TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Savannah Guthrie told the potential kidnappers of her mother Nancy Guthrie on Saturday that the family is prepared to pay for her safe return, as the frantic search for the 84-year-old Arizona resident has entered a seventh day.

“We received your message, and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her,” she said in a video posted on social media, flanked by her siblings. “This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”

The “Today” show host was referencing a message that was sent to the Tucson-based television station KOLD on Friday afternoon, according to Kevin Smith, a spokesperson for the FBI office in Phoenix.

KOLD said it received an email related to the Guthrie case on social media that day but declined to share specific details about its contents as the FBI conducted its review.

The station was one of multiple press outlets that received alleged ransom letters during the week. At least one letter made monetary demands and established Thursday evening and the following Monday evening as deadlines.

In a news conference Thursday, law enforcement officials declined to affirm that the letters were credible but said all tips were being investigated seriously. They also said one letter referenced Nancy Guthrie’s Apple watch and a specific feature of her property.

The video released Saturday was the third this week that pleaded with potential kidnappers.

No suspects identified

Investigators think Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will from her home just outside Tucson last weekend. DNA tests showed blood on Guthrie’s front porch was a match to her, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has said. Authorities have not identified any suspects or ruled anyone out.

The sheriff said Friday that he was frustrated that a camera at Nancy Guthrie’s home was not able to capture images of anyone the day she went missing.

Investigators have found that the home’s doorbell camera was disconnected early Sunday and that software data recorded movement at the home minutes later. But Nancy Guthrie did not have an active subscription, so none of the images were able to be recovered.

“It is concerning, it’s actually almost disappointing, because you’ve got your hopes up,” Nanos told The Associated Press in an interview. “OK, they got an image. ‘Well, we do, but we don’t.’”

President Donald Trump, speaking on Air Force One on Friday, said the investigation was going “very well.”

“We have some clues that I think are very strong,” Trump said, while en route to his Florida estate. “We have some things that may be coming out reasonably soon.”

Investigators return to scene

They were back in Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood on Friday.

The sheriff’s department posted on social media to say access was restricted to the road in front of the home to give investigators space. Journalists staked out there were directed to move.

The Catalina Foothills Association, a neighborhood group, told residents in a letter that authorities were resuming searches in the area immediately.

“I know we all stand together in our collective disbelief and sadness and greatly appreciate your willingness to speak with law enforcement, share camera images and allow searches of your properties,” the association president said in the letter.

The sheriff said Thursday that investigators have not given up on trying to retrieve camera recordings.

“I wish technology was as easy as we believe it is, that here’s a picture, here’s your bad guy. But it’s not,” Nanos told the AP. “There are pieces of information that come to us from these tech groups that say ‘this is what we have and we can’t get anymore.’”

The sheriff also said he had no new information about the note to the TV station or other purported ransom letters sent to some media outlets, saying the FBI is handling that side of the investigation.

Meanwhile concern about Nancy Guthrie’s health condition has grown, because authorities say she needs vital daily medicine. She is said to have a pacemaker and have dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriff’s dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com.

“Her conditions, I would imagine, are worsening day by day,” Nanos said. “She requires medication. And I have no way of knowing whether they’re getting that medication to her.”

The kidnapping has captured the attention of Americans, including Trump, who said he was directing federal authorities to help investigate.

___ Weber reported from Los Angeles.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — For days, Luis Ramirez had an uneasy feeling about the men dressed as utility workers he’d seen outside his family’s Mexican restaurant in suburban Minneapolis.

They wore high-visibility vests and spotless white hard hats, he noticed, even while parked in their vehicle. His search for the Wisconsin-based electrician advertised on the car’s doors returned no results.

On Tuesday, when their Nissan returned to the lot outside his restaurant, Ramirez, 31, filmed his confrontation with the two men, who hide their faces as he approaches and appear to be wearing heavy tactical gear beneath their yellow vests.

“This is what our taxpayer money goes to: renting these vehicles with fake tags to come sit here and watch my business,” Ramirez shouts in the video.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to inquiries about whether the men were federal immigration officers. But encounters like Ramirez’s have become increasingly common.

As the sweeping immigration crackdown in Minnesota continues, legal observers and officials say they have received a growing number of reports of federal agents impersonating construction workers, delivery drivers and in some cases anti-ICE activists.

Not all of those incidents have been verified, but they have heightened fears in a state already on edge, adding to legal groups’ concerns about the Trump administration’s dramatic reshaping of immigration enforcement tactics nationwide.

“If you have people afraid that the electrical worker outside their house might be ICE, you’re inviting public distrust and confusion on a much more dangerous level,” said Naureen Shah, the director of immigration advocacy at the American Civil Liberties Union. “This is what you do if you’re trying to control a populace, not trying to do routine, professional law enforcement.”

A ‘more extreme degree’ of deception

In the past, immigration authorities have sometimes used disguises and other deceptions, which they call ruses, to gain entry into homes without a warrant.

The tactics became more common during President Donald Trump’s first term, attorneys said, prompting an ACLU lawsuit accusing immigration agents of violating the U.S. Constitution by posing as local law enforcement during home raids. A recent settlement restricted the practice in Los Angeles. But ICE deceptions remain legal elsewhere in the country.

Still, the undercover operations reported in Minnesota would appear to be a “more extreme degree than we’ve seen in the past,” said Shah, in part because they seem to be happening in plain sight.

Where past ruses were aimed at deceiving immigration targets, the current tactics may also be a response to the Minnesota’s sprawling networks of citizen observers that have sought to call attention to federal agents before they make arrests.

At the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, the city’s central hub of ICE activity, activists told The Associated Press they had seen agents leaving in vehicles with stuffed animals on their dashboards or Mexican flag decals on their bumpers. Pickups with lumber or tools in their beds were also frequently spotted.

In recent weeks, federal agents have repeatedly shown up to construction sites dressed as workers, according to Jose Alvillar, a lead organizer for the local immigrant rights group, Unidos MN.

“We’ve seen an increase in the cowboy tactics,” he said, though he noted the raids had not resulted in arrests. “Construction workers are good at identifying who is a real construction worker and who is dressing up as one.”

Using vintage plates

Since the start of the operation in Minnesota, local officials, including Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, have said ICE agents had been seen swapping license plates or using bogus ones, a violation of state law.

Candice Metrailer, an antiques dealer in south Minneapolis, believes she witnessed such an attempt firsthand.

On Jan. 13, she received a call from a man who identified himself as a collector, asking if her store sold license plates. She said it did. A few minutes later, two men in street clothes entered the shop and began looking through her collection of vintage plates.

“One of them says, ‘Hey, do you have any recent ones?’” Metrailer recalled. “Immediately, an alarm bell went off in my head.”

Metrailer stepped outside while the men continued browsing. A few doors down from the shop, she saw an idling Ford Explorer with blacked out windows. She memorized its license plate, then quickly plugged it into a crowdsourced database used by local activists to track vehicles linked to immigration enforcement.

The database shows an identical Ford with the same plates had been photographed leaving the Whipple building seven times and reported at the scene of an immigration arrest weeks earlier.

When one of the men approached the register holding a white Minnesota plate, Metrailer said she told him that the store had a new policy against selling the items.

Metrailer said she had reported the incident to Minnesota’s attorney general. A spokesperson for DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

A response to obstruction

Supporters of the immigration crackdown say the volunteer army of ICE-tracking activists in Minneapolis has forced federal agents to adopt new methods of avoiding detection.

“Of course agents are adapting their tactics so that they’re a step ahead,” said Scott Mechkowski, former deputy director of ICE enforcement and operations in New York City. “We’ve never seen this level of obstruction and interference.”

In nearly three decades in immigration enforcement, Mechkowski said he also hadn’t seen ICE agent disguising themselves as uniformed workers in the course of making arrests.

Earlier this summer, a spokesperson for DHS confirmed a man wearing a high-visibility construction vest was an ICE agent conducting surveillance. In Oregon, a natural gas company published guidance last month on how customers could identify their employees after reports of federal impersonators.

In the days since his encounter, Ramirez, the restaurant worker, said he has been on high alert for undercover agents. He recently stopped a locksmith who he feared might be a federal agent, before quickly realizing he was a local resident.

“Everybody is on edge about these guys, man,” Ramirez said. “It feels like they’re everywhere.”

Isabelle Valdez, 15, and Lois Lippert, 14, have been charged as adults with attempted first-degree premeditated murder, court records filed Tuesday show. The girls, whom a police report described as best friends, were arrested Jan. 23. Police offered few details at the time except that a knife had been found at the Altamonte Springs school.

Valdez told Lake Brantley High School and law enforcement officials she sometimes heard voices telling her to hurt others. In the past, one of these supposed voices was Adam Lanza, the mass shooter who in 2012 killed over two dozen people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, according to her arrest report.

She said she no longer heard Lanza’s voice, but other voices told her she could hear his voice again if she killed another student that reminded her of Lanza. Valdez planned to kill him since September and for three months would “stalk” him around campus, taking photos of him without his knowledge, the report said.

“They told me that Adam would come back to speak to me if I did it for him. Adam Lanza wanted it,” Valdez wrote in a note to her parents included in the report. “I think it’s a fair and beautiful scene of devotion on my behalf. I love Adam Lanza. We’re soulmates, just waiting to be reunited once more.”

On the day prior to Valdez’s arrest, Altamonte Springs police received an anonymous tip that someone later identified as Valdez intended to kill a classmate on the following day. Law enforcement, including the FBI, had already been looking into Valdez as part of an investigation into multiple “swatting calls” recently made to the school and had confiscated her phone, the report said.

An assistant principal called Valdez into her office Jan. 23, where the girl talked about her plan. She then spoke with law enforcement and explained she had planned to kill the classmate after the school’s second period by pulling him into a bathroom and stabbing him. She also said she planned to lay photos of him on his body as part of a “blood ritual” that would show her devotion to Lanza, according to the report.

The girl said she had intended to write a manifesto but was then called into the office.

Valdez told police she had shared her plan with Lippert, who helped test the sharpness of the knife she was planning to use and brought her several items she requested. The report found Lippert “took measures to assist Valdez with gathering items she would need to carry out her plan to kill [the classmate],” including gloves, cigarettes and flowers.

Valdez said the flowers were for the classmate and that she’d leave them for his funeral. She planned to smoke the cigarettes after killing him, the report said.

Police found the knife in Valdez’s backpack, along with cigarettes, a lighter, a black camera, a pair of what appeared to be used work gloves and a yellow cloth. Valdez had previously told police she had a yellow towel she would use to muffle the classmate.

Also found were drawings of Valdez, Lanza and the classmate, including one of Valdez cutting him. She told police she had asked Lippert to draw them for her.

A spokesperson for the 18th Circuit State Attorney’s Office said Wednesday that the State Attorney chose to charge the girls as adults after “significant discussion” with other top prosecutors over the course of a week.

“Protecting public safety in this case calls for more aggressive, longer-term sentencing options than what the juvenile justice system offers, especially considering the serious nature of the crime and prosecutors’ assessment of the defendants.”

Both girls are currently in custody at the Seminole County Jail and had their first court appearances Wednesday afternoon, records show.

The Smith and Wesson .38 Special revolver that Desmond Holly used in the Sept. 10 attack originally belonged to one of Desmond’s grandparents, the sheriff’s office found, and was kept in a safe in the family’s home.

Desmond’s parents will not be criminally charged in connection with the storage of the gun or their son’s access to it, the sheriff’s office concluded.

Through an attorney, the boy’s parents told investigators on Jan. 23 that the revolver was “rarely seen or used and stored out of sight near the back of a large, locked gun safe,” and that their son “did not have access to the safe, except for brief moments when it was opened by his father,” according to a news release announcing the completion of the investigation.

Douglas Richards, the attorney representing the Evergreen High shooter’s parents, told The Denver Post on Wednesday that he believes Desmond slipped the revolver out of the safe while he was with his father.

“I believe what happened is Desmond and his father were cleaning some of the family firearms, and in a moment when his father was not looking, Desmond took a firearm from the back of the safe that was an heirloom and had not been used by the family, ever,” Richards said. “Because the firearm was never used and was not stored with other firearms in the safe, its disappearance was not noticed until after the tragedy.”

The parents’ DNA was not found on the weapon, which was originally purchased in Florida in 1966.

Richards called the decision not to charge the parents “correct.”

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office acknowledged, in its announcement, “that this was not the outcome many in our community hoped for.”

An email sent to Evergreen High families Wednesday, alerting them to the sheriff’s completed investigation, said victim advocates would be on campus Thursday alongside the school’s mental health and counseling teams.

Sheriff’s officials noted in their news release that investigators were “unable to speak with” Desmond’s parents and implied the family was uncooperative during the probe into the revolver’s origins.

But Richards said Desmond’s parents spoke with investigators at the hospital as their son was dying and answered written questions and follow-up questions from investigators. Richards said he also offered to sit down with investigators to explain how the gun was stored.

“I have… explained from the outset that the firearm in this case was stolen without the knowledge of Desmond’s parents,” Richards said. “…We have cooperated at every single turn, and it was only earlier this (year) that on my own I decided to just send the DA’s office a letter explaining what occurred, which obviously satisfied them that what we had been saying all along was true — that this was a terrible tragedy that was not foreseeable by anyone in Desmond’s family.”

Desmond died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the end of his attack on the high school.

He roamed the halls for about nine minutes and shot in several areas before leaving the building. Desmond wounded a 14-year-old boy who was not publicly identified and 18-year-old Matthew Silverstone; both were seriously injured but survived. Video of the attack shows that Desmond physically grappled with Silverstone before shooting him.

Officials said Desmond acted alone and was “radicalized” before the attack. His social media profiles suggested he was part of a new wave of online extremism that encourages the use of violence to destroy society. The teenager’s accounts were littered with references to white supremacy, antisemitism and violence, with a particular focus on past mass shootings, including the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School.

In a photo posted on TikTok a few days before the attack, Desmond posed wearing a black T-shirt with the word “Wrath” written in red across the chest — similar to what one of the Columbine attackers wore. The same post also included an image of the 15-year-old who killed two people and injured six more at a Madison, Wisconsin, school in December 2024.

A post on X about an hour before the Sept. 10 attack on Evergreen High showed an image of a hand holding a revolver.

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“We too have heard the reports about a ransom letter in the media,” the “Today Show” host said.

“As a family, we are doing everything that we can. We are ready to talk,” she continued. “However, we live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know without a doubt that she is alive and that you have her. We want to hear from you and we are ready to listen. Please, reach out to us.”

Authorities believe Savannah’s sister, Annie Guthrie, was the last person to see their mother prior to her disappearance. She said they went out to dinner with her husband, Tommaso Cioni, on Saturday and that they dropped her back off at her home in Tucson between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m.

Concern for the 84-year-old Guthrie matriarch began to swirl the following day, when she did not show up for church on Sunday as usual. According to reports, blood was found during a subsequent search of her home, while all of her personal belongings — including her wallet, cellphone and car — were still on the scene.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department believe Guthrie was taken “possibly in the middle of the night, and that includes possible kidnapping or abduction.”

In the days since, several news outlets have received ransom notes that could be connected to the case. The letters, which demand millions in bitcoin for Guthrie’s safe return, have not been verified by police.

“Mommy, if you are hearing this, you are a strong woman,” Savannah added. “You are God’s precious daughter, Nancy. We believe and know that even in this valley He is with you. Everyone is looking for you, mommy, everywhere. We will not rest. Your children will not rest until we are together again. We speak to you every moment and we pray without ceasing and we rejoice in advance for the day that we hold you in our arms again. We love you.”

Savannah so far has skipped her “Today” show hosting duties this week, opting instead to remain in Arizona amid the ongoing investigation, and she will not host the 2026 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Italy as planned. Instead, Mary Carillo will be stepping in.

As of Thursday, no person of interest has been identified and an investigation into the matter is ongoing. The FBI said it was also assisting in the search efforts.

“We’re following all leads we have. We’ve got hundreds of leads, and it’s from you that we produced those leads,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told reporters. “We are sharing all of our leads with the FBI; they are helping us in evaluating them.”

James (Jimmy) LaForte, 49, is the 10th and final defendant to plead guilty in the scheme, which saw Gambino mobsters fantasizing about acting like samurai warriors and celebrating with champagne as they used violence and arson to extort their victims.

LaForte, a made man and Gambino soldier, is already serving more than 11 years in Pennsylvania for acting as his brother Joseph’s enforcer in a $400 million fraud scheme, and for beating up an attorney appointed by the courts to investigate the scam. His brother was sentenced to 15½ years last March.

LaForte now faces roughly eight to 10 more years behind bars, based on federal sentencing guidelines, after pleading guilty to racketeering conspiracy, extortion, witness retaliation and other crimes in Brooklyn Federal Court. The court has not yet set a sentencing date.

LaForte’s role in the plot included a bloody scene at Sei Less, at W. 38th St. and Seventh Ave., the same Midtown restaurant that served as the backdrop for the Nov. 16 shooting of New York Jets cornerback Kris Boyd.

The posh Asian fusion “speakeasy” is popular with celebrities, including athletes, rappers and former Mayor Adams.

On Feb. 17, 2021, LaForte and another Gambino associate, Vincent “Vinny Slick” Minsquero, approached a man eating at Sei Less with his girlfriend and pals and accused him of being a “rat,” according to the feds.

LaForte hit the man in the face with a bottle, bloodying his nose, and the Gambino duo flipped the table, sending drinks and broken glass flying, according to court filings.

LaForte attacked the man because he was a witness at an official proceeding, and because he gave law enforcement agents information about a federal crime, according to prosecutors.

LaForte also extorted a man who borrowed $50,000 from a mobbed-up loanshark, making the man go into business with him to run an underground poker game and a craps game. When the man asked for his share of the craps proceeds, LaForte responded with screaming and violence, decking the man in the face and giving him a black eye, according to court filings.

LaForte’s criminal past spans two decades and includes prison sentences for fraud, extortion and illegal gambling.

The overall extortion scheme was run by reputed Gambino capo Joseph “Joe Brooklyn” Lanni, who was recently indicted in connection with a separate sprawling plot to use NBA stars to lure big-money poker players to rigged underground card games.

Lanni was sitting nearby at Sei Less when LaForte wrecked the witness’ table.

All 10 suspects indicted in the extortion racket have pleaded guilty since their 2023 indictment. They all await sentencing.

“The prosecution of these members and associates of the Gambino organized crime family has dealt a significant blow to that violent criminal enterprise,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said Wednesday. “Their efforts to take over and infiltrate legitimate businesses by means of intimidation threatened hardworking New Yorkers and terrorized their victims.”

Nancy, 84, was last seen alive the night before by her daughter Annie. Her family said she was “sharp as a tack” and had no cognitive impairments.

“We have nothing else to go on but the belief that she is here,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said in an interview that aired Wednesday on “Today.”

“She’s present. She’s alive, and we want to save her,” he added.

Police have asked for any leads that might help them locate Guthrie, such as alleged ransom notes that were sent to three media outlets, including TMZ.

“When the note comes to us, it’s like any piece of evidence,” Nanos told CBS News. “You give it to us. You give us a lead. We’re going to look at every aspect of that lead and work it as a lead.”

Cops have not confirmed the legitimacy of the ransom notes. The one sent to TMZ demanded millions in Bitcoin, and the outlet reported the Bitcoin address was real.

Authorities have obtained very little information about Guthrie’s whereabouts. After having dinner with her daughter on Saturday night, she was reported missing after not attending church the next morning.

When officers arrived at her house, they found evidence of a crime, including blood inside the residence and signs of a forced entry. What appeared to be a blood trail could be seen on the front steps of the home.

“I believe she was abducted,” Nanos said Monday afternoon. “She didn’t walk from there. She didn’t go willingly.”

Though Guthrie does not have any mental difficulties, she does have physical limitations including high blood pressure and cardiac issues, according to an initial 911 call. She reportedly uses a pacemaker and takes daily medications. Nanos said Guthrie is “very limited in her mobility.”

Her pacemaker last sent a signal to her cellphone — which was found in the residence — around 2 a.m. Sunday, sources told CNN.

Savannah Guthrie will not join NBC’s coverage of the Olympics as the search for her mother continues. She had been scheduled to host coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday night.

“Thank you for lifting your prayers with ours for our beloved mom, our dearest Nancy, a woman of deep conviction, a good and faithful servant,” Guthrie posted on Instagram. “Raise your prayers with us and believe with us that she will be lifted by them in this very moment. Bring her home.”

Chad Michael Watts, 45, of Kyle, was arrested and charged with two counts of assault causing bodily injury following an altercation with students taking part in a walkout protest in Buda, police said in a press release.

The Monday afternoon protest, organized by students from Moe and Gene Johnson High School, was described by Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra as a “peaceful student-led demonstration” and a “lawful exercise of the constitutional rights to free speech and peaceful assembly.”

However, the protest did not remain peaceful for long, according to Buda police. Officers dispatched to the intersection of RM 967 and FM 1626 around 3 p.m. encountered a heated verbal argument involving a teenage girl on the sidewalk and an adult man inside a vehicle.

The argument quickly escalated, turning into a “physical altercation involving multiple people,” officials said.

Both the man, later identified as Watts, and the unidentified teen were interviewed by detectives. Each reported minor injuries but declined medical evaluation, police said. No arrests were made at the time.

On Tuesday, Buda police said further investigation determined Watts “was the primary aggressor in the physical altercation,” leading to his arrest.

A video obtained by CBS Austin appears to show Watts confronting a student and pushing her to the ground. Several students were seen rushing to confront the man, throwing objects at him as he returned to his truck.

“No matter one’s political views, an adult bears a clear responsibility to exercise restraint, especially in the presence of children,” Judge Becerra said in a statement. “Violence or intimidation directed at a minor — particularly during a lawful, peaceful demonstration — has no place in a constitutional republic that depends on the rule of law rather than force.”

Michael Gopaul, 40, was charged with multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon, according to law enforcement.

Police executed the search warrant at Gopaul’s 83rd St. home near Fourth Ave. in Bay Ridge where he lives with his 8-year-old daughter around 6:30 a.m., police said.

The 3D-printed firearms — called ghost guns because they are unregistered and difficult to trace — were modeled after the Austrian-made Glock pistol, cops said

Of the six recovered ghost guns, Gopaul printed four of the weapons entirely himself, while he purchased roughly 80% of the parts for the other two firearms from a second party, said police.

The NYPD caught onto the postal worker’s cottage gun-manufacturing scheme about a year ago, after certain 3D-printing parts and supplies he bought online raised red flags at the department, according to law enforcement.

Police also recovered a standard Glock purchased legally out of state, five high-capacity magazines, 300 rounds of ammo and a 3D printer, cops said.

Following his arrest, Gopaul described himself to investigators as a gun buff, saying he enjoyed target shooting in Pennsylvania, according to police, who said he is not suspected of seeking to distribute the weapons.

Messages left seeking comment from USPS were not immediately returned.

An El Monte resident, U.S. citizen and community organizer alleges she was intimidated by immigration officers in an encounter she livestreamed on her Instagram account.

Maria Santay was driving Friday, Jan. 30, along Valley Boulevard in El Monte, keeping a watch for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, when she had what she called an “alarming, traumatic” encounter with them. Santay and supporters said she was peacefully alerting local vendors to the enforcement activity when it occurred.

According to the video and news reports, Santay was approached by ICE officers, who she said were following her car. She drove toward the El Monte police station and began the livestream, when masked officers surrounded her car, boxed her in, drew their weapons and demanded she get out of the car before they broke through the window with a hammer and arrested her. The video also shows El Monte police later in the encounter and the video shows they did not get involved.

It happened by the Chevron station parking lot at Peck Road and Valley Boulevard around 2 p.m., Santay said.

“They’re slowly following me. They’re wasting their tax dollars on me … trying to intimidate me,” Santay tells the camera. “They’re drawing their guns on me.”

Through tears, she also says in the video, while trembling: “This is unbelievable. I’m a U.S. citizen. This is insane. They’re going to try to arrest me … Lord, please protect me. I don’t trust them.”

Multiple requests for comment from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which manages ICE and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, were not returned Sunday, Feb. 1, or Monday, Feb. 2. Jason Givens, a spokesperson with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, confirmed via email receiving a request for comment, but as of Monday evening had not provided a response.

Santay, who could not be reached Monday, Feb. 2, told ABC7 that she feared for her life.

“I thought, this was it. These are my last moments.”

“They threw me in their car, we got on the 10 Freeway, they took me all the way on a joy ride … and then they get off on an exit,” she said.

Santay was released later that day. The charges against her, according to news reports, include resisting arrest.

“That was unnecessary — I feel unsafe. He should have never, ever, ever pointed a gun at me,” Santay told L.A. Taco. “Because there’s no force. I am harmless, I am 125 pounds.”

A GoFundMe account — which over the weekend had already been fully funded and raised nearly $10,000 as of Monday — was set up by Santay’s friends and fellow organizers to help cover her car damages, legal fees, emotional distress and lost income.

Two days before the incident, Santay told the news media that she had been stopped by ICE officers while driving on the 10 Freeway and they told her it was “her first warning.”

“Turns out they weren’t stopping me; they were just intimidating me,” she later said.

On the GoFundMe page, organizers wrote that Santay was “peacefully observing and alerting local vendors and community members to immigration enforcement activity — an act that is legal and protected.”

“Witnesses report that El Monte Police Department was present and failed to intervene,” the GoFundMe account alleges.

“Maria was not committing a crime. She was exercising her rights and standing up for her community … no one should be targeted, threatened, or detained for protecting their community — especially not a U.S. citizen exercising their rights.”

In a Jan. 30 statement, the El Monte Police Department said it was responding to a request for assistance from Customs and Border Protection. Its officers arrived to “engage in conversation and de-escalation efforts,” the statement said, but they did not take part in the federal operation.

California Senate Bill 54 (SB 54) restricts local police involvement in federal enforcement activities, El Monte police said.

El Monte police only sought to ensure safety and order and are “committed to creating a safe environment for all residents, regardless of their immigration status.”

El Monte Mayor Jessica Ancona posted a statement on social media  saying that “what happened to Maria Santay caused real fear in our community — and our residents deserve answers, accountability and humanity.”

She called out fellow city councilmembers for “remaining silent while the community is hurting,” and encouraged El Monte residents to demand transparency, accountability and leadership.

“Even when local law enforcement is not participating in a federal operation, more can and must be done,” Ancona said. “… I stand with Maria Santay and with every resident who was shaken by what occurred. This incident caused real fear in our community, and we must take responsibility for learning from it.”

The now-viral video mostly sparked outrage online.

“What’s scary and sad is you can’t even fight back or try to get away without risking getting shot. Genuinely what are you supposed to do here,” another, @okneesuh, wrote.

Another user, @mysecretgarden13, commented, “If she’s scared, why harass them?”

Stephanie Berenice wrote on Instagram, “This is how intimidation works. Not just handcuffs, but fear. Not just arrests, but trauma. And still, Maria showed courage … it saved people. And it does not go unnoticed.”

Santay posted on Instagram on Sunday, Feb. 1, that she was continuing to patrol the streets to help community vendors and was grateful for the money raised and for those who support her.

She also said she will use the money to help “buy out at least one” detained street vendor and emphasized the trauma she’d feel driving around El Monte.

“It’s also the trauma of what’s happened to my people… the people we should be protecting …” she said Sunday on an Instagram Live. “I was being targeted for existing. I’m not just going to stand up for our people… our flower vendors, our pupuserías … but also for the community trying to speak up.”

On Monday, Feb. 2, Santay said on Instagram Live that a local business will fix her front windows and that the city of El Monte has been supportive.

The San Gabriel Valley city is comprised of more than 65% Latinos and nearly 30% Asians, as of the latest U.S. Census estimates.

“No matter what their status, I don’t want this to happen to anyone,” Santay said Monday. “People are starting to make noise — they’re starting to realize.”