Kersten Francilus is seen in a photo released by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. (Martin County Sheriff’s Office)
(MARTIN COUNTY, Fla.) — The suspect in the deadly, apparently random stabbing of an elderly woman who was walking her dog in Florida allegedly told authorities that he “went around” the neighborhood and “found a lady and then I killed her,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
The shocking, “extremely violent” attack occurred Thursday afternoon in Stuart, in the “quiet” community of Southwood, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said.
Several people had called 911 to report a “suspicious” man who was going door-to-door asking “where the new bank was,” Budensiek said at a press briefing Thursday, noting that there isn’t a bank in the area. The suspect — later identified as 25-year-old Kersten Francilus — reportedly appeared “out of it,” according to the affidavit.
At one house, the suspect asked for the bank and allegedly “attempted to step inside,” at which point the resident shut the door, according to the affidavit.
Shortly after those calls, people called 911 to report the stabbing, according to Budensiek. The victim was walking a small dog when she was “brutally attacked,” he said.
A good Samaritan tried to intervene but couldn’t get the assailant off the woman, the sheriff said.
A deputy who was already en route for the suspicious person arrived at the scene and saw the victim on the ground, according to Budensiek.
“Our suspect was on top of her, actually actively stabbing her,” Budensiek said.
The deputy got out of his vehicle and pulled out his gun, at which time the suspect threw the knife down, “giving up,” the sheriff said.
The deputy immediately took Francilus into custody, the sheriff said.
An off-duty deputy who had also responded rendered aid to the victim, Budensiek said. She was transported to an area hospital, where she died from “significant injuries,” the sheriff said. She had been stabbed multiple times in her upper torso, he said, calling it a “violent, violent homicide.”
The victim appeared to have 16 or 17 stab wounds, according to the affidavit, which identified her as Joyce Ellen Thompson Adams.
Francilus has been charged with first-degree premeditated murder. He refused a public defender and is being held on no bond, online court records show. ABC News’ attempts to reach members of his family for comment were unsuccessful.
After being read his Miranda Rights, Francilus allegedly admitted to the stabbing, according to the affidavit.
“He initially stated he left his residence and ‘did what I did,'” the affidavit stated. “He stated he ‘went around’ the neighborhood, and he said ‘I found a lady and then I killed her.'”
The suspect is believed to live in a nearby neighborhood with his mother, wife and child, Budensiek said. A steak knife used in the attack came from their home, according to the sheriff.
The suspect’s mother reportedly told detectives that Francilus “has not taken his medications since February,” according to the affidavit, which did not go into further detail. His mother also said she “usually stored the knives above the microwave, essentially hiding them from the suspect,” the affidavit stated.
A motive remains under investigation, according to the sheriff.
Francilus has no known criminal history or connection to the victim, Budensiek said. There was previously one call for service at his home, during which he was reported to have been “acting strange,” the sheriff said.
“We don’t know of any motive at this point. We don’t know of any nexus between the victim and the suspect,” Budensiek said. “We just simply know that we’ve had a horrendous crime that’s taken place in this neighborhood.”
U.S. President Donald Trump talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio as he departs the White House on March 20, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — For more than 60 years, hundreds of thousands of Cuban health care workers have been deployed across the globe.
Under the government’s medical missions program, doctors, nurses, technicians and other staff are sent to countries around the world to provide care to underserved communities, in many cases for a fee.
The Cuban government has said the missions, or “medical brigades,” have entered countries at war, hit by natural disasters and ravaged by outbreaks of disease, saving thousands of lives.
Critics, including the Trump administration, have held a different view, claiming that the health professionals are coerced into volunteering, partly as a way to bring in much-needed currency, and that their movements are restricted. The U.S. State Department has referred to the missions as “forced labor” and has pressured countries to stop accepting Cuban medical workers.
“The Trump administration, Biden administration and U.N. have all understood that these medical mission programs are a forced labor scheme that exploit Cuban workers,” White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to ABC News. “These labor export programs abuse the participants, enrich the corrupt Cuban regime and deprive everyday Cubans of essential medical care that they desperately need in their homeland.
Kelly noted President Donald Trump believes “Cuba is a disaster that’s in its last moments of life, and these programs are one of many ways that they repress their own people.”
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not return multiple requests for comment from ABC News.
A White House official told ABC News there is vast opposition to the Cuban medical missions program across political parties, in both chambers of Congress and from international organizations.
The humans rights organization Prisoners Defenders said in 2020 that it submitted a report to the United Nations and the International Criminal Court claiming it has evidence of “a pattern of slavery” on the medical missions.
Countries including the Bahamas, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Paraguay have begun phasing out the missions, reviewing medical cooperation agreements or canceling contracts with the Cuban government.
Some international relations experts told ABC News that there is some truth to the allegations that Cuban medical workers are often closely monitored by Cuba’s government, but that the medics are also providing care to communities that would otherwise not receive it.
History of the program
After the Cuban Revolution began in 1959, many doctors left Cuba for the U.S. Newly installed leader Fidel Castro saw an opportunity to set up programs to train doctors not just for Cuba but to be sent overseas as a type of medical diplomacy, according to John Kirk, a professor emeritus of Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University In Halifax, Nova Scotia, who has written several books on Cuba.
The first medical mission was a small team of doctors sent to Chile, which experienced the strongest earthquake ever recorded in 1960. The first medical brigade was sent to Algeria in May 1963. In the 1970s, medical missions expanded greatly to Latin America and Africa.
Some countries, like Gambia or Haiti — which are poorer — pay Cuba nothing for medical care, according to Kirk. However, richer countries such as Qatar pay the Cuban government a monthly fee, about 25% of which is given to the Cuban medical workers themselves, he noted. Qatar pays Cuba about $9,000 to $10,000 a month for these services, Kirk said.
Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment on how much countries pay Cuba for the service of medical workers.
Between 1960 and 2023, 600,000 doctors, nurses and technicians participated in this program in 165 different countries, according to the Cuban government.
As of 2024, Cuba had 54 brigades with more than 22,600 medical workers, according to Granma, the official newspaper of Cuba’s communist party.
Philip Brenner, a professor emeritus in the School of International Service at American University, with expertise in U.S.-Cuba relations, said one example of Cuba’s program was Operación Milagro in Venezuela, launched in 2004, to provide ophthalmology services.
“More than 1 million people regained eyesight, and it wasn’t a major operation,” Brenner told ABC News. “These were like cataracts that people had, but they had no access to medical care until the Cuban doctors came in. They served an enormous number of people around the world.”
Criticism of the program
The U.S. government has long been critical of the Cuban medical missions program, claiming health care professionals are forced into it and sending workers overseas deprives Cubans of the medical care they need at home.
In August, the State Department revoked visas and imposed visa restrictions on several Brazilian government officials, former Pan American Health Organization officials and their family members due to “complicity” with the Cuba’s “labor export scheme.”
“These officials were responsible for or involved in abetting the Cuban regime’s coercive labor export scheme, which exploits Cuban medical workers through forced labor,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
Brazil’s government did not respond to the allegations but Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva revoked the visa of a U.S diplomat who sought to visit former President Jair Bolsonaro. Lula said the measure was reciprocal for the U.S. revoking visas in August, according to the Associated Press.
The Cuban government did not reply to ABC News’ requests for comment on these claims.
Kirk, the Dalhousie professor emeritus, said of the 270 Cuban medical professionals that he interviewed, most said they volunteered and were not forced to partake in these missions, but he acknowledged it doesn’t mean they weren’t forced.
Sebastián Arcos, interim director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, said no one is physically forced to participate in these missions, but the conditions in Cuba push many to work in the program to try and earn some money to support their families.
“The other [thing] is, once you participate, once you volunteer for one of these missions, you earn credits with the Cuban regime,” he told ABC News. “Any kind of acknowledgement or respect that you can get from the Cuban government will help your career.”
Arcos said he is familiar with the experiences of those on missions because his wife’s sister, Karem Montiel, was part of a Cuban medical brigade in Eritrea, Africa.
Montiel told ABC News she used to teach embryology at the University of Medical Sciences in Havana and was selected to join a medical brigade in 2010 to teach at Eritrea’s Orotta School of Medicine.
She said she had a good relationship with her students, but criticized the Cuban government’s involvment in the program .
“That is nothing else but slavery, 21st century slavery,” she said. “I was the one doing the work but [the Cuban government is] the one who gets the money. … They own all the Cuban doctors. They make the money, they get paid for those doctors being there, working, and they pay the doctors the bare minimum.”
Montiel said that working as a doctor in Cuba, she was paid the equivalent of $23 per month. She said she was paid more to go on a medical mission but the salary is deposited in a bank account in Cuba, which doctors cannot access until they return to the country.
According to Montiel, the chief of the medical brigade holds on to everybody’s passports. She added that the chief of her mission also accompanied all staff to any immigration appointments they had.
According to Montiel, there are two reasons doctors go on the medical missions: either to get more money and buy things they are unable to buy in Cuba — like computers or TVs — or to attempt to escape Cuba.
Montiel did the latter and left her medical mission early, defecting to the U.S. in December 2010.
“Nobody goes [on medical missions] for the humanitarian reasons to help out the people in need, or the poor people who do not have access to health care,” she said.
She now works as a nurse practitioner in Miami, and her husband and two children have since joined her.
Arcos is also skeptical that the Cuban government is performing the medical missions for purely humanitarian purposes.
“The Cuban government is not really trying to help other people who are less fortunate,” he said. “This is a business for them. They are making money. They are gathering intelligence. They are influencing other governments, and all of this is done on the backs of hardworking people.”
Why is the US ramping up pressure?
For the last several months, the Trump administration has been increasing pressure on governments that receive Cuban medical personnel.
The federal government warned that it could impose sanctions against governments that accept the health workers. The administration said that the program is “exploitative,” with workers forcibly separated from their families, subjected to surveillance, given little pay and under threat if they don’t return to Cuba.
Several countries have recently pulled out of agreements and some that haven’t said the U.S. is pushing them to do so.
During the Second World Congress on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in January, Prime Minister Philip Pierre of Saint Lucia said he’s faced pressure from the U.S. government over not having the Caribbean island’s medical students be trained in Cuba.
“We also have Cubans who come over to work. So, the American government has said we can’t even train them in Cuba. So, I have a major issue on my hand,” Pierre said, according to local reports.
In a statement on Facebook last month, the U.S. Embassy to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and the inter-governmental Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States denied speaking with Saint Lucia’s government about international education.
“The United States continues to call for an end to exploitation and forced labor in the illegitimate Cuban regime’s overseas medical missions program,” the embassy wrote.
Kirk and Brenner say the U.S. has signaled in the past that it is looking for a regime change in Cuba and placing a stranglehold on the economy may help achieve that objective.
Both said they believe that stranglehold can be maintained through the energy blockade, which has been in place since January, and by cutting a major source of income for Cuba: the medical missions program.
“Because Cuba does earn hard currency from some of the doctors being sent abroad, one of the ways in which the United States has tried to strangle the Cuban economy is by getting countries to end their medical programs with Cuba,” Brenner said. “Even though those medical programs have benefited the people in those countries, the goal has been very narrow: one of trying to hurt Cuba. And it’s been very effective; it’s one of the ways in which Cuba has lost hard currency.”
What will happen to counties that pull out?
For countries that pulled out of Cuba’s program, the experts said they expect to see worsening health conditions.
“We’d have to expect to see more chronic disease and more people dying from disease that otherwise they wouldn’t die from because of the lack of help from Cuba,” Brenner, from American University’s School of International Service, said.
“The United States had previously provided some assistance to these countries through USAID but, under [the Department of Government Efficiency], USAID was essentially destroyed, and the medical programs that the United States had haven’t been resumed,” Brenner said.
Not all counties are pulling out of agreements, however. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that she will keep an agreement with Cuba’s government and continue to have Cuban doctors working in Mexico.
Kirk noted that Mexico currently has about 3,000 Cuban medics in the county. He added that if Mexico does pull out of its agreement with Cuba, it will be “a major blow, symbolically, politically and financially.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — An internal inspection report by Immigration and Customs Enforcement found dozens of safety and security violations at the country’s largest migrant detention center during a recent visit.
Inspectors with ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight found 49 deficiencies at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, during a three-day visit.
Of those, 22 violations involved “use of force and restraints,” and included failing to document incidents, failing to provide medical exams after physical altercations, and failing to record incidents on video.
The report, however, said that none of the 49 detainees inspectors randomly interviewed made allegations of discrimination, mistreatment, or abuse.
The federal inspection of the facility, which opened in 2025, comes amid concerns from lawmakers and immigrant advocates about the treatment of detainees being held there as part of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
Three people have died at the $1.2 billion facility, including a Cuban immigrant whose death was ruled a homicide by the local medical examiner. In a statement in January, the DHS said the detainee was pronounced dead after “experiencing medical distress.”
A spokesperson with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said that ICE has recently hired a new contractor and is “always looking at ways to improve our detention facilities to ensure we are providing the best care to illegal aliens in our custody.”
“This new contractor will allow Camp East Montana to continue abiding by the highest detention standards WITH the ability to provide MORE medical care on-site,” the statement said. “This contract also allows more on-site staff and a PRECISE quality assurance surveillance plan. ICE will have even more oversight of the contractors at this facility.”
The inspection report, released this week, identified four “priority” deficiencies within the facility’s medical department, including multiple failures to properly isolate and notify leadership regarding a detainee showing symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Inspectors found that a detainee showing symptoms of TB was not isolated, posing a potential risk to others. According to the report, the facility failed to notify ICE leadership of the medical risk.
Inspectors also found that staff at the facility did not document whether they were conducting required checks to prevent self-harm and suicide among detainees. At least one of the detainees who died is presumed to have died by suicide.
“ICE will continue to ensure that all of the detainees in our custody receive the level of care, service, and medical support they need to match our high detention standards,” the DHS statement said.
A burning car is seen following a crash at the Bedford Toll Plaza in Bedford, New Hampshire, March 31, 2026. (New Hampshire State Police)
(NEW HAMPSHIRE) — Voice actor and comedian Eugene Mirman thanked the “heroic people” who came to his aid after he was involved in a fiery crash at a New Hampshire toll plaza earlier this week.
New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte and her security detail came upon Tuesday’s collision — with a state trooper on her detail and two other bystanders helping pull the trapped driver from the burning vehicle, according to state police.
Mirman, 51, of “Bob’s Burgers” fame, was seriously injured in the crash.
“I am extraordinarily thankful to the heroic people that pulled me from the car and to the warm, kind and talented staff at the hospital that cared for me and got me on the mend!” Mirman said in a post on social media on Friday. “I am thankful beyond words to be here and doing relatively alright, all things considered.”
Mirman was in a “very scary car accident” and is “grateful to be on the mend,” his agent, Jay Gassner, said in a statement following the crash.
The “dangerous” collision occurred at the Bedford Toll Plaza on the F.E. Everett Turnpike shortly before noon Tuesday, according to New Hampshire State Police Director Col. Mark Hall.
The vehicle, a 2026 Lucid Gravity electric vehicle, “immediately became engulfed in flames,” Hall said during a press briefing on Tuesday. Multiple people called 911 to report the fiery crash, and that “someone in the vehicle appeared to be trapped,” police said.
The governor and her security detail came upon the accident just after the vehicle crashed into the toll plaza, as police units were responding, police said. A New Hampshire state trooper assigned to her detail and two other bystanders helped Mirman — the lone occupant — out of the burning vehicle through the window, according to Hall.
Hall said he is not identifying the trooper due to the nature of the assignment.
“It is a veteran trooper, and certainly their actions were heroic in what they did — without hesitation, put themselves in danger to render aid to somebody that clearly was in need of it,” Hall said.
“I’m proud of the State Trooper and the bystanders who saved a life at the scene of yesterday’s crash in Bedford,” Ayotte said in a statement. “It’s an example of the great work first responders do each day to keep New Hampshire safe and how Granite Staters always step up to help someone in need.”
The governor and other witnesses also provided assistance at the scene, according to Hall.
“The governor did get out of the vehicle and tried to assist in any way that she could,” Hall said, adding he believed she tried to get a fire extinguisher from a vehicle to help put the fire out.
Mirman was transported to an area hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Photos released by police showed the burning vehicle and firefighters at the scene.
The crash remains under investigation.
Mirman plays 11-year-old Gene Belcher on the hit TV show “Bob’s Burgers,” which premiered in 2011.
CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover speak with ABC News from the Orion spacecraft as it heads to the moon, April 2, 2026. (NASA)
(NEW YORK) — The Artemis II mission launched on Wednesday, taking four astronauts on a historic, 10-day mission around the moon and giving them views of a lifetime along the way.
A day after lift-off, ABC News’ Gio Benitez spoke with astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen from their Orion spacecraft about the journey so far, and what they are anticipating for the days ahead.
“I don’t know what we all expected to see … but you could see the entire globe, from pole to pole,” Commander Wiseman said of the crew’s view of Earth from space Thursday.
“You could see Africa, Europe, and if you looked really close, you could see the northern lights. It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks,” he added.
This mission marks the first time humans have flown beyond low-Earth orbit since the Apollo 17 mission that landed on the moon in 1972.
The crew is going on a 685,000-mile journey around the moon, also known as a lunar fly-by.
The launch on Wednesday was seen around the world, as the crew successfully lifted off at 6:35 p.m. ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Hansen, mission specialist and part of the Canadian Space Agency, said that even though they were all expecting it, when the rocket boosters actually lit up and they left the launch pad, “there’s just a moment of disbelief.”
“The fact that we launched — it just totally takes you by surprise, even though you’re expecting it, at least for me anyway, and just had a huge smile across my face,” he said.
Koch, a mission specialist who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 328 days, addressed the toilet issue onboard the spacecraft, which was reported after launch.
‘”I’m proud to call myself the space plumber,” Koch said. “I like to say that it is probably the most important piece of equipment on board.”
Crew members said at the time that the Orion capsule’s toilet, dubbed the Universal Waste Management System, had a blinking fault light while they tested it, but it had been resolved since.
“So we were all breathing a sigh of relief when it turned out to be just fine,” Koch said.
Glover, the mission pilot who will make history as the first person of color to go to the moon, said from high Earth orbit, the divisions of Earth are far out of view.
“Trust us, you look amazing, you look beautiful,” he said of Earth. “You also look like one thing. Homo sapiens is all of us, no matter where you’re from or what you look like. We’re all one people.”
“We call amazing things that humans do ‘moonshots’ for a reason, because this brought us together and showed us what we can do when we not just put our differences aside, when we bring our differences together and use all the strengths to accomplish something great,” Glover said.
Before speaking with ABC News on Thursday, the Artemis II crew successfully completed a critical milestone in the mission, the translunar injection burn that boosted the Orion spacecraft out of Earth’s orbit onto a trajectory toward the moon.
During a press conference after the maneuver, Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator at NASA, said that the critical translunar injection burn was “flawless.”
“From this point forward, the laws of orbital mechanics are going to carry our crew to the moon, around the far side and back to Earth,” Glaze said.
Pam Bondi, US attorney general, center, during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Pam Bondi was being ousted as his attorney general in a post on his social media platform, saying she’ll move to a role working in the private sector.
“We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,” Trump said in the post.
Trump’s deputy attorney general and former personal attorney Todd Blanche will serve as acting Attorney General, the president said.
“And our Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General,” Trump wrote.
Trump had raised potentially removing Bondi as attorney general in recent discussions with senior administration officials, sources told ABC News on Wednesday, amid months of mounting frustration that the Justice Department isn’t doing enough to target his political opponents for prosecution.
Blanche previously served as Trump’s defense attorney in the cases brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and former special counsel Jack Smith.
He has served as the nation’s No. 2 law enforcement official since being confirmed by the Senate in March of last year, and previously served in the Justice Department as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York.
Like Bondi, he has been vocal about his personal loyalties to President Trump and just last week appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he cheered the purge of prosecutors who previously worked on investigations into Trump and defended the DOJ from criticism by the MAGA base.
“So when people say, ‘Why aren’t you doing more?’ I welcome that criticism,” Blanche said. “Keep on putting pressure on us. Do you think it makes me upset when you go on X and say, ‘Come on, Blanche, why aren’t we doing more?’ You don’t know me. That’s what motivates me.”
The shakeup comes as Democrats and voting rights groups have expressed alarm that the White House may seek to use the DOJ and FBI to intervene in the midterm elections in November.
The president’s announcement brings an end to a rocky tenure for Bondi as the nation’s top law enforcement official, during which she aggressively sought to reshape the Justice Department as an enforcer of Trump’s agenda — repeatedly breaking with institutional norms implemented after the Watergate era that had encouraged independence from the political demands of the White House.
From her first days in office, Bondi emphasized her personal loyalty to Trump and echoed his longstanding grievances with the DOJ and FBI that the president and his allies have long accused of being “weaponized” against him.
During Trump’s first term in office he faced resistance from top officials at the DOJ and FBI against using the vast powers of their agencies to punish the president’s perceived enemies, but Bondi publicly embraced Trump’s demands to launch prosecutions against specific targets — to mixed effect.
The department’s attempts to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James fell apart after a federal judge ruled that the Trump-appointed prosecutor who indicted them was appointed unlawfully. Attempts to revive the case against James were twice rejected by a grand jury, sources previously told ABC News.
A separate effort by the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro, to indict six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video urging military service members to refuse to follow unlawful orders was also rejected by a grand jury — despite Trump’s accusation the group was guilty of “treason.”
Pirro and the department are separately appealing an order from the chief judge in Washington, D.C., that has put on hold their attempt to launch a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, another frequent target of Trump’s ire.
In recent months, Trump has repeatedly vented frustration to aides regarding both the pace and the effectiveness of the Justice Department’s ability to target his foes — concerns he had also conveyed directly to Bondi — according to sources familiar with the matter.
Trump and other senior White House officials have also criticized Bondi’s handling of the DOJ’s files from its investigations into deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which has consumed months of media attention and led to widespread backlash from some of Trump’s most devoted supporters.
Bondi’s appearance in front of the House Judiciary Committee in February, in which she repeatedly yelled at lawmakers and sidestepped questions about the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files and other sensitive matters, was also a subject of some criticism at the White House, sources say. Trump posted afterward on social media that Bondi was “fantastic” at the hearing.
Weeks later, a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Oversight committee voted to subpoena Bondi with a demand that she sit for a deposition on the Epstein files in mid-April.
ABC News’ Isabella Murray contributed to this report.
Mayor Mamdani speaks at a press conference after a 7-month-old child was fatally shot in Brooklyn, New York, on April 1, 2026. (NYPD)
(NEW YORK) — A 21-year-old will be placed under arrest in his hospital bed on charges he murdered a baby in Brooklyn by a stray bullet, the New York City Police Department said Thursday.
Amare Green allegedly fired shots from the back of a moped into a crowd in Williamsburg that struck and killed 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore and grazed her 2-year-old brother as they sat in a stroller on Wednesday afternoon.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called it a “devastating shooting” and said, “My heart aches for the parents impacted,” at a press conference on Thursday.
Green is a known associate of a street gang operating out of a public housing project in Brooklyn, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said. Investigators are looking into whether the baby’s father may have been the intended target as part of a dispute with a rival gang.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said detectives have identified the moped driver, but she declined to release a name. The driver is at large.
Tisch mentioned the impending arrest in a crime that shocked the city as she touted a continued drop in crime.
The shooting was reported at about 1:20 p.m. on the corner of Humboldt and Moore streets in the East Williamsburg area, according to police.
Several adults, including two people with strollers, and several other children, were nearby when two males approached the intersection on a moped, Tisch said. The rear passenger on the moped pulled out a gun and fired at least two shots toward the corner, Tisch told reporters, citing surveillance video.
“Today our city suffered a horrifying, senseless tragedy: a 7-month-old child being pushed in a stroller along a busy Brooklyn sidewalk was shot and killed in broad daylight,” the police commissioner said.
The baby was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
After the shooting, the two suspects collided with an oncoming car about two blocks away, police said. Both men were thrown from the moped. The rear passenger, who fits the description of the shooter, was taken to the hospital and is in police custody, Tisch said.
The other passenger took off, but police later located the moped.
Mamdani called the shooting a “devastating reminder” of the work that remains to be done to combat gun violence.
“A life that had barely begun was taken in an instant,” Mamdani said. “There are no words that can mend the heartbreak this family is feeling now.”
Mesa County Clerk and Colorado Republican candidate for secretary of state Tina Peters reacts to early election returns during a primary night watch party at the Wide Open Saloon on June 28, 2022 in Sedalia, Colorado. (Marc Piscotty/Getty Images)
(MESA COUNTY, Colo.) — A Colorado appeals court has overturned the prison sentence of Tina Peters, the former Colorado county clerk who was convicted in a scheme to breach voting systems in search of evidence of election fraud in 2020.
In its decision on Thursday, the appeals court upheld Peters’ conviction but ordered her case to be sent to a lower court for a judge to issue a new sentence.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
A burning car is seen following a crash at the Bedford Toll Plaza in Bedford, New Hampshire, March 31, 2026. (New Hampshire State Police)
(NEW HAMPSHIRE) — New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte and her security detail were among those who assisted in a fiery crash at a New Hampshire toll plaza on Tuesday — with a state trooper on her detail and two other bystanders helping pull the driver from the burning vehicle, according to state police.
The driver of the car was “Bob’s Burgers” star Eugene Mirman, 51, of Massachusetts.
“Eugene was in a very scary car accident. He wants to thank the bystanders, state police, first responders and hospital staff who saved him. He is grateful to be on the mend. At this time, we kindly ask for privacy for Eugene and his family as he focuses on recovering from his injuries,” Mirman’s agent, Jay Gassner, said in a statement.
The “dangerous” collision occurred at the Bedford Toll Plaza on the Everett Turnpike shortly before noon, according to New Hampshire State Police Director Col. Mark Hall.
The vehicle, a 2026 Lucid electric vehicle, “immediately became engulfed in flames,” Hall said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
The governor and her security detail came upon the accident just after the vehicle crashed into the toll plaza, Hall said. A New Hampshire state trooper assigned to her detail and two other bystanders helped Mirman — the lone occupant — out of the burning vehicle through the window, according to Hall.
Hall said he is not identifying the trooper due to the nature of the assignment.
“It is a veteran trooper, and certainly their actions were heroic in what they did — without hesitation, put themselves in danger to render aid to somebody that clearly was in need of it,” Hall said.
“I’m proud of the State Trooper and the bystanders who saved a life at the scene of yesterday’s crash in Bedford,” Ayotte said in a statement. “It’s an example of the great work first responders do each day to keep New Hampshire safe and how Granite Staters always step up to help someone in need.”
The governor and other witnesses also provided assistance at the scene, according to Hall.
“The governor did get out of the vehicle and tried to assist in any way that she could,” Hall said, adding he believed she tried to get a fire extinguisher from a vehicle to help put the fire out.
Mirman was transported to an area hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Photos released by police showed the burning vehicle and firefighters at the scene.
Earthquake richter scale (Gary S Chapman/Getty Images)
(BOULDER CREEK, Calif) — A 4.9 magnitude earthquake shook Northern California early Thursday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The epicenter struck at a depth of 10.9 km (6.77 miles) near Boulder Creek, California, approximately 65 miles southeast of San Francisco.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
