The Department of Homeland Security is calling on Chicago officials to enforce an immigration detainer on a man accused of shooting and killing a freshman college student.

Eighteen-year-old Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman went out with friends to the Tobey Prinz Beach early in the morning on Thursday to see the northern lights.

‘We are gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime.’

A 25-year-old man named Jose Medina-Medina approached Gorman while wearing a mask, and when she tried to flee, he allegedly shot and killed her, according to a DHS statement.

DHS said Medina-Medina is a criminal illegal alien from Venezuela and blamed the former Biden administration for his presence in the U.S.

“Medina-Medina should have never been in our country, but was RELEASED into our communities by the Biden administration,” the agency said on social media. “He was then released AGAIN following an arrest for shoplifting in Chicago, Illinois.”

The family of the victim also blamed government failures for Gorman’s death.

“We are gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime,” a family statement reads. “When systems fail — whether through release decisions, lack of coordination, or unwillingness to act — the consequences are not abstract. They are real. And in our case, they are permanent.”

Medina-Medina was charged with first-degree murder and gun charges but did not appear in court because of his continuing hospitalization. Prosecutors indicated to Judge Luciano Panici that the suspect is being treated for tuberculosis.

RELATED: ‘Cold-blooded’ illegal alien murdered 15-year-old who was trying to stop him from raping his mother, ICE says

Acting Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis excoriated the former administration in statement about the incident.

“Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life. She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who RELEASED this illegal alien TWICE before he went on to commit this heinous murder,” Bis said.

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A left-wing member of the Los Angeles City Council is getting hammered for her hypocrisy in hiring police officers for her event while pushing to deny similar protection for her residents.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez has campaigned against the police, but the California Post discovered that she hired a large police presence when it came to her event celebrating Mexican Independence Day.

‘Apparently, she has no problem spending taxpayer dollars for her safety but opposes doing the same for the residents she represents. It is time for change in Council District.’

Hernandez pushed to “abolish” police and to divert police funding toward investing “in housing, economic mobility, education, child care, and public health infrastructures.”

But surprisingly, when she needed security for a celebration of Mexican Independence Day at City Hall in September, Hernandez hired 13 armed LAPD officers for the event at a cost to the taxpayer of $135,000 in overtime pay.

The event, titled “El Grito 2025,” was expected to include about 500 attendees, which means Hernandez paid about $270 for police protection for each person for just that one day. The per capita spending on police for the entire year is about $420, according to the Vera Institute of Justice.

She also advocated that police be unarmed when providing security for the City Council and advocated for a “mediation-based model” for cops.

The Post found that Hernandez voted in 2025 against the City Council contract that authorized using the LAPD for special events like the Mexican Independence Day event she publicized.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League condemned Hernandez for her hypocrisy.

“It should come as no surprise that some politicians act like hypocrites, but Eunisses Hernandez takes the cake,” reads a statement from the union’s board of directors to the Post.

“Hernandez has repeatedly voted to defund and disband the police, yet she saw nothing wrong with requesting police security at a community event to keep herself and others safe,” the union added.

RELATED: Police release body-cam video after lawsuit over 9-year-old who was handcuffed at school

Photo by Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

“Apparently, she has no problem spending taxpayer dollars for her safety but opposes doing the same for the residents she represents. It is time for change in Council District,” the union concluded.

Hernandez says in her biography that she’s the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a community organizer.

Hernandez did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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When BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock sat down with Cam Newton on “4th & 1,” the result was more than just a heated debate; it was a revealing and surprising dialogue — despite their well-known differences.

The pair engaged in a respectful conversation that left Whitlock with the feeling that it was a rare moment where two opinionated men with fundamental disagreements were able to understand each other.

“I’m so glad that I agreed to appear on Cam Newton’s ‘4th & 1’ program,” Whitlock begins. “It was an opportunity for me to show a fuller picture of myself, takes me out of my comfort zone, and was an opportunity for me to get a bit more insight into Cam Newton.”

“I thought it was a very healthy discussion. I thought it was a very entertaining discussion. I thought it was a very authentic discussion, and I tip my hat to Cam Newton,” he continues.

Whitlock points out that not only was it “authentic” but that it was one of the first times he’s seen two black men who have almost nothing in common ideologically — and have a fair amount of tension in their relationship to boot — sit down together and have a “respectful” conversation.

And Steve Kim agrees, telling Whitlock that he “really enjoyed that interview.”

“On a global scale, this is like Reagan and Gorbachev coming together, and you guys tore down that wall. I actually think you guys might have a little bit, dare I say it, a friendship,” Kim jokes.

“I can honestly say, at least from what I observed … I thought he came away with a clearer understanding and a heightened respect for you, Jason, as a person, after that conversation,” he adds.

Shemeka Michelle also believes the pair had an “excellent conversation,” but she admits there were moments of frustration.

“There were times that I was on the edge of my seat, a little bit frustrated by Cam’s explanation, and I feel like he wasn’t bending sometimes the way I wanted him to bend or actually understand your point of view,” Michelle tells Whitlock.

Michelle also notes that she saw a different side of Whitlock in the interview.

“When you’re on ‘Fearless,’ I don’t think you’re very confrontational. Like there are times when I think you could have body slammed a few people. I’m not going to name any names. Like you really could have given them a verbal body slam, but you were kind,” Michelle says.

“But this time, I feel like you didn’t do that. You were in a different space, and I just saw a different Jason,” she adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Cam newton, 4th and 1 podcast, National football league, The nfl, Cam newton vs jason whitlock, Cam newton interview 

One of personages repeatedly targeted for erasure in the American left’s violent iconoclasm in 2020 has at last found asylum on the White House grounds, thanks to President Donald Trump and some other unrelenting American patriots.

Toppling giants

Liberals appear to have no issue raising and keeping statues in public spaces so long as they are culturally, morally, and/or historically subversive.

Take, for example, the golden statue of a horned monster that was erected atop the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court in January 2023.

The dehumanized figure — which Pakistani-born propagandist Shahzia Sikander purportedly designed to capture the “spirit” of the movement seeking to legalize abortion across the United States — was celebrated by radicals in and outside the courthouse. Claire Bishop, professor of art history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, excitedly told the New York Times, “Maybe she can help channel us back to reinstating Roe v. Wade.”

Another statue that liberal activists not only tolerated but celebrated was the ram-headed Baphomet statue the Satanic Temple installed at the Iowa Capitol along with a satanic altar ahead of Christmas that same year.

While evidently unperturbed by demonic imagery, liberal activists have evidenced an aversion in recent years to sculptures reminiscent of America’s proud past, noble beginnings, and Christian character.

‘These monuments matter.’

Amid the Black Lives Matter-bannered deracination campaign of 2020, radicals vandalized and/or toppled — in many cases through official actions — numerous statutes across the country, including those depicting Spanish missionary Junípero Serra and Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington.

Christopher Columbus — the Italian “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” who sailed under the Spanish flag and whose four transatlantic voyages set the stage for American civilization — was one of the 2020 iconoclasts’ most popular targets.

RELATED: Satan is real — whether his depraved fashion-world followers believe it or not

Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

In Baltimore, masked thugs marched through the city’s Little Italy neighborhood on July 4, 2020, then toppled a Columbus statue dedicated in 1984 by former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan — a destructive act brushed off by city officials.

After tearing down the statue and jumping on the broken Italian Carrara marble likeness of the explorer, the cheering mob threw the remains into the harbor.

The incident took place just days after President Donald Trump, then in his first term, issued an executive order aimed at protecting such statues from destruction — an order where he stated that extremists’ “selection of targets reveals a deep ignorance of our history, and is indicative of a desire to indiscriminately destroy anything that honors our past.”

Stoop and build ’em up

Some Americans proved unwilling to let the tide wash away American history.

Tilghman Hemsley, a local painter, sculptor, and fisherman, hired a dive team to recover the broken pieces, which were taken to his family’s art studio. Hemsley’s son, Will, used scans of the recovered pieces to create a replica of the 13-foot statue.

The New York Times reported that the recreation project received $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which awarded funds in October 2020 “to help repair and restore statues of iconic historical figures that have been damaged or vandalized, and to construct new ones, in an effort to revitalize public interest in American history in advance of the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.”

Bill Martin, an Italian-American businessman, told the Washington Post that he and his allies also chipped in, raising and spending over $100,000 on the recovery and restoration efforts.

John Pica Jr., the president of Italian American Organizations United — the group that not only commissioned and owned the original statue but reportedly backed the reconstruction efforts — told the Associated Press that he was contacted in 2025 by a middleman who indicated the White House was seeking a statue of Columbus.

RELATED: Blue-state city leans into battle against ACLU over archangel Michael statue honoring police

Will Hemsley. Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images.

Basil Russo, president of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, had reportedly reached out to the Trump administration after Baltimore officials refused to install the replica in public.

‘In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero.’

“Columbus statues have long stood as symbols of pride and cultural identity for more than 18 million Americans of Italian descent,” Russo said in a statement.

“For over a century, Columbus’ legacy helped Italian immigrants navigate prejudice and hardship, serving as a source of unity and belonging as they built new lives in this country,” Russo continued. “Columbus Day itself emerged in the aftermath of the 1891 New Orleans lynching, when 11 Italian immigrants were killed by a mob of thousands, an event that prompted a national effort to promote the acceptance and assimilation of Italian Americans. This history remains central to why these monuments matter.”

Working in coordination with the Italian American Organizations United, the COPOMIAO gifted the statue to the White House.

On Sunday, the statue — which was reportedly transported to the White House by Tilghman and Will Hemsley along with Randsallstown resident Jeff Bayer — was installed on the north side of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House.

Trump thanked the COPOMIAO in a letter on Sunday for its “incredible generosity in gifting the Federal Government a beautiful statue of Christopher Columbus,” noting that he is “truly honored that this magnificent statue will now sit on the grounds of the White House.”

The president said further that the statue will “stand as an eternal memorial to courage, adventure, and the noblest aspirations of the human spirit as well as the extraordinary pride of our wonderful Italian American community.”

White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the Times in a statement Sunday, “In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero, and President Trump will ensure he’s honored as such for generations to come.”

Tilghman Hemsley told the Baltimore Sun that the statue’s installation “was very climactic and it was very fulfilling.”

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Val Kilmer would have wanted it this way, the late actor’s daughter claims.

Kilmer was originally cast in the film “As Deep as the Grave” in 2020 but grew too ill to participate in the production.

The actor’s battle with throat cancer saw him never make it to set, with the 65-year-old tragically passing in 2025.

However, that will not stop him from being in the movie.

‘It was very much designed around him.’

Writer and director Coerte Voorhees said that Kilmer was indeed the actor he had wanted to play the role of Father Fintan, a Native American Catholic priest.

“It was very much designed around him. It drew on his Native American heritage and his ties to and love of the Southwest,” Voorhees said, per Variety. Kilmer is reportedly Cherokee, German, Irish, and Swedish.

“I was looking at a call sheet the other day, and we had him ready to shoot. He was just going through a really, really tough time medically, and he couldn’t do it,” the director recalled.

Now through a deal with Kilmer’s estate and cooperation from his family, the star of “The Doors” and “Batman Forever” will posthumously appear on screen again.

RELATED: Val Kilmer: Two movies to celebrate the late actor’s peculiar ‘Genius’

Kilmer’s family “kept saying how important they thought the movie was,” the director stated, and that Kilmer “really wanted to be a part of this.”

As such, Kilmer’s estate was allegedly compensated according to SAG Guidelines, People reported.

Website Greenslate states actors must be paid their typical rate for any time saved using an “employment-based digital replica” of the performer. Therefore, it is likely that Kilmer’s estate would be paid the actor’s going rate as if he were alive.

However, consent is not required for changes made to the production using AI, which of course limits actor control (or in this case, the estate’s) in terms of the final product.

Daughter Mercedes Kilmer has openly supported the use of her father’s likeness, Variety reported, claiming her father was a “deeply spiritual man” who connected with the film’s “story of discovery and enlightenment.”

RELATED: 50 Cent will open a film studio in the Deep South, not Hollywood, to create ‘stories that need to be told’

Val Kilmer 2004. Photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images

“He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling,” Mercedes added. “This spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.”

Kilmer’s son is also reportedly in favor of the AI representation of his father.

It is important to note that in 2022, Kilmer said he was “grateful” to work with tech company Sonantic, which recreated his voice for the “Top Gun: Maverick” sequel.

“A phrase we often hear is ‘having a creative voice.’ But I was struck by throat cancer. After getting treated, my voice as I knew it was taken away from me,” Kilmer said, per Men’s Health. “But now I can express myself again, I can bring these dreams to you, and show you this part of myself once more. A part that was never truly gone, just hiding away.”

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While President Donald Trump tries to navigate high-stakes peace talks with Iran, Israel appears to have gone rogue.

Trump announced Monday morning that he would temporarily postpone strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure while the two powers continue peace talks. Trump categorized the negotiations as productive, saying they were a “great start for Iran to build itself back.”

This is not the first time Israel has launched strikes while the United States was mediating peace talks.

“We have had very, very strong talks,” Trump said. “We will see where they lead.”

Trump also said the negotiations would positively impact countries in the region, including Israel. Despite Trump’s attempts to find an off-ramp, Israel has continued conducting military ambitions in the region.

RELATED: ‘TOTAL RESOLUTION’: Trump orders temporary suspension amid Iran peace talks

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Mere minutes after Trump announced he ordered the Department of War to postpone strikes, Israel announced that it had launched a military campaign targeting Iran’s infrastructure.

The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed they struck several “Iranian terror regime headquarters” in Tehran as well as key military manufacturing facilities.

A senior Israeli official told Axios that they were aware of mediation efforts by several countries but that they were surprised by Trump’s remarks Monday, saying they “did not know things were moving that fast.”

When reached for comment about whether Trump had foreknowledge of the strikes, the White House directed Blaze News to Trump’s remarks to a press gaggle on Monday morning. The Department of War did not respond to a request for comment.

This is not the first time Israel has launched strikes while the United States was mediating peace talks.

RELATED: Trump’s hilarious response after intel reportedly tells him Iran’s new supreme leader might be gay

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Most recently, Israel struck Iranian power plants that prompted a series of retaliatory strikes that hit Qatari LNG gas fields last week. Trump took to Truth Social to claim that the United States had no foreknowledge of the Israeli strikes that led to military action against another American ally.

Additionally, Trump made Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologize to the Qatari prime minister in a trilateral phone call last September after Israel attacked Hamas leadership in Qatar, threatening ongoing peace talks.

Trump similarly claimed that Netanyahu approved the strikes without American foreknowledge, criticizing Israel for “unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace.”

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In a case stemming from a protest over a decade ago, the Supreme Court delivered a decision this week about qualified immunity.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in Zorn v. Linton that a Vermont state police sergeant is entitled to qualified immunity in a case brought by a protester following a dispute at the Vermont Capitol in 2015.

‘We reverse.’

In an unsigned per curiam opinion, the majority reversed the decision of a lower court, which had sided against the police officer’s use of force in the case: “The Second Circuit held that Zorn was not entitled to qualified immunity.

“We reverse,” the SCOTUS opinion stated.

RELATED: The next big Supreme Court shift might not be abortion or guns

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The case revolves around a protest at the Vermont governor’s inauguration on January 8, 2015. Shela Linton, a protester participating in an organized sit-in at the state Capitol building to demand universal health care, “anticipated being forcibly removed.”

After some other protesters were removed by police officers, Sergeant Jacob Zorn approached Linton and attempted to get her to comply. When she resisted, Zorn unlinked her arms from the human chain the protesters had formed, “put [her arm] behind her back in a rear wristlock, and twisted her arm.”

Linton alleged that Zorn’s actions resulted in “physical and psychological injuries including post-traumatic stress disorder,” the opinion stated.

Officials enjoy qualified immunity “unless their conduct violates clearly established law,” the opinion said. The bar for finding an official in violation is quite high since it generally demands both a precedent in case law as well as a “high degree of specificity.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling argued that the lower court relied too heavily on a 2004 case, Amnesty America v. West Hartford, which itself arguably did not clearly establish that the specific use of force employed by Zorn violated the Constitution: “Reasonable officials would not ‘interpret [Amnesty America] to establish’ that using a routine wristlock to move a resistant protester after warning her, without more, violates the Constitution.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the majority opinion and was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The dissenting opinion held that “the Second Circuit did not err in holding that Zorn is not entitled to qualified immunity at this stage. At the very least, the decision below was not so wrong as to warrant the ‘extraordinary remedy of a summary reversal.'”

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Despite his reported confession to placing explosive devices at two sites on Capitol Hill on Jan. 5, 2021, Brian Cole Jr.’s physical dimensions, gait, posture, and mannerisms are at stark odds with video clips of the hoodie-clad bomb suspect first released by the FBI more than five years ago.

A full analysis of the hoodie-wearing suspect has been complicated by poor video quality, a manipulated video frame rate, black-and-white images, and cropping of some of the original footage. A careful viewing of the substandard video, however, still reveals clues that don’t fit the allegations that Cole is the bomber.

‘Two eyewitnesses … described the gray hoodie suspect as a white male.’

Blaze News analyzed video of the hoodie suspect released by the FBI, photographs and video of Cole, and evidence culled from independent investigations. This analysis indicates stark physical differences between Cole and the hoodie suspect, including the manner of walking, body shape and features, eyesight, shoe size, neck length, and mannerisms.

Cole, 31, of Woodbridge, Va., won’t be back in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., until April 21 for a status hearing on the two explosives-related felony charges that have kept him behind bars since his Dec. 4 arrest. He awaits a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals on his challenge to the detention order that is keeping him behind bars until trial.

Brian Cole Jr. denied involvement in the pipe-bombs case for two hours in an FBI interrogation, then changed his story, the DOJ claims. FBI, Prince William County Police Department photos

The FBI says that after two hours denying involvement in the pipe-bomb case, Cole suddenly gave a detailed confession during a Dec. 4 interrogation. His defense team, however, retorted in an appeals court filing seeking his release from custody that their client “contests each of the government’s factual claims.”

The hoodie-clad suspect went to some length to conceal identity, including a COVID-style face mask and a ball cap, but tools — including forensic podiatry and gait analysis — can shed valuable light on the investigation.

One of the most glaring conflicts in the case is an eyewitnesses who described the hoodie suspect as being a white male. Cole is black.

At a January hearing of the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Remaining Questions Surrounding Jan. 6, Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) said information received from the FBI leaves key questions unanswered.

“There are still critical details regarding this case that must be understood,” Loudermilk said at the opening of the first and only hearing since the subcommittee was impaneled in September 2025.

“The FBI operational updates note two eyewitnesses who described the gray hoodie suspect as a white male. Did this influence the FBI’s investigation?”

Blaze News examined the charges against Cole to see if his arrest and prosecution fit with the case history and facts developed by independent investigators. The list of conflicts, problems, contradictions, and lingering questions is extensive — and growing. This is Part 3 of our series. Part 1 was published Jan. 16, and Part 2 was published Feb. 6.

Autism disclosure a game-changer?

Among the most telling clues offered in Cole’s defense was the disclosure by his attorneys that he is afflicted with autism spectrum disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Each condition manifests in unique ways that can aid in identifying an individual on video or explain seemingly odd behaviors like wiping a cell phone back to factory settings more than 940 times over a three-year period, as Cole did.

Motion-based intelligence becomes especially useful in a case like the Jan. 6 pipe bombs where a suspect tries to disguise appearance by wearing oversized clothing, covering the face with a scarf, gaiter, or mask, or wearing a ball cap or other type of head covering under the sweatshirt hood. Clues can still be culled from the evidence.

Gergely Hanczar, a London-based expert in gait analysis, says the human body betrays itself, providing clues even if a person is trying to disguise identity. “Your body is a snitch,” Hanczar wrote in a recent Substack column.

“Before a single word is spoken, bodies have already decided what they want,” wrote Hanczar, an expert in biometric identification using digital tools. “The dilation of a pupil, a micro-adjustment of posture, the involuntary synchrony of breath are signals no sensitivity training can rewrite.

The gait of pipe-bomb suspect Brian Cole Jr. is starkly different from the hoodie-clad suspect sought by the FBI since January 2021.

“We are uncomfortable with movement-based intelligence probably because it exposes the primal reality of our hierarchies,” he wrote. “The body does not care about political correctness. It communicates a truth your lawyer would advise you to bury.”

Cole’s comportment and physical presence differ in many ways from the hoodie-clad suspect, from eyesight to manner of walking.

Cole does exhibit traits and mannerisms, however, that are consistent with those identified in research as common to individuals with autism spectrum disorder. A defense expert in the case provided an affidavit to the court in January stating that Cole suffers from autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

‘Criminals cannot hide their gait.’

According to the American Psychiatric Association, autism is a highly diverse neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests as “persistent social impairment, communication abnormalities, and restricted and repetitive behaviors.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of autism among children age 8 rose from 1 in 150 in the year 2000 to 1 in 31 in 2022.

The abnormalities found in autistic individuals were documented as far back as 1943 in a pioneering study by psychiatrist Dr. Leo Kanner, who profiled 11 children who displayed a “powerful desire for aloneness and sameness.” Kanner noted some of the children he profiled “were somewhat clumsy in gait and gross motor performances.”

Cole observed on body camera

There is ample video of the hoodie suspect on Capitol Police security cameras to use for comparisons. Police video of Cole at the scene of a 2024 Virginia traffic accident provides valuable clues about his physical demeanor that can be contrasted with the original suspect, a Blaze News analysis showed.

The 48-minute bodycam video, obtained by Blaze News under a Freedom of Information Act request, shows Cole interacting with a Prince William County Police Department officer and another driver. Cole’s vehicle rear-ended a pickup truck owned by a local church. The video has short segments that show Cole walking and standing.

The video shows that Cole walks with an outward foot angle, a stance sometimes referred to as a duck walk. The outward angle of his feet was also evident when he was standing and not in motion. An outward foot angle was not seen with the hoodie-clad bomb suspect in the footage that captured the masked bomber walking on Capitol Hill the evening of Jan. 5, 2021.

A relative told Blaze News that Cole has long had the outward foot angle in his walk.

Based on more than 20 minutes of video showing the hoodie suspect, that individual tends more to an inward foot angle, often referred to as being pigeon-toed. At several points during the walk around Capitol Hill on Jan. 5, the feet of the hoodie suspect cross over each other when their stride width is minimal. This is sometimes called “tightrope walking” or line walking.

The crossover of feet is especially noticeable in perhaps the most famous piece of video of the bomb suspect striding south on Rumsey Court before making a hard turn right toward the Capitol Hill Club. The hoodie suspect walked with a consistent, definitive right-leg drag — seen across more than 20 minutes of video.

These characteristics are not present in the limited amount of public video that shows Cole’s gait.

A 2024 research study of older children and adolescents with autism found that they had greater step width than the control subjects with no autism. Common traits in autistic individuals included shorter step length, increased cadence, and wider step width, according to the study, published in the journal Sports Medicine and Health Science.

The authors said the unusual gait patterns seen in autistic individuals were in part compensation for lower-extremity weakness.

‘I know him by his walk.’

“This unique gait pattern may represent a movement strategy used by the individuals with ASD to compensate for the weakness associated with their knee extensor muscles,” the study said. “Individuals with [autism spectrum disorder] who demonstrate these unique gait deviations may face reduced postural stability and an increased risk of fall-related injuries.”

“Risks related to muscular and coordination deficits may be exacerbated as movement difficulty increases (e.g., running, stepping stairs, carrying school bags),” the study said.

Cole appears to have a shorter stride than the hoodie suspect. The independent investigator known online as Armitas estimated the hoodie suspect’s stride (two consecutive steps) at 57 inches. Video and video stills of Cole at the 2024 accident scene show a fairly compact stride length compared to the hoodie suspect, he said.

Cole showed a pronounced lean of his head and neck, often to the left but sometimes to the right, both standing and walking, the video showed. The hoodie suspect shows no such posture on the FBI video. Cole tended to walk with his torso leaning forward, and he kept his arms close to his body while walking and standing, video showed.

He also exhibited a posture sometimes crudely referred to as “duck butt,” with a forward torso and a protrusion of the rear. A 2018 study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology found that children with autism showed a greater forward tilt of the pelvis throughout the gait cycle compared to a control group.

A 2025 study from Greece said motor impairments affect up to 80% of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The study, which reviewed findings from 17 research papers on autism and gait, said “individuals diagnosed with ASD generally demonstrate reduced coordination.”

Children with autism, the study said, tend to have “a less fluid and more effortful gait.”

‘Agents wondered if the injury could have accounted for the odd gait seen on security footage.’

Cole’s shoes appear much larger than the Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes worn by the hoodie-clad bomb suspect. In late December, Blaze News took measurements of the sidewalks and gutter pan along the Virginia street where Cole’s traffic accident occurred and of the sidewalk trod by the hoodie suspect outside the DNC building on Jan. 5. Based on those measurements, Cole’s feet are as large as size 12.5 — substantially larger than those of the hoodie suspect.

It appears that Cole’s feet are also disproportionately large for someone who stands 5 feet, 5 inches or 5 feet, 6 inches tall. The hoodie suspect’s feet, however, appear proportionate to that individual’s 5-foot, 7-inch frame.

Witnesses describe Cole’s walk

Two witnesses who have observed Cole’s gait over the span of at least a decade in his hometown told Blaze News that Cole’s walk is vastly different from that of the hoodie suspect.

Sunny Sandhu, owner of a 7-Eleven store on Minnieville Road in Woodbridge, not far from the Cole family home, said he has watched Cole come to and go from the store a “a minimum of two to three times per week” during at least a 13-year period.

After Cole’s arrest, Sandhu said he watched the FBI video of the hoodie suspect walking down an alley to place the second pipe bomb near the RNC.

“I go, ‘No way. The kid doesn’t walk like that,’” Sandhu said. “This kid has no confidence in his stride at all.”

Cole has a “goofy walk” that does not resemble the FBI’s bomb suspect, Sandhu said. “There’s no way.”

‘He was always very robotic and socially awkward.’

Cole was a consistent regular at the 7-Eleven, always asking for two Cokes and a pizza, Sandhu said.

“Every time he came in here, it was always the same thing, same routine,” Sandhu told Blaze News in an interview. “Always had his headphones on. Always made it the same order, bought two Cokes and a pizza.”

A law enforcement source who lives in the same area as the Cole family told Blaze News that he saw Cole on a regular basis out walking his little dog in the neighborhood. He described Cole’s demeanor as “awkward.”

“We were super surprised to hear he was the subject arrested for the Jan. 6 pipe bombs,” the source told Blaze News. “The immediate thought was: There is no way he had the mental ability to plan and prepare something like that. He was always very robotic and socially awkward around the neighborhood.

“My second thought was, seeing how he behaved around the neighborhood, how could he function in downtown D.C.?” the source said. “I had no doubt he was the wrong guy and complete doubt that the FBI did a proper investigation to identify him.”

A Blaze News reporter and an investigator who witnessed Cole walk into a February court hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said Cole’s gait appeared distinct from the hoodie suspect’s.

Eyesight appears different

In the Virginia bodycam video, Cole kept his phone about six to eight inches from his face, indicating a likely nearsighted condition.

The hoodie suspect, in contrast, held the cell phone in the lap while sitting on the park bench behind the DNC building. This was about two feet from the eyes, which could indicate that Cole’s eyesight is significantly different from the eyesight of the hoodie suspect.

History of gait analysis

The FBI and state and local law enforcement agencies have used gait analysis in a variety of investigations. In fact, the FBI used gait analysis early in the pipe-bombs case to help rule out a suspect, according to “Injustice,” a 2025 book by two Washington Post reporters.

The FBI’s investigation of who purchased the same Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers worn by the hoodie suspect led the bureau to a gym employee who lived in the area near the crime scenes.

“The person came under further scrutiny after he initially lied to agents about a leg injury, according to people familiar with the investigation,” wrote Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis. “Agents wondered if the injury could have accounted for the odd gait seen on security footage.”

The FBI later concluded that the man had no other possible ties to the case and ruled him out as a suspect, Davis and Leonnig wrote.

More recently, gait analysis was used on security footage in the February 1 disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, mother of NBC “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie.

Gait analysis has been used in criminal cases in the West as far back as the 1830s. In an 1837 case in London, burglary suspect Thomas Jackson, 36, was convicted based in part on a policeman’s testimony describing his gait, according to the 1840 Central Criminal Court Minutes of Evidence.

Patrolman George Cheney told the court that he arrested Jackson on March 1, 1837, charged with the burglary of Heath and Company. Security guard William Meagle detained Jackson after discovering him overnight on the main floor of the building.

Two police officers identified burglary suspect Thomas Jackson by his gait in this 1837 case in Great Britain.Central Criminal Court Minutes of Evidence

“I have not a doubt of his being the man — I know him by his walk,” Cheney said in court testimony. “When he was remanded, I had to take him backwards and forwards three or four times, and he had a limp in his walk, having had an accident, and I know his features.”

Police constable Philip Parish told the court that Jackson had a “bow leg.” Sergeant George Teakle said the suspect had suffered a broken leg. “I observed him rather limp on one side,” Teakle recounted. “I said, ‘You have had a broken leg.’ He said, ‘I have not.’”

Forensic gait analysis has been used in criminal cases in the U.K. much longer than in the United States. It is sub-specialty of forensic podiatry. Forensic podiatrist Michael Nirenberg described forensic podiatry as “the application of sound and researched podiatry knowledge and experience in forensic investigations, to show the association of an individual with the scene of a crime.”

Nirenberg has testified in several criminal trials, using gait analysis and footprint and footwear evidence to tie defendants to crime scenes.

His testimony was key to the conviction of an armed robbery suspect in Wayne County, Tenn., in January 2017. Three men robbed the Berrys One Stop convenience store. Detectives did not find any physical evidence such as fingerprints or DNA. One of them did notice something peculiar about one man on surveillance video: his walk.

FBI officials search Brian Cole Jr.’s 2017 Nissan Sentra for evidence in the Jan. 6 pipe-bombs case, in Woodbridge, Va., on Dec. 4, 2025.Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

Detective Dusty Malugen asked Nirenberg to compare the robbery surveillance video to video of a subject who came into the convenience store days before the crime. Nirenberg found a match by observing the men.

“You can see how he’s walking,” Nirenberg told the Journal & Courier newspaper. “His feet and knees are out-toed. You can see the way his head is positioned on his shoulders. His head hangs forward.”

Nirenberg’s analysis was presented to a local grand jury, which indicted a suspect. Confronted with the evidence, the man confessed to the robbery and rolled over on his two accomplices. All three were sent to prison.

Nirenberg assisted police and the FBI with gait analysis in the April 2016 murder of Missy Bevers, 45, a fitness instructor in Midlothian, Texas. That case remains unsolved.

AI and forensic gait analysis

The use of artificial intelligence to analyze the movements of individuals shown on surveillance video is an emerging method that claims up to near-perfect accuracy. Europe-based consultant Cursor Insight says its gait-recognition system achieved 98.3% accuracy using video of a single gait cycle, measuring only thigh and shank flexion angles of both legs.

Using other factors such as segment lengths and analyzing several gait cycles can increase accuracy to 99.9% or higher, the company reported in a 14-page case study.

The AI-powered gait analysis has advantages over biometrics such as facial recognition, which often fails when the subject is far away, covered in darkness, or wearing a face mask, the case study said.

“Our AI-powered gait-analysis technology can transform seemingly worthless video into reliable forensic evidence,” the case study said. “Even when facial recognition fails — we can identify individuals by analyzing body dimensions, body pose, and motion patterns such as walking or running.”

‘Cole contests each of the government’s factual claims.’

Nirenberg said gait analysis will become a more prominent part of criminal investigations.

“The admission of video evidence in criminal matters will continue to grow, and with it, those perpetrating crimes will increasingly take measures to conceal their identity,” he wrote in Criminal Justice magazine. “Even so, criminals cannot hide their gait. This is a significant fact for attorneys on both sides of a criminal case.”

A U.S. intelligence community source told Blaze News that gait recognition technology is much farther advanced in China.

“Gait recognition will eventually be used as the most important law enforcement tool in identifying criminal suspects from the increased proliferation of CCTV,” the source said. “The downside is that it will also be used by authoritarian governments in establishing their social credit scores — tracking jaywalkers in crowded cities and other such undesirable behaviors.”

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​Jan. 6