AUGUSTA, Maine — The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets, several of his close relatives told the Associated Press.
David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat.
Brouillette’s troubling past further challenges how thoroughly the Department of Homeland Security has vetted recruits as it went on a hiring spree to help carry out President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched the crackdown after retaking office, including 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national who was shot and killed by Brouillette on Monday while in his car near his home in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford.
DHS, which hasn’t released the name of the officer who killed Durán Guerrero, has said the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.”
Brouillette didn’t respond to text messages or an email seeking comment. Three relatives who said they had spoken to him since the shooting, including an ex-wife and daughter, said he told them he acted in self-defense.
When reached for comment about Brouillette’s record and his role in Monday’s shooting, ICE spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement that “[w]e will never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers,” and that “[t]he ICE officer in question has nearly a decade of federal law enforcement experience with required training including use of force training.”
The White House referred all questions about the shooting and Brouillette to ICE.
A new career in ICE
Brouillette, 37, told his ex-wife Ashley Brouillette late last year that he had been hired by ICE. She said that because of his long history of psychiatric issues, she thought he was having a mental health episode and she didn’t believe him. She didn’t realize he’d been telling the truth until this week, when videos began circulating online of the moments surrounding the shooting.
Ashley Brouillette told the AP that she spoke to her ex-husband in a Facebook audio call, and he acknowledged that he had killed Durán Guerrero. Their 18-year-old daughter, Madison Brouillette, also told the AP that her father called her Wednesday and said that he shot and killed Durán Guerrero.
David and Ashley Brouillette were high school sweethearts who got married in 2007. She said she divorced him in 2009 because he had become physically violent with her, which began after she got pregnant with their daughter.
According to Ashley Brouillette, he once threw boiling water at her while she was holding their child — an incident her mother, Avis Collins, also recounted.
The abuse continued after she left him, she said.
David Brouillette doesn’t appear to have a criminal record in Maine, as a check with the Maine Department of Public Safety returned no records for him.
But hundreds of family court records obtained from the Augusta District Court clerk’s office detail years of allegations of physical and verbal abuse raised by his second ex-wife on behalf of herself and his daughters.
The ex-wife — whom the AP is not identifying because she fears retaliation — alleged that he had stalked and harassed her and physically and verbally abused his daughter, according to multiple requests for temporary protection orders. Brouillette tackled his teenage daughter and smashed spaghetti in her hair, and during another outburst, he dragged his daughter around the house as she cried, she said.
“Dave needs counseling or something for his PTSD & depression,” she wrote in an application for a temporary protective order on behalf of his teenage daughter that a judge granted in 2021.
In court filings, David Brouillette said that his second ex-wife had slandered him.
His oldest daughter, Madison Brouillette, said she also witnessed her dad’s volatility.
“I watched my dad struggle a lot with a lot of things,” she told the AP. She said she came home from school once and he told her he had been sitting on a tree stump with a gun to his head.
“If you don’t really, truly take care of yourself, there’s no way you can protect other people. And with my dad, he never wanted to get help,” she said.
An immediate relative of David Brouillette who spoke on the condition that their name not be used said he was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder as a child — a diagnosis that Ashley Brouillette confirmed. The immediate relative described him as “extremely mentally ill” and said he attempted suicide twice at age 12 and was hospitalized multiple times.
The relative said they’d been estranged for years after they broke off contact because they feared he would harm them. He did not respond to their outreach this week, the relative added.
A military deployment and law enforcement aspirations
Growing up in Gardiner, a city of about 6,000 people roughly 60 miles northeast of Biddeford, where Monday’s shooting occurred, David Brouillette was enchanted by law enforcement and the military, his relatives said.
High school yearbook photos show he was a member of the school’s Naval Junior ROTC, and he wrote that he planned to go to college and become a police officer.
Brouillette was initially rejected by military recruiters because of his mental health diagnoses, but recruiters encouraged him to go off his medications for a year and reapply, which he did, his immediate relative said.
He was eventually able to enlist.
According to U.S. military records, Brouillette enlisted as a chemical equipment repairer in the Maine Army National Guard but then changed jobs to be a medical logistics specialist. He was in the Guard from November 2007 until January 2010, according to records provided by the Pentagon.
A 2009 article in the Kennebec Journal listed Brouillette as a private in the Maine Army National Guard’s 152nd Maintenance Company in Augusta.
In January 2010, he joined the regular Army as a human intelligence collector. Brouillette deployed to Afghanistan from May 2012 to February 2013 and eventually left the Army as a sergeant in December 2015.
His immediate relative believes Brouillette’s time abroad worsened his emotional struggles: “Afghanistan destroyed him — trained him to be a killing monster, a machine. They took someone who was extremely mentally ill and turned him into a killing machine.”
Life after the Army
After his discharge, Brouillette held a hodgepodge of jobs — some in or adjacent to law enforcement — and was injured in an accident while training to become a firefighter, public records and court documents show.
Brouillette worked for the Maine Correctional Center — a medium-security prison — and for the state’s Health and Human Services Department, spending less than a year at each.
In 2019, court documents show, he was a police officer at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center near the state capital, Augusta. A Veterans Affairs department spokesperson on Thursday referred questions about Brouillette’s employment to DHS.
But by the end of 2021, he wrote in a text message included in court filings, he was broke, going to school full time and making money delivering food for DoorDash.
Brouillette was enrolled in a firefighting program at Southern Maine Community College and was struck in the head by a steel beam while unloading a trailer at a training facility, according to a lawsuit he filed over his injury.
He sustained a concussion and post-concussive syndrome, with symptoms including impaired memory, cognitive deficits, headaches, vertigo and light sensitivity, and was unable to complete the program, according to the lawsuit, which was settled out of court.
In recent years, court filings show, he was collecting disability pay through the VA. He also drove a truck but quit in January 2025, citing health issues.
In March 2025, Brouillette passed an exam to become a real estate sales agent. His license was active until December. In a Facebook post, Realty of Maine announced Brouillette would be working in the firm’s Bangor office.
“David lives in Maine after retiring from the United States Army,” said the post, which has since been deleted. Brouillette is no longer listed as an agent on the firm’s website. Messages seeking comment were left for Realty of Maine.
In March, the Maine agency that handles child support matters filed a lien against him, public records show. The filing suggests that Brouillette may have been in line for a permanent impairment or disability settlement.
‘I don’t think he sees himself as a killer’
In late 2025, around the time he joined ICE, his ex-wife Ashley said he left a three-minute voicemail mocking her for taking out a restraining order against him. According to the message she shared with the AP, he repeatedly called her “disgusting” and suggested that she and the other women and girls in her “bloodline” should die.
“And all of you should have your f— throats cut,” the voicemail said. “Yeah, you should. Am I threatening that I’m gonna do that? Nope. Nope. But do I think that you should have your f— throats cuts? Or should have had them cut? Yep.”
She said she broke off contact with him until Wednesday, when his picture began circulating online.
Ashley Brouillette reached out to his current wife on Facebook and they spoke on the phone for several minutes. Her ex-husband spoke with her, according to cellphone screenshots of the phone exchange she shared with the AP. He acknowledged he had fatally shot Durán Guerrero.
“He was asking if I could tell them that he was a good person and not to talk about the abuse and stuff that I had endured while with him and he said that the most important thing is his character right now,” she said.
She said he told her he is now hiding in protective custody.
“I asked him why he did it,” she said. “He said it was a justified shooting. The guy was trying to run him over with a car.”
His daughter also said he told her it was justified.
“I don’t think he sees himself as a killer,” Madison Brouillette said.
“I think he thinks that he genuinely did the right thing,” she added. “All he said was that he did what he had to do. He said that he had to protect himself.”
Brook, Sisak, Swinhart and Galofaro write for the Associated Press. AP reporter Will Weissert contributed to this report.
Loved up Pete Wicks makes rare romance comment amid Olivia Attwood relationship
A LOVED-UP Pete Wicks has made a rare romantic comment amid his Olivia Attwood relationship – just a week after they went official.
The couple have been trying to keep their relationship under wraps for months, but thrilled fans recently when they finally hard launched their romance.
In the latest episode of his latest Staying Relevant podcast that he co-hosts with best pal Sam Thompson, 33, a smitten Pete, 37, talked about what makes him happy in a relationship.
The usually gruff reality star was asked what his “love languages are”, to which he replied: “Mine I would probably say are physical touch, quality time, and acts of service.”
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Co-host Sam then agreed, and said that his was also “physical touch”.
The latest revelation comes just a week after Pete and his girlfriend Olivia, 35, FINALLY went Instagram official.
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The couple had been keeping fans guessing ever since the beginning of the year, but had been spotted out on several cosy dates.
It came when the former Towie star flew out to Ibiza as Olivia filmed a new series of her show, Bad Boyfriends.
Loved-up Pete then shared a series of black and white shots, which saw them cuddled up together.
In a perfect hard launch, he captioned the snaps with: “I guess someone has to go first…IBIZA” followed by a black heart emoji.
Best pal Sam was quick to comment: “Never thought I’d see the day YOU hard launch!! couldn’t be happier for you brother.”
Their romance started after Olivia revealed she had split from her husband Bradley Dack, 32, at the beginning of the year.
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Katie Price makes rare comment about Victoria Beckham feud
KATIE Price has made a rare reference to her infamous feud with Victoria Beckham – 26 years after their war over Dane Bowers.
During the latest episode of her podcast The Katie Price Show, the 48-year-old shared her surprising true feelings about Victoria, 52.
Speaking to sister Sophie, 36, Katie insisted she is completely over their fall-out and would even welcome the chance to bump into her.
She said: “I’ve got no issue with Victoria.
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“There’s no feud between us. Well, I don’t know if she has one against me. If I saw her, I’d say hello, I haven’t got a problem.”
In 2000, when Katie was still working as her glamour model alter-ego Jordan, the famous women went to war over Katie’s then-boyfriend Dane, 46.
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After Spice Girl Victoria and Another Level singer Dane launched their solo careers, they teamed up with True Steppers for garage anthem Out of Your Mind.
It was Victoria’s first single after Spice Girls split and Katie later confessed their close working relationship during the mammoth promotional trail for the track sparked insecurities about her relationship with Dane.
Writing in her autobiography Being Jordan, she said: “I thought something was going on, I thought, ‘is he obsessed with her?’”
Katie also took aim at Victoria during interviews, criticising her for wearing a fake lip ring during performances with Dane.
And Posh was no better during the catfight, firing back: “Jordan does full frontals with her crotch and t**s out and she says I’m a bad influence by wearing a fake ring? I think she’s vile.”
Things between the warring women came to a head when, according to Katie, Victoria turned mean girl when she visited the players lounge at Manchester United, where Posh’s husband David, 51, played at the time.
Katie maintains to this day that, upon spotting her, Victoria launched into a rendition of Who Let The Dogs Out.
In 2024 Katie dragged up the past during an episode of her podcast, saying: “I remember them days with Victoria Beckham.
“When she sang Who Let The Dogs Out at me in the Manchester United Lounge.”
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‘Children of Blood and Bone’ film drama continues with a new claim
On the heels of the trailer reveal for the big-screen adaption of “Children of Blood and Bone,” the book’s author is claiming in a new video that an on-set ordeal traumatized her — and fans have been left with more questions than answers.
On Wednesday, Tomi Adeyemi upped the ante when discussing the ongoing behind-the-scenes drama that’s overshadowed the new film. Although the author, in her latest video on the falling-out, hinted at a painful ordeal that unfolded on set, fans are still scratching their heads as to what exactly happened and who was involved.
“I’m gonna post this so ideally I won’t have to talk about this anymore,” she said in a five-minute, 40-second video posted to social media. “And what I’m about to share is not a secret to the people involved. It’s a reality that I’ve had to live with for about a year and a half, and everyone involved, at least at the highest level, has been made aware of this reality, and they haven’t done anything to make it better. If anything, they’ve only antagonized me, and I accept that, but I also accept if I don’t say something, I think it’s just going to be worse.
“I’m not gonna speak on what I endured to make it through the young adult trilogy, and I’m not going to speak about everything that I also suffered through to make the adaptation a reality,” she continued. “I’m actually only going to speak about what happened after I left that set of my own film adaptation, hyperventilating and sobbing, and there are many witnesses, so it’s not really a secret.”
The author continued that, when she returned to America from an overseas filming location, she suffered “such severe somatic pain and so many panic attacks” that she knew she would never be able to watch the film.
“But as it is being marketed, and as I am still being antagonized behind the scenes, which is where I hoped all of this would stay, it’s become apparent to me that reality needs to at least be made known so that you guys can understand how this film — which I worked on to make it a little better for us to be alive — is also the worst thing I have ever had to live through, and I don’t wish to speak on it anymore.”
Adeyemi concluded that she never wants to hear about the film adaption again, and then she seemingly threw shade at director Gina Prince-Bythewood, whom she co-wrote the screenplay with, saying, “I don’t have anything to say about the people who made it. I do not care anymore. I’m trying to move on. This video might make it worse, but I don’t know how it can be any worse.”
Representatives for Prince-Bythewood and Paramount Pictures did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
Earlier this month, the Nigerian American author posted a since-deleted video on TikTok that also left her followers puzzled in which she said there was a reason she stopped promoting the forthcoming film. Although she didn’t spell out the reason, she posted a screen shot of a February 2025 text exchange with one of the film’s stars, Amandla Stenberg, in which she told the actor not to use her name in interviews and then blocked her.
Stenberg, who is African American and Danish, had been at the center of a casting controversy due to claims that colorism was at play when she landed the role of Princess Amari. (Read more about the controversy here.)
On Monday, Paramount held a “Children of Blood and Bone” trailer launch event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City. In a discussion moderated by “Master of None” actor Lena Waithe, Prince-Bythewood and the A-list cast talked about the making and almost-not-making of the film, and Prince-Bythewood seemed to reveal her stance on the fallout over Stenberg’s casting.
The director said her big-screen adaptation was “beautifully inspired by Nigeria and also inclusive of the whole diaspora. We wanted all of us to be able to see ourselves within this, just our complete and utter humanity, all the beautiful hues.”
In the comments section under Adeyemi’s Wednesday video, frustrated fans asked the author to be more transparent while others suggested maybe a non-disclosure agreement was hindering her ability to offer any specifics on the incident.
“Children of Blood and Bone” is slated to hit theaters Jan. 15.
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Trump and DOJ ask Supreme Court to toss $83 million defamation verdict in E. Jean Carroll case
WASHINGTON — President Trump and the Justice Department are asking the Supreme Court to toss an $83 million defamation verdict won by writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of sexual assault, saying he can’t be sued for comments he made while he was president.
It’s the second time Trump has asked the justices to nix damages awarded by a jury to Carroll, a longtime advice columnist and former TV talk show host. The Supreme Court refused in June to hear his appeal of another verdict, for $5 million, that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
The latest case centers on comments Trump made during his first term as president. The Justice Department wants to invoke the Westfall Act, which shields government employees from being sued for doing their jobs.
“Absent this Court’s intervention, the sitting President is facing nearly a hundred million dollars of personal liability for conduct that was well within the scope of his federal office,” federal attorneys wrote. “That alone deserves this Court’s attention.”
The appeal was filed electronically and is expected to be formally docketed with the court Wednesday.
Trump’s lawyers, meanwhile, argued that an appeals court “engaged in procedural contortions” to avoid addressing Trump’s claims that presidential immunity protects him from the $83 million award because he made the statements in question in 2019 while he was president.
The lawyers argued that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled in a manner that “cries out for this Court’s review in this unprecedented case” and called the damages “grossly excessive.”
“This is the first case in our nation’s history in which a court has imposed damages liability on a president for his conduct in office,” the lawyers wrote.
Carroll’s lawyers have declined to comment on the latest Trump filing.
Trump has long argued he cannot be sued over comments he made about Carroll during his first term where he disavowed knowing her and attacked her motivations for going public with her story in a recent memoir. He’s also asking the Supreme Court justices to reconsider their rejection of his appeal in the $5 million verdict.
The appeal comes about two years after the Supreme Court granted Trump broad immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.
Carroll testified twice before New York juries that Trump sexually assaulted her in spring 1996 in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury retailer across the street from Trump Tower. She first went public with the claims in a 2019 memoir.
She sued Trump for defamation after he accused her of making up the allegation to help book sales, adding that he’d never met her and “she’s not my type.” He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
A Manhattan jury awarded her $83 million in damages in January 2024. Lower courts have so far rejected Trump’s appeals to overturn the verdict, though the New York-based appeals court split over the decision and agreed to delay that payout until the Supreme Court weighs in.
In 2023, another jury said Carroll was entitled to $5 million after concluding that Trump had subjected her to sexual abuse in the department store encounter and for defamation for remarks he had made after his first term ended. That judgment has been paid.
The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.
Whitehurst and Neumeister write for the Associated Press. Neumeister reported from New York.
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Love Island’s Aidan tries to salvage Priya relationship after ‘nasty’ comment
Love Island fans have been left furious after dramatic scenes played out between Aidan and Priya and he tried to salvage his relationship with her after his “disrespectful” comment
23:23, 22 Jul 2026Updated 23:23, 22 Jul 2026
Love Island fans have been left furious after dramatic scenes played out between Aidan and Priya(Image: ITV/Shutterstock)
Love Island fans have been left furious after dramatic scenes played out between Aidan and Priya. The couple had been going strong on the ITV2 reality dating show, but things went awry when Aidan made a comment about his significant other, claiming that she “pounced” on him when they were in bed.
The property broker, 23, came under fire from the public and his fellow contestants for the way he spoke, and swept the board on Wednesday night’s episode during the Graftie Awards, scooping up publicly voted titles of Flirtiest Performance, Plot Twist Award, and Raunchiest Moment.
After it all played out, Priya and Aidan had a heart-to-heart about where they are at as a couple as they went on their first date, with Aidan trying to explain that he doesn’t necessarily have feelings for the business development manager, 25, but still hopes to build some sort of future with her.
Speaking about his comment directly, she told him: “It makes a girl feel a certain type of way… it’s nasty.”
Later on, around the makeup table, the girls tried to persuade Priya that Aidan’s comment was “disrespectful” and opined that he would never have said it if he really did love her.
Taking to X, one fan said: “this series is just a priya humiliation ritual atp, and another said: “Priya… Calm down!”…. SORRY!???? Aidan bro dont piss me off”
A third wrote: “I’m sorry but Priya is not in the wrong. What Asian said is digusting.” A fourth said: “you definitely did deserve them aidan”
Other Islanders, including Jasmine, have accused the couple of being “fake” and viewers certainly had a lot to say about that as well.
One said: “Why can’t we vote couples out? I am so sick of mica and samraj and Aidan and priya they really don’t need any more time in there blowing their own horns saying there still there. ITS CAUSE WE CANT PUBLICLY VOTE.”
Another said: “Jas I like you but Julia’s opinion has f*ck all to do with her wanting to see Aidan and Priya together. We can all see that their connection isn’t real by the way Aidan carries himself. Please REST.”
Another said: “Jasmine wants Aiden’s validation so bad and it’s so disgusting to watch. This is a well educated woman embarrassing herself on live TV for bunch of losers. “
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Sony, Alamo Drafthouse reportedly in talks to take over Cinerama Dome
The ongoing saga of the Cinerama Dome, among the most iconic movie theaters in Los Angeles, took another twist Tuesday. Reports surfaced that Sony and Alamo Drafthouse, the theater chain owned by the company, have been in talks to take over operation of the venue.
The theater and the adjacent 14-screen ArcLight Hollywood multiplex have been closed since March 2020. In April 2021 it was announced that the venue would not be reopening and it has sat dormant ever since, becoming the focus of intense public interest.
The news of Sony and Alamo’s interest in the property was first reported by Deadline. Representatives for Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A city hearing in May regarding alcohol sales at the site provided a rare opportunity for public comment on the property.
“I know that this has been hard and it has seemed like the citizens versus the ownership — that’s not what it is,” local preservation advocate Kim Cooper said. “People want to come together and help and bring this place back.”
The Dome has long been owned by the family of William R. Forman — the founder of Pacific Theatres — who opened the Dome in 1963. In an interview with The Times following the May meeting, Elizabeth Peterson-Gower, a land use consultant representing the venue’s owners, said the owners hoped to have a reopening time frame “in the near future.”
Sony purchased the Austin, Texas-based Alamo Drafthouse in 2024, with venues in major cities all across the U.S., including L.A. Though the Drafthouse chain was rooted in a fan-friendly ethos and a notoriously strict no-phones policy in its theaters, the company has recently come under fire for switching up the ordering system for its in-seat food service, forcing patrons to pull out their phones during a movie.
The Cinerama Dome news comes on the heels of a strong summer of moviegoing, as audiences have been flocking to theaters to see movies such as “The Odyssey,” “Toy Story 5,” “Backrooms” and “Obsession.” There has been a newfound attention on theatrical presentation and film formats, including the limited number of venues capable of projecting Imax 70mm or 70mm film, around the country.
Theatergoing in L.A. has been undergoing a renaissance of its own. The Alex Theatre in Glendale is showing a first-run movie with “The Odyssey” for the first time since 1991, while the American Cinematheque has relaunched the Village Theatre in Westwood under the new name the Directors Village to acknowledge the consortium of filmmakers who took over ownership.
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ICE officer in Maine shooting has history of terrifying, violent behavior, family and records say
AUGUSTA, Maine — The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets, several of his close relatives told the Associated Press.
David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat.
Brouillette’s troubling past further challenges how thoroughly the Department of Homeland Security has vetted recruits as it went on a hiring spree to help carry out President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched the crackdown after retaking office, including 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national who was shot and killed by Brouillette on Monday while in his car near his home in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford.
DHS, which hasn’t released the name of the officer who killed Durán Guerrero, has said the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.”
Brouillette didn’t respond to text messages or an email seeking comment. Three relatives who said they had spoken to him since the shooting, including an ex-wife and daughter, said he told them he acted in self-defense.
When reached for comment about Brouillette’s record and his role in Monday’s shooting, ICE spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement that “[w]e will never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers,” and that “[t]he ICE officer in question has nearly a decade of federal law enforcement experience with required training including use of force training.”
The White House referred all questions about the shooting and Brouillette to ICE.
A new career in ICE
Brouillette, 37, told his ex-wife Ashley Brouillette late last year that he had been hired by ICE. She said that because of his long history of psychiatric issues, she thought he was having a mental health episode and she didn’t believe him. She didn’t realize he’d been telling the truth until this week, when videos began circulating online of the moments surrounding the shooting.
Ashley Brouillette told the AP that she spoke to her ex-husband in a Facebook audio call, and he acknowledged that he had killed Durán Guerrero. Their 18-year-old daughter, Madison Brouillette, also told the AP that her father called her Wednesday and said that he shot and killed Durán Guerrero.
David and Ashley Brouillette were high school sweethearts who got married in 2007. She said she divorced him in 2009 because he had become physically violent with her, which began after she got pregnant with their daughter.
According to Ashley Brouillette, he once threw boiling water at her while she was holding their child — an incident her mother, Avis Collins, also recounted.
The abuse continued after she left him, she said.
David Brouillette doesn’t appear to have a criminal record in Maine, as a check with the Maine Department of Public Safety returned no records for him.
But hundreds of family court records obtained from the Augusta District Court clerk’s office detail years of allegations of physical and verbal abuse raised by his second ex-wife on behalf of herself and his daughters.
The ex-wife — whom the AP is not identifying because she fears retaliation — alleged that he had stalked and harassed her and physically and verbally abused his daughter, according to multiple requests for temporary protection orders. Brouillette tackled his teenage daughter and smashed spaghetti in her hair, and during another outburst, he dragged his daughter around the house as she cried, she said.
“Dave needs counseling or something for his PTSD & depression,” she wrote in an application for a temporary protective order on behalf of his teenage daughter that a judge granted in 2021.
In court filings, David Brouillette said that his second ex-wife had slandered him.
His oldest daughter, Madison Brouillette, said she also witnessed her dad’s volatility.
“I watched my dad struggle a lot with a lot of things,” she told the AP. She said she came home from school once and he told her he had been sitting on a tree stump with a gun to his head.
“If you don’t really, truly take care of yourself, there’s no way you can protect other people. And with my dad, he never wanted to get help,” she said.
An immediate relative of David Brouillette who spoke on the condition that their name not be used said he was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder as a child — a diagnosis that Ashley Brouillette confirmed. The immediate relative described him as “extremely mentally ill” and said he attempted suicide twice at age 12 and was hospitalized multiple times.
The relative said they’d been estranged for years after they broke off contact because they feared he would harm them. He did not respond to their outreach this week, the relative added.
A military deployment and law enforcement aspirations
Growing up in Gardiner, a city of about 6,000 people roughly 60 miles northeast of Biddeford, where Monday’s shooting occurred, David Brouillette was enchanted by law enforcement and the military, his relatives said.
High school yearbook photos show he was a member of the school’s Naval Junior ROTC, and he wrote that he planned to go to college and become a police officer.
Brouillette was initially rejected by military recruiters because of his mental health diagnoses, but recruiters encouraged him to go off his medications for a year and reapply, which he did, his immediate relative said.
He was eventually able to enlist.
According to U.S. military records, Brouillette enlisted as a chemical equipment repairer in the Maine Army National Guard but then changed jobs to be a medical logistics specialist. He was in the Guard from November 2007 until January 2010, according to records provided by the Pentagon.
A 2009 article in the Kennebec Journal listed Brouillette as a private in the Maine Army National Guard’s 152nd Maintenance Company in Augusta.
In January 2010, he joined the regular Army as a human intelligence collector. Brouillette deployed to Afghanistan from May 2012 to February 2013 and eventually left the Army as a sergeant in December 2015.
His immediate relative believes Brouillette’s time abroad worsened his emotional struggles: “Afghanistan destroyed him — trained him to be a killing monster, a machine. They took someone who was extremely mentally ill and turned him into a killing machine.”
Life after the Army
After his discharge, Brouillette held a hodgepodge of jobs — some in or adjacent to law enforcement — and was injured in an accident while training to become a firefighter, public records and court documents show.
Brouillette worked for the Maine Correctional Center — a medium-security prison — and for the state’s Health and Human Services Department, spending less than a year at each.
In 2019, court documents show, he was a police officer at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center near the state capital, Augusta. A Veterans Affairs department spokesperson on Thursday referred questions about Brouillette’s employment to DHS.
But by the end of 2021, he wrote in a text message included in court filings, he was broke, going to school full time and making money delivering food for DoorDash.
Brouillette was enrolled in a firefighting program at Southern Maine Community College and was struck in the head by a steel beam while unloading a trailer at a training facility, according to a lawsuit he filed over his injury.
He sustained a concussion and post-concussive syndrome, with symptoms including impaired memory, cognitive deficits, headaches, vertigo and light sensitivity, and was unable to complete the program, according to the lawsuit, which was settled out of court.
In recent years, court filings show, he was collecting disability pay through the VA. He also drove a truck but quit in January 2025, citing health issues.
In March 2025, Brouillette passed an exam to become a real estate sales agent. His license was active until December. In a Facebook post, Realty of Maine announced Brouillette would be working in the firm’s Bangor office.
“David lives in Maine after retiring from the United States Army,” said the post, which has since been deleted. Brouillette is no longer listed as an agent on the firm’s website. Messages seeking comment were left for Realty of Maine.
In March, the Maine agency that handles child support matters filed a lien against him, public records show. The filing suggests that Brouillette may have been in line for a permanent impairment or disability settlement.
‘I don’t think he sees himself as a killer’
In late 2025, around the time he joined ICE, his ex-wife Ashley said he left a three-minute voicemail mocking her for taking out a restraining order against him. According to the message she shared with the AP, he repeatedly called her “disgusting” and suggested that she and the other women and girls in her “bloodline” should die.
“And all of you should have your f— throats cut,” the voicemail said. “Yeah, you should. Am I threatening that I’m gonna do that? Nope. Nope. But do I think that you should have your f— throats cuts? Or should have had them cut? Yep.”
She said she broke off contact with him until Wednesday, when his picture began circulating online.
Ashley Brouillette reached out to his current wife on Facebook and they spoke on the phone for several minutes. Her ex-husband spoke with her, according to cellphone screenshots of the phone exchange she shared with the AP. He acknowledged he had fatally shot Durán Guerrero.
“He was asking if I could tell them that he was a good person and not to talk about the abuse and stuff that I had endured while with him and he said that the most important thing is his character right now,” she said.
She said he told her he is now hiding in protective custody.
“I asked him why he did it,” she said. “He said it was a justified shooting. The guy was trying to run him over with a car.”
His daughter also said he told her it was justified.
“I don’t think he sees himself as a killer,” Madison Brouillette said.
“I think he thinks that he genuinely did the right thing,” she added. “All he said was that he did what he had to do. He said that he had to protect himself.”
Brook, Sisak, Swinhart and Galofaro write for the Associated Press. AP reporter Will Weissert contributed to this report.
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Man is fired after allegedly sending Aces’ Chelsea Gray racist message
A man who allegedly sent Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray a profane message that included a racist slur has been fired after social media users figured out where he worked.
On Monday, the former Sparks player posted a screenshot on her Instagram Story of a DM she said she received following her team’s loss to the Indiana Fever on Sunday.
“People act like we make this s— up,” Gray wrote. “And the audacity to tell us as athletes to ‘shut up and dribble.’”
Her post included the sender’s user handle. Folks on social media discovered that the man worked for Hilton Grand Vacations and pressured the company to punish him for his alleged misdeed. Initially, the company wrote on X that it was investigating the matter and would “take appropriate action based on the findings of our review.”
Hours later, Hilton Grand Vacations posted that the person allegedly responsible for the racist message “is no longer with the company.”
“His behavior was in violation of multiple company policies and does not reflect our company’s values in any way,” Hilton Grand Vacations stated.
The Aces posted a statement Wednesday on X condemning the messages directed at Gray and offering support for those who stand up against such attacks.
“We stand behind those who have the courage to speak up for themselves,” the organization stated. “We are united with anyone who has been targeted by this type of unacceptable behavior.
“We stand with organizations, like Hilton Grand Vacations, that hold individuals accountable for racist conduct. We commend them for the swift manner in which they acted in addressing this manner.”
The WNBA reposted the Aces’ statement and said it “stands with Chelsea and every member of our league.”
“We unequivocally condemn racism and all forms of hate,” the league wrote. “There is no place for this behavior in sports or anywhere, and we remain committed to protecting the players and fostering an environment built on respect and inclusion.”
As part of the collective bargaining agreement reached in March, the WNBA introduced a no-hate campaign that included a stronger fan code of conduct that specifies punishments for online abuse of players and other inappropriate behaviors.
Still, Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas told reporters last month that she received death threats and racist abuse after an on-court incident in which her fist pressed into Fever star Caitlin Clark’s throat while they were scrambling for the ball. No foul was called at the time, but the WNBA later assessed Thomas a Flagrant 2 foul and suspended her for a game.
Speaking to reporters June 30, Thomas called out the league and commissioner Cathy Engelbert for not doing more to protect players off the court.
“Time and time again, players are going through this and the league remains silent,” Thomas said. “I’m sick and tired of it. It’s time for them to step up and have our backs.”
Engelbert released a statement following Thomas’ comments.
“We are aware of Alyssa Thomas’ comments, and what she and her teammates have experienced is completely unacceptable and not representative of the WNBA community,” the commissioner said. “The league and our security team have been in contact with the Phoenix Mercury organization and remain committed to protecting all players.”
During last weekend’s Fever-Aces game, Gray drew a foul on Clark while driving to the basket, but her elbow also appeared to make contact with the Indiana star’s stomach. Clark doubled over after the whistle in what some said appeared to be an attempt to get a foul called on Gray, but none was called.
The racist message received by Gray did not appear to mention Clark or any specific incident.
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Love Island fans ‘heartbroken’ for Ellie Chadwick after shock comment ahead of exit
Love Island fans were left “heartbroken” for Ellie Chadwick after it was reported that she had quit the series for good after a tumutlous romance with Finley Maddock
Love Island fans have been left ‘heartbroken’ for Ellie Chadwick (Image: ITV/Shutterstock)
Love Island fans were left “heartbroken” for Ellie Chadwick after it was reported that she had quit the series for good and the reason why appeared to emerge during the latest episode.
The real estate videographer, 24, had been taking part in the hit ITV2 reality dating series and was enjoying a blossoming romance with Finley Maddock, but it all started to go wrong when he fell for a bombshell who entered the villa.
During Tuesday night’s episode of the series, Maya Jama told the Islanders they were to play a brand-new game called If You Know, You Know, in which the contestants had to wear blindfolds and headphones.
When their phone vibrated, each couple had to make their way to a podium to read out a controversial statement and then guess who it was who said it in the first place.
One couple read out the claim that “One half of this couple is secretly bored but too polite to admit it” and it was then that Finley said he was “a bit bored.”
The dramatic scenes aired shortly after it was reported that Ellie had walked out of the villa for good, and shocked fans instantly took to social media to predict it was the catalyst.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, one fan said: “Finley has said he is bored of Ellie ??” and another said: “I don’t want to believe Ellie self-evicted for a man who literally said he got bored of her.”
Another said: “Omg Finley said that and they were all in ears to take Ellie back woow see how they are all in each other’s business but will be coming for Julia!”
Another wrote: “Oh was that boring comment to do with why Ellie left?” and a fifth said: “Finley said he’s bored with Ellie! That boy just keeps humiliating her!” On Facebook, one fan explained: “The received a statement that said this couple is one sided and one person is bored, which Finley had said to Kav in private apparently and it never came out, Ellie was clearly upset.”
Another replied: “OMG that heartbreaking for Ellie” and left a sad face emoji to emphasise how they felt. Just before the episode aired, it was reported that Ellie chose to quit the programme altogether, reportedly stemming from hearing the results of a viewer poll for favourite boy and favourite girl, even though she was not dumped by the public.
A source said: “Viewers have seen Ellie threatening to leave across recent episodes, so the news of her now quitting won’t feel like a surprise.
“But in real time, her and Fin reconnected at the recoupling a few days ago so her decision to now leave is a shock. Viewers will see the dramatic action play out in an episode soon.”
The reality star had threatened to quit before, when it looked like Finley had begun to take an interest in Elicia Bailey. In Tuesday night’s episode, she was apparently back together with him, but that was all filmed days ago, and now Ellie has actually left.
Speaking to The Sun, the source added: “The whole fallout of the vote was electric and is going to make for amazing TV. Everyone was devastated that Ellie left, and viewers will definitely be left scratching their heads.”
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Why so many Latin Americans are rooting against Argentina in the World Cup
MEXICO CITY — Argentina may be the last Latin American team standing in the World Cup, but don’t expect many fans in Mexico to be cheering for La Albiceleste — the lads sporting the classic white and blue stripes.
“There’s no way I want the Argentines to win,” said Roberto García, 55, who owns a clothing shop in the Mexican capital. “How can one sympathize with a team that has such a supremacist, racist discourse?”
The Argentine squad — reigning world champions led by seemingly ageless superstar Lionel Messi — faces off Wednesday in a semifinal match against England. Argentina is seeking its fourth World Cup, which would put it in a second-place tie for global titles with Germany and Italy, trailing only Brazil and its five cups.
But Argentina’s performance in the 2026 World Cup has again put the spotlight on a contentious fact of life in world soccer: The current of disdain that the Argentine side has long inspired among a certain segment of Latin American fans, especially those in Mexico.
Reynaldo Flores Jr., 10, center, reacts during the final minutes of a round of 16 knockout match between Mexico and England during a World Cup watch party at Chapter One in Santa Ana on July 5.
(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)
A combination of factors are to blame: Mexico’s repeated World Cup losses to Argentina, a series of questionable refereeing decisions seeming to favor Argentina, Messi’s massive media presence and ongoing discourse on social media — where legitimate analysis coexists with passionate opinions and misinformation.
Deeper cultural resentments are also a factor. Many in the region have long complained that Argentines, many of whom have predominantly European ancestry, think they’re better than the rest of Latin America.
Critics say that Eurocentric superiority complex was on display this summer when Argentine journalist Eduardo Feinmann declared on air, after Mexico was eliminated in a close match with England: “I detest Mexicans, I detest them with my soul. … The envy they feel for us, not only in football but in everything.”
Feinmann’s comments sparked such widespread ire that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum weighed in, calling his remarks “appalling.”
Later, Feinmann said his words were not directed at the Mexican people — while musing that Sheinbaum had bigger things to worry about, like combating narco-trafficking, violence and corruption.
The World Cup by its nature stokes nationalism, and the deployment of stereotypes and even outright racism has long been a feature of the tournament. Last week, for example, a former Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, sparked outrage when he said that the French national soccer team, which includes members with African immigrant backgrounds, “does not have any French players.”
At two Argentina matches during this year’s tournament, fans from the country were recorded hurling racist slurs at an African American streamer. Online critics were quick to dredge up comments by a former Argentinian leader as proof of the country’s bias. “The Mexicans came from the Indians, the Brazilians came from the jungle, but we Argentines came from the ships … from Europe,” former Argentine President Alberto Fernández said in 2021.
A boy wearing an Argentina jersey waves American flags as fireworks explode during the annual Independence Day Celebration in the predominantly Latino community of Lynwood on July 3.
(Mario Tama / Getty Images)
Many Argentines say they, too, are appalled by such comments. “We reject it completely,” said actress Karenina Ivankovic, 37. “But you’ll find rude people everywhere.”
She moved from her native Argentina to Mexico City 13 years ago, and said she is shocked by the wave of “xenophobia” directed at her countrymen during this year’s tournament.
People have sent her nasty messages online, and strangers have stopped her on the street to tell her they hope Argentina loses. And she said several Argentine friends were physically attacked at a festival in Mexico City organized by FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.
People love Argentine music, Ivankovic said. They love Argentine beef.
“But during the World Cup,” she said, “they hate us.”
She thinks that may in part be because of how serious Argentines take their fútbol.
“Argentina lives in crisis,” she said. “Economic crisis, political crisis. Soccer is something that unites us. We say there’s no better hug than after Argentina has scored a goal.”
But at the end of the day, she said, people need to relax and remember that what’s at stake is just a tournament trophy.
“It’s become very political and personal,” she said. “But it’s just a game.”
Even some fans in Mexico express remorse about the wave of anti-Argentine sentiment — much of which has been playing out, sometimes crudely, online.
“It’s too bad that all this hate directed at the Argentines doesn’t allow us to appreciate that they have the best player in the world, Messi,” said Carlos Romero Díaz, 37, a car salesman here who was rooting for the South Americans. “Yes, Argentina generates a lot of anger, but at the end of the day, they score goals and win games.”
While Mexico has never won a World Cup, Mexico City’s iconic Estadio Azteca has been the site of some of Argentina’s greatest soccer triumphs, notably its championship in the stirring 1986 World Cup.
Argentina player Diego Maradona outjumps England goalkeeper Peter Shilton to score with his “Hand of God” goal as England defenders Kenny Sansom (top), Gary Stevens (center) and Terry Fenwick look on during the 1986 FIFA World Cup at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
(Getty Images)
A quarterfinal match between Argentina and England featured two of soccer legend Diego Maradona’s greatest hits: the so-called “Goal of the Century,” by all accounts a masterpiece strike; and Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” goal, an illegal hand-goal that was allowed to stand because no referee saw the infraction.
But Mexico’s losses to Argentina have left a strong mark too. No other team has eliminated Mexico as many times in a World Cup.
After Argentina defeated Mexico 2-0 during group play in the 2022 World Cup, a video from inside the Argentine locker room began circulating, showing Messi — who scored one of the goals — taking off a soccer boot while a Mexican jersey lay on the floor.
Mexican boxer Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez interpreted the scene as the Argentine captain deliberately kicking the jersey and accused him of disrespecting Mexico — an allegation that Messi denied.
Years later, Messi acknowledged that the incident had altered the perception some Mexican fans had of him.
“I’ve always felt very loved by the people of Mexico. I’ve never disrespected anyone,” he said during an interview with “Simplemente Fútbol.”
Although Mexico is at the center of much of the debate, critical sentiment toward Argentina has taken hold among fans from other Latin American countries.
Social media has been flooded with posts from users in Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador and Peru questioning refereeing decisions or expressing disapproval of Argentina, while messages mocking rival teams also proliferated from Argentine accounts.
As Argentina continues its quest for another World Cup title, the debate over whether it has simply been the best team in the tournament or also the one most favored by circumstances will continue to dominate soccer conversation in Latin America.
Staff writers Linthicum and El Reda reported from Mexico City and McDonnell from Boston. Special correspondent Sánchez Vidal reported from Mexico City and special correspondent Andrés D’Alessandro from Buenos Aires.
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Mayor Bass loses another spokesperson amid heavy turnover
A top spokesperson for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass left her administration Monday after a brief tenure, joining a growing list of communications aides who have departed over the past nine months.
Kolby Lee, who started as Bass’ director of communications in February, said he was resigning to spend time with family and loved ones.
“I’m very grateful to Mayor Bass for giving me the opportunity to be part of her team and serve the people of Los Angeles,” Lee said in a statement.
Bass’ communications office said in a statement to The Times, “We thank Kolby for his contribution to the office and wish him and his family well.” Bass is running for reelection against City Councilmember Nithya Raman.
The departures began in October, when Zach Seidl, Bass’ longtime deputy mayor of communications, left for the private sector.
Press secretary Clara Karger left in January after working for the mayor for nearly three years.
Bass then brought on Amanda Crumley to replace Seidl. But Crumley lasted little more than a month, leaving in March.
Lee started as communications director shortly before Crumley’s departure, serving for about five months.
During Lee’s time in the administration, Bass was also receiving pro bono communications help from Yusef Robb, an outside consultant who worked on her 2022 campaign.
Robb was not paid by the city for his work and served in an unofficial role providing comments on important issues, including Bass’ involvement in damage control surrounding the 2025 Palisades fire.
Lee provided comment to The Times in a story published Saturday about Robb’s work for the Bass administration at the same time that he is a crisis communications consultant for Lineage Logistics, the company whose Boyle Heights warehouse erupted in flames last month, inundating the area with toxic smoke and rotting food odors.
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Luke Wilson welcomes first baby with Kendall Yates
Luke Wilson has reportedly welcomed his first child with girlfriend Kendall Yates.
The new parents were spotted with their baby at a Tuesday press event for Wilson’s upcoming Netflix series, “The Hawk,” according to People and Page Six. The “Bottle Rocket” actor and his partner brought their newborn daughter in a carrier to the Newport Beach reception and introduced her to Wilson’s castmates and other attendees, per the outlets’ sources.
Representatives for Wilson did not immediately respond on Thursday to The Times’ request for comment.
Wilson, 54, and Yates, 24, have reportedly been linked since at least 2023. They have mostly kept their relationship away from the spotlight, but attended an afterparty for the Los Angeles premiere of Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1” together in 2024.
The “Idiocracy” actor has addressed his desire to have kids and his role as an uncle over the years. In a 2007 People interview, Wilson — then single — mentioned he “definitely want[ed] [kids] at some point.” In 2023, while promoting “Merry Little Batman,” Wilson spoke about being “a pretty good uncle” to brother Owen Wilson’s kids.
“They’re great little kids,” Wilson said of his nephews in an interview with Conan O’Brien in 2020. “The kind that make me want to have some kids of my own, which I should get on sooner rather than later.”
“I just don’t want to be one of those dads that has to pay somebody in the neighborhood to throw the football with his kid because I can’t,” he joked.
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Judge orders E. Jean Carroll be paid $5M after jury found Trump sexually abused and defamed her
NEW YORK — E. Jean Carroll can be paid the $5.8 million that was set aside after a jury found three years ago that President Trump sexually abused her in 1996 before he became president and defamed her after she publicly revealed the attack, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued an order that says the money can be paid to Carroll, along with interest that has grown since the verdict.
Carroll’s lawyers had requested the disbursement after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the 2023 civil verdict.
Trump had resumed defamatory attacks against Carroll as his lawyers considered asking the high court to reconsider its decision.
Both sides’ attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The jury reached its verdict in a trial that Trump did not attend after Carroll testified that she was sexually abused by him in the dressing room of a Manhattan luxury department store after a flirtatious and friendly chance encounter between them turned violent.
Carroll, 82, first talked about the attack publicly in 2019 in a memoir while Trump was president. He repeatedly insisted that he never knew Carroll. He also accused her of trying to sell books at his expense and having political motives.
Trump is also appealing $83 million in defamation compensation granted to Carroll by a separate Manhattan jury after a January 2024 trial at which Trump briefly testified.
At that trial, Kaplan required the jury to accept the findings of the previous jury and only determine how much money, if any, Trump owed Carroll for comments he made about her as president.
Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press.
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Ex-Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum arrested on drug possession charges
DAPHNE, Ala. — Former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum has been arrested on drug possession charges in Alabama after police say they pulled him over for erratic driving and found marijuana and meth in his vehicle.
It’s the latest legal trouble for the ex-Tallahassee mayor, who narrowly lost to Republican Ron DeSantis for governor in 2018 and was once considered a rising star of the Democratic Party.
Gillum, 46, was arrested on July 2 in Daphne, about 11 miles east of Mobile on Alabama’s Gulf Coast. He is charged with marijuana possession and unlawful possession of a controlled substance, the Daphne Police Department said. Jail records show he was released on July 3.
Court records for Gillum’s case were not yet available, the Baldwin County Clerk of Court’s office said. Information on a lawyer who could speak on his behalf wasn’t immediately available.
A message seeking comment was left for the local district attorney’s office.
Gillum is a co-host of the politically themed Native Land Pod, which won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding News and Information Podcast in 2025. A message seeking comment was left for the podcast’s production company.
In a news release, the Daphne Police Department said officers stopped Gillum’s vehicle around 10:45 p.m. and initiated a probable cause search after one of them noticed a glass pipe on the center console.
They found several rolled marijuana cigarettes and three packages of a substance that tested positive for methamphetamine, police said.
Gillum, who served as mayor of Florida’s capital from 2014 to 2018, came within less than a percentage point of being elected the state’s first Black governor, losing to DeSantis by fewer than 34,000 votes.
In 2020, Gillum was found in a Miami Beach hotel room with a man who had apparently overdosed on drugs. Police said Gillum himself was too inebriated to talk about what happened.
The man survived and no one was ever charged with a crime for the overdose, but Gillum withdrew from public life for months afterward while seeking treatment for alcohol abuse and depression. Months later, he told a TV interviewer that he had to come to grips with what he had done.
“So much of my recovery has been about trying to get over shame,” Gillum said on the Tamron Hall talk show in September 2020.
In 2022, Gillum was indicted on federal conspiracy and wire fraud charges for allegedly funneling tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations through third parties back to himself for personal use.
A 2023 trial ended in a hung jury on those charges and an acquittal on charges that Gillum lied to undercover FBI agents posing as developers who paid for a 2016 trip he took with his brother to New York, including hotel rooms, meals, a boat tour and a ticket to the hit Broadway show “Hamilton.”
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Platner says he will ‘reflect’ on Maine Senate campaign after woman accuses him of sexual assault
A woman who previously dated Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner said he drunkenly forced her to have sex after she told him to stop, according to a Politico report released Monday.
Platner denied the allegation and said he would be considering next steps for his campaign.
“Regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we’re taking the time to reflect on the best path forward,” he said in a video released on social media.
Jenny Racicot, who lives in Maine, told Politico that Platner entered her home in 2021 while drunk and assaulted her. Racicot said she had been in an on-and-off relationship with Platner, but she cut off contact with him after that night and told him the incident wasn’t consensual. A voicemail left at a number listed for Racicot seeking comment did not receive an immediate response.
An email and phone message from the Associated Press seeking comment were sent to Platner’s campaign on Monday.
“Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false,” Platner said in his video.
As of Monday, Platner had canceled a handful of campaign town halls planned in Maine.
Several lawmakers and groups that have supported Platner, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and the organization he founded, Our Revolution, as well as Rep. Ro Khanna, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Khanna has supported Platner through several scandals but said last month on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that “if there was evidence of violence, I would not support him. If there was evidence of sexual assault, I’d have zero support for him.”
Platner secured the nomination to become Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate last month, but state law does include a provision for Democrats to replace him ahead of the general election.
According to the statute, party officials may select a new nominee if a candidate who won the primary withdraws by 5 p.m. July 13. The replacement candidate must be named by July 27.
The Associated Press generally does not name victims of sexual assault, but in this case Racicot spoke in an interview with Politico.
Kruesi writes for the Associated Press.
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Trump posts doctored photo of the Obamas and Air Force One with graffiti spray-painted on plane
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Sunday posted a falsified image of former President Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, waving before boarding an Air Force One that had been spray-painted with graffiti.
It came months after another post by the president that showed the couple as primates in a jungle. That one was deleted after stiff, bipartisan backlash.
The latest image shows the Obamas smiling and waving at the top of stairs alongside a baby blue and white presidential plane with graffiti painted on it that included the Democrat’s campaign slogan “Yes We Can,” “Obama” and “BLM,” short for Black Lives Matter. The post also shows graffiti in Arabic on the plane that says the phrase “alhamdulillah,” which means “praise be to God” or “thank God.”
The use of graffiti is a coded message to remind people of crime and urban decay and has been used in racist messaging against Black people in the past.
Trump has a yearslong record of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas, and of using incendiary, sometimes racist, rhetoric. That includes everything from feeding the lie that Obama was not born in the United States to crude generalizations about majority-Black countries and posts that have sparked anger on his Truth Social website.
The president’s post of the Obamas as primates came in February, during the first week of Black History Month. It was removed following widespread criticism from civil rights leaders and Republican senators. Trump refused to apologize, however, and a staffer was later blamed for making the post.
This time, the presidential plane is a sensitive topic since Trump last week took his maiden voyage on a new Air Force One — a retrofitted Boeing 747-800 worth $400 million gifted by Qatar. The aircraft’s trademark light blue hull that helped Air Force One blend into the sky was replaced with Trump’s preferred color scheme: a navy-blue belly with red and gold stripes.
After giving a speech on the National Mall in Washington to mark Independence Day and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on Saturday night, Trump had no public events Sunday and spent the day at his golf club in Virginia. He’s scheduled to leave Monday for Turkey to attend a summit with NATO allies.
The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Nor did a spokesperson for the Obamas.
Sunday’s post also followed one from last month when Trump shared an doctored image of Obama’s new presidential library in Chicago so that it looked like the building had a large bag of garbage on top and was surrounded by a wasteland. “The Obama Library ten years from now will be a ‘Mecca’ for those who hate America! President DJT,” he wrote then.
Trump has frequently criticized the Obama library in public comments, and he posted the library image twice on his social media platform.
The Air Force One image was part of a series of Sunday posts Trump made on Truth Social, including a past picture that appeared to show Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni grinning and gazing upward at Trump under the words “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED.”
That, too, could touch off a new firestorm at this week’s meetings in Turkey, since Trump had suggested that Meloni asked “over and over” for a photo with him during the recent Group of Seven summit.
Trump’s comments prompted Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to cancel a subsequent, planned trip to Washington, while Meloni called Trump’s account “completely fabricated,” saying “Italy and I never beg.”
Weissert writes for the Associated Press.
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Katie Price makes rare emotional comment about her ‘Prince’ Peter Andre as she opens up on ex in new documentary Social
KATIE Price has made a rare sentimental remark about ex-husband Peter Andre in her new Sky documentary.
The reality TV star, 48, shared a sweet comment about ex Peter and how shy he used to make her feel in her latest series, Katie Price: Nothing To Hide.
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In the documentary, Katie is sitting down watching her old I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! footage — the show on which she met Peter.
She then opened up about just how much she felt for Peter, calling him her “Prince”.
Katie said: “If I like someone like I liked him, I go all shy. I can’t look at them, and I go all like giddy. It’s pathetic, but that’s what I was like.
“You could see we were into each other and it is so cute to look at. By the end of it I was smitten with him.
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“Meeting Pete and being with Pete were the best times of my life, without a doubt.
“I had my prince, I knew I would be with him forever.”
Katie and Peter met in 2004 and started dating shortly after their time on I’m A Celeb ended.
They got engaged later that same year and tied the knot in 2005.
They went on to have two children, Princess and Junior, before divorcing in 2009.
Earlier this year, Katie married for the fourth time, tying the knot with self-proclaimed millionaire Lee Andrews.
The pair’s whirlwind wedding came after just a week of speaking online.
Recently Katie and Lee reunited after Lee was imprisoned in Dubai under accusations of fraud.
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TV host forced to apologise after ‘weird’ World Cup comment angers fans
Abigail Velez took to social media to issue her apology for her ‘thoughtless comment’
16:33, 28 Jun 2026Updated 16:33, 28 Jun 2026
ABC host Abigail Velez apologised for her comment
An ABC News reporter has apologised after sparking backlash with an on-air comment about Bosnia-Herzegovina ahead of the country’s World Cup clash with the United States.
Abigail Velez, who works for ABC7 Los Angeles, was reporting from a USA viewing party in Long Beach, California, when she made the remarks while discussing America’s next opponent in the tournament.
Following the US team’s 3-2 defeat to Turkey, Velez told viewers: “The next round, Team USA will play Bosnia next Wednesday and one thing about Bosnia, I could not point out where it is on a map.”
She then added: “I don’t know the first thing about Bosnia and I don’t want to know because Team USA, we’re back, we’re better than ever.”
The comments quickly spread on social media, where Bosnian football fans and other viewers criticised the report as disrespectful.
One account, Bosnian Football, shared the clip on X and wrote: “My goodness, the stereotypes write themselves…”
Another viewer said: “Some competitive talk is always fun, but that’s not the way to do it.”
A third added: “The weirdest thing about Americans is that they feel it’s like a flex to say ‘I don’t even know where they are on a map.'”
Velez later issued an apology on X, formerly Twitter, admitting she had gone too far while trying to inject humour into her World Cup coverage.
She wrote: “In a poor effort to have a little fun with World Cup competition, I took it too far and made a thoughtless comment on air that was insensitive and inappropriate. I apologise to the people of Bosnia and the Bosnian Football team.”
She added: “The World Cup is supposed to be about uniting communities around the world, and my comment didn’t reflect that spirit. Wishing all the teams the very best as they continue their World Cup journey.”
Despite her apology, not everyone was convinced. One person replied: “This is not a pure apology. This is just a pr stunt to protect one’s reputation from being scrutinized.” Another pointed out that the current president of ABC News, Almin Karamehmedovic, is actually from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Not everyone was offended though. One user shared, “There is absolutely no reason to say sorry for that. The Bosnians don’t even know where Pigeon Forge and Rochester are on the map. Do you see them saying sorry?”
The apology came ahead of the USA’s knockout match against Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is due to take place at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium on Wednesday.
The United States finished top of Group D after winning two of their three matches, while Bosnia-Herzegovina progressed from Group B as one of the best third-placed sides.
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Tom Sandoval’s girlfriend arrested after patio fire pit altercation
Tom Sandoval’s girlfriend Victoria Lee Robinson was arrested after the two had an altercation that involved her father being pushed into a lit fire pit.
Sandoval, known for the cheating “Scandoval” that erupted on the reality television series “Vanderpump Rules,” filed a restraining order against the model and her father J. Will Robinson (who goes by Will) over a June 3 incident that was partially caught on video. He was granted a temporary restraining order and a subsequent hearing was set for July 16.
According to court documents obtained by The Times, the altercation involving Sandoval, Victoria Robinson and J. Will Robinson happened in the early morning hours after the couple returned home from a night out at a bar. Sandoval claimed in the petition that since the two became a couple in February 2024, Victoria Lee Robinson has been violent and attacked him physically, as well as changing the passwords on his phone and social media and tracking him using Airtags.
“The most recent physical incident occurred on June 3 when [she] punched my face and injured my neck and ear. During this same incident, Mr. Robinson, grabbed me and punched an approximately 12-inch hole in the door of my spare bedroom where I was barricading myself,” reads the petition.
In a video, obtained by TMZ, that captured part of the June 3 incident, Victoria Robinson and Will Robinson are seen sitting next to a lit fire pit on the patio when Sandoval and Will Robinson begin arguing. Sandoval is heard yelling at Will Robinson before he asks Victoria Robinson if she is recording and approaches her. Will Robinson stands and wraps his arms around Sandoval, seemingly to get him to back away from Victoria Robinson, and Sandoval turns and pushes Will Robinson, who falls backward into the lit fire pit.
After Will Robinson gets back up, he rushes after Sandoval into the home while Victoria Robinson screams for the men to stop.
According to the petition, the fight escalated, and Will Robinson phoned the police while Sandoval hid inside a spare bedroom. When police arrived, the petition claims that they initially put Sandoval in handcuffs, but after reviewing footage, Victoria Robinson was arrested for intimate partner battery with physical violence.
Robinson bonded out and was released the same day. The Los Angeles Police Department was not able to confirm the reason for Victoria Robinson’s arrest.
Representatives for Sandoval did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment. Victoria Robinson could not be reached for comment.
According to the petition, both Victoria Robinson and her father have lived in the Los Angeles rental home with Sandoval. According to the filing, the reality star hopped between hotels and friends’ houses after the June 3 incident.
Will Robinson told TMZ, “The DA did not file the case for a reason. I lifted Tom off of my daughter because he was overpowering and twisting her arm and trying to take her phone aggressively after yelling at us in a very aggressive and threatening manner.”
“This is my daughter’s home and we just want Tom as far away from us as possible and to keep his lies and drunken abuse away,” Robinson said.
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Vice President JD Vance’s visit gives ‘The View’ a ratings boost
The June 16 appearance by Vance gave the program its most-watched episode since November 2024.
The first appearance by Vice President JD Vance on ABC’s “The View” delivered the most-watched edition of the talk show since November 2024.
The June 16 program averaged 3.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen data. The figure was well above the average of 2.6 million viewers for “The View” in the 2025-26 season.
Vance appeared on the liberal-leaning program to promote his new book on his decision to become a Catholic. While the co-hosts mostly questioned him on the Trump administration’s policies on immigration and race, the discussion was cordial.
The panel of co-hosts — Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Ana Navarro, Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin — did not ask Vance to address the program’s ongoing tension with the Federal Communications Commission.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has questioned whether “The View” should have the status of news programs, which are exempt from giving equal time to the opponents of political candidates who appear as guests.
ABC has asked the FCC to rule on the status of “The View,” which received an exemption from the rarely enforced equal time provision in 2002. ABC has maintained that “The View” books politicians based on newsworthiness and not partisanship.
The FCC is currently taking comments from the public on the matter. ABC is running on-air spots urging viewers to support the program.
“‘The View’ has welcomed your favorite guests and covered the issues you care about for nearly 30 years,” the spot says. “Now the FCC wants to control who is allowed to appear on the show.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee submitted comments Monday, asserting that “The View” takes advantage of its exemption and favors Democratic candidates and permits “only rare appearances by Republican-aligned figures.”
ABC has told the FCC that “The View” has invited politicians from both sides of the aisle to appear on “The View,” including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of State Marco Rubio and entrepreneur Elon Musk. They have declined the invitation as did Vance before his appearance last week.
The letter from the GOP committees also cited the ideological leanings of the co-hosts, saying they are “not selected for their journalistic talent or excellence in commentary, but for their partisan tilt.”
Over the last two decades, “The View” has used five liberal hosts and filled one seat designated for a conservative voice. The right-leaning co-host role has had the most turnover.
“The View” has been the most-watched daytime program for the last nine years. As a live, topical program, it has remained an important media platform while the rest of the talk show genre has largely faded due to diminishing audiences.
Carr’s targeting of “The View” is part of his ongoing criticism of broadcast platforms that annoy President Trump, who has urged that TV station licenses be pulled when he’s been unhappy with coverage.
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Dodgers fulfill $1-million pledge in response to ICE raids
The Dodgers’ decision to deny U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents access to Dodger Stadium wasn’t the way the team intended to first address the surge of federal immigration enforcement a year ago.
Pressed by religious, labor and community leaders to take a stand, the Dodgers had prepared a response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol raids that triggered widespread protests — only to shelve the announcement as the team went public with their refusal to let federal agents onto stadium grounds. A day later, on June 20, the Dodgers unveiled their plan, centered on $1 million “toward direct financial assistance for families of immigrants impacted by recent events in the region.”
In total, the Dodgers donated $1.1 million, representatives for California Community Foundation and Labor Community Services — the two nonprofits that received the funds — told The Times.
“The Dodgers have been in L.A. for 68 years,” said Joseph Tomás McKellar, executive director of PICO California. “They’re beloved among immigrant communities in a way that no other sports team is. That gives the Dodgers cultural and financial power in the region. We applaud what they did, but they could do even more by exercising leadership.”
PICO California, the state’s largest faith-based organizing network, was behind a petition delivered to the Dodgers, the contents of which were largely addressed by the team’s $1-million commitment. But as the last of the money flowed to immigrant families in need in late August, another petition circulated that demanded Dodgers owner Mark Walter sell his “company’s stake in ICE jails and deportation flights.”
Walter’s massive investment firm, Guggenheim Partners, owned more than a million shares of GEO Group, valued at nearly $12 million. By the end of 2025, Guggenheim’s interest in GEO Group had fallen to around 10,000 shares. And by the end of March of this year, Guggenheim no longer owned any shares of the prison company that also assisted in the deportation of immigrants, according to SEC filings reviewed by The Times.
Walter also faced criticism over the partnership announced last year between Palantir Technologies and TWG Global — of which Walter is chairman and chief executive officer. Palantir provides AI and analytics software to ICE, tools the American Civil Liberties Union said “form the backbone for ICE’s mass deportation regime.”
There are no indicators as to why Guggenheim Partners divested from GEO Group. The Dodgers declined comment. Guggenheim Partners did not respond to The Times’ request for comment. GEO Group referred questions to Guggenheim Partners.
In January, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, filed a federal lawsuit against federal officials over the condition of the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County, a facility operated by GEO Group. In the complaint, CHIRLA alleged “detained individuals face dangerous conditions and pervasive abuses — disease and illness are rampant, mold grows on the walls, and detained individuals are denied sufficient food, clean drinking water, proper medical care, and disability accommodations.”
Donald Trump’s reelection has been a major driver of profits for GEO Group. GEO Group founder, chairman and chief executive George Zoley said in a May earnings call the company was “awarded new or expanded contracts that represent up to approximately $520 million in new incremental annual revenues, which represents the largest amount of new business we have won in the single year in our company’s history.” Former GEO Group exec David Venturella is the acting director of ICE.
“It’s really good to know [of the Guggenheim divestment],” said Rabbi Susan Goldberg, a longtime immigrants rights activist and founder of Nefesh, a Jewish spiritual community in Echo Park. “We showed up so often at its [regional] headquarters in Culver City that they moved. We don’t know where they are located in the area now.”
The California Community Foundation received $1 million, which worked with Los Angeles city officials to distribute $1,000 in direct relief to 1,000 households impacted by the immigration raids. The money was distributed through cash cards, according to the foundation. The Dodgers’ gift amounts to a quarter of the $4 million the foundation has raised for its Los Angeles Neighbors Support Fund, $3.3 million of which has been “deployed to impacted communities with new investments continuing to roll out,” according to the nonprofit.
The Dodgers also donated $100,000 to Labor Community Services, a partner of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, that provided more than 4,000 families with food assistance with the team’s donation.
“The Dodgers’ generous donation has enabled us to reach and assist more families throughout Los Angeles County with dignity and compassion, providing critical food assistance at a time when it is needed most,” Labor Community Services Executive Director Norma López said in a statement to The Times.
A spokesperson for Labor Community Services said no other pro sports team outside the Dodgers made a similar donation to help impacted immigrant families.
“The Dodgers have a unique responsibility and they are an example of something we want to continue to see, especially as the World Cup and the Olympics come to L.A.,” said Carlos Martin Rodriguez, director of organizing for L.A. Voice, a multifaith coalition that organized several vigils and demonstrations when the raids were at their height. “I hope this wasn’t a singular moment, but the beginning of a movement.”
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Vance demands Justice Department probe of Minnesota officials as White House presses ‘war on fraud’
WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance is pressing federal prosecutors to investigate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Atty. Gen. Keith Ellison over allegations they failed to stop widespread social services fraud, amplifying concerns the White House will use a new Justice Department division to target political rivals.
Vance, who has been tapped to lead the Republican Trump administration’s anti-fraud efforts as he seeks to raise his political profile as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, cited in a letter to the Justice Department a report from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee that alleges Walz and Ellison were aware of pervasive misuse of government programs for years and let it flourish.
The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to questions Tuesday about whether it would open an investigation. It was unclear what, if any, potential violations of federal law could support a probe into the Democratic Minnesota officials, who have characterized a separate Justice Department investigation involving state leaders as politically motivated.
A spokesperson for Walz didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Ellison called the allegations unfounded and said there’s no evidence his office ignored wrongdoing or failed to act as required by law. He dismissed Vance’s referral as “a political stunt from an administration that uses the machinery of government to target its perceived opponents while extending leniency to those aligned with its interests.”
“It is deeply troubling to see official powers and public resources diverted away from serving the people and instead aimed at pursuing political adversaries,” Ellison said in a statement. “That is not what government is for, and it diminishes public trust in our institutions.”
Vance’s referral to the Justice Department’s new National Fraud Enforcement Division marks an escalation in the Trump administration’s stated “war on fraud” in government programs that officials have said would not be political or partisan.
The new division has drawn intense scrutiny over the potential for political influence given its close relationship with President Trump’s White House, which announced its formation in January and initially said its leader would answer directly to the president instead of the typical Justice Department command.
In his referral, Vance wrote that officials in Minnesota or anywhere else in the country “must be held accountable” if they facilitated fraud, prevented officials from stopping it or retaliated against whistleblowers who tried to report it.
“Minnesota state officials are not above the law,” Vance wrote in a post on X.
Richer writes for the Associated Press.
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