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Man in custody after hours-long RV standoff outside Walmart

NJ: FL MAN IN CUSTODY AFTER HOURS-LONG RV STANDOFF

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    LUMBERTON, New Jersey (WPVI) — A Florida man was taken into custody Tuesday after a 16-hour standoff in an RV parked at a Walmart on Route 38 in Lumberton, according to police.

Authorities identified the suspect as Blake Reed, 38, of Florida. He is charged with robbery and weapons offenses. Police said they received information that Reed might have had a flamethrower inside the RV.

The incident began around 11 p.m. Monday following a dispute in the Walmart parking lot, police said.

After attempting for about 16 hours to get Reed to surrender, officers entered the RV with pepper spray at approximately 3:15 p.m. and removed him from the camper. Reed was placed in an ambulance and taken to a hospital.

During the standoff, law enforcement used drones, K-9 units, robots and a battering ram in efforts to persuade Reed to leave the vehicle. By mid-afternoon, authorities began dismantling the RV with an armored vehicle.

Police diverted customers away from the area of the parking lot where the operation was underway.

Loved ones who remained at the scene throughout the day said Reed had been experiencing what they described as a mental health crisis. They said he lived in the RV and traveled around the country performing at state and community fairs.

“He’s a wonderful guy; he just had a break. And he’s going to be fine. And I’m so happy that we happened to be here,” family friend Kay said.

Kay also said, “I heard he hit his head really bad yesterday and it could’ve caused a concussion. We don’t know.”

Later, she added, “So grateful. So grateful to God that he’s okay.”

According to police, Reed suffered minor injuries during the incident. No officers were injured.

The investigation remains ongoing, and Walmart had not reopened.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

After being ‘bamboozled by Russian propaganda,’ Laura Loomer says she’s all in for Ukraine

(CNN) — For years, Laura Loomer’s unflinching support for President Donald Trump was matched only by her fervent opposition to the US assisting Ukraine in its war against Russia.The far-right figure has accused Ukrainian soldiers of committing war crimes and President Vladamir Zelensky of faking his Jewish faith. She once encouraged Russian President Vladamir Putin to seize the entire country.Yet, on Friday, Loomer released an exceedingly friendly 45-minute interview with Zelensky recorded in Kyiv where she praised the country’s drone tactics, acknowledged she spread falsehoods about the war and expressed regrets for amplifying narratives that benefited Russia.“I was bamboozled by Russian propaganda,” she told Zelensky, “and I came to believe a lot of untrue things about Ukraine.”The admission marked a stunning reversal by one of Trump’s most loyal allies — one the president appeared to immediately embrace. On Thursday, Trump shared a promotional clip of the interview on Truth Social and wrote: “Very good!!!”Two senior administration officials told CNN that the White House was unaware that Loomer had made the trip to war-torn Ukraine — a 30-hour journey that she said included a lengthy train ride from Poland to Kyiv because of airspace restrictions. Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to questions from CNN about her appearance there.Her visit nevertheless presented a striking reminder of the unconventional currents that sometimes shape Trump’s foreign policy orbit. Images of her appearing alongside Zelensky emerged the same day Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in the Philippines. Loomer received a commitment from Zelensky to sign a peace deal with Russia at the White House or Trump’s Palm Beach estate; Rubio, meanwhile, acknowledged there’s been little movement toward an agreement.Zelensky is set to meet Trump at the White House on Tuesday, a White House official told CNN. Zelensky said earlier this week that he’d spoken to Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. “It was a good, important conversation on how to reinvigorate diplomacy and bring peace closer,” he posted on X.Until recently, Loomer — who spends a significant amount of her time identifying and criticizing allegedly disloyal employees within the Trump administration — seemed unlikely ever to express sympathies for the Ukrainian people. In addition to using her massive digital platform to rally MAGA against the country in the war, she also previously wrote a series of op-eds for RT, the Kremlin-funded international television network.A person in Kyiv with knowledge of how the Zelensky interview was arranged told CNN that there was a “considerable effort” in recent weeks to change Loomer’s worldview.Reached briefly by phone as she toured the wreckage from a Russian airstrike, Loomer said she had a positive experience speaking with Zelensky. In subsequent messages with CNN, she did not elaborate on how the trip was arranged.In her conversation with Zelensky, Loomer distanced herself from past statements accusing him of supporting neo-Nazi militias and praised the country’s new law criminalizing antisemitism. During her visit, she also met a prominent Ukrainian rabbi, Moshe Reuven Azman.Loomer’s conversion drew a range of reactions, including deep skepticism from liberals and anti-Trump Republicans on X, some of whom questioned whether her change in view was genuine or financial. Loomer told the news outlet Puck that she paid for her own plane ticket but declined to say how other arrangements were covered, like security and her train ticket.“The government of Ukraine did not pay for me to go, if that’s what you’re asking,” she told Puck.Tim Pool, another far-right commentator and outspoken Ukraine critic, appeared to mock Loomer on X by posting his own change-of-heart on the war that he later seemed to reveal was insincere.However, Zelensky’s inner circle was pleased with the initial reaction to Loomer’s appearance, the Kyiv source said, and they are optimistic she can now be an influential voice of support for Ukraine given her credibility with the president and many of his supporters. During the interview, Zelensky praised Trump and was receptive to Loomer’s overtures on how to win over MAGA, though he declined to say who he thought was better between President Joe Biden and the current office holder.“History will answer,” he said, before naming Abraham Lincoln as the country’s best leader.Loomer’s revisiting her longstanding opposition to Ukraine follows an escalating feud with Tucker Carlson over his opposition to Trump’s war with Iran. Like Loomer, Carlson has regularly shared Russian talking points while opposing US support for Ukraine’s defense.But Loomer has grown increasingly suspicious of Carlson’s motivations, exposing a deep ideological fracture within the MAGA movement over foreign policy. Amid her travels to Ukraine, Loomer took aim at Carlson. At one point, she ate at a McDonalds still operating amid the rubble caused by airstrikes, a gesture intended to evoke Carlson’s controversial visit to Moscow two years ago, when he interviewed Putin, praised it as “nicer than any” US city and ate a Russian knock-off of the golden arches. McDonalds pulled out of the country in 2022 shortly after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.The emerging divisions within Trump’s base over the war comes amid intensifying air strikes between Ukraine and Russia. June marked the deadliest month for Ukraine civilians in more than four years, the United Nation’s recently reported, while drone attacks on Russian infrastructure and its warships have led to mounting casualties and presented new challenges for Putin.Congress is weighing punishing Moscow with further sanctions in a bill designed to honor the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia. Trump has expressed a willingness to sign the bill if it also includes sanctions against Iran.Asked about the sanctions legislation, Zelensky told Loomer that Trump “exactly understood who really doesn’t want to stop the war.”“He understood that we really want peace,” Zelensky said.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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