Police

The accused terrorist who blew up Taylor Swift's 2024 plans to perform in Austria pleaded guilty to plotting to attack the venue where the superstar was to hold 3 concerts before they all got cancelled.

Citing Austrian news outlets, the AP reports the man copped to charges he devised the scheme to attack Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna in August 2024, as his trial kicked off Tuesday. He now faces up to 20 years behind bars.

The 21-year-old defendant, identified only as Beran A. due to Austrian privacy rules, was originally charged with a number of terrorist offenses, including membership in a terrorist organization. Though it's unclear if he pleaded guilty to any of those other offenses, his defense lawyer was previously quoted saying he would plead guilty to almost all the charges.

John Hinckley -- the man who shot then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981 -- says the Washington Hilton Hotel should stop holding big events because it's not secure, and bad things keep happening there ... just like at Saturday night's White House Correspondents' Dinner.

And who knows better than Hinckley ... the Washington Hilton was the site where he shot Reagan and 3 other people in March 1981 in a failed assassination attempt. Hinckley was quickly arrested but later found not guilty by reason of insanity and placed in a mental hospital for over 34 years before gaining back his freedom.

TMZ spoke with Hinckley Sunday about security at the Washington Hilton, which has been a topic of national debate in the wake of Saturday night's WHCD shooting, with many people making comparisons to the Reagan shooting.

Addison Rae's dad received a few unexpected visitors at his Louisiana home ... because TMZ has obtained video of multiple cop cars sitting outside his house.

In the short clip taken in Lafayette, LA, several vehicles are parked on the curb outside Monty Lopez's home Thursday ... seemingly having rushed to the scene.

There are no cops outside ... so, it seems the officers are handling whatever situation is going down inside the home.

The Houston cop at the center of a viral racist rant video is officially off the force ... because the department says her behavior was beyond the pale.

The Houston Police Department announced Friday it has terminated Officer Ashley Gonzalez ... saying in a statement she is "no longer an employee of the department" following an internal investigation into the shocking viral clip.

According to HPD, Gonzalez was immediately relieved of duty once the department became aware of the video ... and officials say they moved "as fast as legally possible" under state civil service laws to complete the investigation.

Police Chief J. Noe Diaz, Jr. didn’t mince words either ... calling Gonzalez's conduct "abhorrent, disgusting, and entirely unacceptable."

The Los Angeles Police Department responded to a call of a reported 50 juveniles causing a disturbance at a Church of Scientology building in Hollywood recently ... amid a wave of social media videos showing people attempting to sprint as far as they can into the secretive organization's structures.

This particular breach went down last weekend at the Scientology Information Center on Hollywood Boulevard. LAPD tells TMZ ... by the time officers showed up, the juveniles had fled. Despite the call being for 50 individuals, we're told it was only actually seven.

The above video shows a similar infiltration going down at the same place -- youngsters storm into the building whooping and yelling, running through the halls without a plan. Folks online are dubbing these intrusions "speed runs."

Jeffrey MacDonald has made a name for himself as "Chef of the Year" at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, but now he's making headlines as an alleged wife-murderer.

According to law enforcement ... MacDonald bludgeoned his wife, Emma MacDonald, to death inside a hotel room on the UMass campus Wednesday.

The cook confessed to police he killed Emma "using his hands, feet, as well as a variety of other objects," according to The Boston Globe, citing a police report. MacDonald also told investigators it was his "intent" to kill his wife, the Globe reports.

Police in Arizona are investigating claims "Storage Wars" star Darrell Sheets was being bullied online before he committed suicide.

The Lake Havasu Police Department tells TMZ ... "We are aware of these cyberbullying accusations and that is a part of the active investigation."

We broke the story ... Darrell was found dead in his Lake Havasu home Tuesday morning and police say it appears he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner is speaking out about being muzzled for months in the Celeste Rivas murder case, TMZ has learned.

The M.E. says Celeste's cause and manner of death was determined way back on Dec. 9 but the information was only made public on Wednesday because there was a prior court order initiated by the LAPD that had been preventing them from releasing their findings.

In a statement, Dr. Odey Ukpo, says ... "After several months, I am grateful this information can now be released, not only to the public, but also to the grieving family enduring loss. It is unfathomable they have had to wait this long to learn what happened to their daughter."

"The transparency of the information contained in our findings and reports is essential for empowering the community to make informed changes to affectively reduce fear and allowing the community to take informed action," he added. "Making the Department’s information publicly available is not just about accountability, it is about social justice and prevention."

Celeste Rivas' cause of death has just been revealed ... and the medical examiner in Los Angeles says she was killed by multiple penetrating injuries with unspecified objects, and her death was ruled a homicide.

The M.E. says there are "2 penetrating wounds of the torso with smooth edges that may represent sharp force injuries. The wound -- [3/4 inch length and 1.5 inches deep] -- on the upper abdomen penetrates the liver, and the wound on the left chest -- [9/16 inch length and 2 inches deep] penetrates one of the left intercostal spaces, with disruption of the adjacent ribs' cortical surfaces."

It's interesting that the M.E. uses the word "may," which is something the defense will jump on.

It should also be noted that the M.E. says there were "multiple superficial linear abrasions on the right dorsal hand." It does not say whether or not these could be defensive wounds.

The M.E. also says that her left ring and pinky fingers were amputated, but the body diagram shows that her right pointer finger with the "Shhh" tattoo was intact.

Madonna’s been sounding the alarm over her missing wardrobe -- and TMZ’s now got the full list of what went missing ... including a lavender corset worth around $25K that she rocked during her epic performance with Sabrina Carpenter at Coachella last weekend.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ the items -- originally reported missing by Madonna’s tour manager, Lindsey -- also include lavender gloves, purple trunks, thigh-highs, a slit-and-teddy combo, and a purple leather jacket.

That’s not all. A pink sequin jacket, pink gloves, pink thigh-highs, plus a Moschino corset were also reported missing -- with most of the pieces said to be archival.

Crocodile hunters may be all the rage Down Under ... but alligator hunters are born and bred in Florida -- with the state's cops being some of the best around.

The West Palm Beach Police Department shared a video Tuesday of an officer tangling with a reptile in a parking lot ... kicking off with the cop holding tightly onto the animal's snout -- before losing his grip.

Watch the clip ... faced with the sinister grin of his foe, the officer lifts up under its chin and tries again. When the alligator again slips away, he smacks it on the head a couple times to get it to look up ... before he and a partner are able to slap some tape around its jaws to muzzle it.

In the caption, the West Palm Beach Police Department joked officers need to be “ready for anything, even when it has scales and a serious attitude.”

The Houston Police Department is investigating an officer who is going viral after apparently using a series of racial slurs in a shocking social media video.

Officer Ashley Gonzalez has been relieved of duty pending the results of an investigation, according to Click2Houston.com ... with HPD saying they are looking into a video where a woman, who is reportedly Gonzalez, is telling a story about her wallet almost being snatched.

In the video, the woman says the guy who tried to take her wallet was Black ... and she called him the n-word after she says she caught him.

Celeste Rivas' family was devastated and exhausted after D4vd's first court appearance in his murder case ... which is why they scrapped plans to address the media for the first time since he was charged with killing her.

The family was supposed to hold court Monday outside the Hall of Justice in Downtown Los Angeles and give a statement through their lawyer ... but it never happened ... and now we know why.

Patrick Steinfeld, who is representing the family, tells TMZ ... "The Rivas Hernandez family are very private individuals who were overwhelmed by the day’s events. They were concerned for their safety when they heard about the bomb threat. They were intimidated by the onslaught of reporters and the aggressiveness of some camera people."

There have been several deaths and disappearances of scientists and government workers in the past few years ... and now the FBI is looking into whether or not these cases are linked, NBC News reports.

The House Oversight Committee announced Monday they're wondering if there's a possible connection between at least 10 people who have died or gone missing since 2023.

The Committee says two of them are linked to Los Alamos National Laboratory, and two of them are affiliated with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

And multiple disappearances involve the person in question leaving their phones behind.

These high-profile cases have even reached President Donald Trump, who told reporters Thursday it's "pretty serious stuff … hopefully a coincidence, or whatever you want to call it."

The president said we'll know in the next week and a half whether or not it's random.

But for now, we're breaking down each mysterious case.

Air Force Major General William "Neil" McCasland was reported missing by his wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, after he vanished from his home in Albuquerque, NM on February 27, 2026.

Neil spent his final two years in the USAF as a commander at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, which many people believe contains evidence of aliens from a mysterious 1947 crash in Roswell, NM.

In the 911 call reporting his disappearance, Susan told the dispatcher she had "some indication that he planned not to be found."

Police say he left his phone and glasses at home, and the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office reported a .38-caliber revolver was missing ... along with his hiking boots and wallet.

Steven Garcia was reported missing on August 28, 2025, last seen in Albuquerque, NM, wearing a green camo shirt and glasses.

According to a flier posted to the ALERT NEW MEXICO Facebook Group, he left his home with a handgun and "may be a danger to himself."

The Hill reports Steven was a property custodian with top security clearance at Kansas City National Security Campus, which manufactures "80 percent of non-nuclear components that go into the nuclear stockpile," according to the KCNSC website.

Monica Jacinto Reza went missing on June 22, 2025 while hiking in the Mount Waterman area of the San Gabriel Mountains in California, according to the Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station.

According to SpaceNews, Monica is a scientist who, in the '90s, helped invent a "nickel-based superalloy" called Mondaloy to be used in rocket engines. The article notes she was working at Aerojet Rocketdyne at the time.

The press release from the House Oversight Committee on Monday said she worked as the director of NASA Lab's Materials Processing Group, and had previously worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The New York Post reports the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department searched for months, but never found her.

Melissa Casias went missing on June 26, 2025. Her husband, Mark, told Dateline she dropped him off at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where they both worked.

Their daughter, Sierra, told "Dateline" she heard her mom return home a little after 7:30 AM. When Sierra asked what she was doing back, Melissa said she had forgotten her badge, but ultimately told her daughter she was going to "either work from home or call out for the day."

Sierra then went to work at a cafe -- noting her mom brought her a sandwich a little before 1 PM ... and police confirmed they spoke then. She said her mom's behavior "wasn't out of the ordinary" ... but that was the last time she saw her.

Meanwhile, Mark told "Dateline" he got a concerned call from Melissa's boss ... who said she wasn't at work. When he was reportedly unable to reach his wife, Mark asked Sierra to contact her ... since they'd spoken recently.

Sierra says she texted her mom and the message was delivered, telling "Dateline" ... "I assumed that she was just gonna call him."

New Mexico State Police PIO Sergeant Ricardo Breceda told "Dateline" Melissa was last seen around 2:18 PM, when an acquaintance saw her walking along the NM 518 state highway ... which was also captured on nearby surveillance cameras.

According to "Dateline" ... Mark started frantically calling Sierra around that time because he still hadn't heard from Melissa. Sierra told "Dateline" when she texted her mom again, the message didn't deliver.

When she got home later that afternoon, Sierra told "Dateline" Melissa had left her keys and work phone on the kitchen table.

According to her LinkedIn ... Melissa had been an administrative assistant at LANL since March 2023. The lab "addresses national security challenges by advancing breakthroughs in science and technology" ... according to its website.

Mark told "Dateline" he "can’t grasp" Melissa's disappearance, saying ... "I don’t know. I can’t figure it out."

Anthony Chavez also worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico -- multiple outlets report -- and vanished just a month before Casias did.

According to the Los Alamos County Police Department, Anthony was reported missing on May 8, 2025.

In a Facebook post ... the LACPD said he is "not believed to be endangered," but his friends and family say his disappearance is "out of character."

It's unclear what Anthony's job at LANL entailed.

Frank Maiwald -- a scientist with experience in space research -- died on July 4, 2024 at the age of 61, according to his obituary.

The memorial says Frank spent years at JPL managing the development and delivery of several NASA instruments -- the SBG-VSWIR instrument and instruments for the AMR-C program.

According to the obit ... Frank worked on a bunch of other projects and has won multiple JPL and NASA awards.

There's no mention of his cause of death.

MIT professor Nuno Loureiro was shot in his home in Brookline, MA on December 17, 2025, and died at the hospital the following morning ... according to CBS News.

In an obituary, MIT confirmed Nuno was a professor of nuclear science and engineering, as well as a professor of physics.

MIT says Nuno was a "lauded theoretical physicist and fusion scientist," and his research "addressed complex problems lurking at the center of fusion vacuum chambers and at the edges of the universe."

According to CBS News, the suspect in Nuno's murder was identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente ... who had opened fire at Brown University just days before.

CBS News reports Valente was found dead in New Hampshire later that week ... and had died after shooting himself in the head, according to his autopsy.

No word on what his motive was.

Scientist Carl Grillmair was shot and killed on February 16, 2026 on his porch in Llano, CA in Antelope Valley ... according to Pasadena Now.

In an obituary, CalTech confirmed Carl was an astronomer for their Infrared Processing & Analysis Center. According to its website ... IPAC works closely with NASA and JPL to "advance exploration of our Universe."

Pasadena Now reports 29-year-old Freddy Snyder was charged with the murder and is set to be arraigned April 29.

No motive has been published.

The body of Jason Thomas -- who worked for the Novartis biomedical research institute -- was found in a Massachusetts lake on March 17, 2026 ... three months after he had been reported missing.

According to a news release from the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office, Jason's wife reported him missing to Wakefield Police on December 13, 2025 ... because he didn't come home the night before.

Jason was a senior investigator with Novartis, according to his Linkedin profile.

The D.A.'s office says in the release that the medical examiner hasn't determined cause of death yet ... but authorities are ruling out foul play.

Scientist Michael David Hicks died on July 30, 2023 ... according to an obituary written by the American Astronomical Society.

The memorial says Michael was 59 years old and living in Sunland, in L.A., at the time. It says Michael worked as a research scientist with JPL, where he worked on projects about asteroids and deep space.

Mark Geragos is sticking to his guns ... telling us Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman is full of it when he says the D.A.'s office and the LAPD worked in lockstep to arrest and charge D4vd with Celeste Rivas' murder.

The famed defense attorney joined us on "TMZ Live" Tuesday and called BS on some of Hochman's claims from Monday's news conference, where Hochman refuted what Geragos told us -- that LAPD went rogue in arresting D4vd -- on the "2 Angry Men" podcast.

Geragos says Hochman is just trying to put on a united front when, in reality, cops were fed up with a lack of action from prosecutors and moved to arrest D4vd to force their hand.

8:35 AM PT -- Burbank Police just announced a suspect was arrested Monday night … 30-year-old Sergio Fraire was taken into custody by a SWAT team serving a search warrant. Police say evidence related to the stabbings was recovered at the residence where he was detained. Fraire had been identified as a person of interest by investigators earlier Monday.

He was booked for murder and attempted murder. Police were working to determine a motive for the crime and the relationship between the suspect and the victims. The residence where Fraire was detained is about 2.5 miles from the scene of the crime.

Meera was listed in stable condition Tuesday morning.

A first-grade teacher in California has been killed and her daughter was critically injured in a stabbing early Monday morning ... and police are still looking for the suspect.

Burbank Police say officers got a call around 6 AM about a stabbing in a single-family home ... and found two women had been attacked at the scene.

Police later identified 59-year-old Arti Varma as the woman who was killed ... neighbors told news outlets her 25-year-old daughter Meera is the other victim.

BPD said they were taken to a nearby hospital, where one woman died from her injuries and the other remains hospitalized.