A missing 12-year-old boy with autism, whose body was discovered in a New Orleans canal following a nearly two-week-long search, died from “blunt force due to an alligator” and drowning, police said Wednesday.

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Bryan Vasquez was first reported missing on the morning of Aug. 14, after he reportedly escaped through a bedroom window in the East side of the city, the New Orleans Police Department said. The nonverbal boy was seen on doorbell camera footage, wearing only a diaper and walking down the street alone, around 5:20 a.m. that morning. His body was found on Tuesday, located by a drone.

The boy’s mother, Hilda Vasquez, had told The New Orleans Advocate/The Times-Picayune that her son would often sneak away from their home to head to a playground nearby. However, they’d recently moved to a new house.

Neighbors and friends of the Vasquez family searched Village De L’East in New Orleans, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025, for Bryan Vasquez, 12, who has been missing since Thursday. (John McCusker/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

Bryan’s disappearance prompted a massive search that included multiple agencies, volunteers, airboats and bloodhounds.

As local and state crews combed the area, criticism mounted over the New Orleans Police Department’s delayed response. Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said that there was a nearly five-hour gap between when the boy was reported missing and an officer arriving at the scene.

Kirkpatrick said the police department has launched an internal investigation into the lapse.

A coroner’s autopsy determined that Bryan drowned after he sustained trauma from an alligator, Kirkpatrick said at a news conference on Wednesday. The boy was found about 200 yards from where the search had started. Kirkpatrick said it is possible his body resurfaced after he died, which is common in drowning deaths.

“Bryan was a bright, charismatic, and energetic young boy whose joy and spirit touched the lives of his family, friends and community,” city officials said in a press release.

Kirkpatrick said she has asked the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to remove “nuisance” alligators from the area where Bryan was found.

According to the wildlife agency, hunters capture and remove more than 1,000 nuisance alligators every year in an effort to minimize encounters between the alligators and humans. Louisiana is home to the largest alligator population in the country.

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man captured on camera hurling a sandwich at a federal agent in D.C. has been charged with a misdemeanor offense after prosecutors failed to convince a grand jury to return a more serious felony indictment, according to court papers filed Thursday.

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The move is a blow to the Trump administration, which had highlighted the felony assault case against Sean Charles Dunn to show it would aggressively prosecute violence against law enforcement — even after Trump pardoned Jan. 6 rioters who brutally attacked officers with poles and other makeshift weapons.

The White House had spotlighted Dunn’s case with a dramatic social media video of his arrest by federal agents. And Washington’s top federal prosecutor, Jeanine Pirro, also touted the felony charge in another social media video, saying into the camera: “So there, stick your subway sandwich somewhere else.”

Dunn is now charged with simple assault, which carries up to one year behind bars. Misdemeanor charges don’t require prosecutors to go to a grand jury. The felony assault charge calls for up to eight years behind bars. Dunn’s attorney didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.

It’s so rare for a grand jury not to return an indictment that there’s an old saying that prosecutors could convince a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich.” But grand juries have declined to return indictments a handful of times in recent weeks in Washington — a potential sign of residents’ frustration with the ongoing law enforcement operation that has led to federal charges in many cases that would typically be handled in local court.

A video of Dunn throwing the sandwich at the chest of the agent who was patrolling the nation’s capital went viral in the first days after Trump’s Aug. 11 order for federal agents and troops to flood Washington. Authorities say he also pointed a finger in an agent’s face and swore at him, calling him a “fascist.”

“Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn shouted, according to police.

Dunn tried to run away but was apprehended, police said. He was initially released and later arrested by federal agents on the felony assault charge. It was later revealed that he had been working as an international affairs specialist in the Justice Department’s criminal division, though he was swiftly fired by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

In another recent case, prosecutors in Washington acknowledged that three grand juries had voted separately against indicting a woman accused of assaulting an FBI agent outside the city’s jail in July, where she was recording video of the transfer of inmates into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Rebuffed by the grand juries, Pirro’s office is pursuing a misdemeanor assault charge against Sydney Lori Reid instead.

The depth of the Gophers’ defense is hit hardest by the season-opening unavailability report released before the Buffalo game at Huntington Bank Stadium on Thursday.

Defensive tackle Mo Omonode is out for the season; the 6-foot, 285-pounder transferred in from Purdue after spring practices to help provide depth behind starters Deven Eastern and Jalen Logan-Redding. But a back injury will keep him out.

D-tackle Theorin Randle is also out this week.

Safety/nickel back Darius Green and cornerback Mike Gerald are ruled out, while nickel back Jai’Onte’ McMillan is listed as questionable.

Gerald was locked in a competition for snaps at cornerback alongside Iowa transfer John Nestor and North Carolina Center transfer Jayden Bowden.

Receiver Cristian Driver, who missed multiple open practices during preseason camp, was listed as out. The son of former Packers wideout Donald Driver had seven receptions for 49 yards and one touchdown last year.

Six other players were listed as out: offensive lineman Spencer Alvarez, kicker Sam Henson, offensive lineman Daniel Shipp, receivers Legend Lyons and Bradley Martino. Linebacker Drew Wilson is also out for the year.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A judge on Thursday ordered a new trial for three former Memphis police officers who were convicted of federal charges in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, after defense lawyers argued that another judge who presided over their trial was biased against the men.

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U.S. District Judge Sheryl H. Lipman issued the order for a new trial for Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, who were found guilty in October 2024 of obstruction of justice through witness tampering in the January 2023 beating death of Nichols after he fled a traffic stop.

Two other officers, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr., also were charged, but they pleaded guilty before the federal trial.

Lipman took over the case in June after U.S. District Judge Mark S. Norris, who presided over the case and the trial, recused himself days before the sentencings for the five officers.

On Jan. 7, 2023, the officers yanked Nichols from his car and then pepper-sprayed and hit the 29-year-old Black man with a Taser. Nichols fled, and when the five officers, who also are Black, caught up with him, they punched, kicked and hit him with a police baton. Nichols called out for his mother during the beating, which took place steps from his home.

Nichols died Jan three days later.

Video of the beating captured by a police pole camera also showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled with his injuries.

It prompted intense scrutiny of police in Memphis, nationwide protests and renewed calls for police reform.