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Meteorologists saidthe stormis the strongest in a decade, dumping more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) of snow in parts of the metropolitan Northeast, shattering accumulation records in places, immobilizing transit and even leading the United Nations to postpone a Security Council meeting. Officials declared emergencies, schools closed, including in New York City, which had its first "old-school" snow day in six years, andpeople grappled with power failures.

Even as the snow moved northward and tapered off in other areas, the National Weather Service said it is tracking another storm that could bring more snow to the region later this week.

The weather service referred to Monday's storm as a "classic bomb cyclone/nor'easter off the Northeast coast." Abomb cyclonehappens when a storm's pressure falls by a certain amount within a 24-hour period, occurring mainly in the fall and winter when frigid Arctic air can reach the south and clash with warmer temperatures.

While it was paralyzing and potentially dangerous for millions along the Eastern Seaboard, meteorologists found themselves rhapsodizing over the combination of power and beauty.

The storm hit the "Goldilocks situation" of just the right temperature for wet, heavy snow: Any warmer and its precipitation wouldn't have fallen as snow, any colder and there wouldn't have been as much moisture in the air to feed that snowfall, said Owen Shieh, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

People begin digging out even as snowfall continues

In Lower Manhattan, snow shovelers appeared to outnumber commuting office workers, and pedestrians walked freely in streets normally blocked by morning traffic.

"It's very quiet, except for the howling winds," said Luis Valez, a concierge at a residential tower just off Wall Street, as he cleared the sidewalk. "A couple of residents have gone out to get their essentials. Other than that, there's nothing."

Matthew Wojtkowiak, 57, an attorney, was also shoveling in his Brooklyn neighborhood.

"I'm from the Midwest, so this is in the zone," he said. "Not too bad, not too easy, either."

Schools were closed, and he said he hoped people would get out and enjoy the snow.

"We have sleds at the ready," he said.

Karen Smith and Adele Bawden are tourists visiting New York from the United Kingdom.

"We've been dancing in Times Square this morning in the middle of the road in rush hour," Bawden said. "We've just been dancing and not believing we could do it."

Ingrid Devita said she liked to patrol the Lower East Side on skis, checking on people who might need help.

"I find people fall in the snow and they can't get up," she said.

Central Park in New York City recorded 19 inches (48 centimeters) of snow. Warwick, Rhode Island, exceeded 3 feet (91 centimeters), topping the nation so far. The highest wind gust of 83 mph (133 kph) was recorded in Nantucket, with hurricane-force gusts seen all over Cape Cod.

In Connecticut, crews at the Mystic Seaport Museum prepared to clear snow from a fleet of historic ships, including the 113-foot-long Charles W. Morgan, a wooden whaling ship from the 19th century American merchant fleet.

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Shannon McKenzie, vice president of watercraft operations and preservation, said shipyard staff will clear the snow by hand using rubber or plastic shovels because machinery or metal shovels could damage the boats.

Storm fuels power outages and disrupts flights

New York, Philadelphia and other cities, as well as several states, declared emergencies.

More than 5,600 flights in and out of the United States were canceled Monday, and a further 2,000 flights scheduled for Tuesday were grounded, according to the flight tracking websiteFlightAware. Most of the cancelations involved airports in New York, New Jersey and Boston. Almost 2,500 flights were delayed.

Rhode Island's T.F. Green International Airport announced Monday that it was temporarily ending all airport operations. The Weather Service reported that the facility got nearly 38 inches (96.5 centimeters) of snow, breaking a record set in 1978.

Public transit ground to a halt in some areas, while DoorDash suspended deliveries in New York City overnight into Monday.

Meteorologists said strong winds and heavy, wet snow are a recipe for damaged trees and prolonged power outages.

More than 450,000 utility customers nationwide remained in darkness Monday evening, according toPowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.

Snow slows commuter transport and forces snow days

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Monday evening that subway lines are mostly operational after earlier delays, with the exception of the hard-hit borough of Staten Island, where rail service remained suspended. Delays would likely continue on lines that run outdoors.

Commuter rail service to suburbs to the north and east of the city were expected to resume limited service ahead of the Tuesday morning commute, the MTA said. Bus commuters should also expect long wait times.

Outreach workers meanwhile tried to coax homeless New Yorkers into shelters and warming centers.

Various landmarks and cultural institutions were closed Monday, including New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Broadway shows were canceled Sunday evening.

New York City and Boston canceled public school classes for Monday, while Philadelphia switched to online learning. Districts on Long Island and elsewhere in the New York suburbs said they would cancel school for a second day on Tuesday.

But New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said class would be back in person.

Officials in one of the city's Republican strongholds criticized the Democratic mayor's move. Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said schools should remain closed because roads are impassable and sidewalks are blocked. The teacher's union, the United Federation of Teachers, advised its members to be cautious and put their safety first when deciding whether to report to work.

Spokespersons for Mamdani didn't respond to an email seeking comment but his schools chief defended the decision on social media.

Chancellor Kamar Samuels said the district "couldn't be 100% certain" that every student would have access to the devices they needed for remote learning, despite school officials' "best efforts" to distribute them ahead of the storm.

"We are confident in our decision to reopen," hewrote on X. "Our schools and city are ready to welcome students and staff back tomorrow."

Izaguirre reported from Albany, New York, and Rush reported from Portland, Oregon. Associated Press writers Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pennsylvania; Mark Kennedy and Mike Sisak in New York; Darlene Superville in Washington; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Philip Marcelo in Buenos Aires, Argentina contributed.

"Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," Trump said in an address to the nation.

The Pentagon backed up Trump's assessment.

Trump considering initial limited strike against Iran, source says

"It's delayed by one to two years. I think we're thinking probably closer to two years," chief spokesperson Sean Parnell told reporters in July.

Now, eight months later, the president is once again weighing military strikes against Iran with the administration providing shifting explanations on the goals. In recent weeks, Trump has said he wanted to stop Tehran's recentdeadly crackdown on protestors-- which he said ended at his behest -- as well to curb Iran's ballistic missile arsenal and its nuclear program.

Last week, Trump gave Iran 15 days to cut a deal that would prohibit Iran from enriching uranium. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi refused, saying the country has the right to a nuclear program, which he says is for peaceful purposes.

This weekend, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff suggested the urgency has to do with Iran being dangerously close to obtaining enough highly enriched uranium to make a bomb.

"They're probably a week away from having industrial-grade, bomb-making material, and that's really dangerous. So, [we] can't have that," Witkoff said in an interview with Fox News that aired on Saturday.

But analysts and international inspectors say Iran's access to highly enriched uranium has been a concern for several months already, along with satellite imagery suggesting that Iran is trying to rebuild. An exact picture of Iran's nuclear program is unclear because Iran blocked international inspectors from accessing the sites after the June bombing.

2nd US carrier group heads toward Middle East amid Iran tensions

When asked why the president is focusing on cutting an urgent deal on a nuclear program he says he obliterated months ago, a White House official said "the President has been clear that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons or the capacity to build them, and that they cannot enrich uranium."

Last summer, an early classified assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency concluded the three nuclear sites bombed by the U.S. weren't completely destroyed, leaving much of the materials buried but intact.

Likewise, Rafael Grossi, head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a February interview with the French television network TFI that he believes much Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium likely remains at the sites bombed by the U.S.

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According to a translation, Grossi said "some of it [the enriched uranium] may be less accessible, but the material is still there."

The IAEA estimates that some 972 pounds of highly enriched uranium remained unaccounted for following the U.S. bombing.

Analysts say a more critical question about Iran is whether the regime has made a decision on how quickly to move toward trying to build a bomb.

In arecent analysis,the Institute for Science and International Security estimated the current probability that the Iranian regime would decide to build a nuclear weapon at 40 to 50 percent.

If Iran decides to move ahead, the group says, its success in building a weapon would probably be even lower -- less than 15% in a short period of time, and 42% over a longer timeframe.

"The war saw the destruction of its gas centrifuge program and much of its nuclear weaponization facilities," according to the group's analysis.

"Nonetheless, important remnants and knowledge remain that could form the core of small gas centrifuge enrichment and nuclear weaponization capabilities," the report added.

How bunker-busters and B-2 stealth bombers struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear program

ABC News confirmed last week that among the options Trump is considering is a limited strike against Iran to force its hand negotiating. If that doesn't work, Trump could pursue a possible sustained military operation intended to topple the regime -- a campaign that could last weeks and pose risks to the 30,000 to 40,000 U.S. troops stationed in the region, experts say.

Trump pushed back Monday against media reports that his top military adviser, Gen. Dan Caine, privately cautioned that a lack of munitions and support from allies could pose risks to U.S. troops.

"General Caine, like all of us, would like not to see War but, if a decision is made on going against Iran at a Military level, it is his opinion that it will be something easily won," Trump posted on his social media platform.

According to a U.S. official, Tehran was expected to offer a new nuclear proposal by Tuesday ahead of another round of negotiations in Geneva led by Witkoff on Thursday. The meeting would be the second round of indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran, with Omanis and Qataris passing notes between the delegations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Iran during a speech to the Knesset on Monday, warning the Iranian ayatollah if Iran strikes Israel, "we will respond with a force they cannot even imagine," according to remarks of his speech google translated from Hebrew to English.

"No one knows what the day will bring. We are vigilant, we are prepared for any scenario," Netanyahu said.

ABC News' Shannon Kingston and Jordana Miller contributed to this report.

The cartel produced a similar nationwide show of force in 2015, even using a rocket propelled grenade to shoot down a Mexican army helicopter, after the Mexican military tried to capture Oseguera Cervantes, more commonly known as "El Mencho."

In 2019, the rival Sinaloa Cartel waged war on the Mexican government when it tried to arrest one of the sons of its leader, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

"If past is prologue, what we've seen is that there will be at least a week, maybe more, of these sort of violent reprisals by the cartels. And then things will turn inward," Anthony Placido, former head of intelligence for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, told USA TODAY.

After Mexican officials announced a powerful Mexican cartel leader was killed during a military operation on Sunday, several regions of the country are grappling with ongoing security risks and unrest.
Police officers secure the area where vehicles were set on fire by organized crime members to block a road following a military operation in which a government source said Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, commonly known as "El Mencho," was killed, in Zapopan, Mexico, Feb. 22, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Mexican Army personnel stand guard as passengers leave Guadalajara International Airport in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco State, Mexico, on Feb. 22, 2026.

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Photos show Mexico unrest after cartel leader 'El Mencho' killed

After Mexican officials announced apowerful Mexican cartel leaderwas killed during a military operation on Sunday, several regions of the country are grappling withongoing security risks and unrest.Police officers secure the area where vehicles were set on fire by organized crime members to block a road following a military operation in which a government source said Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, commonly known as "El Mencho," was killed, in Zapopan, Mexico, Feb. 22, 2026.

Already, criminal violence has engulfed parts of Mexico after troops killed Oseguera Cervantes in a Feb. 22 shootout in the cartel's stronghold in the western coastal state of Jalisco.

The cartel's response was immediate, spreading outward from Jalisco and plunging much of Mexico into chaos and violence. CJNG soldiers set cars, buses and businesses on fire and blockaded roads inviolence that spreadto 20 states. Mexican authorities said at least 62 people were killed, including 25 National Guard members, and 70 were arrested.

But as bad as things are in Mexico following Oseguera Cervantes' death, CJNG appears to have stopped short of unleashing anything close to the kind of violence it has shown it is capable of in the past.

U.S. counternarcotics officials have said in recent years the cartel has amassed so much firepower that it resembles more of asmall nation state's armythan a transnational crime syndicate.

The question now, experts say, is whether CJNG will de-escalate the sporadic violence and regroup, or ramp up its attacks on the Mexican government, the public and rival cartels fighting over the lucrative trafficking of cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine and other drugs into the United States.

Experts say the cartel will likely train its sophisticated arsenal of weapons on its rivals in an effort to get back to its main business − earning billions of dollars in annual drug revenue as what the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officially calls "one of thefive most dangerous criminal organizationsin the world."

'Nothing they do is going to bring Mencho back'

Most analysts say CJNG will regroup and focus on maintaining the global dominance over the drug trade that it has long shared with the rival Sinaloa cartel.

"Nothing they do is going to bring Mencho back," Placido said. "And so the most important thing for them is who's going to take over the cartel, and are the Sinaloa guys going to try and take their territory?"

"I don't have a crystal ball," Placido said. "But I would think that instead of these big public manifestations where they're burning vehicles and doing all kinds of stuff to protest against the government, they're going to rapidly become involved in sort of inter-cartel violence and warfare. And that will be more targeted."

In the short term, CNJG certainly has the capacity to wreak much more lethal violence on the Mexican government and the public – including American tourists who have been told to shelter in place.

Some past demonstrations of force by CJNG have included mass arson campaigns known as "narcobloqueos," even more simultaneous roadblocks across multiple states than it has currently – and high-profile assassination attempts.

A 'messy aftermath' before a cartel gets back to business

In an assessment Feb. 23, Mexico-based International Crisis Group analyst David Mora wrote that "claiming a top criminal scalp will not spare the government from a messy aftermath."

Vanda Felbab-Brown, a Brookings Institution expert on nonstate armed groups including CJNG, said the current violence echoes that which followed the Mexican government'sattempt to capture Ovidio Guzmán López, a son of El Chapo, in its stronghold of Culiacán in 2019.

Within hours, heavily armed Sinaloa forces paralyzed the city,directly assaulted the militaryand forced the government to release him.

In the current case, Felbab-Brown told USA TODAY, the current violence is essentially CJNG's way of showing its capabilities, essentially an act of "retaliatory, demonstrative violence against the state."

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"They are saying, 'Hey Mexican government, we are punishing you. We are responding. You killed our leader. This is showing you what we can do,'" Felbab-Brown said.

"It's pretty enormous in geographic scope and scale," she said. "But it will die off in a matter of time."

That could take just a few days, or a few weeks, she said.

"And once this immediate violence settles, then the question is, what kind of other violence will break out within factions of CJNG and between them and their rivals?" Felbab-Brown said. "And that violence will be far more complicated and far more lasting."

What happened after El Chapo's capture

Once the initial explosion of publicly directed violence dies down, what happens next depends on a number of factors.

El Mencho left no clear heir, Mora said, and the remaining leaders could dispute control.

If CJNG doesn't quickly appoint a successor and close ranks, infighting among rival factions within it could consume the organization, Placido said.

That was the case after the capture of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the leader of the rival Sinaloa cartel a decade ago.

Since then, Sinaloa has been wracked by infighting and internal power struggles between the sons of "El Chapo" – known as the "Chapitos" – and factions loyal to Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who is now in U.S. custody too.

Much of that violence is cartel-on-cartel though, and would not paralyze huge swaths of Mexico – and its important tourist industry – like the current situation, Placido and Felbab-Brown said.

In the case of CJNG, taking out El Mencho could slow his own cartel's rapid expansion within Mexico and internationally. But it is also likely to leave it weakened against the Sinaloa cartel on several fronts that could lead to bloody turf battles throughout Mexico and even in the United States, they said.

A less likely but still possible scenario: all-out war

A less likely scenario is that CJNG will launch a longterm war against the Mexican government to avenge the death of its longtime leader.

Over the past half century, Mexican drug cartels and criminal gangs haveengaged in protracted skirmishesover its sporadic counternarcotics crackdowns. Colombian cartels did the same thing in the 1990s with car bombs, assassinations and attacks on the military.

If that happens, CNJG is capable of inflicting significant damage, given its arsenal of heavy weapons,many of them obtained from U.S. gun manufacturers,according to a USA TODAY investigation.

Most analysts predict that won't be the case because CJNG, like Sinaloa and other cartels before it, would prefer a détente with the government that allows it to focus on its global business operations.

"In many ways, it's just a waste of resources. El Mencho is dead, so there is nothing to bargain for" like there was after the arrest of El Chapo's son, Felbab-Brown said.

Some public violence is needed, she said, "to show how fearless they are, how they can act with more brazenness, more brutality, more violence than anyone" in order to keep Mexican authorities at bay.

But in the end, Placido said, "It's all about the money. It's always been about the money."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Mexico faces 'more complicated violence' after 'El Mencho' death

The person was taken to a hospital, officials said.

The FBI said the shots were fired around 1 a.m. Sunday in Pittsburg, a town of about 800 people at the border with Canada. The agency did not provide a name of the suspect, but said the person was receiving medical attention at a hospital.

The Border Patrol agent, whom the FBI also did not name, was unharmed, an agency spokesperson said.

Pittsburg is a rural community that is home to the state's sole border crossing with the Canadian province of Quebec.

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The shots were fired near the port of entry, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said. The FBI's Boston field office will be investigating the shooting along with the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of New Hampshire, authorities said.

"Initial reports indicate that the subject opened fire on the agent at which time the agent returned fire," Scott said in a statement. "CBP is cooperating fully with investigators."

Officials with the FBI, CBP and U.S. Attorney's Office declined to provide more detail on the suspect or the circumstances that led to the exchange of gunfire. The U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement that information would be released if charges are brought against the person.

Pittsburg is about 150 miles (241 kilometers) north of the state capital of Concord. The town borders Maine and Vermont as well as Canada. The shooting took place near a usually quiet crossing in the only town in New Hampshire that borders Canada. That international border stretches for close to 60 miles (97 kilometers).

Whittle reported from Scarborough, Maine.

Monday's attack brought the death toll to at least 151 people since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls "narcoterrorists" in small vessels in early September.

As with most of the military's statements on the more than 40 known strikes, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs but posted a video on X that showed a small boat with outboard engines being destroyed.

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"Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," Southern Command stated in a post on X. "Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action."

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in "armed conflict" with cartels in Latin America and hasjustified the attacksas a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing "narcoterrorists."

Criticshave questioned the overall legalityof the strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the U.S.over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.

The boat strikes alsodrew intense criticismfollowing the revelation that the military killed survivors of the very first boat attack with a follow-up strike. The Trump administration and many Republican lawmakers said it was legal and necessary, while Democratic lawmakers andlegal experts saidthe killings were murder, if not a war crime.

Meteorologists saidthe stormis the strongest in a decade, dumping more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) of snow in parts of the metropolitan Northeast, shattering accumulation records in places, immobilizing transit and even leading the United Nations to postpone a Security Council meeting. Officials declared emergencies, schools closed, including in New York City, which had its first "old-school" snow day in six years, andpeople grappled with power failures.

Even as the snow moved northward and tapered off in other areas, the National Weather Service said it is tracking another storm that could bring more snow to the region later this week.

The weather service referred to Monday's storm as a "classic bomb cyclone/nor'easter off the Northeast coast." Abomb cyclonehappens when a storm's pressure falls by a certain amount within a 24-hour period, occurring mainly in the fall and winter when frigid Arctic air can reach the south and clash with warmer temperatures.

While it was paralyzing and potentially dangerous for millions along the Eastern Seaboard, meteorologists found themselves rhapsodizing over the combination of power and beauty.

The storm hit the "Goldilocks situation" of just the right temperature for wet, heavy snow: Any warmer and its precipitation wouldn't have fallen as snow, any colder and there wouldn't have been as much moisture in the air to feed that snowfall, said Owen Shieh, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

People begin digging out even as snowfall continues

In Lower Manhattan, snow shovelers appeared to outnumber commuting office workers, and pedestrians walked freely in streets normally blocked by morning traffic.

"It's very quiet, except for the howling winds," said Luis Valez, a concierge at a residential tower just off Wall Street, as he cleared the sidewalk. "A couple of residents have gone out to get their essentials. Other than that, there's nothing."

Matthew Wojtkowiak, 57, an attorney, was also shoveling in his Brooklyn neighborhood.

"I'm from the Midwest, so this is in the zone," he said. "Not too bad, not too easy, either."

Schools were closed, and he said he hoped people would get out and enjoy the snow.

"We have sleds at the ready," he said.

Karen Smith and Adele Bawden are tourists visiting New York from the United Kingdom.

"We've been dancing in Times Square this morning in the middle of the road in rush hour," Bawden said. "We've just been dancing and not believing we could do it."

Ingrid Devita said she liked to patrol the Lower East Side on skis, checking on people who might need help.

"I find people fall in the snow and they can't get up," she said.

Central Park in New York City recorded 19 inches (48 centimeters) of snow. Warwick, Rhode Island, exceeded 3 feet (91 centimeters), topping the nation so far. The highest wind gust of 83 mph (133 kph) was recorded in Nantucket, with hurricane-force gusts seen all over Cape Cod.

In Connecticut, crews at the Mystic Seaport Museum prepared to clear snow from a fleet of historic ships, including the 113-foot-long Charles W. Morgan, a wooden whaling ship from the 19th century American merchant fleet.

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Shannon McKenzie, vice president of watercraft operations and preservation, said shipyard staff will clear the snow by hand using rubber or plastic shovels because machinery or metal shovels could damage the boats.

Storm fuels power outages and disrupts flights

New York, Philadelphia and other cities, as well as several states, declared emergencies.

More than 5,600 flights in and out of the United States were canceled Monday, and a further 2,000 flights scheduled for Tuesday were grounded, according to the flight tracking websiteFlightAware. Most of the cancelations involved airports in New York, New Jersey and Boston. Almost 2,500 flights were delayed.

Rhode Island's T.F. Green International Airport announced Monday that it was temporarily ending all airport operations. The Weather Service reported that the facility got nearly 38 inches (96.5 centimeters) of snow, breaking a record set in 1978.

Public transit ground to a halt in some areas, while DoorDash suspended deliveries in New York City overnight into Monday.

Meteorologists said strong winds and heavy, wet snow are a recipe for damaged trees and prolonged power outages.

More than 450,000 utility customers nationwide remained in darkness Monday evening, according toPowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.

Snow slows commuter transport and forces snow days

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Monday evening that subway lines are mostly operational after earlier delays, with the exception of the hard-hit borough of Staten Island, where rail service remained suspended. Delays would likely continue on lines that run outdoors.

Commuter rail service to suburbs to the north and east of the city were expected to resume limited service ahead of the Tuesday morning commute, the MTA said. Bus commuters should also expect long wait times.

Outreach workers meanwhile tried to coax homeless New Yorkers into shelters and warming centers.

Various landmarks and cultural institutions were closed Monday, including New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Broadway shows were canceled Sunday evening.

New York City and Boston canceled public school classes for Monday, while Philadelphia switched to online learning. Districts on Long Island and elsewhere in the New York suburbs said they would cancel school for a second day on Tuesday.

But New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said class would be back in person.

Officials in one of the city's Republican strongholds criticized the Democratic mayor's move. Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said schools should remain closed because roads are impassable and sidewalks are blocked. The teacher's union, the United Federation of Teachers, advised its members to be cautious and put their safety first when deciding whether to report to work.

Spokespersons for Mamdani didn't respond to an email seeking comment but his schools chief defended the decision on social media.

Chancellor Kamar Samuels said the district "couldn't be 100% certain" that every student would have access to the devices they needed for remote learning, despite school officials' "best efforts" to distribute them ahead of the storm.

"We are confident in our decision to reopen," hewrote on X. "Our schools and city are ready to welcome students and staff back tomorrow."

Izaguirre reported from Albany, New York, and Rush reported from Portland, Oregon. Associated Press writers Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pennsylvania; Mark Kennedy and Mike Sisak in New York; Darlene Superville in Washington; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Philip Marcelo in Buenos Aires, Argentina contributed.

That witness died Saturday in a fiery car crash in San Antonio, according to a lawyer for Martinez's family.

Joshua Orta rode with Martinez on a Spring Break trip last March when they came upon a group of local police and federal agents directing traffic around an accident at a busy intersection. In a statement issued Friday, the Department of Homeland Security alleged that Martinez "intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigation special agent," thereby causing another agent to fire "defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public."

The Associated Press and other media outletsreported last week on details of Martinez's death, which would mark at least six deadly shootings by federal officers since President Donald Trump's coast-to-coast immigration crackdown. DHS made no public disclosure for 11 months that one of its agents pulled the trigger.

According to the draft affidavit prepared following interviews in September, Orta reportedly said that Martinez did not hit an officer with his vehicle, that their car was "just crawling as we were trying to turn around" and that a federal agent fired into the driver's side window from about two feet away without "giving any warning, commands, or opportunity to comply."

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San Antonio Police said a 25-year-old man was killed Saturday when he drove into a curved highway exit at a high rate of speed before losing control and slamming into a utility pole. Passengers were able to escape as the vehicle caught fire, but they were unable to pull out the driver.

Lawyers for Rachel Reyes, Martinez's mother, said Orta was the man who was killed in the car accident. The draft affidavit indicated Martinez's family is preparing to file a wrongful death lawsuit in the earlier shooting.

"First and foremost, Joshua's death is an awful tragedy for his family and friends," said Alex Stamm, one of the lawyers representing the family. "In terms of Ruben's death, the world has also now lost a critical eyewitness."

DHS on Monday said: "We stand by our original statement."

The Texas Rangers confirmed last week they are investigating Martinez's shooting. The agency did not respond to questions Monday about whether they had interviewed Orta prior to his death.

Orta's account contradicts DHS

Orta and Martinez decided to take a spontaneous trip to Texas' South Padre Island to meet up with friends, according to Orta's draft affidavit. After hanging out in a condo and having a "few drinks," then a pool party and a trip to Whataburger, they arrived at the scene of an accident and slowed the car down, Orta said.A local police officer approached their car, saw an open alcohol container in the back, but told the two young men to turn around and leave, he said. As they tried to turn in the traffic, another officer walked up to their car and slapped the hood and "seemed to be trying to get in front of the car," said Orta.Martinez "did not hit anyone," Orta said.Then several more officers surrounded their vehicle, yelling at them to stop and drawing their guns, Orta recounted. "This was crazy to me because we were only crawling," he said, adding that Martinez never hit the gas and the officers weren't in any danger.An officer standing by Martinez's open driver's side window then pulled his weapon and fired without warning, so close the bullet casings ejected from his weapon landed inside the vehicle, he said.Orta recounted hearing his friend say "I'm sorry" as he slumped backward unconscious after being stuck in the chest. He said agents then pulled Martinez from the car and handcuffed him, waiting at least 10 minutes before providing any medical aid.Reyes, Martinez's mother, told AP last week her son was shot three times. She also said an investigator from the Texas Rangers had obtained videos of the shooting that she said undercut DHS's claim her son tried to run over the agent.Similarities to other shootingsAccording to an internal incident report from Immigration and Customs Law Enforcement that was released earlier this month after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the HSI agents involved in the shooting were part of a maritime border enforcement security task force typically focused on combating transnational criminal organizations at seaports. Over the past year, however, officers from across multiple federal agencies have been reassigned to prioritize immigration enforcement.In January,Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother in Minneapolis, was killed in the driver's seat of her SUV by an ICE officer. Trump administration officials initially attempted to paint Good as a "domestic terrorist" who tried to ram officers with her vehicle beforemultiple videos emergedof the incident that cast doubt on the government's narrative.Law enforcement officers are typicallytrained not to step in front of vehiclesdue to the danger they might be struck. Like Good, Martinez had no criminal record.Stamm, the family's lawyer, said Orta's account confirmed Martinez's car was barely moving before the HSI officer opened fire."He also told us unequivocally that Ruben did not hit anyone," Stamm said. "We believe Joshua's account, and, as we have seen recently in Minneapolis, Chicago, and elsewhere, it is critical that the public be shown every piece of evidence in the government's possession, and that any witness come forward."___Bedayn reported from Denver.

Orta and Martinez decided to take a spontaneous trip to Texas' South Padre Island to meet up with friends, according to Orta's draft affidavit. After hanging out in a condo and having a "few drinks," then a pool party and a trip to Whataburger, they arrived at the scene of an accident and slowed the car down, Orta said.

A local police officer approached their car, saw an open alcohol container in the back, but told the two young men to turn around and leave, he said. As they tried to turn in the traffic, another officer walked up to their car and slapped the hood and "seemed to be trying to get in front of the car," said Orta.

Martinez "did not hit anyone," Orta said.

Then several more officers surrounded their vehicle, yelling at them to stop and drawing their guns, Orta recounted. "This was crazy to me because we were only crawling," he said, adding that Martinez never hit the gas and the officers weren't in any danger.

An officer standing by Martinez's open driver's side window then pulled his weapon and fired without warning, so close the bullet casings ejected from his weapon landed inside the vehicle, he said.

Orta recounted hearing his friend say "I'm sorry" as he slumped backward unconscious after being stuck in the chest. He said agents then pulled Martinez from the car and handcuffed him, waiting at least 10 minutes before providing any medical aid.

Reyes, Martinez's mother, told AP last week her son was shot three times. She also said an investigator from the Texas Rangers had obtained videos of the shooting that she said undercut DHS's claim her son tried to run over the agent.

Similarities to other shootings

According to an internal incident report from Immigration and Customs Law Enforcement that was released earlier this month after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the HSI agents involved in the shooting were part of a maritime border enforcement security task force typically focused on combating transnational criminal organizations at seaports. Over the past year, however, officers from across multiple federal agencies have been reassigned to prioritize immigration enforcement.

In January,Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother in Minneapolis, was killed in the driver's seat of her SUV by an ICE officer. Trump administration officials initially attempted to paint Good as a "domestic terrorist" who tried to ram officers with her vehicle beforemultiple videos emergedof the incident that cast doubt on the government's narrative.

Law enforcement officers are typicallytrained not to step in front of vehiclesdue to the danger they might be struck. Like Good, Martinez had no criminal record.

Stamm, the family's lawyer, said Orta's account confirmed Martinez's car was barely moving before the HSI officer opened fire.

"He also told us unequivocally that Ruben did not hit anyone," Stamm said. "We believe Joshua's account, and, as we have seen recently in Minneapolis, Chicago, and elsewhere, it is critical that the public be shown every piece of evidence in the government's possession, and that any witness come forward."

Bedayn reported from Denver.