In an aerial view, the cargo ship Dali sits in the water after running into and collapsing the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
(BALTIMORE) — The Dali, the container ship that left the Port of Baltimore in the early hours of March 26, before crashing into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, toppling a portion of it, set sail despite its “unseaworthy” conditions, according to a Monday court filing from the City of Baltimore.
In the court document, the city argues that the ship’s parent company, Grace Ocean Private Ltd., should be held liable for crashing into the Key Bridge. The filing was in response to Grace Ocean Private Ltd.’s request to limit their liability in damages they have to pay.
In previous filings, GOPL has argued that it shouldn’t be held liable for the crash that left six construction workers dead and a length of the bridge wiped out.
The owner of the Dali cargo ship filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month denying responsibility for the accident and seeking to limit the total payout to $43.7 million, a fraction of the billions the cleanup and bridge rebuild is expected to cost. The company is using a law from 1851, the Limitation of Liability Act from that year, in its quest to limit its liability.
The city said that 12 minutes after the Dali left port, despite warning signs, it crashed into the bridge.
“Reporting has indicated that, even before leaving port, alarms showing inconsistent power supply on the Dali had sounded,” a lawyer for the city of Baltimore said in the filing. “The Dali left port anyways despite its clearly unseaworthy condition.”
The city of Baltimore is arguing that for four decades, thousands of cargo ships have passed through the port of Baltimore without incident, making it one of the busiest ports in America.
The Dali’s “negligence” is grounds for the company to pay the city for the incident, the city argues.
“For all intents and purposes, Petitioner’s negligence caused them to destroy the Key Bridge, and single handedly destroy the Port of Baltimore, a source of jobs, municipal revenue and no small amount of pride for the city of Baltimore and its residents,” the city’s filing reads.
The company has yet to file a response to the allegations.
(NEW YORK) — A video taken on Sunday by a home-security camera in Hillsboro, Oregon, appeared to show a woman being carried away against her will in a “possible kidnapping,” police said Monday.
“We are looking for any information the community may have regarding this incident,” the Hillsboro Police Department said in a press bulletin.
The black-and-white video, which has been viewed by ABC News, appears to show a woman with glasses ringing a doorbell and waiting for someone to answer.
A man with a beard appears to approach and to carry her away against her will, police said. The woman was “crying for help before she was picked up and carried away by the above pictured male,” police said in the bulletin, which included screengrabs of the woman and man from the video.
“They appear to have left in a white pickup (probably an extended or crew cab pickup without a canopy),” police said.
Police said the video was shot on Sunday at about 10:45 p.m. near Southeast 32nd Avenue and E. Main Street in Hillsboro, a suburb west of Portland.
“The Hillsboro Police are actively investigating this incident as a possible kidnapping incident,” police said.
(NEW YORK) — West Richland police in Washington state are asking for the public’s help in locating a murder suspect they say is “armed” and “dangerous,” after a woman was pronounced deceased outside a local school on Monday.
Authorities have identified the suspect as 40-year-old Elias Huizar. Police are also searching for a silver, 2009 Toyota Corolla with Washington plates CBZ4745. Anyone who sees the suspect or the vehicle should call 911, police said.
The suspect is also wanted for allegedly abducting a 1-year-old child with the same last name as his, according to an Amber Alert issued by Washington State Patrol. Huizar is suspected of murdering his ex-wife and girlfriend, according to the alert.
Officers from the West Richland Police Department responded at 3:23 p.m. PT following an alert of a shooting on the grounds of Wiley Elementary School, police said.
An adult female was pronounced deceased outside of the school, police said on Monday afternoon.
Hours later, authorities said they found another homicide victim, “a known associate of the suspect,” while serving a search warrant at Huizar’s residence. No further details about the victim were made available by police.
In addition to considering Huizar “armed” and “dangerous,” police said he is “likely to commit more crimes.”
Huizar may be headed to Mexico, according to the Amber Alert.
Bryan Koberger listens during a hearing to overturn his grand jury indictment on Oct. 26, 2023 in Moscow, Idaho. (Kai Eiselein-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Lawyers for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of stabbing to death four Idaho college students in 2022, can continue their survey of prospective jurors in the state, the judge overseeing his case has ruled.
Kohberger’s lawyers had hired a consultant to conduct community phone polling ahead of his upcoming capital murder trial in order to gauge the attitude and potential bias of people who could one day decide his fate.
That survey — which had become a source of pretrial contention — can now proceed without changing any of the questions, including the nine with which prosecutors have taken issue.
“The defense may continue its surveys without modification to the survey questions,” Judge John Judge, overseeing the case, said in his order filed Friday and posted to the docket Monday afternoon.
Judge had put the so-called non-dissemination order in place to preserve Kohberger’s right to a fair trial in the high-profile case.
The “goal” of the gag order “is to ensure a fair and impartial jury can be impaneled so that Defendant receives a fair trial,” Judge said. “If defense counsel believes asking these survey questions, which arguably contain prejudicial information or misinformation about Defendant, is more beneficial than harmful, as Defendant’s expert testified, this Court does not, at this juncture, have sufficient information or evidence to second guess that strategic decision by trial counsel.”
Previously, prosecutor Bill Thompson, leading the case against Kohberger, argued some of the survey questions commissioned by Kohberger’s defense had effectively poisoned the opinions of 400 local community members beyond repair. He said in documents and in court that some of the pollster queries not only violated the gag order, but that a few of the questions spread false information about the case, and could foster a “false impression” amongst potential jurors.
Kohberger’s lead attorney, Anne Taylor, argued their poll questions were based on information obtained in the “public record,” and discussed in the media — and, moreover, the fact that some of the information was untrue was part of the point since, Taylor said, the rumor mill can influence opinion as effectively as fact, and gauging bias is exactly their aim determining whether a local jury pool could be fair and impartial.
Here’s how the judge assessed the nine questions “at issue” in his ruling:
Six of the questions came from the probable cause affidavit, which is publicly available; thus, asking about it does not violate the gag order.
One of the questions “was not based on admissible or inadmissible ‘evidence’ but instead asked about the feelings” of community members in Moscow, Idaho, where the killings allegedly occurred — therefore, it did not violate the gag order.
The remaining two questions, which asked about certain “media items,” were “read into the public record and discussed at length” during the recent hearings litigating the survey, “including the fact that these ‘media items’ may not be true,” the judge said. “Because the information is now in the public record, the Court does not see any benefit in preventing the defense from continuing its surveys or requiring that the two questions at issue be eliminated.”
Kohberger’s team will now be able to proceed with their survey, which is part of their larger attempt to convince the judge to move the trial to a different county, arguing the local jury pool has been tainted by pre-trial publicity. That survey, Kohberger lawyer Taylor has said, already determined that the Latah County pool of potential jurors would not be able to be fair and impartial in his case. Now, Taylor has said, they want to assess potential bias in other areas of the state, where it could be heard by jurors who have not been exposed to more than a year of news coverage about the case. Prosecutors, for their part, have argued the “national, if not international attention” this case has received makes moving it from one Idaho county to another futile.
Objecting to some of the survey questions, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson read nine examples aloud in court, which he said “concern” their team “immensely”:
“Question. Have you read, seen or heard if Bryan Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania?” Thompson read during an April 4 hearing.
Additional questions Thompson’s team was concerned with are:
“Question: Have you read, seen or heard if police found a knife sheath on the bed next to one of the victims?”
“Question. Have you read, seen or heard that DNA found on the knife sheath was later matched to Bryan Kohberger?”
“Question: Have you read, seen or heard if Bryan Kohberger owned the same type of car recorded on video driving in the neighborhood where the killings occurred?”
“Have you seen — read seen or heard – if the cell phone tower data showed that Bryan Kohberger made several trips near the victims’ home in the month before the killing?”
“Have you read, seen or heard if university students in Moscow and their parents lived in fear until Bryan Kohberger was arrested for the murders?”
“Have you read, seen or heard if Bryan Kohberger said that he was out driving alone on the night of the murders?”
“Have you read, seen or heard if Bryan Kohberger stalked one of the victims?”
“Have you read, seen or heard if Bryan Kohberger had followed one of the victims on social media?”
Prosecutors allege that in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Kohberger, then a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University, broke into an off-campus home and stabbed four University of Idaho students to death: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
After a six-week investigation, police zeroed in on Kohberger as the suspect, arresting him in December 2022 at his family’s home in Pennsylvania. He was indicted in May 2023 and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. At his arraignment, he declined to offer a plea, so the judge entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.
Kohberger could face the death penalty if convicted.
His lawyers have said their client wasn’t in the home where the homicides occurred and was out driving that night. Lawyers also say they’ll have expert cell phone tower data analysis to back that up.
A trial date has not yet been set.
A hearing on Kohberger’s request for a change of venue is set for June 27.
(NEW YORK) — A judge has declared a mistrial in the criminal case against 75-year-old Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly, accused of fatally shooting a migrant on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border, the court confirmed Monday night.
Jurors had been deliberating since Thursday afternoon.
Kelly was charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault in the Jan. 30, 2023, fatal shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, 48, a migrant who lived across the border in Nogales, Mexico. He had pleaded not guilty.
Law enforcement officials said Cuen-Buitimea was traveling with a group of migrants who ran when they saw border patrol agents in the area. Cuen-Buitimea and another migrant were allegedly heading back to the southern side of the border when they passed through Kelly’s cattle ranch.
It’s then that prosecutors alleged Kelly recklessly fired his AK-47 from a distance of about 115 yards, fatally striking Cuen-Buitimea in the back.
During the trial, prosecutors pointed out inconsistent statements Kelly made to law enforcement officials throughout the investigation.
According to prosecutors, Kelly initially told Jeremy Marcel — a border patrol agent who worked as a ranch liaison — he was returning fire after being shot at by a group of five armed individuals who were wearing packs and running southbound.
Prosecutors claimed Kelly at first failed to tell law enforcement agents he shot his weapon. Prosecutors said his story changed minutes later when he told law enforcement officials it was a group of about 10-15 people armed with AR-style rifles.
Authorities say Cuen-Buitimea was unarmed and they were unable to find evidence that another weapon had been fired.
“When you see two unarmed migrants walking southbound beyond two fence lines and you take your AK-47, you walk out and don’t say a word, point it at them and you shoot, would that be what a reasonable person would do in that situation?” prosecutor Mike Jette asked the jury during his closing arguments. “The answer has to be no.”
Kelly’s lawyers tried to poke holes in the prosecutor’s account of the incident and accused law enforcement officials of failing to follow other leads that would have cleared their client of any wrongdoing. They also accused law enforcement of falsely claiming that Kelly admitted to shooting at multiple people.
“That was not true, Alan never said that. Law enforcement wasn’t listening and they didn’t care, they already decided that he was guilty,” said defense attorney Brenna Larkin.
The defense claimed Kelly was protecting himself and his wife and only fired warning shots several yards above the group.
Authorities were not able to find the bullet that struck Cuen-Buitimea. The defense claimed he was shot by another person in the group.
Lead detective Jorge Ainza testified during the trial and told Kelly’s attorneys he believed Kelly shot at Cuen-Buitimea.
“There is no other shot involved in this. The victim sustained a serious injury from a high-powered rifle, an AK-47 rifle with a trajectory directly from Mr. Kelly’s residence,” he said.
During the trial, jurors visited Kelly’s ranch. Investigators said they found a total of nine shell casings outside of his home that fit the pattern of shots fired in Cuen-Buitimea’s direction.
Jurors also heard testimony from Daniel Ramirez, a migrant who said he was with Cuen-Buitimea who he claimed grabbed his chest and said, “I’m hit” before dying.
Ramirez testified that they were being smuggled into the United States and were not trafficking drugs. Ramirez admitted to smuggling marijuana on one previous occasion to reduce the fee he owed smugglers to get him across the border.
Kelly was charged with aggravated assault against Ramirez.
Prosecutors also showed jurors text messages allegedly sent by Kelly, which prosecution claimed showed his state of mind in the weeks before the shooting.
“OVERUN WITH DRUG CARTEL. AK GTN A LOT OF WORK,” one text message read.
Court documents obtained by ABC News showed another text message exchange between Kelly and a friend on Nov. 23, 2022. The friend asked Kelly what his plans were for Thanksgiving.
(LOS ANGELES) — A woman was fatally stabbed on a Metro train in Los Angeles early Monday, police said, and a suspect has been detained.
The woman was attacked around 5 a.m. while on the train, “somewhere between the last stop and here at Universal City station,” Los Angeles police Detective Meghan Aguilar told reporters.
The victim got off the train at Universal City station and was taken to a hospital where she died, according to police.
The suspect also got off the train at Universal City and fled on foot, according to police.
Around 5:30 a.m., officers saw a person matching the suspect description and apprehended him, police said.
“Detectives are in the process of interviewing him,” police said in a statement. “They strongly believe he is the suspect based on witnesses and other evidence.”
A motive for the attack was not clear.
Crimes reported on Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority properties have increased by 65% since 2020 and average monthly violent crimes on MTA properties rose more than 15% between March 2023 and February 2024, according to LAPD data compiled by ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — Columbia University has been thrust into turmoil in the last week, reeling from a congressional hearing on antisemitism with President Nemat Shafik and NYPD’s arrest of more than 100 protesters in support of Palestinians on the university’s lawn.
Now, Columbia University’s classes are being held remotely due to the ongoing protests citing safety concerns and increased security on campus.
Here’s a timeline of the events as they continue to unfold:
Protests begin
On the morning of April 17, student protesters opposed to Israel’s war in Gaza have camped out throughout the Columbia University campus.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which states that it’s a coalition of more than 100 student groups, says it is calling for the university to financially divest from companies and institutions that “profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine,” according to an online statement.
In March, the Columbia College Student Council approved a student referendum on the issue, according to the Columbia Daily Spectator.
“As a diverse group united by love and justice, we demand our voices be heard against the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza,” the group stated.
Tensions have been high on college campuses nationwide since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel. The Israeli military then began its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 33,000 people have been killed and more than 76,000 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to Israeli officials.
Multiple United Nations organizations have warned that Gaza is also experiencing “catastrophic” levels of hunger amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Protesters camping on the university lawn say they believe the war in Gaza amounts to “genocide” of Palestinians.
“I’m here continuing the Jewish tradition of standing against oppression and injustice, especially as we approach Passover, a holiday that celebrates our own liberation and commits us to fighting for everyone else’s,” the Jewish Voices for Peace at Columbia said in an online statement.
The congressional testimony
On the same day as the protests, Columbia President Shafik testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which has been investigating antisemitism on college campuses. The hearing comes after two of Shafik’s counterparts at other elite colleges resigned amid a backlash over their responses at a previous hearing of the same panel.
In her opening statement, Shafik, who was appointed president of the Ivy League school in July 2023, told the committee that Columbia “strives to be a community free of discrimination and hate in all forms and we condemn the antisemitism that is so pervasive today.”
She said a “major challenge” has been reconciling free speech with the rights of Jewish students to go to school in an environment free of discrimination and harassment.
“Regrettably, the events of Oct. 7 brought to the fore an undercurrent of antisemitism that is a major challenge and, like many other universities, Columbia has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents,” Shafik said.
Shafik said she has taken actions since Oct. 7, including enhancing Columbia’s reporting channels, hiring staff to investigate complaints and forming an antisemitism task force.
Concerns from other student groups
Some other groups on Columbia’s campus, including Students Supporting Israel, say their needs for safety are not being met on campus.
The group described instances they say some Jewish, Israeli and Zionist students have faced, including intimidation and verbal attacks, saying the situation has become “untenable.”
“Students’ rights to peacefully attend their university courses without fear of being accosted or assaulted on their way to class were denied,” an online statement read.
An Arab-Israeli activist, Yoseph Haddad, was set to speak at the student group’s event on April 18 when he was allegedly punched by a protester just outside the campus. The event was canceled, the group said.
“It’s time we end this narrative and aim for a future where both Israelis and our Palestinian neighbors can accept each others’ fundamental right to live freely and without terrorism or war,” the group stated.
Student protesters have released a statement saying that “inflammatory individuals who do not represent us” have distracted from the group’s intentions.
“At universities across the nation, our movement is united in valuing every human life,” the statement from Columbia University Apartheid Divest continued.
The statement from Columbia University Apartheid Divest added that students have been misidentified, doxxed, arrested, locked out of campus housing and more, amid the protests.
“We have knowingly put ourselves in danger because we can no longer be complicit in Columbia funneling our tuition dollars and grant funding into companies that profit from death.”
Several university and local leaders have spoken out against instances of antisemitism amid the unrest.
“I have instructed the NYPD to investigate any violation of law that is reported,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said. “Rest assured, the NYPD will not hesitate to arrest anyone who is found to be breaking the law.”
Arrests begin at Columbia
On April 18, one day after Shafik’s testimony, more than 100 protesters at Columbia University were arrested and an on-campus tent encampment was removed after the school’s president gave the New York Police Department the green light to clear the protesters, officials said.
“Students have the right to free speech but do not have the right to violate university policies and disrupt learning on campus,” Adams told reporters during a press briefing that evening.
Around 1:30 p.m. ET, police moved in and arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters, placing their hands in zip ties and escorting them to buses. Other protesters chanted “Shame!” and “Let them go.”
Some 108 people were arrested for trespass without incident, officials said. Among those, two were also arrested for obstruction of governmental administration, officials said.
Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was among those arrested for trespass and will be getting a summons, officials said. Hirsi said she was among several students suspended from Columbia’s Barnard College for participating in pro-Palestinian protests.
The terms of her suspension are unclear.
The tent encampment and protests have since resumed on campus in an ongoing, dayslong effort.
ABC News has reached out to Columbia University for comment.
Columbia cracks down
Columbia University announced Monday that all classes on Monday, April 22, would be held remotely and only essential personnel should report to work in person. She said campus tensions have been “exploited and amplified” by people unaffiliated with the university “who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas.”
“The decibel of our disagreements has only increased in recent days,” said Shafik. She said a group of administrators and faculty members will come together to come to a “resolution” on campus issues and also speak with student protesters. “We need a reset.”
A university public safety announcement on April 21 also outlined new resources to address “considerable disruption and distress” caused by ongoing gatherings at the campus, located in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights neighborhood.
The measures include increasing security patrol with 111 additional personnel — including more personnel for campus escort services and campus access point security — as well as improved ID checks at entry points and increased security at The Kraft Center, which houses aspects of Jewish life on campus, during the Passover holiday which begins on April 22.
NYPD told ABC News on Monday that there are no credible threats to any particular group or individual as a result of the protests at Columbia University.
The NYPD is working with the university to provide “safe corridors” for students — locations where officers will be stationed off-campus.
The department says it has not received any reports of physical harm toward any students.
Hochul comes to Columbia
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she met with the Columbia University president and NYPD officials early Monday morning to discuss public safety initiatives as student protests and unrest continue to play out on campus.
“Students are scared, they’re afraid to walk on campus, they don’t deserve that,” Hochul said in a video message posted to social media.
“I’m calling on everyone. People need to find their humanity, have the conversations, talk to each other, understand the different points of view. Because that’s what college students should be doing,” Hochul added.
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson, Meredith Deliso and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to the report.
(NEW YORK) — Day 5 of Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial was also the first day of legal arguments before jurors.
Proceedings lasted little more than three hours on Monday, but both parties delivered opening statements, lifting the veil on arguments they plan to present over the coming weeks.
The former president is on trial in New York on felony charges of falsifying business records to hide the reimbursement of a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors on Monday framed the case as “election fraud, pure and simple” and implored jurors to exercise common sense as they digest the evidence. Defense attorneys sought to distance Trump from any alleged wrongdoing and laid the groundwork to undermine key government witnesses, including Cohen and Daniels.
Before court adjourned, prosecutors called their first witness: David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, who prosecutors allege engaged in a conspiracy with Trump and Cohen to help influence the election by killing negative stories about Trump.
Pecker is due to return to the stand Tuesday morning, after the judge in the case hears arguments about Trump’s alleged violation of a court-imposed limited gag order.
Here are Monday’s top four takeaways.
Prosecutors allege election fraud
Prosecutors presented a detailed overview of the case they plan to present to jurors, which they described as a “criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election.”
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo described what he called a three-pronged scheme to promote Trump in the tabloid media, run negative stories about his opponents, and conspire to catch and kill negative stories about Trump.
Prosecutors said the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump bragged of grabbing women, had an “explosive” effect on the campaign, and called the campaign’s efforts to quell potentially damning voices — like Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal — “election fraud, pure and simple.”
Defense says ‘none of this was a crime’
Todd Blanche, the lead attorney for Donald Trump, argued that the alleged conduct described by prosecutors was nothing more than politics as usual.
“I have a spoiler alert,” Blanche told jurors during his opening statement. “There is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy.”
“There is nothing illegal about entering into a nondisclosure agreement,” he continued. “Period.”
Blanche, over objections from prosecutors, argued repeatedly that Trump had done nothing wrong. He argued that, while the Trump Organization was paying Michael Cohen for his services, Trump was busy “in the White House while he was running the country.”
Cohen’s credibility is addressed
One major theme emerged in both parties’ opening statements: the reliability of Michael Cohen.
How the jury perceives Cohen’s testimony could dictate the outcome of this trial — a reality that was reflected Monday in opening statements from both prosecutors and defense counsel.
“During this trial you’re going to hear a lot about Michael Cohen,” Colangelo said, in what was perhaps the biggest understatement of the day.
Prosecutors acknowledged that Cohen comes with “baggage” that includes lying under oath. But they encouraged jurors to put Cohen’s allegations in the context of other evidence and testimony they will hear.
Blanche argued that the jury cannot convict Trump “by relying on the words of Michael Cohen.”
“He has a goal, an obsession, with getting Trump. I submit to you he cannot be trusted,” Blanche said.
Pecker testifies about ‘checkbook journalism’
A smiling David Pecker took the stand as the government’s first witness, to testify about his role in the alleged hush payment scheme supposedly orchestrated at Trump’s behest.
Pecker, a longtime tabloid editor whom Trump has called a “close friend,” described the editorial process at the National Enquirer as “checkbook journalism.”
“I had the final say of the celebrity side of the magazine,” Pecker said. “We used checkbook journalism. We paid for stories.”
Pecker, who is testifying under subpoena and secured a non-prosecution agreement, will return to the stand on Tuesday.
Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University (CILRU)
(NEW YORK) — Federal prosecutors charged a man with hate crimes Monday for allegedly breaking into and vandalizing the Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University during Eid al-Fitr two weeks ago.
Jacob Beacher, 24, was arrested after investigators said they determined he broke into the center on the New Brunswick, New Jersey, campus on April 10 and vandalized several items, including Turbah prayer stones and art pieces with Quranic verses.
Beacher, who is not affiliated with the university, also allegedly stole a charity box and a Palestinian flag from the center, according to investigators.
The charity box was found four days later in a park near the campus, the criminal complaint said.
Some Muslim members of the campus told New York ABC station WABC they were in shock and horror over the vandalism.
“It’s so disheartening and scary because it just solidifies the fact that we aren’t safe here,” Nehad Ali told WABC a day after the incident.
The FBI used surveillance footage and cellphone data to determine Beacher was a suspect, according to the criminal complaint.
When investigators interviewed Beacher on April 12, he admitted to being in the area of the center during the incident but denied breaking into it, the complaint alleged.
Beacher was awaiting arraignment in Newark federal court on one count of intentional or attempted obstruction of religious practice and one count of making false statements to federal authorities, according to federal prosecutors.
State charges against Beacher are also pending, according to investigators. Attorney information for the suspect wasn’t immediately available.
The center received donations to help replace the damaged items, according to its administrators.
“We are humbled by the amazing and generous outpouring from the Rutgers community and the community at large,” the center said in a statement released on its Facebook page Monday.
The center’s administrators thanked law enforcement for their work and warned of a rise in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bigotry.
“This incident did not occur in a vacuum. We condemn those that are stoking lies and hate on our campus and those who are engaging in doublespeak that have led to this violence, other acts of hate and bigotry on our campus and in particular against our students,” the center said in its statement.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York City, where he is facing felony charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. It marks the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges.
Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Apr 22, 5:55 AM Attorneys to present opening statements in historic trial
After a week-long selection process, the jurors in Donald Trump’s New York hush money case will hear opening statements Monday in the first criminal trial of a former United States president.
To prove their case, lawyers for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg need to convince 12 jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump repeatedly falsified records related to unlawfully influencing the 2016 presidential election.
“This case has nothing to do with your personal politics or your feelings about a particular political issue,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told potential jurors on Thursday. “It’s not a referendum on the Trump Presidency, a popularity contest, or any indication of who you plan to vote for this fall. This case is about whether this man broke the law.”
Trump’s lawyers are expected to focus their efforts on going after the credibility of prosecution witnesses, suggesting the case itself is politically motivated and arguing the former president never intended to commit a crime.
