On September 19, 2025, Sacramento residents woke up to news that someone had fired multiple rounds into the lobby of KXTV/ABC10, a local ABC affiliate, while an employee was inside — miraculously no one was hurt. Federal prosecutors moved quickly, filing an amended criminal complaint on September 22 charging 63-year-old Anibal Hernandez Santana with possessing and discharging a firearm in a school zone and interfering with a radio communication station.
Investigators found eerie, targeted evidence that suggests political animus rather than a random act: a weekly planner on the suspect’s refrigerator with the words “Do the Next Scary Thing” dated for the day of the shooting, plus a handwritten note in his car that referenced “hiding Epstein” and named conservative figures Kash Patel, Dan Bongino and Pam Bondi as being “next.” Authorities also reported an anti‑Trump book in the vehicle, painting a picture of someone radicalized by the left’s perpetual resentment toward conservatives.
What is galling to everyday Americans is how the suspect was initially arrested by local police and then released on $200,000 bail — only to be re-arrested by the FBI hours later. That sequence raises troubling questions about prosecutorial judgment and whether soft-on-crime attitudes endanger communities and media workers alike, even as officials insist on due process.
Let us be crystal clear: political violence must be condemned and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of the target. But conservatives also deserve answers about why media outlets that spend years delegitimizing dissent suddenly get the full protection of law enforcement when the radicalized few turn violent, and whether an atmosphere of demonization from the left helped inspire this act. Reporting indicates investigators were looking into the suspect’s mental health and whether other targets were considered, underscoring that this was not a spur-of-the-moment act.
The federal charges carry real penalties — up to five years for possessing and discharging a firearm within a school zone and additional exposure for interfering with a licensed station — and prosecutors are rightly treating this as potentially politically motivated violence. Americans who cherish free speech must also insist that law enforcement treat threats to public safety seriously and hold defendants accountable, while preserving constitutional protections.
Patriotic citizens should demand more than condolences: we should demand clarity from prosecutors about bail decisions, a full accounting of how radical political rhetoric spills into real-world violence, and stronger safeguards for newsrooms and the public. We stand for law and order, for due process, and for a nation that refuses to normalize political violence — and we expect our leaders to act accordingly, without playing political games.
