Threats Against Law Enforcement

Homeland Security Investigations is leading a probe after a Virginia assistant high school principal, Mark Bennett, and his brother, John Bennett, were accused of allegedly plotting to ambush and kill ICE agents — an alleged scheme an off‑duty Norfolk police officer says he overheard the men discussing on Nov. 17 at a Vietnamese restaurant and that led to both men’s arrests the same day, with Mark Bennett taken into custody at Norfolk International Airport while en route to Charlotte and then Las Vegas. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the plot “chilling” and cited steep recent increases in assaults and death threats against ICE agents, while Mark Bennett’s attorney says he was traveling to an F1 event with his child and likened the restaurant remarks to a “Seinfeld”‑style exchange.