Crime

The man accused of killing NHL superstar Johnny Gaudreau and his little brother last year just pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges against him.

Sean Higgins issued the pleas in a New Jersey court room at a post-indictment arraignment on Tuesday morning ... turning down an offer from prosecutors that would have resulted in a 35-year prison sentence.

The case will now move toward a trial -- although Higgins is due back in court for additional proceedings in February.

Nikola Jokic's brother, Strahinja Jokic, is fighting back in his assault case ... TMZ Sports has confirmed he just issued a not guilty plea at a court hearing Monday.

According to records we obtained, the NBA superstar's older bro pleaded not guilty to one count of misdemeanor assault in Denver County Court ... and then had his trial set for April 24.

The charge, of course, stems from his alleged role in a scuffle at Ball Arena back on April 22, 2024.

The man responsible for the New Orleans terrorist attack used smart glasses to record the area where he would carry out his attack during a visit to the city in the months leading up to the deadly rampage ... authorities announced on Sunday.

The FBI said Shamsud-Dim Jabbar, who drove his pickup truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day, visited the Big Easy in October for at least 2 days and used Meta smart glasses to record a video of him riding on a bicycle through the French Quarter ... the area where he would carry out the attack months later.

Authorities said Jabbar was wearing a pair of Meta smart glasses the day he carried out the terrorist attack but he didn't activate the glasses to record the horrific act which left 14 dead and several others injured.

Police are giving us a new look at the Cybertruck that exploded and burst into flames outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas last week.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police have released new video that shows Army Special Forces soldier Matthew Livelsberger's Tesla Cybertruck bursting into flames outside the hotel on the Vegas strip on New Year's Day.

The new video shows another angle as explosives were detonated inside the vehicle causing the truck to explode and burst into flames while Livelsberger sat in the front seat. Officials say he put one of his guns in his mouth, with the shot coming out the left side of his head prior to the explosion.

Spider-Man has been spotted in England, but he's no superhero to one UK resident.

In fact, the famous comic book character has turned into a mysterious stalker donning a Spider-Man mask and leaving packages on someone's doorstep in the town of Hailsham in East Sussex, around 68 miles south of London.

What's in the packages is as mystifying as the person who leaves them ... the cops haven't revealed the contents.

TMZ has obtained video showing a new angle of the New Orleans terror attack on Bourbon Street, and it's heartbreaking.

You see a crowd of people mulling about on the street, along with folks dancing on the sidewalk ... celebrating the New Year. Then, suddenly, people in the street scramble ... clearly seeing the pickup truck -- with Shamsud-Din Jabbar at the wheel -- roaring toward them.

It's pretty miraculous ... almost everyone scrambles to safety, moving as fast as they can to the sidewalk. We froze the video because the vehicle hits the woman in the white shirt and grey skirt -- and the truck launches her into the air. We also did not show others Jabbar hit as the car continued its deadly path.

Matthew Livelsberger fashioned himself a superhero after renting a Tesla Cybertruck just days before detonating the vehicle in front of the Trump Hotel in Vegas.

The Army Special Forces active-duty soldier told his ex-GF Alicia Arritt he felt like Batman in the Musk truck -- this was just 2 days before the truck exploded.

According to texts obtained by the Denver Gazette, Livelsberger wrote, "I rented a Tesla Cybertruck. It’s the s***," and followed up with more messages, photos, and videos of the truck.

Tiger Bech tragically had his life taken in the early morning hours of New Year's Day, and now the standout football player's high school coach is speaking out about the life and death of his late star.

"When we lose someone, it always hurts. To lose someone like Tiger and then to lose him in such a tragic way on a holiday when he had come into town to be with family and friends, just tragic," Marty Cannon, former assistant football coach turned principal at St. Thomas More Catholic High School in Louisiana told Babcock on the TMZ Sports TV show (airs nightly on FS1).

"Our thoughts and prayers definitely go out to the Bech family. They are also a tight-knit group of people, close, close family that we deeply love, and they love St. Thomas More. So, a lot of people are hurting today."

The internet is taking shots at ESPN after the network did not show the national anthem or moment of silence on the main Sugar Bowl broadcast ... after a terror attack in New Orleans delayed the important football game.

Folks online are up in arms with ESPN's decision to show studio analysts breaking down the College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchup between Notre Dame and Georgia instead of the in-stadium tribute to victims of Wednesday's terror attack in the city.

Thursday's Sugar Bowl was played at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans ... close to where terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar mowed down NYE revelers in a pickup truck.

A former military veteran is offering insight based on his personal experiences at war, using them to illustrate how Shamsud-Din Jabbar's military background likely made him more susceptible to radicalization ahead of his ISIS-inspired New Orleans attack.

Kristofer Goldsmith, a U.S. Army vet, appeared on "TMZ Live" Thursday, explaining during his time in service, he witnessed so much anger-induced violence he carried that emotion home -- and it pushed him to the edge of radicalization.

He also explains how ISIS preys on people with specific skills and character traits -- like Jabbar and former Special Forces vet Matthew Livelsberger, who carried out the Cybertruck bombing the same day.

The four people the feds thought were in cahoots with New Orleans terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar weren't helping him plant bombs around the French Quarter ... they were party people looking for their next drink.

Federal sources tell TMZ ... the confusion started when investigators looked at surveillance video from the Bourbon Street area and noticed 3 men and a woman peering inside two coolers in which Jabbar had planted homemade bombs ... leading to theories Jabbar was not acting alone.

Our sources say investigators ultimately determined these people weren't terrorists at all ... rather they were partiers checking the coolers to see if there was booze inside.

Chris Pousson grew up with Shamsud-Din Jabbar -- the terrorist who killed 14 people in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year's Day -- and reconnected with him online in recent years ... but he says Jabbar never gave any indication of being a killer.

Chris joined us on "TMZ Live" Thursday and told us about his relationship with Jabbar, who he knew as Sham.

The friends went to high school together after meeting in middle school, and Chris says when they graduated he enlisted in the Air Force and Jabbar went to the Army ... so they lost touch for a while before finding each other on Facebook.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the terrorist who wreaked havoc in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year's Day, earned a ton of medals during his service in the Army ... TMZ has learned.

The armed forces veteran served in the regular Army from March 2007 until January 2015 as a Human Resource Specialist and Information Technology Specialist -- and he was a decorated service member ... an Army spokesperson tells TMZ.

We're told Jabbar earned 23 medals, ribbons and badges ... including the Army Good Conduct Medal, Army Achievement Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the terrorist who killed 14 people in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year's Day, told his college newspaper a decade ago he was struggling to acclimate to life as a civilian after serving in the military.

The U.S. Army veteran studied at Georgia State University from 2015 to 2017, and in his first year on campus, he was interviewed for The Signal as part of a story about students jumping through hoops to use the G.I. Bill.

Jabbar told reporter Sean Keenan it was difficult to use the G.I. Bill for his tuition, and he was having a hard time getting used to being a college student. He told Keenan he didn't know how to talk to regular folks without using military slang.

Cops in Washington, D.C. arrested a man who was driving a car along a sidewalk near the U.S. Capitol Building Thursday morning ... an incident ramping up anxiety across the nation following 2 apparent terrorist attacks New Year's Day.

Capitol police officers say a bomb squad was brought in ... but no explosives were found inside the car.

USCP say officers responded Thursday morning to reports of a vehicle driving along the sidewalk on the grounds outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Cops pulled him over and detained him while they investigated.