Day: April 23, 2026
‘Dozens of bystanders’ reportedly record video while 15-year-old boy is mercilessly beaten then fatally shot at playground
“Dozens of bystanders” reportedly were recording video while a 15-year-old boy was mercilessly beaten and then fatally shot at a New York City playground last week.
Former Mayor Eric Adams posted video on X showing Thursday’s deadly altercation, and the New York Daily News reported that the clip shows “dozens of bystanders … recording” while the beatdown took place.
‘They treated it all as entertainment. He was already beat up. He was helpless, and they shot him.’
The Daily News added that the video shows at least three individuals repeatedly punching and kicking victim Jaden Pierre as he tries to protect himself amid the attack.
The paper said one of the attackers is seen grabbing Pierre’s hoodie and throwing him to the ground. After Pierre gets back up, one of the attackers pulls a gun and pistol-whips Pierre, and gunfire rings out, the Daily News said, adding that Pierre collapses to the ground, and the crowd runs away.
The paper said Pierre suffered a gunshot wound to the chest.
The day after the fatal shooting, New York City Police posted images of an individual they said is wanted for the homicide of the 15-year-old victim.
On Tuesday, the NYPD said 18-year-old gang member Zahir Davis is the individual being sought in connection with the shooting at the Nautilus Playground inside Ray Wilkins Park in Queens, according the the Daily News.
However, police sources told the paper the shooter has connections to the Caribbean nation of Jamaica and may have fled there after the deadly altercation.
There are conflicting reports regarding why a crowd gathered at the playground that day. The Daily News said Pierre was attending a water-gun fight he helped organize over social media. WPIX-TV also said it was a water-gun fight. However, WABC-TV said the gathering was for a water-balloon fight.
The Daily News said an unidentified associate of Davis recognized Pierre from a previous brawl, after which Davis and the unidentified associate cornered Pierre against a fence, where they were caught on video beating the teen as dozens of bystanders stood by recording the attack.
Soon the shooting took place, the paper said, adding that police said forensic investigators will determine if the shooting was accidental.
“When you watch the video, he strikes him in the head with a gun, and as he comes down, the shot rings out,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said, according to the paper.
Kenny said the man who incited Thursday’s attack jumped Pierre in January, and Pierre’s friends retaliated by beating that same man, the Daily News reported.
Kenny also noted that Davis is part of the BG4 crew — short for Blitz Gang 4 — which operates in southeast Queens, the paper said.
At a Monday evening vigil for Pierre, New York Attorney General Letitia James said detectives had identified the shooter and urged the suspect to surrender himself, the Daily News said.
“I want everyone to know that the police know who shot Jaden,” James said as she stood with the victim’s family and hundreds of mourners just steps from the scene of the crime, according to the paper.
The attorney general added, “I would urge this gentleman to turn himself in, to surrender as soon as possible, before the NYPD gets to you. They know who you are,” the Daily News reported.
Gardy Pierre, the victim’s father, added the following during the vigil, according to the above WCBS-TV video: “I know how tough he was. They knew, man. That was the only way to put him down. ‘Cause they know he’s gonna stand up tall on 10 toes every time, man.”
The victim’s older sister, 17-year-old Nellie Pierre, had harsh words for those recording video of the attack on her brother, telling the Daily News that “everyone there recording did nothing. They treated it all as entertainment. He was already beat up. He was helpless, and they shot him.”
The paper, citing relatives, said Jaden attended ninth grade at Eagle Academy and was looking forward to starting a new job through the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program.
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Glenn Beck exposes the Fed’s hidden stash — and it’s worse than we thought
For years, Glenn Beck has called for the abolition of the Federal Reserve, arguing it’s nothing more than a private banking cartel that enables endless government spending, devalues the dollar through inflation, and secretly steals wealth from Americans via corrupt monetary policies.
But new evidence that just surfaced proves the problem is even worse than he thought.
To explain what’s been happening behind the American people’s back, Glenn gives an analogy.
“Imagine the U.S. economy is like one giant, never-ending house party that’s been raging for years, and the Federal Reserve is the bartender in charge of the punch bowl. The punch bowl, that’s liquidity, easy money flowing through the banks and the markets and the businesses,” he begins.
For years, the “punch” was overdistributed, making partygoers drunk and willing to make poor decisions. “This is when stocks and houses get wildly overpriced. Companies borrow stupid amounts … and everybody starts to do stupid things,” Glenn says.
That’s exactly what happened in 2022 when the Federal Reserve “just printed a whole buttload of money,” he says.
But when things “got ugly,” it suddenly reversed course and announced an initiative called “quantitative tightening,” which essentially “drained the whole punch bowl.”
The Federal Reserve “needed to get rid of $2.3 trillion worth of bonds that they owned, and they said, ‘We’re just going to let them expire,”’ Glenn explains.
“In theory, this drains the money out of the system, makes it harder for you to get loans and everything else. Borrowing is more expensive. The bubbles will pop. It forces the economy to sober up.”
But this was just a ruse, Glenn says.
Instead of actually stopping the flow of “punch,” the Federal Reserve during the COVID-19 pandemic quietly redirected it instead.
“A lot of it ended up in a giant backroom keg called the overnight reverse repo facility. … These are money market funds, big investors, big banks,” Glenn says, “and they parked about $2.5 trillion in for safekeeping, and they were earning a safe interest rate from the Fed.”
But then the backroom keg finally ran dry.
“By 2023, something had changed. The short-term Treasury bills (super safe government IOUs) started paying higher interest than the keg in the back room, so the big investors said, ‘Why are we letting all the alcohol sit in the keg? We can have a party elsewhere,”’ Glenn says. “So they started draining the backroom keg $100-$200 billion every single month, and they poured that money right back into stocks and bonds and lending.”
What was the result?
“More punch than we started with in the first place!” Glenn exclaims.
“That’s why the Dow Jones keeps hitting new highs, government keeps funding huge deficits. … The bartender was pretending to cut off the drinks while secretly letting the elite guests go into the back room and get the hidden stash.”
These still-drunk elites, Glenn says, continue to “make stupid, dumb bets,” which just makes the “hangover worse” for the normies.
“Look out, gang — you’ve been lied to yet again,” he cautions, calling the Federal Reserve a “criminal organization” that is “stealing from the American people.”
“End the Fed,” he pleads.
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Should SNAP recipients be able to buy sugary snacks? Florida man sparks BRUTAL online debate.
One Florida man’s complaint against Republicans forbidding snacks and soda purchases in the food welfare program sparked a massive debate online.
Critics of the Trump administration have angrily denounced the ban on unhealthy foods purchased with taxpayer funds through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
‘There are thousands of people who don’t use benefits who have to say no to soda/candy bc they can’t afford it.’
One Florida man became the center of the debate on the X social media platform after complaining about the ban on Monday.
“As of today, Florida SNAP recipients can’t buy soda or candy because God forbid we allow a single mom and her kids a few moments of happiness at the end of the day,” wrote the man, who identified as a NeverTrumper.
The suggestion was immediately buried by a landslide of responses from those defending the ban on taxpayer-funded candy and soda.
“There is no nutritional value in candy or soda. What Texas and Florida are doing fits the purpose of the program, which is making sure families have access to nutritious food. It buys meat, milk, bread, eggs, etc,” economic expert Amy Nixon replied.
“Where does it end? How much should taxpayers be on the hook for? It’s not Monopoly money. We give people who (mostly) made decisions resulting in the [U.S.] paying their way. There are thousands of people who don’t use benefits who have to say no to soda/candy bc they can’t afford it,” responded Blaze Media social media editor Jessica O’Donnell.
“SNAP recipients can still buy soda and candy if they want. They just have to use their own money, like everyone else. SNAP is government assistance for supplemental NUTRITION; soda & candy is not nutrition,” GOP communications specialist Christina Pushaw replied.
“Soda and candy are luxuries. If you are reliant on taxpayer funding to feed your family, then you cannot afford luxuries. Many average citizens who DO NOT rely on taxpayer funding have to cut out luxury items,” another popular response reads.
“Taxpayer funded SNAP was not designed to bring single moms and kids moments of happiness,” another critic replied. “It’s [sic] intent is to provide low income households with basic nutritional sustenance. If junkfood makes you happy, you’re welcome to buy it with your earned money like the rest of us.”
A group of SNAP recipients has filed a lawsuit to stop the ban on junk foods, sugary sodas, and energy drinks after arguing that it’s discriminatory against diabetics and people with “avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder.”
The original poster followed up with a response to the furor he caused.
“I’m obviously not spending my day replying to all of these but if you are bothered by people getting a soda and some candy but not the billions and billions of dollars that we waste every day at the Pentagon, you should do some soul-searching,” he wrote.
“We could fund an entire week of nationwide snap benefits for every day of our engagement with Iran,” he added.
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‘Pure evil’: Ex-migrant arrested for murdering DHS employee found dead in his prison cell
A naturalized citizen from the U.K. who allegedly went on a shooting spree in Georgia and murdered a DHS employee walking her dog has been found dead in his prison cell while awaiting trial.
Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, was arrested after a witness saw him last week standing over the body of Lauren Bullis, an auditor with the Department of Homeland Security.
Police said the killing was the third murderous attack Adon Abel had committed in a series that included the lethal shooting of a woman and another shooting that killed a homeless man.
The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Adon Abel was found unresponsive in his jail cell just after 6:48 p.m. Tuesday and was pronounced dead 29 minutes later after detention staff tried to revive him.
Officials said there was no evidence of foul play in his death, and an internal investigation will determine the circumstances of his death.
Bullis was walking her dog on April 13 when Adon Abel shot and stabbed her, according to police. Her neighbor said she saw the man trying to pull the victim’s pants off after the attack before he fled.
Police said the killing was the third murderous attack Adon Abel had committed in a series that included the lethal shooting of a woman and another shooting that killed a homeless man.
DHS later released the man’s extensive prior criminal convictions that included “sexual battery, battery against a police officer, obstruction, assault with a deadly weapon, and vandalism.”
“These acts of pure evil have devastated our Department and my prayers are with the families of the victims,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said.
Adon Abel was naturalized by the Biden administration in 2022.
Mullin went on to say that the Trump administration is making efforts to prevent dangerous criminals from entering the country through the immigration system.
“In an effort to remove murderers like this from our communities, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the creation of a new vetting center on December 5, 2025, to enhance screening and vetting of immigration applications, with a focus on identifying terrorists, criminal aliens, and other threats to public safety,” reads a statement from DHS.
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Cause of death revealed for teen who authorities say was killed by D4vd
The teenager who Los Angeles prosecutors allege was killed by musician D4vd and found inside the trunk of a car in Hollywood died from “multiple penetrating injuries” from objects, a medical examiner’s report released on Wednesday said.
One month phone-free: Young Americans try digital detox
In March, a group of 20- and 30-somethings in the US capital swapped their smartphones for basic flip phones and embarked on a one-month digital detox, part of an emerging movement of young Americans seeking to break free from the harmful effects of social media.
Spurs swingman Keldon Johnson wins NBA’s Sixth Man award
The NBA announced Wednesday that San Antonio Spurs swingman Keldon Johnson has been voted the league’s Sixth Man of the Year by a 100-member global media panel.
Gab Mejia is the lone Filipino creative selected for FOTO Bali Festival 2026
Gab Mejia is set to represent the Philippines at the second edition of the FOTO Bali Festival scheduled for June 3 to July 12 at the Nuanu Creative City.
LIVE UPDATES: Conflict in the Middle East (April 23, 2026)
Here are the latest news and updates on the US-Israel war against Iran and related developments.
Iran refuses to reopen Hormuz amid US blockade, citing ceasefire violations
Iran said on Wednesday it would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz as long as the US naval blockade remained in place, calling it a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire between the longtime foes.
