Parkland survivor agrees to share rights to gunman’s name with other victims’ families

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.— Parkland mass shooting survivor Anthony Borges has agreed to share the rights to the name of the man who tried to kill him, ending a legal standoff with other families shattered by the 2018 tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Borges, 21, announced through his lawyer earlier this year that he had secured exclusive rights to the name of Nikolas Cruz, who shot and killed 17 people at the Parkland high school on Valentine’s Day 2018 and physically wounded another 17. Borges was the most seriously wounded survivor, taking five bullets to the lungs, abdomen and legs.

Dozens of plaintiffs sued Cruz, the Broward school district, the Sheriff’s Office and the FBI for their failures to prevent the massacre, but only Borges and his lawyer, Alex Arreaza, worked out a one-on-one settlement with the gunman himself.

That agreement gave Borges the sole right to decide when Cruz can grant interviews telling his side of the story.

Under an agreement filed Monday, Borges is now sharing that right with the families of slain victims Meadow Pollack, Alaina Petty and Luke Hoyer along with survivor Maddy Wilford. Cruz is already barred from profiting off the crime under the state’s “Son of Sam” law, but lawyers for the victims say the agreement adds an extra layer of protection blocking Cruz from presenting his story to the public in any sympathetic light.

Cruz is serving 34 consecutive life sentences for planning and carrying out the mass shooting.

—South Florida Sun Sentinel

Texas man pleads guilty after plotting ‘mass murder attacks’ at locations like Buc-ee’s

DALLAS — A New Braunfels man recently pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge stemming from his plans to carry out mass shootings in multiple places, including a Buc-ee’s, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas announced in a Thursday news release.

Cameron Darrick Peterson, 20, began planning the shootings in November 2022, according to court documents. The release described the plans as “mass murder attacks thwarted by federal and local law enforcement.”

Peterson tried to purchase a shotgun from a New Braunfels pawn shop in January and completed the background check but was denied due to his age and the type of gun, the release said. He tried again in May to purchase a shotgun from the shop but was denied a second time.

FBI agents obtained an arrest warrant for Peterson in early June and he was immediately taken into custody by the New Braunfels Police Department.

A review by law enforcement of Peterson’s Instagram account showed that he made statements about plans to attack a gas station — identified in court records as a Buc-ee’s on I-35 — and he was recorded from jail instructing a witness to hide or destroy a videotape he made in which he surveilled a grocery store to plan a future attack.

During searches of Peterson’s home, law enforcement found a long rifle with a sawed-off buttstock, six magazines loaded with 60 rounds and a box containing 11 aerosol containers and other ingredients to manufacture destructive devices, according to the release.

—The Dallas Morning News

Onlooker warned Daniel Penny ‘He’s dying!’ during Jordan Neely chokehold death on subway

NEW YORK— A Manhattan jury hearing the manslaughter case against Daniel Penny Monday saw footage of the fateful encounter with Jordan Neely in which — as Penny has his arm tightly gripped around Neely’s neck— an onlooker shouts at him to stop:

“He’s dying. You gotta let go!” the onlooker is heard saying.

The footage, captured by Ivette Rosario, 19, is believed to be the first shot of the encounter via the train platform at the Broadway- Lafayette subway station. She said she was on the F train heading uptown when Neely boarded a stop earlier at Second Avenue.

Rosario, a high school senior originally from the Dominican Republic, said Neely had boarded the train and began screaming, including saying that he “didn’t care about going back to jail.”

She described feeling so nervous that she thought she was going to pass out and said she looked away when Neely began screaming.

“I got scared by the tone by the way he was saying it,” she said of Neely’s comments upon boarding the train car. “I have ... seen escalations, but not like that.”

Rosario testified that she didn’t register Neely directing his dismay or threats at any passenger in particular. She said she noticed Penny and Neely on the subway floor after looking up when she heard a loud fall.

After the train reached the next stop, Rosario and the other passengers got off. She filmed the cellphone video from outside the subway car and called 911.

Rosario said she didn’t hear the onlooker’s warning to Penny at the time or until watching her video.

Penny, 26, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide and faces up to 15 years in state prison if convicted of the top count. His defense claims he acted reasonably in subduing Neely to protect passengers from threats by someone who appeared mentally unstable and claims he heard Neely say, “I will kill.”

His lawyers are also contesting the medical examiner’s ruling that Neely died by homicide by compression of the neck.

—New York Daily News

Russia suspected of plotting to send US incendiary devices

BERLIN — European and U.S. intelligence officials believe Russia is behind a plan that would ultimately place incendiary devices on planes to North America through air cargo shipments, according to people familiar with the matter.

Authorities are taking the incidents seriously, and intelligence agencies are expecting Moscow to try and stage similar acts of sabotage in the future, one of the people said. They asked not to be named discussing the intelligence matter.

Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office has said in a statement on its website that it’s investigating the alleged involvement of a foreign intelligence service in sabotage activities on the territory of Poland and other European Union members states and the U.K. but didn’t specify Russia as the perpetrator. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Monday on Moscow’s alleged goal of ultimately targeting the U.S.

Poland’s interior minister said the efforts fit Russia’s pattern.

“The year 2024 brought various acts of sabotage in Poland and other European countries,” Tomasz Siemoniak said Monday. “Our intelligence services and prosecutors have no doubt that Russian clients are behind this. The attempts to place explosives into courier shipments fit into the logic of Russian sabotage and do raise the threat up to a new level.”

As part of the probe launched on Aug. 5, authorities have arrested four people linked to a sabotage group, whose activities included sending parcels containing camouflaged explosives and dangerous materials via courier companies to countries in the EU and the U.K.

The parcels would ignite or detonate during land or air transport. “The group’s goal was to test the transfer channel for this type of shipments, which were ultimately to be sent to the U.S. and Canada,” according to the statement.

Alexa Lopez, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, said in a statement that “over the past several months, as part of a multilayered security approach, TSA worked with industry partners to put additional security measures for U.S. aircraft operators and foreign air carriers regarding certain cargo shipments bound for the United States.”

—Bloomberg News