OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The shooting that critically injured a 15-year-old at an Omaha high school Tuesday began with a physical fight between two boys before one used a gun hidden inside his hoodie to shoot the other in the stomach, according to court documents.
The 14-year-old suspect appeared in court Wednesday afternoon and was charged as an adult with first-degree felony assault, two weapons charges and tampering with evidence. He was arrested a few blocks away from Omaha's Northwest High School about half an hour after the shooting was reported just after midday.
Court documents say a security camera at the school showed the victim approach the suspect before the fight began. The suspect had his right hand inside the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt before firing once and the victim dropped to the ground. The video showed the suspect holding the gun before putting it back in his pocket and leaving.
Police recovered the gun they believe was used in the shooting Tuesday evening after searching the neighborhood around the high school.
The victim of the shooting remained in stable condition Wednesday at an Omaha hospital, but Officer Michael Pecha said it wasn’t immediately clear whether his injuries could still be life-threatening because he faces additional surgeries.
The suspect's attorney, Douglas County Assistant Public Defender Benjamin Westhoff, said the teen's mother told police that he was a target of “continued and excessive bullying” at school and she was in the process of trying to move him to a different school.
“This isn’t a random act,” Westhoff said of the shooting, according to the Omaha World-Herald. “I believe this 14-year-old (was) dealing with some serious schooling issues leading up to the alleged acts.”
Officials at the public defender's office didn't immediately respond to a message from The Associated Press Wednesday afternoon.
Bond was set at $275,000, and if his family was able to post bond the suspect would be required to wear a GPS monitor. He is scheduled to return to court for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 16.
The shooting sent students running at Northwest High School before officials locked the school down. Once police secured the building, students were gradually released to their families classroom by classroom Tuesday afternoon. Classes at the school were canceled on Wednesday.
The Omaha Police Department said several threats to other area schools were made on social media after Tuesday’s shooting. Investigators don’t believe any of those threats were credible, but based on what police uncovered a 14-year-old student received a long-term suspension, an 11-year-old was arrested and a 13-year-old was ticketed for their role in sending threats. Additional arrests are expected.
The Omaha shooting followed last week's school shooting in Georgia that killed two teachers and two students in the town of Winder. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded.
The attack was among dozens of school shootings across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.
Family members of students at Northwest high school gather and wait for students to be released from the school after a shooting was reported Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (Megan Nielsen/Omaha World-Herald via AP)
Artemis Else, right, hugs Angie Caswell as they wait outside Northwest high school after a shooting was reported Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (Megan Nielsen/Omaha World-Herald via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs faces federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges in an indictment, unsealed Tuesday, claiming he hit and abused women for over a decade and presided over a sordid empire of sexual crimes.
The music mogul “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals,” according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
The indictment details allegations dating to 2008 that he abused, threatened and coerced women for years “to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.” He is accused of inducing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes dayslong sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs” in the indictment. It also refers obliquely to an attack on his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video.
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. He was due in court Tuesday to face the charges.
Over the past year, Combs has been sued by people who say he subjected them to physical or sexual abuse. He has denied many of those allegations, and his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said outside the courthouse Tuesday morning that Combs would plead not guilty and that he would “fight like hell” to try to get his client released from custody.
Of Combs, Agnifilo said, “His spirits are good. He’s confident.”
The indictment describes Combs, 54, as the head of a criminal enterprise that engaged or attempted to engage in activities including sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice. He's accused of striking, punching and dragging women on numerous occasions, throwing objects and kicking them — and enlisting his personal assistants, security and household staff to help him hide it all.
Combs and his associates wielded his “power and prestige” to “intimidate, threaten, 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 in with male sex workers in the “Freak Offs” — “elaborate and produced sex performances” that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during and often recorded.
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 physical exertion and drug use” from “Freak Offs,” the indictment said. It said his employees facilitated “Freak Offs” by arranging travel, booking hotel rooms where they would take place and stocking those rooms with supplies, including drugs, baby oil, lubricants, extra linens and lighting, scheduling the delivery of IV fluids, and then cleaning the rooms afterward.
During a search of Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles this year, law enforcement seized narcotics and more than a thousand bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to the indictment. Agents also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers, the indictment said.
It alleges that, unbeknownst to his victims, Combs sometimes kept his videos of them 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, including by attempting to bribe them and providing them with a false narrative of events, the indictment says.
All of this, prosecutors allege, was happening behind the facade of Combs’ global music, lifestyle and clothing empire.
Combs was recognized as one of the most influential figures in hip-hop before a flood of allegations that emerged over the past year turned him into an industry pariah.
In November, Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra 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.
Combs and his attorneys denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Ventura, said in a statement Tuesday that “neither Ms. Ventura nor I have any comment.”
“We appreciate your understanding and if that changes, we will certainly let you know,” he added.
A woman said Combs raped her two decades ago when she was 17. A music producer sued, saying Combs forced him to have sex with prostitutes. Another woman, April Lampros, said Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters,” starting when she was a college student in 1994.
The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ventura and Lampros did.
Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, has gotten out of legal trouble before.
In 2001, he was acquitted of charges related to a Manhattan nightclub shooting two years earlier that injured three people. His then-protege, Shyne, was convicted of assault and other charges and served about eight years in prison.
This story has been corrected to show that Combs is 54, not 58.
Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Lawrence Stark, of the Bronx borough of New York, makes comments in support of Sean "Diddy" Combs, outside Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - Sean Combs arrives at the LA Premiere of "The Four: Battle For Stardom" at the CBS Radford Studio Center on Wednesday, May 30, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, file)
Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - Sean "Diddy" Combs appears at the premiere of "Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story" on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
FILE -Sean 'Diddy' Combs participates in "The Four" panel during the FOX Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 4, 2018. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Host Sean "Diddy" Combs presents the revolt black excellence award at the Billboard Music Awards, May 15, 2022, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
Sean 'Diddy' Combs is expected in court after New York indictment
Sean 'Diddy' Combs is expected in court after New York indictment
FILE - Sean "Diddy" Combs arrives at the LA Premiere of "The Four: Battle For Stardom" at the CBS Radford Studio Center on May 30, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)
