police

Aug. 28 (UPI) — New York City police on Friday said they seized 580 pounds of cocaine worth $10 million, the largest cocaine seizure in the city in decades.

Nelson Salcedo, 35 of New Jersey, was arrested while moving several boxes hiding cocaine from a self-storage facility in Queens.

“This was a massive shipment of narcotics, tied to an interstate trafficking network with connections across the country, including in New York and New Jersey,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told the New York Post.

“And because of the work of the investigators standing with me today, those drugs will never make it into the streets of New York City.”

Police began following Salcedo on Aug. 12, when he was spotted dropping off packages believed to contain drugs near the north end of Central Park.

Then on Wednesday, officers spotted the suspect loading boxes into a van registered to an elevator repair company.

Police and Drug Enforcement Administration agents recovered 230 bricks containing 580 pounds of cocaine.

“This appears to be the largest single cache of cocaine my office has seized in 20 years,” Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan told the New York Daily News.

“Thanks to our investigators and our law enforcement partners in this case, these drugs will never make it onto the streets of New York City.”

Salcedo and two suspected accomplices were arrested.

He was arraigned on charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Warning: This article contains details people may find upsetting

Two police officers killed in a crash on the A66 died from head and neck injuries, an inquest has provisionally concluded.

Cleveland Police officers PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, died on Saturday when their police vehicle was hit by a Volkswagen Passat which was going the wrong way down the dual carriageway near Middlesbrough.

Area Coroner for Teesside and Hartlepool Paul Appleton opened and adjourned their inquests at Teesside Coroner’s Court in short, consecutive hearings.

Further inquests, into the deaths of the five young men in the VW Passat, are expected to open later.

Appleton said both officers died in a fatal road traffic collision on the A66 between Normanby Road and Church Lane in Eston, after their vehicle was in collision with a Volkswagen Passat that was driven “against the flow of traffic”.

He said there had been an “aborted” police pursuit, which both officers were “not directly involved in”.

The inquest was told PC Blades’ provisional cause of death was head and neck injuries, while PC Clough’s provisional cause of death was given as neck injuries.

It was told PC Blades was identified by his wife and PC Clough by his partner.

The coroner said he was waiting on a report on the full post-mortem examinations into the men’s deaths, a report from the Independent Office for Police Conduct, and a police collision report.

A fundraising appeal set up by the Cleveland Police Federation for the two officers’ families has raised more than £1m.

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Police used water cannons and batons as a few thousand protesters broke through security barricades in Bihar’s capital.

Indian students and unemployed youth have clashed with police as they marched towards the residence of the chief minister of the eastern state of Bihar, ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, demanding access to jobs and transparency in recruitment exams.

The government forces in Bihar used water cannons and lathis – the Indian version of batons – as a few thousand protesters broke through security barricades in the state capital Patna, videos seen by Al Jazeera showed on Tuesday.

The demonstrations came a month after massive Gen Z protests in New Delhi pushed for the ouster of India’s education minister over alleged irregularities in conducting key competitive examinations.

The July 25 resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also marked a significant political defeat for PM Modi, who has tried to maintain a strongman image, while India has continued to slide in multiple democratic indices under his rule since 2014.

Police in Bihar, home to about 130 million people, detained at least 25 protesters in Patna and released them later, according to the Indian Express newspaper.

Local police accused some protesters of attacking security personnel.

“Police will identify those involved in stone pelting at police and will take action against them,” Patna Police Superintendent Kartikeya K Sharma told reporters on Tuesday.

The protests began last week with unemployed youth demanding jobs, but they later expanded to include calls for education reform.

Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary said his office was “listening to every student’s voice”.

A delegation of student representatives met Bihar’s top bureaucrat, Pratyaya Amrit, after the protests. Amrit then told reporters that the discussion “was positive, and we were assured of a favourable response within a couple of days”.

The tight employment market in India makes government jobs, which offer long-term stability, a major draw for millions.

Since the massive youth-led protests organised by the online Cockroach Janta Party in New Delhi, there have been similar demonstrations in other states challenging both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition parties.

In southern Karnataka, members of a BJP-linked student body staged a protest near the state chief minister’s residence on Tuesday over alleged irregularities in recruitment for government jobs.

Bihar’s regional Education Minister Mithilesh Tiwari said the government had addressed students’ demands, without giving more details, and added that the door for dialogue remained “wide open”.

In New Delhi, the Cockroach movement has also announced a march next month to protest against what it says is the Modi government’s failure to fulfil several promises of change, including the withdrawal of police cases against protesters.

Aug. 25 (UPI) — British authorities said a dozen people have been arrested in an investigation following a weekend crash that killed seven people, including two police officers.

Police in Cleveland, which serves the Teesside area of northeast England, announced the arrests Monday, identifying those detained as nine men and three women between the ages of 19 and 61.

They were detained on a range of offenses, including allegations of participating in organized crime, possession of an offensive weapon and drug-related crimes.

The suspects were detained over the weekend in a wide-scale investigation following a collision early Saturday involving a Volkswagen Passat and a police vehicle on the A66, resulting in the deaths of the five occupants of the Passat and two officers in the police vehicle.

Authorities were initially alerted early Saturday to reports of two vehicles being driven dangerously in Middlesbrough. A Volvo XC60 was reportedly seen ramming properties, while a Volkswagen Passat was believed to be associated with the Volvo. Police said both vehicles were operating with cloned license plates.

Police later spotted the Passat and pursued it for nearly seven minutes before the Passat entered the A66 at South Bank, traveling against traffic, prompting the pursuing police vehicle to end its case.

However, seconds later, at 3:39 a.m. local time, the Passat collided with a second police car, which was traveling in the correct direction, authorities said.

The deceased officers have been identified as Matthew Blades, 37, and Tom Clough, 38. The deceased occupants of the Passat were named as Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and 23-year-olds Jakub Matusiak and Michael Robert Cahill.

“The events of that tragic night will have a lasting and profound impact on the Cleveland area and the communities we seek to protect,” Assistant Chief Constable Wayne Fox said Monday in a statement.

Fox said they have a duty to investigate the “serious criminal activity” that led to the fatal crash and bring those responsible to justice, though it was not clear how those detained were involved.

“Our robust response will continue in the weeks and months to come, as we continue to tackle those that seek to cause harm to our communities and tackle serious and organized crime,” Fox said.

The Metropolitan Police have sent a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) relating to a man in his 80s as part of its investigation into Mohamed Al Fayed.

A man and a woman, both in their 80s, were interviewed under caution last month on suspicion of aiding and abetting rape and sexual assault, and assisting the commission of sexual offences.

The CPS will now decide whether a charge can be made.

Earlier this year, three women, aged in their 40s, 50s and 60s, and one man in his 60s were also questioned. The former Harrods owner died three years ago aged 94 having never faced any charges.

A Met Police spokesperson said “detectives submitted a full evidential file” to the CPS for a “charging decision”.

“The file relates to one suspect, a man in his 80s, and relates to two indecent assaults on two women in London. Officers will continue to work closely with CPS prosecutors as the case progresses.

“To date, seven suspects have been interviewed under caution on suspicion of offences including aiding and abetting rape and sexual assault, assisting in the commission of sexual offences, and human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.”

Co-chairs of the Justice for Fayed and Harrods Survivors Jen Mills and Lindsay Mason welcomed the latest development.

“The submission of a full evidential file to the CPS is a significant step, and it matters most of all for the two women whose allegations are at the centre of it,” the statement said.

“Both are members of Justice for Fayed and Harrods Survivors and, as with all those impacted by this scandal, we stand alongside them with love and empathy.”

Multiple people have died in a crash involving a police vehicle and a car, police have said.

The collision involved a police vehicle and a Volkswagen Passat on the A66 in South Bank, near Middlesbrough in Teesside, at about 03:39 BST, Cleveland Police said.

A spokesman for the force said: “Sadly, the collision has resulted in multiple fatalities.

“We are working to identify the victims and contact their families.”

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

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They were two killings that rocked the rap world.

In 1996, Tupac Shakur was gunned down off the Las Vegas Strip. Then, less than a year later, Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls or the Notorious B.I.G., was killed in a drive-by shooting in front of the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard.

The two killings have long been tied together in popular culture.

Now, a detective says the investigation into Wallace’s death helped lead police to the suspect on trial in Las Vegas in Shakur’s slaying.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a onetime Compton gang member, is accused of orchestrating the Sept. 7, 1996, killing of Shakur. Prosecutors say the killing was rooted in a war between Southside Crips-Burris Street, led by Davis, and Mob Piru, a gang long associated with Death Row Records. Shakur was closely affiliated with the record company.

Authorities say Davis was in the car with his nephew, who grabbed the murder weapon and fired the fatal bullet.

On Wednesday, former LAPD Homicide Det. Daryn Dupree said Davis set out his role in Shakur’s killing in detail in 2008 to a joint LAPD federal task force that was formed to investigate Wallace’s murder.

To force Davis’ cooperation, Dupree said investigators gathered evidence that Davis, now 63, had sold a large quantity of PCP through his home, exposing him to a potential life sentence and leaving his family open to charges.

The task force questioned Davis about a car he owned that was similar to the one used in Wallace’s L.A. killing. Davis was given a proffer agreement, according to Dupree, meaning he agreed to provide information in exchange for possible benefit.

Davis said he knew about the Smalls shooting and then indicated, “we did the other one,” Dupree testified. That statement, he said, shifted investigators’ focus to the Shakur killing.

“We were talking about Christopher Wallace,” Dupree said. “We didn’t ask him any questions about Tupac. He offered that on his own.”

In a second interview, Dupree testified Davis stated that his nephew Orlando Anderson had been jumped, spurring Davis and cohorts on a hunt for revenge against Shakur.

The attack on Anderson occurred at a Mike Tyson fight earlier on the night of Sept. 7 in Las Vegas, according to Clark County prosecutors. Earlier in the trial, video was shown of Shakur’s entourage attacking Anderson, allegedly in retaliation over a chain that Anderson had previously stolen.

“They went looking for Tupac, Suge and anybody who was involved basically in the beatdown of Mr. Anderson,” Dupree said. Death Row Records boss Marion “Suge” Knight was in the car with Shakur the night he was killed.

When they found Shakur, the former detective testified, Davis “had the gun at first, but they came up on the passenger side,” where Knight was seated, “so he could not shoot across the driver. So he handed a gun to Dre in the back seat.” Deandre “Big Dre” Smith was among those in the white Cadillac in addition to Davis and Anderson.

“Davis said Deandre Smith was afraid to shoot,” Dupree testified, so “Anderson grabbed the gun and shot across Mr. Smith into Mr. Knight’s car.”

Davis told the task force they used a .40-caliber handgun, according to testimony.

Prosecutors said they would begin playing all five hours of the interviews to jurors on Thursday.

Dupree said Davis was signed up as a confidential informant in March 2009. He said Las Vegas police were not aware of the secret conversations at the time.

Dupree testified that Davis told investigators that former rapper and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs had been involved in targeting Shakur and Knight through East Coast drug dealer Eric “Von Zip” Martin.

He testified that Davis pledged to rekindle his relationship with Martin to gather evidence. But Martin had cancer, and that was not possible, Dupree said. Martin died in 2012.

Combs was never connected to the Shakur case and has denied ever being involved. Others have questioned Davis’ credibility on this and other points.

The Times in 2008 published a story suggesting a Combs link to Shakur’s killing. But it later retracted the story, saying it was based on documents that appeared to have been forged.

Prosecutors in Davis’ trial say the motive was straight revenge for the beating of Anderson, and that Martin allegedly gave Davis a gun. But they have made no allegations against Combs, who has long denied any role or connection to Shakur’s killing.

Michael Sanft, Davis’ defense attorney, told jurors in opening statements there would be no evidence linking his client to the shooting. Sanft noted that previous investigations did not take his client’s statements seriously because they were not credible. The defense attorney, in an unusual move, repeatedly undermined his own client’s credibility, saying Davis’ memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” where he talks about the Shakur killing, was a work of fiction for money and his client wasn’t in Las Vegas.

Under cross-examination, Dupree said Davis faced a life sentence in the PCP case and that his wife and family were in jeopardy because of it, so he needed to help authorities.

He said that LAPD Det. Greg Kading, the task force leader, left the department after investigating the Shakur and Smalls cases and published a book in 2011 that revealed Davis’ interview.

Dupree said the task force was trying to determine if money was really offered to kill Shakur. He said they were trying to build a racketeering case. “This is trying to solidify that Death Row Records was built on narcotics and Bad Boy Records.”

Dupree said he personally did not doubt Davis when he talked about Anderson killing Shakur.

“I knew he loved his nephew.”

For all the notoriety of the rapper killings, neither has yet led to convictions.

Wallace was leaving a music industry party at the Petersen Automotive Museum on March 9, 1997, sitting in the front passenger seat of a Chevrolet Suburban, when his killer pulled up alongside in a dark Chevy Impala.

As the SUV idled at a stoplight, the gunman opened fire, hitting the 24-year-old four times. He was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 1 a.m.

From the beginning, police said they struggled to get leads and cooperation.

As The Times reported back in 1997, “although more than 1,000 people were said to be at the party, police said they had few eyewitnesses and even fewer solid leads … Detectives said they are investigating whether Wallace’s death is linked to bicoastal tensions within the rap world, but had nothing solid to go on.”

Despite many theories and a long LAPD investigation, the case remains unsolved.

There have been numerous books, documentaries and civil litigation that make allegations, but police said they could never build a case.

In 2017, an LAPD detective told The Times: “The shooter is most likely dead. You cannot ask him who paid him.”

Aug. 20 (UPI) — Authorities in Delaware repeatedly called on Dover residents Thursday to “STAY HOME” after a likely tornado caused “significant” damage throughout the city.

The Dover Police Department declared “a state emergency” at 6:20 p.m. EDT, saying the city “likely experienced a tornado, with significant damage reported throughout parts of the city.”

“PLEASE STAY OFF THE ROADS AND STAY HOME!!!!!!” it said on Facebook.

The hardest-hit area of the city was the corridor of Division Street and Lockerman Street, it said without detailing specific damage incurred. Earlier, it said the storm downed numerous trees, caused flooding and other “storm-related damage.”

Power outages were also reported, it said.

“Our officers and emergency crews are working throughout the city,” the Dover Police Department said in a statement.

“The best thing you can do right now is stay home and give them room to work. Dover — please take this seriously. Stay home. Stay safe.”

Dover Motor Speedway, known for hosting NASCAR races, said that it appeared to have suffered no major damage, while stating it was hopeful that others in the community were safe and that no one was injured.

“We’ll continue to monitor the situation and plan to conduct a more thorough survey of the facility in the coming days,” the speedway said in a statement.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning that was in effect until 6:45 p.m. for the Delaware areas of Dover, Camden and Rodney.

It came as parts of the U.S. East Coast were expected to see torrential downpours and flash flooding over the weekend.

Authorities were warned about dangers of hitting Mohammad Ghamira, who suffered from the rare medical condition haemophilia.

A Syrian police officer has been arrested and may be criminally prosecuted after an investigation found that he hit a detainee with a medical condition who died shortly after being released from custody.

Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Thursday that Mohammad Ghamira, 29, died after being slapped by police investigator Ahmad Jawad, who has since been detained and referred to the public prosecutor.

Ghamira, who died on Sunday, suffered from haemophilia, a rare condition that prevents blood from clotting properly, making sufferers bleed more easily and for longer periods.

The father of two was a member of the White Helmets, the civil defence organisation made up of volunteers that operated in rebel-held areas in Syria. They went on search and rescue operations and provided medical care following government attacks.

The investigation found that Ghamira had told internal security personnel about his condition, while his wife twice informed authorities about the potential danger.

Ahmad Latouf, head of the investigation committee and assistant interior minister for police affairs, confirmed that Ghamira died after suffering a brain haemorrhage believed to have been caused by the slap.

Two other police officers are also being investigated but are not currently due to be prosecuted.

Ghamira’s death has provoked widespread anger among Syrians, reminding many of the gross human rights abuses that were systematic under former President Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown by rebels in December 2024.

New leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has promised to usher in a new era, prioritising human rights and overseeing an inclusive government. However, human rights organisations have documented widespread abuses by government forces, particularly against minority groups.

Commenting on Ghamira’s death on Thursday, the Interior Ministry accused Jawad of violating ministerial instructions and the code of conduct, which strictly prohibit any form of humiliating or abusive treatment of detainees.

Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab said in a statement that the investigation results showed the ministry’s “commitment to reaching the truth and holding accountable those proven to have overstepped”.

“We rose up against the former tyrant’s regime in rejection of injustice and impunity, and therefore, building a state of law begins with our ability to hold the wrongdoer accountable, to give restitution to the victim, and not to do injustice to anyone who has not been proven responsible” for wrongdoing, he said.

Reporting from Syria’s northwestern port city of Latakia, Al Jazeera’s Heidi Pett said the Syrian government has vowed to take further action.

“There will be surveillance put into police stations and better training provided to officers but they say all of this will take time,” Pett said.

“Part of the reason it has resonated so widely is because of who Mohammad was. He was a young man, 29 years old, and he had two children and was a volunteer with the White Helmets. They were basically seen as heroes. His father joined the revolution and so he’s a figure who many people here in his community and nationally respected,” she added.

“That’s part of why there’s been so much sadness and anger and it’s also [because of] the fact that Mohammad is not the first to be mistreated in detention by the new authorities. Syrian rights organisations have documented other cases of deaths in detention.”

Ghamira was arrested last week accused of theft. He was later released and died at a hospital in Latakia on Sunday.

During a forensic examination, medical experts found no visible signs of violence or severe force, as well as no skull fractures or traumatic wounds.

WASHINGTON — A Massachusetts woman who told police that she brought homemade firebombs to the U.S. Capitol to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was sentenced on Tuesday to just over six years in prison.

Riley English, a 26-year-old transgender woman, said she was in the grips of a mental health crisis and abusing drugs when she drove to Washington in January 2025 and told Capitol police that she was there to kill Bessent on the day of his Senate confirmation.

“I never wanted to hurt anyone,” she told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras. “I’m not a political person. I’m not a violent person.”

Contreras, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, sentenced English to six years and one month of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. English has remained jailed since her arrest and will get credit for the nearly 20 months that she already has spent in custody. She pleaded guilty in March to two weapons charges.

“You’ve had a very difficult life,” Contreras told English. “Hopefully, the progress you’ve made in jail to this date has set you on the right path.”

Nobody was injured, and Contreras said her plan to harm Bessent had an “exceedingly low or non-existent” chance of success. Bessent wasn’t at the Capitol when English arrived on Jan. 27, 2025. The Molotov cocktails that English brought to the Capitol appeared to be incapable of igniting, the judge noted.

Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 10 years and one month for English. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Horan said English had been planning the “attempted political assassination” for at least a month at a time when the threat of politically motivated violence has been mounting in the U.S.

“This was not a chance encounter or an impulsive act,” Horan said.

The case against English fits a pattern of politically motivated violence that has plagued the U.S. over the past decade. In a letter addressed to the judge, Bessent said he worries the country “cannot survive this assault.”

“Political violence is an attack on the rule of law and on representative government itself,” Bessent wrote. “It also deprives our country of service by talented men and women with ability and integrity who may reasonably decide that no job is worth threats to themselves and their families.”

English’s prosecution drew comparisons to the case against California resident Sophie Roske, who was sentenced last October to over eight years in prison for attempting to assassinate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his Maryland home. Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of no less than 30 years for Roske, a transgender woman. They appealed Roske’s sentence by U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, calling it unreasonably lenient.

Defense attorney Maria Jacob said English was “terrified and traumatized” by fears of what would happen to transgender people under the second Trump administration.

“Our argument is that she was in a diminished mental state,” Jacob said.

Investigators said they found a folding knife, two homemade firebombs and a lighter in English’s possession at the Capitol.

English, of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, told police that she was influenced by Luigi Mangione, the man who was charged with fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. She said she was “on a mission” and “had been thinking about this for a while because of Luigi Mangione,” prosecutors said. English told officers that she was terminally ill and “wanted to do something before I go,” according to prosecutors.

English also said she traveled from Massachusetts to Washington intending to kill other Republican political figures — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson — and to burn down the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, according to police. English changed her target to Bessent after reading an internet post about his confirmation hearing, police said.

Jacob said English’s actions last year were “a cry for help.”

“There was no indication that she was acting rationally that day,” the judge said.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.

State Attorney General Keith Ellison has called for the transfer of an ICE agent accused of lying about a nonfatal shooting.

Minnesota’s attorney general is suing the governor of Texas to force the extradition of a federal agent charged with shooting and wounding a man during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison argued that Texas Governor Greg Abbott has refused to fulfil his “mandatory” obligation to transfer Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Christian Castro, so that he may stand trial.

“Governor Abbott has withheld the warrant and held up Castro’s extradition for nearly three months,” Ellison told reporters on Tuesday. “He has no discretion to decline to do so.”

Ellison also asked the US district court in southern Texas to bar Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Trevino from allowing Castro’s release from jail.

Castro’s case has become part of a national debate over transparency and excessive violence during Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

The agent was involved in the January 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan man living in Minnesota. Officials allege that Castro fired a gun into Sosa-Celis’s front door, striking him in the leg.

Initially, the Trump administration said the agents had fired in self-defence, accusing Sosa-Celis and two other people of attacking officers with a broom and a snow shovel during an immigration enforcement operation.

Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem went so far as to call the incident the “attempted murder” of an ICE agent.

But video emerged contradicting the ICE agents’ testimony, and in February, federal prosecutors dropped the charges they had filed against Sosa-Celis and his housemate, Alfredo Aljorna.

In a statement that month, ICE’s then-Acting Director Todd Lyons confirmed that Castro and a second ICE agent appeared to have lied about the incident. The two officers were subsequently placed on administrative leave.

“A joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice (DOJ) of video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements,” Lyons said in a statement at the time.

In May, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charged Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime.

“Mr Castro is an ICE agent. But his federal badge does not make him immune from state charges for his criminal conduct in Minnesota,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement.

Castro was arrested on May 29 in Texas, and he has remained in detention since.

But Ellison has expressed concern that Texas officials – including Abbott, an ally of President Trump – could seek Castro’s release rather than have him face trial.

The Minnesota attorney general described Castro as a flight risk, likely to flee across the US border to Mexico.

“We know that [Castro] has some connections to Mexico, and we know that he has some thought of at some point going to Mexico,” Ellison said. “So, we do believe he’s a risk.”

Abbott’s office told The Associated Press in a statement that it would not comment on “pending extradition matters”.

Under Texas law, Ellison said the 52-year-old Castro could be released from custody as soon as next week – 90 days after he was detained – if Abbott does not agree to his extradition.

The Sosa-Celis shooting was one of several cases this year that prompted questions about the use of deadly force during immigration proceedings.

The Minneapolis area was the subject of one of Trump’s most intense immigration enforcement campaigns, dubbed Operation Metro Surge.

Lasting from December to February, Operation Metro Surge saw what critics considered to be escalating tactics from immigration officials, including warrantless house searches.

Two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretty, were killed by agents during protests against the operation.

Aug. 16 (UPI) — Police arrested a 19-year-old found hiding in a closet on the Virginia State University campus hours after he allegedly shot five people, local officials said.

Camron Harris was in custody at Chesterfield County Jail on suspicion of four counts of malicious wounding and four counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, WTVR-TV in Richmond, Va., reported. He was being held without bond.

Police said more charges may be filed.

The shooting took place on the VSU campus around 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

The victims ranged in age from 17 to 23 years old. A 21-year-old man sustained critical injuries, while the other four, including a 19-year-old woman, had non-life-threatening injuries, WRIC-TV in Richmond reported. The only student of the school was a 20-year-old man who was released from the hospital.

Officers discovered Harris around 4 p.m. Saturday hiding in a closet in Seward Hall on campus. He didn’t attend the school.

The campus had not started fall classes at the time of the shooting, but officials put the school on lockdown until about 8:30 a.m. Saturday. Classes were expected to begin Monday.

VSU is a historically Black university with about 5,100 undergraduate students.

Palestinian politicians and analysts have warned against what they describe as an Israeli plan to illegally annex the occupied West Bank by implementing a series of decisions and actions under different pretexts.

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, on Friday, ordered the military to prepare a plan for transferring civilian law enforcement in the occupied West Bank to the Israeli police.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the decision follows criticism over the army’s handling of Israeli settlers who besieged a Palestinian home in the village of Qusra.

Katz justified the shift, saying, “The army’s role is to combat Palestinian terrorism … and not chase hilltop youth.”

The Defence Ministry indicated the police would establish a dedicated force to handle these civilian matters.

However, Palestinian officials and a wide array of political experts warn this structural shift represents a dangerous acceleration of illegal annexation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing.

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Al Jazeera that the settlers are the “spearhead in the process of annexation and Judaisation”.

He drew direct historical parallels to the mass displacement of Palestinians, stating, “They repeat what the Zionist terror gangs did in 1948, like the Haganah and the Stern Gang.”

Barghouti warned that placing security in the hands of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and illegal Israeli settlements under Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich amounts to “handing over the West Bank to the settlers”.

He stressed that this is an open war on the population, adding, “The actual ruler in the West Bank is the known fascist terrorist Smotrich.”

De facto annexation

Analysts argue that replacing military occupation law with domestic civilian law fundamentally alters the legal reality of the territory. Mohanad Mustafa, an academic and researcher in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that the decision legally erases the borders.

“The government is dealing with the West Bank not as an occupied territory,” Mustafa said. He explained that by transferring power to a civilian police force, “this means that the government has annexed the West Bank”.

He noted this move absolves the military of its obligations under international law, placing enforcement under Ben-Gvir.

Mustafa warned that Ben-Gvir, who previously oversaw the demolition of thousands of Arab homes in Israel, will now command the police to “support the settlers more and more and push them more and more towards deepening their repression and terrorism against the Palestinians”.

Palestinian leadership strongly condemned the mandate. Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, described the move as a blatant violation of international agreements and an attempt to “impose Israeli law and sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to entrench the illegal annexation of Palestinian land”.

The Palestinian group Hamas echoed this sentiment, releasing a statement calling the order a “dangerous step on the path to imposing de facto annexation” that provides “cover and more protection for the escalating attacks and crimes of the settlers”.

Fascist militias

The Palestinian Authority has accused the Israeli government and its military of sponsoring settlers’ violence. Even Israeli members of parliament have accused the army of being complicit.

Analysts stress that relieving the military of its duties essentially deputises settler violence, turning them into an armed extension of the state.

Nihad Abu Ghosh, an expert in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that there is no contradiction between the army and the settlers. He noted that the settlers have evolved into “fascist militia formations” that perform the state’s dirty work.

“These are fascist militia formations, and there are similar precedents in many countries that were ruled by fascism, whether in Spain, Italy, Germany, or even Chile,” Abu Ghosh said.

He added that these militias carry out roles that “require evading any discipline, rules, or laws” to achieve a “creeping, gradual annexation to make it a reality”.

Apartheid and displacement

The dual legal framework resulting from this shift has drawn sharp international and local criticism. Shadi al-Shurafa, a researcher in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that the situation is a textbook definition of segregation.

“We are facing an application of an overt racist apartheid system in the West Bank,” al-Shurafa said, noting it involves one regime operating with two entirely different laws based on ethnicity.

He added that the ultimate goal of the current government is carrying out complete ethnic cleansing and trapping Palestinians in “isolated cantons and isolated Bantustans”.

Other experts argue that the move completely alters the international legal status of the territory, pushing the crisis into a new, more dangerous phase.

“The subject has bypassed the issue of annexation to a post-annexation phase and creating a reality where the Palestinian finds himself forced to think about migration,” said Adel Shadid, expert in Israeli affairs.

International complicity

Analysts also pointed to the role of the international community, particularly the United States, in enabling this systemic shift.

Shadid dismissed recent US condemnations of settler violence as mere theatre to “mislead global public opinion”.

He argued that the underlying project has full US backing, noting that “all that is happening now is an American-Israeli plan and there is harmony between the two right-wing administrations in Washington and here in Israel”.

Andrew Whitley, a former United Nations official and director of the Balfour Project, stressed that the planned transfer is “completely illegal” and urged immediate global intervention.

He told Al Jazeera that the “Palestinian state is disappearing before our eyes”, demanding that the international community move beyond rhetoric.

“We have to do much more than just wring our hands and complain that governments are not doing anything about this,” Whitley said, calling for concrete sanctions to halt the rapid erasure of the Palestinian presence.