Sometime before the attack in Boulder in 2021, Moustafa Alissa recalled waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and his son, Ahmad Alissa, telling him to go talk to a man who was in his room. Moustafa Alissa said they walked together to his son’s room and there was no one there.

Moustafa Alissa also said his son would sometimes talk to himself and broke a car key fob he feared was being used to track him, echoing testimony on Monday from his wife. He said he didn’t know exactly what was wrong with his son but that in his native Syria people say someone acting that way is believed to be possessed by an evil spirit, or djin.

“We thought he probably was just possessed by a spirit or something,” Moustafa Alissa said through an Arabic interpreter in court.

Ahmad Alissa was diagnosed after the shooting with a severe case of schizophrenia and only was deemed mentally competent to stand trial last year after a doctor put him on the strongest antipsychotic medication available. No one disputes he was the gunman at the supermarket but he has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

The defense says he should be found not guilty because he was legally insane and not able to tell the difference between right and wrong at the time of the shooting.

Prosecutors and forensic psychologists who evaluated him for the court say that, despite his mental illness, he did not experience delusions and knew what he was doing when he launched the attack. They point to the planning and research he did to prepare for it and his fear that he could end up in jail afterward to show that Alissa knew what he was doing was wrong. However, the psychologists said they thought the voices played some role in the attack and don’t believe the attack would have happened if he had not been mentally ill.

When District Attorney Michael Dougherty asked why Moustafa Alissa did not seek out treatment for his son, he said it would be very hard for his family to have a reputation for having a “crazy son.”

“It’s shameful in our culture,” he said.

During questioning, Moustafa Alissa, whose family owns several restaurants in the Denver area, also acknowledged that Ahmad Alissa had promised to return a gun he had that had jammed a few days before the shooting and that he went to the shooting range at least once with his brothers. Despite his concerns about his son’s mental state, he said he did not do anything to try take guns away from him.

Given that, Dougherty suggested that his son’s condition may not have been as bad as his family is now portraying it.

“He was not normal but we did not expect him to do what he did,” Moustafa Alissa said.

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — Ohio stationed state police at Springfield schools Tuesday in response to a rash of bomb threats — the vast majority that officials said came from overseas —- after former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance falsely said legal Haitian immigrants in the small city were eating dogs and cats.

Schools, government buildings and elected officials’ homes in Springfield were among the targets of more than 30 hoax threats made last week that forced evacuations and closures. Two more schools had to be evacuated on Monday, and the high school was threatened on Tuesday. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said a foreign actor was largely responsible, but he declined to name the country.

Even with dozens of Ohio State Highway Patrol officers fanning out to protect the Springfield City School District’s 18 schools, many parents opted to keep their children at home. At one elementary school, some 200 students were absent Tuesday out of a population of 500.

“There’s still a high level of fear due to these unfounded threats and hoaxes that have marred our existence really for going on a week now,” said Robert Hill, chief executive office of the Springfield City School District, appearing at a news conference with DeWine.

Two highway patrol officers have been assigned to each school, a protocol that will be continued “as long as it is necessary,” DeWine said.

“We do not believe there is a real threat out there, but we are certainly not going to take any chances. And we want parents to be assured that their children can be kids and can go to school and can learn,” he said.

State police were visible at a middle school earlier Tuesday, with students dropped off as normal.

Thousands of Haitian immigrants have settled in recent years in the predominantly white, blue-collar city of about 60,000, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) from the state capital of Columbus, where they have found work in factories and warehouses that had been struggling to fill job openings.

The sudden influx has strained schools, health care facilities and city services and driven up the cost of housing — and became a major political issue after Trump amplified debunked internet rumors about pet-eating during last week’s presidential debate. Vance has repeated the false claims.

“We did not have threats seven days ago. We did not have these concerns seven days ago. We did not have these hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent in Springfield and from the state of Ohio in support seven days ago. We do today,” Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said Tuesday.

Rue did not mention Trump or Vance by name, but called on national leaders to “temper their words and speak truth.”

“That’s what Springfield is asking. We need peace. We need help, not hate,” he said.

Vice President Kamala Harris, answering questions at a forum for Black journalists in Philadelphia on Tuesday, said her heart breaks for Springfield. She said the inflammatory rhetoric about Haitian immigrants is “exhausting and it’s harmful and it’s hateful and and grounded in some age-old stuff that we should not have the tolerance for.”

Vance has not backed down, writing on the social media platform X that “citizens are telling us that there are problems” in Springfield and that he has repeatedly condemned the threats. He accused Harris of ignoring the residents’ legitimate concerns and trying to stifle debate.

DeWine’s spokesperson, Dan Tierney, said Tuesday that “the vast majority” of the bomb threats have come from foreign countries.” He said a criminal investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies yielded information on the origin of the threats.

Tierney was not more specific on how investigators determined they came from a foreign country, nor would he reveal the name of the country, saying that could encourage additional threats.

“These are largely foreign actors, not folks in the community or another part of the United States,” he said. “We think it’s useful in part because it shows that it’s, you know, false, that it’s safe to send your kids to school. And we’re providing extra patrol support to make sure people feel safe at school.”

___

Rubinkam reported from northeastern Pennsylvania.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Florida law enforcement officials will launch their own criminal investigation into the apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump that will run parallel to the federal probe, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday.

The governor said Florida prosecutors will pursue the most serious charges available under state law, including attempted murder, in the state-level investigation into Ryan Wesley Routh, who was charged Monday with federal firearms offenses.

“We have a very strong interest in holding this suspect accountable,” DeSantis told reporters.

It’s not uncommon for state and federal law enforcement agencies to run simultaneous investigations into crimes, as states may be able to bring charges that are unavailable at the federal level — and vice versa.

Routh is charged at the federal level so far only with gun crimes, but additional charges are possible as Justice Department prosecutors seek an indictment from a grand jury. Prosecutors will often quickly bring the first charges they can and then add more serious charges later as the investigation unfolds.

“We will spare no resource in this investigation,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday during an event at the Justice Department.

Markenzy Lapointe, the top federal prosecutor for the Southern District of Florida, declined to comment on the state probe.

DeSantis said it will be handled by Florida’s office of statewide prosecution, overseen by Attorney General Ashley Moody.

The FBI has interviewed the suspect’s family members, friends and colleagues and is working to collect evidence. Authorities have requested search warrants seeking access to a video recording device, cellphones, a vehicle and electronics at Routh’s previous addresses.

FBI agents were spotted Tuesday at Routh’s home in Kaaawa, Hawaii. FBI Honolulu office spokeswoman Sarah Rice said they were carrying out “court-authorized law enforcement activity.” She said the court documents authorizing the activity were sealed.

No motive has been disclosed, and Routh invoked his right to an attorney when questioned, officials said.

Coming just weeks after a July 13 shooting at a Pennsylvania campaign rally where Trump was grazed by a gunman’s bullet, the latest assassination attempt accelerated concerns that violence continues to infect American presidential politics.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is Trump’s Democratic opponent in November, spoke with him Tuesday to express how grateful she is that he is safe, according to the White House.

Routh, 58, was arrested Sunday after authorities spotted a gun poking out of shrubbery on the golf course where Trump was playing. Routh camped outside the golf course with food and a rifle for nearly 12 hours, lying in wait for the former president before a Secret Service agent thwarted the potential attack and opened fire.

Routh did not fire any shots, never had Trump in his line of sight and sped away, leaving behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag containing food, officials said. He was arrested in a neighboring county.

Routh’s attorney declined to comment after he appeared briefly in federal court Monday, when a judge ordered that he remain locked up after prosecutors argued that he was a flight risk. Routh has been moved from the Palm Beach County jail to the federal lockup in Miami. A federal magistrate set additional hearings for later this month.

In the federal case, Routh is charged with illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina. The other charge alleges that the weapon’s serial number was obliterated and unreadable to the naked eye, in violation of federal law.

Federal investigators are examining Routh’s large online footprint, which suggests a man of evolving political viewpoints, including recently an apparent disdain for Trump, as well as intense outrage at global events concerning China and especially Ukraine.

“You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote of Iran in an apparently self-published 2023 book titled “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” which described the former president as a “fool” and “buffoon” for both the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the “tremendous blunder” of leaving the Iran nuclear deal.

Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale and Zeke Miller in Washington also contributed to this report.

Beginning Tuesday in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia, anyone under under 18 who signs up for Instagram will be placed into a teen account and those with existing accounts will be migrated over the next 60 days. Teens in the European Union will see their accounts adjusted later this year.

Meta acknowledges that teenagers may lie about their age and says it will require them to verify their ages in more instances, like if they try to create a new account with an adult birthday. The Menlo Park, California company also said it is building technology that proactively finds teen accounts that pretend to be grownups and automatically places them into the restricted teen accounts.

The teen accounts will be private by default. Private messages are restricted so teens can only receive them from people they follow or are already connected to. “Sensitive content,” such as videos of people fighting or those promoting cosmetic procedures, will be limited, Meta said. Teens will also get notifications if they are on Instagram for more than 60 minutes and a “sleep mode” will be enabled that turns off notifications and sends auto-replies to direct messages from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m.

While these settings will be turned on for all teens, 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to turn them off. Kids under 16 will need their parents’ permission to do so.

“The three concerns we’re hearing from parents are that their teens are seeing content that they don’t want to see or that they’re getting contacted by people they don’t want to be contacted by or that they’re spending too much on the app,” said Naomi Gleit, head of product at Meta. “So teen accounts is really focused on addressing those three concerns.”

The announcement comes as the company faces lawsuits from dozens of U.S. states that accuse it of harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.

In the past, Meta’s efforts at addressing teen safety and mental health on its platforms have been met with criticism that the changes don’t go far enough. For instance, while kids will get a notification when they’ve spent 60 minutes on the app, they will be able to bypass it and continue scrolling.

That’s unless the child’s parents turn on “parental supervision” mode, where parents can limit teens’ time on Instagram to a specific amount of time, such as 15 minutes.

With the latest changes, Meta is giving parents more options to oversee their kids’ accounts. Those under 16 will need a parent or guardian’s permission to change their settings to less restrictive ones. They can do this by setting up “parental supervision” on their accounts and connecting them to a parent or guardian.

Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said last week that parents don’t use the parental controls the company has introduced in recent years.

Gleit said she thinks teen accounts will create a “big incentive for parents and teens to set up parental supervision.”

“Parents will be able to see, via the family center, who is messaging their teen and hopefully have a conversation with their teen,” she said. “If there is bullying or harassment happening, parents will have visibility into who their teen’s following, who’s following their teen, who their teen has messaged in the past seven days and hopefully have some of these conversations and help them navigate these really difficult situations online.”

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said last year that tech companies put too much on parents when it comes to keeping children safe on social media.

“We’re asking parents to manage a technology that’s rapidly evolving that fundamentally changes how their kids think about themselves, how they build friendships, how they experience the world — and technology, by the way, that prior generations never had to manage,” Murthy said in May 2023.

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was headed to jail Tuesday to await trial in his federal sex trafficking case, after a magistrate ordered him to be held without bail in a case that accuses him of presiding over a sordid empire of sexual crimes.

The music mogul pleaded not guilty Tuesday to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. He’s accused of inducing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes dayslong sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs.”

The indictment against him also alleges he coerced and abused women for years while using blackmail and shocking acts of violence to keep his victims in line. It refers obliquely to an attack on his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video.

Prosecutors wanted him jailed. His attorneys proposed that he be released on a $50 million bond to home detention with electronic monitoring. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky sided with the government.

Combs, 54, took a long swig from a water bottle, then was led out of court without handcuffs. As he walked out, he turned toward family members in the audience.

“Mr. Combs is a fighter. He’s going to fight this to the end. He’s innocent,” his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said after court. As a start, he said he would appeal the bail decision.

The Bad Boy Records founder is accused of striking, punching and dragging women, throwing objects and kicking them — and getting his personal assistants, security and household staff to help him hide it all.

“Not guilty,” Combs told a court, standing to speak after listening to the allegations with his uncuffed hands folded in his lap.

Federal prosecutors called him dangerous.

“Mr. Combs physically and sexually abused victims for decades. He used the vast resources of his company to facilitate his abuse and cover up his crimes. Simply put, he is a serial abuser and a serial obstructor,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told a court. She also said he had “extensive and exhaustive history of obstruction of justice,” including alleged bribery and witness intimidation.

Agnifilo acknowledged Combs was “not a perfect person,” saying he’d used drugs and had been in “toxic relationships” but was getting treatment and therapy.

“The evidence in this case is extremely problematic,” the attorney told the court.

He maintained that the case stemmed from one long-term, consensual relationship that faltered amid infidelity. He didn’t name the woman, but the details matched those of Combs’ decade-long involvement with Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura.

The “Freak Offs,” Agnifilo contended, were an expansion of that relationship, and not coercive.

“Is it sex trafficking? Not if everybody wants to be there,” Agnifilo said, arguing that authorities were intruding on his client’s private life.

Prosecutors, however, said in court papers that they had interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses and expect the number to grow. They said they would use financial, travel and billing records, electronic data and communications and videos of the “Freak Offs” to prove their case.

Combs nodded his head at times as his lawyer spoke and occasionally leaned over to converse with them when they were not. The impresario watched other parts of the proceeding expressionlessly, looking straight ahead.

Combs was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami.

A conviction on every charge in the indictment would require a mandatory 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence.

The indictment describes Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise that engaged or attempted to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.

Combs and his associates wielded his “power and prestige” to intimidate and lure women into his orbit, “often under the pretense of a romantic relationship,” the indictment says.

It says he then would use force, threats and coercion to get the women to engage with male sex workers in the “Freak Offs” — “elaborate and produced sex performances” that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during and often recorded, creating dozens of videos.

He sometimes arranged to fly the women in and ensured their participation by procuring and providing drugs, controlling their careers, leveraging his financial support and using intimidation and violence, according to the indictment.

The events could last for days, and Combs and victims would often receive IV fluids to recover from the exertion and drug use, the indictment said.

It said his employees facilitated “Freak Offs” by arranging travel, booking hotel rooms, stocking them with such supplies as drugs and baby oil, scheduling the delivery of IV fluids and cleaning the rooms afterward.

During the searches of Combs’ homes earlier this year, law enforcement seized narcotics, videos of the “Freak Offs” and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecutors. They said agents also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers — two of them, broken into parts, in his bedroom closet in Miami.

Combs’ lawyer said his client didn’t own the guns at his house, noting that he employs a security company.

The indictment portrays Combs as a violent man who choked and shoved people, hit and kicked victims and sometimes dragged them by their hair, causing injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. His employees and associates sometimes witnessed his violence and kept victims from leaving or tracked down those who tried, the indictment said.

It alleges that Combs sometimes kept videos of victims engaging in sex acts and used the recordings as “collateral” to ensure the women’s continued obedience and silence. He also exerted control over victims by promising career opportunities, providing and threatening to withhold financial support, dictating how they looked, monitoring their health records and controlling where they lived, according to the indictment.

As the threat of criminal charges loomed, Combs and his associates pressured witnesses and victims to stay silent, offering bribes and supplying false narratives of what happened, the indictment says.

In a court filing, prosecutors accused Combs and an unidentified co-conspirator of kidnapping someone at gunpoint a few days before Christmas in 2011 in order to facilitate a break-in at another person’s home. Two weeks later, they wrote, Combs set fire to someone’s vehicle by slicing open its convertible top and dropping in a Molotov cocktail.

All of this, prosecutors allege, was happening behind the facade of Combs’ global music, lifestyle and clothing business.

“A year ago, Sean Combs stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City. Today, he’s been indicted and will face justice,” Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at a news conference Tuesday.

Combs returned the key in June after Mayor Eric Adams requested it back.

Combs was recognized as one of the most influential figures in hip-hop before a flood of allegations emerged over the past year.

In November, Ventura filed a lawsuit saying he had beaten and raped her for years. She accused Combs of coercing her, and others, into unwanted sex in drug-fueled settings.

The suit was settled in one day, but months later, CNN aired hotel security footage showing Combs punching and kicking Ventura and throwing her on a floor. After the video aired, Combs apologized, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it.”

The indictment refers to the attack, without naming Ventura, and says Combs tried to bribe a hotel security staffer to stay mum about it.

Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Ventura, declined to comment Tuesday.

Combs and his attorneys denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ventura did.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Combs is 54, not 58.

Today in history:

On Sept. 17, 2011, a demonstration calling itself Occupy Wall Street began in New York, prompting similar protests around the U.S. and the world.

Also on this date:

In 1787, the Constitution of the United States was completed and signed by a majority of delegates attending the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

In 1908, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge of the U.S. Army Signal Corps became the first person to die in the crash of a powered aircraft, the Wright Flyer, at Fort Myer, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.

In 1944, during World War II, Allied paratroopers launched Operation Market Garden, landing behind German lines in the Netherlands.

In 1978, after 12 days of meetings at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (men-AH’-kem BAY’-gihn) signed the Camp David Accords, a framework for a peace treaty.

In 1980, former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza was assassinated in Paraguay.

In 2001, six days after 9/11, stock prices nosedived but stopped short of collapse in an emotional, flag-waving reopening of Wall Street.

In 2021, a Los Angeles jury convicted New York real estate heir Robert Durst of killing his best friend 20 years earlier. (Durst, who was sentenced to life in prison, died in 2022.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is 91.
• Retired Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter (SOO’-tur) is 85.
• Mountaineer-explorer Reinhold Messner is 80.
• Basketball Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson is 79.
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is 74.
• Actor Cassandra Peterson (“Elvira, Mistress of the Dark”) is 73.
• Director-actor Paul Feig is 62.
• Film director Baz Luhrmann is 62.
• Singer BeBe Winans is 62.
• Actor Kyle Chandler is 59.
• Rapper Doug E. Fresh is 58.
• Author Cheryl Strayed is 56.
• Actor Matthew Settle is 55.
• Designer-TV personality Nate Berkus is 53.
• NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson is 49.
• NHL forward Alexander Ovechkin (oh-VECH’-kin) is 39.
• Actor Danielle Brooks is 35.
• NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes is 29.

A key employee who labeled a doomed experimental submersible unsafe prior to its last, fatal voyage testified Tuesday that the tragedy could have been prevented if a federal safety agency had investigated his complaint.

David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former operations director, said he felt let down by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s decision not to follow through on the complaint.

“I believe that if OSHA had attempted to investigate the seriousness of the concerns I raised on multiple occasions, this tragedy may have been prevented,” he said while speaking before a commission trying to determine what caused the Titan to implode en route to the wreckage of the Titanic last year, killing all five on board. “As a seafarer, I feel deeply disappointed by the system that is meant to protect not only seafarers but the general public as well.”

Earlier in the day, Lochridge said he frequently clashed with the company’s co-founder and felt the company was committed only to making money.

Lochridge was one of the most anticipated witnesses to appear before a commission. His testimony echoed that of other former employees Monday, one of whom described OceanGate head Stockton Rush as volatile and difficult to work with.

“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge said. “There was very little in the way of science.”

Rush was among the five people who died in the implosion. OceanGate owned the Titan and brought it on several dives to the Titanic going back to 2021.

Lochridge’s testimony began a day after other witnesses painted a picture of a troubled company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

Lochridge joined the company in the mid-2010s as a veteran engineer and submersible pilot and said he quickly came to feel he was being used to lend the company scientific credibility. He said he felt the company was selling him as part of the project “for people to come up and pay money,” and that did not sit well with him.

“I was, I felt, a show pony,” he said. “I was made by the company to stand up there and do talks. It was difficult. I had to go up and do presentations. All of it.”

Lochridge referenced a 2018 report in which he raised safety issues about OceanGate operations. He said with all of the safety issues he saw “there was no way I was signing off on this.”

Asked whether he had confidence in the way the Titan was being built, he said: “No confidence whatsoever.”

Employee turnover was very high at the time, said Lochridge, and leadership dismissed his concerns because they were more focused on “bad engineering decisions” and a desire to get to the Titanic as quickly as possible and start making money. He eventually was fired after raising the safety concerns, he said.

“I didn’t want to lose my job. I wanted to do the Titanic. But to dive it safely. It was on my bucket list, too,” he said.

OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion.

OceanGate’s former engineering director, Tony Nissen, kicked off Monday’s testimony, telling investigators he felt pressured to get the vessel ready to dive and refused to pilot it for a journey several years before Titan’s last trip. Nissen worked on a prototype hull that predated the Titanic expeditions.

“‘I’m not getting in it,’” Nissen said he told Rush.

OceanGate’s former finance and human resources director, Bonnie Carl, testified Monday that Lochridge had characterized the Titan as “unsafe.”

Lochridge said during testimony Tuesday that eight months after he filed a federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration complaint, a caseworker told him the agency had not begun investigating it yet and there were 11 cases ahead of his. By then, OceanGate was suing Lochridge and he had filed a countersuit.

About 10 months after he filed the complaint, he decided to walk away. The case was closed and both lawsuits were dropped.

“I gave them nothing, they gave me nothing,” he said of OceanGate.

Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about the Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.

When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said.

Scheduled to appear later in the hearing are OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein and former scientific director, Steven Ross, according to a list compiled by the Coast Guard. Numerous guard officials, scientists, and government and industry officials are also expected to testify. The U.S. Coast Guard subpoenaed witnesses who were not government employees, said Coast Guard spokesperson Melissa Leake.

Among those not on the hearing witness list is Rush’s widow, Wendy Rush, the company’s communications director. Lochridge said Wendy Rush had an active role in the company when he was there.

Asked about Wendy Rush’s absence, Leake said the Coast Guard does not comment on the reasons for not calling specific individuals to a particular hearing during ongoing investigations. She said it’s common for a Marine Board of Investigation to “hold multiple hearing sessions or conduct additional witness depositions for complex cases.”

OceanGate has no full-time employees at this time but will be represented by an attorney during the hearing, the company said in a statement. The company said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began.

The ongoing Marine Board of Investigation is the highest level of marine casualty investigation conducted by the Coast Guard. When the hearing concludes, recommendations will be submitted to the Coast Guard’s commandant. The National Transportation Safety Board is also conducting an investigation.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas jury will soon decide whether a convoy of supporters of then-President Donald Trump violently intimidated former Democratic lawmaker Wendy Davis and two others on a Biden-Harris campaign bus when a so-called “Trump Train” boxed them in for more than an hour on a Texas highway days before the 2020 election.

The trial, which began on Sept. 9, resumes Monday and is expected to last another week.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that six of the Trump Train drivers violated state and federal law. Lawyers for the defendants said they did not conspire against the Democrats on the bus and that their actions are protected speech.

Here’s what else to know:

What happened on Oct. 30, 2020?

Dozens of cars and trucks organized by a local Trump Train group swarmed the bus on its way from San Antonio to Austin. It was the last day of early voting in Texas for the 2020 general election, and the bus was scheduled to make a stop in San Marcos for an event at Texas State University.

Video recorded by Davis shows pickup trucks with large Trump flags aggressively slowing down and boxing in the bus as it tried to move away from the Trump Train. One defendant hit a campaign volunteer’s car while the trucks occupied all lanes of traffic, slowing the bus and everyone around it to a 15 mph crawl.

Those on the bus — including Davis, a campaign staffer and the driver — repeatedly called 911 asking for help and a police escort through San Marcos, but when no law enforcement arrived, the campaign canceled the event and pushed forward to Austin.

San Marcos settled a separate lawsuit filed by the same three Democrats against the police, agreeing to pay $175,000 and mandate political violence training for law enforcement.

Davis testified that she felt she was being “taken hostage” and has sought treatment for anxiety.

In the days leading up to the event, Democrats were also intimidated, harassed and received death threats, the lawsuit said.

“I feel like they were enjoying making us afraid,” Davis testified. “It’s traumatic for all of us to revisit that day.”

What’s the plaintiffs’ argument?

In opening statements, an attorney for the plaintiffs said convoy organizers targeted the bus in a calculated attack to intimidate the Democrats in violation of the “Ku Klux Klan Act,” an 1871 federal law that bans political violence and intimidation.

“We’re here because of actions that put people’s lives in danger,” said Samuel Hall, an attorney with the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher. The plaintiffs, he said, were “literally driven out of town by a swarm of trucks.”

The six Trump Train drivers succeeded in making the campaign cancel its remaining events in Texas in a war they believed was “between good and evil,” Hall said.

Two nonprofit advocacy groups, Texas Civil Rights Project and Protect Democracy, also are representing the three plaintiffs.

What’s the defense’s argument?

Attorneys for the defendants, who are accused of driving and organizing the convoy, said they did not conspire to swarm the Democrats on the bus, which could have exited the highway at any point.

“This was a political rally. This was not some conspiracy to intimidate people,” said attorney Jason Greaves, who is representing two of the drivers.

The defense also argued that their clients’ actions were protected speech and that the trial is a concerted effort to “drain conservatives of their money,” according to Francisco Canseco, a lawyer for three of the defendants.

“It was a rah-rah group that sought to support and advocate for a candidate of their choice in a very loud way,” Canseco said during opening statements.

The defense lost a bid last month to have the case ruled in their favor without a trial. The judge wrote that “assaulting, intimidating, or imminently threatening others with force is not protected expression.”

Lathan is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Erika Lee, a Springfield resident of four years, told NBC News.

Lee, a 35-year-old hardware store worker, said she had no actual firsthand knowledge when she took to a local Facebook group to pen a post about a missing pet. She wrote that her neighbor, Kimberly Newton, told her that “her daughter’s friend had lost her cat.”

“One day, she came home from work, as soon as she stepped out of her car, looked towards a neighbor’s house, where Haitians live, and saw her cat hanging from a branch, like they’d do a deer for butchering and they were carving it up to eat,” read the since-deleted post, per screenshots shared online. “I’ve been told they are doing this to dogs, they have been doing it at Snyder Park with the ducks and geese.”

According to NewsGuard, a media watchdog that monitors for misinformation on the web, Lee’s post was likely the first to tout the unfounded pet-eating claims.

“I’m not sure I’m the most credible source because I don’t actually know the person who lost the cat,” Newton, Lee’s neighbor, told the outlet in response to questions about the rumor she passed along.

She told NewsGuard the cat’s owner was actually “an acquaintance of a friend” — and that friend was the person who told her the rumor, which they in turn had heard from a separate source.

“I don’t have any proof,” she added.

Other posts parroting the pet-eating claims have since popped up online, including one from Ohio senator and Republican VP candidate JD Vance.

On Sept. 9, he shared a post on X that read: “Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?”

Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.

Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country. Where is our border czar? pic.twitter.com/rf0EDIeI5i

— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024

The following day, former President Donald Trump brought up the fourth-hand gossip during his first presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, which was broadcast to 67 million people.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs — the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump said Tuesday. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”

Here's Trump getting fact-checked on the Springfield/immigrants eating pets hoax and just desperately responding "they said it on TV" pic.twitter.com/nHBOBJuDqP

— jordan (@JordanUhl) September 11, 2024

Officials in the Ohio city have pushed back on the pet-eating rumors in the days since, with City Manager Bryan Heck emphasizing “there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

But the fallout has still been severe. On Thursday, Springfield City Hall was evacuated due to bomb threats and several schools in the area were forced to close following similar threats on Friday.

Lee told NBC News she never imagined her Facebook post would spiral so out of control. She added that she doesn’t harbor any ill will toward the Haitian community and lamented the fact that her post had become fodder for conspiracy theories.

“I’m not a racist,” she said, adding that her daughter is half Black and she herself is mixed race and a member of the LGBTQ community. “Everybody seems to be turning it into that, and that was not my intent.”

Lee said she has since pulled her daughter from school and now fears for her family’s safety given the mania surrounding the claims. She added that she’s also worried for the Haitian community, who she had no intention of villainizing.

“I feel for the Haitian community,” she said. “If I was in the Haitians’ position, I’d be terrified, too, worried that somebody’s going to come after me because they think I’m hurting something that they love and that, again, that’s not what I was trying to do.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sunday was to be a day of relative rest for Donald Trump, a rare breather this deep into a presidential campaign. Aside from sounding off on social media, golf was on the agenda.

Then the Secret Service spotted the muzzle of a rifle sticking out of a fence in bushes at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club, and everything changed.

For the second time in just over two months, someone apparently tried to shoot Trump and came dangerously close to the former president in that effort — within 500 yards Sunday, law enforcement officials said. This time, the gunfire came from the Secret Service, before the suspect could get any shots off at his target.

The episode raised sharp questions about how to keep the former president safe — not only while he is campaigning across the country, but while he spends time at his own clubs and properties.

Trump has had stepped-up security since the assassination attempt on him in July, when he was wounded in the ear during an attack that laid bare a series of Secret Service failures. When he has been at Trump Tower in New York, parked dump trucks have formed a wall outside the building. And at outdoor rallies, he now speaks from behind bulletproof glass.

But unlike typical VIPs, who live in private residences with tall fences, Trump, while in Florida, resides at a club open to dues-paying members, and often spends his down time at his golf courses. And this a toxic era in the nation’s politics.

“The threat level is high,” Rafael Barros, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Miami field office, told reporters Sunday. “We live in danger times.”

Sunday in the political world opened with Trump assailing a pop star on social media who had endorsed Kamala Harris — “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT” — complaining about the post office and hitting the links. Running mate JD Vance riffed on TV about that thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory concerning immigrants and pets, refusing to disown it. Democrats were apoplectic.

All that was standard fare for the most tumultuous presidential campaign in anyone’s memory. But shortly before 2 p.m., the subject abruptly changed and this election was thrust ever deeper into unprecedented territory.

Trump and golf partner Steve Witkoff were on the fifth hole of the course and about to putt when they heard the “pop, pop, pop, pop,” said Fox News host Sean Hannity, a close friend of the former president who spoke with him several times afterward as well as with Witkoff.

Moments later, Hannity said, a “fast cart” with steel reinforcement and other protection whisked Trump away.

After the Secret Service noticed the rifle and then the suspect, an agent fired on him but apparently missed.

Secret Service agents immediately used their bodies to shield Trump and moved him to the golf course’s clubhouse, where he remained until he went back to Mar-a-Lago about 15 minutes away, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and described it on condition of anonymity.

About an hour later, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office were investigating an unspecified “protective incident involving former President Donald Trump,” adding he was safe.

The meaning was highly unclear. It could have been an unrelated shooting or disturbance near Trump, for all the country knew at first. “There were about 20 or more cop cars flying from nearby streets,” said Max Egusquiza, of Palm Beach, describing the emergency response he witnessed.

The Trump campaign issued a statement saying “President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity.” Again, no word whether he was the intended target.

But it soon became known that the Secret Service had fired shots. And about an hour after that happened, Donald J. Trump Jr. posted on X that an AK-style rifle was discovered in the bushes, “per local law enforcement.”

All of that was finally followed by an FBI statement saying it is investigating “what appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump.”

The suspect quickly vanished but law enforcement had managed to identify his vehicle.

Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder said his deputies “immediately flooded” northbound I-95, deploying to every exit between the Palm Beach County line to the south and St. Lucie County line to the north.

The suspect was apprehended within minutes of the FBI, Secret Service and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office putting out a “very urgent BOLO” — or be-on-the-lookout alert — detailing the specific vehicle sought, license plate number and description of the driver.

“One of my road patrol units saw the vehicle, matched the tag and we set up on the vehicle,” Snyder said, “We pinched in on the car, got it safely stopped and got the driver in custody.”

Snyder added: “He never asked, ‘What is this about?’ Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights — a lot going on. He never questioned it.”

With that, police arrested Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Kaaawa, Hawaii, three law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. The officials identified the suspect to AP but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

The suspect had left behind an AK-style rifle with a scope, two backpacks hanging on a fence with ceramic tile inside and a GoPro camera, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.

The sheriff said the suspect was 400 to 500 yards away from Trump hidden in shrubbery, while the former president played golf on a nearby hole.

“It was certainly an interesting day! ” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday night. He effusively thanked law enforcement for keeping him “SAFE.”

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Colleen Long, Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer, Mike Balsamo and Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.