suspect

Aug. 21 (UPI) — Authorities in Germany discovered an underground weapons cache in a forest near Berlin and are seeking to extradite a suspect from Romania.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the suspect as a “low-level agent” and added that several more agents have been detained this year. The call for extradition is part of a monthslong investigation after authorities discovered two firearms and ammunition stowed away in the forest.

The weapons cache is suspected to be linked to Russian intelligence. Investigators left the weapons in place after determining they were rendered useless in hopes of observing someone coming back for them. After months of surveillance, no one had come to the site to retrieve them, leaving investigators to believe that the operation had been abandoned.

Dobrindt said authorities are investigating whether the weapons were meant for a violent threat to national security.

“This case demonstrates that we are operating under a high threat level,” Dobrindt told reporters.

German intelligence has been on elevated alert since Director General of the German Federal Domestic Intelligence Service Sinan Selen said two months ago that Russia may be preparing to carry out assassinations on supporters of Ukraine, members of the defense industry and political opponents.

The Russian embassy in Germany has not commented on the allegations.

Germany’s Leipzig/Halle international airport was the site of an incident two weeks ago in which a drone armed with explosives was discovered. Authorities suspect that the Russian government is involved in the incident.

On the same day, a DHL cargo plane had to abort its landing at Leipzig and divert to another airport after colliding midair with an unknown object. The plane suffered minor damage to its nose.

WASHINGTON — A person has been arrested in connection with vandalism at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., U.S. Atty. for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced Friday.

Pirro announced on X that her office was filing two felony charges against Melissa L. Farris. Pirro said the felony charges are “Depredation Against Property of the United States and Destruction of Veterans’ Memorials.” The offenses carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison.

On Thursday, the words “Clean hands dirty $” were found painted on the monument and bubbles filled a fountain.

“Vandalizing our World War II Memorial is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom. Those Americans include my father and grandfather,” Pirro wrote.

A woman identified on her Facebook page as Melissa Lovewell posted a video Thursday in which she is seen taking cans of spray paint from her bag and then painting the monument.

“I will wait here to be arrested for spraying our veterans’ fountain,” she says. “It was me, I’m doing it, it’s on camera.”

In a video posted Friday, the woman, who in a separate post said she had been in Washington for three weeks, said she was turning herself in.

The arrest warrant filed in the case indicated that witnesses took pictures of the vandalism occurring, which were circulated among U.S. Park Police officers.

One officer recognized the suspect as someone they arrested Aug. 10 “for unlawfully camping on federal property” just blocks away. She livestreamed that arrest, the warrant said.

The suspect was identified by her Kentucky driver’s license as Melissa L. Farris, of Elizabethtown, Ky.

Farris was expected to be arraigned Friday. The public defender’s office said she was not yet listed in the system and had not been assigned an attorney.

The incident sparked harsh rebukes from Pirro and President Trump and comes after the president blamed damage to the nearby Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on vandals, without providing evidence. That case prompted charges against multiple people, which were dropped when Pirro said evidence showed the damage came from botched repairs after Trump’s renovation at the site.

“Our beautiful World War II Memorial was just hit by Spray Painting Vandals,” Trump said on Friday on his Truth Social site. “First the Reflecting Pool, now this.”

The Interior Department said that the U.S. Park Police were on the scene following the Thursday vandalism and an investigation was ongoing. “The public should know we will find the person responsible for this disgusting act,” the department said.

The Friends of the National World War II Memorial, a nonprofit organization that helps maintain the site, said: “There are many places in our country for expression, debate, and disagreement. A national memorial honoring those who served and those who never returned home should never be used as a canvas for vandalism.”

The Veterans of Foreign Wars called the vandalism “an act of profound disrespect, a slap in the face to the veterans who served and sacrificed and to the families who carried that burden at home.”

A former Olympian was charged in late July with deliberately damaging the Reflecting Pool, but the Justice Department later moved to dismiss that case, saying evidence prosecutors had received refuted the idea that vandals were to blame.

Trump sharply criticized Pirro’s assessment that damage to the Reflecting Pool was the result of shoddy construction and not the work of vandals, as he claimed.

The case dismissal was an embarrassing setback for a Justice Department that had previously echoed Trump’s claims and billed the prosecution as accountability for damage at a Washington landmark, a pet project of Trump. Pirro’s decision to drop the case was also a rare moment during Trump’s second term of an aide or political appointee openly defying him.

Fields writes for the Associated Press.

A large-scale security operation is in place in the Republic of Ireland as the authorities prepare for the extradition of alleged crime boss Daniel Kinahan.

The 49-year-old was arrested in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in April and on Saturday an Irish government jet flew to Dubai to prepare to collect him.

The plane is expected to return to Dublin on Sunday and Kinahan will then be taken to the Special Criminal Court.

Ahead of the extradition, the Irish Prison Service bought a bulletproof and bombproof van which can be used to escort prisoners who are considered high-risk.

Irish authorities are expected to prosecute him for his involvement in leading an organised crime group.

Kinahan is not only wanted by the authorities in Ireland – the US Treasury Department once described the Kinahan cartel as one of the most dangerous in the world.

The US government imposed sanctions on Kinahan in April 2022 after he and other members of his family were identified as leaders of the Kinahan organised crime cartel.

He fought attempts to extradite him back to his native country, where the Kinahan cartel was involved in a long-running gangland feud that claimed 18 lives.

Kinahan himself became a target for murder and escaped an attempt on his life during a fatal shooting at a Dublin hotel in 2016.

He left Ireland and spent time living in Spain and more recently in Dubai, where a warrant for his arrest was issued by the Irish courts in April.

He appealed the extradition order over the past few months but his attempts were unsuccessful.

It is expected that shortly after his arrival in Ireland he will be taken to the non-jury Special Criminal Court in Dublin to face charges for alleged involvement in leading an organised crime group.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

German police have shot dead the suspect wanted for the car ramming attack on Berlin’s Pride march.

Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was killed as he attacked officers with a bladed weapon, police reported late on Sunday. Officials have reported that all indications point to a “Islamic terror attack”.

Ballout was shot following a search that lasted nearly 24 hours. He was the main suspect in the attack that took place on Saturday evening, in which a van drove into a crowd at the Berlin Pride LGBT event.

The confrontation occurred in the German capital’s Spandau district. Police said that he died despite efforts to resuscitate him.

“Around 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), the suspect involved in yesterday’s attack in Tiergarten was located at an allotment garden complex in Spandau,” Berlin police wrote social media.

“According to initial findings, he ran towards officers while armed with a bladed weapon; police… subsequently opened fire. Despite immediate resuscitation efforts by the Berlin Fire Department, he died at the scene.”

More to come…

Police say a possible political motive is under investigation in the killing of the ex-minister.

Prosecutors in the United Kingdom have charged a 28-year-old man with the murder of Ann Widdecombe, a former government minister and member of the far-right Reform UK party.

Joshua Kerry was charged on Monday and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Tuesday, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Widdecombe, 78, was found dead at her home near Dartmoor National Park in southwest England on July 9, a day after she missed a television interview. Police said she had been deliberately targeted but did not disclose how she died, citing only “serious injuries”.

Kerry, who is from Rotherham in northern England, was arrested on July 11. He was initially held on suspicion of murder until evidence uncovered while he was in custody led to his additional arrest on “terror” charges.

National Counterterrorism Policing head Laurence Taylor said that the exact motive was still being established.

“Given [Widdecombe’s] profile and the targeted nature of the attack, determining the motivation, including any possible political motivation, remains an active avenue of investigation,” Taylor said.

Widdecombe served as a Conservative member of parliament from 1987 until 2010 and was known for her right-wing political stances.

She later joined the Brexit Party, winning a seat in the European Parliament, and moved to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party after the UK left the European Union.

The incident adds to mounting concerns over political violence in the UK. The past decade has seen the murders of two sitting members of parliament. Labour’s Jo Cox, shot and stabbed in 2016 by a far-right nationalist, and Conservative David Amess, stabbed to death in 2021 by a man inspired by ISIL (ISIS).

July 10 (UPI) — An eighth suspect has been arrested and charged in an alleged plot to attack last month’s Ultimate Fighting Championship event held at the White House, federal prosecutors said.

The suspect was identified as 21-year-old Chandler Scaggs of Chapmanville, W.Va.

The Justice Department said in a statement that he and the other seven suspects were charged in an indictment returned Thursday in Columbus, Ohio, with two conspiracy counts: providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder government officials on government grounds. Jail records indicate that Scaggs was arrested Tuesday, with federal prosecutors saying he was taken into custody by the FBI in West Virginia.

Federal prosecutors allege that the eight suspects, who range in age from 19 to 32, were among nearly two dozen people conspiring to attack the White House’s Freedom 250 UFC event on June 14, staged in celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary and President Donald Trump‘s 80th birthday.

According to the indictment, the co-conspirators allegedly planned to attack the north side of the event with explosive-laden drones, which would force fight spectators to evacuate to the south, where stationed snipers would open fire on the fleeing crowd.

Prosecutors alleged that Scaggs was to be one of the snipers.

The indictment states that the eight defendants began plotting the alleged attack in May, with the conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists stemming from allegations that they worked together to procure money, firearms, ammunition, body armor, drones and other resources to further the plot. The charge is punishable by up to 15 years’ imprisonment.

They are alleged to have developed plans and encouraged one another in online chat groups and forums on encrypted applications, such as Signal, and on social media platforms, including TikTok and Instagram.

The indictment states that the second charge of conspiracy to murder government officials stems from allegations that the suspects planned to murder Trump, Vice President JD Vance and “other high-value targets” as well as Elon Musk and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose attendance at the event was not immediately confirmed. If convicted, the charge carries a potential penalty of up to life in prison.

The first five suspects arrested and charged in the scheme were taken into police custody last month after the parents of one of the suspects, 19-year-old Tycen Proper, alerted police to their son’s purchase of weapons and online activities.

Court documents state the group’s alleged grievances appear to be purported government corruption and U.S. lawmakers’ involvement with Israel.

As part of the scheme, Proper was allegedly supposed to pick up Scaggs and drive to Washington, D.C., for the event.

Prosecutors said that after Proper’s arrest, Scaggs allegedly indicated to the rest of his co-conspirators that he was still willing to carry out the attack and made arrangements with a second co-conspirator, who was not named, to pick him up.

The Thursday indictment follows earlier criminal complaints filed against the original seven defendants.

Kirk was addressing a crowd from under a tent on 10 September as part of his American Comeback tour of college campuses, during which he invited attendees to debate him.

A shot rang out as he was speaking about gun violence; Kirk slumped over to the side.

Chris Bagley, one of four law enforcement witnesses expected to take the stand during the week-long hearing, had been stationed on a building above and realised from the noise that it had come from a rifle, not a handgun.

In court on Monday, he described a chaotic scene of people shouting and running and told the court that he was informed by law enforcement that a shooter had been taken into custody.

But he said he discovered suspicious evidence leading him to believe it might not be the right suspect.

Bagley said he found a screwdriver and an impression in gravel on a roof indicative of a sniper and then viewed security footage showing an individual dropping down and escaping from the area.

He described a telling impression the suspect had left behind.

“I could see the disturbance of gravel; to me, it looks like a sniper pad, a person that has been laying in a prone position, and you’ve got markings of elbows, knees and feet – where somebody was in the line of sight of where Charlie’s tent was.”

Robinson’s defense attorney Kathryn Nestor voiced several objections throughout the testimony, asking him about staffing, planning and surveillance on the day of Kirk’s event.

Another witness, David Hull, told the court he’d been working as an agent with Utah’s State Bureau of Investigation at the time of Kirk’s shooting. He testified that he reviewed surveillance video from the day of the shooting and saw Robinson “on campus … approximately four times throughout the day”.

Hull testified that Robinson appeared at the school twice before the attack, then again at the time of the shooting – then returned that evening, hours after Kirk’s death.

Prosecutors also played home surveillance footage from a neighbourhood near campus which they say shows Robinson parking his gray Dodge, then returning later and driving away.

The hearing is set to continue all week and will examine evidence and witnesses in the case to determine whether prosecutors have enough to present it before a jury at trial.

Prosecutors allege a yacht was used in the sabotage of pipelines, with the suspect leading the operation.

German federal prosecutors ⁠have filed charges ⁠against a 50-year-old Ukrainian national over a series of explosions that destroyed two Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines linking Russia to Europe in 2022.

The federal prosecutor’s office declined to comment on the specifics of the indictment on Wednesday against the accused, who is identified only as Serhii K in court documents under German privacy rules.

Serhii K is accused of attacking civilian energy infrastructure, causing an explosion, and destroying structures, according to the German public broadcaster ARD.

The underwater explosions damaged both the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines so severely that no gas could be transported through them, knocking out the key routes for Russian gas ⁠to Europe for months after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In a December 2025 detention filing by the Federal Court of Justice, prosecutors allege that Serhii K helped coordinate a team that used a sailing yacht, the Andromeda, to place explosive devices on the pipelines near Denmark’s ⁠Bornholm Island in September 2022.

According to those documents, Serhii K is suspected of acting as the on-board coordinator and team leader, not as a diver or bomb expert.

The Berlin law firm Menaker, which is representing the accused Ukrainian, has not provided any details on the indictment.

Federal prosecutors confirmed to the AFP news agency that Serhii K was the same suspect who was arrested in August 2025 in Italy and extradited to Germany the following November, and who was named at the time as Serhii Kuznietsov.

At the time of his arrest, German prosecutors said Kuznietsov had used forged identity documents to charter a yacht, which departed from the German city of Rostock to carry out the attacks.

Kuznietsov has denied being part of the sabotage operation. He said he was a member of the Ukrainian armed forces and in Ukraine at the time of the incident, a claim his defence team has said would give him “functional immunity” under international law.

Answering a question from Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine during a news conference in Dublin on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was too soon to comment on the charges against Serhii K in detail.

“We have not officially received any details; at least I have not seen them”, Zelenskyy said. “It is too early to say yet,” he added.

Ukraine’s government has previously denied any involvement in the sabotage or knowledge of the plot to bomb the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines.

Search under way for suspect who fled scene after explosive device placed at entrance to residential building wounded three, authorities say.

Authorities in Monaco say at this stage have ruled out “terrorism” as a motive in an explosion that left three people wounded.

The powerful blast took place at the entrance to a residential building on Monday evening, after a man had apparently left a package there.

Prosecutor Stephane Thibault told reporters on Tuesday the suspect who fled on foot acted alone and remained at large.

security-camera footage showed the suspect walking in a street wearing a black jacket, light-coloured trousers, white shoes and a black hat that partly conceals his face.

Police have opened an attempted murder probe but are not qualifying it as a “terrorism” investigation, said Thibault, adding that the motive remained unclear.

‘Caught in the explosion’

One of the three injured is a woman in life-threatening condition, while her partner and a 13-year-old child suffered less severe injuries but remain in the hospital. Thibault did not provide their identities.

Media reports identified Ukrainian construction tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev as being among the injured. Ukrainian news site Ukrainska Pravda said he was targeted by Ukrainian sanctions in 2023 for alleged ties to Russia.

The three victims were “apparently returning home peacefully” in the early evening, according to surveillance footage, Christophe Mirmand, the minister of state for Monaco, told French news broadcaster LCI

“They were caught in the explosion as they crossed the threshold of their apartment building,” he said.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said it ⁠was in touch with authorities in ⁠Monaco, saying the explosion wounded three people of Ukrainian ‌descent, who are members of one ⁠family. It did ⁠not name them, but said Ukrainian authorities are checking their citizenship.

Yermolaiev, a multimillionaire Monaco resident, has been subject to sanctions from Ukraine since December 2023, which Ukrainian security services reportedly said stemmed from his alcohol business activity in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Monaco is a microstate with a population of 38,000 people, where many ultra-wealthy people reside. It is considered to be one of the safest places in the world, with an extensive surveillance network of thousands of security cameras covering most public spaces.

Ukrainian oligarch reported to be among injured in explosion at residential building in the Mediterranean principality.

Police in Monaco and neighbouring France are hunting for a man suspected of detonating a makeshift bomb in the centre of the wealthy Mediterranean principality, which seriously injured several people, officials said.

Three people, including a teenager, were hurt in the explosion that struck at about 9pm local time (19:00 GMT) on Monday in a residential building in Monaco, according to authorities in the micro-state on the French Riviera, known as a haven for billionaires and their luxury yachts.

According to the AFP news agency, Ukrainian oligarch Vadym Yermolaiev was one of those wounded.

Monaco’s Minister of State Christophe Mirmand initially told AFP that the blast appeared to be “an attack”, but later dropped the term, describing it as a “deliberate explosion”.

A couple in their 50s or 60s suffered life-threatening conditions, while a 13-year-old who was “very likely related to the couple” suffered less serious injuries, Mirmand said, without disclosing their identities.

The explosive device apparently contained bolts and buckshot, Mirmand said.

“This is the first time in history, to my knowledge, that such an act has taken place in the principality,” he said.

A source close to the investigation who asked not to be named told AFP that one of those wounded was Yermolaiev.

Yermolaiev, a multimillionaire Monaco resident, has been subject to sanctions from Kyiv since December 2023, which Ukrainian security services reportedly said stemmed from his alcohol business activity in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Monaco’s public prosecutor, Stephane Thibault, said a suspect had left a bag or package in the building’s lobby before leaving.

French newspaper Le Figaro said video surveillance images showed a man dropping a backpack at the entrance of a residential building shortly before the explosion.

Monaco’s Prince Albert II described the incident as a “heinous crime” and “a shock to the entire Monegasque community”.

An aide to French Minister of the Interior Laurent Nunez said police were working “to find the perpetrator, who has fled”.

An AFP photographer at the scene saw a heavy police presence with access to the area cordoned off, while a helicopter circled overhead.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court refused Monday to block an excessive force lawsuit against a former Los Angeles Police Department officer who shot and killed a knife-wielding man whose speeding truck had slammed into several cars near downtown Los Angeles.

The court turned down an appeal petition from the Los Angeles city attorney’s office, over the objections of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.

Litigation over the six-second shooting incident has extended over six years.

Federal judges in California agreed that Officer Toni McBride had reason to fire four shots at the suspect in April 2020 but not the two final shots that killed him.

Daniel Hernandez was alleged to be under the influence of methamphetamine when he got out of his truck and walked toward the officer. She repeatedly ordered him, “Drop the knife,” as he approached.

But the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, by a 6-5 vote, ruled last year that a jury could decide the officer went too far when she fired two final shots after the suspect had fallen to the ground.

The majority reasoned that in the one-second pause between shots four and five, McBride “could have and should first reassessed the situation” and possibly concluded the suspect no longer posed a danger.

That ruling would have sent the case to a trial.

But the Los Angeles city’s attorney’s office appealed to the Supreme Court in October and urged the justices to review and reverse the 9th Circuit’s decision.

The city’s attorneys said the appeals court failed to consider the “totality of circumstances from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene” and its decision refused “to allow for reasonable mistakes in fast-moving, life-threatening encounters.”

UC Berkeley law dean Erwin Chemerinsky filed a response for the Hernandez family. He urged the court to stand aside and let a jury decide whether the officer’s actions were reasonable.

“The 9th Circuit simply held that it should be for the jury to resolve the factual dispute over what happened,” he said.

The justices had considered the appeal since late February before finally turning it down without comment on Monday.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled police officers may be sued for unreasonable searches and seizures only if they are shown to have knowingly violated clearly established law.

However, this doctrine of “qualified immunity” has divided judges over whether a particular rule or limit has been clearly established.

The 9th Circuit majority said shooting a fallen suspect crosses the line.

“It has been clearly established for more than a decade that when an officer shoots and wounds a suspect, and he falls to the ground, the officer cannot continue to shoot him, absent some indication that he presents a continuing threat,” wrote Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen.

“A fallen and injured suspect armed only with a bladed instrument does not present a continuing threat merely because he makes nonthreatening movements on the ground. … Under such circumstances, a jury could reasonably find that she employed constitutionally excessive force. If so, she is not entitled to qualified immunity,” she said.

The five dissenters said the officer made a reasonable split-second decision.

Judge Ryan Nelson said McBride “was justified in shooting Daniel Hernandez to alleviate the risk that he posed when he advanced toward her while armed and ignoring commands to stop. … She cannot be reasonably expected or required to reassess her shooting in a tight six second period during an intense and dangerous situation throughout which Hernandez was rising and never stopped moving.”

Judge Patrick Bumatay echoed this concern.

“Judges review police shootings only in hindsight. We review police tapes years after the fact. We get to rewind, pause, fast forward — analyzing the situation frame-by-frame. While the advent of police bodycam videos has been a welcome change, we can’t ignore that real life isn’t in slow motion,” he said.

Bystanders captured the moment police arrested a machete-weilding man, believed responsible for a suspected anti-Muslim stabbing rampage in Edinburgh. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has denounced the attacks as “absolutely appalling.”

June 16 (UPI) — Delaware authorities said Tuesday night that a suspect has been arrested in connection with a shooting inside a Wilmington hospital that left one person dead and another injured.

Little about the arrest has been made public. A statement from the Wilmington Police Department identified the suspect as a 23-year-old man who was taken into police custody in Philadelphia.

UPI has contacted the Philadelphia Police Department for comment.

“Charges and extradition to Delaware are pending,” the Wilmington Police Department statement said.

A preliminary investigation has indicated the shooting was targeted, authorities said following the arrest.

The shooting erupted at about 3:30 p.m. EDT at ChristianaCare Wilmington Hospital, a 321-bed facility located in the heart of Delaware’s most populous city. Officers arrived on the scene to find two people suffering from gunshot wounds. One person was pronounced dead, Wilmington Police Chief Wilfredo Campos told reporters during a press conference.

Authorities withheld the victims’ identities and the condition of the surviving victim out of respect for their families, he said.

The hospital, a trauma center, was placed under lockdown, which has since been lifted. Hospital staff barricaded themselves in rooms across the facility as law enforcement cleared the building. The large police presence that had descended on the facility was being removed, according to the police chief.

Regardless of the motive, “there is never an excuse for violence and there is never an excuse for gun violence,” he said.

Wilmington Mayor John Carney said violence and loss of life in the city were “unacceptable” and that the thoughts and prayers of his office were with the hospital employees “who I know experienced a terrible day today.”

“It’s particularly distressing when an incident like this occurs in a hospital whose fundamental purpose is to treat injuries and save lives,” he said.

“If there’s a place that should be a sanctuary from such violence, that is the place.”

Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer, a Democrat, said the shooting hits “especially close to home.” His wife, the state’s first lady, Lauren Meyer, works as a physician there.

“We ask all Delawareans to keep everyone affected in their thoughts as we learn more about what happened and stay vigilant,” he said.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said he was monitoring reports of the shooting.

“I’m praying for everyone’s safety, including patients, healthcare workers, first responders and law enforcement officers,” he said in a social media statement.

According to The Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 5,800 shooting-related deaths and nearly 10,600 shooting-related injuries in the United States so far this year.