(NEW YORK) — Authorities on the Caribbean island of Tobago say they’re investigating the death of an American man who was found fatally stabbed on Wednesday.
The victim was identified as Christopher Brown, 42, of Silverthorne, Colorado, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service told ABC News.
Brown was having dinner with friends at Marguarite’s Local Cuisine in the seaside village of Castara on Wednesday and accompanied the group when they went to a second restaurant and bar nearby to have drinks afterward, police said.
He then apparently left the second location, telling his friends that he was going to buy marijuana, and walked along a main road in Castara, according to the police report.
Police received a report just after 10:30 p.m. local time of a “motionless body bearing a stab wound to the back” on Depot Road in Castara, the report states. When they arrived at the scene, they observed several wounds on the man’s body, as well as a “metallic object” protruding from his back.
“The Division of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation is profoundly saddened and deeply disturbed by the tragic murder of a foreign national in the peaceful community of Castara,” the agency said in a statement. “The Division strongly condemns this horrific act of violence and extends our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of the deceased during this unimaginably difficult time,” a statement from the agency read.
One suspect is in custody, but they have not been charged at this time, police said.
(NEW YORK) — New York Jets player Kris Boyd is back in the hospital days after he was released for treatment of a gunshot wound.
Boyd, 29, had been released from the hospital after he was shot in Midtown Manhattan on Nov. 16 but returned on Wednesday due to “health issues,” he wrote in an Instagram story.
“Please bare [sic] with me, I haven’t been in communication much,” Boyd wrote. “I was released but had to return to the hospital due to my health issues.”
Boyd then thanked everyone who has prayed and reached out to him with well wishes.
The nature around his hospitalization was unclear.
Boyd was shot in the abdomen at 2 a.m. on Nov. 16 in front of the Sei Less restaurant on West 38th Street in Manhattan, the NYPD confirmed to ABC News. He then underwent multiple treatments at Bellevue Hospital for the bullet lodged in his lung.
The shooting appeared to have stemmed from an exchange of works between Boyd, who was with two other Jets players and a friend, and another group “chirping” about their clothes, police sources told ABC News.
On Nov. 19, three days after the shooting, Boyd posted a photo of himself to his Instagram story, saying he was beginning to breathe on his own.
“I’m coming along, starting to breathe on my own now,” Boyd wrote. “Sincerely appreciate everyone!”
Last week, NYPD detectives identified a possible suspect, but no arrests have been made in connection with the shooting.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump renewed his pledge to crackdown on immigration following the shooting of two National Guard members in the nation’s capital.
The White House posted a video Wednesday evening in which Trump called the shooting an “act of hatred,” and noted the alleged suspect, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national, was among hundreds flown to the U.S. during and after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 during the Biden administration.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted on X that the suspect entered the U.S. “under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021.” It wasn’t clear whether the flight was part of the evacuation or resettlement process. Officials have confirmed Lakanwal worked for the CIA and the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
Trump railed against immigrants and those fleeing war-torn countries, calling for the reexamination of all Afghan immigrants admitted under Biden.
“This attack underscores the greatest national security threat facing our nation,” he said. “The last administration let in 20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners from all over the world, from places that you don’t even want to know about. No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival.”
“We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country, who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country. If they can’t love our country we don’t want them,” he added.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Wednesday evening that it had paused immigration applications from Afghans.
“Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” the agency said in an X post.
While Trump was quick to blame Biden, Lakanwal applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted asylum in April 2025, under Trump’s second administration.
Groups that have supported Afghan nationals pushed back against the administration’s actions.
Richard Bennett, the U.N. special Rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, said Thursday that “the perpetrator should face accountability but the entire Afghan community must not be punished due to the actions of one individual.”
“That would be terribly unjust and complete nonsense,” he said.
Shawn VanDiver, the president of Afghan Evac, an organization that helps Afghans immigrate, also condemned the suspect but called on leaders to “not demonize the Afghan community for the deranged choice this person made.”
“Afghan immigrants and wartime allies who resettle in the United States undergo some of the most extensive security vetting of any population entering the country,” he said in a statement.
The president on Wednesday night went on to attack Somalis living in Minnesota, which comes in the wake of his decision to once again attempt to terminate temporary protected status (TPS) for Somalis living in the state.
“An example is Minnesota, where hundreds of thousands of Somalians are ripping off our country and ripping apart that once great state. Billions of dollars are lost and gangs of Somalians come from a country that doesn’t even have a government, no laws, no water, no military, no nothing as their representatives in our country preach to us about our Constitution and how our country is no good,” Trump alleged.
“We’re not going to put up with these kind of assaults on law and order by people who shouldn’t even be in our country,” he added.
In the past, Democrats and immigration advocates have pushed back against the president’s immigration restrictions, including on asylum seekers, contending that he has exaggerated national security concerns and turned away millions of families in need.
“It’s not surprising that the President has chosen to broadly target an entire community. This is what he does to change the subject,” Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said in a social media post this week after Trump announced he was ending TPS protections for Somali nationals.
(WASHINGTON) — The shooting of two National Guard personnel allegedly by an Afghan refugee in a bustling downtown neighborhood in Washington, D.C., has reopened a debate over a Biden-era program that rushed to resettle thousands of Afghans who had worked with the U.S. government during its 20-year war in Afghanistan.
The Biden administration brought some 76,000 Afghan refugees to the U.S. in 2021, according to a report at the time by the Department of Homeland Security. It’s likely that the suspect officials have identified, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was one of only 3,300 of those refugees that year who were granted a “special immigrant visa,” a document that would have expedited his entry because of his employment with the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. agencies.
Officials say Lakanwal came to the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2021 during the Biden administration and applied for asylum in 2024. According to three law enforcement sources, Lakanwal was granted asylum in April 2025 under President Donald Trump.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a news conference Thursday morning that the Biden administration did “absolutely zero vetting” of the refugees.
That isn’t accurate, though some questions remain around how thorough the vetting process would have been for Lakanwal in 2021 and again this year when the Trump administration granted him asylum.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the suspect had worked with the CIA during the war — an arrangement that would have almost certain required him to be vetted by the agency at the time.
It’s also likely he was vetted before being granted asylum this year. According to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, there have been 8,000 such individuals since Trump took office. Noem and Patel have both suggested in recent congressional testimony that the administration had carefully scrutinized all of them.
“During my tenure, we are going through the databases to make sure that no known or suspected terrorists enter this country to harm our nation,” Patel told the Senate Judiciary Committee in September.
In 2021, Alejandro Mayorkas, then President Joe Biden’s Homeland Security secretary, insisted in a document to Congress that all Afghans were vetted before entering the U.S.
“Prior to entering the United States, Afghan evacuees must successfully complete a rigorous and multi-layered screening and vetting process that includes biometric and biographic screenings conducted by intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism professionals from multiple federal agencies,” he wrote in a 2021 briefing on the program.
The question is how comprehensive that vetting was, considering the rush to settle Afghans who were hastily airlifted to Doha, Qatar, and Europe in the wake of the chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal. Shortly after U.S. troops left Afghanistan, the government in Kabul collapsed and the Taliban took control.
FBI and other U.S. officials have warned for years that vetting refugees from certain war-town countries can be difficult when the U.S. has limited capabilities to gather intelligence in those countries.
According to a New York Times report, the process of resettling Afghan refugees spurred a humanitarian crisis in Doha as refugees packed into airport hangars and tents at a military base there. Flight manifests were at times incomplete or missing, visa or citizenship status was unknown, and there was a lack of demographic data, the Times reported.
Biden administration officials defended the program at the time as a moral imperative, providing protection to Afghans who would have otherwise been killed by the Taliban for cooperating with Americans during the war.
Anti-immigrant conservatives seized on the idea of resettling tens of thousands of desperate Afghans in a matter of months as dangerous.
“Just because an Afghan works with us, and is friends with us, does not actually mean they are safe to bring here,” Sean Parnell, now the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said in 2021.
Advocacy groups say there’s no evidence that the vetting process failed.
AfghanEvac, which works to resettle Afghan refugees who helped the U.S. government during the war, said the immigrants undergo some of the most extensive security vetting of any population in the U.S.
“This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community,” AfghanEvac President Shawn VanDiver said in a statement.
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(SUSITNA, Alaska) — A 6.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Alaska early Thursday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake struck at 8:11 a.m. local time near Susitna, which is about 30 miles from Anchorage, according to the USGS.
A tsunami is not expected to form as a result of the quake, according to the National Tsunami Warning Center.
There were no reports of damage or fatalities.
Alaska experiences more earthquakes than any other region in the U.S., according to the Alaska Seismic Hazards Safety Commission.
The state is located where two tectonic plates — the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate — meet, which can result in strong earthquakes, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.
A 9.2 magnitude earthquake, the second-largest ever recorded, occurred in 1964.
(WASHINGTON) — Two National Guard members from West Virginia remain in critical condition after being shot in downtown Washington, D.C., near the White House on Wednesday, according to officials.
“Unfortunately today, as most families join together to give thanks for the blessings that have been bestowed upon them, two families are shattered and destroyed and torn apart as a result of the actions of one man,” Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said on Thursday.
The victims were identified as 20-year-old Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, officials announced on Thursday.
Wolfe was a member of the Air National Guard in West Virginia who entered the service in February 2019 and had earned numerous service medals. Beckstrom was assigned to a military police company as part of the West Virginia National Guard, entering the service in June 2023, according to the West Virginia National Guard.
The two joined the D.C. task force at the beginning of the mission in early August, the West Virginia National Guard said in a statement.
During the press conference on Thursday, Pirro said the two Guardsmen were sworn in 24 hours prior to being shot. A joint task force spokesperson later said the two Guard members were deputized less than 24 hours before the shooting to “maintain their status to conduct presence patrols,” according to a joint task force spokesperson.
Brigadier Gen. Leland D. Blanchard II, commander of the D.C. National Guard, was emotional while discussing the struggles the families of the victims will face this Thanksgiving — with all their lives “changed forever because one person decided to do this horrific and evil thing.”
The two Guardsmen were armed at the time of the shooting, Jeffrey Carroll, the executive assistant chief for the Metropolitan Police Department, said on Wednesday.
The National Guard was deployed to the nation’s capital as part of President Trump’s federal takeover of the city in August. According to the most recent update, there are 2,188 Guard personnel assigned to D.C.
After the shooting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said President Donald Trump has asked to send another 500 National Guardsmen to D.C.
The suspected shooter was identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who allegedly drove across the country from Washington state to the nation’s capital and targeted the Guardsmen, officials said.
Lakanwal was charged with three counts of assault with the intent to kill while armed and criminal possession of a weapon, but he could also face the charge of first-degree murder depending on the conditions of the Guardsmen, Pirro said.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(LONDON and KYIV, Ukraine)– Russian President Vladimir Putin said a U.S. delegation is expected to arrive in Moscow in the first half of next week to discuss the latest American proposal to end the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
Speaking at a press conference during a visit to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Thursday, Putin said no draft peace agreement had been agreed to in recent talks between the U.S. and Ukraine, only a list of issues to be discussed.
Putin also said it was “pointless” to sign any documents with Ukraine’s current leadership, alleging that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lacked legitimacy to do so.
In a series of hardline statements — his most extensive comments on the latest U.S.-proposed peace plan to date — Putin repeated some of Russia’s most hardline demands, including that Ukrainian troops must withdraw from territory Moscow claims. Putin ruled out signing any ceasefire deal before Ukrainian troops withdraw.
“If Ukraine’s troops leave the territory occupied, then military action will stop. If they won’t leave then we will achieve that by armed force,” Putin said.
He also said recognition of Russia’s occupation of Crimea, Donbas and a swath of eastern and southern Ukraine must be part of negotiations with the U.S.
Putin projected confidence about Russia’s battlefield position, claiming there was a “positive dynamic” everywhere on the front. The president said Russia was “ready in principle” to “fight to the last Ukrainian.”
Ahead of Witkoff’s expected trip to Moscow next week, Putin said the latest American peace proposals “can be the basis for future agreements.”
“Overall, we see that the American side is taking into account our position, which was discussed before Anchorage and after Alaska,” he added, referring to his August summit with Trump. “In some areas, we definitely need to sit down and seriously discuss specific issues,” Putin said.
Putin also answered questions about a leaked recording of a purported phone call between President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and top Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, in which Witkoff appeared to be offering Ushakov advice on how Moscow could present its own peace plans to Trump.
“This may be some kind of fake news,” Putin said. “Maybe they really did eavesdrop. Actually, this is a criminal offense; eavesdropping is illegal in our country. It’s not about us. It’s about the battle of opinions between the collective West and the U.S. over what needs to be done to end the hostilities.”
(WASHINGTON) — Two National Guardsmen were ambushed Wednesday in the nation’s capital in what officials are calling a targeted shooting.”
The suspected gunman has been identified by law enforcement as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal. He will be charged with three counts of assault with the intent to kill while armed and criminal possession of a weapon, officials said during a press conference on Thursday.
“You picked the wrong target, the wrong city and the wrong country and you will be sorry for the violence and the evil you perpetrated in our nation’s capital,” Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters.
Lakanwal is believed to be from Afghanistan and came to the United States in 2021 under the Biden administration, law enforcement sources said. He applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted asylum in April 2025, under the Trump administration, according to the sources.
When asked Thursday about when the suspect was granted asylum, FBI Director Kash Patel did not answer, instead referring to the statement from DHS Secretary Kristin Noem.
Gunman previously worked for the CIA The suspect previously worked with the U.S. government, including the CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, “which ended in 2021 following the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” according to CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
“This individual — and so many others — should have never been allowed to come here,” Ratcliffe said.
Sources said the FBI is currently investigating the shooting as a potential act of international terrorism, suggesting authorities are trying to determine if it may have been inspired by an international terrorist organization.
Patel said officials are looking into whether the suspect had any associates overseas.
Drove across the country to the nation’s capital Officials said the suspect has a wife and five children. He drove from his residence in Washington state to the nation’s capital prior to the shooting and targeted the Guardsmen, officials said.
“Somebody drove across the country to Washington, D.C., to attack America,” said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
A search warrant was conducted at the suspect’s home in Bellingham, Washington, where officials found “numerous electronic devices,” Patel said.
Patel added that this is a “coast-to-coast investigation.” Officials are interviewing individuals at the suspect’s home and in San Diego, where the alleged shooter has ties, Patel said.
Guardsmen were ambushed by the suspect Pirro said the gunman, who “opened fire without provocation, ambush style,” struck one of the victims, leaned over and shot the individual again. The suspect then shot the other Guard member “several times.”
The weapon used in the shooting was a .357 Smith &Wesson revolver, officials said.
The suspect allegedly got shot by a third member of the National Guard and then was subdued, but officials did not say how many shots were fired at or by the suspect.
In an address on Wednesday night, President Donald Trump confirmed that the suspected gunman is believed to have entered the U.S. from Afghanistan.
“It was a crime against our entire nation,” he said. “It was a crime against humanity.”
Trump said the shooting “underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation” and the U.S. “must now reexamine every single alien from Afghanistan who has entered our country under Biden and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country.”
The Guard members, a woman and a man deployed from West Virginia, were conducting “high visibility patrols” at the time of the attack, according to law enforcement officials.
They are being treated at area hospitals and are in critical condition, officials said. The condition of the suspect has not been released.
Pirro said that the suspect’s charges could change depending on the conditions of the victims. If the two Guard members do not survive, Pirro said the suspect will be charged with first-degree murder.
A motive has not immediately been determined; however, Bowser said the individual “appeared to target” the Guard members.
“What we know is that this is a targeted shooting and one individual appeared to target these guardsmen,” according to Bowser.
Patel said the case is being carried out as an attack on a federal law enforcement officer, adding that the victims are “heroes.”
The National Guard was deployed to the nation’s capital as part of President Trump’s federal takeover of the city in August. According to the most recent update, there are 2,188 Guard personnel assigned to D.C.
(WASHINGTON) — Federal officials on Thursday morning revealed more details about the attack that left two National Guard members in critical condition in an apparent “targeted shooting” near the White House.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital, identified the two wounded members of the West Virginia National Guard as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24.
The shooting took place around 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday near the Farragut West Metro station.
Pirro said the suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, allegedly drove cross-country from Washington state to target the guard members.
She said the suspect, an Afghan national, ambushed the guard members, opening fire with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver.
“One guardsman is struck, goes down, and then the shooter leans over and strikes the guardsman again. Another guardsman is struck several times,” she said.
Other National Guard members quickly responded and helped subdue the suspected shooter after he was shot by a guard member, she said.
Brigadier General Leland D. Blanchard II, commander of the D.C. National Guard, was emotional as he talked about the struggles Beckstrom and Wolfe’s families were facing as other Americans celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday.
“Regardless of the outcome, we know that their lives, their family lot, their families, lives are all changed forever because one person decided to do this horrific and evil thing,” he said.
Pirro said that the suspect will be charged with several counts, including assault with intent to harm and criminal possession of a weapon. She noted that those charges could change depending on the fate of the wounded guard members.
The suspect’s motive is still unclear, according to officials, speaking at a news conference.
FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters the probe is “ongoing investigation of terrorism.”
Investigators searched the suspect’s Bellingham, Washington, home and interviewed tenants for more information, according to Patel. Patel also said interviews were taking place in San Diego, but declined to provide further details.
He noted that the FBI received confirmation from the Department of Defense and CIA “that the subject had a relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces.”
“We are fully investigating that aspect of his background as well, to include any known associates that are either overseas or here in the United States of America,” Patel said.
Lakanwal, who Pirro said had a wife and five children, came to the United States in 2021 under the Biden administration, Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a statement Wednesday evening.
He applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted that status in April of this year, under the Trump administration, according to three law enforcement sources.
“He previously worked with the USG, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar that ended in 2021 following the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement.
“[The suspect] would have been vetted against classified and unclassified holdings when he came here and as part of the asylum process,” said ABC News contributor John Cohen, former head of intelligence for the Department of Homeland Security and a former U.S. counterterrorism coordinator.
“He was actually granted asylum under the Trump administration … This does raise the question whether the administration is focusing enough on terrorism threats versus civil immigration enforcement.”
The White House was briefly put on lockdown on Wednesday but the order was lifted at about 5 p.m. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are spending Thanksgiving at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
The National Guard was deployed to the nation’s capital as part of Trump’s federal takeover of the city and crime crackdown in August. According to the most recent update, there were 2,188 Guard personnel assigned to D.C.
On Tuesday, during the traditional turkey pardoning at the White House, Trump touted his administration’s takeover of D.C. streets. He said it was “one of our most unsafe places anywhere in the United States. It is now considered a totally safe city.”
“You could walk down any street in Washington and you’re going to be just fine. And I want to thank the National Guard. I want to thank you for the job you’ve done here is incredible,” Trump said at the event.
ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Authorities are set to hold a press conference Thursday morning after two National Guard members from West Virginia remain in critical condition after a gunman opened fire on them in an apparent “targeted shooting” near the White House, officials said.
The gunfire broke out around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday, when the unidentified suspect rounded a corner, near the Farragut West Metro station in Washington, D.C., raised his arm with the weapon and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Department Executive Assistant Chief Jeffery Carroll said.
Other National Guard members quickly responded to the shooting and helped subdue the suspected shooter, Carroll said.
“They heard the gunfire and they actually were able to intervene and to hold down the suspect after he had been shot on the ground,” Carroll said of the responding Guard members.
Law enforcement officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel, are scheduled to hold a news conference at 9 a.m. ET on Thursday at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is expected to be present.
The White House was briefly put on lockdown on Wednesday but that the order was lifted at about 5 p.m. President Donald Trump and the first lady are in Florida, where they are spending Thanksgiving at his Mar-a-Lago club.
The suspected gunman has been identified by law enforcement as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, multiple law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
Lakanwal is believed to be from Afghanistan and came to the United States in 2021 under the Biden administration, the sources said. He applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted asylum in April 2025, under the Trump administration, according to three law enforcement sources.
Several sources told ABC News that the FBI is investigating the shooting as a potential act of international terrorism, suggesting authorities are trying to determine if it may have been inspired by an international terrorist organization.
The National Guard was deployed to the nation’s capital as part of Trump’s federal takeover of the city in August. According to the most recent update, there were 2,188 Guard personnel assigned to D.C.
On Tuesday, during the traditional turkey pardoning at the White House, Trump touted his administration’s takeover of D.C. streets. He said it was “one of our most unsafe places anywhere in the United States. It is now considered a totally safe city.”
“You could walk down any street in Washington and you’re going to be just fine. And I want to thank the National Guard. I want to thank you for the job you’ve done here is incredible,” Trump said at the event.
ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
