News

(NORFOLK, Va.) — Two people are injured and a gunman is dead following a shooting at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, on Thursday, according to an alert from the university.

The gunman opened fire in Constant Hall, an academic building, around 10:49 a.m., the university alert said.

The injured victims have been taken to a local hospital, the school said.

The school did not say how the gunman died.

Classes are canceled for the rest of the day, the university said.

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

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(FLORIDA) — Another giant reptile is clawing its way toward disrupting the South Florida ecosystem as an invasive species.

The Nile monitor — a semi-aquatic lizard equipped with razor claws that can grow up to 6 feet — has been establishing populations in the area since the 1980s, according to ecology experts.

Endemic to the Nile river delta in Sub-Saharan Africa, the continent’s largest lizards arrived in Florida via the pet trade, through both intentional and unintentional release, Frank Mazzotti, a professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Florida, told ABC News.

“They’re very wild, they’re very active,” Mazzotti said. “They don’t make good pets at all. They don’t calm down.”

The temperament of the giant lizards also makes them difficult to catch. Mazzotti described Nile monitors as “very strong” and “very aggressive.”

The reptiles will put up a fight and even bite humans who attempt to make contact with them, Mazzotti said.

“They’re crazy,” he said. “They’re very hard to handle, and you have to take great care that they don’t escape and that you don’t get bit.”

Monitor lizards are one of the high priority nonnative species for removal due to their potential impacts on native wildlife, Lisa Thompson, a communications specialist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Division of Habitat and Species Conservation, told ABC News via email.

Current management approaches focus on containing established populations and preventing the establishment of new populations, as well as recurring surveys and removals, Thompson noted.

Nile monitors are now established in Lee and Palm Beach Counties, with multiple sightings in Broward County as well. The FWC is also monitoring observations of the species in Miami-Dade County, according to Thompson.

The state’s humidity allows the Nile monitors to thrive, Mazzotti said.

“Their habitat requirements are met,” he said. “The climate’s a match.”

In addition, their diverse diet and ability to travel over land and in fresh and saltwater allows for potential establishment throughout Florida, especially in coastal areas with mangroves and salt marshes.

South Florida’s extensive canal system can provide ample corridor, and they have a high reproduction rate, according to the FWC.

The giant lizards are “generalist” feeders, meaning they aren’t picky about what they eat, Mazzotti said.

They have been observed to eat crabs, crayfish, mussels, snails, slugs, termites, caterpillars, beetles, spiders, grasshoppers and crickets, fish, frogs, toads, lizards, turtles, snakes, young crocodiles and other reptiles, birds and their eggs and small mammals, according to the FWC. They can hunt for prey on the surface, below ground and in trees.

Some researchers have even observed them eating iguana eggs, Mazzotti noted.

“They don’t care what they eat,” he said.

Due to their generalist diet, the invasive reptile could impact state and federally listed threatened species, including sea turtles, wading birds, gopher tortoises and the American crocodile, according to the FWC.

Biologists and ecologists are also concerned about burrowing owls, as their largest population also occurs where the largest known Nile monitor population also occurs.

Nile monitors are not protected in Florida, except by anti-cruelty laws, and can be humanely killed on private property with the landowner’s permission, according to the FWC.

It was added to Florida’s Prohibited Nonnative Species List in April 2021, which limits possession of Nile monitors for the purposes of research, educational exhibition, control or eradication.

Nile monitors are often olive green to black in color and have stripes on their jaw and head. They also have yellow-ish V-shaped stripes that begin at the base of its skull and neck and transform into “bands” along their back, according to the FWC.

They are often seen in or close to water and basking on rocks and branches, wildlife experts say.

The reptiles are usually active during the day and sleep on branches or submerged in water at night.

When temperatures drop, Nile monitors will retreat to burrows to keep warm, the FWC noted.

While they have not yet had demonstrated impacts on the ecosystem, it’s important to keep populations of Nile monitors under control before they disrupt an already delicate environment, Mazzotti said.

“You cannot wait until an invasive species has demonstrated its impact upon the ecosystem,” he said. “Because if you do, then it’s too late.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla.) — Christy Luna disappeared without a trace over 40 years ago at the age of 8. Now, authorities in Florida say they have identified a new person of interest in the cold case.

Christy went missing on May 27, 1984, while going to a general store less than two blocks from her home in Greenacres to buy cat food, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. No one knows what happened to her after she bought the food for her two cats, and a massive search at the time didn’t turn up anything. 

The sheriff’s office has followed multiple leads over the decades since and has named several persons of interest in the case, but no one has been charged in connection with her disappearance.

On Wednesday, authorities announced they are looking for information on a new person of interest — Warren Gilbert Williams Jr., a convicted child sex offender who died in 2016.

Sgt. Chris Karpinski, with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office’s cold case unit, said they received an anonymous tip last year that Williams was remodeling a home near the general store the day Christy went missing.

“He left that home and his remodeling efforts to go buy cigarettes at Belks General Store and he never returned,” Karpinski said during a press briefing on Wednesday.

“That alone, interesting information, but we have a lot of that information through the years where somebody was seen in the area, and this and that,” he continued. 

But Williams, he said, has a “peculiar past of sexual activity with children.” He was convicted of sexual battery on a child under 12 and lewd and lascivious molestation and was imprisoned in Florida from 2007 to 2013, according to Karpinski. After finishing that sentence, he went to prison in Alabama, where he was wanted for sexual abuse of a child, Karpinski said.

“The suspicion existed through this circle of people that Mr. Williams knew through the years, and they had discussed the possibility of him being involved with Christy’s disappearance,” Karpinski said.

Detectives also learned through the anonymous tip that Williams, who lived in what is now known as Lake Worth Beach at the time, installed a concrete pad in his backyard a week after Christy went missing.

Authorities got permission from the current homeowners to search the property and last month excavated the yard, Karpinski said.

“Unfortunately, we found nothing,” Karpinski said, saying there were “mixed emotions” on the development.

“We wanted to find something, but yet, finding something meant that, you know, we had bad news, at least it was for me,” he said. “So there is still hope that Christy either is out there or somebody is out there that knows where she is, whether she is still with us on Earth or has passed.”

Karpinski said there currently is no physical or testimonial evidence that links Williams to Christy’s disappearance.

“We want to learn more about him,” Karpinski said. “I know it’s a long time ago. People, friends, neighbors, witnesses that day who think maybe they saw him, please come forward.”

Williams, who was 46 years old at the time Christy disappeared, died in prison in 2016, according to Karpinski.

Authorities haven’t ruled out any other persons of interest named in the case, according to investigator Bill Springer, who has been investigating Christy’s disappearance since the sheriff’s office assumed the case in 1984.

Springer also urged anyone with information to come forward, even after all this time.

“I want people to come forward. I’m not going to question why you didn’t come forward, because I don’t care,” he said. “My job is to find Christy, not to judge people because they didn’t come forward.”

“So if you’ve got information and you’ve been sitting on it for 30 years, 40 years, I don’t care,” he said. “Bring it out and we’ll look at it, see what we can do with it.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The FBI warned police departments in California in recent days that Iran could retaliate for American attacks by launching drones at the West Coast, according to an alert reviewed by ABC News.

“We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the US conducted strikes against Iran,” according to the alert distributed at the end of February. “We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.”

The warning came just as the Trump administration launched its ongoing assault against the Islamic Republic. Iran has been retaliating with drone strikes against targets throughout the Mideast.

A spokeswoman for the FBI office in LA declined to comment.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. intelligence officials have also grown concerned in recent months about the expanding use of drones by Mexican drug cartels and the chance the technology could be used to attack American forces and personnel near the Mexican border.

“An uncorroborated report suggested that unidentified Mexican cartel leaders had authorized attacks using UAS (drones) carrying explosives against US law enforcement and US military personnel along the US-Mexico border,” according to a September 2025 bulletin reviewed by ABC News. “This type of attack against US personnel or interests inside the United States would be unprecedented but exemplifies a plausible scenario, although (cartels) typically avoid actions that would result in unwanted attention or responses from US authorities.”

ABC News contributor John Cohen, the former head of intelligence for the Department of Homeland Security, said he is concerned about the possibility of drone warfare coming from both the Pacific and Mexico.

“We know Iran has an extensive presence in Mexico and South America, they have relationships, they have the drones and now they have the incentive to conduct attacks,” Cohen said. “The FBI is smart for putting this warning out so that state and locals can be better able to prepare and respond to these types of threats. Information like this is critically important for law enforcement.”

While the FBI’s warning did not specify how or when vessels carrying attack drones could get close enough to the U.S. mainland, intelligence officials have long been concerned about equipment being pre-positioned – either on land or on ships at sea — in the event Israel or the U.S. struck Iran.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Authorities on Monday began searching a sprawling ranch in New Mexico formerly owned by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, renewing questions about the steps taken by the U.S. Department of Justice nearly a decade ago.

While the New Mexico Department of Justice has released few details about the new investigation, here is what we know about the ranch and what prompted the renewed scrutiny:

Did the Department of Justice ever search the ranch?

When Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges, the investigation into his alleged illicit activity swept across many of his opulent properties. However, investigators apparently never searched his New Mexico ranch, formerly known as “Zorro Ranch,” according to emails released by the U.S. DOJ earlier this year.

When Epstein was found dead by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019, investigators’ scope broadened, but authorities appear to have never returned to raid the property for potential evidence.

While New Mexico initiated its own investigation into the property, the probe was paused in 2019 at the request of the U.S. DOJ, according to New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez.

What prompted state authorities to re-open their investigation?

In a statement issued last month, the New Mexico DOJ said the investigation was re-opened because “revelations outlined in the previously sealed FBI files warrant further examination.”

The statement did not provide further details about the “revelations,” and state Attorney General Torrez has not publicly commented on which files prompted the investigation. The New Mexico DOJ has not responded to inquiries from ABC News about the scope of the investigation.

However, approximately a week before the New Mexico DOJ opened their investigation, the office received a request from the New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands to investigate an unsubstantiated allegation included in files released by the U.S. DOJ that two bodies were buried in the hills around the ranch.

“On behalf of the New Mexico State Land Office, I am requesting that both the U.S. Department of Justice and the New Mexico Department of Justice thoroughly investigate this disturbing allegation,” New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard said on Feb. 10 in a letter obtained by ABC News.

According to documents released by the U.S. DOJ, a local radio host received an email in November 2019 from an anonymous individual who claimed to have worked at the ranch and alleged that two “foreign girls” were buried on the grounds of the ranch after being strangulated.

The radio host told the FBI that he originally received a demand for one bitcoin in exchange for the location of the bodies and seven videos of sexual abuse.

According to an FBI report memorializing the tip, the host promptly shared the information with the FBI. The report suggested that the tip was received by the FBI and that the radio host spoke with investigators, though it does not appear the claim was investigated further, in part because the email account that sent the tip was deactivated. 

The report and materials released by the U.S. DOJ did not include any evidence to corroborate the claims beyond the initial email. The documents and concern from the New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands appear to be part of the reason investigators have re-opened the investigation.

Who owns the ranch now?

Zorro Ranch was sold in 2023 to Texas businessman and politician Don Huffines, who is currently the Republican nominee for Texas’s state comptroller. He was endorsed by President Donald Trump in an upset victory against the incumbent.

In a post on social media, Huffines explained that he was aware of the history of the property when he purchased it in 2023 and that “at the time of the sale, it was marketed that the proceeds would go to the victims.”

He said in the post that he has renamed the ranch “San Rafael” and intends to “to remake it as a Christian retreat, reclaiming it for Jesus.”

The New Mexico DOJ this week said it “appreciates the cooperation of the current property owners in granting access for the search and extends its thanks to the ranch staff for their professionalism.”

It is unclear if the New Mexico DOJ obtained a search warrant for the property or is just operating with the consent of the property owner.

What is the goal of the investigation?

The investigation comes as New Mexico lawmakers are seeking to better understand how Epstein was able to avoid legal scrutiny for years. Last month, the New Mexico House voted unanimously to create an Epstein “Truth Commission” to better understand Epstein’s activities in the state. The commission has subpoena power and a budget of $2 million to carry out its investigation.

In a column last week, Attorney General Torres acknowledged that the state’s investigation faces obstacles but vowed to issue a public report about his findings.

“Epstein has been dead for years. Zorro Ranch has changed ownership. Physical evidence may no longer exist, and the statute of limitations has likely run on many potential offenses. These are real obstacles, and survivors deserve to hear them stated plainly. But we will follow the evidence wherever it leads and leave no credible question unexplored,” Torres said.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.