Crazed would-be robber opens fire inside NYC post office after tellers shut him down – and he leaves empty-handed: cops
The would-be robber stormed into the USPS' Midwood branch on Coney Island Avenue near Avenue I around 1:15 p.m. but left without a cent — and may have tried to rob another spot less than a half hour later, police and sources said.
4 The would-be robber stormed into the USPS' Midwood branch on Coney Island Avenue near Avenue I around 1:15 p.m.
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The gunman had demanded cash from the post office tellers and pushed his firearm against the back of the only customer in the place — a 37-year-old woman, who he may have also placed in a headlock, the sources said.
The woman screamed loudly during the frightening ordeal, a witness told WABC.
The tellers ran off and the foiled gunman fired shots at the door before giving up and fleeing, too, sources said.
No one was reported injured, cops said.
4 The woman screamed loudly during the frightening ordeal, a witness told WABC.
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4 The tellers ran off and the foiled gunman fired shots at the door before giving up and fleeing too, sources said.
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Investigators are probing whether the same suspect also tried but failed to rob a Pay-O-Matic on Utica Avenue near Glenwood Road in East Flatbush about 20 minutes later, the sources said. No one was hurt there, either.
The suspect in that attempted robbery crashed his moped near the scene and was taken into custody, according to the sources.
Charges are pending against him, and he was not immediately identified.
4 The suspect in that attempted robbery crashed his moped near the scene and was taken into custody, according to the sources.
Republican Mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa condemned the daytime violence as he slammed Mayor Eric Adams' administration.
'People should absolutely feel safe inside a United States Post Office or anywhere in this city,' Sliwa said in a statement. 'The current administration has set a dangerous tone by tolerating lawlessness, and as Mayor, I'll restore order and protect every New Yorker in every neighborhood.'
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Los Angeles Times
4 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Immigration raids targeting workers spark dissent even in Trump-friendly Orange County
As protests broke out in cities across Southern California over President Trump's aggressive immigration enforcement sweeps, the mood in Huntington Beach was celebratory. 'Make America Great Again' and 'Trump 2024' banners waved at the intersection of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway as the president's supporters turned out at a protest last month. One sign held up by a teen encouraged attendees to 'support your local ICE raid.' It wasn't a surprise in the conservative beach town where leaders had months earlier declared Huntington Beach a nonsanctuary city. At the time, the city filed a lawsuit against the state over its law limiting cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, arguing that illegal immigration was to blame for a rise in crime. 'Huntington Beach will not sit idly by and allow the obstructionist sanctuary state law to put our 200,000 residents at risk of harm from those who seek to commit violent crimes on U.S. soil,' Mayor Pat Burns said at the time. Elsewhere in Orange County, particularly in cities with higher immigrant populations, the conversation about the raids has been much more muted. Republicans who voted for Trump and support his efforts to deport those who have committed crimes expressed hesitation about the sweeps that have targeted workers and longtime residents. A group of Republican legislators in California, including two who represent Orange County, sent a letter to Trump last week urging him to direct United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security to focus their enforcement operations on criminals and 'avoid the kinds of sweeping raids that instill fear and disrupt the workplace.' 'The fear is driving vital workers out of critical industries, taking California's affordability crisis and making it even worse for our constituents,' wrote the legislators, including Assemblymembers Diane Dixon (R-Newport Beach) and Laurie Davies (R-Laguna Niguel). They called on Trump to modernize the country's immigration process to give undocumented immigrants with long-standing local ties a path toward legal status. Jo Reitkopp, a Republican political organizer from Orange, supports Trump's immigration policy, saying that she believes the country has become safer since he began fulfilling his campaign promise to rid the country of criminals. But her own family's history has softened her opinion about the raids, despite her stance that deportations should continue. Her father, an undocumented immigrant from Sicily, was deported to Italy in the 1950s after he'd met Reitkopp's mother. He later returned to America using a pathway for immigrants to gain legal status, she said. 'I do have a lot of compassion for the people who don't know their home country or came when they were 5,' she said. 'I don't understand why they never became citizens. If they would've, they wouldn't have been deported.' Although Trump has repeatedly said his administration is focusing deportation efforts on criminals, data show that the majority of those arrested in early June in the Los Angeles area were men who had never been charged with a crime. In the early days of the enforcement action — between June 1 and 10 — about 69% of those arrested in the Los Angeles region had no criminal conviction and 58% had never been charged with a crime, according to a Times data analysis. Reitkopp said it's 'sad' when raids sweep up individuals who haven't committed crimes. But the federal government's offer for undocumented immigrants to self-deport and possibly have a chance to return is a silver lining, she added. 'It's a bad scenario, but [Trump] is giving them an opportunity,' she said. Trump's plans for deportations that he outlined during his campaign aren't particularly popular among many Orange County voters. Only a third of Orange County residents who responded to a UC Irvine poll published in January agreed with Trump on the issue. Nearly 60% of residents polled preferred that undocumented individuals have an option to obtain legal status. Although almost half of white respondents supported deportations, nearly three-quarters of Latino respondents preferred an option for legal status, the poll shows. Orange County is home to roughly 236,000 undocumented immigrants, the majority of whom were born in Mexico, Central America and Asia, according to data published in 2019 from the Migration Policy Institute. Data at the time show that 33% of those undocumented individuals had been in the United States for at least 20 years and that 67% were employed. Jeffrey Ball, president and CEO of the Orange County Business Council, said he agrees with California lawmakers calling for immigration enforcement to be focused on criminals rather than broader sweeps. While businesses so far haven't reported significant impacts, Ball said when people don't feel safe working 'it's not the type of positive environment you want from a business standpoint.' 'This immigrant population is an important part of our workforce,' he said. 'We are still in a labor shortage in this region and so to the extent you have people leaving the region out of fear or not feeling comfortable going to work it further exacerbates some of the problems we have related to the efficiency and reliability of the workforce.' Christopher Granucci, an independent, acknowledged that although illegal immigration has become a problem for many in Southern California, he's troubled by the indiscriminate nature of the deportations. 'We have millions and millions of people who came in, but I think they need to be laser-focused on the real criminals,' Granucci said. 'I think for those criminals, everyone in the country agrees that they should be kicked out.' As a teacher, Granucci has seen students whose parents aren't legal residents or are on a path to obtaining residency. 'If they could be more strategic about who is being removed, that would be so much better,' Granucci said. 'Right now, everyone is freaked out. Students are freaked out and parents are freaked out because of it.' In areas of Little Saigon — which encompasses parts of Westminster, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove and Santa Ana — news of the raids has hit the community harder than ever before. There are many undocumented Vietnamese residents who call the largest ethnic enclave outside of Vietnam home. But many weren't concerned about facing deportations for years, activists say, because of a 2008 agreement between the United States and Vietnam that allowed most Vietnamese immigrants who entered the United States before 1995 — mainly refugees who fled violence following the Vietnam War — to stay in the country. An updated memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Vietnam in 2020 created a process for deporting such immigrants. 'What we're seeing is the people who are immigrants themselves that support Trump's deportation agenda only support it until it affects them,' said Tracy La, executive director of VietRISE. 'Trump isn't just going after undocumented Latino immigrants — he's going after Vietnamese, other Southeast Asians, Chinese, Indian and many other communities. That's something that I think a lot of people who supported it have been grappling with.' In Fountain Valley, a city with a large Vietnamese American population where 32% of residents identify as being foreign-born, Mayor Ted Bui hasn't seen much public pushback for the raids. Many of the Vietnamese Americans who live there value law and order, and see the raids as federal law enforcement simply carrying out their duties, he said. He feels the same, he said. Bui's family fled Vietnam after the fall of Saigon, first heading to France, where his grandfather was a citizen. He later came to the United States to study under a student visa. He fell in love with the graciousness he felt among Americans and went through the process to become a citizen, he said. 'What are we saying if we allow people to break the law?' Bui said. 'If we allow people to break the law, then why have laws in the first place? There would be no meaning behind it, and we'd be a country of chaos.' Three decades ago, Orange County was the birthplace of Proposition 187, a statewide ballot initiative that would have denied schooling, nonemergency healthcare and other public services to immigrants living in the country illegally. The measure, which passed 59% to 41% in 1994, would have also required teachers to tell authorities about any children they suspected of being in the country illegally. But the act never took effect after being blocked by federal judges. Anti-illegal immigration sentiment in Orange County still ran deep into the early 2000s. In Costa Mesa, then-Mayor Allan Mansoor presented a plan in 2005 to train city police officers to enforce immigration law. As the demographics of Orange County continued to change — transitioning from a reliable Republican stronghold to a politically competitive locale — immigration became a more nuanced issue even in Republican circles. In the 2024 presidential election, Kamala Harris won Orange County, but by a much tighter margin than either Hillary Clinton in 2016 or Joe Biden in 2020, cementing the county's position as a suburban battleground. In Santa Ana, a Latino immigrant hub in the center of Orange County, immigration sweeps sparked days of protests downtown. City officials have demanded that National Guard troops at the federal courthouse leave and have been working on ways to help those swept up and their families. Santa Ana City Councilmember Thai Viet Phan, a Democrat, said even those who agree with Trump about better border protection are unnerved by raids outside Home Depots and at car washes. 'People have a lot of sympathy,' Phan said. 'People voted for Trump based on a variety of things, principally the economy. But I don't think they anticipated it would be like this.'
Los Angeles Times
4 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
California lawmakers struggle to find ways to hit back against Trump immigration raids
It has been nearly a month since the Trump administration launched its no-holds-barred immigration enforcement campaign in Southern California, deploying federal forces on raids that have sparked massive protests, prompted ongoing litigation in federal court and triggered a flurry of bills from outraged state lawmakers trying to fight back. And yet — at least so far — nothing seems capable of deterring the White House or forcing a change in tactics. In both Sacramento and Washington, observers said elected officials are coming up with proposals that seem to lack teeth. Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy and former senior counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles, said stopping the Trump administration from sending masked and unidentified immigration agents to snatch people off the street is proving difficult. 'They detain everybody and interrogate them all and then just figure out afterward who's unlawfully present, and that's blatantly illegal,' he said. 'We can write more laws, but there's already perfectly good laws that say this is unlawful, and they're doing it anyway.' A bill announced Monday by state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Alhambra) would expand police impersonation laws and require all law enforcement, unless undercover, to wear a name tag or badge number. 'While ICE has publicly condemned impersonations, the agency's use of face coverings and lack of consistent, visible identification creates public confusion and makes it difficult for the public to distinguish between authorized law enforcement personnel and dangerous criminals,' Renée Pérez's office said in a news release. Another bill, introduced by state Sens. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Jesse Arreguín (D-Berkeley) also seeks to ban law enforcement from wearing face coverings. U.S. Representative Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) announced similar legislation Tuesday at the federal level, but the Republican majorities in both congressional houses mean it stands little chance of becoming law. The state bills have a better chance of passage in the Democratic-controlled Legislature, but they still face opposition. The Peace Officers Research Assn. of California, the largest statewide law enforcement union in the country, said banning face coverings could inadvertently put local cops — who are already required to wear badges, nameplates or badge numbers on their uniforms — at risk of losing access to personal protective equipment like face shields and respirators. 'Using local law enforcement as a punching bag to grandstand against the federal government should not be an acceptable practice from our state leaders. It is misdirected, misguided, and intolerable,' Brian R. Marvel, president of PORAC, said in a statement. Marvel said he doubted California had the authority to regulate the attire of federal officers. Arulanantham disagreed, saying that the state law could stand as long as the mask ban was neutrally applied to all law enforcement, not just federal actors. Other potential measures in the state Legislature, Arulanantham said, could expand on SB 54, the sanctuary policy that limits collaboration between state law enforcement and federal authorities on immigration enforcement. But even those protections are now under assault in the courts. The Trump administration sued the city of L.A. on Monday, arguing its sanctuary policy hampered the federal government's ability to enforce immigration law. 'Our City remains committed to standing up for our constitutional rights and the rights of our residents,' a spokesperson for the L.A. city attorney said in a statement. 'We will defend our ordinance and continue to defend policies that reflect our longstanding values as a welcoming community for all residents.' Other bills advancing through the state Legislature include measures that would restrict school officials from allowing immigration enforcement inside the nonpublic areas of schools and prohibit healthcare workers from sharing a patient's immigration status without judicial warrants. Democrats aren't alone in trying to get the White House to back off. A group of state Republican lawmakers authored a letter to Trump, arguing that widespread immigration raids are crippling the economy by taking away workers from key industries. 'Unfortunately, the recent ICE workplace raids on farms, at construction sites, and in restaurants and hotels, have led to unintended consequences that are harming the communities we represent and the businesses that employ our constituents,' the letter said. The Department of Homeland Security has insisted its agents are busy arresting 'criminal illegal aliens' and said it will continue operations despite efforts by 'rioters and politicians trying to hinder law enforcement.' 'As bad faith politicians attempt to demean and vilify our brave law enforcement, we will only double down and ramp up our enforcement actions against the worst of the worst criminals,' Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a June 26 news release. Local city and county governments, civil rights groups and even individuals could step in to sue the government and ICE on the grounds that they are infringing upon citizens' constitutional rights and harming the local economy — but no notable cases have been filed. The city of Los Angeles is posturing for a suit and has already approved legal action against ICE, according to a proposal signed by seven members of the City Council. But early struggles in the state's challenge to Trump's deployment of federal troops do not bode well for future litigation. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals swiftly overturned a lower court decision that would've limited Trump's authority, and litigation over whether the troops can be used for immigration enforcement remains ongoing. While the court battle plays out, state Democratic leaders, including Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), say they are working to fast-track some bills through the legislative process. 'The Speaker is deeply invested in protecting California's immigrant workers and families in the face of reckless ICE raids and Trump's abuses of power,' Rivas' spokesperson Nick Miller said in a statement. Some observers said that, despite the struggles legislation may face in the near term, it may be up to Republicans to change focus from Trump's agenda to things that affect their electorates, said veteran Democratic political strategist Roy Behr. 'The Republicans seem more focused on doing whatever Trump wants, but at least these votes force them to show where their loyalties really lie. And you know, maybe one day they will actually start to pay the price for these votes and ultimately feel the pressure to change their minds.'
4 hours ago
Ex-FBI agent charged in Capitol riot now works on Justice Department's 'weaponization' task force
WASHINGTON -- A former FBI agent who was charged with joining a mob's attack on the U.S. Capitol and cheering on rioters is now working as an adviser to the Justice Department official overseeing its 'weaponization working group,' which is examining President Donald Trump's claims of anti-conservative bias inside the department. The former FBI supervisory agent, Jared Lane Wise, is serving as a counselor to Justice Department pardon attorney Ed Martin Jr., who also serves as director of the working group, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss a personnel matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. A department spokesperson declined to comment. The New York Times was first to report on Wise's appointment. When Trump returned to the White House in January, he picked Martin to serve as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. But the president pulled his nomination to keep the job on a more permanent basis two days after a key Republican senator said he could not support Martin for the job due to his defense of Capitol rioters. Martin was a leading figure in Trump's 'Stop the Steal' movement. He spoke at a rally in Washington on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. He represented three Jan. 6 defendants and served on the board of the nonprofit Patriot Freedom Project, which reports raising over $2.5 million to support riot defendants. Attorney General Pam Bondi called for creating the 'weaponization' group in February to investigate claims by Trump and Republican allies that the Justice Department unfairly targeted conservatives during President Joe Biden's administration. The group's review includes the work of former special counsel Jack Smith, who led two federal prosecutions of Trump that were ultimately abandoned after Trump was elected to a second term. Fox News host Jeanine Pirro replaced Martin as the top federal prosecutor in Washington, but Martin immediately moved over to his current Justice Department position. Wise, who worked as a special agent or supervisory special agent for the FBI from 2004 through 2017, was arrested in Oregon on Capitol riot-related misdemeanor charges in May 2023. Wise repeatedly shouted, 'Kill 'em!' as he watched rioters assaulting officers outside the Capitol, according to an FBI agent's affidavit. Wise clapped his hands and raised his arms 'in triumph' after he entered the building through the Senate wing door, the affidavit says. He left the building about nine minutes after entering. Police body camera footage showed Wise berating police officers outside the Capitol and repeatedly shouting, 'Shame on you!' 'I'm former law enforcement," he told them." You're disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. You can't see it.' Wise was on trial in Washington when Trump returned to the White House in January and immediately pardoned, commuted prison sentences or ordered the dismissal of cases for all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in the attack. The case against Wise was dismissed before the jury reached a verdict.
