(WHITESTOWN, Ind.) — An Indiana man has been charged with voluntary manslaughter for fatally shooting a cleaning woman who mistakenly went to the wrong home, prosecutors announced Monday, nearly two weeks after the mother of four was killed.

The suspect, Curt Andersen, has been booked into the Boone County jail on a no bond hold and will appear in court sometime this week, prosecutors said.

The Boone County prosecutor, Kent Eastwood, said the decision to file the charge follows a “comprehensive examination,” in which his office determined Andersen’s actions did not fall under the legal protections provided by the Indiana Stand Your Ground law.

“It’s our contention that the person did not have a reasonable belief that that type of force was necessary, given all the facts that he had at that time,” Eastwood said during a press briefing on Monday.

The shooting occurred the morning of Nov. 5 in a subdivision of Whitestown, located approximately 20 miles northwest of Indianapolis, police said.

Officers responding to a 911 call reporting a possible home invasion shortly before 7 a.m. found the woman dead on the front porch of the residence with a gunshot wound, Whitestown police said.

The gun had been fired from inside by a resident of the home, police said.

Police later determined the woman was part of a cleaning crew that had mistakenly arrived at the wrong address, and that “the facts gathered do not support” that a home invasion occurred.

The Boone County Coroner’s Office identified the shooting victim as 32-year-old Maria Florinda Rios Perez de Velasquez of Indianapolis. She died from a gunshot wound to the head, the coroner’s office said.

Eastwood said his office started a review of the case on Nov. 10 following a “thorough and professional” police investigation, which included taped witness statements and crime scene diagrams.

The prosecutor said he has received words of support from people who said they were praying for him “because we know you have a difficult decision to make.”

“Honestly, it wasn’t,” he said. “I hate to sound cavalier about this, but it wasn’t a hard decision.” 

Velasquez’s husband told Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV that they had been cleaning homes for seven months and he was with her when she was shot.  

“I never thought it was a shot, but I realized when my wife took two steps back, she looked like she’d been hit in the head,” her husband, Mauricio Velasquez, told WRTV in Spanish.

“She fell into my arms, and I saw the blood. It went everywhere,” he told the station.

They have four children, the youngest 11 months old, according to WRTV.

“This is a tragedy for everyone involved, and our hearts and prayers are with her family as they navigate this difficult time,” Eastwood said.

The prosecutor said this type of case is “very rare” in Boone County, and chastised what he called “false and misleading information” circulating since the shooting, including the claim the person who committed the crime was a police officer.

“This must stop immediately,” he said. “It does not help the process. It does not help this case. It undermines the integrity of the judicial process. It spreads confusion and it harms both the victim’s family and the accused’s right to a fair trial.”

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(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — Federal agents fanned out across North Carolina’s largest city over the weekend, detaining more than 130 people in the first 48 hours of its immigration crackdown that has prompted protests and resistance from local leaders.

Greg Bovino, commander-at-large spearheading the crackdown for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), vowed in a social media post on Sunday that his agents would “hit Charlotte like a storm.”

On Monday, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told ABC News that those arrested in Charlotte over the weekend by CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) allegedly “have all broken the immigration laws of our country.”

“Criminal records of those arrested include known gang membership, aggravated assault, possession of a dangerous weapon, felony larceny, simple assault, hit and run, possession of stolen goods, shoplifting, DUI, DWI, and illegal re-entry after prior deportation, a felony,” a DHS spokesperson said. “We will not stop enforcing the laws of our nation until every criminal illegal alien is arrested and removed from our country.”

Of the more than 130 people taken into custody in Charlotte over the weekend, 81 people were arrested in the first five hours of operation “Charlotte’s Web” on Saturday, according to Bovino.

Charlotte is the latest city targeted in a nationwide Trump administration immigration enforcement blitz that has included Los Angeles and Chicago — which, like Charlotte, are Sanctuary Cities that are run by a Democratic mayors.

Federal agents are expected to stay in Charlotte until Friday, according to preliminary information from federal authorities. By the end of the week, about 200 agents are expected to be re-deployed to New Orleans to begin “Operation Catahoula Crunch” in the Big Easy, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

In a joint statement released on Saturday, Charlotte and Mecklenburg County elected officials, including Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, slammed the CBP operations, saying they are “causing unnecessary fear and uncertainty in our community.”

“It is critical for all residents to feel secure in our community and know they can live their lives without being fearful while walking down the street, going to school, work or the grocery store.”

In advance of the CBP arriving in Charlotte, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, released a statement, asking residents to report any “inappropriate behavior” they witness from federal agents.

“If you see any inappropriate behavior, use your phones to record and notify local law enforcement, who will continue to keep our communities safe after these federal agents leave,” Stein said.

In advance of the CBP arriving in Charlotte, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, released a statement, asking residents to report any “inappropriate behavior” they witness from federal agents.

“If you see any inappropriate behavior, use your phones to record and notify local law enforcement, who will continue to keep our communities safe after these federal agents leave,” Stein said.

Over the weekend, eyewitnesses filmed and photographed several incidents in which masked agents arrested residents in Charlotte. The footage captured CPB agents stopping and pulling people from vehicles, and rounding up others at stores and parking lots.

Even naturalized U.S. citizens like 46-year-old Willy Aceituno were not spared from getting snared in “Charlotte’s Web.”

Aceituno told ABC affiliate station WSOC in Charlotte that he was stopped twice within five minutes by federal agents on Saturday. He said the second time he was stopped, agents broke his window and forced him out of his vehicle. He said he told them he was a U.S. citizen.

“They asked me, ‘Hey, give me your papers.’ I say, ‘I’m scared because I give [them to] you five minutes ago’,” said Aceituno, adding that he was released after he showed agents documents proving his citizenship.

The Department of Homeland Security told ABC News that Aceituno was stopped because he was interfering with their operations, an allegation Aceituno denied.

A DHS spokesperson made no apologies for the federal crackdown in Charlotte.

“We are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed,” the DHS spokesperson said in a statement. “There have been too many victims of criminal illegal aliens and President [Donald] Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem will step up to protect Americans when sanctuary politicians won’t.”

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(NEW YORK) — A magistrate judge expressed alarm Monday at what he called “a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps” that may have irreversibly tainted the prosecution of James Comey and violated the former FBI director’s constitutional rights, in a scathing opinion granting Comey’s attorneys access to a vast trove of grand jury evidence. 

Judge William Fitzpatrick ordered the Trump administration to turn over a full transcript and recording of the September grand jury presentation by Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, which he said included instances where she may have made “fundamental misstatements of the law that could compromise the integrity of the grand jury process.”

“The Court recognizes that the relief sought by the defense is rarely granted,” Fitzpatrick said in a ruling Monday. “However, the record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding.” 

Comey pleaded not guilty in October to one count of false statements and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020, amid what critics call Trump’s campaign of retribution against his perceived political foes.

Halligan, Trump’s handpicked U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, sought the indictment of Comey over the objections of career prosecutors after Trump forced out previous U.S. attorney Erik Siebert who sources said had resisted bringing cases against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Halligan, who had no experience as a prosecutor, sought the indictment after Trump, in a social media post, called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to act “NOW!!!” to prosecute Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Fitzpatrick, in Monday’s ruling, wrote, “Having been requested by the government to review the grand jury materials, the Court has identified two statements by the prosecutor to the grand jurors that on their face appear to be fundamental misstatements of the law that could compromise the integrity of the grand jury process.”

Separately, the judge raised concerns that based on materials handed over by the government, it appears the indictment that Halligan ultimately returned in open court may not have been presented or deliberated on by the grand jury, which initially rejected one of the three charges she had sought. 

“If this procedure did not take place, then the Court is in uncharted legal territory in that the indictment returned in open court was not the same charging document presented to and deliberated upon by the grand jury,” Fitzpatrick said. “Either way, this unusual series of events, still not fully explained by the prosecutor’s declaration, calls into question the presumption of regularity generally associated with grand jury proceedings, and provides another genuine issue the defense may raise to challenge the manner in which the government obtained the indictment.”

Based on his outlined concerns about potential government misconduct, Fitzpatrick ordered the government to provide all of the grand jury materials to Comey’s attorneys by 5 p.m. ET Monday. 

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