A 15-year-old boy charged in connection with a deadly shooting at a packed Seattle food festival is arguing that he fired his weapon in self-defense, even as investigators continue working to identify additional gunmen believed to be involved.

According to court filings obtained by KOMO News, the teenager’s attorney said he took a handgun from a pouch and returned fire after two unknown suspects allegedly started shooting in the direction of him and a friend during the Bite of Seattle on July 26.

The burst of gunfire triggered panic near the Seattle Center Armory, not far from the Space Needle, as festival attendees ran for safety. Three people were killed and four others were injured, among them a 2-year-old boy, News Media previously reported.

Authorities have characterized the violence as a gang-related exchange of gunfire that left bystanders trapped in the chaos. Those killed were identified as 19-year-old Niko-Semo, a 44-year-old man and a 56-year-old woman.

More than a month later, the 15-year-old remains the only person charged in connection with the shooting.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office told News Media that police have not brought prosecutors any cases involving anyone else in the shooting.

“Seattle Police are handling the investigation,” the office said. “No other cases from the Bite of Seattle shooting other than the charged case involving the 15-year-old have been referred by police investigators to the KCPAO.”

Police have, however, identified two potential persons of interest after combing through roughly 450 hours of video, Interim Seattle Police Chief Andre Sayles told FOX 13 Seattle.

Sayles cautioned that police have not determined whether the two people opened fire.

“I can say that we are looking at two potential persons of interest in this incident, not saying that they are the shooters or anything of that nature, but people that we have identified that we need to have a conversation with,” Sayles said.

No additional arrests have been announced. Sayles said detectives are moving closer to interviews and could make arrests if the evidence supports them.

The teen, whose name has not been released because he is charged as a juvenile, insists he only opened fire after someone began shooting at him.

His public defender, Hong Tran, said several eyewitnesses backed up that version of events.

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“Law enforcement has interviewed several eyewitnesses to the shooting who confirmed that [the teen] reached for a firearm after the shooting started,” Tran wrote in an Aug. 28 memorandum, according to KOMO News.

Tran said the boy had gone to the festival to enjoy the food and was standing near Niko-Semo when the first shots rang out.

“After hearing shots fired, witnesses observed [the teen] pull a firearm from a pouch and shoot in the direction of the shots,” Tran wrote.

Officers working the festival raced toward the gunfire and arrested the teen at the scene. Witness video obtained by KOMO News appears to show police taking him into custody.

“I was getting shot at,” the teen told officers, according to the defense filing. He said he fired back in self-defense.

Prosecutors say the teen’s actions were anything but defensive, accusing him of recklessly firing into an area packed with adults and children.

“There is no greater threat to the community than a person indiscriminately firing into a crowd of adults and children who only wanted to attend and enjoy Bite of Seattle,” Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Logan Bryant wrote in a filing opposing the teen’s release, according to KOMO News.

The teen faces first-degree assault with a deadly weapon and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm by a person under 18, King County Superior Court records show. Prosecutors also filed a firearm sentencing enhancement with the assault charge.

His shots were not responsible for any of the three deaths, according to court records cited by KOMO News.

Prosecutors said the boy was carrying a Polymer80 “ghost gun” fitted with an extended magazine capable of holding more than 30 rounds. The privately assembled weapon did not have a standard serial number and allegedly carried a vanity plate reading “1 SHOT 1 KILL.”

Investigators recovered at least four guns at the scene, including weapons allegedly tied to the teen and Niko-Semo, KOMO News reported. Police have been testing the firearms as they work to determine who else was involved in the deadly exchange.

The teen’s attorney asked a judge to release him to electronic monitoring at his father’s home. The judge rejected the request last week and ordered him to remain in custody.

The shooting also sparked scrutiny over the city’s delayed public updates and decision not to use its emergency alert system.

Days later, Wilson accepted Barnes’ resignation after he was asked to step down during a meeting with the mayor, five sources told FOX 13 Seattle. Barnes later defended his response and said he followed department protocol, KOMO News reported.

The teen is due back in juvenile court for a status hearing in October. Prosecutors will ask a judge in November to move the case to adult court.

Jennifer Aniston stepped into the moderator’s seat in New York City on Wednesday, publicly interviewing her boyfriend, Jim Curtis, as he celebrated the release of his new book, The Book of Possibility.

The 57-year-old Friends alum joined the 50-year-old author onstage at Kaufmann Concert Hall at 92NY Residence, where a packed audience watched the pair’s easy rapport and playful back-and-forth, according to photos and video obtained by the Daily Mail.

After their 30-minute conversation, the event opened up to fan questions, leading Aniston to share that Curtis was helping her confront a “deep fear” simply by having her lead the discussion.

The candid moment came when she was asked to name “one possibility” she was choosing that day.

Aniston answered that she was “choosing to overcome a very deep, deep fear of public speaking.”

Then, asked how she handles stress, the star answered, ‘I think I’m doing really well. Deep breaths and meditation.’ 

Aniston emphasized, ‘Truly. It is five deep, deep breaths. Focus. Take a moment.’

Meanwhile, Curtis opened up about his personal struggles during the one-on-one talk.

He shared the difficulty of coming to terms with his health in his early 20s, when doctors found lesions on his spinal cord, leading to partial paralysis and chronic nerve damage.

‘I’m not saying here that if the doctor tells you to do something, you should get up and leave,’ he explained about getting a grave diagnosis.

He said, ‘What I’m saying is you don’t have to live as the victim. You don’t have to live in your suffering. It can become your power.’

His advice for getting through a health ordeal is to ‘accept it and love it.’

However, he wasn’t always honest about why he walks with a limp.

‘I would say I got into a motorcycle accident,’ Curtis admitted. ‘I was so shameful that I had a medical condition. I was broken in some way. I thought the motorcycle accident was at least a little macho.’

Over the course of 25 years, he said he was able to ‘overcome’ his insecure thoughts with ‘self-acceptance and self-love.’

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Upon the conversation’s conclusion, Aniston thanked the audience and warmly embraced her boyfriend in front of the packed theater before exiting the stage. 

Aniston went Instagram official with Curtis to mark his birthday last November.

At the time, she professed her love for her beau as she shared a black and white image of her hugging him from behind.

She captioned the loved-up photo: ‘Happy birthday, my love. Cherished ❤️.’

The hypnotist also posted snapshots from his birthday party on his Instagram account across two posts.

One caption read: ’50 and feeling good! Birthday recap part 1. Thank you for all the wishes and love. So grateful for you my friends, family and community.’

Another more romantic one, including a wider shot of the photo Jennifer posted, had the sweet note, ‘If this is a dream I don’t want to wake up. ❤️.’

On Wednesday, insiders shared insight on the current state of the couple’s romance to Us Weekly. 

The source claimed that Aniston and Curtis have ‘moved beyond the excitement of a new relationship and are developing a genuine partnership.’

The pair are said to have ‘an ease about them that’s infectious’ and that that ease stems from them feeling ‘accepted’ by one another.

‘It comes from feeling accepted rather than needing to impress each other,’ the insider explained. 

‘They are more trusting and less guarded. They are just as comfortable discussing difficult subjects as they are being vulnerable with each other. It’s grown from an exciting connection to a dependable partnership.’

The insider also shared that Aniston’s friends are impressed by how ‘naturally’ her and Curtis’ ‘lives have blended together despite coming from totally different worlds.’

Pals are also convinced that the secret to the couple’s romantic success is because Curtis ‘is not part of the industry’ and does ‘his own thing.’

A former California mayor has been sentenced to prison after prosecutors said he spent months grooming a 17-year-old foreign exchange student before sexually abusing her.

Robert Brian Bassett, 58, received a sentence Wednesday of four years and four months in state prison after entering no-contest pleas to three felony child sexual abuse charges.

Authorities described the case as a devastating abuse of power and a profound betrayal of trust.

The teen had been staying at Bassett’s home in Biggs from April to November 2023 while participating in a foreign exchange program, living thousands of miles away from her family. Bassett was meant to provide her with a safe host home.

Instead, prosecutors said, he manipulated and groomed the girl over several months and sexually abused her more than once while she was still 17.

Bassett was also serving as mayor of Biggs at the time, a small Northern California town of roughly 2,000 people. Prosecutors cited the girl’s vulnerability, Bassett’s grooming and his abuse of her trust as aggravating factors, leading the judge to impose the maximum sentence.

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The victim told the court that she continues to suffer from what happened — and from the knowledge that someone she trusted betrayed her.

The case began to unravel after Bassett was arrested July 9, when police served a search warrant at his Biggs home. Investigators eventually contacted the victim in her home country, where she disclosed the abuse.

Bassett served on the Biggs City Council and acted as the town’s mayor from 2022 through December 2024.

While he initially maintained his position on the council after stepping down as mayor, he ultimately resigned from the City Council in early 2025 amid a past extortion investigation.

Following a subsequent criminal investigation into actions during his mayoral term, Bassett reached a legal plea deal.

As part of this agreement, two additional felony charges were dropped.

He was sentenced to over four years in state prison, and after prison, Bassett will be required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has upheld a lower court decision giving a father the final say over whether his daughter attends her mother’s evangelical church, resolving a dispute between the parents over the child’s religious upbringing.

In a ruling issued Tuesday, the state’s highest court left in place a Portland District Court judge’s order in a 2024 conflict between Matthew Bradeen and Emily Bickford involving their daughter, who was 11 at the time, according to The Maine Monitor.

Bickford had brought the child to Calvary Chapel Greater Portland, an evangelical congregation in Westbrook, several times a week.

Bradeen objected, describing the church as a “dangerous and harmful environment” and arguing that its teachings had contributed to his daughter’s anxiety. He said she experienced a panic attack after hearing messages about the Rapture, the Christian belief that believers will be taken to heaven during the end times while nonbelievers remain on Earth to face the apocalypse.

The lower court sided with Bradeen, finding that messages the child received at the church were “psychologically damaging” because of how it characterized her father, a ruling the state’s high court affirmed on Tuesday, according to The Maine Monitor.

The lower court ruling granted Bradeen the right to decide whether his daughter attends services at Calvary Chapel, participates in church activities or interacts with church members other than her mother.

The court also said the parents must “continue to share parental rights and responsibilities” when it comes to their daughter’s exposure to other religious groups.

If the two disagreed on their daughter’s religious exposure, the court ruled that the father has the final say. The court said the allocation of final decision-making authority stemmed from the parents’ inability to jointly make decisions about the child’s religious upbringing, not from disagreement with the mother’s religious beliefs.

Bickford’s lawyer, Mathew Staver, told The Maine Monitor he intends to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Bickford and her legal team have 90 days to appeal the decision to the nation’s highest court.

Staver’s law firm, Liberty Counsel, which describes itself as a Christian ministry focused on religious freedom, has been involved in other religious freedom cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including a 2022 case in which the court sided with a private religious group that Boston officials had prohibited from flying a Christian flag.

In the dispute between Bradeen and Bickford, Liberty Counsel argued to Maine’s high court that the 2024 order violated the mother’s First Amendment rights through its “open hostility” toward religious beliefs and by barring her from influencing the 
“Religious upbringing of her child as she sees fit,” the outlet reported.

“What Maine has done in this decision is put the Supreme Court of Maine at odds with the courts of a number of other states,” Staver said. “I think it will be a case that will be very significant and catch the attention of the Supreme Court because of how far-reaching it is with regards to the First Amendment exercise clause.”

Bradeen’s lawyer, Michelle King, called Tuesday’s decision “well thought-out and reasoned,” saying Bradeen was happy with the outcome, according to the outlet.

“Anytime you’re in court, it’s stressful,” King said. “But this case has definitely garnered a lot of media attention, and I think that’s always difficult for parents.”

Part of the case centered on a service in which the pastor singled out Bradeen by name, The Maine Monitor reported.

As legal proceedings for the original dispute were ongoing, Bickford brought her daughter to a service at Calvary Chapel Greater Portland, where pastor Travis Carey led a six-and-a-half-minute prayer focused on the case, referring to the parents and child by name almost 30 times, saying Bradeen is “in need of salvation” and calling the proceedings “an attack on God’s Word,” according to the report.

The Maine Supreme Court said Bickford did not make any attempt to pull her child from the service, and she later described it as “appropriate.”

Bickford “is unwilling to recognize, much less mitigate, the risk that these messages alienate the child from Bradeen or otherwise cause her harm,” the court wrote.

In the 2024 lower court order, Maine District Court Judge Jennifer Nofsinger wrote that the harm caused to the daughter did not result from “a belief system that is rooted in the Bible,” but rather, from the mother’s “inability to co-parent” regarding religion and the fact that she had given control of decisions about her daughter’s best interests to the church, and its language had denigrated the father.

“The court found that the child was harmed by Bickford’s decisions to expose the child to messages that characterized Bradeen as an ‘enemy’ who seeks to ‘persecute’ the child and her faith, and by Bickford’s unwillingness to prevent the child from receiving those messages or to take any other steps to reduce the risk of alienating her from Bradeen,” the Maine Supreme Court wrote in its decision on Tuesday upholding the lower court order.

The final finding “reflected simply that it is harmful for a child to hear negative and frightening messages about one parent from the other parent or the other parent’s authority figures.”

The court ruled that the order was based on the parents’ inability to co-parent on religion, not on the substance of Bickford’s religious beliefs, finding it necessary for one parent to be given the power to make final decisions over the other.

NEW YORK CITY — A woman described by authorities as apparently emotionally disturbed was shot and killed by New York City police Monday afternoon after she allegedly stabbed two people in Times Square in what officials called a “random and unprovoked” attack.

Police identified one of the victims as 32-year-old Erin Piacenti of Chester, New Jersey, who later died at a hospital. Piacenti was an employee at Bank of America, which said in a statement that it was “shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague.” The company added, “Our hearts go out to her family and all of her loved ones.”

According to a GoFundMe page, Piacenti and her husband had welcomed a baby girl five months ago. Monday marked her first day back at work following maternity leave.

Piacenti and her husband were both 2021 graduates of Fordham Law School. School officials said they were “heartbroken to learn of the tragic and senseless loss of our alumna.”

A second victim, a 68-year-old man from Rhode Island, was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, officials said. He has since been listed in stable condition.

The victims were stabbed within 20 seconds of each other near 41st Street and Seventh Avenue, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

The 68-year-old had just exited the subway and was waiting to cross the street with his wife when the suspect pulled two knives from a bag, waved them and then allegedly stabbed him in the abdomen “in what appears to be a random and unprovoked attack,” Tisch said at a press briefing.

The suspect then went up Seventh Avenue toward 42nd Street, where she approached the second victim, who was similarly stabbed in the abdomen in an apparently random, unprovoked attack, Tisch said.

The suspect allegedly then fled north toward the NYPD substation, authorities said. Witnesses flagged down officers who confronted her for four minutes and “gave her numerous commands to drop the knife,” which she refused, Tisch said.”

During the encounter, she told the officers, ‘I’m not dropping anything. I would rather kill both of you.’ She repeated, ‘I will kill you,'” Tisch said.

Officers deployed Tasers before two officers discharged their service weapons, Tisch said.

The suspect, identified by police as 49-year-old Pamela Cisneros of Queens, was pronounced dead at a hospital. She had a “documented mental health history,” Tisch said. Police officials stressed the woman appears emotionally disturbed and the incident is not terror-related.

Two knives were recovered from the scene.

“I want to thank the NYPD officers who stepped in and prevented a horrific attack from becoming even worse,” NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during the press briefing. “This is what the men and women of this department do every single day to keep our city safe.”

The NYPD will conduct an internal investigation, and body-worn camera footage will be released to the public, the mayor said.