CHICAGO – A former Illinois teacher living in the United States illegally, who was allegedly involved in a 2024 Tren de Aragua mass shooting that killed three people at a Chicago house party, was arrested by federal authorities, officials said Monday.

Giovanna Mercedes Moreno Occhipinti, 32, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela with dual citizenship in Italy, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on May 13, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.

Occhipinti entered the U.S. in October 2021 under the Visa Waiver Program and was supposed to leave by Jan. 2, 2022. She overstayed her visa, DHS said.

On the night of the Dec. 2, 2024, shooting, she allegedly drove the two gunmen—Ricardo Granadillo Padilla and Edward Martinez Cermeno—to the scene of the crime, where five people were injured in addition to the three fatalities, authorities said.

“Although Chicago police arrested this illegal alien shortly after the shooting, sanctuary politicians released her from jail without notifying ICE,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. “Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, DHS is doing the job that sanctuary politicians in Illinois refuse to do: putting the American people first and removing these dangerous criminals from our communities.”

Martinez Cermeno was released from ICE custody in January 2025 after a federal judge determined that federal prosecutors failed to meet their burden of proof to keep him incarcerated while awaiting trial.

Immediately after the shooting, authorities found multiple weapons in Occhipinti’s vehicle, DHS said. Authorities believe she helped Granadillo Padilla and Martinez Cermeno evade law enforcement after the attack.

The Chicago Police Department arrested Occhipinti on Dec. 5, 2024, on charges of unlawful use of weapons and other weapons offenses. However, she was released without ICE ever being notified under Chicago’s sanctuary policies, which protect illegal immigrants from federal immigration authorities.

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office decided not to prosecute the suspects, DHS said, and Granadillo Padilla and Martinez Cermeno were eventually deported.

“Giovanna Mercedes Moreno Occhipinti’s actions were calculated and deliberate, leading to the loss of three lives,” said HSI Chicago Special Agent in Charge Matthew Scarpino. “I’m proud of our agents for pursuing this case to the end, ensuring that everyone who helped facilitate this mass homicide is brought to justice.”

Fox News was told by DHS that Occhipinti was a teacher at an unspecified school in the Chicago suburb of Elgin. Illinois officials have refused to cooperate with federal authorities and will not tell DHS the name of the school, Fox News has learned.

Occhipinti is being held at the Grayson County Detention Center in Leitchfield, Kentucky.

Read more at FoxNews.com

As dozens of people and music filled Indiana Avenue, Sampson Levingston gestured to the scene around him as evidence of a return to the area’s history as a hub of Black life and music.

“This is what Indiana Avenue is supposed to be. Black people having a good time on a Saturday in the summer,” Levingston said. “That’s our history. That’s our story.”

The fifth annual Legacy Fest, organized by the Madam Walker Legacy Center, honored that story on June 19 and 20. A block party with food trucks, vendors selling one-of-a-kind jeweled hats and patchwork denim, jewelry, and live musical performances capped off the Juneteenth weekend. The day before, Grammy-winning producer Teddy Riley performed in the Walker Theatre.

The block circles the Walker Building, a triangular African Art Deco theater topped with a red sign easily spotted in Indianapolis’ skyline. The 1927 building is the last building still operating in its original state on a street once filled with Black-owned businesses but now dominated by fences and parking lots.

After being forced by a former downtown Indianapolis theater to pay a “Black tax,” Walker promised to build a theater without discrimination. The building was home to Walker Manufacturing Company and a 1500-seat theater, the only theater without race-based discrimination in the city at the time. The theater still regularly puts on shows and holds the Madam Walker Legacy Center non-profit responsible for and supported by the Legacy Fest.

“There’s a lot of BS going on in the world and the country. You can get sad about it and pout,” Levingston said. “Madam Walker addressed the issue.”

Levingston runs Walk & Talk, historic walking tours allowing participants to literally step into Indianapolis’ Black history. On June 20 he led a group away from the music and crowd of Legacy fest and around the block, stopping at historic centers of the community such as Lockefield Gardens and the former Second Christian Church. On the tour, Levingston spoke about the impact of redlining and zoning restrictions on reducing the neighborhood’s density and businesses. In the Green Book, a travel guide listing businesses safe for Black Americans, most Indianapolis stores listed are on Indiana Avenue. Now the block is mostly residential. A closed convivence store is vacant and the Second Christian Church is a single-family home.

“Imagine if they won’t let people borrow for decades and decades how much wealth that drips out of a community,” Levingston said. “That’s why when you walk around you just see parking lots.”

Julia A. Royston, a Legacy Fest block party vendor, has been publishing books for 18 years. Many of the books she publishes are centered on increasing representation and putting out voices other than traditional publishing houses.

“No matter what season of the world we’re in, there’s still an opportunity for us to tell our story our way,” Royston said.

Lucy Tobier is the politics reporting intern for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at lucy.tobier@indystar.com or on X at @TobierLucy

SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa (KUOO) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources continues to recommend no swimming at one beach in the Iowa Great Lakes.

Iowa DNR officials say Crandall’s Beach on the north shore of Big Spirit Lake continued to have high levels of E. coli bacteria in the latest tests conducted last week.

The agency says Emerson Bay, which was on the list of recommended no-swimming locations a week ago, has been removed from the designation as the levels there had dropped below the advisory guideline. Ainsworth Beach on the south side of Big Spirit Lake, along with those at Gull Point, Pikes Point and Marble Beach, were all listed as safe for swimming.

Officials caution that bacteria levels can change quickly depending on weather and other conditions.

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