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College football player Ronnie Caldwell -- a junior safety at Northwestern State University -- was shot and killed on Thursday morning in Louisiana, police said.

He was just 21 years old.

According to the Natchitoches Police Department, the tragic incident happened near NSU's campus -- which is about three hours away from New Orleans -- at around 1:08 a.m.

Police say they were dispatched to a street near the university after 911 callers reported gunshots in the area. When officers arrived, they say they found Caldwell suffering from gunshot wounds ... and he was later pronounced deceased.

Cops say an investigation into the shooting is still ongoing.

The Northwestern State football team, meanwhile, canceled its Saturday game against Nicholls State after learning of the heartbreaking news.

"Ronnie Caldwell was a young man who had a bright future ahead of him on or off the football field," Demons head coach Brad Laird said on Thursday. "He was our voice in the locker room."

"Our hearts are broken and ache for Ronnie's family and friends. His loss will be felt here at Northwestern State, in Natchitoches and in his home."

Caldwell -- who transferred from Tyler Junior College after the 2021 season -- appeared in 11 games last season and finished seventh on the team in tackles. He did not play yet this season due to an injury he suffered in the preseason.

The Texas native was also a business administration major who helped coach a local youth baseball team over the summer.

The phone belonging to the boyfriend of Shani Louk -- the artist and festivalgoer who was kidnapped by Hamas -- sent chilling texts after Saturday's attack ... including ones about spitting on people.

30-year-old Orión Hernández Radoux was reportedly with 22-year-old Louk at the Supernova festival near the Gaza Strip over the weekend when Hamas terrorists opened fire with guns and rockets, kidnapping those at the event.

Louk was one of many taken hostage, and it's believed Radoux -- who is still missing -- was kidnapped along with her. According to The Sun, his phone has been used to send threatening messages to his contacts in the days following the festival massacre.

The texts, written in Arabic, reportedly say things like, "Liberate Palestine," "God damn you," and "I spit on you."

As we reported, video from just before the Hamas attacks showed Louk having fun at the festival ... before she was taken, stripped naked, and spat on while being paraded in the back of a pickup truck.

Rudolph Isley, the singer known as one of the founding members of The Isley Brothers, has died.

The iconic singer passed away Wednesday in Illinois, TMZ has learned. The cause of Rudolph's death is currently unclear, though one person involved tells us it's believed he suffered a heart attack.

Rudolph started singing at a young age in his local church and created The Isley Brothers with his siblings Ronald, O'Kelly, and Vernon when he was just a teenager.

After Vernon was tragically hit by a car while riding his bike at just 13 years old in 1955, the brothers moved to New York to record music ... signing with RCA Records a few years later and debuting with their first song, "Shout" -- arguably one of their most significant tracks.

While the group was still in its infancy, Rudolph married Elaine Jasper in 1958 ... living the married life while the Brothers all went on to garner success with tracks like "Twist & Shout," "This Old Heart of Mine," and "It's Your Thing."

Despite Ronnie often taking the lead in the group, Rudolph got to record lead vocals for some of their songs, too.

As the years went on, The Isley Brothers grew -- adding younger brothers Ernie and Marvin and Rudolph's brother-in-law Chris Jasper into the mix in 1971.

Rudolph left the group in 1989 to carry out his goal of being a Christian minister, but he reunited with the group over the years. They were even inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 ... being given the award by fellow music legend Little Richard.

The group has been cranking out tracks for over half a century -- something many groups can't come close to -- with more recent songs like "Busted" and "Contagious" after Rudolph left.

They also made it into some popular rap hits ... being sampled in Ice Cube's "It Was a Good Day" and Notorious B.I.G.'s "Big Poppa."

Rudolph was 84.

1:09 PM PT -- Logan Paul was, indeed, bloodied during Thursday's skirmish with Dillon Danis ... with a new angle of the scrap showing blood pouring out of the WWE Superstar's eye area almost immediately after he was hit by the microphone.

But, he says despite the wound, Saturday's fight will go on as planned.

"Dillon can’t escape me," Paul said on X. "The fight is very much happening, the stakes just got higher."

Paul also shared a selfie on his Instagram page just minutes ago ... showing that while the side of his face seems to be somewhat swollen, he's in good spirits.

"Can't see the haterz," he captioned the pic.

10:23 AM PT -- Dillon Danis just posted a photo of blood spatter on the ground near Thursday's altercation ... insinuating he made Logan Paul bleed with the microphone throw.

"Play with fire get burnt p****," Danis captioned the photo.

Dillon Danis and Logan Paul just got into a wild altercation at their prefight press conference Thursday ... one in which Danis actually hurled a microphone full speed at Paul's face.

The fracas happened just minutes ago as the two were on a stage trying to promote their Saturday boxing match ... when Paul chucked a bottle at his bitter rival as they were set to walk toward each other for a ceremonial staredown.

In response to being hit in the gut by the object ... Danis went nuclear -- and hurled a heavy microphone directly at his opponent.

It appeared to catch the WWE superstar in the face -- and then everyone jumped in to try to separate the two.

Several people were seen throwing more objects as Paul and Danis were whisked off stage ... though it's unclear if anyone -- including Paul or Danis -- was hurt in the melee.

The tilt was hardly the only notable moment from the contentious presser -- as just minutes before chaos erupted, Paul brought out Chris Hansen to mock Danis ... someone whom he's repeatedly called a "predator" over the last few weeks.

Danis and Paul are slated to box each other in just about 48 hours ... that is, of course, assuming no one sustained any fight-altering ailments during the onstage battle.

Jonathan Goodwin, who nearly died doing a stunt for 'AGT: Extreme,' is suing NBC over his gruesome injuries, alleging the network didn't do enough to ensure safety on set.

According to a new lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, Jonathan claims NBC and producers kept upping the ante on stunts to go bigger and bolder to keep eyeballs on the 'AGT' franchise, and he says that led to producers signing up contestants to perform extreme stunts ... while cutting corners on safety.

In the docs, Jonathan claims the show controlled, designed and interfered with the safe performance of stunts ... which he says nearly cost him his life when he got seriously injured on set.

Jonathan says he was "catastrophically injured" during an October 21 rehearsal at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Georgia, where he was crushed and burned by 2 exploding cars before falling more than 20 feet to the ground and landing violently.

In his suit, Jonathan claims he dislocated his spinal cord, lost his left kidney, suffered 3rd-degree burns and fractured his legs, ribs and shoulders.

Remember ... we first obtained video of the stunt, and it shows Jonathan suspended in the air, hanging from a wire and attempting to free himself from a straightjacket before two swinging cars smash together.

The footage shows the cars sandwiching Jonathan in midair ... and sources on set told us folks who were there thought Jonathan had died.

It's been nearly 2 years since the incident, and Jonathan says there's no end to his suffering from his mental, physical and emotional injuries from the "catastrophic, life-altering" incident.

In his suit, Jonathan's blasting the show for what he says was a failure to implement industry safety standards. He says the production hired unqualified people to oversee and design the stunt, which he says wasn't tested with a crash dummy before he got in the ring.

He's suing for damages.

Pairing facial recognition with AI is a dream come true for law enforcement, but it could also be a nightmare for privacy as we know it -- which is why an author says it might be time to pump the brakes on the technology.

Kashmir Hill, a New York Times tech reporter, joined us Thursday on "TMZ Live" to tell us about the facial recognition databases lurking in the shadows, how the technology works and what its implications are for the future.

Google and Facebook first developed facial recognition tech in early 2017, but Silicon Valley's major players didn't dare unleash it on the public ... though Kashmir says another company, Clearview AI, picked up the baton and pushed the boundaries.

Kashmir wrote a book about the topic, "Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest," and she says Clearview AI's database scraped the internet for photos of human faces -- without consent -- amassing 30 billion images and counting. Those numbers make it likely your face is already in their database.

There are some practical, and good, uses right now -- the tech is being used to solve crimes, and it was recently used to identify folks who stormed the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

However, Kashmir paints a picture of a dystopian future where the tech completely strips away privacy for everyone ... which, for example, could make for some embarrassing trips to the pharmacy.

Britney Spears is in The Big Apple, celebrating the upcoming release of her memoir with a couple of the hottest names in music ... J Balvin and Maluma.

Spears hit Zero Bond Wednesday night for some sushi and conversation with the two music hunks, posing with her tongue out and sunglasses on while the three sat together.

J Balvin and Maluma are certainly friends, and have been for a while ... but the Britney connection is interesting considering we've never seen her hanging with the musicians before. It's also possible they simply were in the same spot at the same time and decided to join forces ... Page Six reports the guys waved Britney and friends over to their table.

Britney's memoir, "The Woman in Me," is set for release October 24 so there's a good chance she's in NYC for promotional events and a small press tour.

TMZ broke the story, Britney will serve as the voice for a portion of the audiobook and a mystery celeb will handle the other duties. We don't yet know who the mystery celeb will be, but our sources say at one point Reese Witherspoon was asked ... she wasn't available.

Taylor Swift hopped onstage at the AMC Theater at The Grove Wednesday night, thanking her fans who showed up for the premiere of her movie, telling them how overwhelmed she is with the phenomenal success of her "Eras" tour.

TMZ broke the story ... 2,200 fans were invited to the world premiere of "The Eras Tour." All 14 AMCs were packed to the gills, and things got way better for them when Taylor took the stage.

She gave a 3-minute speech thanking folks for showing up, with a special shout-out to her family and her band, all of whom were present. She said the band has become family just like her mom, dad and brother.

She explained the process of selecting who got tickets for the world premiere ... saying they were "hand-selected and handpicked ... because you've shown some type of extra support for this tour."

She gave several speeches at the various theaters in The Grove, saying, "I’m always looking out for people with elevated levels of passion, incredible senses of humor on the internet, attention to detail. These things are very important to me."

The success of the flick is insane ... it's broken all records for single-day advance ticket sales -- $26 million. By the time the weekend is over, the film is expected to gross $115 million!

During the showing, Taylor was singing and dancing along in the audience.

Taylor was also there bearing gifts, including popcorn, free alcoholic drinks and candy. Fans predictably were furiously trading bracelets during the evening.

A bunch of celebs showed, including Adam Sandler, Beyoncé, Simu Liu, Mariska Hargitay, Flavor Flav, Maren Morris and Julia Garner.

Jeremy Allen White was spotted having a fun day at the beach with his little kids ... this after agreeing to test for booze whenever he spends time with them amid his divorce.

The star of "The Bear" was on daddy duty on Wednesday, taking to the Malibu sand with his young daughters -- Ezer and Dolores.

They all seemed to be having fun ... the kiddos were running around near the water and JAW had a smile on his face watching them play. A pretty sweet moment -- one that came not long after rules were set in place so he could continue to see them.

As we reported, new docs obtained by TMZ showed Jeremy agreed to test for alcohol as part of a custody agreement he has with his estranged wife, Addison Timlin.

It said he would test up to 5 times a week when he has the little ones in his care -- and if any booze is found, that custody goes out the window. Docs said Jeremy and Addison also agreed to share joint physical custody over their kids.

His custodial time comes with some caveats, though ... apart from the testing, he also has to attend AA once a week as well as other therapy sessions.

Police are looking to charge three men who they say played a role in an altercation at a Patriots game last month that ended in the death of one fan.

The Foxborough Police Department tells TMZ Sports ... it has submitted criminal complaints to prosecutors seeking assault and battery and disorderly conduct charges against a trio of Rhode Island men.

While cops did not reveal the names of the men nor any further details of the evidence ... they did say they believe the men were somehow involved in the altercation that resulted in Dale Mooney's death at the Pats vs. Dolphins game at Gillette Stadium.

According to the FPD, officers came to the conclusion after interviewing witnesses at the game as well as reviewing videos of the incident.

As we reported, Mooney was involved in the scuffle at some point during the Sept. 16 contest ... and he collapsed and later died. Officials did say, however, that they believe a medical issue -- not a traumatic injury -- led to the death.

A medical examiner's investigation into the final cause and manner of death remains ongoing.

Donations towards Mary Lou Retton's medical expenses now top $360k and the Olympic star's daughter, Shayla, says she's blown away by the "unbelievable love" her mom is receiving from her fans.

"My sisters and I are overwhelmed," Shayla said via Instagram on Wednesday, "We didn't even realize that there's so many people out there that love her just as much as we do."

"It's been a really hard time for our family."

Since news broke that the Olympic gold medalist was battling a rare case of pneumonia, fans have flooded the SpotFund account launched by her other daughter, McKenna.

As of Thursday morning, the fund sits at $363k (after starting with a goal of just $50k!) with over 6,000 donors! And it's going up by the hour.

"Just seeing that people love her like that and showing her that support has just meant the world to us and to her," Shayla said.

"Thank you for your unbelievable love & support for our mom. Please continue to pray for her full recovery."

Britney Spears' memoir is coming out soon, but only a part of the story is going to be told in her voice when it comes to the audio version -- the rest will be handled by a surprise celeb guest ... TMZ has learned.

Sources connected to the publisher of "The Woman in Me" tell TMZ ... Britney has already recorded the voice-over folks will hear when they buy the audiobook, but we're hearing she only recorded herself narrating a portion.

We don't know how much she recorded, but we've been told she did not narrate any chapters having to do with her family -- and, presumably, much of the book will cover that topic. Our sources say she didn't record audio for those sections because she found them too painful to retell in her own words.

So, as a remedy ... another celeb was tapped to record the rest of 'TWIM' -- which comes out on Oct. 24 -- although it's unclear who was on the mic. Our sources tell us the publisher was really pushing for Reese Witherspoon to pick up the baton, but she wasn't available to do it.

We're told only female celebs were approached, and they eventually landed on someone suitable who's completed the recording ... and the whole audiobook is ready for the masses.

Remember, Britney was on the fence about doing an audio version of the book at all -- something she was unsure of dating back to July.

With that said, it's perhaps not surprising they got her to agree to narrate at least some of it -- audiobooks are a huge part of any new book rollout these days because they're big-time sellers.

Seeing how Britney got paid a fortune for this memoir -- it makes sense Simon & Schuster wanted to get its money's worth by producing the audiobook.

Beyoncé is letting all the world know ... she's a "Swifty," too!!

Queen Bey made a surprise, unannounced appearance at Taylor Swift's now legendary premiere for her "Eras" tour concert film at The Grove in L.A. Wednesday night.

Taylor looked stunning in a $12,000 blue dress created by none other than Oscar de la Renta. And Beyoncé was the epitome of cool in her all-black bodysuit, chrome bustier and dark sunglasses.

Both superstars gave thousands of "Swifty" fans an even bigger treat -- posing together for photos on the red carpet in front of a wall of throwback images of Taylor and a huge ad for her movie.

Everyone then piled into the theater to watch the movie -- of course, Beyoncé and Taylor had a front-row seat and they proved it by posting an Instagram video of themselves sitting next to each other. Beyoncé playfully tossed popcorn on the ground as Taylor stuffed a kernel into her mouth.

In the caption, Taylor partly wrote, "I'm so glad I'll never know what my life would've been like without @beyone's influence. The way she's taught me and every artist out here to break rules and defy industry norms."

TMZ first reported ... Taylor was planning to pop up at the premiere after questions swirled about whether she would attend. The music icon took selfies with 2,200 of her excited "Swifties," who were lucky enough to be handpicked to watch the movie with her.

What's more .. the security was totally insane at The Grove, which shut down for the first time in 2 decades for the event.

Hundreds of guards were posted outside the shopping center to keep an eye on things. Barricades were also set up all around the perimeter.

And everything went according to plan.

Don't forget ... Taylor moved the release date for the film from Friday to today. Get your tickets now, Swifties!!!

Do you think Taylor Swift will show up at Beyoncé's movie premiere? Vote below.

Kanye West is reportedly pissing off the people of Italy again ... and this time it's local war veterans angry over his past remarks celebrating Hitler and the Nazis.

Here's the rub ... the rapper is supposedly in secret talks to hold a concert to build a huge event stage at the RCF Arena in the city of Reggio Emilia, according to the Daily Mail.

While no plans have been set in stone, word got around town that 80,000 fans are planning to show up at Kanye's possible gig, infuriating some of the Italian war veterans who fought against Nazis during World War 2, sources told The Mail.

The vets are bitter about Kanye's comments last year, lavishing praise on Hitler and the Nazis. You might recall ... Kanye sat for an interview with conspiracy nut Alex Jones on his show, "Infowars," and made some jaw-dropping remarks.

Kanye said, "I see good things about Hitler ... Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler."

When Jones argued the other way, Kanye replied, "They did good things too, we are gonna stop dissing the Nazis." At another point, Kanye stated, "I like Hitler.

In a separate interview with Piers Morgan, Kanye doubled down on his antisemitism, blaming Jews in the music industry for his ugly feelings toward them.

Scott Disick is still suffering from his 2022 car crash in a bunch of different ways ... and it all adds up to making his sex life total crap.

Lord D opened up about the aftermath of his accident on Thursday's episode of "The Kardashians" as Khloé Kardashian took him to see a doctor for his back pain -- something he attributes to his Lamborghini rollover wreck last year near Calabasas.

The back pain isn't all Scott says he's still dealing with ... he also says the accident led to some weight gain and all of it is directly affecting his sex life.

When the doc asks Scott what he'd usually do for fun before the crash, he says sex but admits he's terrible at it now, thanks to a lack of mobility. Khloé's no doctor, but she's got some sorta bedside manner ... because she asks Scott if he'll be motivated to fix his pain so he can "get back on the wagon to f**k?"

Scott even jokingly suggests maybe once he's all healed up, he and Khloé could test out his new back in the sack! Not surprisingly ... Kourtney's sis refused to participate in that joke!

TMZ broke the story, Scott's accident was a scary one ... but thankfully, no one else was involved in the accident. Outwardly, he walked away with just a minor cut to his head, but obviously, there was more internal damage.

Taylor Swift's world premiere of her "Eras" tour film wouldn't be complete without friendship bracelets galore ... and the singer's parents joined in on the fun with her biggest fans -- which included Flavor Flav!

Scott and Andrea Swift were all smiles at the big premiere of their daughter's epic concert movie Wednesday night at The Grove in L.A. -- Andrea was spotted trading and having fun with a fan throughout the night.

Andrea couldn't help but give the Swiftie a hug after getting the accessory from them, which said, "I love you mama thank you so much" ... and she made sure to return the favor by finding a bracelet to give right back.

One of the many celebs who showed up was big-time Swiftie, Flavor Flav -- after snapping a pic with Taylor's pops, they got into the bracelet trading biz, too ... with Scott giving Flav a "Papa Swift" one that apparently is NOT for trading.

Flav gave Scott one to keep all for himself, too ... even double-checking that it'll stay on his wrist!

This isn't the first time Flav has met Taylor's 'rents -- as we reported, the rapper gave them big hugs at her SoFi Stadium concert back in August, and he was decked out in friendship bracelets there, too.

Scott even gave him some sweet guitar picks to pass out to the crowd.