Northeast
Pride-flag-carrying suspect accused of scrawling ‘anti-Christian statements’ on 3 NYC churches
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Police in New York City are looking for a Pride-flag-carrying suspect accused of defacing three churches with “anti-Christian statements” during a 20-minute hate crime spree last month.
The suspect, who was also wearing a rainbow face covering and pushing a bicycle, scrawled “anti-gay cult” on the façade of the Refuge Church of Christ in Far Rockaway, Queens, at around 1:40 a.m. on Oct. 5, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) said. Far Rockaway is the southernmost neighborhood in the borough of Queens.
Minutes later, the rainbow-clad suspect allegedly tagged the neighboring City of Oasis Church of Deliverance with the same anti-Christian message, police said. Both churches are on Mott Avenue.
In a security video released by the NYPD, the suspect was captured scrawling “anti-gay cult” in black paint on the façade of one of the churches.
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Surveillance footage released by police shows “anti-gay cult” spray-painted outside of one of the impacted churches in Queens, New York. (New York City Police Department (NYPD))
At about 2 a.m., the suspect spray-painted “Welcome Cult Members” on the wall of St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Church on New Haven Avenue and wrote “cult” multiple times on the sidewalks outside, police said.
The suspect also defaced two religious statues, painting over their faces, police said.
Police said the person is wanted in connection with multiple acts of criminal mischief as a hate crime and the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating.
The Rev. Francis Shannon, who has been a priest at St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Church for more than eight years, said he was saddened to learn of the graffiti.
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The NYPD released split surveillance images showing a suspect carrying a rainbow flag and pushing a bicycle after allegedly defacing three Queens churches with “anti-Christian” graffiti during an Oct. 5, 2025, hate-crime spree. (New York City Police Department (NYPD))
“It was really heartbreaking learning about the vandalism. I was at my mother’s house, and as soon as it happened, I got sent pictures,” Shannon, 67, told the New York Post. “So when I woke up, I saw them, and it was just really sad.”
“I think this is more of a statement than a hate crime, just anti-institution kind of stuff,” he said.
A surveillance image released by the NYPD shows the suspect carrying a rainbow flag while riding a bicycle shortly before allegedly defacing three Queens churches with “anti-Christian” graffiti during an Oct. 5, 2025, hate-crime spree. (New York City Police Department (NYPD))
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Shannon said he doesn’t believe the graffiti reflects the broader LGBTQ community and urged the vandal to talk out their frustrations instead of acting out.
“I don’t think this is a big part of the LGBTQ movement since he had the flag. I think he’s just the exception,” Shannon said. “I just think he needs to talk it out and not act on it with violence.”
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Northeast
Brown University shooter confessed in videos to planning attack for long time, showed no remorse: DOJ
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Federal prosecutors on Tuesday released transcripts of short videos they say were recorded by the gunman responsible for a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor in Massachusetts.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said investigators recovered an electronic device containing the videos when they executed a federal search warrant on Dec. 18, 2025, at a storage facility used by Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, whom authorities described as “the Portuguese national responsible for the senseless murders.”
The videos were recorded in Portuguese and later translated into English, prosecutors said. In the recordings, Neves Valente described the attack as the culmination of long planning.
“It’s done. It was, it was six months, man. Not six months, six semesters. Uh. I had already planned this for a little more,” he said in one video, according to the transcripts.
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Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts released this image showing the man identified in deadly shootings of Brown University students in Rhode Island and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor in Massachusetts. (Justice Department)
Authorities said Neves Valente identified Brown University as his intended target but did not provide a motive for shooting students at Brown or for killing the MIT professor, Nuno Loureiro, 47. Prosecutors said the investigation into a motive will continue.
Two Brown students, Ella Cook, 19, and Muhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, were killed in the Dec. 13 shooting on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus, and nine other people were wounded, authorities said. Just two days later, Loureiro, a professor at MIT, was killed in Brookline.
In the transcript, Neves Valente repeatedly refused to express remorse.
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“So, what has been done now… I’m in a storage space in Salem, I’ve had this here for three years, I think. I still have money. … I am not going to apologize, because during my lifetime no one sincerely apologized to me.” He also rejected that mental illness was to blame, saying: “that’s all bull—- excuses.”
“I am – I am sane,” he said. “I’ve always been, more or less [sane].”
Neves Valente also said President Donald Trump was right to “have called me an animal, which is true.”
“I am an animal, and he is also, but uhm, I have no love–I have no hatred towards America, I also have no hatred at all. This was an issue of… of opportunity.”
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Despite its role as Brown University’s highest governing authority with direct power over presidential oversight and long-term strategy, the board of trustees has declined to comment in the wake of the murders that exposed serious lapses in campus security. (Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
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Prosecutors said Neves Valente “showed no remorse” during the recordings and blamed victims for their deaths.
In the transcript, he criticized people’s responses during the shooting, saying, “Because they were kind of stupid.”
He also dismissed how the world would view him after he carried out the mass shooting on the college campus.
“I don’t give a d— about how you judge me or what you think of me,” he said, while also saying, “I also have no interest in being famous.”
Images of Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente displayed on a projector screen at a news briefing in Providence, Rhode Island. The 48-year-old former student and Portuguese national has been identified as the gunman behind a mass shooting that killed two students and wounded nine. (Andrea Margolis/Fox News Digital)
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Throughout the transcript, he focused on the injury he sustained, saying: “As you can see, my eye is kind of f—– up.”
Neves Valente said that he was injured in what he called a “shell round” that “bounced” into his eye.
A split image showing multiple still frames from the surveillance video taken near Brown University of a person of interest before and after a school shooting. (FBI Boston)
An autopsy previously found Neves Valente died by suicide two days before his body was discovered in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire.
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Authorities said Tuesday they do not believe there is any ongoing public safety threat associated with the shootings and that additional updates will be provided.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz and Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.
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Boston, MA
Florida-based breakfast chain makes Boston debut with newest location
Boston just got a new breakfast spot that’s serving up freshly made juices and dishes from morning until the afternoon.
Florida-based chain First Watch opened its first Boston location at 777 Boylston St. on Wednesday, Jan. 7.
The opening marks the second First Watch location in Massachusetts, joining its Hanover restaurant that opened in January 2025.
First Watch was founded in Pacific Grove, California in 1983. The company later moved its headquarters to Bradenton, Florida in 1986 and is now headquartered in Sarasota.
Before breaking into New England, First Watch was recognized in other markets for its modern take on breakfast, brunch and lunch food. All dishes are made to order using fresh ingredients in a kitchen without heat lamps, microwaves or deep fryers.
Staples include the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes — a mid-stack of whipped ricotta pancakes topped with lemon curd, strawberries and powdered cinnamon sugar — and Million Dollar Bacon — four slices of hardwood smoked bacon baked with brown sugar, black pepper, cayenne and a maple syrup drizzle.
First Watch also offers seasonal items that rotate roughly five times a year. Sample offerings during the winter include the fan-favorite B.E.C. Sandwich — a bacon, egg and cheddar sandwich served on griddled artisan sourdough bread — and the Strawberry Tres Leches French Toast that’s made with challah bread and topped with strawberries, dulce de leche, whipped cream and spiced gingerbread cookie crumbles.
First Watch’s fresh juice program is a company staple as well. The juices are made in-house every morning and change based on the season. Examples include the “Morning Meditation,” “Kale Tonic,” and “Purple Haze.”
First Watch also serves Project Sunrise coffee, which is made from coffee beans sourced by women coffee farmers in South America.
First Watch Boston is open 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily.
Pittsburg, PA
Commanders sign athletic former Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback
The Washington Commanders have signed former Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Darius Rush to a reserve/future contract, the team announced.
Rush joined Washington in August after he was released by the Cleveland Browns, and spent the entire season with the team. Now, he will get a chance to showcase what he can do in the offseason and make a roster push.
Rush was also previously with the Kansas City Chiefs, but was waived/injured at the beginning of training camp.
The Steelers released Rush in last October, freeing him up to become a member of the Chiefs. He initially made the active roster, but after a rough preseason, the team went in another direction to locate some help, which they found in James Pierre.
Rush, a 2023 fourth-round pick out of South Carolina by the Indianapolis Colts, was cut by the Colts out of training camp. The Chiefs proceeded to claim Rush off waivers following his release, before the Steelers then signed him weeks later in 2023.
With Pittsburgh, Rush took on the role of dimebacker against the Tennessee Titans a season ago, playing 21 snaps in his NFL regular-season debut. He would win a starting gunner role to start the year in Pittsburgh, but not hold onto it after pressure from Pierre.
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