Before a school bus incident even happens, it’s important for student transportation professionals to be aware of federal safety recommendations and crash investigation procedures. Meg Sweeney from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will be at STN EXPO East to give attendees the latest updates.
Her session “NTSB Investigations & Recommendations: Lap/Shoulder Seat Belts to the School Bus Danger Zone” on March 31 wraps up the conference by outlining various facets of school bus crash investigations. She will discuss occupant protection, which will include NTSB recommendations on lap/shoulder seatbelts and their safety impact during crashes, and shed light on “Danger Zone” crashes, including incidents where vehicles struck stopped school buses or hit a pedestrian.
Sweeney will provide attendees with background on the NTSB and its mission to further safety for students and transportation staff. Attendees will also learn about how NTSB conducts investigations and what school districts can expect when NTSB investigators arrive on scene of a school bus crash.
She will also provide insights into NTSB school bus investigations of high-profile crashes and incidents, including one in Maine that killed a 5-year-old boy, who was dragged 280 feet after the school bus loading doors closed on his arm while he attempted to board. Sweeney also worked on the development of recently released urgent recommendations related to an August crash in Leander, Texas and the use of lap/shoulder seatbelts to prevent student injuries and fatalities.
Sweeney is an accident investigator and project manager in the NTSB’s Office of Highway Safety. She has also worked in the NTSB Safety Studies Division, where she studied child restraint safety, multi-passenger van safety and operator fatigue, as well as at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
STN EXPO East will be held March 26-31 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Charlotte Concord Golf Resort & Spa in Concord, North Carolina. Over the five-day conference, attendees will have access to the best in student transportation training, including hands-on training and events, educational sessions, product demonstration labs, green energy panel discussions, an inspirational keynote address, the STN EXPO Trade Show, the Ride and Drive at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and more. Register now at stnexpo.com/east.
A picture sits at a memorial to Alex Pretti on Jan. 25, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The FBI formally notified Minnesota officials on Friday that it would not grant them access to evidence from the investigation into the killing of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said on Monday.
The BCA has historically investigated shootings by law enforcement officials but has been blocked from participating in the investigations of federal immigration agents killing two Americans and shooting a Venezuelan national in three separate incidents in Minneapolis in January during “Operation Metro Surge.”
“While this lack of cooperation is concerning and unprecedented, the BCA is committed to thorough, independent and transparent investigations of these incidents, even if hampered by a lack of access to key information and evidence,” BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said in a statement.
When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good in her car on Jan. 7, BCA agents were on the scene collecting evidence as part of a joint investigation with the FBI. Then the U.S. Attorney’s Office “reversed course” and decided the investigation would be led solely by the FBI, Evans said at the time.
A week later, an ICE agent shot Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan national, in the leg after a car chase with a different individual, whom agents had confused for someone else. The BCA were again on the scene then in north Minneapolis and collected evidence but the FBI told the BCA it would not share any results of its initial investigation.
A little over a week after that, a U.S. Border Patrol agent and a Customs and Border Protection officer shot and killed Alex Pretti on Jan. 24 as he was observing federal immigration agents in south Minneapolis. BCA agents responded at the request of the city of Minneapolis but were blocked from accessing the scene by personnel with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security despite having a judicial warrant.
In all three incidents, Department of Homeland Security officials made extraordinary statements about the victims. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described Good and Pretti as domestic terrorists within hours of their killings.
Homeland Security, in an official release, initially said Sosa-Celis and another man, Alfredo Aljorna, violently assaulted an officer leading the agent to fire a defensive shot. The Department of Justice has since dropped felony assault charges against the two men and is instead investigating two ICE officers for lying about the incident.
Public outrage over the Pretti killing appeared to pressure the Trump administration to consider allowing state officials to cooperate on the investigation. The Star Tribune reported that the BCA and FBI were close to announcing a deal on a joint investigation. Then the Trump administration pulled back, apparently because of a leak about the deal, Gov. Tim Walz said on Thursday.
Democratic leaders say the lack of local participation on independent investigations into the shootings compromises public trust.
In the Pretti killing, the Department of Homeland Security initially said it would take the lead on the investigation — essentially investigating itself — before the FBI took over. The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the killing.
The lack of cooperation with the state also hinders local prosecutors in weighing whether criminal charges against the agents are warranted, leading Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to begin collecting evidence themselves with the BCA.
The BCA is requesting anyone with information about the shootings of Pretti, Good or Sosa-Celis to contact them at 651-793-7000 or by email at bca.tips@state.mn.us.
This story was originally produced by Minnesota Reformer, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Investigators say surveillance video shows a school bus aide repeatedly physically abusing a 10-year-old student with disabilities while the bus driver watched and, at times, laughed.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrests on Jan. 30, following a child abuse investigation that began in mid-November, after a witness reported seeing a school bus aide strike the boy while parked at Caminiti Exceptional School.
According to investigators, video capture Juanita Wright, 79, a school bus monitor for Hillsborough County Public Schools, striking the minimally verbal student diagnosed with autism and ADHD on 14 separate days between Oct. 2 and Nov. 14, Authorities say the footage shows Wright hitting the boy in the head and on his back, pulling him by the hair, and wresting his backpack away as he remained seated.
Wright was charged with 14 counts of child abuse. The bus driver, Tonya Rice-Constant, 62, is charged with failure to report child abuse. Prosecutors allege she saw the abuse, did not intervene, and at least once appeared to smile or laugh while watching the incidents in her rear-view mirror.
Sheriff Chad Chronister condemned the conduct as “a level of cruelty that is deeply disturbing,” calling it “an inexcusable betrayal of trust” when adults entrusted with a child’s welfare cause harm and fail to act. Deputies reviewed internal school bus video and identified multiple incidents before the report was made.
The investigation remains active to determine if additional victims exist.
“A defenseless child was physically abused by someone entrusted with their care, while another adult failed to intervene and instead laughed,” Chronister said. “It is an inexcusable betrayal of trust and a profound lack of humanity.”
In a statement shared by local media, the district said Wright was hired in 2012, removed from duty in November after the allegations surfaced, and later fired. Rice-Constant retired from the district in November, when the investigation into the alleged child abuse began. Both cases will proceed through the court system as authorities continue to investigate.
What should a school transportation department expect in the wake of a serious or fatal school bus crash? In Tennessee, a painstakingly thorough post-crash investigation process begins by reviewing the bus driver’s training and the bus maintenance records, three of the state’s highway patrol troopers said.
In the immediate aftermath of a school bus crash, school staff should expect authorities to follow specific protocol, beginning with ensuring that everyone who’s injured receives the care they need. Next, they will take steps to preserve the crash scene, properly document physical evidence, take photos, and collect witness statements.
“That includes making sure that nothing’s being taken out before it’s documented and that everything that can be done at the scene is done before anyone starts moving stuff or letting people go,” said Sgt. Jena Eubanks of the Tennessee Highway Patrol. “We may put down paint where a vehicle comes to rest just so we can come out later and measure the scene if need be.”
Lt. Raymond Gaskill said the first steps when investigating a serious or fatal school bus crash include securing the bus driver’s information to determine the commercial driver’s license and training record.
“We’re going to verify that the bus has been inspected and that it was supposed to be operational,” Gaskill said. “Even if the crash is not investigated by the highway patrol, transportation directors know that our team of inspectors have to look at that bus before they put kids back on it.”
If an incident occurred while students were loading or unloading, authorities “want to make sure the eight-way lighting was on and the stop sign was out at the time of the crash so it can be documented,” Gaskill said. “Ninety percent of Tennessee buses have cameras nowadays, so we’ll make sure to get with those transportation directors and look at that video.”
Eubanks said post-crash inspections follow two paths.
“There’s what we do on the people side, and we’ll inspect the bus to see what damage, if there is any damage, occurred as a result of the crash,” she said. “The post-crash inspection is conducted by certified personnel … and it’s a very thorough investigation where we’re breaking down that vehicle mere seconds before the crash and building it back up to see, ‘Was there something wrong with the vehicle at the time that was a causing a factor in the crash?’ Those can take a week or a couple days or weeks more, depending on what we’re dealing with.”
Gaskill said the “people side” probe includes a look back at least 24 hours into the driver’s activities.
“Were they sick? Did they stay up all night? Did they get enough rest? What were they doing? You know, those types of things would all play a factor into the crashes,” he explained.
Authorities will also review on-board technology during a crash event reconstruction with the recognition that systems may not be calibrated or accurate.
“We may use the GPS, but we’d have to look at other factors. My calculations as a reconstructionist tell me their minimum speed was this. The GPS says they were going that fast. That would help your case, but we don’t just take GPS at its word,” Gaskill said.
Distraction the Most Prevalent Cause of Crashes
The most common factors in minor and serious school bus crashes involve hitting mirrors on other vehicles due to being too close to the center line and tail swing when the rear of a bus crosses the center line, according to Gaskill. But, he added, “You would be amazed at how many people rear end a school bus, and you can’t train for that.”
Eubanks said most crashes she sees are caused by “some type of distraction.”
“Whether it’s on the driver of the bus or the driver of the other vehicle because most crashes can be prevented, but I would say most of them are distractions,” Eubanks said.
Capt. Allen England said Gaskill’s and Eubanks’ observations can be covered under one umbrella: Human error.
“Whether it’s distraction or tail swing or something else, that’s human error in the operation of the vehicle. Whether it be loading or unloading children or a child getting caught in a door and dragged, it’s the people factor, human error,” he said. “Rarely do we ever see, maybe two out of 100 times, a mechanical defect that may have contributed to a crash. But that’s human error, too.”
The best crashes, though, are the ones that never happen, thanks to foresight and preparation. The Tennessee Highway Patrol’s focus on preventing crashes begins by inspecting 147 school districts’ roughly 9,800 buses.
“We inspect every school bus in the state at least once per year, some twice or more per year. We train every driver at least one time per year, maybe more. We notify transportation directors of downgrades or anything that alters that driver’s license that they need to know about or they may need to take a driver out of a school bus,” England said. “We have a very robust program, and we have committed individuals to the program to help kids safe.”
The four hours of mandated driver training address common safety issues, Gaskill said. “We look at the crashes that come in across the state throughout the year, and that’s what we train next year,” he added. “If we have a lot of tail swing incidents, we make sure to put in training about tail swing. … Student management is always a big one.”
As long as transportation departments are performing proper bus maintenance and conducting effective training, England said, his best advice for fleet managers to prevent accidents is “first and foremost, know your driver.
“The driver is typically the largest factor in the crash. So, they need to understand the driver and what’s going on with them. If the driver is going through something horrendous in his personal life, is that going to affect his ability to safely operate that bus?” he continued. “Know your driver and engage with those drivers as frequently as you can.”
Eubanks agreed. In addition to extending England’s advice to the shop foreperson and mechanics, she encouraged fleet managers to conduct video reviews of bus drivers and follow up on complaints about erratic or unsafe driving.
“Also make sure your drivers are doing what they’re supposed to do regarding pre-trips and post-trips. Pre-trip and post-trip (inspections) are required by federal mandate and by our state regulations,” Eubanks said. “Make sure that driver is taking that time in the morning and in the afternoon to walk around their bus make sure everything’s good to go on it, and notating anything that’s wrong and ensuring that that bus is getting fixed properly.”
Kevin Warsh, second from left, listens during a panel discussion at the Semafor 2024 World Economy Summit on April 18, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Semafor)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s new Federal Reserve chair pick likely faces headwinds in the U.S. Senate, as a key lawmaker opposes the administration’s ongoing criminal probe of current Fed leader Jerome Powell.
Trump announced early Friday he’s tapped Kevin Warsh to lead the central bank after Powell’s term ends in May. Warsh sat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011 after being nominated by President George W. Bush and is a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s business school and the university’s conservative think tank, the Hoover Institution.
“I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best,” Trump wrote on his own platform, Truth Social. “On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting,’ and he will never let you down.”
But the president is one vote short needed to push the nominee through the tightly divided Senate Banking Committee if all Democrats on the panel vote against.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., a member of the Banking Committee, praised Warsh as a “qualified nominee with a deep understanding of monetary policy.”
But Tillis, who is retiring after this term, said he won’t vote for the pick if Trump continues to investigate Powell on accusations that he lied to Congress over the cost of renovations to the Fed’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.
“Protecting the independence of the Federal Reserve from political interference or legal intimidation is non-negotiable. My position has not changed: I will oppose the confirmation of any Federal Reserve nominee, including for the position of Chairman, until the DOJ’s inquiry into Chairman Powell is fully and transparently resolved,” Tillis wrote on social media Friday morning.
The Federal Reserve holds significant influence over the nation’s economy, and numerousexpertsadvise separating monetary policy from political influence. Adjusting interest rates, to cool inflation or stimulate the economy, is one tool the central bank uses to accomplish maximum employment and price stability.
Threats to Powell
Trump has publicly threatened to fire Powell multiple times if the chair did not lower interest rates more aggressively.
Powell revealed in mid-January that he received a federal grand jury subpoena from the Department of Justice for a probe into whether he lied to Congress about construction costs.
Powell said in a rare video statement at the time that the investigation was not purely about oversight but rather about “setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to comment on the status of the subpoenas Friday when asked if Trump’s nomination process would speed up the investigation into Powell.
“I don’t think the timing of President Trump’s decision to nominate somebody is a controlling factor in any investigation,” he told reporters at an unrelated press conference at the Justice Department.
No commitment to lower rates
Trump praised Warsh on social media Friday morning, upon announcing his decision.
Warsh, a former New York banker and economic adviser to Bush, served on the Fed board through the tumultuous global financial crisis.
Trump told reporters Friday afternoon that he hasn’t asked Warsh about a commitment to lower interest rates.
“I don’t want to ask him that question. I think it’s inappropriate. Probably, probably would be allowed, but I want to keep it nice and pure. But he certainly wants to cut rates. I’ve been watching him for a long time,” Trump said.
When asked about Tillis’s opposition, Trump called the senator an “obstructionist.”
“I mean, you know, if he doesn’t approve, we just have to wait till somebody comes in that will approve it, right?” Trump said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a member of the Senate Banking Committee, urged her Republican colleagues on the panel to oppose Trump’s pick.
“Trump can’t appoint his next puppet to the Fed all by himself. The Senate has to approve it. Any senator who claims to care about the independence of the Fed, including my Republican colleagues, should refuse to move forward with this nomination period until Trump drops his witch hunts,” Warren said in a video message posted on social media Friday afternoon.
Powell has not been Trump’s only target on the Federal Reserve. The president is awaiting a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on whether he violated the law when he fired Federal Reserve Board Gov. Lisa Cook, a President Joe Biden appointee, via social media over the summer.
Jacob Fischler and Shauneen Miranda contributed to this report.
People whistle and film as federal agents block an alley near 35th Street and Chicago Avenue while they break a car window to detain a man and his young daughter Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
Less than an hour after the Saturday morning killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents in south Minneapolis, conservative influencer Cam Higby took to social media with a sensational claim: Higby had “infiltrated” the group chats fueling local resistance to Operation Metro Surge.
On Monday, FBI director Kash Patel said he had “opened an investigation” into the chats. Many are said to be hosted on Signal, the encrypted messaging app.
“You cannot create a scenario that illegally entraps and puts law enforcement in harm’s way,” Patel said in a podcast interview with Benny Johnson, another conservative influencer. Johnson’s title for the episode’s YouTube stream, “Kash Patel Announces FBI Crack-Down of Left-Wing Minnesota Terrorist Network LIVE: ‘Tim Walz Next…’,” left little to the imagination.
In response to emailed questions about the nature of its investigation, the FBI declined to comment.
First Amendment lawyers and national security experts expressed deep skepticism that any charges stemming from it will stick, however.
“As a general proposition, reporting on things you are observing and sharing those observations is absolutely legal,” Jane Kirtley, professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota Law School, said in an interview.
A guide that Higby described as “the watered down opsec version” of a “TRAINING MANUAL for domestic terrorist patrols chasing ICE agents in Minneapolis” instructs observers to draw attention to suspected ICE activity using whistles and car horns — but specifically warns against impeding officers.
Kirtley said Patel’s statements to date have been too vague to support firm conclusions about what the FBI will actually investigate or what charges, if any, the United States Department of Justice would bring as a result. The sorts of loaded terms that influencers like Higby and President Trump himself have used to describe organizers’ activities — such as “conspiracy” or “insurrection” — are formal legal concepts that require certain standards to be met, she added.
Jason Marisam, a constitutional law professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, said any prosecution would likely need to pass a two-part test established in a nearly 60-year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Brandenburg v. Ohio.
Brandenburg prohibits speech only if it is “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action,” such as violence against law enforcement officers, and “is likely to incite or produce such action,” according to a summary by Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute.
Brandenburgis “a very high bar,” Marisam said. Speech that only indirectly led to “lawless action,” such as coordinating a protest that later turned violent, would likely not meet it, he added.
“The use of encryption to keep government authorities from getting access to our private communications is literally as American as apple pie.”
– Patrick G. Eddington
Marisam said Brandenburg, incidentally,is the same standard that former special counsel Jack Smith would have needed to meet had his January 6th prosecution against President Trump gone to trial, Marisam added. That case was mooted after Trump won a second term and subsequently oversaw a campaign of professional retribution against the career prosecutors on Smith’s team.
Marisam said narrowing or overturning Brandenburghas not yet been a priority for conservatives in the judiciary, despite self-evident benefits for Trump’s efforts to quell dissent and consolidate power. But he acknowledged that the “politics of free speech” can change depending on who’s in charge in Washington.
For instance, Trump supporters castigated what they perceived to be limits on free speech during the Biden years, but have remained silent in the face of a student’s deportation for writing an op-ed.
Still, Patel’s apparent interest in Twin Cities observers’ encrypted chats is likely less the opening move of a well-thought-out legal strategy than an effort to discourage legally permissible activity, Marisam said.
“It seems to me that (Patel’s) announcement is meant to chill speech ahead of time,” he said.
In a blog post published Tuesday, Patrick Eddington, a senior fellow with the libertarian Cato Institute, said federal prosecutors would likewise struggle to make hay out of Twin Cities observers’ use of the encrypted messaging apps themselves.
Trump officials and right-wing pundits have pointed to Signal’s popularity within the observer networks as evidence that participants want to evade legal accountability for their actions. Signal uses end-to-end encryption, meaning messages sent on properly secured devices kept in their owners’ possession are effectively impossible for third parties to see. Signal itself can’t access messages or calls sent over the app, the company says, though messages on a user’s device can be read if it is hacked or stolen. (Or, if the wrong person is added to a Signal chat, as when senior national security figures in the Trump administration — including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — sent information about military operations to the editor of The Atlantic magazine after he’d been accidentally included.)
Eddington, who works on homeland security and civil liberties issues for Cato, said the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ 1999 ruling in Bernstein v. United States Department of Justice established ordinary citizens’ rights to use encrypted channels for communication they wish to keep private. Government efforts to curtail encryption could impede individuals’ rights under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits “unreasonable search and seizure.”
Eddington cited a much earlier precedent that may well have informed the Constitution’s privacy protections, though its contemporary legal relevance is unclear. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and other members of America’s founding generation used “codes and ciphers” to communicate before, during and after the Revolutionary War, Eddington wrote.
“The use of encryption to keep government authorities from getting access to our private communications is literally as American as apple pie,” he wrote.
This story was originally produced by Minnesota Reformer, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents carried out a raid Wednesday at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center is located in Union City, Georgia. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
ATLANTA — Officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Fulton County elections warehouse Wednesday.
A court order signed by Magistrate Judge Catherine M. Salinas authorized agents to seize all physical ballots from the 2020 election in Fulton County, all ballot images and Fulton County’s 2020 voter rolls. A copy of the order was given to the Recorder by a House lawmaker.
“We are aware of the ongoing law enforcement activity involving the FBI at the Fulton County warehouse,” said Cae’Lenthya Moore, the executive assistant to Fulton County Clerk Ché Alexander. “At this time, we are only aware of activities involving the warehouse location.”
Officials at the FBI’s field office in Atlanta did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
FBI agents were spotted loading boxes of election documents onto trucks at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Union City. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
The Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center is located in Union City, just south of Atlanta. The county, which is home to much of the city of Atlanta, was also at the center of President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen in Georgia and other swing states.
Fulton County was also where Trump was indicted in 2023 following his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Fulton County Elections Board Chair Sherri Allen told reporters that “Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections has always, and will continue to maintain fair, transparent and accurate elections.”
“We have fully complied,” she added. “We will always comply with law enforcement and with the rule of law.”
Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts said he has not been told where the ballots will be taken upon leaving the warehouse, and that he can no longer guarantee they will remain safe and secure. Audits of the 2020 election in Fulton County, he added, have repeatedly been found to be accurate.
“That election has been reviewed, it’s been audited, and in every case, every instance, we get a clean bill of health,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly blamed his 2020 loss on unfounded accusations of rampant voting fraud, even though two recounts affirmed former President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia. Last week, in a speech before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump once again claimed that the 2020 election was rigged and said that the individuals involved “will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”
State Rep. Saira Draper, an Atlanta Democrat and voting rights attorney who showed up to the scene of the raid, said the raid was “an assault on our democracy,” and an attempt to target a Democratic stronghold in Georgia.
“This is certainly an attempt to sow chaos, it is an attempt to undermine confidence in our elections,” she said. “It’s focused on Fulton County, because this is where the Democratic voters are.”
The Carter Center, which helps monitor elections across the U.S. as well as in countries like Venezuela, Sierra Leone and Nepal, said the raid “appears to be yet another attempt to sow doubt in election integrity and undermine voter confidence during a consequential election year.”
In December, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Fulton County for refusing to turn over voter records from the 2020 election. Alexander, the county clerk, previously denied Justice Department officials’ request for the data according to the lawsuit, stating that the records were under seal and could not be released without a court order. She later filed a motion to dismiss the complaint.
The Justice Department has also filed its most recent lawsuit seeking Georgia’s unredacted voter data against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger last week. Officials from the secretary of state’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the raid.
Georgia’s political ecosystem, however, was quick to react. In a statement, Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon celebrated the FBI’s raid, saying that it was “long overdue.”
“Georgians have waited years for real answers about what happened in 2020,” McKoon said. “Getting every detail out, especially around ballot handling and processes in Fulton, is absolutely critical.”
But Charlie Bailey, chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, criticized the move.
“Every Georgian should be alarmed that Donald Trump is wielding federal law enforcement to push his baseless, dangerous lies about winning the 2020 election,” Bailey said in a statement, adding that “we will not be intimidated by a fragile bully who has been proven wrong by independent reviews time and time again.”
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is up for re-election in November, also criticized the raid, calling it a “sore loser’s crusade.”
“From Minnesota to Georgia, on display to the whole world is a President spiraling out of control, wielding federal law enforcement as an unaccountable instrument of personal power and revenge,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, who is running for Senate on the Republican side, put out a statement on social media, saying “Georgians are about to get some long-overdue answers and learn just how right President Trump was in 2020.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, another Republican Senate candidate, also issued a succinct statement directed at FBI Director Kash Patel.
“Go get ‘em, Kash,” he wrote.
This story was originally produced by Georgia Recorder, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Hundreds gather around a growing memorial site at 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue South in Minneapolis, where federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026 earlier in the day. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is facing mounting criticism, including from some congressional Republicans and moderate Democrats, for her response to a second killing by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.
President Donald Trump reiterated his confidence in Noem Tuesday, but several Republican senators, a group that overwhelmingly voted last year for Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security, are pushing for an independent investigation into the Saturday killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents and calling for her to testify before Congress.
And Democrats who are generally not among their party’s most aggressive members in opposing the Trump administration have joined a call to impeach Noem and restrict her department’s funding.
Trump told reporters, though, that the former South Dakota governor had done a good job, especially on controlling border crossings.
“No,” he said, when asked if she would step down, according to White House pool reports.
He made a similar statement to Fox News’ Will Cain during an afternoon appearance in Iowa.
“She was there with the border,” he told Cain. “Who closed up the border? She did.”
GOP calls for investigation
The calls for an independent investigation signaled something of a loss of confidence in Noem from some Republicans in the wake of missteps following Pretti’s killing. No Republican senators voted against her confirmation last year.
Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, criticized Noem Tuesday for not placing the agents involved in shooting Pretti on administrative leave.
“That should happen immediately,” Paul wrote on social media Tuesday, adding that “for calm to be restored” an independent investigation needs to happen.
Within hours of Saturday’s shooting Noem labeled Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, as a “domestic terrorist” who intended “to inflict maximum damage on individuals and kill law enforcement.”
Both Good and Pretti’s shootings were widely caught on camera, contradicting claims by Noem that both posed a threat.
Noem sits for a television interview with Peter Doocy of Fox News at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 25, 2026. (Photo by Tia Dufour/DHS)
Multiple videos show that Good was driving away when Ross fired three shots into her windshield.
Video analysis by the New York Times shows Pretti wrestled to the ground by multiple agents and, while pinned down, two officers fired 10 shots. The analysis also showed that an officer took away a handgun from Pretti, which he had a permit for, while he was pinned down.
The contradictions hurt Noem’s standing with some Republicans.
“I can’t recall ever hearing a police chief immediately describing the victim as a “domestic terrorist” or a “would-be assassin,’” Paul said, taking aim at Noem as well as White House senior advisor Stephen Miller, who called Pretti a “would-be assassin.”
Hearings
Noem also said that because Pretti had a handgun, he inherently posed a danger to DHS agents, a claim that has divided Republicans.
Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho took issue with Noem’s criticism of Pretti’s possession of a gun.
“His family, law-abiding citizens exercising their Second Amendment right and the trust of the American people deserve a fair process,” he said on social media Monday.
Sen. John Curtis, Republican of Utah, criticized Noem for her handling of Saturday’s shooting.
“Officials who rush to judgment before all the facts are known undermine public trust and the law-enforcement mission,” he wrote on social media Monday. “I disagree with Secretary Noem’s premature DHS response, which came before all the facts were known and weakened confidence.”
He also called for an independent investigation.
Paul on Monday called for several leaders of agencies within Homeland Security to testify before his committee – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Those same agency leaders are scheduled to appear before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Feb. 10.
In the House, 162 Democrats had co-sponsored articles of impeachment against Noem by Tuesday afternoon, a number that climbed throughout the day. The articles were first introduced shortly after Good’s death.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other House Democratic leaders issued a joint statement Monday calling for Noem to be fired. If she’s not, Democrats would move forward with impeachment, the leaders said. The effort is unlikely to move in the House-controlled GOP.
“Dramatic changes at the Department of Homeland Security are needed,” Jeffries said. “Federal agents who have broken the law must be criminally prosecuted. The paramilitary tactics must cease and desist.”
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called for Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio to begin impeachment proceedings into Noem, noting that masked agents of her department “brutally killed two American citizens.”
“Far from condemning these unlawful and savage killings in cold blood, Secretary Noem immediately labeled Renée and Alex ‘domestic terrorists,’ blatantly lied about the circumstances of the shootings that took their lives, and attempted to cover-up and blockade any legitimate investigation into their deaths,” Raskin said.
On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, a moderate Democrat who voted to confirm Noem, made a direct appeal to Trump to fire her.
“Americans have died,” Fetterman said in a statement. “She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy.”
Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, another moderate Democrat, also called for Noem to be impeached.
Trump pivots
Facing mounting pressure, Trump has softened his tone with state and local officials and walked back his administration’s aggressive immigration operations in Minnesota that Noem has overseen.
Trump directed border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to take over ICE operations, effectively sidelining Noem, who in December deployed 3,000 federal immigration officers to the state after right-wing media influencers resurfaced reports of fraud in the state’s social service programs.
By Monday evening, top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino was removed from his position as at-large commander and sent back to California, according to multiple media reports.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the decision to send Homan to Minnesota, arguing that Noem is occupied with managing FEMA operations as a winter storm covers much of the country.
Funding bill
In the wake of Saturday’s shooting, Senate Democrats quickly opposed the Homeland Security spending bill the chamber was set to pass this week.
Instead, Democrats argued the measure must be stripped from the government funding package of six bills and renegotiated to include more constraints on federal immigration enforcement.
The funding package passed the House this month, but a majority of Democrats opposed any funding for ICE, which would maintain a flat funding level of $10 billion.
Even if there is a partial government shutdown, DHS still has up to $190 billion it can spend from the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the president’s signature tax and spending cuts package signed into law last summer.
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook leaves the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 21, 2026 in Washington, D.C, after the court heard oral arguments in Trump v. Cook. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — U.S. Supreme Court justices across the political spectrum appeared skeptical of President Donald Trump’s swift, informal dismissal of Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook, and his effort to influence the independent central bank that governs monetary policy in the United States.
The oral arguments Wednesday drew a high-profile appearance in the courtroom of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell — now a target of a Department of Justice investigation. For months prior to the federal probe, Trump has threatened to fire Powell if the chair did not quickly lower interest rates.
For two hours, the justices heard arguments over whether Cook could remain on the board, as a lower court ruled, while litigation continues examining if Trump violated a “for cause” removal statute when he fired her over social media in late August.
Trump alleged in an Aug. 25 letter posted to his Truth Social platform that Cook committed financial fraud by lying on mortgage loan documents. Trump declared he had “sufficient cause” to remove Cook based on alleged “deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter.”
Under the Federal Reserve Act, the president can only remove board governors “for cause” — as designed by Congress in an effort to preserve the central bank’s independence.
Trump claims his removals of members of independent government agencies are not reviewable by the courts.
Cook has denied any wrongdoing and challenged the president, the board and Powell, essentially arguing in court that an “unsubstantiated allegation about private mortgage applications,” submitted prior to her Senate confirmation, does not amount to cause for removal. Cook also argued that Trump denied her due process in not giving her notice or a chance to respond to his allegations.
Cook, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, has continued to perform her board duties, without interference from Powell.
Alito questions ‘hurried manner’ of firing
During lengthy questioning of U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson asked what the risk would be in allowing Cook to remain in her job while the administration made its case to the lower courts.
“The question is: What is the harm of allowing that injunction to remain, because she’s in office now and would just continue?” Brown asked.
Sauer, Trump’s former personal defense lawyer, said the administration asserts “grievous, irreparable injury to the public perception, to the Federal Reserve, of allowing her to stay in office.”
“Do you have evidence related to the public perception, or is this just the president’s view?” Jackson, a Biden appointee, pressed back.
Sauer said the evidence regarding Cook’s two separate mortgage applications was contained in Trump’s “dismissal order,” referring to the letter posted on social media.
Moments later, Brown asked if Cook was “given the opportunity in some sort of formal proceeding to contest that evidence or explain it?”
“Not a formal proceeding. She was given an opportunity in public,” Sauer said.
“In the world? Like she was supposed to post about it, and that was the opportunity to be heard that you’re saying was afforded to her?” Brown asked.
“Yes,” Sauer replied.
Justice Samuel Alito, one of the high court’s most conservative members, asked Sauer why the removal had to be handled “in such a hurried manner.”
“You began by laying out what you claim to be the factual basis for the for-cause removal, but no court has ever explored those facts. Are the mortgage applications even in the record in this case?” asked Alito, who was appointed to the court under President George W. Bush.
“I know that the text of the social media post that screenshots the mortgage applications is in the record. I don’t recall if the paperwork itself was in the record,” Sauer said.
Federal Reserve independence
Over several minutes of back-and-forth, Justice Brett Kavanaugh pressed Sauer on the importance of the Federal Reserve’s independence.
“Let’s talk about the real world downstream effects of this. Because if this were set as a precedent, it seems to me — just thinking big picture, what goes around, comes around — all the current president’s appointees would likely be removed for cause on Jan. 20, 2029, if there’s a Democratic president, or Jan. 20, 2033,” argued Kavanaugh, who was appointed during Trump’s first term.
“We’re really at, at will removal. So what are we doing here?” he asked.
“I can’t predict what future presidents may or may not do,” Sauer replied.
“Well, history is a pretty good guide. Once these tools are unleashed, they are used by both sides, and usually more the second time around,” Kavanaugh said.
Kavanaugh later challenged Cook’s lawyer, Paul Clement, over whether his argument was “tilting the balance too far the other direction from where the solicitor general is.”
Clement responded, “This is a situation where Congress, political animals, one and all, knew better than anyone that the short-term temptations to lower interest rates and have easy money was a disaster in the long term, but was going to be irresistible.
“And so they tied their own hands by taking the Fed out of the appropriations process, and they tied the president’s hands,” the Alexandria, Virginia-based attorney said.
In a statement following arguments, Cook said the case is “about whether the Federal Reserve will set key interest rates guided by evidence and independent judgment or will succumb to political pressure.”
“Research and experience show that Federal Reserve independence is essential to fulfilling the congressional mandate of price stability and maximum employment. That is why Congress chose to insulate the Federal Reserve from political threats, while holding it accountable for delivering on that mandate. For as long as I serve at the Federal Reserve, I will uphold the principle of political independence in service to the American people,” Cook continued in the statement.
Regulating interest rates — to cool inflation or stimulate the economy — is one tool the central bank uses to accomplish its dual mandate on employment and price stability.
Subpoena issued
The arguments occurred just a dozen days after Powell received a federal grand jury subpoena as part of a Department of Justice probe into allegations that he lied to Congress about multi-year renovation costs to the central bank’s District of Columbia headquarters.
The revelation of a federal investigation of Powell ignited sharp criticism, even from some Republicans.
Powell alleged in a rare video statement that the administration’s “unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure.”
He continued, “The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.”
Trump first nominated Powell in 2017 to head the Federal Reserve, for a four-year term that began in February 2018. Biden reappointed him in 2021, and Powell received overwhelming support in an 80-19 Senate confirmation vote.
Wednesday’s arguments also came less than two months after the Supreme Court heard arguments in Trump’s firing of another member of an independent federal agency, Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following the Federal Open Markets Committee meeting at the Federal Reserve on Dec. 10, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s feud with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has escalated into a Department of Justice investigation, raising alarm bells among some Republicans in the Senate, where Trump will need broad backing from GOP lawmakers to get his choice for the next Fed chairman approved after Powell’s term ends in May.
Retiring North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who sits on the narrowly divided Banking Committee that will hold hearings on the next nominee, wrote in a statement he won’t approve anyone to fill Powell’s seat if Trump or administration officials try to further erode its independence.
“If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none,” Tillis wrote. “It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question.”
Tillis added he plans to “oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed—including the upcoming Fed Chair vacancy—until this legal matter is fully resolved.”
Powell fights back in a video
Trump has criticized Powell repeatedly since retaking the Oval Office in January, pressing him to reduce interest rates faster and signaling he wanted to fire him.
Powell said in a video released this weekend that Justice Department officials on Friday “served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June.”
Powell alleged the DOJ investigation is not purely about oversight of the multi-year renovation project at the Fed’s offices in Washington, D.C., but “a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.”
“This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation,” Powell said.
Trump first nominated Powell to be chairman of the Federal Reserve in November 2017 for a four-year term that began in February 2018, writing in a statement that Powell had “demonstrated steady leadership, sound judgment, and policy expertise.”
“Mr. Powell will bring to the Federal Reserve a unique background of Government service and business experience,” Trump wrote. “He previously served as Under Secretary at the Department of Treasury in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. Mr. Powell also has nearly three decades of business experience.”
The Senate voted 84-13 in January 2018 to confirm Powell to the role.
President Joe Biden re-nominated Powell in November 2021 for another four-year term that began in May 2022 after the Senate voted 80-19 to confirm him for a second time.
Tillis leverage on committee
Trump hasn’t said publicly whom he will nominate to succeed Powell as Fed chairman, but whoever he picks will need to move past the Senate Banking Committee in order to receive a confirmation vote on the floor and actually take on the role.
The Banking Committee holds 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats, giving Tillis considerable leverage to block any Trump nominee from advancing if all of the Democrats on the panel also vote against reporting that person to the floor.
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, ranking member on the committee, wrote in a statement that “Trump is abusing the authorities of the Department of Justice like a wannabe dictator so the Fed serves his interests, along with his billionaire friends.”
“As Donald Trump prepares to nominate a new Fed Chair, he wants to push Jerome Powell off the Fed Board for good and install another sock puppet to complete his corrupt takeover of America’s central bank,” Warren wrote. “This Committee and the Senate should not move forward with any Trump nominee for the Fed, including Fed Chair.”
Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., had not released any public statements about the Department of Justice investigation into Powell as of Monday morning.
Murkowski sees ‘attempt at coercion’
Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who isn’t on the committee, released a written statement after speaking with Powell on Monday morning, saying “it’s clear the administration’s investigation is nothing more than an attempt at coercion.”
“If the Department of Justice believes an investigation into Chair Powell is warranted based on project cost overruns—which are not unusual—then Congress needs to investigate the Department of Justice,” Murkowski wrote. “The stakes are too high to look the other way: if the Federal Reserve loses its independence, the stability of our markets and the broader economy will suffer. My colleague, Senator Tillis, is right in blocking any Federal Reserve nominees until this is resolved.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement the Justice Department’s actions represent “the kind of bullying that we’ve all come to expect from Donald Trump and his cronies.”
“Anyone who is independent and doesn’t just fall in line behind Trump gets investigated,” Schumer wrote. “Jay Powell and the Fed aren’t the reason Trump’s economy and his poll numbers are in the toilet. If he’s looking for the person who caused that he should look in the mirror.”
Former Federal Reserve chairmen, Treasury secretaries and White House economic advisers released a written statement that the Fed’s “independence and the public’s perception of that independence are critical for economic performance, including achieving the goals Congress has set for the Federal Reserve of stable prices, maximum employment, and moderate long-term interest rates.”
“The reported criminal inquiry into Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell is an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine that independence,” they wrote. “This is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with weak institutions, with highly negative consequences for inflation and the functioning of their economies more broadly. It has no place in the United States whose greatest strength is the rule of law, which is at the foundation of our economic success.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in the afternoon she didn’t know if Trump had seen Powell’s video but defended the president’s right to denounce the Fed’s actions under his leadership.
“Look, the president has every right to criticize the Fed chair. He has a First Amendment right, just like all of you do,” Leavitt said. “And one thing for sure, the president has made it quite clear that Jerome Powell is bad at his job. As for whether or not Jerome Powell is a criminal, that’s an answer the Department of Justice is going to have to find out and it looks like they intend to find that out.”
Local police officers stand guard as Renee Good's car is towed away after ICE officers shot and killed a woman through her car window Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026 near Portland Avenue and 34th Street. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
The Trump administration made its opinion known almost immediately after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday: The officer acted heroically in defending himself from Renee Nicole Good, who was intent on running him over with her Honda Pilot in an act of “domestic terrorism.”
“The officer, fearing for his life and other officers around him and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training to save his own life and that of his colleagues,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a news conference in Minneapolis.
A jury might very well disagree after seeing footage of the incident, like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey who called ICE’s claim of self-defense “bullsh*t.”
But the Trump administration seems intent on blocking local prosecutors from even bringing charges against the ICE officer, who the Star Tribune identified as Jonathan Ross.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office took the unusual step soon after the shooting of ousting the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from the investigation into the killing.
The BCA typically investigates police shootings in the state, and was on the scene in south Minneapolis on Wednesday collecting evidence as part of a joint investigation with the FBI.
Then the U.S. Attorney’s Office “reversed course” and decided the investigation would be led solely by the FBI, said Drew Evans, BCA superintendent, in a statement.
“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands,” Evans said. “As a result, the BCA has reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation.”
Gov. Tim Walz during a Thursday press conference expressed doubt about the results of any investigation conducted by the federal government because Minnesota officials have been purposefully excluded.
“Now that Minnesota has been taken out of the investigation, it feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome,” Walz said. “People in positions of power have already passed judgment … and told you things that are verifiably false.”
If federal investigators don’t share their findings with local prosecutors, they’ll struggle to put together a case to bring charges, said former Acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Anders Folk, who brought federal charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for killing George Floyd in 2020.
“I don’t know how any prosecutor could make a charging decision without facts,” Folk said. “The local authorities are going to have to figure out a way to do their own investigation if they want to be able to evaluate whether a criminal charge can be brought.”
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who has jurisdiction in Minneapolis, said in a statement on Thursday that her office is searching for a way for a state level investigation to continue.
“If the FBI is the sole investigative agency, the state will not receive the investigative findings, and our community may never learn about its contents,” Moriarty said in a statement.
The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who will make charging decisions based on the FBI investigation, pointed the Reformer to a post on X when asked if she has commented on the case and if she believes the use of force was justified.
“Obstructing, impeding, or attacking federal law enforcement is a federal crime. So is damaging federal property. If you cross that red line, you will be arrested and prosecuted. Do not test our resolve,” the post says.
Who might do a local investigation is unclear. Folk, who is now running for Hennepin County attorney, said he’s not aware of any cases of officers shooting someone in Minnesota in which the BCA was not involved.
“They are the law enforcement organization that we as Minnesotans look to do this kind of investigative work,” Folk said.
If the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office is able to complete a criminal investigation and file charges, they face another difficult task: convincing a federal judge that the ICE officer was not acting reasonably in carrying out his lawful federal duties.
If state charges are filed, the officer will likely ask to move his case to federal court to assert immunity under what’s known as the Supremacy Clause, which protects federal officials from state criminal prosecution if they are reasonably carrying out their duties. Attorneys with the Department of Justice may then assist with his defense.
Whether the officer’s actions are deemed reasonable could hinge on a range of facts from his training to his duties to his subjective beliefs and the U.S. Supreme Court has provided only minimal guidance on how to answer that question, according to Bryna Godar, a staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Still, she emphasized local prosecutors can and have brought charges against federal officials.
“The baseline understanding here is that states can prosecute federal officials when they violate state criminal laws,” Godar said.
If state prosecutors convince a federal judge the officer’s actions were not reasonable, they could continue bringing the case in federal court on state crimes. That’s significant because a conviction for a state crime cannot not be pardoned by the president.
Godar points in a recent article to cases going back to antebellum, when free states charged U.S. marshals for capturing enslaved people under the Fugitive Slave Act. During the Prohibition Era, local prosecutors charged federal officers for using excessive force in shutting down distilleries.
More recently, local prosecutors in Idaho brought a charge of involuntary manslaughter against an FBI sniper who shot and killed an unarmed woman during the siege on Ruby Ridge in 1992. A divided federal appeals court ruled that the case could proceed because of disputed facts over whether the agent acted “reasonably.”
“Where we see those state prosecutions going ahead is where the use of force is deemed unreasonable or excessive or unlawful,” Godar said.
But that case may offer a cautionary tale for Minnesota: The case wasn’t allowed to proceed until 2001, nearly a decade later. Then the case was dropped by the newly elected prosecutor.
Good’s killing was the ninth shooting by an immigration officer in just the past four months and at least the second killing, with all of them involving firing at people in vehicles, according to aNew York Times report. On Thursday, federal agents shot two more people in Portland, Ore.
In each of the recent ICE shootings, the government has claimed the officer was acting in self-defense.
Minnesota prosecutors have won convictions in recent years against officers for killing people in the line of duty — Chauvin, Kim Potter and Mohamed Noor — but they are rare and juries are generally reluctant to convict.
Yet even if a conviction seems unlikely, filing charges allows local prosecutors to register a strong protest against ICE’s aggressive enforcement actions in the state and communicate that officers may not operate with impunity. Not charging would be an admission that federal agents are immune from local accountability as the Trump administration pushes for mass deportation.
Folk said a transparent investigation with clear standards is also important for the public’s faith in the justice system.
“Minnesota has seen firsthand how important it is to do these high-profile investigations the right way,” Folk said. “We deserve a good, thorough investigation, free of any kind of influence.”
This story was originally produced by Minnesota Reformer, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Police arrested an 18-year-old Odem Independent School District student following an investigation into an alleged sexual assault that reportedly occurred on board a district school bus last month, reported KIII-TV 3 News.
The alleged incident took place on Dec. 9, as students were returning from a basketball game in Hebbronville. Officials reported that a juvenile student was assaulted during the school bus trip. The sheriff’s office was notified of the allegation on Dec. 12, prompting an investigation.
Investigators conducted a forensic interview with the juvenile victim and gathered evidence as part of the inquiry. The investigation established sufficient probable cause to arrest Christopher Jacob Soto, 18.
Soto is charged with indecency with a child, a second-degree felony. A magistrate set his bond at $75,000, authorities confirmed.
The San Patricio County Sheriff’s Office stated the case remains under review by the San Patricio County District Attorney’s Office, and additional arrests are possible as investigators continue to evaluate statements and evidence.
Officials said no further details would be released at this time due to the victim’s age and nature of the charge.
People gather around the south Minneapolis site where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a woman on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump defended a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis Wednesday, while congressional Democrats universally condemned the action.
Video obtained by the Minnesota Reformer shows an ICE officer demanding the driver of a maroon SUV get out of the vehicle. As the vehicle begins to pull away, an officer fires three shots through the windshield and driver-side window. The video shows no apparent harm to the officer, who walked away from the vehicle shortly after the shooting.
But Trump wrote on social media that “it is hard to believe he is alive.”
“The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense,” Trump wrote.
Minnesota’s Democratic congressional delegation, and other Democrats in Washington, D.C., strongly condemned the incident and questioned the subsequent comments from the administration.
“We need full transparency and an investigation of what happened, and I am deeply concerned that statements made by DHS do not appear to reflect video evidence and on-the-ground accounts,” Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the state’s senior senator, said in a statement.
A statement from several Minneapolis City Council members identified the victim as Renee Nicole Good, 37. A photo of the SUV shows several stuffed animals hanging out of the glove compartment.
Trump, GOP back officer
Congressional Republicans largely backed Trump’s version of events, calling the shooting self-defense and blaming Democrats for rhetoric they said inspired violence.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that the woman tried to run over the agent.
“One of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism,” McLaughlin said. “An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the victim a “domestic terrorist.”
House Republican Whip Tom Emmer gave his support to the ICE officer.
“Our brave ICE agents put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities from dangerous criminals,” he said in a statement. “May God bless and protect them in their efforts. Shame on the elected officials who endanger these agents by spewing lies and hateful rhetoric.”
Dems call for investigation
Democrats on Capitol Hill denounced the attack and the administration’s response.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called for the ICE officer who shot the woman to be criminally investigated.
“There is no evidence that has been presented to justify this killing,” Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said in a statement. “Secretary Kristi Noem is a stone-cold liar and has zero credibility. The masked ICE agent who pulled the trigger should be criminally investigated to the full extent of the law for acting with depraved indifference to human life.”
Minnesota Democrats said the ongoing immigration enforcement campaign in the Twin Cities had heightened tensions.
“For weeks, Donald Trump has directed ICE and DHS agents to racially profile and arrest Minnesotans in their homes, their workplaces, and on our streets,” Minnesota Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum said in a statement, adding that more than 2,000 federal immigration agents are in the state.
“Trump’s reckless and dangerous immigration policies do nothing to make us safer,” she continued. “Today in Minneapolis, these actions resulted in a masked federal agent fatally shooting a woman in the head.”
Democratic Sen. Tina Smith said the woman fatally shot by an ICE officer was a U.S. citizen. She called for ICE to leave Minnesota.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American woman elected to Congress and whose district includes the site of the shooting, said the woman was a legal observer, which is a neutral third party who attends protests or other public demonstrations to observe and record law enforcement actions towards protesters.
“ICE’s actions today were unconscionable and reprehensible,” Omar said.
DHS practices, budget questioned
DHS received billions for immigration enforcement in last year’s tax and spending cuts package passed by congressional Republicans. The funding can be used for hiring new ICE officers and detention and removal of immigrants.
On Jan. 3, ICE announced it hired 12,000 new officers, doubling from 10,000 agents to 22,000.
A top Senate Democratic appropriator, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, wrote on social media that “Democrats cannot vote for a DHS budget that doesn’t restrain the growing lawlessness of this agency.”
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker said in a statement that he was concerned the aggressive DHS practices will lead to more tragedies.
“All evidence indicates that hiring standards have been lowered, training is inadequate, and internal controls are insufficient,” he said. “These conditions have allowed agents to operate without proper oversight, and, in some cases, unlawfully.”
Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego also criticized the hiring practices of ICE, specifically calling out White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a lead architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
“What happened is a disgrace and we need an investigation immediately,” Gallego said on social media. “It’s clear that that agent didn’t have the proper training, and that’s because Stephen Miller is going full speed ahead to hire as many agents as possible.”
Day care investigation
The federal immigration operation in Minneapolis began last month but intensified this week after a right-wing influencer reported day care centers run by members of the Somali community as fraudulent.
In response, the Trump administration directed states to provide “justification” that federal child care funds they receive are spent on “legitimate” providers and Noem has zeroed in on the city, which has a large Somali community, for immigration enforcement.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a Wednesday hearing on the issue of fraud in Minnesota.
A small crowd of far-right activists marched on the U.S. Capitol Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026 in a nonviolent protest. They followed the path of the march five years ago, when rioters attacked the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden's presidential election win. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — Five years after a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, the struggle to define the event and assign blame carried on in events across the city Tuesday that remained nonviolent, though still disturbing.
A crowd of no more than a few hundred of President Donald Trump’s supporters commemorated the deadly attack with a somewhat subdued march from the Ellipse to the Capitol that was in stark contrast to the riot five years ago.
Former national Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio looked on as far-right activists celebrating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack marched down Constitution Avenue on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
Inside the Capitol, U.S. House Democrats gathered in a small meeting room, apparently unable to secure larger accommodations for an unofficial hearing that largely rehashed the findings of a House committee that spent 2022 investigating the attack.
Trump, meanwhile, addressed House Republicans three miles west at the Kennedy Center. In an hour-plus address, he blamed then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the violence on Jan. 6, 2021 and recommended the GOP lawmakers pass laws to make election fraud more difficult. Trump’s claim that his 2020 election loss was due to fraud sparked the 2021 attack.
“Our elections are crooked as hell,” he said, without citing evidence.
House Dems blast pardons
Inside the Capitol, at a morning event that U.S. House Democrats organized and in which Republicans didn’t take part, lawmakers and experts criticized Trump’s pardons of people involved in the 2021 attack, one of his first acts after returning to office last year.
They also decried his continued recasting of the events of the day.
White House officials launched a webpage Tuesday that blamed the attack on Democrats, again including Pelosi, and restated the lie that initiated the attack: The 2020 election that Trump lost was marred by fraud and should not have been certified.
“Democrats masterfully reversed reality after January 6,” the page reads. “…In truth, it was the Democrats who staged the real insurrection by certifying a fraud-ridden election, ignoring widespread irregularities, and weaponizing federal agencies to hunt down dissenters.”
Pelosi at the hearing on Tuesday condemned Trump’s version of the attack.
“Today, that president who incited that insurrection continues to lie about what happened that day,” the California Democrat said.
U.S. Capitol Police form a line around far-right activists near the Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, who were marking the five-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
Other Democrats and their invited witnesses also described the pardons as signaling that the president accepted — and even encouraged — his supporters to pursue illegal means of keeping him in power.
Brendan Ballou, a former U.S. Justice Department prosecutor who resigned shortly after Trump’s 2025 pardons, told the panel the executive action sent Trump supporters the “clear message” they were above the law.
“The January 6 pardons also fit into a broader narrative of what’s going on with this administration, that if people are sufficiently loyal and willing to support the president, either in words or financially, they will be put beyond the reach of the law,” he added. “It means that quite literally for a certain group of people right now in America, the law does not apply to them.”
Former ‘MAGA granny’ testifies
Homeland Security Committee ranking Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi led the panel discussion, with Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin of Maryland and several others also sitting in on it.
The first panel of witnesses included Ballou, other experts and Pamela Hemphill, a former Trump supporter from Idaho who traveled to the nation’s capital five years ago to “be part of the mob” in support of the president before becoming an advocate for reckoning with the day’s violence.
An emotional Hemphill, 72 and once known as “MAGA granny,” apologized to U.S. Capitol police officers.
Idaho woman Pamela Hemphill greets spectators after testifying at a meeting held by U.S. House Democrats on the five-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2026. Hemphill participated in the riot and served two months in prison. She declined a pardon from Trump, saying she was guilty. (Photo by Jacob Fischler/States Newsroom)
“Once I got away from the MAGA cult and started educating myself about January the 6th, I knew what I did was wrong,” Hemphill told the panel. “I pleaded guilty to my crimes because I did the crime. I received due process and the DOJ was not weaponized against me.
“Accepting that pardon would be lying about what happened on January the 6th,” she added.
She explained her decision to decline Trump’s blanket pardon of offenders convicted of crimes related to the attack, saying it papered over the misdeeds of people involved in the riot. She implored others not to accept revisions of the narrative about what happened in the attack.
Subsequent panels included current and former House members, including two, Republican Adam Kitzinger of Illinois and Democrat Elaine Luria of Virginia, who sat on the committee tasked with investigating the attack.
Flowers for Ashli Babbitt
The crowd of marchers, which included pardoned Jan. 6 attack participants, gathered in the late morning to retrace their path to the U.S. Capitol five years ago.
Organizers billed the march as a memorial event to honor Ashli Babbitt, who was killed by U.S. Capitol Police during the riot in 2021 as she attempted to break into the House Speaker’s lobby.
Far-right activists celebrating the five-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol marched in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, from the Ellipse to the Capitol. Rioters in 2021 attempted to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election win. (Video by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
The crowd of roughly a couple hundred walked from the Ellipse, where Trump spoke to rallygoers in 2021, to just outside the Capitol grounds, where police contained the small crowd on the lawn north of the Reflecting Pool.
Law enforcement officers permitted Babbitt’s mother, Michelle Witthoeft, and a few others to walk closer to the Capitol to lay flowers at roughly 2:44 p.m. Eastern, the time they say Babbitt died.
A group of counterprotesters briefly approached the demonstration, yelling “traitors.” Police quickly formed two lines between the groups, heading off any clashes.
Proud Boys former leader on-site
Among the crowd was former Proud Boys national leader Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. Trump commuted Tarrio’s sentence upon taking office for his second term.
While looking on at marchers, Tarrio told States Newsroom he was “just supporting.”
“It’s not my event. I’m just trying to help them with organizing and marching people down the street, I guess. But we’re here for one purpose, and that’s to honor the lives of Ashli Babbitt and those who passed away that day.”
A small crowd of far-right activists marched down Constitution Avenue on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, following the path of the march five years ago when rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election win. (Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
When asked if marchers were also honoring the police officers who died in the days and months after the attack, Tarrio said he mourned “any loss of life” but added “I heard some suicides happened. I don’t know. I haven’t really looked into that. I’ve been in prison.”
U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick suffered injuries during the riot, according to the Capitol Police. He died the following day from natural causes, according to the District of Columbia Office of the Medical Examiner.
Four responding police officers died by suicide in the following days and months.
As the march continued, a group of Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police officers on bicycles stopped Tarrio and asked him to confirm the march route to avoid any “confusion.”
When counterprotesters began to heckle the Jan. 6 attack supporters, Tarrio waved the marchers forward, “C’mon, c’mon, keep moving.”
Jan. 6 rioter Rasha Abual-Ragheb. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
Jan. 6 rioter Rasha Abual-Ragheb, 45, of New Jersey, addressed the crowd earlier and thanked “Daddy Trump” for her pardon. Abual-Ragheb, who pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating and picketing in the U.S. Capitol, showed off a tattoo on her arm reading “MAGA 1776.”
Willie Connors, 57, of Bayonne, New Jersey, stood on the edge of the crowd with a yellow “J6” flag tied around his neck. Connors said he didn’t enter the Capitol during the 2021 attack, but said he was in the district that day to protest the 2020 presidential election, which he falsely claimed was “robbed” from Trump.
“Donald Trump, I’ll take the bullet for that man. He’s my president,” Connors said.
U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired U.S. Navy captain, speaks to veterans at a town hall in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Aug. 31, 2025. (Photo by Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department says it has upgraded its investigation into Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly over a video where he and other members of Congress told members of the military they didn’t need to follow illegal orders.
“The Office of the Secretary of War, in conjunction with the Department of War’s Office of the General Counsel, is escalating the preliminary review of Captain Mark Kelly, USN (Ret.), to an official Command Investigation,” a spokesperson for the department wrote in an email Monday night.
“Retired Captain Kelly is currently under investigation for serious allegations of misconduct,” the spokesperson continued. “Further official comments will be limited to preserve the integrity of the proceedings.”
Paul J. Fishman, an attorney at the Arnold & Porter law firm who is representing Kelly, wrote in a Monday letter to the secretary of the Navy that “there is no legitimate basis for any type of proceeding against Senator Kelly, and any such effort would be unconstitutional and an extraordinary abuse of power.”
“If the Executive Branch were to move forward in any forum—criminal, disciplinary, or administrative—we will take all appropriate legal action on Senator Kelly’s behalf to halt the Administration’s unprecedented and dangerous overreach,” Fishman wrote.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had set Dec. 10 as the deadline for the secretary of the Navy to recommend what to do about Kelly’s appearance in the video, but that came and went without any public announcements.
Hegseth also remained silent on the matter after rebuking Kelly weeks ago for posting the video where he and five other Democrats warned against illegal orders.
Kelly said on Dec. 9, one day before the deadline, he hadn’t received any information from the Navy or other administration officials.
“Forget about an update. I haven’t heard anything from the guy,” Kelly told reporters. “That’s a good question for you guys to ask the Navy.”
The secretary of the Navy’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from States Newsroom.
The Department of Defense posted in late November that officials were looking into “serious allegations of misconduct” against Kelly for appearing in the video.
It didn’t detail how Kelly might have violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice but stated that “a thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions, which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures.”
Hegseth referred the issue to Navy Secretary John Phelan for any “review, consideration, and disposition” he deemed appropriate. Hegseth then asked for a briefing on the outcome of the review “by no later than December 10.”
Kelly said during a press conference in early December the military’s investigation and a separate one by the FBI were designed to intimidate the six lawmakers in the video from speaking out against President Donald Trump.
The lawmakers in the video, who have backgrounds in the military or intelligence agencies, told members of those communities they “can” and “must refuse illegal orders.”
“No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution. We know this is hard and that it’s a difficult time to be a public servant,” they said. “But whether you’re serving in the CIA, in the Army, or Navy, or the Air Force, your vigilance is critical.”
The other Democrats in the video — Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, Pennsylvania Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan, and New Hampshire Rep. Maggie Goodlander — are not subject to the military justice system.
Trump railed against the video a couple days after it posted, saying the statements represented “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
A terrifying incident unfolded when a Dickson County School District bus burst into flames along Highway 49 East, forcing a quick evacuation of the children on board, reported WKRN.
The Dickson County Sheriff’s Office said the school bus driver noticed smoke coming from his dashboard Dec. 3 and immediately pulled into the lot of a gas station. Within moments of the evacuation, the bus became fully engulfed in flames.
The school bus driver is in his first year on the job and is being called a hero for saving the lives of the 38 students on board a the time.
“I was the first one to get off the bus because I was scared it was going to blow up,” said Asher Winters, a second-grade student at Charlotte Elementary School who was riding the bus, to local news reporters.
His younger sister, Penelope Winters, a first-grader at the same school, proudly told the reporters she “saved everyone because I told the bus driver it was happening.”
According to the news report, fire crews from the Harpeth Ridge Volunteer Fire Department responded swiftly and extinguished the blaze. Officials confirmed that no injuries were reported. Images taken after the fire reveal the charred shell of the vehicle, which authorities say is a total loss.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. The school bus was a spare as the driver’s normal bus was in the shop that day. A spokesman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol said the bus that caught fire had been inspected in August.
“Wednesday’s bus fire could have ended tragically, but it didn’t because of the bus driver,” added Maj. Travis Plotzer. “He saw danger, he acted fast, and he got every student off the bus before anyone got hurt. His quick thinking and being calm under pressure saved lives, without a doubt. What he did was brave and professional, and he did exactly what we’d hope for in a moment like that.”
An 11-year-old student was injured after being struck by a school bus while crossing a roadway in Hurricane City, Utah, reported 2 KUTV.
First responders were dispatched Wednesday to a local intersection following reports of an auto–pedestrian collision, the Hurricane City Police Department said . Upon arrival, emergency crews located the injured child and immediately began medical treatment.
The student, whose name was not disclosed at this writing, was transported to St. George Regional Medical Center and is reportedly in stable condition. Police said the child may have sustained a head injury during the incident.
Witnesses told investigators that the student, who attends Hurricane Intermediate School, was running across 700 West when they were struck by a Washington County School District bus. Officials confirmed that several students were aboard the bus at the time, but no passengers or the bus driver were injured.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation, and police noted no additional details are available at this time.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the injured student and family at this time,” the Hurricane City Police Department said in a statement.
More information will be released as the investigation develops.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is doubling down on increased seatbelt usage in school buses following the Leander Independent School District school bus crash Aug. 13.
As School Transportation News previously reported, a 2025 Blue Bird school bus was traveling south on a two-lane divided road the first day of school for the Austin, Texas-area district. The school bus was occupied by the 78-year-old driver and 46 student passengers.
The NTSB stated in its preliminary investigation that a forward-facing video from the vehicle showed the school bus drifting left across the centerline and then to the right, causing it to leave the road while navigating a left-hand curve. After leaving the roadway, the bus crossed an embankment, overturned and came to rest adjacent to the roadway. At the time of the crash the road was wet from light rain.
The investigation found that many students were not restrained in the available lap/shoulder seatbelts, which are required in each new school bus by state law, and were therefore displaced from their seats during the roadway departure and rollover event. Sixteen students were injured, ranging from serious to minor, and the school bus driver sustained minor injuries.
The crash remains under investigation to determine probable cause. However, NTSB has issued three recommendations as a result of the preliminary investigation. To the state of Texas and Leander ISD, NTSB recommends establishing, distributing and requiring the implementation of enforceable policies and procedures for seatbelt use, with routine audits, to ensure that every student is restrained on every trip.
At a minimum, the NTSB said policies and procedures should include: “Mandatory pre-departure driver instruction to students to properly belt and periodic pre-departure inspection by drivers or other staff to ensure that each student is properly belted; periodic review of onboard video camera footage, when equipped, to verify seatbelt use; and
increased training and education of school administrators and staff, bus drivers, parents, and students about proper seat belt use and adjustment, seat belt policies and procedures, the safety benefits of seat belt use, and the importance of being properly belted.”
The state currently requires model-year 2018 or newer school buses to be equipped with three-point seatbelts. School districts can opt out if the school board determines that the cost exceeds the district’s budget and passes a vote during a public meeting.
Bagdad Elementary School Principal Monica de la Garza-Conness and Director of Transportation Tracie Franco shared in a letter to the community in late August that the district remains committed to reviewing its practices and strengthening reminders regarding seatbelt use.
“While state law does not hold districts legally responsible for seatbelt use, we expect students to buckle up whenever seatbelts are available,” the letter states. “To strengthen this standard, drivers will now check seatbelt use before departure. These expectations for our staff members will be added to our transportation and district handbooks.”
Meanwhile, the NTSB called on the National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT), the National School Transportation Association, and the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services to inform its members of the Leander ISD crash, the lack of seatbelt use, and the need for school districts to establish enforceable policies and procedures for seatbelt use on school buses.
In a letter to members on Oct. 28, the same day NTSB released its recommendations, NAPT informed its members of “the nature of the crash and the importance of using the belts when they are in place.” The organization pointed to its policy statement on the issue of lap/shoulder seatbelts, which encourages members to determine the use of the three-point restraints based on their local needs.
A family in Forward Township, Pennsylvania, has been displaced after a school bus crashed through the front of their home, causing significant damage, reported CBS News.
The crash reportedly occurred around 3:30 p.m. Oct. 6. Authorities say a school bus operated by Rittenhouse Bus Lines struck a parked pickup truck in front of the home. The impact pushed the truck through the front porch and into the corner of the house, causing extensive structural damage.
Joe Ferson, who was inside the home with his daughter at the time, recalled the terrifying moment.
“I hear this commotion like a freight train and the next thing I know, the walls of my house are lifting off the ground,” Ferson said via the article. “My truck is in my living room, water spraying everywhere and I come outside to a bus into my truck into my house.”
There were no children on board the bus at the time of the crash. The driver was taken to the hospital for evaluation, but no other injuries were reported.
Emergency responders quickly arrived at the scene, and the Red Cross was called in to assist the family. Forward Township’s building inspector is currently assessing the damage to determine whether the home is safe to reenter. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
A 17-year-old male was arrested in connection with a crash that left a 15-year-old student severely injured while waiting for his school bus last month, reported WIVB 4 News.
The incident reportedly took place just before 7 a.m. on Sept. 4, when the 17-year-old driver was traveling south in a Ford Explorer, veered off the roadway, drove through a front yard, and collided with a parked vehicle in a driveway.
The impact caused the parked car to strike the 15-year-old boy, who was standing nearby waiting for the school bus. The victim was transported to Erie County Medical Center (ECMC), where he was treated for severe leg injuries. The 17-year-old driver was also taken to ECMC for evaluation.
Following an investigation, police said that cannabis was detected in the driver’s bloodstream at the time of the crash. A further search of the vehicle uncovered two unfinished lower frames of a ghost gun pistol, along with an AR-15-style rifle, leading to serious concerns about the possession of unregistered firearms by a minor.
On Tuesday, the teen was charged with second-degree assault and second-degree vehicular assault. He also faces two counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, driving while impaired by drugs, and multiple vehicle and traffic violations. He was arraigned in youth court and remanded to the Oneida County Jail on $100,000 cash bail.
Authorities have not released the names of either the driver or the injured student because they are minors. The investigation remains ongoing.
Login
