American believed to be last person to see missing US student left the Dominican Republic
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Joshua Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud University in Minnesota who is believed to be the last person to see missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki in the Dominican Republic, left the Caribbean country on Wednesday, his lawyers said.
Following a trial exceeding five hours, Judge Edwin Rijo ruled Wednesday that Riibe, classified as a witness in a disappearance case , should have full rights under Dominican law and unrestricted freedom of movement.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
US agents arrest two migrants at NY courthouse
US agents pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a New York courthouse Friday, wrestling them to the ground in a forceful display of President Donald Trump's crackdown on people without papers. The two men had just attended a scheduled hearing when plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, some wearing black face masks, grabbed them. The officers yelled for the men not to move or put up resistance and forced them to lay face-down on the ground as they tied their hands behind their backs and arrested them. The immigrants were then whisked away into an elevator on the 12th floor of the Jacob K Javits Federal Building in Manhattan. The routine appointment they hoped would be a step toward life in America ended in shock and detention. AFP was on hand to witness these events because there was a similar arrest at the same courthouse earlier in the week and the agency suspected more might be imminent. It was not immediately clear exactly why these two men were arrested nor the fate that awaits them. Trump was elected to a second term largely on a promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants and Americans largely support the idea. But polls show they also find tactics like surprise courthouse arrests by agents with black masks to be harsh. In recent weeks ICE agents have intensified operations like this in and around American immigration courts. After Trump swept back into power in January, the Department of Homeland Security revoked regulations that limited agents' access to protected areas like the courts. One of the men arrested was a 34-year-old Dominican named Joaquin Rosario who arrived in the United States a year ago, registered with authorities as he came in, and had his first immigration hearing Friday, said a relative of his, Julian Rosario, who declined to say how they were related. "He was at ease. He did not think anything was going to happen," said the relative, who was still visibly upset by what he had witnessed as agents threw the other man to the ground. Rosario was so unworried he did not even bother to have a lawyer with him, the relative said. The other detainee looked to be Asian. He arrived on his own and was accompanied by one of many immigration advocacy group volunteers who walk with such immigrants to and from the courtroom. The idea is to make them feel safe. This time the volunteers screamed out as the agents arrested the two men but this did nothing to halt the raid. Before this arrest other immigrants with appointments, including entire families, came and went with no problem. A pair of Venezuelans who refused to give their names were jubilant because their next appointment is not until 2027 -- that's how backlogged the US immigration court system is. - 'Sound the alarm' - Human rights groups are outraged by these operations, arguing that they sap trust in the courts and make immigrants wary of showing up for appointments as they try to gain US residency. "They're illegal abductions," said Karen Ortiz, herself a court employee who was demonstrating Friday against these sudden arrests of migrants. "We need to sound the alarm and show the public how serious this is and one way we can do that is actually physically putting ourselves between a masked ICE agent and someone they're trying to detain and send away," Ortiz told AFP. Since returning to power Trump has dramatically tested the limits of executive power as he cracked down on foreigners without papers, arguing that the United States is being invaded by criminals and other undesirables. af/dg/dw/sla
Miami Herald
9 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Man accused in ‘horrific' deaths of family of four in NY arrested, officials say
A man suspected of killing a family of four in New York, including two young children, was arrested in the Dominican Republic, authorities said. Luis Francisco Soriano, also known as Jefry Yevo, was working at a hotel in Punta Cana after learning that federal marshals were in Puerto Rico, where he fled to after the killings, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a June 4 news release. He was one of the USMS District of Puerto Rico's top 10 most wanted fugitives, according to authorities. Dominican authorities and members of the USMS in Santo Domingo arrested the 31-year-old Soriano after he finished a shift at the hotel's call center, authorities said. 'Every case is important to us, but this one not only deeply impacted our communities in New York and Puerto Rico, it shook our entire nation,' Wilmer Ocasio-Ibarra, U.S. Marshal for the District of Puerto Rico, said in the release. 'The horrific nature of this crime, which resulted in the tragic death of a family, including two innocent children, rocked the very foundation of our society governed by law and order.' Soriano and his brother are accused of killing two kids, ages 2 and 4, and their parents at their home in Irondequoit on Aug. 31, 2024, authorities said and WHEC reported. Police found the family dead in the basement while responding to a fire, according to WHEC. Soriano and his brother, Julio Cesar Pimentel-Soriano, who was arrested a week after the killings, face charges including murder, burglary, kidnapping and arson, WHAM reported. Irondequoit is about 5-mile drive northeast from Rochester.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
Chicago police officer -- mom to young daughter -- gunned down while on duty
A 36-year-old police officer who was a mother to a young daughter and four-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department has been shot and killed while on duty in Chicago, police said. The incident occurred at approximately 9:50 p.m. on Thursday night when Chicago Police Department officers assigned to the 6th (Gresham) District Tactical Team were on patrol when they attempted to conduct an investigatory stop on a male suspect in the 8200 block of S. Drexel Avenue, according to a statement from the Chicago Police Department. MORE: US Border Patrol tactical unit deployed to help manhunt for escaped Arkansas inmate Officers approached the suspect, but the individual immediately fled on foot into a nearby building, police said. Law enforcement subsequently pursued the suspect into the building but were confronted by another individual who was armed inside of the residence which the suspect fled to, authorities continued. 'The armed offender fled the residence and was taken into custody,' police said. 'An officer sustained a gunshot wound and was taken to an area hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries.' MORE: US Marshals arrest Dominican man wanted in quadruple homicide, including victims aged 2 and 4 The police officer who died has not yet been named but Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said said she was a 36-year-old female officer who had been with the department for four years at the 6th District and was a mother to a young daughter. "She lost her life tragically doing the job that she loved and that was one of the things that her mother said, she loved her job and the way that she worked, it was evident that she did love her job and she wanted to make Chicago a better place,' Snelling said during a press conference. 'She wanted to make it safer." MORE: Climber falls over 3,000 feet to his death off tallest mountain in North America MORE: 3 plane crash survivors plucked from Atlantic Ocean at night after plane goes down off Florida coast Mayor Brandon Johnson said the entire city is mourning the loss of this officer. "This young woman served honorably and courageously. I am calling on the entire city of Chicago to keep this officer's family in your prayers along with our entire police department," Mayor Johnson said. "Her young, energetic bold approach toward keeping us safe is the memory that we will honor." An additional officer sustained an injury to the wrist and was taken to the hospital in fair condition, police said, but no other injuries were reported. MORE: 61-year-old man survives being pinned down by 700-pound boulder for 3 hours in Alaska creek Three firearms were located on the scene and multiple people were taken into custody, police said. Overall, between Jan. 1 and April 30, 16 police officers in the United States have been feloniously killed in the line of duty and firearms were used in 75% of those incidents, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice. The leading circumstances surrounding officers' deaths included activities related to responses to unlawful or suspicious activities, pursuits and traffic stops, according to the Justice Department. MORE: Tourists at beach house find human remains dating back 200 years Accidental law enforcement deaths, however, have decreased 68.2% when comparing the first four months of 2024 (22 deaths) with those of 2025 (7 deaths), with the leading causes of accidental deaths in 2025 being motor vehicle crashes and officers struck by vehicle. The investigation into the death of the 36-year-old officer is currently ongoing. Chicago police officer -- mom to young daughter -- gunned down while on duty originally appeared on
