.”

She expressed a desire for the public to change the narrative around immigrants, emphasizing that her parents are “hardworking people. … They’ve paid taxes. They’ve raised us three to follow the law. … They love America.”

Stephanie Gonzalez and her sisters started a GoFundMe page, which has raised over $75,000.

She noted that she feels “devastated” to hear “so many parents being taken from their kids, families being separated and broken apart.”

“That is something that should break people’s hearts,” she said.

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(NEW YORK) — Some U.S. states could be treated to a northern lights display thanks to a minor geomagnetic storm on the sun, according to space forecasts.

Another round of aurora borealis is expected on Thursday night, with a predicted Kp index of magnitude four out of nine, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center.

The northernmost states in the U.S. have the highest chances of seeing the northern lights, including Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, NOAA’s aurora viewline map shows.

In October, the sun’s magnetic field reached its solar maximum in its 11-year cycle, according to NASA. When sunspots produce a solar flare, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are bursts of magnetized plasma emitted from the sun’s corona, travel toward Earth as part of the solar wind, manifesting in a dazzling light show of luminous greens and pinks as the material interacts with Earth’s magnetic field.

The lead-up to the solar maximum resulted in the best northern lights display in 500 years in May, when a series of powerful solar storms made the lights visible as far south as Alabama.

Another strong geomagnetic storm in November made the auroras visible even in light-polluted cities like New York City.

Sunspots with intense magnetic activity are predicted to occur through the end of the solar maximum, which is expected to last until March 2026, according to NOAA.

The best times to view the northern lights are in the hours just before and after midnight, between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time, according to NOAA.

Smartphones and digital cameras are more sensitive to the array of colors and can capture the light shows even if they’re not visible to the naked eye, NASA says.

If you’re curious whether the northern lights will be visible where you live, the citizen science platform Aurorasaurus allows users to sign up for alerts. The app also sends alerts that northern lights are being seen in real time, based on user reports.

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(TUSCALOOSA, Ala.) — Federal immigration agents have detained a University of Alabama doctoral student who is a citizen of Iran, according to the school and ICE records.

Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral student from Iran studying mechanical engineering, is currently being held in a detention facility, but ICE records do not list where he is being held.

The reason for his detention was not immediately clear.

“The University of Alabama recently learned that a doctoral student has been detained off campus by federal immigration authorities,” the university said in a statement. “Federal privacy laws limit what can be shared about an individual student. International students studying at the University are valued members of the campus community, and International Student and Scholar Services is available to assist international students who have questions.”

“UA has and will continue to follow all immigration laws and cooperate with federal authorities,” it said.

It was not immediately clear whether he had secured legal representation.

Doroudi’s Linkedin page says he is a “trained metallurgy engineer with over ten years of academic experience in Materials Science, welding, and brazing.”

Doroudi is one of multiple college students to recently be detained by ICE.

Tufts University Ph.D. student Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national, was arrested by immigration authorities as she was headed to meet her friends and break her fast on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by ICE. Khalil had been one of the leaders of pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University last spring.

Khalil was taken from his student apartment building in lower Manhattan, and then to an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, before being transferred to Louisiana.

President Donald Trump claimed Khalil was a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student” and said this is the “first arrest of many to come” in a post on his Truth Social platform this month.

“We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again,” he added.

Khalil and his lawyers have denied he supports Hamas or has any ties to the group.

A second student involved with the protests at Columbia University was also arrested by the Department of Homeland Security this month.

Leqaa Korda was arrested by agents from Homeland Security Investigations for allegedly overstaying her expired visa — which terminated on Jan. 26, 2022. Korda was also allegedly arrested in 2024 for her involvement in the protests, according to DHS.

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(WASHINGTON) — Organizations that provide legal aid to migrant children have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after the agency cut funding to the program that provides legal representation to tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors.

According to the lawsuit filed on Thursday, some of the groups that received federal grants have had to stop taking on new clients and “face the real threat of not being able to continue their ongoing representations.”

Last week, groups that have collectively received over $200 million in federal grants were told that the contract was partially terminated, ending the funding for legal representation and for the recruitment of attorneys to represent migrant children.

Currently, 26,000 migrant children receive legal representation through the funding.

The groups, which filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, are asking a federal judge to issue an injunction and block HHS from ceasing funding for legal representation for unaccompanied children.

“As a consequence of Defendants ordering Plaintiffs to stop providing direct legal services, many unaccompanied children will never speak to a lawyer, will never apply for immigration relief for which they are eligible, will remain in tenuous status for longer, and will not understand what is happening as they are rushed through adversarial removal proceedings,” the groups said in the filing.

ABC News has reached out to HHS for comment.

The groups added that the cuts in the funding will cause immigration judges to spend more time on cases for unaccompanied children who appear in court without a lawyer “at a time when the immigration court backlog is already at an all-time high.”

“Defendants’ actions will also cause chaos throughout the immigration legal system and are particularly harmful because they come at a time when the government is reinstating expedited docketing for removal cases for unaccompanied children,” the groups said.

In a statement, Sam Hsieh, an attorney for the Amica Center, one of the groups that represent migrant children, called the decision to terminate the programs “the most brazen attack on immigrant children since family separation.”

“The Trump Administration’s decision to terminate these national legal service programs poses a significant threat to the rights of already vulnerable unaccompanied immigrant children,” Hsieh said. “Many of these children are eligible for immigration relief but are unable to meaningfully seek it without an attorney.”

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(NEW YORK) — One day after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld federal restrictions on ghost guns, prosecutors in New York are warning 3D-printing companies their “insufficient security measures” are causing a “troubling rise in access to unregulated weaponry.”

The warning came in a letter Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sent Thursday to Creality 3D Technology Co. and other 3D-printing companies that asks them to make fixes to stop the proliferation of ghost guns on city streets. The letter makes specific reference to Luigi Mangione allegedly using a 3D-printed ghost gun and silencer to murder United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year.

Bragg said he sent the letter because of “a growing and concerning number” of ghost guns being manufactured by personal desktop 3D printers based on downloadable gun part designs and detailed assembly guides found on the “Creality Cloud.”

The district attorney said many of the guns are being assembled by felons and minors who have ready access to online instructions.

“It is paramount that you work to remove weaponry from your company’s cloud services and explicitly ban the creation of illicit weapons in your company’s user agreement,” the letter from Bragg said. “It is imperative that you take swift action to protect your customers and the communities they live in from violence and criminal activity by adopting commonsense security measures to deter the spread of illicit firearms both locally and across the United States.”

In New York City, the NYPD reported a significant increase in ghost guns seized on the streets from 2020 to 2025. In 2018, 17 ghost guns were seized. In 2024, the number was 438. Many of those were made with Creality printers, Bragg said.

“For instance, in 2023, our investigation found that an individual who was 3D-printing assault weapons and manufacturing illegal drugs utilized a Creality printer to print multiple firearms. In another instance, in 2023, an individual who threatened to kill his girlfriend was found to be manufacturing an arsenal of weapons in his apartment using a Creality printer. Additionally, recent research has found that the vast majority of illegal 3D printed guns were created using Creality printers, specifically the Ender 3 series model,” the letter said.

Creality did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

“I am concerned about the troubling rise in access to unregulated weaponry, especially among individuals convicted of felonies and minors, because of insufficient security measures connected with your products and business policy decisions,” Bragg said.

The letter did not threaten prosecution but requested a meeting with the company.

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(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. has arrested a top MS-13 gang member, according to a post on X by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“I’m proud to announce that early this morning our brave law enforcement officers conducted a successful operation that captured a top MS-13 national leader,” Bondi posted. “DOJ will not rest until we make America safe again.”

The photo shared on X by Bondi showed a major operation in northern Virginia with FBI officials, including Director Kash Patel, and dozens of officers.

At a press conference on site, Bondi, Patel and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin touted the arrest of a 24-year-old who was allegedly a top-3 MS-13 gang member.

Bondi touted the operation as a success, lauding the teamwork of the various agencies involved and said she personally witnessed the collaboration.

“America is safer today because of one of the top domestic terrorists in MS-13, he is off the streets,” she said. “This guy was living in a neighborhood right around you. No longer. Thanks to the great men and women of law enforcement, this task force that we have created is remarkable, using incredible technology that we will not discuss, to catch and apprehend these horrible, violent, worst of the worst criminals.”

Officials did not release the name of the individual they arrested.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House on Thursday morning it was a “big win” for Americans.

“This was a very violent individual who was picked up in a home with five children present,” she said. “So our communities are safer this morning, it’s a good day.”

President Donald Trump celebrated the arrest in a post on his social media platform, applaud his “border czar,” Tom Homan.

“Just captured a major leader of MS13. Tom HOMAN is a superstar!,” Trump wrote.

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

ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
 

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(WASHINGTON) — In February 2023, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted to social media a tightly edited video with dramatic music showing thousands of men, with their heads pushed down, being transferred to the country’s newest prison: the Terrorism Confinement Center.

“Early this morning, in a single operation, we transferred the first 2,000 gang members to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT),” Bukele said on X. “This will be their new home, where they will live for decades, unable to do any more harm to the population.”

Two weeks ago, Bukele posted a similar video on X in which hundreds of men in white uniforms, with their heads shaved, are seen running bent over while being moved into the mega prison. But this time, the individuals weren’t criminals who were arrested in El Salvador.

The video showed CECOT receiving over 200 Venezuelan migrants who are alleged to be members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The migrants were sent to El Salvador by U.S. authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, as part of a $6 million deal the Trump administration arranged in their effort to crack down on illegal immigration.

CECOT, one of Latin America’s largest prisons, was opened as part of a crackdown on criminal gangs in El Salvador, whose incarceration rate is one of the highest in the world. The mega prison, which can hold up to 40,000 detainees, has been criticized by human rights groups over alleged human rights violations.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was scheduled to visit the prison on Wednesday along with the Salvadorian minister of justice.

The move by the Trump administration to deport alleged migrant gang members to a notorious prison in another country, without due process, has sparked an outcry from relatives of some of the detainees and by immigration advocates and attorneys who say that some of those deported were not Tren de Aragua gang members.

An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week acknowledged in a sworn declaration that “many” of the noncitizens deported last week under the Alien Enemies Act did not have criminal records in the United States. Administration officials have not been clear about the evidence they have that shows the detainees are gang members.

In a subsequent sworn declaration, ICE Acting Field Office Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Robert Cerna argued that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”

The declaration was included in the Trump administration’s recent motion to vacate Judge James Boasberg’s temporary restraining order blocking deportations pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act.

“While it is true that many of the [Tren de Aragua gang] members removed under the AEA do not have criminal records in the United States, that is because they have only been in the United States for a short period of time. The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat,” Cerna said.

Ivannoa Sanchez, who told ABC News that her husband, Jose Franco Caraballo Tiapa, is being held at CECOT, said that he has never been in trouble with the law.

“He has never done anything, not even a fine, absolutely nothing,” said Sanchez.

“I can’t rest, I don’t even eat, I haven’t even had juice or water because I know he isn’t eating either,” Sanchez said.

Juanita Goebertus, the director of the Americas Division of the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, told ABC News that detainees in CECOT, as well as other prisons in El Salvador, are denied communication with their relatives and lawyers, and only make court appearances in online hearings, often in groups of several hundred detainees at the same time.

“The Salvadoran government has described people held in CECOT as ‘terrorists,’ and has said that they ‘will never leave,'” Goebertus said, adding that the Human Rights Watch is not aware of any detainees who have ever been released from CECOT.

According to human rights advocates and immigration attorneys, CECOT prisoners only leave their cell for 30 minutes a day and sleep on metal beds in overcrowded cells.

“They only have about half an hour outside of their windowless cells to be outside in a hallway of the prison,” Margaret Cargioli, an attorney for the nonprofit Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told ABC News. “They are overcrowded within each of the cells, and they’re sleeping on metal.”

For years, Amnesty International has published reports on detention centers and prisons in El Salvador, and has alleged systematic abuse of detainees and “patterns of grave human rights violations.” Those findings were acknowledged in a 2023 human rights report published by the U.S. Department of State that said there have been significant human rights issues in Salvadoran prisons.

Ana Piquer, the Americas director at Amnesty International, called the detainment in El Salvador of the Venezuelan migrants a “disregard of the U.S. human rights obligations.”

“Amnesty International has extensively documented the inhumane conditions within detention centers in El Salvador, including the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) where those removed are now being held, ” Piquer said in a statement. “Reports indicate extreme overcrowding, lack of access to adequate medical care, and widespread ill-treatment amounting to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.”

Attorneys representing some of the Venezuelan migrants told ABC News that the lack of communication is a special concern — as opposed to the U.S., where detainees can communicate with their families and attorneys.

“There’s no communication with family or counsel,” Cargioli said of CECOT. “The concern just raises to an entirely other level.”

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(ACWORTH, Ga.) — A Georgia mother recounted the moment she was “tug-of-warring” with a man she said tried to snatch her 2-year-old son from her while in a Walmart.

Caroline Miller was shopping at a Walmart in Acworth with her two young children last week when the incident occurred. They were in a motorized wheelchair at the time because her 4-year-old daughter wanted to ride it, she told Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB.

The suspect first approached the family and asked for help finding Tylenol, she told the station.

“When I pointed my arm out this way to point to the direction of where it was, that is when he reached down, put both of his hands on Jude, and grabbed him out of my lap,” Miller told WSB this week.

“I’m like, ‘No, no, no, what are you doing? What are you doing?'” she told the station. “He pulled him. I pulled him back. We’re tug-of-warring.”

The mother was able to break away with her son and the suspect fled the store, according to police.

“I’m just glad that he’s still home with us,” Miller told WSB.

Officers responded to the Walmart on March 18 “after receiving a call of a male who attempted to snatch a juvenile away from their mother,” the Acworth Police Department said in a press release.

The child was not injured in the incident, police said.

Detectives spoke to witnesses and reviewed surveillance cameras and Flock safety surveillance cameras installed in the area, Acworth police said. They subsequently identified a suspect and secured a warrant, police said.

“We were able to see the car he got into, and followed the cameras, and used our Flock cameras in the city and was able to get a tag number and track him down,” Sgt. Eric Mistretta with the Acworth Police Department told WSB.

Mahendra Patel, 56, of Kennesaw, was arrested on Friday and has been charged with kidnapping, simple battery and simple assault, police said.

He remains in custody at the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office with no bond, online jail records show. Online records do not list any attorney information.

Miller said her children now know how to respond in dangerous situations.

“As much as we would think it would never happen, it will and does, and to be prepared for when it does,” she told WSB.

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(ALEXANDRIA, Va.) — The family of former United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Jessica Aber, who was found dead on Saturday at a home in Virginia, said the 43-year-old suffered from epilepsy, calling her sudden death a “tremendous sorrow” in a statement Wednesday.

Aber, 43, died in her sleep, her family said.

Police in Alexandria, Virginia, said in an update amid the investigation on Tuesday that “detectives have found no evidence suggesting that her death was caused by anything other than natural causes.”

Her family reiterated that it is believed Aber died from natural causes and said she “suffered from epilepsy and epileptic seizures for many years.”

The case will remain open until the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner rules on the manner and cause of death, police said.

“We expect more information from the medical examiner in the coming weeks,” her family said. “Our family is in shock and grieving deeply and we respectfully request privacy as we attempt to navigate through our unspeakable loss.”

Police in Alexandria, Virginia, said they were called to a home in Alexandria, a suburb of Washington, D.C., on Saturday morning for the report of an unresponsive woman and found Aber dead inside.

A friend of the family told ABC News on Sunday that police believe the death was the result of a longstanding medical issue.

Aber, who served as U.S. attorney in Virginia for most of the Biden administration, took office in October 2021 after being unanimously confirmed by the Senate and stepped down in January, shortly after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

As U.S. attorney, Aber oversaw a staff of some 300 prosecutors and other staff and handled federal prosecutions in the state.

ABC News’ Jack Moore contributed to this report.

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(SAN DIEGO) — Sea lions on the California coast are reportedly displaying strange behavior, likely due to a harmful algae bloom impacting the region, according to marine researchers.

There have been reports of the marine mammals acting aggressively in some cases, and in others, they appear lethargic, Jeni Smith, rescue supervisor at SeaWorld San Diego, told ABC San Diego affiliate KGTV. Smith described one sea lion who appeared to be “star-gazing.”

“Some animals seem very, very sleepy, maybe right after having a seizure, Smith said. “They may be abnormally aggressive.”

The sea lions are likely being poisoned by domoic acid, a neurotoxin within the algae blooms, which they ingest through the fish they eat, according to marine experts. Ingesting domoic acid can cause amnesic shellfish poisoning in humans and marine mammals, according to the Marine Mammal Care Center.

Harmful algal blooms occur when colonies of algae grow out of control and produce toxic or harmful affects on people, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some blooms produce toxins that can kill fish, mammals and birds. In some cases, the algal blooms can cause illness or death in humans, according to NOAA.

The toxic algae blooms typically only form every four to seven years, but warming temperatures and an increase of pollution can increase the growth and occurrences, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Recently, marine researchers in Southern California have witnessed consecutive years of harmful algal blooms, Dave Bader, chief operations and education officer at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, told KGTV.

The Marine Mammal Care Center has taken in nearly 150 sea lions since February, Bader said. There have been reports of dolphins and seabirds falling ill as well, and this event could be worse than the bloom that occurred in 2023, which killed 1,000 sea lions, according to the marine conservation group.

RJ LaMendola said he was surfing when he was attacked at Oxnard State Beach in Ventura County, California, by a “demonic” sea lion that bit him and dragged him off his board, he wrote on Facebook on Friday.

LaMendola described the sea lion as “feral” and “almost demonic.” The decades-long surfer was struck that the mammal was “devoid of the curiosity or playfulness” he usually associates with sea lions, he wrote.

“This isn’t normal sea lion behavior — it’s something darker, something dangerous,” he wrote, saying he won’t be surfing again “anytime soon.”

Smith urged the public to do their part to create a better environment for marine life and prevent pollution.

“Throwing away their trash, not allowing anything toxic to go down the storm drain, because everything goes back to the ocean,” Smith said.

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