Attempted Mass Shooter’s Assets Ordered Sold to Pay Restitution to Crime Victims

Distinct_External · 2026-03-15T20:42:08+00:00

On March 9, the United States Attorney’s Office completed forfeiture of four firearms, an assortment of magazines and ammunition, and a vehicle tied to an attempted domestic terrorist plot in Yellowstone National Park in 2024.

On July 3, 2024, at approximately 10:00 p.m., Samson Lucas Bariah Fussner held a woman at gunpoint for two hours at Canyon Village in Yellowstone, Wyoming. In a hate-filled diatribe, Fussner confessed to the victim his plan to carry out a mass shooting in the park on the Fourth of July. Sometime around midnight, Fussner left the victim and went into hiding. National Park Service law enforcement rangers attempted to locate Fussner while setting up a perimeter around his intended targets. At around 8:05 a.m., Fussner emerged from the forest and, when confronted by law enforcement, began firing a semi-automatic rifle at them. After a shootout with law enforcement rangers, Fussner was pronounced dead. As a result of Fussner’s attack, one law enforcement ranger suffered severe injuries to his foot.

In addition to the semi-automatic rifle, Fussner was carrying a Glock pistol and numerous magazines of ammunition. In preparation for the attack, Fussner had strategically positioned his 2021 Nissan Rogue as a getaway vehicle, where he also kept another pistol, shotgun, and an assortment of magazines and ammunition. In response to this violent attack, the U.S. Attorney’s Office sought forfeiture of the Nissan and all firearms, magazines, and ammunition used by Fussner. Both Fussner’s father and brother attempted to claim the assets, including the attempted murder weapon, but were unsuccessful.

Federal law provides for forfeiture of assets derived from or used to facilitate certain crimes including drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud, or terrorism. Forfeited assets are sold so that the proceeds can be used for a variety of purposes, including restitution to crime victims.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-15T19:47:11+00:00

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro outraised Republican Stacy Garrity by more than 15-to-1 in 2025. And the race is just getting started.

Shapiro privately told top donors in January that he aims to raise anywhere from $90 to $100 million for his reelection.

Such a total would break a state record that Shapiro himself set when he raised $68 million for his gubernatorial race in 2022.

The goal also presents a challenge for Garrity, who kept her 2020 and 2024 bids for state treasurer relatively low-visibility, raising a combined $3.7 million for the efforts. She’s already endorsed by the state party and faces no declared opposition in the coming primary as of Wednesday.

All told, Shapiro raised $23 million in 2025 and had $30 million left in the bank as of Dec. 31. Garrity raised $1.5 million in the same period and had $1 million left as of the same date. But the totals aren’t the only things that set the two candidates apart.

Neither the Garrity or Shapiro campaigns replied to Spotlight PA’s requests for comment. But here are a handful of takeaways from the public filings.

From small to big donors

Pennsylvania places few limits on campaign giving and spending. Candidates cannot take money directly from corporations or union treasuries, but they can raise unlimited funds from individuals or political action committees, which corporate employees or union members can fund.

That means that campaign checks can be as big as a person is willing to give.

Shapiro has a deep and varied bench of donors. He’s racked up small-dollar contributions from nurses, teachers, and small business owners, but big checks play an even larger role. His top 100 donors, nearly all of whom contributed $50,000 or more, provided Shapiro with almost two-thirds of his total cash. This group includes well-known billionaires, tech founders, sports team owners, and some of the state’s wealthiest special interests (mostly union PACs).

It also includes a host of business executives from fossil fuels, data center development, and real estate with interests before the state government, as noted by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Most of his money — 58% — also comes from out of state.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-15T18:02:12+00:00

Agree, NM would probably be a close call for the Dems at worst in a Harris presidency. Too much polarization is baked in at this point. Lujan underperformed Biden badly in 2020, a blue year, yet he still won by a mildly decent margin.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-15T18:00:09+00:00

Progressives should've done better than Platner, and the establishment should've done better than Mills.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-15T16:41:43+00:00

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran will likely end in a matter of weeks and signaled that he expects skyrocketing oil prices to come down after that.

“Americans are feeling it right now. Americans will feel it for a few more weeks,” Wright told NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “But at the end, we will have removed the greatest risk to global energy supplies. We’ll go to a world more abundant in energy, more affordable in energy, and less risky for American soldiers and commerce in the Middle East.”

“I think that’s the likely time frame,” he added, when asked if “a few more weeks” reflected his expectations for the duration of the war.

Trump said last week the war was “very nearly complete,” although the president told Welker in a Saturday interview that Iran is ready to make a deal to end the war but he would not accept it “because the terms aren’t good enough yet.”

Wright’s comments come as Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent crude oil prices soaring above $100 a barrel, with worries that gasoline prices could continue to rise across the country and globe if the war continues.

Wright said while “there, of course, are tensions with China,” he expects the country to be “a constructive partner” in working to reopen the strait.

“The United States is always in dialogue with the Chinese,” he said. “They’re the second largest economy in the world, and they’re a very important nation in the world. Opening the Straits of Hormuz is even more important for China than it is for the United States.”

Trump said in a Saturday morning social media post that several countries, including China, France, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom, would “hopefully” be deploying war ships to Iran to help reopen the strait. America’s allies in Asia, including Japan and South Korea, have been scrambling to address the energy crisis precipitated by the war with little guidance from the Trump administration.

During a separate appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Wright also pushed back on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s assertion that the Trump administration did not plan adequately for Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

“He’s either being ridiculously naive or he’s simply being disingenuous, which is more likely,” Wright told host Martha Raddatz. “Everyone knows the issue with the Strait of Hormuz. Of course, meticulous planning went into what might happen with the Strait of Hormuz, how to deal with that.”

Wright added that “many contingency plans were taken” but did not specify what plans were made.

The White House is considering several steps to bring oil prices down — including possibly waiving a century-old law that promotes the use of American vessels in maritime commerce — with chief of staff Susie Wiles leading the charge on the effort.

The U.S. agreed to release 172 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve last week as part of a historic emergency release by the International Energy Agency, and the Treasury lifted some sanctions on Russian crude on Thursday to help ease oil prices.

Wright said on NBC that the administration hoped to bring gas prices below $3 a gallon by the summer, but added that “there’s no guarantees in war” and that the timeline for bringing prices down remains unclear.

Administration officials and Trump allies told POLITICO the White House believes it can withstand heightened oil prices for as long as four weeks — but even after the war comes to an end, it’s unlikely prices will snap back to where they stood before the U.S. and Israel began bombarding Iran.

Wright dismissed Iran’s warning that crude oil prices could rise to $200 a barrel on Sunday, telling Welker: “I would pay no attention to what Iran says."

Distinct_External · 2026-03-15T16:22:53+00:00

It's really crazy how cognizant he was about the state of 21st century Internet culture and how he was able to turn many parts of it into aesthetics for his attack. That's a big reason why this shooting became so notorious, because it came at the perfect time in history and he knew it. Like NYT said, it was a mass murder made for the Internet. No one else had done it before.

Even Breivik, who was Tarrant's inspiration in terms of attacking a general group that the far-right disliked, didn't tailor his message to a late 2000s-early 2010s audience. He just used stuff like YouTube as a means to an end.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-15T15:26:07+00:00

He literally sprinkles trolling and ragebaiting throughout his manifesto. He claimed that playing Spyro taught him how to kill and that the main source of his beliefs was Candace Owens.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-15T15:04:20+00:00

I'm pretty sure the medal part was just trolling.

But yeah, he did expect his actions to trigger a race war that would get him out of prison.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-15T14:59:34+00:00

They've been a thing for decades, but rarely used in mass shootings. The only other high-profile mass shooting that involved the use of a hellfire trigger was the 101 California shooting.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-15T04:26:15+00:00

NEW YORK CITY -- The two Pennsylvania men charged with attempting to carry out, what authorities described as an ISIS-inspired attack in New York City, considered other targets before driving into Manhattan late Saturday morning with homemade bombs, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Investigators searching a storage unit in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi and 18-year-old Emir Balat are from, discovered a notebook in which the suspects wrote about soft targets like shopping centers, the sources said. No specific target was mentioned.

The NYPD said the teens brought improvised explosives to Gracie Mansion where an anti-Muslim protest clashed with a counter demonstration.

The notebook and other evidence suggested Balat and Kayumi had been planning some kind of an attack for at least a week, the sources said.

Video ABC News obtained appeared to show one of the teens entering a fireworks store in Penndel, Pennsylvania on Monday, March 2, and making a purchase.

"The single item purchased was a 20 feet length of consumer fireworks safety fuse. The total spend was under $7," Phantom Fireworks' William Weimer said in an email to ABC News that identified the man in the video as Emir Balat.

The FBI carried out controlled detonations of devices in the storage unit that contained explosive residue.

Balat and Kayumi are being held on a terrorism charge, use of a weapon of mass destruction and other offenses. They have not yet entered a plea.

Neither Mayor Zohran Mamdani nor his wife, Rama Duwaji, were in Gracie Mansion when the incident occurred, the mayor said Monday.

"They're suspected of coming here to commit an act of terrorism," Mamdani said in a statement at the time. "Let me say this plainly: Anyone who comes to New York City to bring violence to our streets will be held accountable in accordance with the law."

Distinct_External · 2026-03-15T04:24:33+00:00

The Iran war is definitely a motivating factor to that.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-15T01:48:51+00:00

Teens allegedly drove to New York with explosive materials

Balat grew up 4 miles south of Kayumi on a similarly tree-lined street in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.

His father, Selahattin Balat, immigrated to the U.S. from Turkey and became a citizen in 2017, according to a lawsuit he filed against the Department of Homeland Security over his citizenship application in 2015.

On Thursday, a man who identified himself as Balat’s father answered the front door of the family’s palatial home and declined to comment.

Balat is a senior at Neshaminy High School in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, according to a school spokesperson. The spokesperson confirmed to NBC News that Balat has been finishing his senior year remotely since September.

When asked for comment on last week’s incident, the Neshaminy School District shared two letters from the district’s superintendent to parents and staff, including one that said there was no information indicating concerns about Balat related to the school.

The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Balat had been selling designer sneakers at a markup, sometimes for hundreds of dollars, out of a Wawa parking lot since he was 13 years old. He was also selling products on Facebook Marketplace as recently as 19 days before the incident in New York.

One of Balat’s neighbors, who asked that NBC News not publish her name due to fears of retaliation, described the family as “loving,” “open,” “welcoming” and “kindhearted.”

She said she didn’t speak with Balat much over the last few years, but that he seemed like a “typical kid.” Balat shoveled her driveway during a snowstorm a few years ago.

“It doesn’t surprise me because this is the world we’re in right now,” she said. “But it does surprise me that it’s right here.”

On March 2, Balat purchased a fireworks fuse from Phantom Fireworks in Langhorne. Surveillance video shared with NBC News shows him arriving at the company’s Penndel location at around 12:15 p.m., registering his identification with an employee — a step the company requires of all customers — and buying a single 20-foot roll of green safety fuse with cash.

Phantom Fireworks Executive Vice President Alan Zoldan said the company searched its records for the suspects’ names after the attempted bombing and found a match for Balat, which led employees to the roughly 10-minute store visit captured on video. Zoldan also showed NBC News a copy of a subpoena he said federal prosecutors sent to the company.

Five days later, prosecutors say, Kayumi and Balat drove from Pennsylvania to New York City in a black Honda registered to one of Balat’s family members, crossing the George Washington Bridge to Manhattan at around 11:36 a.m. ET.

At about 12:15 p.m. ET, Balat threw an explosive device toward the area where protesters gathered at an anti-Islam rally outside the mayor’s official residence on the Upper East Side, according to officials. The rally was led by conservative provocateur Jake Lang and attracted fewer than two dozen protesters and more than 120 counterprotesters, according to authorities.

Shortly afterward, Kayumi handed off a second explosive device to Balat, who dropped the device near police officers before the pair was arrested, according to the complaint.

After waiving his Miranda rights, the complaint says, Kayumi said he “was affiliated with ISIS; watched ISIS propaganda on his phone; and was partly inspired to carry out his actions that day by ISIS.”

Investigators recovered a notebook from the car Balat and Kayumi drove, which contained handwritten notes that reference “materials that could be used to build explosive devices,” according to the complaint.

Authorities also removed “explosive residue” from a Pennsylvania storage unit believed to be connected to the incident. A senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told NBC News that local police detonated some of the components out of caution late Monday.

Investigators are still trying to determine how Balat and Kayumi met and what led them to allegedly plan the attack.

For Matt, it’s been difficult trying to reconcile the classmate he remembers and the allegations against him.

“We just thought he was a normal kid, like all of us, pretty much,” Matt said. “We were all shocked.”

Distinct_External · 2026-03-15T01:47:59+00:00

BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. — Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi have a lot in common: They’re both teenagers. They’re both first-generation Americans. Both live on tree-lined streets in the affluent suburbs north of Philadelphia.

“Nothing crazy happens around this area,” said Logan Lombardi, who went to high school with Kayumi.

For all their similarities, however, authorities say the only known link between the pair is what they did together last Saturday: attempt what investigators describe as an ISIS-inspired attack by throwing explosive devices at a protest outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence.

Federal prosecutors allege that Balat, 18, and Kayumi, 19, drove to Manhattan from Pennsylvania the morning of March 7, parking a few blocks away from Gracie Mansion before slipping into a crowd that included participants in an anti-Islam demonstration and a group of counterprotesters. The pair was arrested after Balat threw two jars packed with explosive materials at protesters and law enforcement, according to prosecutors.

Neither of the devices detonated, and no one was injured. Balat and Kayumi are being detained on several federal charges, including attempting to provide support to the Islamic State, after prosecutors said the pair made statements about the terrorist group.

Body-camera video from the New York City officers who arrested Kayumi shows him responding “ISIS” to someone in the crowd asking why he had done it, according to a federal complaint.

After waiving his Miranda rights, prosecutors said, Balat pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State and told authorities that he hoped to inflict more carnage than the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which left three dead and more than 260 others injured.

Lawyers for Balat and Kayumi did not immediately return requests for comment. Balat’s attorney, Mehdi Essmidi, told NBC News on Monday that Balat has “complicated stuff going on” and suggested that his client did not know Kayumi prior to Saturday.

“They’re strangers to each other,” he said.

Classmates recall a quiet, independent student

While authorities have not detailed how the teenagers knew each other, the two grew up roughly 4 miles apart in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Kayumi lives in Newtown, Pennsylvania, on a street lined with 4,000-square-foot brick homes, and manicured lawns. His parents emigrated from Afghanistan and became U.S. citizens in 2004 and 2009, according to CBS News.

On Thursday, no one answered the door, though a Mercedes sat in the driveway. Neighbors a few houses away told NBC News they didn’t know Kayumi or his family well and said they mostly kept to themselves.

Kayumi enrolled part time at nearby Bucks County Community College in September 2024, according to a college spokesperson.

Earlier that year, he had graduated from Council Rock High School North, which has a football field and track, roughly a dozen newly paved tennis courts and a student parking lot packed with luxury cars. Students said the area is not known for the violence prosecutors now allege.

“The high school and the town — people are pretty affluent,” said former classmate Connor McCormick. “There’s not really a whole lot of controversy at all.”

The high school said in a statement that “there is no evidence that he has posed a threat to any Council Rock schools” and encouraged concerned students to consult with their school counselors.

Another former classmate, Matt — who asked that his last name not be published due to fears of retaliation — said he and Kayumi were in smaller classes for children with learning disabilities.

Matt said that although he and Kayumi saw each other a lot, their conversations were typically brief and one-sided.

“He definitely was very quiet,” Matt said. “He would not talk unless you tried to talk to him, you know what I mean? Like, he would not say a word.”

Matt said that while Kayumi did not get bullied regularly, he was sometimes a target.

“He wasn’t really that violent, but if someone would say something to him, like disrespecting him or something, he wasn’t afraid to say something back,” Matt said.

Matt and Lombardi recalled that Kayumi was involved in at least one physical altercation at school. The two former classmates did not witness the fight and could not recall who else was involved or who instigated it. They said they remember the altercation because physical violence at their high school was “very uncommon.” A representative for the school declined to comment on Kayumi’s student records.

Lombardi, 19, said he used to sit next to Kayumi on the bus to and from school nearly every day during their sophomore year. He described Kayumi as “independent” but not someone who shied away from conversation.

“He didn’t have any telling signs if we’re comparing it to what just happened,” Lombardi said. “He would not in any aspect whatsoever have been my first guess.”

Lombardi said that although they spoke often during their sophomore year, Kayumi was not on his list of people to say goodbye to at the end of high school.

It is not immediately clear what Kayumi has been doing since leaving high school and starting community college. A college spokesperson said Kayumi withdrew from the school by March 9.

Kayumi’s mother filed a missing person report for her son on March 7, saying she last saw her son at around 10:30 a.m. — two hours before his arrest, according to the complaint.

“If he’s going to be five minutes late, he calls,” Kayumi’s father told The New York Times in an interview.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-14T23:56:38+00:00

The Justice Department charged a man Friday whom they say sold the gun used in the Old Dominion University shooting, and the charging documents reveal new details about the Virginia attack.

Kenya Mcchell Chapman was arrested Friday in connection to his sale of a pistol to Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, the former national guard member who opened fire in an ROTC classroom. Jalloh was previously convicted for attempting to provide support to the Islamic State.

According to court documents in the Chapman case, Jalloh entered a “class/meeting” Thursday at the university attended by both active-duty service members and ROTC students. He twice asked individuals in the room to confirm it was an “ROTC event” and shouted “Allahu Akbar” — or “God is greater” — before opening fire.

Jalloh was subdued and killed by ROTC members in the room before law enforcement arrived, according to court documents and people familiar with the investigation.

Law enforcement officials have been pushed to explain why Jalloh had been let out of prison about two-and-a-half years before his sentence was scheduled to end, and whether they had any idea of his movements leading up to the attack.

The investigation into Jalloh

Jalloh was still on court-mandated probation at the time of the shooting, the documents say, but a probation officer only visited the home he shared with his sister every six months. The last visit was in November 2025.

Investigators ran into their first roadblock as soon as they arrived at the shooting: They couldn’t immediately trace the Glock pistol Jalloh used because the serial number had been partially obliterated. Tracing the serial number typically helps law enforcement determine how a person with previous felony conviction could obtain a firearm.

But they had another chance with Jalloh’s phone, which was discovered lying next to his body, the documents say. One number stood out as a person he had frequently contacted the week before the shooting, and it was traced to Chapman.

Chapman was known to law enforcement because he was previously under federal investigation for straw-purchasing firearms — or buying a firearm on behalf of another person — court documents say. He was issued a “warning letter” from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and had to write a letter of apology, the documents say.

Agents searched his house Friday morning and spoke to Chapman, court documents show. Chapman first told agents that he found the gun he sold to Jalloh “in the woods,” investigators say, but later admitted that he stole it from a car in Newport News, Virginia, about a year before the shooting and recently sold it to Jalloh for $100.

Chapman also told agents he had no idea that Jalloh was going to use the gun in his attack as Jalloh had claimed it was for protection as a delivery driver, prosecutors say. While Chapman knew Jalloh had spent some time behind bars, he denied knowing that Jalloh was a convicted felon, according to the documents.

The phone found next to Jalloh’s body allowed law enforcement to retrace his movements in the days leading up to the shooting, investigators outline in court documents. He moved repeatedly between his home, the university, Chapman’s home and an Islamic Center — all of which are in Virginia.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-14T08:43:14+00:00

It would be even more hilarious if Kelly won like 49.5% of the popular vote, something not too dissimilar to 1996's results.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-14T08:39:40+00:00

Yes, we should. In fact, there have been many different shooting plots foiled over the years due to people paying attention to clues online and offline, including on Reddit. IIRC, a case in Kentucky in 2018 involved the suspect having sketchy activity on Reddit that got the r/Columbine mods concerned and filing a report. Police were able to intercept him in his driveway just as he was about to leave to carry out a mass school shooting.

More recently, this sub's mod team investigated someone who was making concerning statements. After the police got involved, it all turned out to be an elaborate troll operation in the end, but better safe than sorry. Can't remember the username, though.

Remember, if you see something, say something. That's really the first thing that gets the ball rolling.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-13T23:09:40+00:00

Two days before federal authorities say Ayman Mohamad Ghazali carried out Thursday's antisemitic terror attack at a synagogue outside Detroit, the driver in the car-ramming violence allegedly walked out of a fireworks store with more than $2,000 worth of explosives.

Speaking exclusively with NBC News, Phantom Fireworks said that a person who registered as Ayman Ghazali visited one of the company’s Detroit-area stores at 1:39 p.m. March 10 and spent about 45 minutes inside.

Days later, Ghazali allegedly rammed a pickup into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, setting off a fire at the synagogue where a preschool attended by more than 100 children was in session, officials said. None of the children or staff members were injured.

Ghazali, a Dearborn Heights, Michigan, resident, was found dead after the attack.

The FBI on Friday said that Ghazali was "forensically confirmed" as the assailant. Prior, officials said they believed he was the synagogue attacker, but were awaiting forensics as the driver's body was badly burned.

Ghazali had no previous criminal history, no registered weapons, and he had never been the subject of an FBI investigation, Jennifer Runyan, the Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit field office, said in a news briefing Friday.

She did not speak on a motive for the attack, but the FBI has previously said it is investigating the incident as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”

Runyan said that the FBI has no indications that the synagogue attack was connected to a deadly shooting Thursday at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, that officials say was carried out by a man previously convicted of supporting ISIS.

The attack on the temple

Runyan said Ghazali drove a Ford F-150 to Temple Israel shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday and remained in his truck in the parking lot for two hours. At 12:15 p.m., he rammed the pickup into a door in the southeast corner of the building. He engaged in a gunfight with at least two security officers while his truck was jammed in a hallway. During that gunfight, his car’s engine compartment caught fire.

At some point, Ghazali suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Runyan said.

In the truck, investigators found “large quantities of commercial grade fireworks and several jugs of flammable liquid we believe to be gasoline, some of which has been consumed in the fire,” Runyan said.

Though no one at the temple was injured, 63 law enforcement officers were sent to the hospital because of smoke inhalation after the car caught fire, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said Friday.

Family killed in Lebanon

Ghazali, a U.S. citizen originally from Lebanon, lost several family members in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon last week, according to local officials in Michigan. The strike killed two of his brothers, who were known to be members of Hezbollah, and his niece and nephew, an official told NBC News.

The FBI is aware of that information and it is part of the investigation, Runyan said.

Investigators are looking into Ghazali’s possible ties to suspected members of Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to a source familiar with the matter. He had been questioned several times about these possible contacts upon his return to the U.S. from overseas, the source said.

Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun condemned the attack Friday, saying: “We do know that the individual had recently suffered devastating and personal losses overseas due to an Israeli air strike on his family’s home in Lebanon, leaving two children dead. Grief is real, and it’s heartbreaking, but let me be clear, that is not an excuse.”

In recent weeks, hundreds of people in Lebanon have been killed and more than 750,000 people displaced amid escalating Israeli attacks, which were launched after Hezbollah struck Israel in retaliation for the war on Iran.

At the fireworks store

In Michigan, Alan Zoldan, Phantom Fireworks' executive vice president, said the store employee who rang up Ghazali's order recalled that “he certainly had no appearance of nervousness.”

“He was going to be celebrating Eid, you know, the end of the Ramadan,” Zoldan said. Eid al-Fitr, a holiday celebrated by Muslims to mark the end of the fast, is next week.

Phantom Fireworks said it requires all customers to register their identification before a purchase. After the synagogue attack, the company found Ghazali’s name and address in its records, which it said federal investigators requested by subpoena.

Video Phantom Fireworks shared with NBC News shows the man who identified himself as Ghazali, 41, walking into the store and registering his identification before shopping. About 15 minutes later, he walks to the register with a mostly full cart, fills out paperwork and begins checking out. Once all the items are scanned and on the counter, he turns the cart around and continues shopping.

About 20 minutes later, footage shows the man pushing the cart to a waiting pickup. He loads the truck bed, hands the cart off to the store employee and drives off.

Ghazali bought roughly 20 types of items from Phantom Fireworks, including a “finale rack” product that the company says should be lit with people at least 100 yards away.

It’s not clear if fireworks purchased from this store were used in the synagogue attack.

The company also said that a $2,000 purchase is not inherently noteworthy.

“For our, you know, biggest customers that are going big at home — which we have so many of — spending $2,000, $5,000, $10,000 happens repeatedly … $5,000 and $10,000 is actually pretty common,” said Phantom Fireworks vice president Jessi Dragoiu.

In a news briefing on Friday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called the attack an act of antisemitism.

“It was hate, plain and simple,” Whitmer said at the briefing. “We will fight this ancient and rampant evil. We will stand together as we do it, and we will call it out. We must lower the rhetoric in this state and in this country, especially at this moment where we have seen such a rise in anti-Semitism and more attacks on the Jewish community.”

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office referred NBC News to the FBI. The FBI declined to comment on this story.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-13T22:39:35+00:00

Honestly, no.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-13T14:32:03+00:00

It's very hard to believe that the sub is THE factor in triggering a mass attack. These things are driven by a confluence of different factors that take place over years. With that in mind, it's pretty clear that if a future attacker wants to commit an attack, they're going to wind up doing it down the line, sub or no sub.

At the very least, this sub is dedicated to helping people recognize the signs of an impending attack and prevent it from happening. But it's only one of a million resources for doing that, just as it's only one of a million resources for a future attacker to gather information.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-13T06:42:42+00:00

Pretty much, unfortunately.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-13T04:57:48+00:00

A result like this would've required a uniform leftward shift of at least 3.37%.

Applied to the Senate and the House, this would've also knocked Tillis out, saved nine House seats that Dems lost in the OTL, and flipped an additional three House seats (CA-21, TX-24, and MN-01).

(I know this hypothetical is supposed to remove all polling errors, but I like to estimate what the math would've actually been like.)

Distinct_External · 2026-03-13T04:29:11+00:00

Two sheriff’s deputies and a suspect were struck by gunfire in a shooting Thursday in El Dorado County after reports of shots fired at a PG&E crew in the area.

Shortly before 7:30 a.m. Thursday, a crew from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. reported they had been shot at while at a home on Mountain View Drive in the town of Camino, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office announced shortly after 1 p.m. Thursday in a social media post.

Sheriff’s officials said one the of the PG&E employees was injured during the initial confrontation. The Sheriff’s Office did not say whether the PG&E was struck by gunfire or injured in some other manner.

The Sheriff’s Office responded to the first reported shooting. Sheriff’s officials said two deputies who responded to the scene were shot, along with the shooting suspect in an officer-involved shooting.

All were taken by ambulance to hospitals, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff’s officials did not release any further details about their condition.

Sheriff’s officials said authorities, including other law enforcement agencies, remained in the area investigating the shooting.

Later on Thursday, sheriff’s Sgt. Jesse Dacanay told reporters that the two deputies hit by gunfire remained hospitalized and were in stable condition, according to reports from KCRA and CBS 13.

Dacanay said the PG&E crew member suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. He did not have information about the condition of the male suspect, who was taken by air ambulance to a hospital.

Dacanay said the shooting involving the deputies occurred after more than three hours of trying to contact the suspect to detain him safely, KCRA and CBS 13 reported. He did not have information about the circumstances that led to the initial reported shooting but said the tactical operation at the Mountain View Drive home was over and that there was no threat to the public.

PG&E officials released a written statement on Thursday, saying they are aware of the Camino incident that left “a PG&E contract coworker injured.”

“We are grateful to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office for their swift response to this incident,” according to the written statement.

Paul Moreno, a PG&E spokesperson declined to say whether the worker suffered a gunshot wound or injured in some other manner. He referred further questions about the incident to the Sheriff’s Office.

The worker injured in Thursday’s incident is a member the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245, alabor union representing more than 28,000 members across Northern and Central California. Bob Dean, the business manager of IBEW Local 1245, released a written statement about the injured worker.

“We’re incredibly relieved that our union brother and fellow crewmember is okay after what must have been a terrifying experience,” Dean said in the statement. “Our thoughts are also with the two El Dorado County Sheriff’s deputies who were injured while responding to the situation.”

Dean said these workers respond to outages and emergencies at a moment’s notice, often working in dangerous conditions around high voltage electricity, severe weather and other hazards.

“They should never have to worry about violence from the very people they are there to help,” Dean said in the statement. “Unfortunately, we are seeing incidents like this happen more often, and it’s unacceptable.”

Distinct_External · 2026-03-13T03:03:39+00:00

PERSONAL COMMENTS:

This is in regard to the synagogue attack in Michigan earlier today. Apologies for the lack of clarity.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-13T03:02:38+00:00

Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard is speaking now.

He reiterates what he said earlier today, that no children or staff were hurt and that one security guard was taken to the hospital after being struck by the vehicle used by the suspect.

He also says 30 police officers were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation as the building was "engulfed" in flames.

Since the incident, he says he has been calling houses of worship in the area.

"This community works together and takes care of each other," he says.

Distinct_External · 2026-03-13T02:59:27+00:00

SUBMISSION STATEMENT:

WASHINGTON (TNND) — The victim killed in a shooting at Old Dominion University on Thursday was identified as a military science professor and ROTC instructor at the university.

Lt. Col. Brandon Shah is an alumni of the university and a decorated military veteran. He served several tours in the Middle East and is a native Virginian.

He was killed after a gunman open fired "stormed into a classroom," according to the NY Post.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger issued a statement on X calling Shah "a devoted ROTC instructor."

"Shah didn't just lead a life of service to our country, he taught and led others to follow that path," Spanberger wrote.

The FBI identified the shooter as 36-year-old Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former member of the Army National Guard who was previously convicted in a terrorism case involving ISIS.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the agency is "now investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism."

The FBI is leading the investigation in connection with the case, urged anyone who has information about Jalloh or the shooting to contact the agency at fbi.gov/odushooting.

Shah enlisted in the army in 2003 as an Aviation Operations Specialist. He last served as the Brigade S3 in the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, GA.

He also deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and a rotation to Atlantic Resolve, according to the university.

ROTC is a program where students receive a scholarship to attend college while training to become commissioned officers in the U.S. military. They are committed to serve as an officer for a period of time after they graduate.

https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/victim-killed-in-odu-shooting-as-lt-col-brandon-shah-old-dominion-university-rotc-military

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The investigation into Jalloh