News

(NASHUA, N.H.) — One man was killed and several people were wounded after a shooting at a New Hampshire country club Saturday evening, authorities said.

It happened at the Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua when a man entered the club and fired several gunshots, according to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.

A “person of interest” in the shooting was detained at the scene by police officers, according to Peter Hinckley, senior assistant attorney general, who spoke to reporters during a news conference Saturday night.

Authorities said there was no further danger to the public.

Attorney General John M. Formella and Nashua Police Department Chief Kevin Rourke later released a statement naming the suspect as Hunter Nadeau, 23.

The victim was named as Robert Steven DeCesare, 59. Two other adults were shot and wounded, the statement said. There is “no known connection” between the suspect and the victim, Formella and Rourke said.

Nadeau was charged with one count of second-degree murder, the statement said. “Additional charges likely will be brought, including for the additional shooting victims,” the statement added.

Nadeau is expected to be arraigned in Nashua on Monday, Formella and Rourke said.

Initially, Nashua police said two armed suspects fled the scene of the shooting and that one was at large, but they later said surveillance video confirmed there was only one shooter.

The country club contains a golf course, a wedding venue and a restaurant. Authorities did not specify the exact location of the shooting.

A nearby Sheraton Hotel was being used as a unification site.

Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess said he was saddened by the shooting and thinking of the families affected.

“I’ve heard from other mayors in other places of course … It had always crossed my mind, ‘Well, it’s unlikely ever to happen in Nashua.’ But now it has,” he told reporters during the news conference. “And I think the message is for every community out there: No matter how unlikely it seems, it can happen. It can happen where you live.”

Nashua is a city of about 92,000 people in southern New Hampshire near the border with Massachusetts.

“As we learn more about tonight’s shooting in Nashua, my heart goes out to the families of those impacted,” New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan said in a post on social media. “And I’m grateful for the work of the law enforcement officers and first responders at the scene.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The federal indictment that makes Luigi Mangione eligible for the death penalty if he’s convicted of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson should be dismissed because a “torrent of prejudice from multiple public officials” violated his constitutional rights and made it impossible for him to receive a fair trial, defense attorneys argued in a new court filing Saturday.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to four federal charges, including one death-eligible count of using a firearm to commit murder, that accused him of tracking Thompson’s whereabouts, traveling to New York where Thompson was attending an investor conference, stalking him on the street and then firing several shots from a 9mm pistol.

The defense conceded there is a high bar to dismiss an indictment due to pretrial publicity but argued, “there has never been a situation remotely like this one where prejudice has been so great against a death-eligible defendant.”

Defense attorneys pointed to what they called a “dehumanizing, unconstitutional” perp walk in New York, during which Mangione was televised clambering out of a helicopter in shackles.

“This was done solely to prejudice him and without the slightest legitimate law enforcement objective,” defense attorneys Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Avi Moskowitz argued.

“The United States Attorney General as well as law enforcement personnel and the highest New York City elected official took every opportunity to prejudice Mr. Mangione’s chances of having a fair grand jury hearing and fair legal proceedings in this death penalty case,” the defense’s filing said. “Placing their own, and their administration’s, political agendas above the constitutional safeguards assured to every criminal defendant, and especially one facing a death sentence, they serially violated the constitution, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, this court’s local rules and traditional notions of fairness.”

The defense pointed to public statements, social media posts and television appearances by Attorney General Pam Bondi that they said made clear the decision to seek the death penalty was based on politics and not merit.

In April, Bondi directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Mangione if he is convicted of Thompson’s murder.

“Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi said in a statement at the time.

“The Attorney General of the United States is telling the public that based on her personal experience as a capital prosecutor who tried death penalty cases throughout her career that Mangione is guilty and should be executed,” the defense said. “In addition, she also called the incident ‘an act of political violence’ even though Mr. Mangione was charged in a complaint with stalking a single person who was not a politician, or an activist, and who was not otherwise engaged in politics.”

Meanwhile, a judge this week dismissed two state murder charges related to acts of terrorism as Mangione made his first Manhattan courtroom appearance in five months.

Judge Gregory Carro tossed out first and second-degree murder charges that accused Mangione of murder as a crime of terrorism. The judge said the evidence presented to the grand jury was insufficient to support the terrorism charge.

The rest of the indictment remains, with the judge refusing to dismiss another second-degree murder charge, to which Mangione has pleaded not guilty.

“We respect the Court’s decision and will proceed on the remaining nine counts, including Murder in the Second Degree,” the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in a statement following the ruling.

Mangione’s next court appearance is in December.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Some pop-up showers and thunderstorms are possible on Saturday, mainly to the north of areas hit hardest by flash flooding recently, but there is no organized threat of flash flooding today as tropical moisture begins to thin out. No flood alerts are currently in effect.

However, another burst of monsoonal moisture will bring a low threat (Level 1 of 4) of flash flooding to parts of the Desert Southwest Sunday into Monday.

Isolated downpours and thunderstorms could bring localized areas of flash flooding to parts of far southern California and Arizona for Sunday.

For Monday, the low flood threat shifts east into parts of New Mexico.

Any burn scar areas will be especially prone to dangerous flash flooding which could trigger debris flows and mudslides. Burned soil lowers the threshold for flash flooding, meaning even lower rainfall totals can lead to significant flash flooding and other impacts, which unfold quickly.

Into the rest of next week, dry and quiet weather is forecasted for much of the Southwest.

Over the last couple of days, heavy rain and flash flooding drenched the Southwest and even became deadly in one instance.

In Barstow, California, a 2-year-old was swept away after their family’s car was swept off a road and overtaken by floodwaters. The City of Barstow announced on Friday that “After more than 20 hours of extensive search and rescue operations, emergency responders located the child’s body.”

Flash flooding occurred in other parts of the Southwest as the heaviest downpours dropped 1 to 2 inches of rain in around an hour for some spots, causing some roads to be washed out and anything in the way of rushing floodwaters to be swept away.

Tropical Storm Gabrielle
Tropical Storm Gabrielle continues to churn in the central Atlantic, fighting off unfavorable atmospheric conditions.

Gabrielle is slowly improving in structure late Saturday morning but continues to deal with wind shear and dry air, all conditions that tropical cyclones struggle to survive in.

The storm is expected to move into an area with less wind shear and dry air, as well as warm water, allowing it to likely become a hurricane by late Sunday.

However, it will not bring any direct impacts to land as it stays east of Bermuda early next week and eventually turns northeast across the north-central Atlantic by the middle of next week.

If it does become a hurricane, Gabrielle would become the 2nd hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season. On average, the 2nd hurricane forms around August 26, making this hurricane almost a month later than normally expected.

Hurricane hunter flights are scheduled to fly into Gabrielle to get a better idea of the storm’s current structure and strength.

The National Hurricane Center is also watching a weak tropical wave located off the west coast of Africa as it produces some disorganized thunderstorms.

It has a 20% chance of development in the next seven days as it slowly treks across the central Atlantic. If it does become more developed, it would likely take the same track as Gabrielle, avoiding any direct impacts for land.

Tropical activity in the Atlantic is forecasted to slowly ramp back up over the next few weeks as conditions gradually become more favorable for development.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — A new book by two artificial intelligence researchers claims that the race to build superintelligent AI could spell doom for humanity.

In “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All,” authors Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares claim that AI development is moving too fast and without proper safety measures.

“We tried a whole lot of things besides writing a book, and you really want to try all the things you can if you’re trying to prevent the utter extinction of humanity,” Yudkowsky told ABC News.

Yudkowsky says major tech companies claim superintelligent AI — a hypothetical form of AI that could possess intellectual abilities far exceeding humans — could arrive within two to three years. But he warns these companies may not fully understand the risks they’re taking.

Unlike the chatbots many people use today, superintelligent AI could be fundamentally different and more dangerous, according to Soares.

“Chatbots are a stepping stone. They [companies] are rushing to build smarter and smarter AIs,” he told ABC News.

The authors explain that modern AI systems are “grown” rather than built in traditional ways, making them harder to control. When these systems do unexpected things, developers can’t simply fix the code.

“When they threaten a New York Times reporter or engage in blackmail … that’s just a behavior that comes out of these AI’s being grown. It’s not a behavior someone put in there on purpose,” Soares said.

Soares compared AI abilities to human abilites as a professional NFL team playing against a high school team.

“You don’t know exactly what the plays are. You know who’s going to win.” He suggested AI could potentially take over robots, create dangerous viruses or build infrastructure that overwhelms humanity.

While some argue AI could help solve humanity’s biggest challenges, Yudkowsky remains skeptical.

“The trouble is, we don’t have the technical capacity to make something that wants to help us,” he told ABC News.

The authors advocate for a complete halt in superintelligent AI development.

“I don’t think you want a plan to get into a fight with something that is smarter than humanity,” Yudkowsky warned. “That’s a dumb plan.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(BARSTOW, Calif.) — A desperate search is underway in Barstow, California, for a 2-year-old boy who was swept away by floodwaters Thursday evening, authorities said.

Xavier Padilla Aguilera was traveling with his father, Brandon Padilla Aguilera, 26, when their vehicle was swept off a main road in Barstow, California, about 115 miles northeast of Los Angeles, by rushing flood waters around 7:14 p.m., according to Barstow Police.

The father and son became separated from their vehicle as flood waters carried them northward, police said. Brandon was later rescued and taken to Barstow Community Hospital, where he was treated and released.

Xavier, who his family told ABC News station KABC-TV has autism and is nonverbal, was last seen wearing black pants, a black shirt, and black and white Nike shoes.

The incident occurred during a day of severe weather that brought powerful thunderstorms to Southern California. In Oak Glen, dramatic video obtained by ABC News showed a massive mudslide cascading down a hillside, destroying everything in its path.

A massive multi-agency response was launched, including teams from the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Police, California Highway Patrol, and San Bernardino County Fire’s Swift Water Rescue Team. Local volunteers from the Desert Recovery Group and community members joined the search effort, according to authorities.

“We have a bunch of volunteers out here who are still looking,” Xavier’s aunt, Leanna, told ABC News station KABC-TV. “If you guys can, if you live in the area, if you have bright lights… anything that can help us look through the dirt, the mud – anything to help us find him, we greatly appreciate it.”

Police suspended the official search until daylight Friday, according to KABC-TV.

Anyone with information about Xavier’s whereabouts is urged to contact local authorities immediately.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.