‘Anti-Trump’ Gunman In ABC Affiliate Shooting Targeted Bondi, Patel
The gunman accused of firing several shots at an ABC station in California left a handwritten note indicating he planned to target other members of President Donald Trump’s administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.
The suspect, 64-year-old Anibal Hernandez-Santana, was arrested by the FBI on Saturday, a day after the drive-by shooting at ABC 10 in Sacramento. He had been taken into custody earlier by local police and charged with multiple offenses, including assault with a deadly weapon, but was rearrested by federal agents just hours after posting $200,000 bail.
Justice Department officials on Monday said investigators found a note in Hernandez-Santana’s car. The note, according to law enforcement, said: “For hiding Epstein & ignoring red flags. Do not support Patel, Bongino, & AG Pam Bondi. They’re next. — C.K. from above.”
Details about the note come after Varietyreported that Hernandez-Santana’s X account contained “a steady stream of anti-Trump commentary.”
“Where is a good heart attack when we need it the most?? Please Join in my thoughts and prayers for the physical demise of our fearful leader,” Hernandez-Santana posted last week.
Variety also found posts from July in which Hernandez-Santana wrote he was ready to “fight like hell” against the Trump administration.
His attorney, Mark Reichel, told Sacramento’s KCRA 3 that his client is facing heightened scrutiny because of his anti-Trump comments.
“If you look at his social media, they’re going to say, ‘Boy, it sure shows that he’s liberal and left wing.’ So you think they’re going to overlook something like that? I don’t think so,” Reichel said.
After local authorities allowed Hernandez-Santana out on bail, he was re-arrested by the FBI on federal charges on Monday, where he remains behind bars. Patel noted on the X platform Monday the suspect was taken into custody “under a federal hold for interference with licensed broadcasts.”
“Targeted acts of violence are unacceptable and will be pursued to the fullest extent of the law,” he wrote.
The shooting occurred in the early hours of Sept. 19, a day after roughly 15 people gathered outside ABC 10 to protest Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, according to the Sacramento Bee. Kimmel’s show was suspended after he suggested the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk was a Trump supporter.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them,” Kimmel said on his show last Monday.
Kimmel faced backlash for the claim, as reports identified the suspected shooter, Tyler Robinson, 22, as having leftist ties. Robinson was said to be in a relationship with a transgender roommate, had used phrases linked to Antifa, and, in text messages released last Tuesday, claimed he shot Kirk because of the conservative activist’s “hatred.”
Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow, spoke about the time she saw her husband’s body in the hospital after he was killed. She also told him the “secret” she had kept from him her whole life.
“His eyes were semi-open and he had this knowing, Mona Lisa-like half-smile. Like he’d died happy. Like Jesus rescued him. The bullet came, he blinked, and he was in heaven,” Erika Kirk told the New York Times.
While speaking at her husband’s memorial service in Glendale, Ariz., in Sunday, she told the packed stadium the ‘secret’ she had kept.
“But there was something else. Even in death, I could see the man that I love. I saw the one, single gray hair on the side of his head, which I never told him about. Now he knows. Sorry, baby, I’m telling you now,” she said.
““I also saw on his lips the faintest smile. And that told me something important. It revealed to me a great mercy from God in this tragedy. When I saw that, it told me Charlie didn’t suffer. Even the doctor told me — it was something so instant,” Erika added.
