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‘We didn’t know if it was a mass shooting’: Witnesses describe panic after gunfire near Boardwalk

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    SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KSBW) — Shots fired near the Santa Cruz Boardwalk on Monday night caused panic and a brief lockdown, according to Santa Cruz police.

The incident occurred just after 9 p.m. in the parking lot across the street from the boardwalk. Authorities confirmed that no one was hurt and there is no active threat to the public. The lockdown was implemented to ensure safety.

Witnesses described the chaotic scene.

“We just got off of a ride and we saw people running. We were honestly freaking out, we didn’t know why. People were hiding, mothers were clutching onto their children, so that was honestly pretty alarming,” Kamryn Main, a visitor, said.

Another witness shared their experience during the lockdown.

“With the rides and music and everything, it was just too loud to hear anything. And there were rides that were stopped up in the air with people until the lockdown was lifted,” Laura Albrecht, a Santa Cruz local, said.

A third witness expressed their fear and uncertainty about the situation.

“I was really scared. We didn’t know if it was a mass shooting or personal type beef between a few people. We treated it as the most dangerous situation possible so that we could stay safe,” Bahar Jazani, a visitor, said.

At this time, two people have been arrested in Ceres in this shooting, and the investigation remains active.

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Trump says US will reduce military exercises with South Korea, citing lack of help with Iran

(CNN) — President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the United States would reduce military exercises it conducts with key regional ally South Korea, citing his positive relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Seoul’s lack of assistance with Iran.“Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea. These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.Trump went on to raise his request for South Korea to help with the US war against Iran.“While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, ‘No thanks!’” Trump wrote.Trump has had a warm relationship with Kim despite North Korea being a longtime adversary of the United States. Earlier this weekend, Trump posted a picture of him and Kim, with the caption: “Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we’re smiling, Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!”The joint exercises with South Korea, called Ulchi Freedom Shield military drills, were set to begin Monday and go for 10 days.North Korea has long criticized such exercises, with its Central Military Commission calling trilateral exercises last year with Japan and South Korea “the most comprehensive and offensive war drill for aggression in terms of scale, content and nature” that has been conducted on the southern Korean Peninsula.During Trump’s first term, the United States and South Korea also scaled back joint operations as part of an effort to ease tensions with North Korea.The president said in 2018 that it was “inappropriate to have war games” on the Korean Peninsula as the US was engaging in nuclear negotiations with North Korea.In March 2019 — after a Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi that failed to reach an agreement — the United States and South Korea announced that annual large-scale exercises, which had been a common feature of the defense relationship between the two militaries, would be reconfigured into smaller exercises.As he did on Sunday, Trump in 2019 also cited the cost to the United States. “The reason I do not want military drills with South Korea is to save hundreds of millions of dollars for the U.S. for which we are not reimbursed,” he posted at the time.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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