WASHINGTON — Charges against the man accused of shooting two National Guard members have been upgraded to first-degree murder after one of the soldiers died, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia announced Friday.
Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, were hospitalized in critical condition after the Wednesday afternoon shooting near the White House. President Trump announced Thursday evening that Beckstrom had died.
U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro’s office said the charges against Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan war, now include one count of first-degree murder, three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.
Beckstrom and Wolfe were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard as part of Trump’s mission in the nation’s capital that federalized the D.C. police force, which he says is a crime-fighting campaign. The president has deployed National Guard members to many Democratic-run cities, including Los Angeles, to assist with his mass deportation efforts.
Trump called the shooting a “terrorist attack” and criticized the Biden administration for allowing Afghans who worked with U.S. forces during the Afghanistan war to enter the U.S. The president has said he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and expel millions of immigrants from the country.
In an interview on Fox News, Pirro said there are “many charges to come” beyond the upgraded murder charge. She said her heart goes out to the family of Beckstrom, who volunteered to serve and “ended up being shot ambush-style on the cold streets of Washington, D.C., by an individual who will now be charged with murder in the first degree.”
Pirro, a former Fox News host, declined to discuss the suspect’s motive, saying officials have been working around the clock on that question. Investigators are continuing to execute warrants in Washington state, where Lakanwal lived, and other parts of the country, she said.
Wolfe remains in “very critical condition,” West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Friday. He ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in recognition of Beckstrom’s death.
“These two West Virginia heroes were serving our country and protecting our nation’s capital when they were maliciously attacked,” Morrisey said. “Their courage and commitment to duty represent the very best of our state.”
Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021
Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from the country, officials said.
Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved under the Trump administration, #AfghanEvac said in a statement. #AfghanEvac is a nonprofit organization that has worked with the U.S. government to resettle more than 195,000 Afghan evacuees, according to its website.
Lakanwal has been living in Bellingham, Wash., about 80 miles north of Seattle, with his wife and five children, said his former landlord, Kristina Widman.
Mohammad Sherzad, a neighbor of Lakanwal’s in Bellingham, told the Associated Press in a phone interview Friday that Lakanwal was polite, quiet and spoke very little English.
Sherzad said he attended the same mosque as Lakanwal and had heard from other members that Lakanwal was struggling to find work. Some of his children attended the same school as Lakanwal’s children, Sherzad said.
“He was so quiet and the kids were so polite, they were so playful. But we didn’t see anything bad about him. He was looking OK,” Sherzad said. Sherzad said Lakanwal “disappeared” about two weeks ago.
In his address to the troops Thursday, Trump said that Lakanwal “went cuckoo. I mean, he went nuts.”
People who knew Lakanwal say he served in a CIA-backed Afghan army unit before immigrating to the United States. Lakanwal worked in one of the special Zero Units in the southern province of Kandahar, according to a resident of the eastern Afghan province of Khost who identified himself as Lakanwal’s cousin. He said Lakanwal was originally from the province and his brother had worked in the unit as well.
The cousin spoke to AP on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. He said Lakanwal had started out working as a security guard for the unit in 2012 and was later promoted to a team leader and a GPS specialist. A former official from the unit, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said Lakanwal’s brother was a platoon leader.
Zero Units were paramilitary units manned by Afghans and backed by the CIA that also served in front-line fighting with CIA paramilitary officers. Activists had attributed abuses to the units. They played a key role in the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country in 2021, providing security around Kabul International Airport as the Americans and Afghan evacuees withdrew from the country.
Beckstrom is remembered
Beckstrom enlisted in 2023, the same year she graduated high school, and served with distinction as a military police officer with the 863rd Military Police Company, the West Virginia National Guard said in a statement.
“She exemplified leadership, dedication, and professionalism,” the statement said, adding that Beckstrom “volunteered to serve as part of Operation D.C. Safe and Beautiful, helping to ensure the safety and security of our nation’s capital.”
The president called Beckstrom an “incredible person, outstanding in every single way.”
On Wednesday night, Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who had entered under the Biden administration initiative that brought roughly 76,000 people to the country, many of whom had worked as interpreters and translators.
The program has faced intense scrutiny from Trump and others over allegations of gaps in the vetting process, even as advocates say there was extensive vetting and the program offered a lifeline to people at risk of Taliban reprisals.
The director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Joseph Edlow said in a statement that the agency would take additional steps to screen people from 19 “high-risk” countries “to the maximum degree possible.”
Edlow didn’t name the countries. But in June, the administration banned travel to the U.S. by citizens of 12 countries and restricted access from seven others, citing national security concerns.
Binkley and Finley write for the Associated Press. AP journalists Sarah Brumfield, Siddiqullah Alizai, Elena Becatoros and Randy Herschaft contributed to this report.
Netflix’s The Widower starring Reece Shearsmith tells the true story of Malcolm Webster, the nurse who murdered his wife and attempted to kill his second
The series of Netflix, which is home to a number of true crime shows, chronicles the life and heinous acts of Malcolm Webster (portrayed by Reese Shearsmith), a Surrey nurse who murdered his first wife and tried to kill his second.
Webster, now 66, was known for pursuing relationships with women to boost his income.
In 1993, he wed Claire Morris from Aberdeenshire, and during their marriage, he drugged her.
In May 1994, he drugged Claire before orchestrating a car crash with her in the passenger seat and setting the vehicle ablaze, making it appear as an accident.
In 1997, he married oncology nurse Felicity Drumm in New Zealand, with whom he had a son.
He staged a second car crash in 1999 and was accused of trying to murder her to fraudulently claim £750,000 from nine insurance policies.
Webster also planned to marry Simone Banarjee, having deceived her into believing he had terminal leukaemia.
She altered her will, leaving her entire estate to Webster, but police alerted her about her fiancé’s past and revealed he already had a wife and son.
In July 2011, he was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison, where he remains today.
The former nurse was convicted of murdering Claire Morris and attempting to murder Felicity Drumm.
These crimes were part of a scheme to claim nearly £1m in life assurance money.
In 2016, he tried to get his case referred back to the High Court, but the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission denied his application.
Previously in 2013, his appeal was dismissed when judges rejected his claim of being a victim of a miscarriage of justice.
In October of 2018, U.S.-based journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. The CIA concluded that the assassination was carried out by Saudi operatives, on order of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The prince denied the accusations, although other U.S. intelligence agencies later made the same formal assessment.
Tuesday, President Trump showered the Saudi leader with praise during his first invitation to the White House since the killing. “We’ve been really good friends for a long period of time,” said Trump. “We’ve always been on the same side of every issue.”
Clearly. Their shared disdain — and fear — of a free press was evident, from downplaying the killing of Khashoggi to snapping at ABC News reporter Mary Bruce when she asked about his murder.
“You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” Trump said, then he proceeded to debase a journalist who wasn’t there to report on the event because he’d been silenced, forever. Referring to Khashoggi, he said, “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”
Mohammed bin Salman, left, and Jamal Khashoggi.
(Associated Press / Tribune News Service)
Fender-benders happen. Spilled milk happens. But the orchestrated assassination of a journalist by a regime that he covers is not one of those “things” that just happen. It’s an orchestrated hit meant to silence critics, control the narrative and bury whatever corruption, human rights abuses or malfeasance that a healthy free press is meant to expose.
Bruce did what a competent reporter is supposed to do. She deviated from Tuesday’s up-with-Saudi-Arabia! agenda to ask the hard questions of powerful men not used to being questioned about anything, let alone murder. The meeting was meant to highlight the oil-rich country’s investment in the U.S. economy, and at Trump’s prompting, Prince Mohammed said those investments could total $1 trillion.
Prince Mohammed addressed the death of Khashoggi by saying his country hopes to do better in the future, whatever that means. “It’s painful and it’s a huge mistake, and we are doing our best that this doesn’t happen again.”
And just in case the two men hadn’t made clear how little they cared about the slain journalist, and how much they disdain the news media, Trump drove those points home when he referred to Bruce’s query as “a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question.” He suggesting that ABC should lose its broadcasting license.
Trump confirmed Tuesday that he intends to sell “top of the line” F-35 stealth fighter jets to Riyadh. It’s worth noting that the team of 15 Saudi agents allegedly involved in Khashoggi’s murder flew to Istanbul on government aircraft. The reporter was lured to the Saudi embassy to pick up documents that were needed for his planned marriage to a Turkish woman.
The prince knew nothing about it, said Trump on Tuesday, despite the findings of a 2021 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that cited “the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of Mohammad bin Salman’s protective detail.” It concluded that it was “highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince’s authorization.”
To no one’s surprise, the Saudi government had tried to dodge the issue before claiming Khashoggi had been killed by rogue officials, insisting that the slaying and dismemberment was not premeditated. They offered no explanation of how a bonesaw just happened to be available inside the embassy.
President Trump shakes hands with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House in 2018.
(MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Five men were sentenced to death, but one of Khashoggi’s sons later announced that the family had forgiven the killers, which, in accordance with Islamic law, spared them from execution.
The president’s castigation of ABC’s Bruce was the second time in a week that he has ripped into a female journalist when she asked a “tough” question (i.e. anything Newsmax won’t ask). Trump was speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One last Friday when Bloomberg News’ Catherine Lucey asked him follow-up question about the Epstein files. The president replied, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”
Trump’s contempt for the press was clear, but so was something else he shares with the crown prince, Hungary’s Victor Orban and Vladimir Putin: The president doesn’t just hate the press. He fears it.
The San Antonio man accused of fatally shooting his neighbor Jonathan Joss, the actor best known for his voice work on animated series “King of the Hill,” faces a murder charge.
A grand jury in Bexar County, Texas, on Monday indicted 57-year-old Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez on a single felony count of first-degree murder, according to legal records reviewed by The Times. Legal representatives for Alvarez did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Alvarez was indicted more than five months after police arrested him on suspicion of murder in connection to the fatal shooting. Officers responded to the 200 block of Dorsey Street on the evening of June 1, where they found Joss near the roadway, according to an incident report. The report initially identified Alvarez as “Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja” and said the incident occurred on the 200 block of “Dorsey Dr.”
First responders “attempted life saving measures” until EMS officers arrived, police said. The actor, who also appeared in “Parks and Recreation,” was pronounced dead at the scene. He was 59.
Though police did not disclose details about the events that led to the shooting, Joss’ husband Tristan Kern de Gonzales alleged in a Facebook post that he and Joss suffered “openly homophobic” harassment and threats prior to the fatal shooting, which he claimed was also motivated by homophobia.
At the time, Gonzales wrote that he and Joss had returned to the site of the actor’s San Antonio home — which had burned down in January — to check their mail. The actor had also lost three dogs in the fire. Gonzalez alleged that a man approached them, “started yelling violent homophobic slurs” and “raised a gun from his lap and fired.”
He said Joss pushed him out of the way, saving his life, and added that his husband “was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other.”
Police disputed Gonzales’ claims, writing in a tweet that “the investigation has found no evidence to indicate that Mr. Joss’ murder was related to his sexual orientation.” In a separate tweet shared in June, police said investigators “handle these allegations very seriously.”
In “King of the Hill,” Joss voiced John Redcorn, protagonist Hank Hill’s neighbor. He recorded lines for the series’ revival prior to his death. His TV credits also include “Tulsa King,” “Ray Donovan,” “Friday Night Lights,” “ER” and “Charmed.”
CSI officers teams comb the trackside at Huntington railway station the morning after a man with a knife attacked 10 people on board a train traveling from Doncaster to London on Nov. 1. Anthony Williams, the man charged in the incident, was due in court again Wednesday to face two additional but separate attempted murder counts. File photo by Tayfun Salci/EPA
Nov. 19 (UPI) — A British man awaiting trial on charges of attempting to murder 10 people on board a high-speed train was due in court again on Wednesday after being charged with two further attempted murder counts.
Anthony Williams, 32, will appear before Peterborough magistrates to face charges he attempted to murder a man and a 14-year-old boy and attempted to seriously wound a third man in separate incidents in the city on Oct. 31.
West Midlands Chief Crown Prosecutor Siobhan Blake said she had also authorized a theft charge against Williams in relation to knives taken from a supermarket in Hertfordshire, a charge of carrying a knife and a charge of affray following an incident at a Peterborough barber shop on Oct. 31.
Williams would also be charged with assault following an alleged attack on a train en route to Peterborough from Herfordshire on Nov. 1, she said.
Blake said the decision to file the charges followed an extensive investigation by British Transport Police into incidents leading up to a stamping rampage aboard a London and North Eastern Railway train as it sped toward London on the evening of Nov. 1 in which 10 people were injured.
“Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case to court and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings,” she added.
BTP Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Cundy said the train stabbings incident “had also focused on other offenses previously reported to police, or identified by our investigation.”
“We have worked closely with our colleagues in Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Police, alongside the Crown Prosecution Service, to bring these charges,” said Cundy.
Williams was arrested at Huntingdon station Nov. 1 after the train switched off the high-speed line onto a local district line to divert to the town, a move authorities believe prevented the attack from being much worse.
He is being held on remand pending his next court appearance in relation to the LNER train attack at Cambridge Crown Court on Dec. 1, where in addition to the 10 attempted murder counts he also faces an eleventh charge of attempting to murder a man at a Docklands Light Rail station in London and possessing a knife.
The Crown Prosecution Service said it would seek to tie all the cases together on a single docket at the hearing in Cambridge.
Peter Sullivan spent 38 years in prison before astonishing DNA test results proved he was not guilty
The victim of a 38-year miscarriage of justice has claimed he was beaten by police officers and “bullied” into falsely admitting murder, in his first interview since his release.
Peter Sullivan told the BBC he believes he was “stitched up” in 1986 over the killing of Diane Sindall, who was ambushed and beaten to death during a frenzied sexual attack in Birkenhead, Wirral.
Mr Sullivan, who has learning difficulties, had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal in May after new DNA tests were carried out.
He now wants an apology from Merseyside Police. The force said while it “regretted” that a “grave miscarriage of justice” had taken place, it maintained its officers acted within the law at the time.
Speaking from an undisclosed location with his face hidden to protect his privacy, Mr Sullivan said he wanted an explanation for why detectives “picked me out”.
“I can’t forgive them for what they’ve done to me, because it’s going to be there for the rest of my life,” he said, adding he had “lost everything” since going to prison.
“I’ve got to carry that burden until I can get an apology.”
For decades Mr Sullivan and his family were haunted by tabloid press nicknames, including ‘The Beast of Birkenhead’, ‘The Mersey Ripper’, and ‘The Wolfman’.
“The names, they’ll always stick with me because I’ve never been anything like that,” he said.
Mr Sullivan said despite moments of near hopelessness, he was always supported by his parents who died years before he could clear his name.
He said: “My mum turned around to me before she died, and said, ‘I want you to carry on fighting this case because you’ve done nothing wrong’.”
In one of many painful moments from his time behind bars, Mr Sullivan said he was denied permission to attend his mum’s funeral in 2013 because she was buried in the same cemetery as Miss Sindall.
British Newspaper Archive
The savagery of the murder saw Peter Sullivan given a number of tabloid nicknames including ‘The Beast of Birkenhead’
His ordeal began after the semi-naked body of 21-year-old florist Miss Sindall was found with catastrophic injuries in an alley off Borough Road, Birkenhead, on 2 August 1986.
Two weeks later, her partially burned clothing was found on Bidston Hill, a large area of woodland about an hour’s walk from the alley.
After a BBC Crimewatch appeal was aired, witnesses came forward claiming to have seen Mr Sullivan in a pub near the murder scene that night, while others reported seeing a man fitting his description near Bidston Hill the following day.
He was arrested on suspicion of murder on 23 September 1986, and was interviewed 22 times over the following four weeks.
Handout
Diane Sindall, 21, had been saving up to get married
For the first seven interviews, he was denied legal advice and found the experience “very daunting”.
“They were putting stuff into my mind, then they would send me back to my cell, then I’d come back and say what they wanted, not realising what I was doing at the time,” he said.
‘They leathered me’
During that period Mr Sullivan claimed he was beaten in his cell on two occasions by police officers.
“They threw a blanket over the top of me and they were hitting me on top of the blanket with the truncheons to try and get me to co-operate with them,” he said.
“It really hurt, they were leathering me.”
Mr Sullivan also claimed he was told if he did not confess he would be charged with “35 other rapes”, and said he was denied food and sleep.
He was not provided with an appropriate adult to help him understand the interrogation, despite police custody records noting he had learning difficulties.
Asked why he would confess to a murder he did not commit, Mr Sullivan said: “All I can say, it was the bullying that forced me to throw my hands in, because I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Appeal court documents confirm that the first time he “confessed” was not recorded and no solicitor was present. Other interviews were recorded.
In a statement for this article, Merseyside Police said it was previously unaware of the allegations about beatings or threats to charge him with other offences, and said records from the time did not contain details of this. It said guidance on appropriate adults had been strengthened since 1986.
The force accepted that legal advice was initially refused for interviews, adding that officers had feared revealing some parts of the investigation to a solicitor, in case evidence was destroyed. It also said Mr Sullivan was told he did not have to speak to officers unless he wished to do so.
Sarah Myatt, Mr Sullivan’s solicitor of more than 20 years, sat alongside him as he spoke to the BBC. “I think, from what he’s told me, he just reached breaking point with it,” she said.
Mr Sullivan said he wanted an explanation and an apology
Mr Sullivan said during one interview he was asked to mark on a map where he had left the clothes on Bidston Hill. When he pointed to the wrong place, he alleges a detective replied: “Come on Peter, you know better than that,” before hinting at the “correct” location.
Ms Myatt said on the maps of Bidston Hill, Mr Sullivan had later written “this is all lies”.
“I think that’s quite poignant,” she said.
Merseyside Police said the maps and transcripts, which the BBC has not seen, were all served on the courts. The force said interviewing officers had been “trying to understand the validity of his admissions”.
PA Media
Sarah Myatt, who had represented Peter Sullivan for 20 years, said he reached “breaking point” before he falsely confessed to murder
While Mr Sullivan later retracted his confessions, the police and prosecution also relied on bite mark evidence, a now widely discredited field of forensic science.
That case, brought before DNA testing was widely available, was enough to convince a jury at Liverpool Crown Court – and on 5 November 1987 he went from a self-confessed “petty thief” to a convicted murderer.
Recalling the guilty verdicts, Mr Sullivan said: “My sister collapsed in the courtroom and the next minute, that was it.
“I was taken down from the courtroom and I just sat in that cell and cried my eyes out over the crime I hadn’t done.
“I knew from then on that this is going to be one hell of a case to try and fight to try and get myself out of this situation.”
Merseyside Police
Peter Sullivan was interviewed seven times without a lawyer
His sentence carried a minimum term of 16 years before he was eligible to apply for parole – but Mr Sullivan maintained his innocence, lessening his chances of release.
Prison was particularly difficult for someone considered a savage killer and a sex offender. “I’ve been battered in prisons because of the crime I was in for,” he said.
However, he said reporting such violence was not an option because “then you’re a grass, and that means then you’re going to get a lot worse”.
‘You’re going home’
The end of his nightmare began in 2023, when the Criminal Cases Review Commission – the body set up to check for miscarriages of justice – ordered fresh testing of semen samples found on Miss Sindall’s body in 1986.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to challenge the DNA results ahead of a fresh appeal – paving the way for Mr Sullivan’s freedom.
In May 2025, when the appeal judgement was handed down, Mr Sullivan was listening via video-link from HMP Wakefield, sitting next to his probation officer.
“When they came back in with the verdict that my case had been quashed, [the probation officer] burst into tears first,” he said.
“She turned around and said, ‘Peter, you’re going home’…
“Next minute, bang, all the tears started running down my face and that was it, I went, ‘yes, justice has been done’.”
Julia Quenzler/BBC
Peter Sullivan held his hand to his face and sobbed when the court said it was quashing his conviction
The outside world has been a baffling place for a man who went into custody when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister and the internet was unheard of.
Speaking of the moment he was driven out of prison, he said: “I was watching the cars go by, and I’ve never seen so many different cars in my life on that road.
“It was daunting just seeing them all changed and everything.”
Since his release, he has sometimes found himself standing in his bedroom waiting for a prison officer to do a roll-call – a difficult habit to shake after nearly 40 years.
Mr Sullivan said he feels “really sorry” for the family of Miss Sindall, who he said are “back at square one” in their fight for justice.
“I’ve been through the same pain, being in prison, because I’ve been taken away from my family as well for something I haven’t done,” he said.
Diane Sindall’s murder led to the first Merseyside ‘Reclaim the Night’ walk
Merseyside Police said due to the “substantial changes” in the law and investigative practices since 1986, there would be “little benefit” in any formal review of how the case was investigated.
It said it referred itself the Independent Office for Police Conduct after the appeal judgement but no misconduct was identified.
The Crown Prosecution Service said while the Court of Appeal accepted the new DNS testing, other grounds of appeal were rejected. Nick Price, its director of legal services, said: “The prosecution case was brought on the basis of all the evidence available to us at the time.”
The case of Miss Sindall’s murder has been re-opened, although no arrests have been made.
For Mr Sullivan, there remains the wait for compensation, capped by the government at £1 million for wrongful convictions.
Ms Myatt, who is helping him with his application, said: “There’s not a figure that you could say that would be enough for losing 38 years of your life.”
MINNEAPOLIS — Attorneys in the case of a man charged with killing a top Minnesota Democratic lawmaker and her husband said Wednesday that prosecutors have turned over a massive amount of evidence to the defense, and that his lawyers need more time to review it.
Federal prosecutor Harry Jacobs told the court that investigators have provided substantially all of the evidence they have collected against Vance Boelter. He has pleaded not guilty to murder in the killing of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and to attempted murder in the shootings of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. Some evidence, such as lab reports, continues to come in.
Federal defender Manny Atwal said at the status conference that the evidence includes more than130,000 pages of PDF documents, more than 800 hours of audio and video recordings, and more than 2,000 photographs from what authorities have called the largest hunt for a suspect in Minnesota history.
Atwal said her team has spent close to 110 hours just downloading the material — not reviewing it — and that they’re still evaluating the evidence, a process she said has gone slowly due to the federal government shutdown.
“That’s not unusual for a complex case but it is lot of information for us to review,” Atwal told Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster.
Jacobs said he didn’t have a timeline for when the Department of Justice would decide whether to seek the death penalty against Boelter. The decision will be up to U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi.
Foster scheduled the next status conference for Feb. 12 and asked prosecutors to keep the defense and court updated in the meantime about their death penalty decision. She did not set a trial date.
Hortman and her husband, Mark, and Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot by a man who came to their suburban homes in the early hours of June 14, disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car.
Boelter, 58, was captured near his home in rural Green Isle late the next day. He faces federal and state charges including murder and attempted murder in what prosecutors have called a political assassination.
Boelter, who was wearing orange and yellow jail clothing, said nothing during the nine-minute hearing.
Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911 and has never had a federal death penalty case. But the Trump administration is pushing for greater use of capital punishment.
Boelter’s attorney has not commented on the substance of the allegations. His motivations remain murky and statements he has made to some media haven’t been fully clear. Friends have described him as a politically conservative evangelical Christian, and occasional preacher and missionary.
Boelter claimed to the conservative outlet Blaze News in August that he never intended to shoot anyone that night but that his plans went horribly wrong.
He told Blaze in a series of hundreds of texts via his jail’s messaging system that he went to the Hoffmans’ home to make citizen’s arrests over what he called his two-year undercover investigation into 400 deaths from the COVID-19 vaccine that he believed were being covered up by the state.
But he told Blaze he opened fire when the Hoffmans and their adult daughter tried to push him out the door and spoiled his plan. He did not explain why he went on to allegedly shoot the Hortmans and their golden retriever, Gilbert, who had to be euthanized.
Hennepin County Atty. Mary Moriarty said when she announced Boelter’s indictment on state charges in August that she gave no credence to the claims Boelter had made from jail.
In other recent developments, a Sibley County judge last month granted Boelter’s wife a divorce.
As Jasmine Harman addresses her husband’s heart attack in her brand new series, the Mirror takes a look at the A Place In The Sun star’s family heartbreaks, including the devastating loss of her sister-in-law
15:07, 12 Nov 2025Updated 15:08, 12 Nov 2025
Jasmine Harman recently opened up about her husband’s heart attack(Image: ITV)
A Place In The Sun star Jasmine Harman has opened up about her husband’s heart attack horror, and it’s sadly not the first family struggle she’s endured.
While filming a recent episode of Jasmine’s Renovations In The Sun, 46-year-old cameraman Jon Boast, whom Jasmine met on the set of A Place In The Sun, began suffering persistent chest pains while renovating their family home in Estepona, Spain.
In dramatic scenes that aired yesterday, Jasmine, who will this week celebrate her 50th birthday, told viewers: “So, we’re at the hospital now. Jon had a funny turn at home, and I had to call an ambulance, but he’s sleeping now, having a little rest. Hopefully it’s nothing serious, but we’re just waiting for some test results.”
Giving an update from his hospital bed, brave Jon said: “Just when we thought we were getting back to normal life, or as normal as life could be, mid-renovation, and I was getting back on my feet.
“This afternoon, when we were with one of the builders, I got sort of pains in my chest and tight chested, aching arms. We called an ambulance and now I’m in hospital, and the blood test results suggest that I’ve had a mild heart attack.”
Speaking out for the first time about the ordeal, Jasmine told The Mirror that Jon has recovered and is back working. She said: “I know this sounds strange, but even with the background of what could have happened and worrying he could have died, it makes you feel lucky he just had a mild heart attack and everything is fine. But the challenges life throws at you has made me take things in my stride a lot better than I used to.”
Here, the Mirror takes a look at some of the painful heartbreaks mum-of-two Jasmine and her family have had to deal with over the years…
Back in 2016, Jon tragically lost his sister, Joanne ‘Jo’ White, who died suddenly after going into cardiac arrest. Jo was just 40 years old, and her death came as a terrible shock to loved ones. In the years since, Jon has thrown himself into supporting CRY, a charity which helps to screen for cardiac risk among young people.
A video previously shared via Jasmine’s Instagram sees a tearful Jon announce: “I support CRY in memory of my amazing sister, Joanne White. [She] passed away suddenly in the night in 2016, from sudden cardiac death.
“Jo was an amazing mother, daughter, auntie, wife and sister. The reason I support CRY is they were there for her family when she was taken so suddenly, offering us guidance and immediate screening.”
Asserting that Jo would have wanted her story to be used to raise awareness, Jon continued: “CRY continue to support us with yearly heart screenings of myself and some of Jo’s family. […] Any funds raised will continue to support the amazing work CRY do in their research, the screening of young people for potential heart problems and raising awareness of young, unexplained cardiac deaths.”
In her new series, Jasmine explained that she and Jon had decided to move to Spain partly because of the shock of losing Jo. She said: “She was fit, well and very healthy. It was a very big shock.”
Baby agony
Jasmine and Jon share two children together, Joy and Albion, but their road to a happy family life was far from easy. Opening up in an interview with Fabulous magazine, Jasmine, whose two children were both welcomed via IVF, spoke candidly about the heartache she and Jon faced when trying to expand their family.
Back in 2017, the couple had tried for baby number three, only for their hopes to be dashed when the embryo didn’t implant. Jasmine shared: “Sadly, when we tried for a third baby in 2017, our embryo didn’t implant. This came so soon after losing Jon’s sister, Jo, who died suddenly at 40 from an unexplained heart problem.”
She continued: “We’d hoped that welcoming a new baby might have lifted the family and brought fresh joy after such a painful time, but instead we were reminded how fragile and precious life can be.”
Mum’s extreme condition
Although Jasmine is well used to looking around beautiful homes, she faced a very different sort of challenge in 2011, having set about helping her extreme hoarder mother clear away 30 years’ worth of clutter. This emotional journey was highlighted in the BBC doc My Hoarder Mum & Me, which resonated with many viewers.
In a candid 2023 episode of This Morning, the property guru gave a heartfelt joint interview with mum Vasoulla, admitting that she previously found her condition “embarrassing”, and feared it would affect the career she’d worked so hard for.
Speaking with Dermot O’Leary and Allison Hammond, Jasmine shared: “In fact, when I started working in television, it was my biggest fear that someone would find out about the way I’d grown up and the way that we lived at the time.”
However, gaining a deeper understanding of her mother’s hoarding and where it stems from has helped her prioritise “having a loving relationship” with Vasoulla, putting aside the fights they once had.
Recognised as a mental health disorder as of 2013, the World Health Organisation (WHO) defines hoarding as “an accumulation of possessions due to excessive acquisition of, or difficulty discarding possessions, regardless of their actual value”.
During the same interview, Vasoulla explained that the 1958 murder of her father, Evangelos, who was just 32 when he died, triggered her anxiety-based disorder. After the killing, Vasoulla and her mother Maria fled their home country of Cyprus for England, and it’s then that the hoarding started.
According to Vasoulla: “We moved from Cyprus when I was about three, so I left my baby things back home and started collecting trinkets in bombed-out houses that were still about in the early Sixties, after the war – trinkets that I treasured.
“Then we moved back to Cyprus for a couple of years, and those things all got lost. Then we moved back to England and all my new ties got lost – so I just had lots of upheaval, lots of loss.”
She continued: “It’s more the loss, like a bereavement. Losing your father is a big thing, moving country …you lose everything, and you get a new place to live. The trauma of loss [is] something that a lot of people have as the onset of their hoarding behaviour.”
Jasmine’s Renovation In The Sun is now available to watch on Channel 4.
Eddie Murphy is set to star in his own Netflix special Being Eddie, which will take a look at his life and career for the first time.
Eddie Murphy might be amongst the most celebrated comedy legends of our time, but his early years were overshadowed by his father’s tragic and unexpected passing.
Being Eddie, a brand-new Netflix documentary launching on Wednesday, November 12, will offer an unprecedented glimpse into the life of the beloved actor and comedian Eddie Murphy.
Viewers will not only hear directly from the star himself but will also be introduced to his loved ones and given exclusive access to his opulent Beverly Hills mansion.
However, his upbringing in Brooklyn, New York, was worlds apart from his current lifestyle, as he emerged from a fractured household following the separation of his father Charles Edward Murphy and mother Lillian Murphy when he was just three years old.
The Coming to America legend previously revealed to Rolling Stone that he retained only “very dim memories” of his father due to the divorce and Charles’ untimely demise five years afterwards.
In 1969, Eddie Murphy’s father Charles was allegedly killed in a stabbing by a woman consumed with jealousy.
The performer revealed: “He was a victim of the Murphy charm ‘chuckles’.
“A woman stabbed my father. I never got all the logistics.
“It was supposed to be one of those crimes of passion: ‘If I can’t have you, then no one else will’ kind of deal.'”.
He went on: “Someone said to me one day, ‘That’s why you don’t trust women.'”.
“Get the f**k outta here. What are you, a f*****g psychiatrist?
“I don’t think the two have anything to do with each other.
“But I was really f-ked up about his death. It was really traumatic.”
Eddie has faced more than his fair share of loss in his life.
His uncle and father figure, Raymond Leon “Uncle Ray” Murphy, passed away in October 2013 at the age of 74.
In Eddie’s early career days, Uncle Ray was the head of his security and even had minor roles in some of his nephew’s films like Coming to America and Beverly Hills Cop II.
Tragedy struck again when Eddie’s older brother, fellow actor and comedian Charlie Murphy, died from Leukaemia in 2017 at just 57 years old.
Charlie was a talented individual who wrote and starred in the sketch comedy series Chappell’s Show and featured in the sitcom Black Jesus.
Being Eddie is set to premiere on Netflix on Wednesday, November 12.
Former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown has been extradited from Dubai to the United States to face a charge of second degree attempted murder relating to a shooting incident in May.
The Miami Police department said the former Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers player was “located in Dubai and was apprehended” before being “extradited to Essex County, NJ (New Jersey), by US Marshals”.
The added Brown was being held there prior to being moved to the Miami-Dade County Jail.
Following an investigation into the incident in May, police issued an arrest warrant in June which alleged Brown took a gun from a security guard and fired two shots at a man he had brawled with earlier on.
No arrests were made at the time and no injuries were reported.
Brown had been detained by police at the time of the incident before being released.
“I was jumped by multiple individuals who tried to steal my jewellery and cause physical harm to me,” claimed Brown in a social media post. “Contrary to some video circulating.
“Police temporarily detained me until they received my side of the story and then released me. I went home that night and was not arrested.”
Brown played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and scored a touchdown as they beat the Kansas City Chiefs to win the Super Bowl at the end of the 2020-2021 season.
“Death By Lightning,” premiering Thursday on Netflix, introduces itself as “a story about two men the world forgot,” and while it is undoubtedly true that few in 2025 will recognize the name Charles Guiteau, many will know James A. Garfield, given that he was one of only four assassinated American presidents. There are less well remembered presidents, for sure — does the name John Tyler ring a bell? — and assassins better known than Guiteau, but if you’re going to make a docudrama, it does help to choose a story that might be more surprising to viewers and comes with a murder built in. It is also, I would guess intentionally, a tale made for our times, with its themes of civil rights, income inequality, cronyism and corruption.
Indeed, most everything about the Garfield story is dramatic — a tragedy, not merely for the family, but for the nation. For the sense one gets from “Death by Lightning” and from the historical record it fairly represents, is that Garfield, killed after only 200 days in office, might have made a very good chief executive. (The stated source for the series is Candice Millard’s 2011 book “Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President”; Millard is also a voice in the more briefly titled, illuminating “American Experience” documentary “Murder of a President.”)
That the longtime Ohio congressman did not seek but was drafted for the job — a compromise chosen, against his protests, on the 36th ballot at the 1880 Republican National Convention, where he’d given a stirring speech to nominate a fellow Ohioan, Treasury Secretary John Sherman — made him, one might say, especially qualified for the job; unlike some politicians one might name, he was self-effacing and humble and not out for personal gain. But he saw, finally, that he had a chance to “fix all the things that terrify me about this republic,” most especially the ongoing oppression of Black citizens, a major theme of his inauguration speech (with remarks transferred here to a campaign address delivered to a crowd of 50,000 from a balcony overlooking New York’s Madison Square Park). “I would rather be with you and defeated than against you and victorious,” he tells a group of Black veterans gathered on his front porch, from which he conducted his campaign. (Some 20,000 people were said to have visited there during its course.)
Political machinations and complications aside, the narrative, which stretches two years across four episodes, is really fairly simple, even schematic, cutting back and forth between Garfield (Michael Shannon, between tours covering early R.E.M. albums) and Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen), a drifter with delusions of grandeur, as they approach their historically sealed date with destiny. Garfield is goodness personified; we meet him on his farm, cooking breakfast for the family, planing wood to make a picnic table. (A table we will meet again.) Guiteau goes from one failed project to another, living it up on money stolen from his sister, running out on restaurant checks and rooming house bills, telling lies about himself he might well have thought were true, until he decides that politics is the place to make his mark. Under the impression that he was responsible for Garfield’s election, he believed the new president owed him a job — ambassador to France would be nice — and when none was coming, turned sour. A message from God, and the belief that he would save the republic, set him on a path to murder.
Matthew Macfadyen plays Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau, in the miniseries.
(Larry Horricks / Netflix)
The series largely belongs to them — both actors are terrific, Shannon imbuing Garfield with a gravity leavened with kindness and humor, Macfadyen’s Guiteau, optimistically dedicated to his delusions yet always about to pop. But it’s a loaded cast. The ever-invaluable Betty Gilpin, in her fourth big series this year after “American Primeval,” “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf” and “Hal & Harper,” plays Garfield’s wife, Crete, fully up on the political scene and free with her opinions. Shea Whigham is New York senator and power broker Roscoe Conkling, Garfield’s moral opposite, and the series’ villain, if you excuse Guiteau as mentally ill. (The jury didn’t.). As wise Maine Sen. James Blaine, Bradley Whitford exudes a convincing, quiet authority, honed over those years working in the pretend White House on “The West Wing.” All the men have been whiskered to resemble their historical models.
Where most of them, even Guiteau, remain consistent from beginning to end, it’s Nick Offerman’s Chester A. Arthur who goes on a journey. Conkling’s right hand, in charge of the New York Customs House — which generated a third of the country’s revenues through import fees — he’s offered the position of vice president to appease Conkling, New York being key to winning the election. Arthur begins as a thuggish, cigar-smoking, sausage-eating, drunken clown, until he’s forced, by events, and the possibility of inheriting the presidency, to reckon with himself.
When First Lady Crete Garfield wonders whether there should be a little extra security (or, really, any security at all) around her husband, he responds, “Assassination can no more be guarded against than death by lightning — it’s best not to worry too much about either one,” giving the series its title and clearing up any confusion you may have had about its meaning. Indeed, Guiteau moves in and out of what today would be well guarded rooms with surprising ease, managing encounters (some certainly invented) with Crete, Blaine, a drunken Arthur and Garfield, whom he implores, “Tell me how I can be great, too.”
Created by Mike Makowsky, it isn’t free from theatrical effects, dramatic overreach or obvious statements, but as period pieces go, it’s unusually persuasive, in big and little ways. Only occasionally does one feel taken out of a 19th century reality into a 21st century television series. The effects budget has been spent where it matters, with some detailed evocations of late 19th century Chicago and Washington that don’t scream CGI. The first episode, which recreates the 1880 convention, held at the Interstate Exposition Building in Chicago, aligns perfectly with engravings of the scene and brings it to life, supporting the wheeling and dealing and speechifying in a way that one imagines is close to being there.
Because we know what’s coming, the series can be emotionally taxing, especially as a wounded Garfield lingers through much of the final episode, while being mistreated by his doctor, Willard Bliss (Zeljko Ivanek), who ignores the advice of the younger, better informed Dr. Charles Purvis (Shaun Parkes), the first Black physician to attend to a sitting president; many, including Millard, believe it was the doctor who killed him through a lack of sanitary precautions, and that Garfield might have recovered if he’d just been left alone, an idea the series supports.
But you can’t change history, as much as “Death By Lightning” makes you wish you could.
