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Shooting at Park in New Mexico Leaves at At Least 3 Dead and 16 Injured

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Shooting at Park in New Mexico Leaves at At Least 3 Dead and 16 Injured

Three people were killed and at least 16 people were injured during a shooting at a park Friday night in Las Cruces, N.M., according to Johana Bencomo, the mayor pro tem.

“Part of me wanted to write that this is something you never really think is going to happen in your city, but that actually feels deeply untrue,” Ms. Bencomo wrote.

The shooting happened around 10 p.m. on Friday near the parking lot at Young Park, the police said on social media.

Officers arrived and found multiple people with gunshot wounds. They were sent to hospitals, including the University Medical Center of El Paso in Texas.

Andrew Cummins, a spokesman for Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, said the center received six patients, all with gunshot wounds, and five of them were flown from the medical center to El Paso.

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Witnesses said the shooting took place at a monthly gathering where drivers of modified sports cars show them off.

Around 200 people had gathered for the event, they said, which had a party-like atmosphere. They described seeing an altercation before shots rang out and people began to flee. At least one man had what looked like an assault-style weapon, witnesses said.

“They just started shooting and they just started running around everybody,” said Angel Legaspy, a 20-year-old whose parked car was hit by bullets. The shooting was indiscriminate, “like all over the place,” he said.

Manuel Urbina, who was visiting from Wyoming, came to the park to check out the city’s car scene. He said things were calm aside from the occasional squeal of a skidding car or the roar of its engine. Then he heard shots.

“People were running everywhere,” he said. “We all started to run, and then I saw a young man laid out on the ground.”

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The police said they had not identified any suspects or possible motive.

“We’re still trying to identify who the shooter or shooters are,” Danny Trujillo, a public information officer for the city of Las Cruces, said early Saturday.

The police asked anyone who has video or images of the events, particularly any that show the shooting or people with firearms, to submit them.

While the circumstances of the shooting in Las Cruces remain unclear, New Mexico has struggled in recent years with violent crime.

The violent crime rate there was twice the national average in 2023, according to the Council of State Governments Justice Center. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, has made combating crime a priority.

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Las Cruces became a flashpoint in the state’s debate over crime in February 2024, when a police officer, Jonah Hernandez, was stabbed to death after responding to a trespassing call.

By August of 2024, violent crime in the city was up 46 percent compared to the same period in 2023.

Isabelle Taft and Michael Corkery contributed reporting.

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Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack

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Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a former Army serviceman they accused of distributing instructions on how to build explosives that were used by a man who conducted a deadly attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day last year.

The former serviceman, Jordan A. Derrick, a 40-year-old from Missouri, was charged with one count of engaging in the business of manufacturing explosive materials without a license; one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device; and one count of distributing information relating to manufacturing explosives, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday. The three charges together carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison.

Starting in September 2023, the authorities said, Mr. Derrick was using various social media sites to share videos of himself making explosive materials, including detonators. His videos provided step-by-step instructions, and he often engaged with viewers in comments, sometimes answering their questions about the chemistry behind the explosives.

The authorities said that Mr. Derrick’s videos were downloaded by Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, who was accused of ramming a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025, in a terrorist attack that killed 14 people and injured dozens. Mr. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with the police. Before the attack, Mr. Jabbar had placed two explosives on Bourbon Street, the authorities said, but they did not detonate.

The authorities later recovered two laptops and a USB drive in a house that Mr. Jabbar had rented. The USB drive contained several videos created by Mr. Derrick that provided instructions on making explosives. The authorities said the explosives they recovered were consistent with the ones Mr. Derrick had posted about.

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Mr. Derrick’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Derrick was a combat engineer in the Army, where he provided personnel and vehicle support, the authorities said. He also helped supervise safety personnel during demolitions and various operations. He was honorably discharged in February 2013.

The authorities did not say whether Mr. Derrick had any communication with Mr. Jabbar, or whether the men had known each other. In some of Mr. Derrick’s videos and comments, he indicated that he was aware that his videos could be misused.

“There are a plethora of uh, moral, you know, entanglements with topics, any topic of teaching explosives, right?” he asked in one video, according to the affidavit. “Of course, the wrong people could get it.”

The authorities also said that an explosion occurred at a private residence in Odessa, Mo., on May 4, and the occupant of the residence told investigators that he had manufactured explosives after watching online tutorials from Mr. Derrick.

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Mr. Derrick’s YouTube account had more than 15,000 subscribers and 20 published videos, the affidavit said. He had also posted content on other platforms, including Odysee and Patreon. Some videos were accessible to the public for free, while others required a paid subscription to view.

“My responsibility to my countrymen is to make sure that I serve the function of the Second Amendment to strengthen it,” Mr. Derrick said in one of his videos, according to the affidavit. “This is how I serve my country for real.”

Outside of the income he received through content creation, Mr. Derrick did not have any known employment. He did receive a monthly disability check from Veterans Affairs, the affidavit stated.

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The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?” : Embedded

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The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?” : Embedded
Allegations pile up, but Child Protective Services declines to investigate and the school district continues to promote Ronnie Stoner. We include an update at the end of the episode. “The Girls” is a 4-part series from the Louisville Public Media’s investigative podcast, Dig.
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Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder

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Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder

A streamer known for hurling racist slurs in public settings under the nickname “Chud the Builder” was charged with attempted murder after a shooting outside a Tennessee courthouse on Wednesday, the authorities said.

The streamer, Dalton Eatherly, 28, was involved in a confrontation with an unidentified man that escalated to gunfire outside the Montgomery County Court in Clarksville, about 50 miles northwest of Nashville, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Both men sustained gunshot wounds and were in stable condition, the office said.

In addition to attempted murder, Mr. Eatherly was charged with employing a firearm during dangerous felony, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, the sheriff’s office said.

Mr. Eatherly, who is white, has accumulated an online audience by livestreaming confrontations in which he uses racist language toward Black people in public.

Law enforcement did not provide any details about the second man involved in Wednesday’s shooting. Mr. Eatherly posted an audio recording online of paramedics treating his wounds in which he claims he shot the man in self-defense.

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A video posted by the website Clarksville Now shows Mr. Eatherly on a stretcher with a microphone attached to his lapel.

Mr. Eatherly is being held at the Montgomery County Jail, pending arraignment, the sheriff’s office said.

According to court records, Mr. Eatherly was scheduled to appear for a court hearing on Wednesday morning in an unrelated case brought by Midland Credit Management, a collections agency.

A lawyer listed in court records from a separate harassment case in which Mr. Eatherly was a defendant in November did not respond to a request for comment.

On Sunday, three days before the shooting in Clarksville, Mr. Eatherly was arrested in Nashville. According to a police affidavit, Mr. Eatherly live streamed his meal at a restaurant, Bob’s Steak and Chop House, on Saturday even though the restaurant had asked him ahead of time not to do so.

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When he was confronted, Mr. Eatherly “became disruptive and started making racial statements, yelling, screaming and otherwise creating a scene,” according to the affidavit.

He then refused to pay for his $370 meal. Mr. Eatherly was charged with theft of services, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was released on $5,000 bond.

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