shooting

McALLEN, Texas — A heavily armed man opened fire on federal agents with an assault rifle Monday morning at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in Texas, injuring a police officer before authorities shot and killed him.

Authorities identified the man as Ryan Louis Mosqueda, who they said fired dozens of rounds at agents and the building in McAllen, which is near the U.S.-Mexico border. McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said Mosqueda was carrying a “utility vest” in addition to the rifle when federal agents returned fire.

After Mosqueda was killed, law enforcement found other weaponry, ammunition and backpacks that the suspect had brought.

“There are many, many more rounds of ammunition in his backpack,” Rodriguez said.

In addition, they found the white two-door sedan, which had letters painted — possibly in Latin — on the driver’s side door.

“What it means, or whether or not it is an underlying reason for him being here, I do not know,” Rodriguez said when asked about the graffiti.

Rodriguez said his department received a call about the shooting around 5:50 a.m. One officer who responded to the shooting, a 10-year veteran, was injured after being struck in the knee. Rodriguez said it was unclear if the injury was from shrapnel or a bullet.

Police say Mosqueda was linked to a Michigan address, but was reported missing from a Weslaco, Texas, address around 4 a.m. Monday. Weslaco is about 20 miles from the Border Patrol facility.

“An hour and a few minutes later, he was at this particular location opening fire on the federal building and our federal agents,” Rodriguez said.

Additional information about the missing person report, including who reported it and the circumstances, was not immediately made available.

Rodriguez said there is no ongoing threat to the public, but it is unknown if any other people were involved in the attack. He said the motive and events leading up to the attack are part of the ongoing investigation, which the FBI is taking the lead on.

The attack comes as President Trump’s administration ramps up deportations, which will be turbocharged by a massive spending bill that became law last week. Stephen Miller, the president’s deputy chief of staff and chief architect of his immigration policies, recently set a target of at least 3,000 immigration arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first five months of the administration.

Gonzalez writes for the Associated Press.

July 7 (UPI) — At least three people were killed and 10 others injured in a shooting early Monday, in South Philadelphia.

Officials said the “group of individuals” fired “randomly” just before 1 a.m. EDT near the intersection of Etting Dickinson streets in South Philadelphia.

“You know, this is coward stuff. This is, you know, you see the size of this block. I mean, just individuals just shooting randomly into houses, into cars, children out here. I mean, this is coward, wanna-be thug stuff.” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said in reaction to the overnight incident.

According to officials, eight of the 13 victims were transported local hospitals. Many were taken to Penn Presbyterian Hospital. Two of the victims were juveniles and are expected to be okay.

Bethel said the shooting took place during some type of meeting but it is unclear what led to the violence.

“There was a large crowd out here,” Bethel said, noting he had heard about 40 people may have been in the area when the shooting started. “Clearly, there was something going on on the block. You could see that.”

One person with a weapon was taken into custody, their exact involvement is unknown at the time, according to police.

Coroner’s finding comes five years after acquitted policeman Zachary Rolfe fatally shot 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker.

An Australian police officer who shot dead an Indigenous teenager was a racist drawn to “high adrenaline policing”, a landmark coronial inquiry has found.

Racist behaviour was also “normalised” in Zachary Rolfe’s Alice Springs police station, said the 682-page findings released in a ceremony in the remote outback town of Yuendumu in central Australia on Monday.

The findings were delivered five years after the shooting of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker, leading to protests around the country. But Rolfe was found not guilty of murder in a trial in the Northern Territory capital of Darwin in 2022.

Walker was shot three times during the attempted arrest in Yuendumu – one of 598 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died in custody since 1991 when detailed records began.

“I found that Mr Rolfe was racist,” said Northern Territory coroner Elisabeth Armitage, delivering her conclusions after a nearly three-year inquiry.

Northern Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage has handed down her Findings into the death of Kumanjayi Walker #auslaw https://t.co/4uAEzIkwhd pic.twitter.com/hNb6UPnDUT

— NT Courts (@CourtsinNT) July 7, 2025

Rolfe, who was dismissed from the police force in 2023 for reasons not directly related to the shooting, worked in an organisation with the hallmarks of “institutional racism”, she said.

There was a “significant risk” that Rolfe’s racism and other attitudes affected his response “in a way that increased the likelihood of a fatal outcome”, she said.

Walker’s family and community will always believe racism played an “integral part” in his death, the coroner said. “It is a taint that may stain the [Northern Territory] police.”

The coroner cited offensive language used in a so-called awards ceremony for the territory’s tactical police, describing them as “grotesque examples of racism”.

“Over the decade the awards were given, no complaint was ever made about them,” she said.

The policeman’s text messages also showed his attraction to “high adrenaline policing”, and his “contempt” for some more senior officers as well as remote policing. These attitudes “had the potential to increase the likelihood of a fatal encounter with Kumanjayi”, she said.

In a statement shared before the coroner released her findings, Walker’s family said the inquest had exposed “deep systemic racism within the NT police”.

“Hearing the inquest testimony confirmed our family’s belief that Rolfe is not a ‘bad egg’ in the NT Police force, but a symptom of a system that disregards and brutalises our people,” the family said in the statement shared on social media.

“Crucially, the inquest heard evidence backing a return to full community-control, stating what yapa have always known: when we can self-determine our futures and self-govern our communities, our people are stronger, our outcomes are better, our culture thrives,” the statement said, referring to the Warlpiri people, also known as Yapa.

Armitage’s presentation was postponed last month after 24-year-old Warlpiri man Kumanjayi White, who was also from Yuendumu, died in police custody in a supermarket in Alice Springs.

White’s death also prompted protests and calls for an independent investigation into his death.

July 5 (UPI) — Two teens are dead and five others wounded after a mass shooting in downtown Indianapolis early Saturday morning.

The shooting killed two boys, ages 16 and 15, at about 1:30 a.m. near the intersection of South Illinois and West Washington streets in downtown Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Star reported.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Chris Bailey blamed parents for allowing hundreds of teens to go unsupervised while out at night.

“This kind of violence … is completely unacceptable and unnecessary,” Bailey told media.

“We are not your children’s keepers. You are,” he added. “Parents and guardians have got to step up.”

The 16-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other boy died after being taken to a nearby hospital.

Four other shooting victims also were taken to local hospitals, and a fifth walked into a hospital.

Police found the victims while responding to a report of a fight at the same location and said four of the surviving shooting victims are teens, and the other is 21.

Two of the teens are 19-year-old adults, and the others are ages 16 and 17.

Police have not determined a motive but detained seven for questioning and recovered several firearms.

The mass shooting was among several violent incidents that occurred after the annual Independence Day fireworks ended on Friday night.

Bailey said police made 20 arrests during the night and recovered firearms from two juveniles in the downtown area before the mass shooting happened.

He said one was carrying a semi-automatic rifle that was stuffed into the youth’s pants.

Colombian police have arrested the alleged mastermind of the assassination attempt against a presidential hopeful during a rally last month.

Miguel Uribe, a conservative senator, was twice shot in the head in the capital, Bogotá, as he was campaigning for his party’s nomination in the 2026 presidential election.

Police arrested a suspected criminal, Élder José Arteaga Hernandez, who they say persuaded a 15-year-old to carry out the attack. Four other people had already been arrested, including the teenager charged with shooting Uribe.

Uribe remains in a critical condition. The motive for the attempt on his life on 7 June is unclear.

Colombian police chief Carlos Fernando Triana said on Friday that Arteaga had a long criminal history and was wanted for “aggravated attempted homicide” and “use of minors for the commission of crimes” over the attack on Uribe.

Police say he co-ordinated the assault, hired the gunman and provided him with a weapon.

Authorities had previously accused Arteaga, who uses the aliases Chipi and Costeño, of being near the Bogotá park where Uribe was shot.

The 15-year-old suspect was arrested as he was fleeing the scene. He subsequently pleaded not guilty, the prosecutor’s office said.

Uribe, a critic of left-wing President Gustavo Petro, announced his candidacy for next year’s presidential election last October. The 39-year-old has been a senator since 2022.

He is from a prominent political family, with links to Colombia’s Liberal Party. His father was a union leader and businessman.

His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 in a rescue attempt after she was kidnapped by the Medellin drugs cartel.

The 7 June attack prompted silent protests attended by tens of thousands of Colombians.

The police said gunmen opened fire in the River North neighbourhood. At least three victims are in critical condition.

Four people in the United States have been killed and at least 14 others wounded when gunmen opened fire on a crowd outside a lounge in downtown Chicago, according to police.

According to authorities, the mass shooting took place around 11:00pm (04:00 GMT) on Wednesday, when shots were fired from a vehicle travelling along Chicago Avenue in the city’s River North neighbourhood.

Chicago police reported that 13 women and five men, all between the ages of 21 and 32, were struck by the gunfire. Among the dead were two men and two women.

As of Thursday, at least three victims remained in critical condition. The injured were transported to local hospitals.

Police said the driver fled the scene immediately, and no arrests have been made. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling urged the public to submit anonymous tips to help detectives identify the suspects.

Local media reported that rapper Mello Buckzz, also known as Melanie Doyle, was hosting a private event at the lounge Wednesday evening to celebrate the release of her new album.

Snelling said police were trying to determine a motive and that the venue, Artis Lounge, is closed “until we get to the bottom of this”. He did not identify the number of attackers involved in the incident but said police found two different calibres of casings and were still reviewing footage.

“Clearly, there was some target in some way,” Snelling said. “This wasn’t some random shooting.”

Artis Lounge confirmed they were working with authorities as the investigation continued.

‘I can only describe it as a warzone’

In the hours after the shooting, Buckzz asked for prayers and expressed her anger and sadness on social media.

“My heart broke into so many pieces,” the artist wrote on Instagram Stories.

In her posts, the rapper revealed that many of those injured were her friends, and that she had been in a relationship with one of the men who was killed.

“Prayers up for all my sisters god please wrap yo arms around every last one of them,” Buckzz wrote across several Instagram Story slides. “Feel like everything just weighing down on me … all I can do is talk to god and pray.”

Chicago pastor Donovan Price, who works with communities affected by violence, described the scene as a “warzone”.

“Just mayhem and blood and screaming and confusion as people tried to find their friends and phones. It was a horrendous, tragic, dramatic scene,” he told The Associated Press.

The shooting took place days before the Fourth of July weekend, when Chicago and other major cities often see a surge in gun crimes. In recent years, however, Chicago has seen an overall decrease in gun violence.

During the last Fourth of July weekend in Chicago, more than 100 people were shot, resulting in at least 19 deaths. Mayor Brandon Johnson said at the time that the violence “has left our city in a state of grief”.

July 3 (UPI) — Two minors were charged Thursday in connection with a shooting at a shopping center in Georgia.

Police in Savannah have confirmed two juveniles have been charged with possession of a firearm under the age of 18, but no arrests have been made.

Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones said in a press conference Thursday that she “is sending a specific message to each and every person involved in the shooting yesterday. We will find you, we will see you, we will prosecute you, to the fullest extent of the law.”

Gunfire broke out Wednesday at the Oglethorpe Mall around 5:45 p.m. The mall announced on its website Thursday that it will remain closed for the day, although select stores may be open. A related police investigation remains active at the mall.

The two people charged in the case are among three who have been hospitalized with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. Seven people were injured in total as a result of the incident.

Chatham Area Transit Authority bus service had been suspended to the mall but announced at approximately 11 a.m. EDT Thursday that service has been restored.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman laid in state in the Minnesota Capitol rotunda on Friday while the man charged with killing her and her husband, and wounding a state senator and his wife, made a brief court appearance in a suicide prevention suit.

Hortman, a Democrat, is the first woman and one of fewer than 20 Minnesotans accorded the honor. She laid in state with her husband, Mark, and their golden retriever, Gilbert. Her husband was also killed in the June 14 attack, and Gilbert was seriously wounded and had to be euthanized. It was the first time a couple has laid in state at the Capitol, and the first time for a dog.

The Hortmans’ caskets and the dog’s urn were arranged in the center of the rotunda, under the Capitol dome, with law enforcement officers keeping watch on either side.

The Capitol was open for the public to pay their respects from noon to 5 p.m. Friday. House TV was livestreaming the viewing. A private funeral is set for 10:30 a.m. Saturday. The service will be livestreamed on the Department of Public Safety’s YouTube channel.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris will fly to Minnesota for the funeral but won’t have a speaking role, according to her personal office. Harris expressed her condolences this past week to Hortman’s adult children, and spoke with Gov. Tim Walz, her 2024 running mate, who extended an invitation on behalf of the Hortman family, her office said.

His hearing takes a twist

The man accused of killing the Hortmans and wounding another Democratic lawmaker and his wife made a short court appearance Friday to face charges for what the chief federal prosecutor for Minnesota has called “a political assassination.” Vance Boelter, 57, of Green Isle, surrendered near his home the night of June 15 after what authorities have called the largest search in Minnesota history.

An unshaven Boelter was brought in wearing just a green padded suicide prevention suit and orange slippers. Federal defender Manny Atwal asked Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko to continue the hearing until next Thursday. She said Boelter has been sleep deprived while on suicide watch in the Sherburne County Jail, and that it has been difficult to communicate with him as a result.

“Your honor, I haven’t really slept in about 12 to 14 days,” Boelter told the judge. And he denied being suicidal. “I’ve never been suicidal and I am not suicidal now.”

Atwal told the court that Boelter had been in what’s known as a “Gumby suit,” without undergarments, ever since his transfer to the jail after his first court appearance on June 16. She said the lights are on in his area 24 hours a day, doors slam frequently, the inmate in the next cell spreads feces on the walls, and the smell drifts to Boelter’s cell.

The attorney said transferring him to segregation instead, and giving him a normal jail uniform, would let him get some sleep, restore some dignity, and let him communicate better. The judge agreed.

Prosecutors did not object to the delay and said they also had concerns about the jail conditions.

The acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Joseph Thompson, told reporters afterward that he did not think Boelter had attempted to kill himself.

The case continues

Boelter did not enter a plea. Prosecutors need to secure a grand jury indictment first, before his arraignment, which is when a plea is normally entered.

According to the federal complaint, police video shows Boelter outside the Hortmans’ home and captures the sound of gunfire. And it says security video shows Boelter approaching the front doors of two other lawmakers’ homes dressed as a police officer.

His lawyers have declined to comment on the charges, which could carry the federal death penalty. Thompson said last week that no decision has been made. Minnesota abolished its death penalty in 1911. The Death Penalty Information Center says a federal death penalty case hasn’t been prosecuted in Minnesota in the modern era, as best as it can tell.

Boelter also faces separate murder and attempted murder charges in state court that could carry life without parole, assuming that county prosecutors get their own indictment for first-degree murder. But federal authorities intend to use their power to try Boelter first.

Other victims and alleged targets

Authorities say Boelter shot and wounded Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, at their home in Champlin before shooting and killing the Hortmans in their home in the northern Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, a few miles away.

Federal prosecutors allege Boelter also stopped at the homes of two other Democratic lawmakers. Prosecutors also say he listed dozens of other Democrats as potential targets, including officials in other states. Friends described Boelter as an evangelical Christian with politically conservative views. But prosecutors have declined so far to speculate on a motive.

Boelter’s wife speaks out

Boelter’s wife, Jenny, issued a statement through her own lawyers Thursday saying she and her children are “absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely blindsided,” and expressing sympathy for the Hortman and Hoffman families. She is not in custody and has not been charged.

“This violence does not align at all with our beliefs as a family,” her statement said. “It is a betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of our Christian faith. We are appalled and horrified by what occurred and our hearts are incredibly heavy for the victims of this unfathomable tragedy.”

An FBI agent’s affidavit described the Boelters as “preppers,” people who prepare for major or catastrophic incidents. Investigators seized 48 guns from his home, according to search warrant documents.

While the FBI agent’s affidavit said law enforcement stopped Boelter’s wife as she traveled with her four children north of the Twin Cities in Onamia on the day of the shootings, she said in her statement that she was not pulled over. She said that after she got a call from authorities, she immediately drove to meet them at a nearby gas station and has fully cooperated with investigators.

“We thank law enforcement for apprehending Vance and protecting others from further harm,” she said.

Karnowski writes for the Associated Press.

A man accused of brandishing a rifle at a “No Kings Day” rally in Utah — prompting an armed safety volunteer to open fire and accidentally kill a protester — has been released from jail while the investigation continues.

Salt Lake County Dist. Atty. Sim Gill’s office said Friday that it was unable to make a decision on charges against Arturo Gamboa, who had been jailed on suspicion of murder after the June 14 shooting.

Salt Lake City police had said Gamboa brought an assault-style rifle to the rally and was moving toward the crowd with the weapon raised when a safety volunteer for the event fired three shots, wounding Gamboa and killing a nearby demonstrator, Arthur Folasa Ah Loo.

Gamboa did not fire his rifle and it is unclear what he intended to do with it. His father, Albert Gamboa, told the Associated Press this week that his son was “an innocent guy” who was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Utah is an open-carry state, meaning people who can legally own a firearm are generally allowed to carry it on a public street. The volunteer has not been publicly identified as investigators have worked to determine who was at fault.

Judge James Blanch said in the release order that Gamboa must live with his father and is forbidden from possessing firearms. The conditions terminate after two months or if criminal charges against him are pursued, Blanch wrote.

Gamboa’s attorney, Greg Skordas, did not immediately respond to a telephone message left for him seeking comment.

Police said the day after the shooting that witnesses reported seeing Gamboa lift the rifle when he was ordered to drop it and that instead he began running toward the crowd. He fled but was arrested nearby, accused of creating the dangerous situation that led to Ah Loo’s death.

Salt Lake City police said in a statement the next day that Gamboa “knowingly engaged in conduct … that ultimately caused the death of an innocent community member.”

But three days after Gamboa was booked into jail, with no formal charges filed, police acknowledged that the circumstances surrounding the shooting remained uncertain. They issued a public appeal for any video footage related to the shooting or Gamboa, and said detectives were still trying “to piece together exactly what happened.”

The volunteer who confronted Gamboa was described by event organizers as a military veteran whose role as a safety volunteer was to maintain order.

Experts say it’s extremely rare for such individuals, often called safety marshals, to be armed. They typically rely on calm demeanor, communication and relationships with police and protesters to help keep order, said Edward Maguire, an Arizona State University criminology and criminal justice professor.

Police said the permit for the protest did not specify that there would be armed security.

Protest organizers have not said whether or how the safety volunteer who shot Ah Loo was trained or explained why he was armed. All attendees, including those in safety roles, were asked not to bring weapons, according to Sarah Parker, a national coordinator for the 50501 Movement. Parker’s organization on Thursday said it was disassociating from a local chapter of the group that helped organize the Utah protest.

The demonstration involving some 18,000 people was otherwise peaceful. It was one of hundreds nationwide involving millions of demonstrators against President Trump’s policies — which they likened to the dictatorial actions of a monarch — and his military parade in Washington, which marked the Army’s 250th anniversary and coincided with Trump’s birthday.

Brown writes for the Associated Press.

The assassination attempt on the presidential hopeful has rattled the country, which fears a return to darker days.

Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay is reported to be in extremely critical condition after undergoing surgery to tend to a brain bleed, just more than a week after being shot in the head during a campaign event.

The attack was part of an eruption of violence that has stoked fears of a return to the darker days of assassinations and bombings.

The Santa Fe Foundation hospital on Monday said that Uribe was stable after undergoing a “complementary” operation to his original surgery, but remained in serious critical condition.

It added that an urgent neurological procedure had been necessary because of clinical evidence and imaging showing an acute inter-cerebral bleed, but that the brain swelling persisted and bleeding remained difficult to control.

The 39-year-old potential presidential candidate from the right-wing opposition was shot in the head twice on June 7 during a rally in Bogota.

The assassination attempt, which was caught on video, recalled a streak of candidate assassinations in the 1980s and 1990s, a time when fighting between armed rebels, paramilitary groups, drug traffickers and state security forces touched the lives of many Colombians.

Three suspects, including a 15-year-old alleged shooter, are in custody. An adult man and woman are also being held.

The 15-year-old boy, who police believe was a “sicario” or hitman working for money, was charged last week with the attempted murder of Uribe, to which he pleaded not guilty. He was also charged with carrying a firearm.

The adult man, Carlos Eduardo Mora, has been charged for alleged involvement in planning the attack, providing the gun and being in the vehicle where the shooter changed his clothes after the attack, according to the attorney general’s office.

Uribe is a senator for the conservative Democratic Centre party and one of several candidates who hope to succeed left-wing President Gustavo Petro in the 2026 presidential vote.

He comes from a prominent political family. His grandfather, Julio Cesar Turbay, was president from 1978 to 1982, and his mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 in a botched rescue attempt after being kidnapped by an armed group led by drug cartel lord Pablo Escobar.

The main dissident faction of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group on Friday denied responsibility for the attack on Uribe, though it did accept responsibility for a series of unrelated bomb attacks.

Southwest Colombia was rocked by a series of explosions and gun attacks last week which has left at least seven people dead. The attacks hit Cali, the country’s third-largest city, and the nearby towns of Corinto, El Bordo and Jamundi, targeting police stations and other municipal buildings with car and motorcycle bombs, rifle fire and a suspected drone.

Colombia’s government has struggled to contain violence in urban and rural areas as several rebel groups try to take over territory abandoned by the FARC after its peace deal with the government.

Peace talks between the FARC-EMC faction and the government broke down last year after a series of attacks on Indigenous communities.

The assassination of one Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband and the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife at their homes are just the latest addition to a long and unsettling roll call of political violence in the United States.

The list, in the last two months alone: the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C.; the firebombing of a Colorado march calling for the release of Israeli hostages; and the firebombing of the official residence of Pennsylvania’s governor — on a Jewish holiday while he and his family were inside.

Here is a sampling of other attacks before that — the assassination of a healthcare executive on the streets of New York City late last year; the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally during his presidential campaign last year; the 2022 attack on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) by a believer in right-wing conspiracy theories; and the 2017 shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) by a gunman at a congressional softball game practice.

“We’ve entered into this especially scary time in the country where it feels the sort of norms and rhetoric and rules that would tamp down on violence have been lifted,” said Matt Dallek, a political scientist at Georgetown University who studies extremism. “A lot of people are receiving signals from the culture.”

Individual shootings and massacres

Politics have also driven large-scale massacres. Gunmen who killed 11 worshipers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, 23 shoppers at a heavily Latino Walmart in El Paso in 2019 and 10 Black people at a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store in 2022 each cited the conspiracy theory that a secret cabal of Jews was trying to replace white people with people of color. That has become a staple on parts of the right that support Trump’s push to limit immigration.

The Anti-Defamation League found that from 2022 through 2024, all of the 61 political killings in the United States were committed by right-wing extremists. That changed on the first day of 2025, when a Texas man flying the flag of the Islamic State group killed 14 people by driving his truck through a crowded New Orleans street before being fatally shot by police.

“You’re seeing acts of violence from all different ideologies,” said Jacob Ware, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who researches terrorism. “It feels more random and chaotic and more frequent.”

The United States has a long and grim history of political violence, including presidential assassinations dating to the killing of President Abraham Lincoln, lynchings and other violence aimed at Black people in the South, and the 1954 shooting inside Congress by four Puerto Rican nationalists. Experts say the last few years, however, have reached a level not seen since the tumultuous days of the 1960s and 1970s, when political leaders the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., President Kennedy, Malcolm X and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated.

Ware noted that the most recent surge comes after the new Trump administration has closed units that focus on investigating white supremacist extremism and pushed federal law enforcement to spend less time on anti-terrorism and more on detaining people who are in the country illegally.

“We’re at the point, after these six weeks, where we have to ask about how effectively the Trump administration is combating terrorism,” Ware said.

One of Trump’s first acts in office was to pardon those involved in the largest act of domestic political violence this century — the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob intended to prevent Congress from certifying Trump’s 2020 election loss.

Those pardons broadcast a signal to would-be extremists on either side of the political debate, Dallek said: “They sent a very strong message that violence, as long as you’re a Trump supporter, will be permitted and may be rewarded.”

Ideologies not always aligned — or coherent

Often, those who engage in political violence don’t have clearly defined ideologies that easily map onto the country’s partisan divides. A man who died after he detonated a car bomb outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic last month left writings urging people not to procreate and expressed what the FBI called “nihilistic ideations.”

But each political attack seems to inspire partisans to find evidence the attacker is on the other side. Little was known about the man police identified as a suspect in the Minnesota attacks, 57-year-old Vance Boelter. Authorities say they found a list of other apparent targets that included other Democratic officials, abortion clinics and abortion rights advocates, as well as fliers for the day’s anti-Trump “No Kings” parades.

Conservatives online seized on the fliers — and the fact that Boelter had apparently once been reappointed to a state workforce development board by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz — to claim the suspect must be a liberal. “The far left is murderously violent,” billionaire Elon Musk posted on his social media site, X.

It was reminiscent of the fallout from the attack on Paul Pelosi, the former House speaker’s then-82-year-old husband, who was seriously injured by a man wielding a hammer. Right-wing figures falsely theorized the assailant was a secret lover rather than what authorities said he was: a believer in pro-Trump conspiracy theories who broke into the Pelosi home echoing Jan. 6 rioters who broke into the Capitol by saying: “Where is Nancy?!”

No prominent Republican ever denounced the Pelosi assault, and GOP leaders including Trump joked about the attack at public events in its aftermath.

On Saturday, Nancy Pelosi posted a statement on X decrying the Minnesota attack. “All of us must remember that it’s not only the act of violence, but also the reaction to it, that can normalize it,” she wrote.

After mocking the Pelosis after the 2022 attack, Trump on Saturday joined in the bipartisan condemnation of the Minnesota shootings, calling them “horrific violence.” The president has, however, consistently broken new ground with his bellicose rhetoric toward his political opponents, whom he routinely calls “sick” and “evil,” and has talked repeatedly about how violence is needed to quell protests.

The Minnesota attack occurred after Trump took the extraordinary step of mobilizing the military to try to control protests against his administration’s immigration operations in Los Angeles during the last week, when he pledged to “HIT” disrespectful protesters and warned of a “migrant invasion” of the city.

Dallek said Trump has been “both a victim and an accelerant” of the charged, dehumanizing political rhetoric that is flooding the country.

“It feels as if the extremists are in the saddle,” he said, “and the extremists are the ones driving our rhetoric and politics.”

Riccardi writes for the Associated Press.

June 15 (UPI) — The search for the man suspected of shooting two Minnesota lawmakers in a “politically motivated” attack continued for the second day Sunday as authorities urged residents to keep their doors locked and cars secured.

State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot dead Saturday in their Brooklyn Park home, near Minneapolis. Earlier, State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were wounded when a gunman shot them “multiple times” in Champlin.

The suspect was later identified as 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter, who has not been located. Boelter’s roommate told KMSP‑TV that he has multiple vehicles, one of which had been modified to look like a police car and was found outside of Hortman’s house.

In an emergency alert sent out Sunday in nearby Sibley County, authorities said a second vehicle owned by Boelter was found in Faxon Township.

“Keep your doors locked and vehicles secured,” the alert said. “Report suspicious activity to 911.”

Officials also said they would be going door-to-door to ask residents to search their properties for Boelter.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar indicated in an interview Sunday that Boelter may have left the state. Authorities have also put out an alert for him in South Dakota, she revealed on NBC News’ Meet the Press.

Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said Saturday that investigators found a “manifesto” in Boelter’s vehicle that included the names of other possible targets. An official who saw the list told NBC News it included officials who supported reproductive rights.

President Donald Trump on Sunday called Gov. Tim Walz a “terrible governor” and “a grossly incompetent person” in comments to ABC’s Rachel Scott but said he “may call him.”

The Minnesota shootings came ahead of another shooting Saturday at a “No Kings” protest against Trump in Salt Lake City that took place around the country. A protest outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Oregon was declared a riot by the Portland Police Bureau on Saturday.

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — A massive search stretched into its second day Sunday for a man who authorities say wore a mask and posed as a police officer while fatally shooting a Democratic state lawmaker in her suburban Minneapolis home, an act Gov. Tim Walz called “a politically motivated assassination.” Authorities said the suspect also shot and wounded a second lawmaker and was trying to flee the area.

Former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed in their Brooklyn Park home early Saturday. Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, were injured at their Champlin address, about nine miles away.

Authorities identified the suspect as 57-year-old Vance Boelter, and the FBI issued a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction. They shared a photo taken Saturday of Boelter wearing a tan cowboy hat and asked the public to report sightings. Hundreds of law enforcement officers fanned out in the search.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said Sunday that authorities believe the shooter hasn’t gone far.

“We believe he’s somewhere in the vicinity and that they are going to find him,” the Democrat said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “But right now, everyone’s on edge here, because we know that this man will kill at a second.”

Authorities had not yet given any details on a possible motive.

Boelter is a former political appointee who served on the same state workforce development board as Hoffman, records show, though it was not clear whether or how well they knew each other.

The attacks prompted warnings to other state elected officials and the cancellation of planned “No Kings” demonstrations against President Trump in Minnesota, though some went ahead anyway, including one that drew tens of thousands to the state Capitol in St. Paul. Authorities said the suspect had “No Kings” fliers in his car and writings mentioning the names of the victims as well as other lawmakers and officials, though they could not say whether he had any other specific targets.

A Minnesota official told AP the suspect’s writings also contained information targeting prominent lawmakers who have been outspoken in favor of abortion rights. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

Law enforcement agents recovered several AK-style firearms from the suspect’s vehicle, and he was believed to still be armed with a pistol, a person familiar with the matter told AP. The person could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The shootings happened at a time when political leaders nationwide have been attacked, harassed and intimidated amid deep ideological divisions.

“We must all, in Minnesota and across the country, stand against all forms of political violence,” said Walz, a Democrat. He also ordered flags to fly at half-staff in Hortman’s honor.

“Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America. God Bless the great people of Minnesota, a truly great place!” President Trump said in a statement hours after the attack.

Exchange of gunfire

Police responded to reports of gunfire at the Hoffmans’ home shortly after 2 a.m., Champlin police said, and found the couple with multiple gunshot wounds.

After seeing who the victims were, police sent officers to proactively check on Hortman’s home. There they encountered what appeared to be a police vehicle and a man dressed as an officer at the door, leaving the house, authorities said.

“When officers confronted him, the individual immediately fired upon the officers, who exchanged gunfire, and the suspect retreated back into the home” and escaped on foot, Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said.

Authorities believe the shooter was wearing a mask when carrying out the attacks, according to a law enforcement official. The FBI released photos of the suspect including an image that appears to show him wearing a mask that covered his face and head, a police uniform, and holding a flashlight.

Bullet holes could be seen in the front door of the Hoffmans’ home.

John and Yvette Hoffman each underwent surgery, according to Walz.

Two Democrats targeted

Hortman, 55, had been the top Democratic leader in the state House since 2017. She led Democrats in a three-week walkout at the beginning of this year’s session in a power struggle with Republicans. Under a power-sharing agreement, she turned the gavel over to Republican Rep. Lisa Demuth and assumed the title speaker emerita.

Hortman used her position as speaker in 2023 to champion expanded protections for abortion rights, including legislation to solidify Minnesota’s status as a refuge for patients from restrictive states who travel there to seek abortions — and to protect providers who serve them.

Walz called her a “formidable public servant, a fixture and a giant in Minnesota.”

Hortman and her husband had two adult children.

The initial autopsy reports from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office gave their cause of death as “multiple gunshot wounds.”

The reports said Melissa Hortman died at the scene, while her husband was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Hoffman, 60, was first elected in 2012 and is chair of the Senate Human Services Committee, which oversees one of the biggest parts of the state budget. He and his wife have one daughter.

The suspect

Boelter was appointed to the workforce development board in 2016 and reappointed in 2019 to a four-year term that expired in 2023, state records show.

Corporate records show Boelter’s wife filed to create a company called Praetorian Guard Security Services with the same Green Isle mailing address listed for the couple. Boelter’s wife is listed as president and CEO and he is listed as director of security patrols on the company’s website.

The website says the company provides armed security for property and events and features a photo of an SUV painted in a two-tone black-and-silver pattern similar to a police vehicle. Another photo shows a man in black tactical gear with a military-style helmet and a ballistic vest.

An online resume says Boelter is a security contractor who has worked in the Middle East and Africa, in addition to past managerial roles at companies in Minnesota.

Around 6 a.m. Saturday, Boelter texted friends to say he had “made some choices,” the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.

In the messages, read to reporters by David Carlson, Boelter did not specify what he had done but said: “I’m going to be gone for a while. May be dead shortly, so I just want to let you know I love you guys both and I wish it hadn’t gone this way. … I’m sorry for all the trouble this has caused.”

Political violence

Klobuchar condemned online threats and urged people Sunday to think twice before posting accusations or motives on the internet.

Speaking of Hortman on CNN, Klobuchar said: “This is a person that did everything for the right reasons.

“Regardless of political parties, look at her face before you send out your next post,” Klobuchar said.

Demuth, the Republican House speaker, called the attack “evil” and said she was “heartbroken beyond words” by the killings.

The shootings are the latest in a series of attacks against lawmakers across parties.

In April an assailant set fire to the home of Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, forcing him and his family to flee during the Jewish holiday of Passover. The suspect said he planned to beat Shapiro with a small sledgehammer if he found him, according to court documents.

In July 2024, Trump was grazed on the ear by one of a hail of bullets that killed a Trump supporter. Two months later a man with a rifle was discovered near the president’s Florida golf course and arrested.

Other incidents include a 2022 hammer attack on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, in their San Francisco home and a 2020 plot by anti-government extremists to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and start a civil war.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said he asked Capitol Police to “immediately increase security” for Klobuchar and the other U.S. senator from Minnesota, Tina Smith. He also asked Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, to hold a briefing on member security.

Speaking Sunday on CNN’s “Inside Politics Sunday,” Smith said she personally felt safe and the thought of security details becoming the norm was unbearable.

“But I think we are at a tipping point right now when we see these kinds of personal threats. It gets worse, not better,” she said. “I don’t want to think that I need to have a personal security detail wherever I go.“

Sullivan, Karnowski and Richer write for the Associated Press. Sullivan reported from Brooklyn Park, Karnowski from Minneapolis and Durkin Richer from Washington. AP writers Giovanna Dell’Orto in Champlin, Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, N.Y., Michael Biesecker in Washington and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.

June 15 (UPI) — At least one person was critically injured Saturday in a shooting at a protest against President Donald Trump in Salt Lake City. It came hours after two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota were shot dead by a gunman.

The “No Kings” protest, one of many that took place across the United States, was attended by some 10,000 people, according to preliminary estimates from the Salt Lake City Police Department.

The shooting happened around 7:56 p.m. when officers heard gunshots in front of a luxury high-rise residential building on State Street, a main thoroughfare through the city leading to the Utah State Capitol in an area with local, state and federal government facilities.

“Officers responded to the scene and found one person with a critical gunshot wound. Those injuries are considered life-threatening,” police said in the news release.

With information provided by witnesses, police tracked “one of the involved parties” and arrested him nearby. His identity was also not provided, but he was said to have been taken to a local hospital to be treated for serious injuries from a gunshot wound and remains under police supervision.

Two other people were also taken into custody later, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. The motives for the shooting are still under investigation and the roles of each of the four people remain unclear, but Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd told KSL.com that it appeared the people were involved “at some level” in the protest.

It was also not clear what charges the three people who were detained might face.

“I want to urge everyone in the public to be calm, to give one another grace and to look out for one another tonight and in the coming days,” Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said, as reported by KUER, calling the violence “horrific.”

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, called the shooting “a deeply troubling act of violence that has no place in our public square.”

BLAINE, Minn. — Minnesota’s House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed in a politically motivated assassination, Gov. Tim Walz announced Saturday. A second lawmaker and his wife were shot and wounded.

“We must all, in Minnesota and across the country, stand against all forms of political violence,” Walz said at a news conference Saturday. “Those responsible for this will be held accountable.”

The wounded lawmaker was identified as state Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat, who was first elected in 2012. He runs Hoffman Strategic Advisors, a consulting firm. He previously served as vice chair of the Anoka Hennepin School Board, which manages the largest school district in Minnesota. Hoffman is married and has one daughter.

Hortman was the top House Democratic leader in the state Legislature and is a former House speaker. She was first elected in 2004.

Both Hoffman and Hortman represented districts north of Minneapolis.

Drew Evans, superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said that authorities were actively searching for a suspect. Hortman and her spouse died from gunshot wounds, Evans said.

Public Safety Commissioner Bob Johnson said at the news conference with Walz that the suspect was posing as a law enforcement officer.

The “suspect exploited the trust of our uniforms, what our uniforms are meant to represent. That betrayal is deeply disturbing to those of us who wear the badge with honor and responsibility,” Johnson said.

The shootings happened at a time when political leaders nationwide have been attacked, harassed and intimidated amid deep ideological divisions.

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, leader of Giffords, a national gun violence prevention group, said in a statement: “I am horrified and heartbroken by last night’s attack on two patriotic public servants. My family and I know the horror of a targeted shooting all too well. An attack against lawmakers is an attack on American democracy itself. Leaders must speak out and condemn the fomenting violent extremism that threatens everything this country stands for.”

Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, was shot in the head in 2011 by a gunman who killed six people and injured 12 others. She stepped down from Congress in January 2012 to focus on her recovery.

The nightclub is being replaced with a permanent memorial to one of the US’s worst mass shootings in modern history.

Survivors and family members of the 49 victims killed at an LGBTQ+ friendly nightclub in the United States have gotten their first chance to walk through it before it is demolished and replaced with a permanent memorial to what at the time was considered the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

In small groups over four days starting Wednesday, survivors and family members of those killed plan to spend half an hour at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where Omar Mateen opened fire during a Latin night celebration on June 12, 2016, leaving 49 dead and 53 wounded. Mateen, who had pledged allegiance to ISIL (ISIS), was killed after a three-hour standoff with police.

The Pulse shooting‘s death toll was surpassed the following year when 58 people were killed and more than 850 injured among a crowd of 22,000 at a country music festival in Las Vegas.

The city of Orlando purchased the Pulse property in 2023 for $2m and plans to build a $12m permanent memorial that will open in 2027. These efforts follow a fumbled attempt to create a memorial over many years by a private foundation run by the club’s former owner.

The existing structure will be razed later this year.

“None of us thought that it would take nine years to get to this point, and we can’t go back and relitigate all of the failures along the way that have happened. But what we can do is control how we move forward together,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said two weeks ago, when county commissioners pledged $5m to support the city of Orlando’s plan.

The opportunity to visit the nightclub comes on the ninth anniversary of the mass shooting.

About 250 survivors and family members of those killed have responded to the city’s invitation to walk through the nightclub this week. Families of the 49 people who were killed can visit the site with up to six people in their group, and survivors can bring one person with them. The club has been cleaned, and lighting has been installed ahead of the walk-throughs.

The people invited to visit are being given the chance to ask FBI agents who investigated the massacre about what happened.

Mental health counsellors will be available to talk to those who walk through the building in what could be both a healing and traumatic moment for them.

“The building may come down, and we may finally get a permanent memorial, but that doesn’t change the fact that this community has been scarred for life,” said Brandon Wolf, who survived the massacre by hiding in a bathroom as the gunman opened fire. He does not plan to visit the site.

“There are people inside the community who still need and will continue to need support and resources.”

Police believe the 15-year-old arrested for the attempted murder of Senator Miguel Uribe was a hitman working for money.

A 15-year-old boy accused of trying to assassinate Colombian Senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has pleaded “not guilty”, the prosecutor’s office said.

The teen was formally charged on Tuesday with the attempted murder of 39-year-old conservative presidential candidate Uribe, who was shot in the head on Saturday and is fighting for his life in critical condition in hospital.

The teenager – who police believe was a “sicario” or hitman working for money – was also charged with carrying a firearm.

“No family in Colombia should be going through this,” Uribe’s wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, told reporters outside the hospital where her husband is being treated.

“There is no name for this – it’s not pain, it’s not horror, it’s not sadness,” she said.

The senator’s father, Miguel Uribe Londono, thanked the “millions of Colombians and people around the world for their prayers”.

“Miguel, amidst the pain and dismay that overwhelms us, has managed to unite this country in a single voice that rejects violence,” his father added.

It is not known why Senator Uribe, who was vying for the candidacy of his party, was attacked. He was polling well behind other party candidates at the time of the shooting.

Footage from the scene of the shooting showed Uribe addressing supporters in the west of the capital Bogota when a youth rushed towards him firing at least eight shots. Uribe was hit twice in the head and once in the leg.

The alleged attacker was apprehended by security guards and a Glock 9mm pistol was recovered.

In a video of the teen’s capture, independently verified by the Reuters news agency, the suspect can be heard shouting that he had been hired by a local drug dealer.

An earlier video showed that as the suspect, who was wounded, attempted to escape the scene, a voice could be heard shouting, “I did it for the money, for my family.”

But in court, the teenager rejected charges of attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm, the attorney general’s office said. If convicted, he faces up to eight years in a rehabilitation centre, not prison, as he is a minor.

Also on Tuesday, Colombia was rocked by bomb and gun attacks in the country’s southwest where at least seven people were killed in a wave of violence that echoed earlier decades when attacks by armed fighters, paramilitary groups and drug traffickers were common.

The bomb and gun attacks were likely caused by an armed group that splintered from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, according to the army and police.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, meanwhile, has broadly pointed the finger at an international crime ring as being behind the attack on Uribe, without providing details or evidence.

Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti suggested there may be a link with the assassination attempt as rebels have increasingly turned to drug trafficking to finance their activities, though he did not provide evidence.

President Petro has ordered beefed-up security for government officials and opposition leaders in response to the attacks.

Uribe had been a staunch critic of Petro’s security strategy, aimed at ending six decades of armed conflict, arguing that Petro’s approach of pausing offensives on armed groups despite the failure of peace talks only backfired.

The senator had two government-provided bodyguards protecting him at the time of the shooting, the head of the National Protection Unit said.

Uribe’s lawyer, Víctor Mosquera, said his client had repeatedly asked for more bodyguards.