By CHRISTOPHER WEBER

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man accused of steering a U-Haul truck toward a Los Angeles demonstration supporting Iran’s protests was released after being arrested on suspicion of reckless driving and has yet to be formally charged, authorities said Monday.

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Police first said one person was hit by truck during Sunday’s protest, but on Monday said no one was struck. Two people declined treatment after paramedics evaluated them at the scene, the fire department said.

Messages were sent to the city attorney’s office Monday asking about possible charges against the 48-year-old man. Police say he sped into the crowd of demonstrators, some waving Iran’s lion and sun flag, an emblem of its former ruler, the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The protesters gathered Sunday afternoon in Westwood, a neighborhood that’s home to the largest Iranian community outside the country.

Videos shared on social media show demonstrators scrambling out of the truck’s way while a few chase after it. The vehicle stopped several blocks away, its windshield, mirrors and a window shattered. ABC7 news helicopter footage showed police officers keeping the crowd at bay while demonstrators swarmed the truck, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver’s side window.

Investigators searched the truck, “with nothing significant being found,” the police statement said.

Signs from a Sunday protest, supporting protesters in Iran, are left on a sidewalk Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Police said the protesters tore down a banner on the truck that read “No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don’t Repeat 1953. No Mullah,” an apparent reference to a U.S.-backed coup in that year which toppled then-Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized the country’s oil industry. The coup cemented the shah’s power and lit the fuse for the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which saw Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini usher in the theocracy that still governs the country.

Signs from a Sunday protest, supporting protesters in Iran, are left on a yard Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

From exile in the United States, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah who fled Iran just before the Islamic Revolution, has called on Iranians to join the demonstrations. Some Iranians have chanted pro-shah slogans, which were once punishable by death, highlighting the anger fueling demonstrations that began over Iran’s sanctions-crippled economy.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened Iran with military action over its crackdown on protesters in nationwide demonstrations that activists said Monday had left nearly 600 dead across the country.

Associated Press journalists Julie Watson in San Diego and Michael Catalini in Trenton, N.J., contributed to this report.

A St. Anthony man fatally stabbed a maintenance worker and severely injured a 15-year-old boy in the hallway of their St. Anthony apartment building early Saturday, according to charges.

Jonathon Michael Kaupa, 31, is jailed and charged in Ramsey County District Court with second-degree murder in connection with the stabbings at Equinox Apartments located in the 2800 block of Silver Lane, just west of Silver Lake Road. Authorities have not released the identity of the man who was killed; the criminal complaint says he was 44 years old and lived across the hallway from Kaupa.

Kaupa was arrested later that morning near Duluth. His attorney contacted police and told them not to talk to him, according to the complaint, which does not offer a motive for the stabbings.

Kaupa had a first appearance on the charges Monday and remained jailed on $5 million bail. An attorney for Kaupa is not listed in the court file.

What happened

The complaint gives the following account of the incident:

St. Anthony police responded to the apartment complex and found the man dead on the floor of a third-floor hallway, with stab wounds to his neck and upper body. Blood spatter covered the walls and front doors of nearby apartment units.

Officers saw “some sort of carving” on the outside door of the man’s apartment, the complaint states. A young girl exited the apartment and said her brother was inside, where the teen was found facedown with stab wounds to his arms, chest, neck and head.

Before he was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center, the teen told police the man who stabbed him came from the apartment across the hall. Officers learned that Kaupa lived in the unit.

The teen’s sister told police she and her brother were awakened by the sound of sawing noises at their door. The teen checked the door, saw a man and alerted the 44-year-old man, who was sleeping in the apartment. The teen and man left the apartment, and the girl heard screaming. The teen, who’d been stabbed, went back into the apartment and called 911.

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While officers were at the apartment building, a driver of a ride-booking service showed up and said she had picked up a suspicious man just north of the apartment complex about 5:30 a.m. and took him to his parents’ home in St. Paul. The driver said the man had been lying in a snowbank and was not wearing proper clothing for the cold temperatures when she picked him up.

The man, later identified from the ride-booking app as Kaupa, asked the driver to charge his phone, which he said had “fish guts” on it. The driver noticed he had on just one tan mitt-style glove and carried a bag with clothes stained with blood.

“(The driver) thought the interaction was so strange she returned to the area and sought out an officer,” the complaint states.

Mental health issues

Kaupa’s father also showed up at the apartment building looking for him. He told officers Kaupa suffers from mental health issues and had been hospitalized for mental health crises in 2022 and again in March.

Jonathon Michael Kaupa (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

He said Kaupa sent a text message to him at 6 a.m. that read “sorry” and that he then showed up at his home and asked to borrow his Mercedes-Benz. His father told police Kaupa may be headed to their cabin in Two Harbors.

Kaupa had told his parents that his neighbor who lived across the hall from him does maintenance work for the building and enters his apartment. “They were not sure if the neighbor actually entered Kaupa’s apartment or if the belief was the result of Kaupa’s paranoia,” the complaint states.

Officers executed a search warrant on Kaupa’s apartment and garage. They found a rope they believe he used to leave the building from the balcony. Inside his Volkswagen, officers recovered a metal tin that contained a powder that tested positive for the presence of amphetamines.

The mother of the teen and the girl told police she had left work before the stabbings. She said they had placed a camera in the hall because someone had placed glue on their doorframe. Someone damaged the camera a month earlier, so they put up a new camera. She also said the man killed was the maintenance worker for the apartment building.

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The teen later told police he awoke to a “Sawzall noise” coming from the hallway during the night. He said he opened the door and saw a man, who tried to push the door. The man then emerged from the apartment across the hallway with a sharp weapon like a screwdriver. He pushed the teen and man, and a fight ensued.

The teen told police a doctor told him he had been stabbed 20 times.

Kaupa, during his booking into jail, said he had ingested prescription medication and was suffering from withdrawals from medication and alcohol. He also had a laceration on his wrist, but could not explain how it happened, the complaint says.

On Sunday, an officer found a tan mitt-style glove in the area where Kaupa was picked up for a ride.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — With the 2028 Olympics Games in Los Angeles on the horizon, fans will get their first opportunity to get in line for tickets on Wednesday.

Registration will open Jan. 14 to be entered into the ticket draw for a randomly assigned time slot to purchase tickets.

Here’s what to know:

When do the games start?

The schedule for the games, which will take place July 14 to July 30, 2028, has already been released. Some events, like baseball, basketball, hockey and water polo, will begin July 12.

The 2028 Olympics will be the largest games in history, with more than 11,000 athletes across 51 sports.

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Who can get in line for tickets?

Anyone can register.

But people who live in the Los Angeles and Oklahoma City areas will have a chance to get the first time slots reserved for locals. Oklahoma City will host the canoe slalom and softball events. You must have a zip code matching a credit card’s billing address in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, or Ventura counties for the California events, and in Oklahoma, Canadian or Cleveland counties for the Oklahoma events.

Locals will be eligible for a chance to access tickets early, from April 2 to April 6 of this year, if they register for the ticket draw by March 18.

And if they don’t get a coveted early time slot, they’ll be entered along with everyone else into the lottery for a time in the ticket queue.

How many will be sold?

LA28 has said it will release 14 million tickets for the Olympics and Paralympics, which would set a record, surpassing the 12 million sold for the Paris Olympics.

What do they cost?

Single tickets for both the Olympics and Paralympics will start at $28.

LA28, the planning committee, also launched a fundraising effort in November 2025 to be able to give away free tickets to people who live near the venues.

“The 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games are for everyone. This program is about making sure that the people who live, work and contribute to the spirit of Los Angeles can access the Games taking place in their hometown,” LA28 chairperson and president, Casey Wasserman, said in a press release.

What the organizers haven’t said

The LA28 committee says full ticket sales will open later in 2026 but have not given a firm date.

The committee also hasn’t released other details about purchasing rules — such as how many seats, for how many events, these early ticket buyers might be able to secure.

“Opponents are quick to blame Raise the Age for remaining violence, but the real failure isn’t the law—it’s the reality that our neighborhoods have been systematically stripped of resources.”

The yard at a youth detention center in Brooklyn. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

As a teenager, I carried a gun. Not with the intention to hurt anyone—I knew it was dangerous—but because I was scared of being jumped, robbed, or killed—things that had already happened to people I knew.  

But it wasn’t just fear. I felt lost. I didn’t see a future—only threats. There weren’t people around to show me something different, just other kids trying to figure it out, too.

In wealthier neighborhoods, kids walked home past community centers, parks, and after-school programs. Where I lived in the Bronx, it was liquor stores, fast food joints, and police. There was no safe place to ask questions. Whether it was needing help getting out of a gang or just someone to talk to after a fight at school, we had no trusted adults or services to turn to.

When I was 22, I was arrested for gun possession and sent to Rikers. At Rikers, my fear only intensified, turning into anger and leaving me more disconnected. 

After spending eight months on Rikers, what finally gave me a new way forward was an alternative-to-incarceration program (ATI) run by the Fortune Society that I entered as part of a plea deal. 

When I first started the program, I was skeptical and detached. I showed up late, arms crossed, thinking it was just another box I had to check to stay out of jail. Most of us don’t trust the help of these programs at first. But Fortune’s goal with the program wasn’t punishment—it was to teach skills that would allow me to take accountability and correct course. After so many systems let you down, it takes time to believe someone actually wants to see you do better.

As the mentors in the program showed me care—not judgment—I soon realized this was my positive path forward. They provided me real guidance and opportunities, including a job as a community navigator that was flexible enough for me to fulfill my court-mandated program hours while also earning a paycheck.

The program helped me own what I did, understand what led to it, and determine what I’d have to do differently moving forward. Jail never gave me that. 

I’ve seen the same story play out with kids I grew up with. Just as I eventually got through an ATI program, the ones who received support—a mentor, a safe space, an opportunity—moved forward. The ones who didn’t often ended up dead or incarcerated with records that shut doors before they got a chance. 

After completing the program, I became a certified peer mentor, working to help other system-involved young people learn and grow like I did. I’m also now a member of the Youth Justice Council (YJC) convened by the Legal Action Center, using my experience to push for smarter, more humane justice policies at large.

Recently, during an exercise with the YJC, I was asked what would make my neighborhood feel safe. I didn’t hesitate: youth drop-in centers with credible messengers, mental health clinics, after-school art programs, paid internships, and summer jobs—safe spaces run by people who truly care. 

But, despite proven benefits of investing in supports, we are once again witnessing calls for increased surveillance and harsh punishment of Black and brown youth. In the past, such punitive approaches didn’t stop violence, but instead devastated our already under-resourced communities and further eroded any trust in law enforcement.

For instance, Raise the Age—a law based on the understanding that young people are still developing and need guidance, not jail—is under attack. Since New York State enacted Raise the Age (RTA) in 2018, youth arrests for violent crimes have gone down significantly: felony assault arrests dropped from about 15 percent in 2006 to just 4 percent in 2022. 

Opponents are quick to blame RTA for remaining violence, but the real failure isn’t the law—it’s the reality that our neighborhoods have been systematically stripped of resources. Since RTA passed, lawmakers have set aside $1.7 billion to fund community programs, mentors, and alternatives to incarceration. But now, years later, less than 40 percent has been spent—and of the dollars used, the majority has covered detention and administration costs, not the community-based services we were promised. And New York City isn’t even eligible to receive these funds from the state.

Looking back on my journey, it’s clear to me that real safety means investing in young people. Community-based programming helped me grow into the leader I am today. Now, I work to help others and expand the programs that I know from firsthand experience are key to transforming lives, improving public safety, and building strong communities. That’s what keeps all of us safe.

Corinthian Black is a community navigator with the Fortune Society and a member of the Youth Justice Council at the Legal Action Center. 

The post Opinion: Real Public Safety Comes from Support, Not Jail Cells appeared first on City Limits.