DENVER (AP) — A shooting in downtown Denver amid fans celebrating the Nuggets’ first NBA championship win was likely sparked by a drug deal gone wrong, police said Tuesday. The violence left 10 people wounded, including one of two people arrested in connection with the shooting.

All of the injured — nine men, one woman — are expected to survive, including five or six people that police believe were bystanders not involved in the drug deal, Chief Ron Thomas said at a news conference. He said 20 rounds were fired at the scene, roughly a mile from Ball Arena where the Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat on Monday night.

A total of five handguns were found by investigators but testing still needs to be done to determine whether they were used at the shooting, the police chief said. A “significant quantity” of suspected fentanyl pills were also found at the scene, Commander Matt Clark said, along with cash.

Of the 10 people taken to the hospital, four underwent emergency surgery at the same time at Denver Health Medical Center. Five were still there on Tuesday afternoon, all in fair condition, said Dr. Eric Campion, a trauma surgeon.

The Nuggets’ win drew thousands of people downtown and the shooting happened as the celebration was winding down after midnight, authorities said. Still, hundreds of police officers were massed in the area when the gunfire broke out.

Scott D’Angelo was livestreaming the celebrations when he heard several loud pops one after another, sparking pandemonium as people dove for cover or jumped over cement barricades. Police in riot gear ducked and drew their guns while yelling for people to find shelter.

Crouching on the ground, the 58-year-old said his arms were shaking with nerves and he felt an asthma attack coming. He heard a female voice not a dozen feet (3 meters) away screaming in pain. Another victim lay just beyond the first, D’Angelo said, as officers rushed to provide care.

An overhead city surveillance video without audio released by police showed officers swarming toward the apparent scene of the shooting after gunshots were heard.

The firing stopped after roughly 20 seconds, D’Angelo said after consulting his footage, which he has handed over to investigators. As ambulances arrived, D’Angelo saw bullet casings only feet from where he’d dropped to the ground.

Authorities were still investigating how many people were involved in the shooting. Two men are being held on suspicion of being felons who are barred from having a firearm, said Clark, the police commander. Neither man had lawyers listed as representing them in court records yet.

One of the men ran from the scene despite being wounded and was arrested several blocks away with a handgun and fentanyl. The other was arrested in a car in a parking lot across the street from the shooting after police found a firearm hidden in its floorboards, Clark said. No one in the car was wounded, he said.

The gunfire broke out in downtown Denver’s LoDo district, which is known for its restaurants and nightlife. Yellow police tape had sealed off the area overnight Tuesday as investigators with flashlights scoured the scene, which was dotted with evidence markers and what appeared to be detritus left over from the celebrations, including an e-scooter and a green rental bike.

D’Angelo said he felt “kind of numb” after witnessing a mass shooting firsthand.

“To target somebody, and indiscriminately shoot innocent bystanders, even trying to think about it, it’s like — I have a huge emotional, a lot of feelings that I really can’t explain,” he said.

The shooting happened in the same area where fans celebrated the Colorado Avalanche hockey team winning the Stanley Cup last year without any serious problems. Thomas said police made similar preparations the Nuggets’ possible championship.

“What we couldn’t have planned for was a drug deal right in the middle of a celebration,” Thomas said.

___

The story has been updated to correct that suspect was one of 10 people shot at scene, according to police.

Adrian Black of Taunton, appeared in Falmouth District Court Tuesday on charges of murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Prosecutors say that he stabbed Milteer Hendricks, 19, of Falmouth, on Saturday at the Gosnold Grove Apartments in Falmouth.

Falmouth Police officers responded to the East Falmouth Highway apartment complex at around 4:45 p.m. and found Hendricks bleeding from stab wounds. He was transported to Falmouth Hospital and then flown to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston where he was pronounced deceased the next morning.

A probable cause hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 16.

BPD looking for armed robbery suspect

The Boston Police Department is looking for the public’s help in locating a suspect for an armed robbery that occurred Friday in the 200-block of Columbia Road in Dorchester, which appears to be the address of a barber shop.

The department released images of the man and described him as taller than 6 feet, of stocky build and tattooed on his left hand. At the time of the alleged crime, he was wearing a black “Just Do It” hooded sweatshirt, a black facemask, black pants and Nike Air basketball shoes. They say he fled in a sedan with a Florida license plate.

Authorities say not to approach the suspect if you see him, but to call 911 immediately. The department asks that if you have any information regarding the suspect or incident to call detectives at 617-343-4275 or submit an anonymous tip via the CrimeStoppers tip line at 1-800-494-TIPS (8477) or by texting the word “TIP” to CRIME (27463).

Children burned at Longmeadow playground

Someone poured pool-cleaner acid on three of the slides at Bliss Park Playground on Sunday morning, which caused “burn-like” injuries to at least two children and local authorities want your help in tracking the culprit down.

“I let the kids go play. I didn’t notice that there was liquid to collect at the bottom of the slide. I just assumed it was rainwater,” Ashley Thielen, the mother of the two injured children, told Western Mass News in Springfield. “I didn’t really think much of it, and then, my baby, who is one, just started crying. That was when I knew this liquid that they were around wasn’t water.”

The Fire Department on Tuesday said that “all hazardous materials have been cleaned up and removed” from the park but that “the playground area will remain fenced off out of an abundance of caution.”

The investigation determined that the park’s pump room in the basement of the pool building had been broken into in what the Fire Department determined must have been “a great deal of effort,” as the perpetrator had climbed two fences, ripped the cover off a ventilation shaft and got in through there. Authorities believe whoever did it was probably also injured by the acid.

Longmeadow authorities ask that if anyone has any information to contact the local police department tip line at 413-565-4199.

Donald Trump made an first appearance in federal court in Miami on Tuesday facing 37 counts related to the mishandling and retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Here’s a look at the charges, the special counsel’s investigation and how Trump’s case differs from those of other politicians known to be in possession of classified documents:

What happened in court?

Trump’s lawyer entered a not-guilty plea for him, and the former president was released on his own recognizance without having to pay bond. He will not have to surrender his passport or have his personal travel restricted.

He scowled at times during the 50-minute hearing, but was otherwise expressionless. He also crossed his arms, fiddled with a pen and crossed his fingers back and forth as he listened.

Trump leaned over to whisper to his attorneys before the hearing began but did not speak during the proceedings. He remained seated while his lawyer Todd Blanche stood up and entered the plea on his behalf. “We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” he told the judge.

Blanche objected to barring the former president from talking to witnesses, including his co-defendant, valet Walt Nauta, saying that they work for him and he needs to be able to communicate with them. After some back and forth, Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman said Trump cannot talk to them about the case except through his lawyers, but he can talk to them about their jobs.

Nauta was granted bond with the same conditions as Trump. He did not enter a plea because he does not have a local attorney. He will be arraigned June 27 before Chief Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres, but he does not have to be present.

Unlike Trump’s arraignment in New York, no photographs were taken because cameras aren’t allowed in federal court. There were, however, sketch artists, and theirs will be the only images from the actual courtroom appearance.

Security remained tight outside the building, but there were no signs of significant disruptions despite the presence of hundreds of protesters. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said on Fox News that there were no arrests or “major incidents.”

What happens next?

After the hearing, Trump is flying back to his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. He plans to hold a fundraiser and give a speech later Tuesday night.

Before heading to the airport, Trump’s motorcade took a detour to Versailles Restaurant in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, where a small crowd of supporters awaited him. Posing for photos and saying “food for everyone,” Trump commented briefly on his case.

“I think it’s going great,” he said. “We have a rigged country. We have a country that’s corrupt.”

Several religious leaders at the restaurant prayed over him for a moment.

What are the charges?

Trump faces 37 counts related to the mishandling of classified documents, including 31 counts under an Espionage Act statute pertaining to the willful retention of national defense information. The charges also include counts of obstructing justice and making false statements, among other crimes.

Trump is accused of keeping documents related to “nuclear weaponry in the United States” and the “nuclear capabilities of a foreign country,” along with documents from White House intelligence briefings, including some that detail the military capabilities of the U.S. and other countries, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors allege Trump showed off the documents to people who did not have security clearances to review them and later tried to conceal documents from his own lawyers as they sought to comply with federal demands to find and return documents.

The top charges carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison.

How did this case come about?

Officials with the National Archives and Records Administration reached out to representatives for Trump in spring 2021 when they realized that important material from his time in office was missing.

According to the Presidential Records Act, White House documents are considered property of the U.S. government and must be preserved.

A Trump representative told the National Archives in December 2021 that presidential records had been found at Mar-a-Lago. In January 2022, the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of documents from Trump’s Florida home, later telling Justice Department officials that they contained “a lot” of classified material.

That May, the FBI and Justice Department issued a subpoena for remaining classified documents in Trump’s possession. Investigators who went to visit the property weeks later to collect the records were given roughly three dozen documents and a sworn statement from Trump’s lawyers attesting that the requested information had been returned.

But that assertion turned out to be false. With a search warrant, federal officials returned to Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 and seized more than 33 boxes and containers totaling 11,000 documents from a storage room and an office, including 100 classified documents.

In all, roughly 300 documents with classification markings — including some at the top secret level — have been recovered from Trump since he left office in January 2021.

Didn’t President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence have classified documents, too?

Yes, but the circumstances of their cases are vastly different from those involving Trump.

After classified documents were found at Biden’s think tank and Pence’s Indiana home, their lawyers notified authorities and quickly arranged for them to be handed over. They also authorized other searches by federal authorities to search for additional documents.

There is no indication either was aware of the existence of the records before they were found, and no evidence has so far emerged that Biden or Pence sought to conceal the discoveries. That’s important because the Justice Department historically looks for willfulness in deciding whether to bring criminal charges.

A special counsel was appointed earlier this year to probe how classified materials ended up at Biden’s Delaware home and former office. But even if the Justice Department were to find Biden’s case prosecutable on the evidence, its Office of Legal Counsel has concluded that a president is immune from prosecution during his time in office.

As for Pence, the Justice Department informed his legal team earlier this month that it would not be pursuing criminal charges against him over his handling of the documents.

What about Hillary Clinton?

In claiming that Trump is the target of a politically motivated prosecution, some fellow Republicans have cited the Justice Department’s decision in 2016 not to bring charges against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic opponent in that year’s presidential race, over her handling of classified information.

Clinton relied on a private email system for the sake of convenience during her time as the Obama administration’s top diplomat. That decision came back to haunt her when, in 2015, the intelligence agencies’ internal watchdog alerted the FBI to the presence of potentially hundreds of emails containing classified information.

FBI investigators would ultimately conclude that Clinton sent and received emails containing classified information on that unclassified system, including information classified at the top secret level. Of the roughly 30,000 emails turned over by Clinton’s representatives, the FBI has said, 110 emails in 52 email chains were found to have classified information, including some top secret.

After a roughly yearlong inquiry, the FBI closed the investigation in July 2016, finding that Clinton did not intend to break the law. The bureau reopened the inquiry months later, 11 days before the presidential election, after discovering a new batch of emails. After reviewing those communications, the FBI again opted against recommending charges.

At the time, then-FBI Director James Comey condemned Clinton’s email practices as “extremely careless,” but noted that there was no evidence that Clinton had violated factors including efforts to obstruct justice, willful mishandling of classified documents and indications of disloyalty to the U.S.

Does a federal indictment prevent Trump from running for president?

No. Neither the charges nor a conviction would prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.

“This morning, a student engaged in a physical assault of a staff member which multiple students
witnessed,” Interim Head of School Stephanie Sibley began the letter. “The staff member sustained injuries as a result of the incident.”

Boston Police confirmed officers responded to a report of a disturbed person at the Dorchester school at 11:52 a.m., and a Boston EMS spokesperson said they responded to the school “with no associated transports” Tuesday morning.

A BPS spokesperson said the staff member was injured after attempting to deescalate an altercation between two students.

Both school staff and BPS safety services “quickly assisted with de-escalating the incident,” Sibley said. The staff member was taken to the school nurse before being transported to the hospital.

Sibley said the student will face disciplinary action “in accordance with the BPS Code of Conduct,” which states that a student may be suspended for “assault and battery on any person.”

The student may also face disciplinary action from law enforcement, Sibley said, and BPS Safety Services is assisting Boston Police with a follow up on the investigation.

“We are sharing this important update with you as part of our commitment to open communication and transparency,” Sibley wrote. “Please know the safety and security of all students and staff is one of our most important priorities.”

The assault follows a high-profile incident at the Henderson School in March in which several students were hospitalized after consuming edibles and the indictment of a female student in August 2022 for an assault on the Henderson principal and staff member the year prior.

A large presence of local, state and federal authorities have responded to the area of Quincy Avenue and Libby Street, on the Brockton Hospital campus.

Brockton and Massachusetts State Police received a call around noon of a man “trapped by a Bobcat skid steer loader,” Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz told reporters at about 3:45 p.m.

Authorities said the man, identified as Roger Porter of East Sandwich, was pronounced dead on scene.

Cruz made clear Porter was not driving the construction vehicle when the accident took place, but rather, the 63-year-old was “leveling out gravel as it was being put into a pit.”

WCVB reported earlier Tuesday afternoon its news helicopter had flown over Brockton Hospital, finding a Bobcat construction vehicle had fallen over into a hole next to the facility’s foundation.

Massachusetts State Police confirmed a piece of construction equipment had struck the victim, resulting in his death.

The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner arrived at the hospital around 3:15 p.m. Authorities have alerted the victim’s family, according to a statement from Signature Healthcare, which runs Brockton Hospital.

“It is with most profound sadness that we are reporting a fatal injury that occurred on the campus of Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital today around noon,” Signature’s statement reads. “A construction contractor was working onsite at Brockton Hospital when an accident occurred, killing the worker.”

LMA Services Company, LLC is receiving an inspection from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration following the accident.

Brockton Hospital has been closed since early February following a 10-alarm transformer fire which drew the largest emergency response in city history. That incident displaced 176 patients, with 138 being taken for treatment at nearby health facilities.

Officials had hoped the hospital would reopen by mid May, a best case scenario. However, the main facility remains shuttered, while Signature Healthcare’s outlying centers are open for care.

Tuesday’s accident comes days after a construction worker was seriously injured at Norwood Hospital, which is being rebuilt in the wake of a flash flood that permanently shut down the 215-bed facility in June 2020.

The worker in that incident reportedly fell from the top of the second floor, according to Norwood Fire Department.

Donald Trump became the first former president to face a judge on federal charges as he pleaded not guilty in a Miami courtroom Tuesday to dozens of felony counts accusing him of hoarding classified documents and refusing government demands to give them back.

The history-making court date, centered on charges that Trump mishandled government secrets that as commander-in-chief he was entrusted to protect, kickstarts a legal process that could unfold at the height of the 2024 presidential campaign and carry profound consequences not only for his political future but also for his own personal liberty.

Trump approached his arraignment with characteristic bravado, posting social media broadsides against the prosecution from inside his motorcade en route to the courthouse and insisting as he has through years of legal woes that he has done nothing wrong and was being persecuted for political purposes. But inside the courtroom, he sat silently, scowling and arms crossed as a lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in a brief arraignment that ended without him having to surrender his passport or otherwise restrict his travel.

The arraignment, though largely procedural in nature, was the latest in an unprecedented public reckoning this year for Trump, who faces charges in New York arising from hush money payments during his 2016 presidential campaign as well as ongoing investigations in Washington and Atlanta into efforts to undo the results of the 2020 race.

He’s sought to project confidence in the face of unmistakable legal peril, attacking the Justice Department special counsel who filed the case as “a Trump hater,” pledging to remain in the race and scheduling a speech and fundraiser for Tuesday night at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club. He stopped on his way out of Miami at Versailles, an iconic Cuban restaurant in the city’s Little Havana neighborhood where supporters serenaded Trump, who turns 77 years old on Wednesday, with “Happy Birthday.”

Even so, the gravity of the moment was clear.

Until last week, no former president had ever been charged by the Justice Department, let alone accused of mishandling top-secret information. The indictment unsealed last week charged Trump with 37 felony counts — many under the Espionage Act — that accuse him of illegally storing classified documents in his bedroom, bathroom, shower and other locations at Mar-a-Lago and trying to hide them from the Justice Department as investigators demanded them back. The charges carry a yearslong prison sentence in the event of a conviction.

Trump has relied on a familiar playbook of painting himself as a victim of political persecution. But Attorney General Merrick Garland, an appointee of President Joe Biden, sought to insulate the department from political attacks by handing ownership of the case to a special counsel, Jack Smith, who on Friday declared, “We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone.”

Smith attended Tuesday’s arraignment, sitting in the front row behind his team of prosecutors.

The court appearance unfolded against the backdrop of potential protests, with some high-profile backers using barbed rhetoric to voice support. Trump himself encouraged supporters to join a planned protest Tuesday at the courthouse. Though city officials said they prepared for possible unrest around the courthouse, there were little signs of significant disruption.

While Trump was not required to surrender a passport – prosecutor David Harbach said he was not considered a flight risk, a likely recognition of his status as a presidential candidate – he was directed to not have any personal contact with any witnesses in the case. That includes Walt Nauta, his valet and close aide, who was indicted last week on charges that he moved boxes of documents at Trump’s direction and misled the FBI about it. He did not enter a plea Tuesday because he did not have a local lawyer with him.

The magistrate judge who presided over the arraignment directed Trump not to discuss the case with any witnesses, including Nauta, but said they can discuss work.

Even for a man whose post-presidential life has been defined by criminal investigations, the documents probe had long stood out both because of the volume of evidence that prosecutors had seemed to amass and the severity of the allegations.

A federal grand jury in Washington had heard testimony for months, but the Justice Department filed it in Florida, where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is located and where many of the alleged acts of obstruction occurred. Though Trump appeared Tuesday before a federal magistrate, the case has been assigned to a District Court judge he appointed, Aileen Cannon, who ruled in his favor last year in a dispute over whether an outside special master could be appointed to review the seized classified documents. A federal appeals panel ultimately overturned her ruling.

It’s unclear what defenses Trump is likely to invoke as the case moves forward. Two of his lead lawyers announced their resignation the morning after his indictment, and the notes and recollections of another attorney, M. Evan Corcoran, are cited repeatedly throughout the 49-page charging document, suggesting prosecutors envision him as a potential key witness.

The Justice Department unsealed Friday an indictment charging Trump with 37 felony counts, 31 relating to the willful retention of national defense information. Other charges include conspiracy to commit obstruction and false statements.

The indictment alleges Trump intentionally retained hundreds of classified documents that he took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago after leaving office in January 2021. The material he stored, including in a bathroom, ballroom, bedroom and shower, included material on nuclear programs, defense and weapons capabilities of the U.S. and foreign governments and a Pentagon “attack plan,” prosecutors say

Beyond that, prosecutors say, he sought to obstruct government efforts to recover the documents, including by directing personal aide Walt Nauta — who was charged alongside Trump — to move boxes to conceal them and also suggesting to his own lawyer that he hide or destroy documents sought by a Justice Department subpoena.

Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Terry Spencer, Kate Brumback, Curt Anderson and Joshua Goodman in Miami, contributed to this report.

Police and firefighters responded to Bliss Park in Longmeadow Sunday morning for a report of a suspicious substance on the playground equipment, the fire department posted on social media. At about the same time, firefighters and emergency medical technicians went to a nearby home for a report of two children with burns who had just left the park.

“I let the kids go play. I didn’t notice that there was liquid to collect at the bottom of the slide. I just assumed it was rainwater,” their mother, Ashley Thielen, told Western Mass News in Springfield. “I didn’t really think much of it, and then, my baby, who is one, just started crying. That was when I knew this liquid that they were around wasn’t water.”

The acid left mostly superficial blisters and swelling on her children’s skin, Thielen said, but it could have been much worse.

“The bottom of the slide, where it was, there was a good amount of it collected there,” she said. “I was surprised he didn’t start splashing in it.”

Authorities determined that someone broke into a storage room where chemicals are kept at the park’s swimming pool and stole some muriatic acid. The acid, which can be used for cleaning or for maintaining a pool’s pH balance, was then poured on three slides, authorities said.

Evidence was gathered and sent to the state crime lab for forensic analysis.

No one has been charged, but authorities said the suspect or suspects may have also been injured.

“We suspect that the perpetrators may have suffered acid burns to their hands or arms and their clothing may have indications of being degraded from contact with the acid,” said the statement issued by the fire department in Longmeadow, a city adjacent to Springfield in western Massachusetts.

“If you know of someone with new burns to their hands or arms or may have had burned clothing, please also notify Longmeadow police.” they said.

The playground has been cleaned of hazardous materials but remains fenced off.

“Evidence indicates that the victim in this incident, an adult male, intentionally jumped from the overpass onto I-93 below, where he was struck by at least one, and likely more than one, vehicle,” Massachusetts State Police spokesman Dave Procopio wrote in an update to the Tuesday morning incident. “Barring any unforeseen developments, no further updates are expected.”

State Police earlier reported that they found the victim in the area south of Exit 21 on I-93 at 4:30 a.m.

Lane closure were in place on I-93 south approaching Exit 21, Route 38/Mystic Avenue, while police investigated earlier Tuesday.

The state’s Department of Transportation said the closures generated a 10-mile back up.

The scene was cleared after 9 a.m., according to state police.

Drivers were advised to avoid the area if possible or consider using the MBTA’s Orange Line or commuter rail to get to work.

— Developing

At least 20 shots were fired from multiple guns near the intersection of Market and 20th streets as the thousands of revelers began to disperse, police said. Surveillance footage of the shooting shows the nearby crowd scattering as the more than 80 Denver police officers who had been standing in the intersection immediately chased after the suspects.

All 10 people wounded were expected to survive following a rapid emergency medical response that led to four concurrent surgeries, city officials said during a news conference. Five or six of the people wounded were innocent bystanders, Denver police Chief Ron Thomas said.

“I’m truly troubled to be here before you talking about these tragic events that occurred last night in downtown Denver, when instead we should be celebrating an NBA championship win by our Denver Nuggets,” Thomas said. “Sadly, though, because of this unnecessary instance of gun violence that occurred literally in the midst of thousands of community members who were peacefully celebrating, we have to put that aside right now.”

Four people remained hospitalized at Denver Health Medical Center on Tuesday evening; two were in serious condition and two in fair condition, a hospital spokesperson said. Every patient who underwent surgery had serious, life-threatening injuries, Denver Health Medical Center chief surgeon Dr. Eric Campion said during the Tuesday news conference.

Nine of those wounded were men and one victim was a woman, officials said.

Police took two men into custody and recovered fentanyl pills, some of them packaged in bags, and five handguns. One of the suspects was wounded.

“We are still working to determine the motive. There appears to be a drug nexus,” Denver police major crimes division Cmdr. Matt Clark said.

Ricardo Vasquez, 22, was caught running from the scene by police at Park Avenue and was arrested on charges of possession of controlled substances and possession of weapons by a previous offender. Raoul Jones, 33, was being held for possession of weapons by a previous offender, police said.

Both men’s previous criminal convictions include felony menacing and weapons possession cases, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records

“It was supposed to be a good night”

Thousands of people had gathered in the Lower Downtown bar district about a mile north of Ball Arena, where the Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat on Monday night to win the NBA championship. Some of the revelers swung from stoplights shortly before midnight.

Around 12:30 a.m., police spokesman Douglas Schepman said, fights broke out and shots were fired after the altercation involving several people near 20th and Market. Thousands still were in that area celebrating, though crowd numbers had begun to decrease when the shooting began.

“I thought it was safe when I went out last night. We had all that armory that was out there, all the police officers, basically like a military guard,” downtown resident Scott Dangelo, 55, said in an interview Tuesday morning.

He was walking near concrete barriers beside police officers shortly after midnight, without his hearing aids in.

“I thought it was just more fireworks going off. The percussion kind of startled me… The police officers were dropping down on their knees. I’m live-streaming. Next thing I know, the officers dive in and are pointing their weapons. They were pointing to where the shots were. A lady got shot, like, 10 feet away from me. Another person was struck. It was pretty crazy,” Dangelo said.

“I had an asthma attack because of all the gunpowder,” said Dangelo, who sometimes uses a respirator and who has lived downtown for years and experienced riots following the first Colorado Avalanche Stanley Cup victory and Denver Broncos Super Bowl victories.

Dangelo saw bullet casings near where he crouched, shooting video and photos that police later asked him to share as evidence to help with their investigation.

“It was sad. … Something needs to be done,” he said. “I did not expect a major shooting with so many victims.”

Charlie Willeford came from Parker after the game to join the celebration downtown. He was near the intersection when the shots rang out.

“I was just around that area. Everyone was having a good time,” he said. “Next thing you know, we just heard continuous gunfire. Everyone sat still for quite a bit because there were a lot of fireworks before. Then the whole mood changed.”

People pushed each other as they fled and tripped over electric scooters. He later saw a bleeding man being carried by police.

“It just sucks — it was supposed to be a good night,” he said. “Everyone was being peaceful. Just a couple of people messed it up.”

“Far too many guns in our community”

The morning after the shooting, stains that appeared to be blood still were spread across the sidewalk along Market Street between 20th and 21st streets. Spilled food, broken glass bottles and abandoned scooters littered the sidewalks in the area.

A power washer could be seen cleaning off a patio table in front of ViewHouse, directly across the street from the largest blood spatter, and crews from the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure were repairing the street poles at the intersection of 20th and Market, replacing signs and lights after people climbed on them during the celebrations.

Down the street near Market and 19th Street, more stains that appeared to be blood covered the sidewalk.

Here’s what appears to be blood still on the sidewalk along Market Street. between 20th and 21st. streets.
There were some larger spots but some of the DOTI crews washed them away with water. pic.twitter.com/g1SH0zjijs

— Jacob Factor (@jacobfactorTW) June 13, 2023

Before the shooting, Denver police, anticipating possible post-game trouble, “had staffed up significantly,” Schepman said. In the crowd near 20th and Market, he said, police were dispersing “small fights” before the gunfire.

Thomas said careful planning made a difference. “What we couldn’t have planned for was a drug deal right in the middle of the celebration,” he said.

“We were steps away from this incident so our mere presence didn’t stop this incident from occurring,” he added later.

Other incidents reported nearby overnight included smashed-out vehicle windows and a separate shooting on Tremont Street, which left a man hospitalized. Police were investigating the circumstances that led up to that shooting. Denver City Clerk Paul Lopez said in a post on Twitter that his offices in the city’s Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building were damaged.

Denver Public Safety Director Armando Saldate lauded police officers who, on video surveillance showing the shooting, can be seen running “without hesitation” toward victims, “rendering care immediately — life-saving care.” Saldate, Thomas and other city officials were in a police command center and watched the incident play out live on video feeds.

Paramedics arrived within one minute and transported all 10 victims — in six ambulances — to Denver Health Medical Center.

Multiple shootings have taken place near the intersection over the last several years. Thomas said “a lot of violent incidents” had occurred in the Lower Downtown nightlife district.

“There is certainly the potential for danger any time there is a large gathering,” Thomas said. “There are far too many guns in our community today. … I know there was celebratory gunfire throughout the city.”

In Denver, a Nuggets victory parade is planned for Thursday morning downtown featuring basketball players on floats. City officials said residents should feel safe attending the parade and there will be a significant police presence along the route.

“It’s our intention that it will be a very safe event,” Saldate said. “I will have my own family there, so I hope it will be a very safe event for all.”

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The SJC announced Monday that Cypher, who turned 64 in February, will retire from the court on Jan. 12, 2024 after a nearly seven-year tenure. A court spokesperson said Cypher “wants to devote her time to teaching and research.”

Cypher will take a position at Boston College Law School for the spring 2024 semester as a Huber Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law. She said in a statement that she is “looking forward to pursuing my love of teaching.”

Her departure will come several years before Cypher turns 70, the mandatory retirement age for Massachusetts judges, and creates the first vacancy on the SJC since Healey was elected in November.

Healey’s predecessor, former Gov. Charlie Baker, saw the entire court turn over during his two terms and appointed all seven current members.

“On behalf of the people of Massachusetts, I’d like to offer our deep gratitude to Justice Cypher for her decades of service to our state and wish her the very best in her well-earned retirement,” Healey said. “Our administration is committed to appointing a distinguished Supreme Court Justice who will uphold justice, equality and the rule of the law.”

A 1986 Suffolk University Law School graduate, Cypher began her legal career as an associate at the Boston law firm of Grayer, Brown and Dilday and then spent nearly two decades in the Bristol County district attorney’s office as an assistant DA and then chief of the appellate division.

She joined the judiciary in 2000, after Gov. Paul Cellucci appointed her as an appeals court justice and she won approval from the Governor’s Council. Baker picked her in 2017 for a spot on the high court, and again the elected council confirmed her to a new role.

“Justice Cypher has brought her keen knowledge of the law and the constitution to the appellate courts for over two decades, serving on the Supreme Judicial Court for the past six years,” said SJC Chief Justice Kimberly Budd. “She has been an exceptional friend and colleague and an active role model to the many people who count her as a mentor. We are deeply grateful for her service to the people of the Commonwealth.”

Healey has not nominated any judges six months into her four-year term, and several openings loom on the Superior Court.

Matthew Nilo, 35, of New Jersey, has been linked to a series of sexual assaults that occurred over a decade ago on Terminal Street in Charlestown, Suffolk County prosecutors allege.

On Monday, Nilo was reportedly posting bail after he was arraigned last week on three counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, one count of assault with intent to rape, and one count of indecent assault and battery. Bail had been set at $500,000.

His attorney, Joseph Cataldo, on Monday evening said, “The posting of bail is in process and my client will be released soon.”

One of Nilo’s alleged victims showed up to Monday’s bail review hearing at Suffolk Superior Court, telling reporters that she was “upset” Nilo could post bail and walk free.

“I’ve waited so long to have my day in court with him,” the alleged victim told reporters.

“The fact that now he’s able to just go back to his life and walk around for a year, and he could get away,” she added. “And he could do it to somebody else. It’s just sad.”

During last week’s arraignment, Clerk Magistrate Edward Curley set bail at $500,000, and also ordered Nilo to wear a GPS tracker if released, surrender his passport, have no contact with the victims, and stay 1,000 feet away from Terminal Street in Charlestown unless accompanied by his attorney.

Last year, Boston Police revisited the investigation into the four Terminal Street assaults from 15 years ago. They used forensic investigative genetic genealogy, searching publicly accessible DNA databases to narrow the pool of potential suspects.

These efforts came to focus on Nilo as a person of interest, and he was placed under surveillance early this year while living in New Jersey and working at a New York City law firm.

Then FBI agents followed Nilo to a corporate event, where they obtained his utensils and drinking glasses from the event.

From one of the glasses, the Boston Police Crime Lab obtained a male DNA profile, which was found to match the suspect profile from the three Terminal Street rapes, police said.

Nilo’s attorney said he will go after the police for their DNA collection process, citing the Fourth Amendment.

“It does appear the government obtained DNA evidence from my client without a search warrant,” Cataldo said. “The constitutionality of that action will certainly and most vigorously be challenged in court.”

The lawyer added that Nilo “maintains his innocence.”

“It’s a disgrace to our country,” Trump said on Howie Carr’s radio show Monday night of the accusations made against him by the Biden administration’s Justice Department.

Trump, the current leading contender for the Republican nomination to the White House in 2024, was indicted on charges he willfully mishandled classified information he apparently admitted he did not have the right to possess and continued to withhold from the government despite numerous attempts by the National Archives and the Department of Justice to secure the nation’s secrets.

The 45th President is due to surrender himself to federal authorities in Miami on Tuesday at 3 p.m. Trump told Carr he would plead “not guilty” to all charges.

“Getting ready to head down to Doral in Miami. We must all be STRONG and DEFEAT the Communists, Marxists, and Radical Left Lunatics that are systematically destroying our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he declared Monday morning, capitalization included.

Trump has maintained his innocence from the moment the FBI raided his Mar-A-Lago resort-turned-residence in August of last year, claiming he had declassified any records in his possession and that the files were of a personal, not presidential, nature. He has responded to the indictment with both shock and anger.

“Hard to believe that the leading candidate, by far, of the opposition party, got indicted. This is strictly Third World. MAGA,” Trump said through his Truth Social media company. He said “we’re like a third-world country” again during his evening interview with Carr.

The former president was not alone in his assertion that the Biden Administration’s Justice Department had gone too far in accusing the ex-command-in-chief of mishandling documents when so many other former government officials have come forward with their own misplaced classified information, including President Joe Biden, and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Scores of Republicans in the House and Senate jumped to his defense over the weekend and after the 49-page indictment was unsealed and made public, a march that continued through Monday. Even Trump’s leading opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, questioned whether Trump was getting a fair deal, though he didn’t name his chief rival.

Many Republicans say the charges are an attempt by Democrats to remove Trump from electoral consideration.

“The radical Far Left will stop at nothing to interfere with the 2024 election in order to prop up the catastrophic presidency and desperate campaign of Joe Biden,” U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the number-four Republican in the House, wrote on Truth Social in a post shared by Trump.

In a post-indictment interview with conservative political activist Roger Stone, the former president called on his supporters to protest his court date.

“Our country has to protest,” the President told Stone, who he pardoned for allegedly lying to Congress.

Officials in Miami, apparently responding to reports that far-right group The Proud Boys would answer Trump’s call to protest his court appearance, were prepared for up to 50,000 protesters to arrive, according to reporting by the Miami Herald.

“Stay strong. Stay very, very strong,” he said to his supporters during Carr’s show.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The driver of a tractor-trailer hauling gasoline lost control on an off-ramp and flipped the tanker truck on its side in a wreck that set it afire and destroyed a section of the East Coast’s main north-south highway, Pennsylvania’s top transportation official said Monday.

In the first official accounting of a wreck that threw hundreds of thousands of morning commutes into chaos and disrupted untold numbers of businesses, state Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll said the driver was northbound “trying to navigate the curve, lost control of the vehicle, landed on its side and ruptured the tank.”

The driver was feared dead, and a relative of a New Jersey truck driver who has not been heard from since Sunday told The Philadelphia Inquirer that investigators had contacted the family in an effort to identify human remains recovered from the wreckage.

Pennsylvania State Police said a body was turned over to the Philadelphia medical examiner and coroner, but did not identify the remains or respond when asked if they belonged to the driver.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, speaking of those on the roadway and not the trucker, said he “found myself thanking the Lord that no motorists who were on I-95 were injured or died.”

Interstate 95 will be closed in both directions for weeks as the summer travel season kicks into high gear. The elevated southbound portion of I-95 will have to be demolished, as well as the northbound side, Carroll said. Motorists should avoid the northeast corner of the sixth-largest city in the country, transportation officials said.

The accident also disrupted the automotive route from Canada to Florida through the Boston, New York and Washington metropolitan areas, increasing Americans’ dependence on air travel and on the interstate rail network.

Videos shared on social media showed a number of close calls around the accident, with people driving through the area as flames licked upward from the fire below.

The National Transportation Safety Board was on the scene Sunday night. Federal investigators have been collecting information about the truck and talking with the company and emergency responders in order to understand the sequence of events. They are expected to make a preliminary report within weeks.

The damaged I-95 segment carries about 160,000 vehicles daily, Carroll said. State police don’t know if the driver was speeding, and no other vehicle has been found. Officials said they had been in contact with the trucking company, but they did not identify it.

Carroll said the highway span was 10 to 12 years old, had appeared sound, and officials blamed the damage on the heat of the fire, which took about an hour to control.

Shapiro signed a disaster declaration Monday, saying it gives state agencies the ability to skip normal bidding-and-contracting requirements so the span can be repaired faster.

He said a flight he took over the area showed “just remarkable devastation.”

High heat from the fire or the impact of an explosion could have weakened the steel beams supporting the overpass, according to Drexel University structural engineering Professor Abi Aghayere. Bridges like the one that collapsed don’t typically have fire protection, like concrete casing, he added. It could have been coated in a fire-retarding paint, but even then the beams could have been weakened.

“It just gives you time,” he said.

Among many transportation changes across the region, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority said it was operating three extra morning and late afternoon trains on its Trenton, New Jersey, line, and adding capacity to regularly scheduled lines during peak hours following the collapse.

The collapsed section of I-95 was part of a $212 million reconstruction project that wrapped up four years ago, state Transportation Department spokesman Brad Rudolph said. PennDOT rated the 104-foot span as in “good” condition earlier this year, with another inspection set for 2025.

Shapiro, a Democrat, said the complete rebuild of I-95 would take “some number of months,” and in the meantime officials were looking at “interim solutions to reconnect I-95 and get traffic through the area.”

Joseph L. Schofer, a retired professor of civil and environmental engineering from Northwestern University, said a big challenge for PennDOT in quickly replacing the bridge could be getting heavy-duty steel beams of a hundred feet or more.

Ensuring the precise length necessary — either by finding the construction records or taking measurements — and finding a fabricator to make them could take time, he said.

“You can’t go online to Amazon and order it and have it delivered the next day,” said Schofer, who also hosts a podcast on infrastructure.

In California, a similar situation happened with a highway ramp in Oakland. It was replaced in 26 days, he said.

“Now that’s almost a miracle,” Schofer said. In Atlanta, an elevated portion of Interstate 85 collapsed in a fire, shutting down the heavily traveled route through the heart of the city in March 2017. It took authorities there 43 days to replace it, Schofer said.

In Pennsylvania, officials were also concerned about the environmental effects of runoff into the nearby Delaware River.

After a sheen was seen in the Delaware River near the collapse site, the Coast Guard deployed a boom to contain the material. Ensign Josh Ledoux said the tanker had a capacity of 8,500 gallons (32,176 liters), but the contents did not appear to be spreading into the environment.

___

Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey and Levy from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

“There are simply no provisions of release that would guarantee the safety of the victims here or the broader public,” argued Assistant District Attorney Erin Murphy at Lazare’s arraignment in Roxbury District Court on Monday morning.

Lazare, 23, pleaded not guilty to nine charges for the alleged robbery and shooting Friday, including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and armed robbery, and one charge of armed and masked robbery for another alleged robbery Wednesday.

Lazare was held Monday pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for June 23.

On Wednesday, a man matching Lazare’s description was captured on film allegedly robbing a delivery driver delivering two pizzas to 44 Cedric Street in Roxbury, the prosecution said.

During the search for the unidentified suspect, a police officer investigating the incident was revisiting the scene alone — a “not surprising” show of initiative for the officer, noted BPD spokesperson Sgt. Det. John Boyle on Monday — when he came across a man matching the suspect’s description pointing a gun at another delivery driver, according to a BPD arrest report.

The suspect allegedly fired multiple shots at the officer, striking him in the foot and rear, and ran into a building, Murphy recounted. This led to a pursuit to a nearby rooftop, she continued, where the man leapt or fell into an alleyway, reportedly broke his foot and was apprehended.

The suspect, identified as John Lazare, was taken to the hospital following the pursuit and reportedly wheelchair-bound at the arraignment. Several other officers were also injured in the pursuit, Murphy said.

Police fired no shots during the Friday incident, Boyle stated.

The injured officer, who joined the force in 2017, has reportedly been released from the hospital and is expected to recover. His name has not been made public.

Police Commissioner Michael Cox said the injured officer “did everything he could to honor the sanctity of life and make sure that this person was also captured.”

“Any shooting of a police officer is of immense concern to all of us in law enforcement and society,” said Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden. “The fact that this officer once worked as an investigator in our office makes it hit particularly close to home.”

The defense objected to the judge holding Lazare under the protective order, arguing the danger to witnesses did not match the precedent for the order.

There was a massive turnout of Boston police officers packing the courtroom Monday, with over 60 officers in attendance.

“The show of support was fantastic from the rank and file officers that are here to support one of our own that was obviously involved in gunfire and shot the other night,” said Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association President Larry Calderone at the courthouse. “It’s a blessing that he made it out of there alive.”

Lazare was granted permission to remain out of sight during the arraignment proceedings, the judge said, “due to reasons discussed in sidebar having to do with identification.”

The 23-year-old Brockton man had two previous warrants for his arrest from Salem in 2020 and Quincy in 2022, the police report stated, on charges of identity fraud, larceny over $1,200, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and others.

Trump, 76, of Palm Beach, Florida, is scheduled to surrender himself to authorities in Miami at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, when he is expected to tell U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon he is not guilty of the 37 felony counts leveled against him. A full 31 of those charges pertain to his allegedly deliberate attempts to withhold classified government documents that the National Archives and Department of Justice had both demanded he relinquish after leaving office and which are detailed in a 49 page indictment unsealed ahead of the weekend.

Through his campaign on Sunday, Trump announced he would follow the court date in Florida with an appearance at his property in New Jersey.

“President Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, will deliver remarks at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in Bedminster, New Jersey on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, at 8:15PM EDT,” his campaign said.

Trump declared himself an “innocent man” in social media postings when the details of his alleged misdeeds were made public. He told crowds in Georgia and North Carolina Saturday during campaign stops that it’s his run for the White House that led to the charges, not his conduct as a private citizen.

“The ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the Biden administration’s weaponized Department of Injustice will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country,” he said in Columbus, Georgia. “In the end, they’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you and I’m just standing in their way.”

Trump also vowed Saturday to remain in the race, even if he is convicted in the case.

“I’ll never leave,” he told Politico in an interview aboard his plane after his speech in Georgia.

According to the unsealed indictment, the Trump stored classified documents in a bathroom and a ballroom at his Mar-A-Lago resort-turned-residence where they were accessible by people without the clearance to view them.

Charging documents further allege the former president instructed his lawyers to destroy some classified records he was ordered to return, hid others from his legal team, and kept them despite repeated demands from the government and assertions from records custodians he previously returned everything required.

Trump would often chant “Lock her up” with crowds at 2016 campaign rallies, referring to Hillary Clinton, his opponent in the race, and her alleged mishandling of classified information. After a roughly yearlong inquiry into her use of a private email server, the FBI closed out the investigation into Clinton, finding that she did not intend to break the law.

“Joe Biden is trying to jail his leading political opponent, just like in Stalinist Russia or Communist China. I never thought such a thing could happen in America. No different,” Trump said over the weekend.  “We now have two standards of justice in our country and no criminal is more protected than Crooked Joe Biden.

Kaczynski, who was 81 and suffering from late-stage cancer, was found unresponsive in his cell at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Emergency responders performed CPR and revived him before he was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead later Saturday morning, the people told the AP. They were not authorized to publicly discuss Kaczynski’s death and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Kaczynski’s death comes as the federal Bureau of Prisons has faced increased scrutiny in the last several years following the death of wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who also died by suicide in a federal jail in 2019.

Kaczynski had been held in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, when he was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years for a campaign of terror that set universities nationwide on edge. He admitted committing 16 bombings from 1978 and 1995, permanently maiming several of his victims.

In 2021, he was transferred to the federal medical center in North Carolina, a facility that treats prisoners suffering from serious health problems. Bernie Madoff, the infamous mastermind of the largest-ever Ponzi scheme, died at the facility of natural causes the same year.

A Harvard-educated mathematician, Kaczynski lived as a recluse in a dingy cabin in rural Montana, where he carried out a solitary bombing spree that changed the way Americans mailed packages and boarded airplanes.

His targets included academics and airlines, the owner of a computer rental store, an advertising executive and a timer industry lobbyist. In 1993, a California geneticist and a Yale University computer expert were maimed by bombs within the span of two days.

Two years later, he used the threat of continued violence to convince The New York Times and The Washington Post to publish his manifesto, a 35,000 word screed against modern life and technology, as well as damages to the environment.

The tone of the treatise was recognized by his brother, David, and David’s wife, Linda Patrik, who tipped off the FBI, which had been searching for the Unabomber for years in the nation’s longest, costliest manhunt.

Authorities in April 1996 found him in a small plywood and tarpaper cabin outside Lincoln, Montana, that was filled with journals, a coded diary, explosive ingredients and two completed bombs.

Police said 25 people were injured in the accident and were taken to area hospitals by helicopter and by road. A further 18 passengers were uninjured in the accident in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales state north of Sydney.

The driver of the bus, a 58-year-old man, has been arrested and will be charged, Police Assistant Commissioner Tracy Chapman said.

She would not detail the allegations, but she told reporters “there is sufficient information … for us to establish that there will be charges.” She would not comment on whether speed was a factor.

If the driver was hurt, his injuries were minor and he was a nearby Cessnock police station on Monday, Chapman said.

The accident happened just after 11:30 p.m. in foggy conditions at a roundabout on Wine Country Drive in the town of Greta. Police said they had established a crime scene at the site and had started an investigation into the cause of the crash.

The guests had earlier attended a wedding at the Wandin Estate Winery and were heading for their accommodation in the Hunter Valley town of Singleton, Chapman said. One guest told Seven News it had been a nice day and a fairytale wedding.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tweeted a thanks to first responders.

“All Australians waking up to tragic news from the Hunter send our deepest sympathies to the loved ones of those killed in this horrific bus tragedy,” Albanese wrote. “For a day of joy to end in such devastating loss is cruel indeed. Our thoughts are also with those who have been injured.”

Jay Suvaal, the mayor of Cessnock, said the crash was “truly horrific.”

“We are a major wedding and tourist destination in the Hunter Valley, and so there will be people from all over the state and the country that have been to these areas and have probably done similar things,” he said. “I think it will send shock waves right through the broader community.”

Greta is in the heart of the Hunter Valley wine region, a picturesque area dotted with vineyards and restaurants. It was the first wine region established in Australia.

The rear porches of 571 Cummins Highway collapsed following the heavy fire.

Firefighters responded to the blaze at around 7:10 p.m. A second alarm was immediately ordered with the black smoke filling the neighborhood.

“An aggressive interior and exterior attack, helped to prevent the fire from spreading to the surrounding buildings,” Boston Fire tweeted.

The fire department at around 7:30 p.m. reported that the heavy fire was knocked down, and that the rear porches had collapsed.

The Barnstable Police Department patrol officer at around 1:41 p.m. tried to pull over the motorcyclist for a traffic violation on Route 28, near Garden Lane in Hyannis.

The motorcyclist didn’t stop for the officer and fled north onto Bearses Way, police said. Moments later, the motorcyclist crashed into a vehicle on Bearses Way near Enterprise Road.

The motorcyclist was transported to Cape Cod Hospital by a Hyannis Fire Department ambulance, where he was pronounced dead.

The operator of the vehicle struck by the fleeing motorcycle sustained minor injuries in the accident.

The crash is being investigated by the Cape Cod Regional Law Enforcement Council Crash Reconstruction Team.

Transportation officials warned of extensive delays and street closures and urged drivers to avoid the area in the city’s northeast corner. Officials said the tanker contained a petroleum product that may have been hundreds of gallons of gasoline. The fire took about an hour to get under control.

The northbound lanes of I-95 were gone and the southbound lanes were “compromised” by heat from the fire, said Derek Bowmer, battalion chief of the Philadelphia Fire Department. Runoff from the fire or perhaps broken gas lines caused explosions underground, he added.

Some kind of crash happened on a ramp underneath northbound I-95 around 6:15 a.m., said state Transportation Department spokesman Brad Rudolph, and the northbound section above the fire collapsed quickly.

The southbound lanes were heavily damaged, “and we are assessing that now,” Rudolph said.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, who said Sunday evening he planned to issue a disaster declaration Monday to speed federal funds, said at least one vehicle was still trapped beneath the collapsed roadway.

“We’re still working to identify any individual or individuals who may have been caught in the fire and the collapse,” he said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Video from the scene showed a massive concrete slab had fallen from I-95 onto the road below. Shapiro said his flight over the area showed “just remarkable devastation.”

The collapsed section of I-95 was part of a $212 million reconstruction project that wrapped up four years ago, Rudolph said. There was no immediate time frame for reopening the highway, but officials would consider “a fill-in situation or a temporary structure” to accelerate the effort, he said.

Motorists were sent on a 43-mile detour, which was going “better than it would do on a weekday,” Rudolph said. The fact that the collapse happened on a Sunday helped ease congestion, but he expected traffic “to back up significantly on all the detour areas.”

Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Michael Carroll said the I-95 segment carries roughly 160,000 vehicles per day and was likely the busiest interstate in Pennsylvania

Shapiro said he had been spoken directly to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and had been assured that there would be “absolutely no delay” in getting federal funds quickly to rebuild what he called a “critical roadway” as safely and efficiently as possible.

The alleged victim reported that he was walking along Soldiers Field Road between 3 and 4 a.m. on Sunday when a male driver pulled up and asked for directions.

The pedestrian told the driver that he couldn’t provide directions and continued walking.

“The vehicle followed him for a short period of time before the driver stopped, exited the vehicle, approached the victim on foot, and physically and sexually assaulted him,” a spokesperson for Massachusetts State Police said in a statement. “The victim fought back and eventually the suspect returned to his vehicle and drove away.”

The suspect is described as a male, about 6 feet tall, with a Middle Eastern accent.

The suspect’s vehicle may be a gray Honda CRV sport utility vehicle.

The investigation by the State Police Detective Unit for Suffolk County and State Police Troop H is ongoing.

The State Police spokesperson said, “As a general rule, members of the public are urged to be aware of their surroundings at all times wherever their location, and call 911 to report anything or anyone suspicious.”

Branded the “Unabomber” by the FBI, Kaczynski died at the federal prison medical center in Butner, N.C., Kristie Breshears, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons, told The Associated Press. He was found unresponsive in his cell early Saturday morning and was pronounced dead around 8 a.m., she said. A cause of death was not immediately known.

Before his transfer to the prison medical facility, he had been held in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, when he was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years for a campaign of terror that set universities nationwide on edge. He admitted committing 16 bombings from 1978 and 1995, permanently maiming several of his victims.

Years before the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax mailing, the Unabomber’s deadly homemade bombs changed the way Americans mailed packages and boarded airplanes, even virtually shutting down air travel on the West Coast in July 1995.

He forced The Washington Post, in conjunction with The New York Times, to make the agonizing decision in September 1995 to publish his 35,000-word manifesto, “Industrial Society and Its Future,” which claimed modern society and technology was leading to a sense of powerlessness and alienation.

But it led to his undoing. Kaczynski’s brother, David, and David’s wife, Linda Patrik, recognized the treatise’s tone and tipped off the FBI, which had been searching for the Unabomber for years in nation’s longest, costliest manhunt.

Authorities in April 1996 found him in a 10-by-14-foot plywood and tarpaper cabin outside Lincoln, Montana, that was filled with journals, a coded diary, explosive ingredients and two completed bombs.

As an elusive criminal mastermind, the Unabomber won his share of sympathizers and comparisons to Daniel Boone, Edward Abbey and Henry David Thoreau.

But once revealed as a wild-eyed hermit with long hair and beard who weathered Montana winters in a one-room shack, Kaczynski struck many as more of a pathetic loner than romantic anti-hero.

Even in his own journals, Kaczynski came across not as a committed revolutionary but as a vengeful hermit driven by petty grievances.

“I certainly don’t claim to be an altruist or to be acting for the ‘good’ (whatever that is) of the human race,” he wrote on April 6, 1971. “I act merely from a desire for revenge.”

A psychiatrist who interviewed Kaczynski in prison diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic.

“Mr. Kaczynski’s delusions are mostly persecutory in nature,” Sally Johnson wrote in a 47-page report. “The central themes involve his belief that he is being maligned and harassed by family members and modern society.”

Kaczynski hated the idea of being viewed as mentally ill and when his lawyers attempted to present an insanity defense, he tried to fire them. When that failed, he tried to hang himself with his underwear.

Kaczynski eventually pleaded guilty rather than let his defense team proceed with an insanity defense.

“I’m confident that I’m sane,” Kaczynski told Time magazine in 1999. “I don’t get delusions and so forth.”

He was certainly brilliant.

Kaczynski skipped two grades to attend Harvard at age 16 and had published papers in prestigious mathematics journals. His explosives were carefully tested and came in meticulously handcrafted wooden boxes sanded to remove possible fingerprints. Later bombs bore the signature “FC” for “Freedom Club.”

The FBI called him the “Unabomber” because his early targets seemed to be universities and airlines. An altitude-triggered bomb he mailed in 1979 went off as planned aboard an American Airlines flight; a dozen people aboard suffered from smoke inhalation.

Kaczynski killed computer rental store owner Hugh Scrutton, advertising executive Thomas Mosser and timber industry lobbyist Gilbert Murray. California geneticist Charles Epstein and Yale University computer expert David Gelernter were maimed by bombs two days apart in June 1993.

Mosser was killed in his North Caldwell, New Jersey, home on Dec. 10, 1994, a day he was supposed to be picking out a Christmas tree with his family. His wife, Susan, found him grievously wounded by a barrage of razor blades, pipes and nails.

“He was moaning very softly,” she said at Kaczynski’s 1998 sentencing. “The fingers on his right hand were dangling. I held his left hand. I told him help was coming. I told him I loved him.”

When Kaczynski stepped up his bombs and letters to newspapers and scientists in 1995, experts speculated the Unabomber was jealous of the attention being paid to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

A threat to blow up a plane out of Los Angeles before the end of the July Fourth weekend threw air travel and mail delivery into chaos. The Unabomber later claimed it was a “prank.”

The Washington Post printed the Unabomber’s manifesto at the urging of federal authorities, after the bomber said he would desist from terrorism if a national publication published his treatise.

Patrik had had a disturbing feeling about her brother-in-law even before seeing the manifesto and eventually persuaded her husband to read a copy at the library. After two months of arguments, they took some of Ted Kaczynski’s letters to Patrik’s childhood friend Susan Swanson, a private investigator in Chicago.

Swanson in turn passed them along to former FBI behavioral science expert Clint Van Zandt, whose analysts said whoever wrote them had also probably written the Unabomber’s manifesto.

“It was a nightmare,” David Kaczynski, who as a child had idolized his older brother, said in a 2005 speech at Bennington College. “I was literally thinking, ‘My brother’s a serial killer, the most wanted man in America.’”

Swanson turned to a corporate lawyer friend, Anthony Bisceglie, who contacted the FBI. The investigation and prosecution were overseen by now-Attorney General Merrick Garland, during a previous stint at the Justice Department.

David Kaczynski wanted his role kept confidential, but his identity quickly leaked out and Ted Kaczynski vowed never to forgive his younger sibling. He ignored his letters, turned his back on him at court hearings and described David Kaczynski in a 1999 book draft as a “Judas Iscariot (who) … doesn’t even have enough courage to go hang himself.”

Ted Kaczynski was born May 22, 1942, in Chicago, the son of second-generation Polish Catholics — a sausage-maker and a homemaker. He played the trombone in the school band, collected coins and skipped the sixth and 11th grades.

His high school classmates thought him odd, particularly after he showed a school wrestler how to make a mini-bomb that detonated during chemistry class.

Harvard classmates recalled him as a lonely, thin boy with poor personal hygiene and a room that smelled of spoiled milk, rotting food and foot powder.

After graduate studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, he got a job teaching math at the University of California at Berkeley but found the work difficult and quit abruptly. In 1971, he bought a 1½-acre parcel about 4 miles outside of Lincoln and built a cabin there without heating, plumbing or electricity.

He learned to garden, hunt, make tools and sew, living on a few hundred dollars a year.

He left his cabin in Montana in the late 1970s to work at a foam rubber products manufacturer outside Chicago with his father and brother. But when a female supervisor dumped him after two dates, he began posting insulting limericks about her and wouldn’t stop.

His brother fired him and Ted Kaczynski soon returned to the wilderness to continue plotting his vengeful killing spree.

Police were already on the lookout for John Lazare, 23, of Brockton after officers spoke with a pizza delivery driver earlier in the week. The driver told police they were robbed at gunpoint as they delivered a pair of pies to a warehouse at 44 Cedric St., the listed address of Bully Boy Distillers.

Boston police officials praised the officer — and other responding law enforcement — for not firing his weapon in return after being shot in the foot and butt. Police Commissioner Michael Cox said the injured officer “did everything he could to honor the sanctity of life and make sure that this person was also captured.”

“It could have ended very differently in so many ways,” Cox said Saturday at police headquarters. “If anyone shoots at an officer, they do that at their own peril, in so many ways. But the reality is, sanctity of life is really important. Officers come to work day in and day out, they deserve to go home, they need to be able to go home.”

Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association President Larry Calderone said he spoke with the injured officer early Saturday morning as he was in the hospital. He said the officer was working the 4 p.m. to midnight shift when the shooting occurred.

“This is a miracle,” that the officer survived, he told the Herald.

“We have all these oversight commissions between the state commission, the city commission, our own two internal affairs anti-corruption divisions — it makes officers continue to second guess their job,” he said. “They’re worried and they’re frustrated and then when things like this happen, it makes them worry all the more and their families as well.”

After reports of a robbery earlier in the week, the officer who was shot saw a male matching the description of Lazare pointing a gun at someone outside of the Roxbury warehouse on Friday night.

“As Officer [redacted] began to approach, the suspect, later identified as John Lazare, fired shots at Officer [redacted] and began running into the main entrance of 44 Cedric Street,” a police report said. “During this time Officer [redacted] announced to channel three operations that shots were fired and advised that he had been hit multiple times, once specifically stating to the foot and back.”

Lazare is scheduled to be arraigned Monday morning in Roxbury District Court on multiple firearm-related charges, assault with a dangerous weapon, armed robbery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, among other counts, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said.

It was not immediately clear if Lazare had retained or been appointed a lawyer.

Police said after the shooting, Lazare ran into the warehouse, “with his silhouette being seen as he ran by the windows of the second-floor warehouse,” according to the police report.

Lazare then jumped from the roof of the building and landed in a nearby alleyway, injuring his leg, police said. A State Police trooper then held Lazare at “rifle-point” before he was placed into custody, according to the police report.

“Please note that in the alleyway where the suspect was found, in the immediate area of the suspect was Dominos icing cups, loose denominations of US currency, a receipt from Dominos, and one cellphone,” the police report said.

A spokesperson for Dominos, which is named in the police report under “involved property,” did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lazare was taken to Beth Israel Hospital on Friday and a Boston police spokesman did not say if he was still there on Saturday, only confirming that he was in police custody.

The 23-year-old Brockton man was already known to law enforcement in other parts of the state before the alleged Friday night shooting.

A warrant was issued for his arrest in January 2020 out of Salem for receiving stolen property, unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, and negligent operation of a motor vehicle. Another warrant was issued for Lazare’s arrest in June 2022 out of Quincy for multiple counts of identity fraud and larceny over $1,200, according to the police report.

Standing outside Boston Medical Center Friday night, Mayor Michelle Wu said that she was “just so relieved and grateful to know that the officer is safe.”

“We see again and again just how much Boston is really blessed to have first responders who are so professionally well trained and keeping us safe every single day,” she said.

Cox declined to name the officer on Saturday but said he is assigned to the B-2 District in Roxbury. Hayden said the officer is also an employee of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.

“Anytime there’s ever a shooting in the city of Boston, if the person survives, that is always a good thing,” Hayden said Saturday at police headquarters. “We’re glad that he’s recovering and doing well in the hospital.”

Police officers face dangers every day and every night when they show up to work, said Massachusetts State Police Colonel John Mawn.

Policing is a dangerous job, Mawn said, and through May 31, 166 officers have been shot in the line of duty across the United States, 20 of them fatally. In the first week of June, three officers were killed by gunfire, Mawn said.

“We must acknowledge, also, that no officer or trooper assumes these risks in a vacuum,” he said. “As a law enforcement officer leaves his or her home each day to confront the unexpected, the worries and concerns — as well as the dedication and resolve — of those who love them go with them.”

That comes as lawmakers on Beacon Hill are sorting through legislative responses to what has been described as an “alarming” situation after 116 reports came into the Boston Police Department last year. And department officials have said they are concerned about a “real threat” to the public.

Drinking spiking incidents have permeated the United States “for quite some time now,” said Shannon Hogan, the sexual assault kit initiative site director for the Boston Police Department.

Boston police “continue to learn more and take action” as they partner with their licensing unit, work to track incidents, raise public awareness, and offer an option to report drink spiking on police reports,” Hogan said earlier this week at a legislative hearing.

“While such documented occurrences of the use of these drugs or ‘roofies’ in the U.S. date back to the early 1990s, a recent resurgence of these crimes have been identified along with the explosion of synthetic drugs,” Hogan said.

Boston police spokesman Sergeant Detective John Boyle said the addition of a checkbox on police reports allows the department to easily track incidents of drink spiking.

Hogan said the lack of date rape drug testing protocols at hospitals that can provide clarity to victims and the public “have left survivors to navigate an unclear system without solutions or support.”

“The time has come to remove the misconceptions and stigma surrounding these types of crimes from the dark and murky place and put it into the light,” Hogan said. “Equipping our hospitals with the ability to test for these drugs and, overall, provide law enforcement with the necessary tools during these investigations, as well as collecting valid and reliable data, will result in clarity surrounding these crimes and assist us in holding these vendors accountable.”

Boyle said the department also “periodically” broadcasts community alerts reminding the public of the dangers of scentless, colorless, and tasteless drugs like Rohypnol, also known as a roofie.

“These drugs and substances can cause disorientation, confusion, temporary paralysis, or unconsciousness, along with a host of other symptoms, leaving the potential victim vulnerable to the intentions of the suspect,” one recent community alert said.

And at least one Foxborough Democrat is taking aim at testing protocols at hospitals to make it easier for anyone to find out if they have been drugged or had their drink spiked.

Sen. Paul Feeney filed legislation that would require hospitals to develop and implement a testing standard for patients who report they have been involuntarily drugged, regardless if sexual assault had occurred.

Feeney’s bill, which is before the Legislature’s Public Health Committee, also requires the Department of Public Health to create a Date Rape Drug Response and Intervention Task Force to figure out how to best collect data on confirmed drink spiking incidents.

Feeney is also behind a successful push to add funding to the state Senate’s fiscal 2024 budget to hand out drink spiking test kits to bars, restaurants, and nightclubs.

The suspect shot the officer and was quickly arrested with two other officers injured but not from gunfire, said Police Commissioner Michael Cox. It was a bang-bang showdown in what the mayor, Cox and district attorney said was an outcome everyone is grateful for.

“Thank goodness the officer struck multiple times is still with us,” said Cox outside BMC.

The shooting remains under investigation but started in Roxbury on Cedric Street near Magazine Street at about 9:18 p.m. when the officer came upon a robbery in progress with the suspect armed. The officer was reportedly shot twice, in the back and the leg.

BMC is a Level 1 trauma center, the highest a hospital can attain as a go-to ER for critical cases.

Mayor Michelle Wu and DA Kevin Hayden also thanked the quick-thinking police, partner first-responders and doctors at BMC. One report stated a fellow officer used his cruiser to get his injured colleague to the hospital as fast as possible.

“I’m so relieved and grateful the officer is safe,” Wu said outside BMC. “This is a reminder of the risks (police) face every day.”

Hayden said the wounded officer was also linked to his office. He did not elaborate, but said he’s “happy to know he’s OK.”

The impromptu press conference held close to 11:30 p.m. was interrupted by a foul-mouthed heckler. But violence in some parts of the city, including in Roxbury, has many upset.

Overall, crime is down 4% in the city year-over-year, police statistics show. Non-fatal shootings are also trending down, with 54 victims so far this year compared to 62 a year ago.

That’s not the case with homicides — with 14 so far this year compared to six the same time last year, a BPD tally shows. That figure, Cox has said, is a focus for the department.

Wu and Cox rolled out a plan in late May to keep the summer safe after broad-daylight shootings.

Cox stressed that if a community member sees or knows something, the police encourage the public to reach out and to become a community “partner” to the police to make the streets safer.

Last night’s shooting scene remains locked down and under investigation.

A Salem Superior Court jury on Friday found Brian Brito, 27, of Lynn, guilty of murder, aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, armed robbery while masked and while carrying a firearm, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, armed assault with intent to murder, and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Judge Jeffrey Karp scheduled sentencing for July 12.

“The brutality of these crimes has changed many lives forever but justice was served through a tremendous group effort by our trial team, victim witness staff and investigators with units across the community,” Essex District Attorney Paul Tucker said in a statement following the verdict.

“This was a difficult case for many reasons but this defendant will now face the consequences of his actions.”

The crime spree took place over several hours from Lynn to North Andover and Lawrence, the Herald reported at the time.

The crime spree began when Brito gunned Zangiband down on Bowler Street in Lynn at around 6 p.m. on March 27, 2017, as the victim was out delivering pizzas for the local Atha’s Pizza business, according to previous Herald reporting.

“I heard four shots and then screeching wheels,” a 61-year-old neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Herald. “My son looked out and saw a car with the driver’s side window shot out.”

But Brito was initially charged with what he did around four hours later, when he robbed a North Andover convenience store and raped the female clerk at gunpoint while he was in the middle of it. It was something he allegedly said while raping this woman that first made him a “person of interest” in Zangiband’s murder.

“Thank you for making this easy,” Brito, then a resident of Manchester, N.H., told his rape victim, according to a North Andover police report. “I had to kill someone today that made it hard. I am going to leave you some money.”

He then allegedly stuffed one of his naked-from-the-waist-down victim’s shoes with one-dollar bills before he himself made off with roughly $500 from the store’s money box and all of the lottery scratch tickets from the counter.

About 20 minutes later, police spotted his gray Audi — which they had been on the lookout for since the Bowler Street shooting. They pulled him over, hauled him out and cuffed him.

State Police spokesman David Procopio said that the arresting troopers found the black pistol, loaded with a round in the chamber, in the killer’s inside jacket pocket as well as an additional magazine and a box of ammunition in his sweatpants pockets.

Zangiband — who was born in Iran and had moved to the U.S. at age 13 and graduated from Lynn Classical High School — had high-flying plans for his future.

He had invested “hundreds of hours” in aviation school in Central Florida and dreamed of one day being a commercial pilot, friends and family told reporters. But he also liked fast cars, and rented dozens of muscle cars a year — logging a 60-hour workweek to fund his hobby.

“We were going to rent him a Lamborghini for his birthday,” Zangiband’s brother-in-law, who identified himself to Herald reporters then as simply “Ryan,” said, noting the victim would have turned 25 the next week.

Rufus Sanders Jr., 63, of West Roxbury, was charged in municipal court in his home neighborhood on Tuesday with indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 and lewd, wanton and lascivious conduct. Judge Margaret Albertson set bail at $750 and ordered Sanders to stay away from the victims and from the Forest Hills MBTA station. She scheduled a pre-trial hearing for June 30.

“This individual’s behavior is dangerous and disturbing and impacts the safety realities and perceptions of our many residents who rely on public transportation,” said Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden in a statement.

Sanders appeared in an online edition of the Herald’s Crime Briefs on May 31, where he was seen on a bus in Jamaica Plain sporting a bucket hat while staring at an alleged victim with one hand holding what appeared to be an open nip-size liquor bottle and the other hand purportedly doing something lewd around his groin area, though that is censored in the police-provided image.

MBTA Transit Police and Boston Police officers met a woman at the Forest Hills Station at around 6 p.m. on May 25 who said a man wearing a camouflage bucket hat and a white long-sleeved shirt had cupped her breast at the station before, according to the Suffolk District Attorney’s office, moving his hand to her waist “attempting to pull her in.

She was able to push him away, she said, and flee toward a more crowded area where fellow passengers were able to intervene Sanders’ alleged continued attempts to molest her.

The alleged assault continued as the woman tried to board her bus, where she told police he grabbed her bag in an attempt to pull her back off. She was once again able to get away, this time to the front of the bus as he made his way to the back. The woman then allegedly heard another woman yell “stop grabbing my (expletive)!”

The allegedly aggressive molestation apparently continued the next day, when a person reported to police that a man was harassing two “young girls” on a bus, and had the video to prove it. Police say the video revealed this man to be Sanders.

Prosecutors say that Sanders, an open beer in hand, on June 5 approached some police officers at the Forest Hills Station. They say he was wearing the same bucket hat as in the earlier alleged incidents and even identified himself in a still photo provided by a victim.

Two office employees at TD Garden, home to both teams, told police they heard “two loud smacks” Friday morning and found two windows with “glass shattered like a spiderweb.”

They called police to report the incident and officers arrived at around 10:35 a.m. and looked at the windows. The police report notes that the two double-paned windows looked to be shot “possibly with a BB-gun or pellet gun and that the glass was shattered like a spiderweb.”

And this wasn’t the first time.

A very similar police report was written on June 1, when police responded to the building a little after 1:20 p.m. for a report “of a person that had shot the window on the second floor of the TD Garden possibly with a BB-Gun and the glass was shattered.”

In both cases, the windows were ones that faced Zakim Bridge and the only real difference is that the first time the employee described the sound a little differently.

“(Redacted) stated that he was sitting in his computer chair on the second-floor office space when he heard a THUD noise coming from an office cubicle near the window facing out towards the Zakim Bridge and turned around and observed a large, shattered window with a small hole on the right side,” the report for the June 1 incident reports.

Likewise, police responding to each incident searched the area and found no bullet fragments or casings.

No injuries were reported in either incident.

Zerola, 51, was charged with two counts of rape, which the prosecution alleged occurred at around 7 a.m. on Nov. 10, 2016, on a couch in an apartment on Myrtle Street in Beacon Hill, which is owned by a friend of Zerola’s who did not testify in the trial.

“I’m just thankful that the jury had an open mind, they listened to all the facts,” Zerola said, thanking his lawyers Joseph Krowski Jr. and Rosemary Scapicchio, who he called “the two best lawyers in the United States of America, because they believed in me from day one and never once doubted.”

The jury, composed of seven women and five men, delivered their verdict at around 3:15 p.m. Friday after deliberating for roughly two hours after being handed the case at around noon, subtracting an hour-long lunch break during which they did not deliberate.

“It’s been a long six and a half years for him,” Scapicchio said, eliciting cheers from Zerola’s supporters who had lined the benches each day of the trial. “At this point in time all he wants to do is get back to his family and his friends and live his life without this cloud hanging over his head.”

The trial was an intense one, starting with Scapicchio’s opening in which she called her client’s accuser a “liar,” which was the main position the defense took through the following days as the pair hammered away at the credibility of the witnesses before them.

“You know she’s lying when you see her lips moving,” Krowski said of his client’s accuser during his closing argument on Friday. “If you’re telling the truth it’s easy to get your story straight. But when you lie it’s so much harder because you’re trying to remember the lies you told in the past.”

The Herald does not name victims of sexual assault, alleged or otherwise.

He said that the alleged victim purposely misled police and prosecutors about her prior interactions with Zerola in order to concoct these “false allegations” of rape against his client.

Those include her repeated assertion that the pair had never been alone socially, despite the fact that the pair took a 2:30 a.m. ride on Zerola’s motorcycle from his Salem apartment during her birthday months before the alleged rape.

Another is that she and the prosecutors made out Zerola to be creepily touchy and kissy toward the alleged victim at bars ahead of going to the apartment where the alleged crime occurred, but that the defense had found another SnapChat video where the alleged victim had also kissed Zerola, and on the lips no less.

“Did she have a come to Jesus moment” to finally admit these things “… No!” Krowski said, saying that she only disclosed these things when the defense, “the party with no burden of proof,” found evidence that exposed them.

Following the verdict, Krowski reiterated another point in his closing: “Mr. Zerola was not just legally innocent, he was factually innocent. He did not do it. I was forceful in my comments — both of us — the entirety of the trial because we truly believed in him, and thank God they got it right.”

Tom Brant, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case along with ADA Ian Poumbaum, said in his closing that the “The defense wants you to focus everywhere else than what happened on Nov. 10, 2016” and jurors should focus only on what occurred surrounding the crimes and that everything else is a distraction.

Brant said that when the defendant saw the alleged victim asleep on the couch, he thought “I can do this, I’m Gary ‘Big Time Lawyer’ Zerola,” a powerful line that defense immediately objected to and Judge Michael Ricciuti ordered struck from the record both then and just before his jury instructions following the arguments.

“Gary Zerola committed two rapes. One while she was asleep and one while she was waking up,” Brant said. “There was no consent when she was sleeping and there was no consent when she said ‘Get the (expletive) off me.’ … That’s rape.”

The prosecutors did not speak to the press following the trial, but the Suffolk DA’s office did release a statement. Their statement highlighted that Zerola, who had previously been acquitted on rape charges three separate times, still has a pending case.

“We are not afraid to prosecute the toughest cases and we always respect the jury’s verdict, no matter how disappointing,” the statement began.

“We are grateful to the special prosecutor and victim advocate from Middlesex who guided this case from the start, the Boston detectives who investigated it, and especially the survivor who had the courage to come forward and the patience to stick with it. There is still a pending 2021 case against this defendant with similar allegations, and we will once again do our best to prove those charges.”

Hours later, the dad opened up to reporters for more than 20 minutes outside the federal courthouse in Worcester about how he believes the feds are entrapping his son, whom he repeatedly called a “loyal American.”

Mateo Ventura was arraigned Thursday afternoon on charges that he allegedly provided support to terrorism in the form of a string of gift cards to a supposed ISIS agent for resale on the dark web, according to federal authorities.

Paul Ventura said it was all a shock.

“He is a soft-hearted kid. He wants to help people,” Paul Ventura said of Mateo. “He’s not afraid to tell me anything. If he did something wrong, he would’ve said ‘Dad, I did something wrong.’ If he did it, he did it unintentionally.”

Mateo Ventura was charged with one count of concealing terrorist financing by the US. Attorney’s office in Boston.

Ventura provided  “multiple gift cards to an individual he believed was an ISIS supporter,” but in reality, he was communicating with an undercover FBI agent, according to federal documents.

The feds say Ventura provided a total of  $1,670 in gift cards to the agent: $965 as a juvenile and $705 after his 18th birthday, according to court documents. The gift cards ranged from Google Play cards to Gamestop, Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods, charging documents state.

Paul Ventura said he’s unsure where his son “got the money,” but explained “I give him a card for when I’m not home because I’m a single dad. He has a card that he (uses) for food and stuff. He’s home all the time.”

The father continued, “So, it’s almost like I think they put something in front of him and sucked him in. He is not a terrorist. He is a loyal American, 100%.”

Mateo was born premature and has developmental challenges, Paul Ventura said. He claimed his son was bullied throughout his childhood, and school officials never addressed the family’s concerns.

Mateo is fascinated by history, Paul Ventura said, adding he doesn’t know what religion his son practices.

“Everything with him is history; all of the wars, all of the things going on, everything. It’s just history, history, history.”