At least one person has been shot in what police say was a targeted shooting at the Washington County Fair in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The incident occurred at approximately 10:30 p.m. when Fayetteville Police Officers responded to a report of a shooting at the annual Washington County Fair that is taking place this year From August 23 to 27.
“Upon the officers arrival they located one victim, and immediately began to render first aid,” said the Fayetteville Police Department in a statement published on social media. “The victim was then transported to a local medical facility.”
Local media was initially reporting that several other injuries were reported due to a stampede following the shooting but authorities have not yet confirmed this.
The Fayetteville Police Department said that their initial investigation has led them to believe that this was a targeted incident and not a random act of violence but did not elaborate further.
Authorities did confirm, however, that the suspect involved in the shooting was able to flee the scene of the crime and is currently on the loose. It is not clear if police know the identity of the suspect or not.
Officers are currently on the scene and investigating the incident and their investigation is ongoing.
The Washington County Fair was founded in 1857 and is the largest and most established county fair in Arkansas, according to the Washington County Fair Association.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Tomas Zeron, the former head of Mexico's criminal investigation agency, reportedly fled to Israel in 2020 to evade an investigation into his handling of the case.
Last week, a truth commission determined that military personnel bore responsibility, either directly or through negligence, in the disappearance of 43 students.
(Eduardo Verdugo / AP)
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has rebuked Israel's government for what he called its protection of a top former official wanted in Mexico on accusations he manipulated an investigation into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students.
"Let me take the opportunity to send a respectful reminder to the government of Israel. They can't be protecting people like that," Lopez Obrador told a news conference on Wednesday, referring to his country's demand for the extradition of Tomas Zeron from Israel.
Lopez Obrador added that Israel's prime minister had sent a letter pledging cooperation, but had yet to take any further action.
"It has been a long time," Lopez Obrador said.
Mexico last year urged Israel to facilitate the extradition of Zeron, the former head of Mexico's criminal investigation agency, who Mexican officials say fled to Israel in 2020 to evade an investigation into his handling of the case.
Some 43 teaching students had commandeered buses in the southern state of Guerrero to travel to a demonstration before they went missing.
An official report on their disappearance presented in 2015 by the then government was rejected by relatives as well as independent experts and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
READ MORE:Mexico ex-top prosecutor to stand trial in disappeared students case
The renewed pressure to bring Zeron to Mexico comes after officials last week arrested his prior boss, former attorney general Jesus Murillo, on charges of forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice linked to the probe into what became of the students.
Zeron has previously denied allegations of wrongdoing.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mexican authorities have previously accused Zeron of planting evidence to support the previous administration's version of what happened after the abduction of the students, which officials last week called a "state crime" covered up by the highest levels of government at the time.
READ MORE:Mexico commission blames military over 43 disappeared students
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
The suspect allegedly caught on video brutally sucker-punching a New York City pedestrian last week was arrested Friday for a parole violation, a day after he was taken into police custody and walked free after his charges were reportedly downgraded.
Bui Van Phu, a 55-year-old homeless man, was directed by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to report to his parole officer Friday morning, authorities said. He was arrested and is expected to appear before a judge within 24 hours.
On Thursday, he was released without bail during a court appearance after his initial attempted murder charge was downgraded.
"The Bronx District Attorney’s Office will continue to investigate the alleged attack on Jesus Cortes by defendant Bui Van Phu. The office is obtaining additional evidence, reviewing video, speaking to witnesses, analyzing medical records, and providing crime victim services,' a statement from the office of Bronx County District Attorney Darcel Clark said. "The defendant is currently charged with third-degree Assault and second-degree Harassment, which are not bail eligible under our current laws."
NYPD released video of an Aug. 12 unprovoked assault that unfolded at approximately 10:45 p.m. in front of 163 E 188 St in the Bronx. The allegedly attacker, Bui Van Phu, 55, was arrested Friday for a parole violation, authorities said.
(NYPD)
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the arrest at an unrelated news conference. She called the attack "horrific on all fronts" and said her office has been in contact with Clark to discuss what charges would be filed.
She said she directed corrections officials to determine whether Phu had committed a parole violation during the attack.
Phu allegedly approached Cortes just before 11 p.m. Aug. 12 and assaulted him as he was standing with a group after leaving a restaurant.
From behind, he allegedly delivers a hard blow to Cortes’ head, lying him out on the concrete. Police said the two had no interaction beforehand and that there’s no indication the alleged attacker and victim knew each other.
Cortes sustained a skull fracture, broken cheek and brain bleeding. He remains hospitalized.
NYC sucker punch assault suspect is a convicted sex offender.
(NYPD)
Phu was previously convicted of first-degree sex abuse in the Bronx in 1995 and was sentenced to six years to life in prison. He was paroled in 2019 and is now registered as a Level 3 sex offender — the most serious designation — for sexually abusing a 17-year-old girl in 1994, according to state records.
Fox News' Danielle Wallace and Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report.
Hadi Matar, 24, reiterates his plea of not guilty to charges he faces for allegedly storming the stage at a literary event last week and stabbing the British novelist several times.
Hadi Matar is next scheduled to appear in court on September 7.
(AFP)
The suspected assailant of Salman Rushdie has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges at a brief court hearing in upstate New York.
Speaking through his lawyer on Thursday, Hadi Matar, 24, reiterated his plea of not guilty to charges he faces for allegedly storming the stage at a literary event last week and stabbing the British novelist several times in the neck and abdomen.
Thursday's appearance at a court in Chautauqua County followed a grand jury indictment, according to county prosecutors.
The judge ordered Matar remain detained without bail. He is next scheduled to appear in court on September 7.
His head bowed, Matar wore a black and white striped prison outfit with orange crocs at the hearing that drew numerous reporters.
Following last Friday's attack, Rushdie was air-lifted to a nearby hospital for emergency surgery.
His condition remains serious but the 75-year-old has shown signs of improvement, and he has been taken off a ventilator.
Rushdie was about to be interviewed as part of a lecture series at the Chautauqua Institution in New York on Friday when a man rushed the stage and stabbed him repeatedly in the neck and abdomen.
Matar was wrestled to the ground by staff and audience members at the lecture, before police took him into custody.
Police and prosecutors have provided scant information about Matar's background or the possible motivation behind the attack.
Rushdie, who was born in India in 1947, moved to New York two decades ago and became a US citizen in 2016.
He spent years under police protection after Iran's late Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini called for Rushdie's killing a year after the publication of his novel "The Satanic Verses" in 1988, which negatively portrayed Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.
Iran's government has long since distanced itself from Khomeini’s decree, but anti-Rushdie sentiment lingered.
Iran this week denied any link with Rushdie's attacker but blamed the writer himself for "insulting" Islam in "The Satanic Verses".
Law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation into Salman Rushdie's attack told ABC News that "a preliminary investigation into the suspected perpetrator's probable social media presence indicates a likely adherence or sympathy towards Shi'a extremism and sympathies to the Iranian regime/Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps."
Author Salman Rushdie listens during an interview with Reuters in London, April 15, 2008.
Dylan Martinez/Reuters, FILE
Author Salman Rushdie was attacked while giving a lecture at an education center, the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, in southwestern New York, Friday morning. Rushdie was stabbed at least once in the neck and abdomen, after a man ran up on stage and attacked him and his interviewer. The interviewer, Henry Reese, 73, suffered a minor head injury during the attack, police said. He was treated for a facial injury at a nearby hospital and has since been released, police said.
Rushdie's agent told ABC News on Friday that he will likely lose an eye, the nerves in his arm were severed and his liver was stabbed and damaged.
Law enforcement have identified Rushdie's attacker as 24-year-old Hadi Matar of New Jersey. Matar is currently in New York State Police custody. Matar is charged with felony attempted second-degree murder and second-degree assault.
Matar was processed at SP Jamestown and transported to Chautauqua County Jail and will be arraigned on Aug.13.
A view of who appears to be author Salman Rushdie treated by emergency personnel after being stabbed on stage before his scheduled speech at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, N.Y., Aug. 12, 2022, is seen in an image obtained from social media.
Mary Newsom via Reuters
The suspect was born in California, sources told ABC News. On the suspect's phone, investigators say they found photos of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of Iraq's pro-Iranian militia movement, also killed by U.S. forces. Police recovered a fake New Jersey driver's license, which appears to have used the suspect's picture with the alias "Hassan Mughniyah," a possible reference to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah, and Imad Mughniyeh, who was the group's No. 2 official before being killed in 2008, sources said.
A New Jersey police officer and a plain-clothed police officer exit the building where alleged attacker of Salman Rushdie, Hadi Matar, lives in Fairview, N.J., Aug. 12, 2022.
Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Detectives are now calling the attack an "apparent assassination attempt" by "an individual with strong indicators of ideological support for the Iranian regime." They said the incident occurred during a period of "plot disruptions" apparently connected to the current state of U.S.-Iran tensions.
Local police and FBI agents block the area around the home of Hadi Matar on Morningside Avenue, in Fairview, N.J., Aug. 12, 2022. Matar rushed a stage and stabbed Salman Rushdie, as the author was about to give a lecture in western New York.
Ted Shaffrey/AP
Investigators are noting Iran continues to threaten its enemies around the world as part of its stated play for revenge for the killings of Soleimani and al-Muhandis.
Law enforcement officers detain a person outside the Chautauqua Institution, in Chautauqua, N.Y., Aug. 12, 2022. Salman Rushdie, the author whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was attacked and apparently stabbed by a man who rushed the stage, as Rushdie was about to give a lecture at the institute.
Charles Fox/AP
Investigators say they do not know, at this point, whether the Ayatollah's prior call to assassinate Rushdie was a motivator. No Iranian official has commented on the attack yet.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution and a prominent Shi'a Muslim figure, issued a "fatwa," a religious decree, on Feb. 14, 1989, calling for the death of Rushdie and his publishers over his book "The Satanic Verses." Officials stress that the probe is ongoing and information is subject to change. The incident occurred less than 24 hours ago.
Police in New Mexico’s largest city and federal agencies are trying to determine if the ambush shooting deaths of three Muslim men over the past nine months could be connected.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the country's largest Muslim civil rights organisation, increased a reward to $10,000 from $5,000 for information leading to the suspect or suspects related to the killings.
(AA Archive)
Police in the US state of New Mexico have said they are investigating the murders of three Muslim men that they suspect are related to a fourth homicide from last year.
The Albuquerque police department said in a statement on Saturday they had found the latest victim overnight the day before.
They did not identify him but said he was in his mid-20s, Muslim and "a native from South Asia."
"Investigators believe Friday's murder may be connected to three recent murders of Muslim men also from South Asia," the statement said on Saturday.
Two of the previous victims were Muslim Pakistani men, a 27-year-old whose body was found on August 1 and a 41-year-old who was found on July 26.
Detectives are now investigating whether these murders are connected to the death of a Muslim man from Afghanistan who was killed on November 7, 2021, outside of the business he ran with his brother in Albuquerque, the statement said.
The police urged anyone with information to call a tip line and said the FBI was assisting with the investigation.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham expressed outrage at the attacks and solidarity with the southwestern state's Muslim community.
"The targeted killings of Muslim residents of Albuquerque is deeply angering and wholly intolerable," Lujan Grisham said on Twitter.
She said she was sending additional state police officers to Albuquerque to help with the investigation.
"We will continue to do everything we can to support to the Muslim community of Albuquerque and greater New Mexico," she said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest US Muslim civil rights group, said on Saturday it would offer a $10,000 reward to whoever provides information leading to the killer's arrest.
"This tragedy is impacting not only the Muslim community — but all Americans," CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad said in a statement.
"We must be united against hate and violence regardless of the race, faith or background of the victims or the perpetrators."
The suspect in the attack of Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., was arrested Saturday afternoon on a federal assault charge, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western District of New York announced.
David Jakubonis is scheduled to make his first court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marion W. Payson Saturday. Zeldin is running for New York governor as a Republican.
Jakubonis, 43 of Fairport, New York, has been charged with attempted assault in the second degree on the state level. He was arraigned in Perinton Town Court and released on his own recognizance after the Thursday attack.
Congressman Lee Zeldin stands on stage during his stump speech, before an alleged attack on him, in Fairport, New York, United States, July 21, 2022.
(Ian Winner/Handout via REUTERS )
Before Jakubonis' release, Zeldin predicted that the suspect would be released. Zeldin has promised to fire district attorneys that do not enforce the law.
