Anti-Semitic threats and acts of violence in the U.S. are surging amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, fueled by supporters of the terrorist group Hamas.
Such threats pushed organizers of an annual pro-Israel gathering in Texas to abruptly and indefinitely postpone their event.
'The first [summit] was held in Nashville and, ironically, was nearly canceled due to threats from pro-Hamas thugs.'
The Israel Summit — hosted by HaYovel and its media initiative, the Israel Guys — was scheduled to be held in Dallas, Texas, from June 9 to 11.
HaYovel expected to host over 1,000 attendees but instead announced this week that it would postpone the summit, after the organization received numerous threats from American pro-Palestine and pro-Hamas groups.
Luke Hilton, HaYovel's chief operating officer, told Blaze News that the heightened threat levels forced the organization to switch venues twice mere days before the event.
"Indirect and direct threats were issued both against our organization, the Israel Summit, and against the venue who were hosting us," Hilton stated.
The organization estimated that the "overwhelming security burden" would have cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars." HaYovel highlighted the "sobering reality" that "peaceful, pro-Israel gatherings in America increasingly require extraordinary security measures to remain viable."
The second venue, which initially agreed to cover the needed security, pulled the plug days ahead of the event, citing "escalating safety concerns and mounting external pressures," according to HaYovel.
Despite "full cooperation and assistance" from the sheriff's department, the Texas Rangers, and the FBI, the organization felt it had no choice but to postpone the summit.
Hilton revealed further details about the threats to Blaze News, noting that they began with pro-Palestinian activist groups on social media.
"Then, according to law enforcement and intelligence, they moved to the dark web to avoid further detection," he explained. "The threats used language such as 'we need to target' the Israel Summit and the host venue."
"Statements to target any Jew or Christian who is standing with Israel cannot be understood any other way than a direct call for violence," Hilton stated, citing the recent deadly shooting in Washington, D.C., of two Israeli embassy staffers and the terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, that caused multiple injuries.
The organization still hopes to host the event on a new date and at a different venue within the coming months.
Yet, this is not the first time the Israel Summit has faced threats.
"Next week's summit was set to be our second annual event. The first one was held in Nashville and, ironically, was nearly canceled due to threats from pro-Hamas thugs. Dave Ramsey stepped in at the last minute, hosting the summit at his headquarters in Franklin, [Tennessee]," Hilton told Blaze News.
'The ongoing Israel-HAMAS conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters.'
David Friedman, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and the founder of One Jewish State, was one of the speakers slated to present at the 2025 Israel Summit. He reacted to its postponement in a post on X.
"This is America in 2025. A pro-Israel conference scheduled for Dallas this week (where I was scheduled to speak), which sold over 1000 tickets, was forced to cancel because of threats from violent Jihadists," Friedman stated. "When [President Donald Trump] says we need to take our country back, this is a good example of what he means!"
RELATED: Father of leftist accused of gunning down Israeli embassy staffers was Democrat's guest
Trump had previously pledged to vigorously combat the nation's escalating anti-Semitism by "aggressively" prosecuting terrorist threats against the Jewish community and deporting Hamas sympathizers.
On Thursday, Trump's FBI released a public service announcement regarding elevated threats toward Israeli and Jewish communities, noting the murder of the embassy staffers and the attack in Boulder.
"The ongoing Israel-HAMAS conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters," the agency warned. "Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the United States. The FBI and DHS therefore urge the public to remain vigilant and to report any threats of violence or suspicious activity to law enforcement."
When reached for comment about the threats posed against the Israel Summit organizers and host venues, the FBI Dallas Field Office told Blaze News, "The FBI works with our law enforcement partners every day to detect and stop acts of targeted violence. Our goal is always to get ahead of threats. We remind members of the public that if you observe any suspicious activity to quickly report it to law enforcement. The FBI remains committed to working with our partners to protect our communities against acts of violence and other threats."
Hilton called the escalating anti-Semitic threats a "wake-up call for Americans."
"We believe that this is a wake-up call for Americans to take action and come together to publicly stand with Israel and the Jewish people in the U.S. today," he told Blaze News.
The Dallas County Sheriff's Department, the Dallas Police Department, and the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
Joseph MacKinnon contributed to this story.
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Nvidia, the AI chip manufacturing giant, recently announced plans to build new AI factories in Dallas and Houston. These plans represent a significant advancement in the production of AI supercomputers entirely within the United States.
In its announcement, Nvidia revealed plans to partner with Wistron in Dallas and Foxconn in Houston. Other partners include TSMC, Amkor, and SPIL. Wistron is a Taiwanese information and communications technology company headquartered in Taipei, while Foxconn is the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, focusing on research and development.
This announcement marks Nvidia's latest step in its long-term plan to produce half a trillion dollars' worth of AI infrastructure in the coming years. The move underscores a growing push to relocate critical high-tech manufacturing back to U.S. soil, amid rising global tensions and increasing demand for secure, domestic supply chains.
Nvidia’s AI supercomputers, billed as “the engines of a new type of data center,” are anticipated to serve as the hub of AI manufacturing, all based in the United States. While the TSMC factory in Arizona is already producing the Blackwell chip, these new factories are the first of the “tens of gigawatt AI factories” expected to be built in the near future.
Nvidia's founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, said, “The engines of the world’s AI infrastructure are being built in the United States for the first time.” He continued, “Adding American manufacturing helps us better meet the incredible and growing demand for AI chips and supercomputers, strengthens our supply chain, and boosts our resiliency.”
As Huang explained in his keynote address at the GTC 2025 conference last month, the next step in AI manufacturing is scale and efficiency. One solution to the massive logistical challenges that accompany this type of manufacturing in these “AI gigafactories” is the “digital twin” model: “We use the digital twin to communicate instructions to the large body of teams and suppliers, reducing execution errors … ensuring a future-proof AI.” Essentially, the digital twin is a computer copy of the factory and its millions of parts, allowing for clear communication across the supply chain and for readily available “what if” scaling experiments.
Huang also announced that the next generation of chips will play an increasingly important role in the rollout and scaling of these new U.S.-based gigafactories and AI supercomputers. This chip is called the Vera Rubin super chip, named after the astronomer who discovered dark matter. As he demonstrated in his address, this chip is dramatically more efficient and inexpensive to produce. It also represents a leap in sustainability, consuming far less energy than its predecessors — critical for powering the next wave of generative and reasoning AI and machine learning applications across industries.
In a statement, the White House claimed credit for this onshoring trend in manufacturing: “It’s the Trump effect in action." The statement said, "Onshoring these industries is good for the American worker, good for the American economy, and good for American national security — and the best is yet to come.” The administration emphasized that such investments are laying the groundwork for a new industrial revolution, centered on American technological dominance.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) in late March directed the Texas Rangers, the Texas State Securities Board, and the Texas Workforce Commission to launch investigations into the East Plano Islamic Center concerning its plans to develop a Muslim-centric city on 402 acres near Josephine, roughly 40 miles outside Dallas.
The development would reportedly feature a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school, an outreach center, commercial developments, sports facilities, and 1,000 homes, townhomes, and apartments.
'There definitely could be an argument that there's conflict because I'm still being represented by him and he's representing clients that we are investigating.'
The proposed city has ignited fears within the surrounding community that it will implement Sharia law and potentially ultimately lead to a "no-go zone."
Abbott has repeatedly expressed concerns about the planned community.
In February, Abbott stated in a post on social media, "To be clear, Sharia law is not allowed in Texas. Nor are Sharia cities. Nor are 'no go zones' which this project seems to imply."
"Bottom line. The project as proposed in the video is not allowed in Texas," the governor concluded, referring to EPIC's promotional clip advertising the plans.
The Texas Funeral Service Commission sent a cease-and-desist letter to EPIC in March, demanding that it "immediately stop all illegal funeral service operations."
According to Abbott, EPIC had been operating a funeral home without an established license in violation of state law.
Abbott announced on April 1 that EPIC "may not begin construction" on its community, stating that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality discovered it had failed to obtain required "authorizations or permits."
The governor insisted that EPIC City "has serious legal issues" and announced that a dozen state agencies are looking into the proposed community.
The governor tasked the Texas Rangers with investigating EPIC "for potential criminal activities." The Texas Workforce Commission is probing "potential discrimination in violation of the Texas Fair Housing Act." The Texas State Securities Board is looking into any "potential financial harm to Texans." Additionally, state Attorney General Ken Paxton is examining "potential violations of Texas consumer protection laws."
"Texas vigorously safeguards the freedoms granted to American citizens in the U.S. Constitution, including the freedom of religion," Abbott said. "To that end, the Texas Workforce Commission opened an investigation into the group behind the proposed EPIC compound who are potentially breaking state fair housing laws by refusing to sell or rent housing to certain groups based on religion or other protected traits."
The RAIR Foundation USA was among the first to begin sounding the alarm about EPIC and its proposed city.
Amy Mek, the founder and editor in chief of the RAIR Foundation, warned that the project is not just "a housing development."
"It's the expansion of a Sharia-controlled society, starting with the radical school already operating at the EPIC Mosque in Plano, Texas," Mek wrote. "Now, EPIC is scaling up — EPIC City will operate with no city oversight, no state-controlled curriculum, and no accountability to American laws."
'No one associated with EPIC … follows Sharia law or is in favor of Sharia law.'
Many residents in Blue Ridge, a city roughly 20 miles away from Josephine, voiced their concerns about the proposed development during a recent city council meeting.
Douglas Deaton, a former police lieutenant in Plano, stated that a Sharia law enclave existed in Texas long before EPIC proposed its city plans.
"There seems to be a general misunderstanding that we're talking about a plan to build an Islamic, Sharia-friendly community. The EPIC neighborhood already exists in Plano. It's been there for nearly 12 years. With 74 residential properties, a massive mosque, schools, a medical clinic, and multiple businesses," he told the city council. "You have to be a member of their mosque to live there."
"This is not a matter of radicals hiding in plain sight; they're not hiding. They've been open about their beliefs and their intent," Deaton added.
On Wednesday, Paxton spoke with Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck about the governor's actions against EPIC, revealing interesting new details about the controversy.
"We're not going to sacrifice [our constitution] for Sharia law. It's just not going to happen in Texas," Paxton told Beck. "At the same time, we want to be cognizant that people have a right to have their own religion, and we respect that."
Paxton explained that the community cannot discriminate against potential residents based on religion, noting that doing so would violate housing laws.
He stated that he recently learned that the attorney representing EPIC City's developers, Dan Cogdell, is the same lawyer who previously defended him against impeachment. Paxton was acquitted of all charges in 2023.
The AG called it "a little concerning" that he was not made aware of that fact sooner.
"There definitely could be an argument that there's conflict because I'm still being represented by him and he's representing clients that we are investigating," Paxton told Beck.
EPIC has denied claims that its proposed community will disregard state and federal laws to implement Sharia law.
Cogdell accused Abbott of spreading lies about the planned city, claiming that the project is "the victim of racial profiling."
"These aren't foreign adversaries. These are Texans. These are Americans. These are United States citizens," Cogdell told KTVT last week. "No one associated with EPIC, no one associated with that community follows Sharia law or is in favor of Sharia law."
Cogdell had a message for Abbott.
"Quit tweeting lies, false information, and nonsense. Because my clients right now, what they are doing is they are suffering from essentially gubernatorial hate speech," he stated.
Cogdell reportedly told KTVK that his clients have received "dozens of death threats." As a result, the developers were "too scared to go on camera," according to the news outlet.
When reached for comment, the governor's office referred KTVK to previously released statements.
Beck was offered an opportunity to speak with the project's developer on Thursday, only to discover that Cogdell had been tapped to talk on their behalf. Upon realizing this, Beck canceled, insisting that he wanted a candid conversation with the developer, not the attorney. The developer signaled interest in rescheduling for next week.
During Thursday's radio show, Beck stated, "I got an email from somebody who said, 'You know, you should talk to the developer directly.'"
The email read, "Given the amount of misinformation circulating, it might be beneficial to speak directly with the landowner developer to ensure accuracy."
"So I said yes to that on the program," Beck stated. "Then I find out that it's the lawyer. Well, what happened to the directly to the landowner developer? So they said he'll be prepared for our conversation sometime next week."
"I don't have anything bad to say about the developer if it's all on the up and up," he added. "It's just, there's some things about this, the people that are engaged in it, that are a little disturbing."
The developer did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
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An illegal alien too young to purchase alcohol was assessed a DWI after he allegedly broke multiple traffic laws and then struck a police cruiser in Dallas.
Just before 3 a.m. on Monday, an unnamed Dallas police sergeant was driving north on Cedar Springs Road near Dallas Love Field Airport on his way to respond to a call when another driver suddenly blew a flashing red light at the intersection of Manor Road and slammed into his vehicle.
This is the second time a Dallas-area cop has been the victim of a suspected DWI crash in less than a week.
The force of the impact sent the police cruiser off the road onto a grassy area, while the other vehicle, a Chevy Camaro, crashed into a utility pole.
Thankfully, no one was hurt, though the sergeant was taken to a hospital for evaluation as a precaution and later released.
However, the driver of the Camaro, 18-year-old Francisco Sanchez-Alfaro, was soon arrested and carted off to the Dallas County jail. Not only had Sanchez-Alfaro apparently blown the red light, but police conducted a field sobriety test and determined that he was also apparently under the influence.
Jail records do not specify the type of intoxicant Sanchez-Alfaro allegedly used, but the legal age for purchasing alcohol in the Lone Star State is 21. Like federal law, Texas law still prohibits the use of recreational marijuana.
What's more, Sanchez-Alfaro is also in the U.S. illegally, though his country of origin is unclear. As of Tuesday afternoon, he remains in the county jail without bond on an immigration hold.
In its report on the crash, which was updated approximately eight hours after Sanchez-Alfaro was booked, WFAA made no mention of his immigration status.
A female passenger had also been riding in the Camaro with Sanchez-Alfaro. Her identity has not been released, and she has not yet been charged with any crime.
'At that moment, I was like, hey, we got to get this guy out of here.'
Police said that this is the second time a Dallas-area cop has been the victim of a suspected DWI crash in less than a week. On Thursday, Officer Issac Gorskikh was left dazed after a suspected drunk driver slammed into the back of his police vehicle along Interstate 30 in Rowlett, about 20 miles northeast of Dallas.
Though the crash shook him up, Gorskikh quickly sprang into action after he noticed that the suspect's vehicle had caught fire. Gorskikh then used his elbow to break the driver-side window and pull the man out of the car and over a concrete barrier to safety.
Through it all, Gorskikh, 28, remained humble and insisted he was no hero.
"At that moment, I was like, hey, we got to get this guy out of here and before another vehicle struck him or the fire got much bigger," he said.
"I work with a lot of great people and a lot of heroic people who had done the same thing if they were in my shoes, and I don't think that I'm much better than them at all."
The Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas said that intoxicated drivers have become a major problem for cops out on patrol.
"Drunk driving is one of the most dangerous parts of law enforcement’s job out there as they're working collisions, as they're making traffic stops," said CLEAT Deputy Executive Director Jennifer Szimanski.
Gorskikh seems to take a slightly different view. "You can't take it personally," he said. "It's called an accident for a reason."
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The Cathedral of Hope, a Dallas-based leftist organization that identifies as a United church, has made no secret of its LGBT activism and ideological capture. After all, among the non-straight resources linked on its site is a document claiming that identification as a homosexual is a sacrament and another document providing homosexual men with dating tips.
It appears, however, that behind closed doors, things at the COH are far more "unhinged" than critics might have suspected.
The host of BlazeTV's "Sara Gonzales Unfiltered" and others at the Texas Family Project similarly committed to protecting children attended an event at the COH over the weekend titled "Celebrating the Art of Drag Sunday." They were greatly disturbed by what they found at the service and at the subsequent drag brunch.
Sara Gonzales, who serves as vice president of the Texas Family Project, told Blaze News, "Nothing about this 'church' service was godly or Christian. What's worse: The drag brunch fundraiser afterward was full of raunchy acts, sexual references, glorification of drug use, and scantily clad men dressed as women."
"What church do you know that embraces such degeneracy and sin? Only one comes to mind: the church of Satan," added Gonzales.
The event was advertised as a "fabulous and spirit-filled Drag Sunday," where the COH would "celebrate the artistry, resilience, and joy of drag, affirming the beauty of self-expression and the sacredness of every person." Families were invited afterward to attend a drag brunch fundraiser, which the ticket site indicated was an event for ages 18 and up.
'Go forth and sin some more!'
During the service, which had children in attendance, the COH's senior pastor Neil Thomas tried using the words of Jesus Christ to justify having a cross-dressing activist as a preacher.
Thomas asserted that Christ's statement recorded in Mark 10:27 that "with God all things are possible" means "that a preacher can be a drag king. It's not every day that you are part of a denomination who would ordain not only a woman to ministry but who'll allow that woman to be a drag king."
The senior pastor was referring to Brooke Dooley, an LGBT activist who decided to don a fake beard and masquerade as a man named "Rev. Brock Bottom" for the occasion and who was also afforded an opportunity to give a sermon.
Dooley suggested "the drag show begins" just after a child's birth, criticized "evangelical purity culture," and asserted that gender is an "arbitrarily constructed" social invention used to "maintain power dynamics."
At one point in the service, Dooley joined Thomas on the altar to heap praise both on members of the United Court of the Lone Star Empire, an LGBT outfit populated by apparent autogynephiles, and on members of the Dallas Fort Worth Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group that has long derided Christian beliefs.
Since its inception on Easter Sunday 1979, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence has, for instance, mocked Catholic teaching and doctrine, ridiculing the church's orthodox views on marriage, sexuality, homosexuality, transgenderism, and abortion.
Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights noted that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is "known for simulating sodomy while dressed as nuns" and "like to feature a 'Condom Savior Mass,' one that describes how the 'Latex Host is the flesh for the life of the world.'"
The motto of the group is, "Go forth and sin some more!"
In footage captured by the Texas Family Project, Thomas and Dooley invite members of both groups to the altar. Several heavyset men dressed in drag oblige the pastor, as does a man dressed in a fetish suit with a dog mask who crawls about on his hands and knees.
'OK, 'cause I will kill him.'
After the transvestites and the man in the dog costume take their place in front of the altar, Thomas states, "I don't know about you, but somethings [at] this Cathedral of Hope I think we forget just how queer we are."
— (@)
One transvestite afforded an opportunity to speak at the drag after-party — attended by Thomas, other activists from the COH, and members of the radical groups honored earlier at the altar — instructed potential supporters of President Donald Trump to refrain from outing themselves.
After raising the prospect that some people in the crowd might not have voted for his preferred candidate, the transvestite speaker's mind evidently turned to violence. He asked whether the COH members in attendance engaged in human sacrifice, then asked whether they should "start" with sacrificing Trump supporters.
The transvestite speaker then misunderstood a murmur from the crowd as an audience member's admission of having voted for Trump and said, "He voted for Trump?"
When told that was not the case, the transvestite replied, "OK, 'cause I will kill him."
'These people are seriously unhinged.'
The same speaker at the nominally Christian church's fundraiser proceeded to mock Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's disability, noting that he traveled down to Austin with other transvestites "to, you know, fist fight Greg Abbott. But he just — he just wouldn't stand up and fight me."
"I think that the easiest thing we can do with the money that we raise is just take away those wheelchair ramps," added the transvestite.
— (@)
The Texas Family Project noted that "'churches' that allow drag queens to be preachers are satanic."
Kaden Lopez, the executive director of the Texas Family Project, stated, "We don't go film these events because we want to, it's because we have to. The absolute insanity that some 'churches' are promoting is mind boggling."
Libs of TikTok said in response to the videos of the event, "These people are seriously unhinged and insane. They need to start being investigated."
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Sara Gonzales, BlazeTV host of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,” said she was physically harassed by several pro-illegal-immigration protesters who repeatedly told her to kill herself.
Gonzales went to a rally at city hall in Dallas, Texas, where she captured heinous comments from attendees in favor of allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the United States.
The event was described on a poster as a "Rally Against ICE Crackdowns," referring to the increased deportations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under President Trump.
"Stop the hate. Legalization for all," the poster stated.
Protesters were recorded at the event saying things like "someone just run her over" and "you should walk into traffic" in reference to Gonzales.
Along with makeshift security guards repeatedly impeding Gonzales' reporting, multiple protesters boasted that they perform labor for low wages illegally.
"We gotta be the slaves, huh?" one woman said. "You can't even pick berries. You can't even do what we do," she added.
Another video showed a woman telling Gonzales, "Americans are racist," before clarifying, strangely, that she too is American.
— (@)
Gonzales told Blaze News her initial intention was to attend the event and document the "sheer audacity" of those who are in the country illegally yet were walking the streets to demand amnesty.
Gonzales said she was "quickly labeled a 'fascist,'" before she was "obstructed by attendees from walking on the public sidewalk to document the scene."
She added, "I was physically harassed by multiple attendees, some of whom bragged about being in this country illegally."
If these other countries are so great, why is everyone here?
— IP_Freely3 (@IP_Freely3) February 3, 2025
Gonzales' sentiments were largely supported in the comment section of the post, with one man asking, "If these other countries are so great, why is everyone here?"
"If they’re illegals then they’re criminals who should be deported," another viewer added.
If they’re illegals then they’re criminals who should be deported.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) February 3, 2025
Protesters repeatedly chanted that they "built this country," Gonzales revealed, with many of the self-admitted illegal aliens declaring they "weren't going back."
"They referred to me as a 'European,' threatened violence, and encouraged me to kill myself, all because I believe in President Trump's America First agenda to remove criminals and have a safe, orderly, and secure border," the reporter concluded.
— (@)
Other videos uploaded to X showed large numbers of protesters marching in the streets of Dallas, while on-the-ground reports showed cars blocking intersections and performing burnouts in the downtown sector. Mexican flags were ever present at all of these events.
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A bullet hit a Southwest Airlines plane near the cockpit as the flight was taxiing for takeoff at Dallas Love Field on Friday night, KXAS-TV reported.
An airport spokesperson told the station the gunfire forced an evacuation of the flight, and KXAS added that Dallas Police are looking for whoever pulled the trigger.
'The fact that it hit so very close to the cockpit seems too much of a coincidence.'
Flight 2494 was struck around 8:30 p.m., KXAS said, citing the Federal Aviation Administration, which added that the plane — which was taxiing for takeoff to Indianapolis — returned to the gate where passengers deplaned.
Police told the station they responded to a shooting call around 9:48 p.m., and no one was hurt.
The runway was temporarily closed Friday night while police conducted their investigation, KXAS added.
A Southwest spokesperson told the station the plane was removed from service.
Police said they're leading the investigation, KXAS reported, adding an FBI airport liaison agent has been assigned to work with police "and other federal partners as deemed necessary."
The station spoke to Shannon and Jamie Lee who were aboard the flight with two of their children; the couple told KXAS everything seemed normal until they heard the pilot on the loudspeaker.
"He said there's a rattle outside of the plane, and they needed to return back to the gate," Jamie Lee recalled to the station.
The couple told KXAS the pilot said the plane needed to be checked to determine if it was functional — then added that the front of the plane was damaged, and everyone would have to deplane.
The Lees told the station everyone was calm.
"We had no idea that something happened," Shannon Lee told KXAS. "We thought Southwest had missed something in an inspection or something, you know ... a normal mechanical issue."
The couple and their two sons didn't find out about the gunfire until they landed in Indianapolis around 2:30 a.m. and encountered a news crew, the station station said.
“I had my son with me. He was sitting in the window seat. ... And we were just in row 13. So, we were pretty close to the cockpit," Shannon Lee added to KXAS.
While the Lees told the station they're grateful for the way Southwest handled the initial sharing of information with passengers, they believe they should have been told what happened before getting on another flight.
"I was surprised that they had shut the runway, not really knowing if there were potentially other shots being fired or where the shot could have even come from," Jamie Lee told KXAS.
Had they known the plane was shot at, the couple told the station they likely would have gone home that night and delayed their flight another day — or flown out of DFW International Airport instead.
"You have to give people a choice, whether they want to put their safety at risk a second time in one night," Shannon Lee told KXAS.
The Lees added to the station that they want to find out what investigators uncover and what safety improvements may result before walking away from one of their favorite airports and airlines.
"We fly quite a bit ... and ... our kids fly on their own," Shannon Lee told KXAS. "So, it is concerning."
The station said Southwest sent the Lees an email apology as well as a voucher toward a future flight.
Armen Kurdian — a retired Navy captain and Naval flight officer — told KXAS his "first thought is like, 'Holy cow, somebody just shot a gun, and it hit a commercial aircraft!"
Kurdian added to the station that investigators will start by figuring out where the bullet came from: "So, what was the orientation of the aircraft when it was actually hit? How deep did the bullet penetrate? That'll tell you what its speed was. And that'll give you an idea of the range from which it was fired."
Kurdian added to KXAS they'll also be looking into whether or not the shot was intentional: "The fact that it hit so very close to the cockpit seems too much of a coincidence. The odds of that happening, I think, got to be really, really high."
He also told the station that the damage could be wide-ranging — from something small like an inoperative light switch to something bigger, such as the GPS system not working.
"Now, if [the bullet] hits something more vital, say like a hydraulic system, then the pilots would be alerted rather quickly that there would be ... a pressure drop in the hydraulic system," Kurdian added to KXAS.
He noted to the station that such airliners have a lot of backup systems, and it's likely a bullet to the cockpit would not have caused a crash — but the whole ordeal presents a security vulnerability.
"Did this put an idea into, say, a non-state or a state actor as, 'Oh, maybe this is something we can do to disrupt air travel'?" Kurdian wondered to KXAS.
He added to the station that it would be wise for the airport and other agencies to look into safety measures.
"So, does it mean random sweeps outside of the airport while flight operations are going on?" Kurdian asked the KXAS. "Does it mean that there [are] going to be more physical barricades or basically physical barriers — not just fences but things that you actually can't see through, concrete — around the airport?"
You can view a video report here about the incident.
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On Thursday evening, the Dallas County Elections Department seemingly made quiet modifications to online sample ballots following allegations that the downloadable PDFs were, in fact, actual voter ballots.
Barry Wernick, a Republican running for Texas House District 108, filed a complaint with the Texas secretary of state on Tuesday after he claimed he discovered his actual ballot was posted online, Blaze News previously reported. He stated that anyone with a Dallas County voter's first and last name and date of birth could pull up a downloadable, printable ballot.
'Not locked, encrypted, or watermarked in any way.'
Wernick explained that when trying to view his sample ballot on the DCED's website, he was redirected to Clarity Elections, an election night reporting portal operated by SOE Software.
"After clicking on the link & being transferred to the Clarity Elections portal, instead of seeing a sample ballot, I viewed a downloadable & printable .pdf file of my actual die-cut mail-in ballot with a colored stamp of the initials (HG) of Election Administrator Heider Garcia," Wernick stated.
A screenshot of Wernick's supposed sample ballot featured Garcia's initials at the bottom corner and time marks in the margins. He noted that the ballot was "not locked, encrypted, or watermarked in any way."
Wernick warned that someone could "easily and legally print out or digitally manipulate that voter's ballot" and then "illegally and potentially surreptitiously inject it into the system thereby disenfranchising and diluting" voters.
On Thursday morning, Blaze News replicated Wernick's process to access his ballot by using the information of another Texas voter, a Blaze Media employee who lives in Dallas County, producing identical results. The online ballot did not have a "sample" watermark; it included timing marks and featured Garcia's signed initials, just like Wernick's.
However, Blaze News repeated the process on Thursday evening, yielding a different result. This time, the Texas voter's ballot included a "sample" watermark and did not have any signed initials at the bottom.
The DCED did not respond to requests for comment.
The Texas secretary of state told Blaze News, "I cannot speak to any formal election complaints because that information is considered private."
"I can point out that printing a sample ballot does not provide a means for it to be inserted into the election process as there are checks for ballots both for in-person voting and voting by mail. There is not a way for voters to use a sample ballot in place of a regular ballot," the secretary of state stated.
SOE Software President Jonathan Brill told Blaze News, "I am only aware of this matter from your email, and I haven't directly connected with the Dallas County Elections."
"I can tell you, however, that our software is not built for, nor does it have anything to do with voted ballots whatsoever, including tabulation," Brill continued. "Rather, we created and host Dallas County Election's website (including showing SAMPLE ballots) and then facilitate the reporting of results on Election Night. Said more simply, we have nothing to do with live ballots. Our system only presents sample ballots."
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