President Trump and his team are studying whether firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is an option, according to National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett. 

Though appointed by the president and approved by Congress, the Federal Reserve chair is an independent role. Powell was nominated to lead the Fed by Mr. Trump in 2017 and was renominated to serve another 4-year term by President Joe Biden in November 2021. Powell’s term as Fed chair ends May 15, 2026.

“The President and his team will continue to study that matter,” Hassett said when asked during a press gaggle on Friday if removing Powell from his post was likely. 

Mr. Trump on Thursday took aim at Powell in a social media post, writing that the Fed should be cutting interest rates, and adding that his “termination cannot come fast enough.” 

In a speech delivered on Wednesday, Powell warned that the Trump administration’s trade war could result in a combination of higher inflation and slower growth. That economic mix describes stagflation — a mashup of “stagnation” and “inflation” that characterizes periods when economic growth falters while price hikes accelerate.

On Wednesday, Powell also reiterated that the central bank plans to hold interest rates steady for now, also sparking pushback from Mr. Trump.

“He’s too late. Always too late. A little slow and I’m not happy with him. I let him know it and — if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me,” Mr. Trump said Thursday at the White House.

Can Mr. Trump fire Powell?

A landmark ruling by the Supreme Court in 1935 affirmed Congress’ authority to create independent federal agencies whose board members could only be forced out before their terms expired “for cause.”

After Mr. Trump was elected in November, Powell said he wouldn’t step down if asked by the president, who has previously criticized his performance. Powell has also noted that presidents may not legally fire or demote the Fed chair.

But Mr. Trump this week fired two Democrats on the board of another financial regulator, the National Credit Union Administration, reported Reuters on Wednesday. And in March, the White House dismissed two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission, which historically has operated as an independent, bipartisan commission.

Even if Mr. Trump were able to remove Powell, it’s not clear that doing so would change the direction of the central bank’s decisions on interest rates. Those calls are made by the Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC — a 12-member group tasked with setting monetary policy — and not at Powell’s discretion.

Who would replace Powell?

Fed governor Kevin Warsh, 55, is a former Morgan Stanley executive who was nominated to the Fed’s board of governors by President George W. Bush. 

Mr. Trump is considering selecting Warsh as Powell’s replacement, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. However, Warsh has advised Mr. Trump to allow Powell to remain through the end of his term, the publication added.

Widely respected, Warsh is considered to be even more hawkish — or willing to allow interest rates to remain high to control inflation — than Powell, according to a January blog post by Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff.

• Jerome Powell
• Donald Trump
• Federal Reserve

Paris — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the U.S. may “move on” from trying to secure a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there is no progress in the coming days. Months of efforts by the White House have failed to bring an end to the fighting, despite repeated promises by President Trump before he took office that he would use his skills as a negotiator to end the war immediately.

Rubio spoke in Paris after landmark talks among U.S., Ukrainian and European officials produced outlines for steps toward peace and appeared to make some long-awaited progress. A new meeting is expected next week in London, and Rubio suggested that could be decisive in determining whether the Trump administration continues its involvement.

“We are now reaching a point where we need to decide whether this is even possible or not,” Rubio told reporters upon departure. “Because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on.”

“It’s not our war,” Rubio said. “We have other priorities to focus on.” He said the U.S. administration wants to decide “in a matter of days.”

His remarks contrasted starkly with the stance of the Biden administration, during which then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned not long after the war began that Russia’s autocratic President Vladimir Putin was determined “to reconstitute the Soviet empire. Short of that, he’d like to reassert a sphere of influence around neighboring countries that were once part of the Soviet bloc. And short of that, he’d like to make sure that all of these countries are somehow neutral.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also warned, including in multiple interviews with CBS News, that Putin is intent on expanding Russia’s borders by force — and breaking the security bonds forged among Western democracies during World War II, of which the U.S.-led NATO alliance has been the most tangible.

“For him, we are a satellite of Russian Federation. At the moment, it’s us, then Kazakhstan, then Baltic states, then Poland, then Germany. At least half of Germany,” Zelenskyy told CBS News’ Charlie D’Agata about one year ago. “This aggression, and Putin’s army, can come to Europe, and then the citizens of the United States, the soldiers of the United States, will have to protect Europe because they’re the NATO members.”

Zelenskyy called Russia’s invasion a war “against the democracy, against the values, against the whole world,” acknowledging even then that some in the West might be tired of hearing that message, “but only those are tired who are not at war, who don’t know what war is, and who have never lost his or her children.”

“If we do not stand firm, he will advance further,” Zelenskyy reiterated in an interview with 60 Minutes just this month. “It is not just idle speculation; the threat is real. Putin’s ultimate goal is to revive the Russian empire and reclaim territories currently under NATO protection. Considering all of this, I believe it could escalate into a world war.” 

Trump says “we have a minerals deal” with Ukraine

Rubio’s comments on Friday came hours after the U.S. and Ukraine seemingly neared a long-delayed deal to grant U.S. access to Ukraine’s vast mineral resources, which has been intertwined with President Trump’s peace push.

“We have a minerals deal,” Mr. Trump said Thursday, and Ukraine’s economy minister said Friday that the two countries had signed a memorandum of intent ahead of a possible fuller agreement later.

The deal, which Ukrainian Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said she signed with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, is expected to pave the way for significant investments, infrastructure modernization and long-term cooperation.

Work toward the mineral deal had stalled in February following a contentious Oval Office meeting between Mr. Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Negotiations have since resumed.

Rubio on the dialogue with Russia, and Europe

Despite apparent growing U.S. impatience with the peace efforts, Rubio called Thursday’s Paris talks constructive. “Nobody rejected anything, nobody got up from the table or walked away.”

Rubio didn’t single out Russia or Ukraine as blocking peace efforts. He said he informed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about the outlines that emerged when they spoke after the Paris talks, but wouldn’t say how Lavrov reacted.

When asked about Rubio’s comments on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “fairly complex” negotiations were ongoing between Russia and the U.S. He did not give details but said no direct talks between Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were scheduled in the coming days.

“Russia is striving toward resolving this conflict, securing its own interests, and is open to dialogue. We are continuing to do this,” he said.

In its readout on the call with Rubio, the Kremlin said Lavrov had confirmed Moscow’s “readiness to continue working together with American colleagues to reliably eliminate the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis.”

Putin and his deputies have consistently claimed those root causes are Zelenskyy’s actions and NATO’s eastward expansion — misleading narratives that Mr. Trump himself has at times espoused about the full-scale invasion Putin launched on Feb. 24, 2022.

After weeks of tension with European allies, Rubio told reporters in Paris that the European negotiators proved helpful. “The U.K. and France and Germany can help us move the ball on this.”

During a meeting on Friday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome, Vice President JD Vance also spoke about the ongoing negotiations with Ukraine and Russia, saying he wouldn’t “pre-judge them, but we feel optimistic that we can hopefully bring this war, this very brutal war to a close.”

European concerns are growing, however, about Mr. Trump’s readiness to draw closer to Russia. These talks were the first time since his inauguration that top American, Ukrainian and European officials met to discuss an end to the war, which has posed the biggest security challenge to Europe since World War II.

The meetings addressed hypothetical security guarantees for Ukraine in the future, but Rubio wouldn’t discuss any possible U.S. role in that. Some kind of U.S. support for Ukraine is seen as crucial to ensuring that Russia would not attack again if and when a peace deal is reached.

Rubio and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff have helped lead U.S. efforts to seek peace, and Witkoff has met three times with Putin, Rubio said. Several rounds of negotiations have been held in Saudi Arabia.

Moscow has effectively refused to accept a comprehensive ceasefire that Mr. Trump has pushed and Ukraine has endorsed. Russia has made it conditional on a halt in Ukraine’s mobilization efforts and Western arms supplies, which are demands rejected by Ukraine.

Deadly Russian strikes on Ukraine continue

Russia, meanwhile, has kept up a series of deadly strikes on Ukrainian cities, according to officials there, wounding scores of civilians days after missiles killed at least 34 during Palm Sunday celebrations in the northern city of Sumy.

One person died and 103 others, including eight children, were wounded as Russia hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, early on Friday, its mayor Ihor Terekhov reported. He said cluster munitions struck a “densely populated” neighborhood four times.

Russian drones also targeted a bakery in Sumy, less than a week after the deadly Palm Sunday strike there, killing a customer and wounding an employee, the regional prosecutor’s office said. Photos released by the agency showed rows of Easter cakes stacked inside a devastated building, covered in thick dust, as a huge hole gaped in the wall behind them and rubble piled up on the floor.

Last Sunday’s strike on Sumy, resulting in mass casualties, was the second large-scale missile attack to claim civilian lives in just over a week. Some 20 people, including nine children, died on April 4 as missiles struck Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih.

• War
• Marco Rubio
• Ukraine
• Cease-fire
• Donald Trump
• Russia
• Vladimir Putin
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy
• NATO

Sierra Friar, 18 years old at the time of her exclusive interview with “48 Hours,” talks about the morning of Oct. 2, 2017, when her father, Aaron, and 15-year-old sister, Ellie, vanished.

Sierra Friar wakes up to yelling

11-year-old Sierra Friar wakes up to her father Aaron Friar yelling and the sound of glass breaking around 5:30 a.m. Terrified, she stayed in her room until she felt safe enough to come out. 

Family gone; blood everywhere

Around 6:15 a.m., when the house is quiet, Sierra exits her room to find her father and her older sister Ellie have disappeared. She sees the living room walls covered in blood and shattered glass from an overhead light fixture on the floor. She then calls for help.

Sierra is brought to her mother Maggie Friar’s home a couple of blocks away. 

A mother’s frantic 911 call

Maggie Friar calls 911 at 6:42 a.m. “Something happened and nobody can find my ex-husband or my oldest daughter … there’s blood everywhere.”

The search is on for Aaron and Ellie Friar

At 6:43 a.m., Medford, Oregon, police officers are dispatched to Aaron Friar’s home for a welfare check and a missing persons case is declared. 

A trail of blood to nowhere

Officer Logan Boyd approaches Aaron Friar’s home and sees a visible blood trail from the front door to a back gate that leads to an alley. The blood trail continues for a few feet then disappears. There are fresh tire tracks near where the blood trail ended.

Aaron Friar’s car is then reported missing, too. 

A major death investigation begins

Based on the totality of the scene and suspicious circumstances relating to the missing persons, a MADIU — Major Assault and Death Investigation Unit —callout is initiated.

All-hands-on-deck

At 7:40 a.m., a request goes out to all Medford Police detectives to respond to the Friar home. 

Sierra Friar tips off investigators

Around 9 a.m., Det. Shannon Reynolds interviews Sierra who says she was hiding in her bedroom but then looked through her window and saw Ellie’s boyfriend Gavin MacFarlane outside the house. She mentions MacFarlane is not allowed at the house and that Aaron Friar had forbidden Ellie from seeing Gavin after learning he was 19 years old.

A break in the case

This is the break the police were looking for. Detectives begin tracking MacFarlane’s cellphone.

Aaron Friar’s bloody car is located

At 9:52 a.m., Aaron Friar’s missing vehicle is found about five miles east of his home.  

Officers notice dried blood on the rear bumper and find more blood soaked into the carpet of the trunk. 

Ellie Friar found alive, but not alone

At 10:48 a.m. — four hours after police are dispatched to the crime scene at the Friar house — Ellie  is found unharmed walking alongside a busy street just a few miles from her dad’s home.

Ellie is with two men: her 19-year-old boyfriend Gavin MacFarlane and his friend, 22-year-old Russell Jones.   

Three detainees  

At 10:51 a.m. the three are separated, handcuffed, and taken into custody for questioning.     

Russell Jones reveals where Aaron Friar is

Lead detective Bill Ford decides to interview Jones before MacFarlane, as Ford had had a previous encounter with Jones and knows “he’s a talker.”

Ford decides to try what he calls “smokin’ and jokin.'” He takes Russell outside for a cigarette break.

Just slightly over an hour after being detained, Jones tells Ford that he can take him to the location where Aaron Friar’s remains were dumped    

Aaron Friar’s body found

At 12:50 p.m., at Jones’s direction, Aaron Friar’s remains are found wrapped in a green tarp and Tinkerbell fleece blanket off of a remote highway just 20 miles north of Friar’s home. With that discovery, the case officially went from a missing person to a homicide investigation    

Murder weapon found

At 12:50 p.m., the murder weapon – a baseball bat – is found lodged in a nearby tree about 8 feet off the ground. Aaron Friar’s cause of death would later be determined to be from blunt force trauma to the head. 

Three suspects, three stories

Knowing that Aaron Friar was murdered, the police zero in on their three suspects. Complicating matters, all three start pointing a finger at each other.

Jones told investigators that MacFarlane killed Aaron Friar in self-defense.

Ellie said that she believed that Jones was her father’s killer.

MacFarlane said Ellie was the one who wanted Aaron Friar dead. 

Three suspects, three pleas  

In October 2018, Gavin MacFarlane pleads guilty to murder and murder conspiracy charges. He was sentenced to 25 years to life. 

In January 2019, Ellie pleaded guilty to an adult charge of conspiring to murder her father, Aaron. She was later sentenced to 25 years. 

In August 2021, Russell Jones entered a no-contest plea to conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to 15 years.  

• 48 Hours
• Oregon
• Murder

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen returned from his trip to El Salvador Friday after meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man who was deported due to an administrative error. 

Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday, April 16, to check on Abrego Garcia’s health, a month after he was deported to a Salvadoran supermax prison. 

Van Hollen meets with Kilmar Abrego Garcia

During his trip to El Salvador, Van Hollen initially faced challenges when trying to coordinate a meeting with Abrego Garcia, as he remains in custody at the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. 

On the first day of his trip, the senator met with Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa, who denied Van Hollen’s request for a meeting or phone call with Abrego Garcia. 

“When I met with the vice president of El Salvador, I asked him not to be complicit in the Trump administration’s law-breaking in the United States of America and to release Mr. Abrego Garcia,” Van Hollen said during a news conference.

On Thursday morning, Van Hollen said he had been turned away from a military checkpoint near CECOT by soldiers who had been ordered not to let him proceed. 

However, on Thursday evening, the senator confirmed he met with Abrego Garcia, sharing a photo of their meeting at what appeared to be a restaurant. 

“I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love,” Van Hollen said in a social media post. 

The president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele shared photos of the meeting as well, saying Abrego Garcia, “gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody.” 

Senator Van Hollen previously expressed that the goal of his trip was to check on Abrego Garcia’s health and well-being. 

Albrego Garcia was “traumatized” at CECOT, Van Hollen says

Van Hollen said he asked Albrego Garcia how he was dealing with his circumstances. 

“He said that thinking of you, members of his family, is what gave him history to persevere, to keep going day to day, even under these awful circumstances,” Van Hollen recounted. 

During their conversation, Albrego Garcia described his experience in CECOT.

Albrego Garcia said that after he was detained by ICE officials, he was then taken to a Baltimore detention center, and then moved again to another facility in Texas.

“I don’t know whether it was period hours or days, he was handcuffed, shackled, and put on a plane, along with some others, where they couldn’t see out of the windows. There was no way to see where they were going in the plane, they didn’t know for sure where they were going. They landed in El Salvador,” Van Hollen said.

After arriving at the prison, Albrego Garcia was placed in a cell with about 25 other prisoners. 

“He was traumatized by being at CECOT and fearful of many of the prisoners in other cell blocks who called out to him and taunted him in various ways, he told me,” Van Hollen said. 

Abrego Garcia’s deportation 

Abrego Garcia is an El Salvador native who entered the U.S. illegally in 2011.

He was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in March as he was leaving his job in Baltimore. 

He and about 200 other migrants were transported to CECOT in El Salvador by plane at the direction of the Trump administration. 

His deportation sparked a legal battle as he was under a protection order granted by an immigration judge in 2019. The “withholding of removal” order should have prevented him from being deported to El Salvador. 

ICE officials admitted in a court filing that Abrego Garcia’s deportation occurred because of an administrative error, though they did not move to correct the mistake. 

The legal proceedings are still playing out in federal court after the Trump administration was ordered by a federal judge and later by the Supreme Court to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. 

Abrego Garcia does not have a criminal history. 

Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s alleged MS-13 ties

The Trump administration continues to claim that Abrego Garcia is a member of the transnational MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia’s attorney and family have denied the allegations. 

“They are trying to make this case all about MS-13, when in fact, the judge in the case has said they have not provided substantial or any significant evidence to back up their claim,” Van Hollen said Thursday. 

The allegations of Abrego Garcia’s connection to MS-13 stem from his arrest in 2019. Court documents show that Abrego Garcia was arrested outside of a Home Depot with three other men, at least two of whom had suspected gang ties. 

According to his attorney, Abrego Garcia was soliciting work outside of the store when police showed up and began questioning the men about gang affiliations. 

According to the court documents shared by Attorney General Pam Bondi, a detective recognized one of the men in the group as an MS-13 gang member with a criminal history. 

Detectives indicated in their report that a second man had tattoos that were “indicative of the Hispanic gang culture.” 

After interviewing Abrego Garcia, police noted that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie with symbols that they said were also indicative of gang culture. A source police had previously used also reported that Abrego Garcia was an active MS-13 member, according to court documents. 

He was subsequently arrested and he later appeared in court, where a U.S. immigration judge granted him the “withholding of removal” order and a work permit. 

Two people were killed and six were injured Thursday during a mass shooting at Florida State University‘s Student Union, officials said.

The alleged shooter, identified as 20-year-old FSU student Phoenix Ikner, was also wounded by responding officers and remained in the hospital.

All injured victims are in stable condition and are expected to make a full recovery, Tallahassee Memorial Hospital said Friday. Five victims were wounded by gunfire while a sixth was injured while fleeing the scene, police confirmed. 

2 victims killed in FSU shooting 

Authorities have not released the names of any victims. However, family members have identified the victims as Robert Morales, a university dining worker, and Tiru Chabba, a campus vendor.

Tiru Chabba

Tiru Chabba, a 45-year-old father of two, was killed in the shooting, according to a law firm representing the family.

Chabba was on the FSU campus Thursday for his job as an employee of a campus vendor when the gunman opened fire, attorney Bakari Sellers of the Strom Law Firm said in a statement on Friday afternoon.

Chabba is survived by his wife and two children.

“Tiru Chabba’s family is going through the unimaginable now,” Sellers said in a statement. “Instead of hiding Easter eggs and visiting with friends and family, they’re living a nightmare where this loving father and devoted husband was stolen from them in an act of senseless and preventable violence.”

“We ask you to keep his family in your thoughts and prayers as we fight to ensure they see justice that honors the memories of Mr. Chabba and all the victims of Thursday’s shooting.”

Robert Morales

Robert Morales, 57, was a longtime employee in the university’s dining services department. His death was confirmed by his brother, Ricardo Morales Jr., in a post on social media Thursday night.

“Today we lost my younger brother,” he wrote. “He was one of the victims killed at FSU. He loved his job at FSU and his beautiful wife and daughter. I’m glad you were in my life.”

Ricardo Morales Jr. also confirmed his brother’s death to CBS News Miami. 

According to the Miami Herald, Robert Morales was attending a meeting with other university employees when the shooting erupted. He was also the son of Ricardo “Monkey” Morales, a controversial Cuban American CIA operative and anti-Castro militant active during the Cold War. The elder Morales was killed in a bar fight in Miami in 1982.

While the university has yet to officially confirm the victims’ names, memorials of candles and flowers have begun to appear across campus, and a vigil is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday at Langford Green.

6 victims injured, 5 hospitalized

Hospital staff provided an update on the victims’ conditions during a press conference Friday and briefly explained how each patient needed to be treated for gunshot wounds. The staff said at that time that all patients were in stable condition, with one of them in fair condition due to the extent of their injuries. 

Five patients were victims, the sixth was the alleged shooter, police confirmed. A sixth victim was injured while fleeing the scene but was not wounded by gunfire, police confirmed.

Madison Askins

In an interview from her hospital bed, 23-year-old FSU graduate student Madison Askins recounted the terrifying moments she was shot during Thursday’s deadly attack on campus.

“The minute I got shot, I remember my parents telling me I just need to play dead,” Askins told CBS News. “So I released all the muscles in my body, I closed my eyes, I held my breath. I did everything I could to look like I was dead because I didn’t want him to shoot me again. God forbid.”

Askins was among the people wounded in the shooting at the university’s Student Union. She said the gunman was so close to her after she fell to the ground that she could hear him muttering to himself as he reloaded.

“It was just calm,” she said. “[He] literally said, ‘Yeah, keep running.'”

Help eventually arrived. Askins said the moment a police officer began tending to her injuries, she knew she had survived the worst.

According to Dr. Brett Howard, a trauma surgeon and the surgery team’s leader, the hospital was notified about the shooting shortly before noon Thursday and leadership and medical staff immediately prepared for however many victims they needed to treat.

“The hardest part of it all is not knowing how many patients you’re going to get,” he said, adding that TMH staff was very proactive with its communication systems in place and activated the necessary resources by bringing additional staff to prepare for the worst.

Howard said that the proximity of the hospital to the university also helped with the fast response and immediate treatment, adding that all six patients were seen within an hour of admission. He also highlighted that the relationship between hospital staff, law enforcement, and first responders also helped make the process go smoothly.

Out of the six patients, three were brought into the operating room for surgery, with two of them needing abdominal surgery and the third needing facial surgery. The other patients also suffered gunshot wounds to their extremities, hospital staff said, but didn’t specify exactly what kind of injuries they sustained.

One doctor also helped patients during 2014 FSU library shooting

Among the hospital staff that treated the victims, one of the doctors was able to speak about the comparison of medical response between Thursday’s shooting and the FSU library shooting over a decade ago.

Doctor Shelby Blank, a general and breast surgeon who also on staff during the 2014 shooting, said it was a “more limited situation” compared to Thursday’s tragedy.

“Unfortunately, traumatic violence is something that goes on, whether it’s a few over the course of a weekend versus many compressed into a couple of hours,” she said.

Blank continued, saying that Thursday’s shooting was “catastrophic.”

“Given the number of students in that compressed area, the recipe for disaster is very scary,” she said.

• Florida State University
• Shooting
• South Florida
• Florida
• Tallahassee

Trump administration officials, anticipating supply chain strains due to steep tariffs on Chinese goods, have discussed forming a working group to deal with the problems with urgency if there’s no breakthrough with Beijing, multiple sources told CBS News. 

Nothing has been finalized, but the working group would likely include Vice President J.D. Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett, Council of Economic Advisers chairman Stephen Miran and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, sources said.

President Trump has said China has reached out to negotiate a deal.

Another official said the administration has already been working on supply chain issues for some time in anticipation of the imposition of the tariffs. 

Medicines, semiconductors, electronic devices and critical minerals could face supply pressure after the White House and Beijing imposed a series of retaliatory tariffs.

Mr. Trump pushed tariffs on imports from China to a combined 145%, and Beijing escalated with levies of 125% on American goods. The China levies are part of a larger tariff regime that Trump unleashed on dozens of countries — though some of the non-China tariffs were partially paused last week while Mr. Trump seeks to negotiate deals with U.S. trading partners. The trade war has alarmed investors, and stoked fears about inflation and an economic slowdown.

An escaped California inmate who was wanted in connection with the death of the leader of an elite Mexican police unit was arrested after a weeklong manhunt, officials said.

Cesar Hernandez, who was serving 80 years to life for first-degree murder before escaping from custody in December, was arrested Thursday evening in the northern city of Tijuana. He was wanted for the shooting death 33-year-old Abigail Esparza Reyes, the leader of the unit known as “Gringo Hunters,” which dedicates itself to arresting U.S. suspects who are fugitives in Mexico. She was the head of the unit at the northern border state of Baja California.

Esparza Reyes died during a shootout on April 9 in Tijuana while the unit was trying to arrest Hernandez.

Mexican news outlets, including El Universal, reported that video surveillance showed Hernandez managed to escape while running almost naked through the streets before ducking under a tarp that was covering a vehicle. He emerged dressed in a fluorescent green uniform – similar to ones used by local traffic police – before walking away.

“These actions reflect the outstanding intelligence and investigative work carried out by personnel from the State Attorney General’s Office, whose coordinated efforts, tactical analysis strategies and data collection made it possible to accurately locate the person arrested today,” the Baja California prosecutor’s office said in a statement on social media Friday.

Officials in Mexico said Hernandez is facing criminal proceedings and “his legal situation will be determined in accordance with the law.”

Hernandez, 34, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 80 years to life in prison, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was on his way to Kern County Superior Courthouse for an appearance before a judge on Dec. 2, when he jumped out of the van and evaded staff.

Esparza Reyes had led the regional team of the unit for eight years, carrying out more than 400 operations aimed at arresting U.S. fugitives who had fled to Mexico, Reuters reported, citing Mexican authorities.

According to a profile on the group by the Washington Post, Esparza Reyes grew up in Tijuana and secretly wanted to be a police officer.

• Mexico
• California
• Crime