A SpaceX launch Sunday night lit up the Southern California skies.  

Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket at Vanderberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County happened just before 9 p.m., creating bright, pluming fiery streaks in the skies over the Southland shortly thereafter.  

The rocket was carrying 20 Starlink satellites, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities, to low-Earth orbit.  

Starlink is SpaceX’s satellite network designed to bring low-cost internet service to rural/remote communities. 

After launching vertically, the Falcon began a gradual turn while continuing to climb into orbit. Following stage separation after liftoff, the Falcon’s reusable booster made a pinpoint landing back on the spaceport drone ship, “Of Course I Still Love You,” which is stationed in the Pacific Ocean. 

SpaceX said this is the 11^th flight for the first-stage booster rocket.  

Maryland and Missouri are not border states.

New York touches Canada, not Mexico. However, all three appeared in shocking headlines this week in connection with alleged kidnappings, murders or rapes blamed on illegal immigrants who attacked girls and women.

In Texas, two more illegals are accused of strangling a 12-year-old girl for motives that remain unknown.

The string of crimes comes as the Biden administration continues to struggle to deal with illegal crossings of the U.S.-Mexico border.

RACHEL MORIN MURDER: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT FROM EL SALVADOR CHARGED WITH RAPE, KILLING OF MARYLAND MOM OF 5

Victor Martinez Hernandez, 23, faces charges of first-degree murder and rape after police allege he attacked Rachel Morin, 37, on a trail in Bel Air, Maryland, on Aug. 5, 2023.

Morin was not his first alleged victim.

“We all suspected that Rachel was not his first victim,” Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said after the arrest. “It is my understanding that this suspect, this monster, fled to the United States illegally after committing the brutal murder of a young woman in El Salvador … in January of 2023.”

Martinez Hernandez entered the U.S. illegally in February 2023, according to authorities. The following month, a woman and her 9-year-old daughter were attacked in a home invasion in Los Angeles. 

A photo of Rachel Morin is posted to a tree by her family last night along the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland, Thursday, August 10, 2023. (Mega for Fox News Digital)

DNA collected in that case later provided a match to Morin’s. He spent 10 months criss-crossing the country until police arrested him in Oklahoma this week.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT RAPE OF 13-YEAR-OLD IN NEW YORK PARK

In New York City, the NYPD responded to a 1 a.m. 911 call earlier this week after a group of good Samaritans encountered a wanted rape suspect accused of tying two 13-year-olds together in a park, gagging them and raping one before stealing their cellphones.

Christian Inga-Landi, 25, walks out of the NYPD 112th Precinct on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Inga is charged with rape, kidnapping of a minor among other charges stemming from the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in a park on Thursday. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

They arrested Christian Geovanny Inga-Landi, 25, after the group of citizens cornered him and prevented his attempts to fight his way out.

He entered the U.S. illegally through Eagle Pass, Texas, in 2021, according to authorities. He was captured and released, but DNA collected at the time provided the match to the water bottle, prosecutors said.

An immigration judge ordered his removal in 2022, but he remained in the country to commit the attack.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT IN TEXAS GIRL’S MURDER WERE RECENTLY CAUGHT BY BORDER PATROL, RELEASED INTO US

In Houston, police arrested two illegals from Venezuela accused of strangling a 12-year-old local girl and dumping her body in a creek. 

Video image of Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, left. They are suspected of strangling 12-year-old Houston girl Jocelyn Nungaray, right, and dumping her body in a creek. (Houston Police Department; Fox Houston Courtesy of the Nungaray family)

Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, face capital murder charges in the death of Jocelyn Nungaray, city police said Thursday. 

Both suspects illegally crossed the border through El Paso on separate occasions, sources told Fox News. Both had been captured by Border Patrol and released into the U.S.

Jocelyn had snuck out of her family’s apartment to call her 13-year-old boyfriend, who told police he overheard two men’s voices. Surveillance video from a nearby 7-Eleven shows the men approaching her and walking her toward a bridge where police believe the murder took place.

Her body was discovered in the creek below.

In Missouri, state troopers on Monday arrested five illegals accused of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl in Indiana.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CHARGED WITH KIDNAPPING INDIANA TEEN

From left to right, the five illegal immigrants suspected of kidnapping an Indiana 14-year-old and bringing her to Missouri: Carlos Funez, Marlon Aguilar, Noe Guzman Hernandez, Daniel Ruiz Lopez and Arturo Eustaquio. (Macon County Jail )

The girl’s father reported her missing, and police located the suspect vehicle near one of her phone pings.

Police found the girl unharmed in the back of the vehicle and arrested Mexican nationals Arturo Eustaquio, 41; Noe Guzman Hernandez, 24; and Daniel Ruiz Lopez, 19; as well as Hondurans Carlos Funez, 56 and Marlon Aguilar, 44.

All five came into the country illegally and were being held without bail on kidnapping charges.

In its monthly update Thursday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 117,900 encounters between ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, a decrease of about 9% from the prior month.

Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Bradford Betz and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

An armed man accused of domestic violence was found dead following a lengthy standoff with Los Angeles Police on Thursday, the department confirmed.

Officers responded to a reported battery domestic violence situation around 10:30 a.m. Thursday in the 5700 block of Etiwanda Avenue, authorities say. The victim told arriving officers that her husband, 45-year-old Marlon Jimenez, had a history of domestic violence and that he was responsible for visible injuries on her body.

Jimenez was located in a bedroom inside the apartment. Officers directed him to step out of the room and into the hallway. When he complied, an officer firmly grabbed his arm and escorted him into the hallway, police said.

In the hallway police told Jimenez that he was going to be detained as the alleged domestic violence incident was investigated. That agitated Jimenez, authorities said, and he eventually retreated back to the bedroom and reached for the waistband of his pants, claiming he had a knife.

Jimenez then barricaded himself in the bedroom, police said. SWAT and Crisis Negotiation teams were then called to the scene.

After several hours, SWAT officers eventually entered the bedroom and found Jimenez faced down on the floor underneath a mattress. He had a ligature tied around his neck, according to authorities.

Police found a loaded 9mm handgun next to him on the ground. The registered firearm had previously been reported as stolen, police said.

No officers were injured during the incident.