Florida's Greek community gathers for 120th Epiphany celebration and annual dive to retrieve cross

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — Florida's largest Greek Orthodox community gathered Tuesday for its 120th Epiphany celebration, where dozens of teens dove into chilly water to retrieve a cross in front of thousands of spectators.

Athos Karistinos, 18, found the cross before 73 other boys after it was thrown into a bayou in Tarpon Springs, a town on the Gulf Coast 30 miles north of Tampa and known for its large Greek community. The retriever of the cross is believed to receive a year of blessings. It is one of the largest Epiphany celebrations in the country.

The Epiphany commemorates the manifestation of Jesus to the world and comes from the Greek word “epiphaneia,” which means “appearance.” It is marked by Christians around the world with celebrations ranging from parades and gift-giving for children to the blessing of water. The holiday is also called the Feast of Epiphany, Three Kings Day and Theophany. In some traditions, it celebrates the baptism of Jesus and in others the visit of the Three Magi to the Baby Jesus.

The boys were led to the water from St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral by clergy and Sylvia Marakas, who carried a white dove representing the Holy Spirit. She released the bird over the water before the dive.

Many Greek immigrants were drawn to Tarpon Springs because the waters were flush with sponges, and they quickly built a thriving industry. Others established restaurants, pastry shops and markets that offer a Mediterranean feel.

His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America as is welcomed into the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral during the 120th Epiphany celebration on Tuesday, Jan 6, 2026, in Tarpon Springs, Fla. (Jefferee Woo /Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Athos Karistinos, 18, of Tarpon Springs, is congratulated by cross divers, friends and family, after he retrieves the cross during the annual cross dive in the Spring Bayou, part of the Epiphany celebration on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Tarpon Springs, Fla. (Jefferee Woo /Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Cross divers swim quickly towards the cross during the annual cross dive in the Spring Bayou, part of the Epiphany celebration on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Tarpon Springs, Fla. (Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, left, blesses altar boy Fotie Amoriginos, 9, of Holiday, at the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral during the 120th Epiphany celebration on Tuesday, Jan 6, 2026, in Tarpon Springs, Fla. (Jefferee Woo /Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Athos Karistinos, 18, of Tarpon Springs, is carried by fellow cross divers as they celebrate his victory during the annual cross dive in the Spring Bayou, part of the Epiphany celebration on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Tarpon Springs, Fla. (Jefferee Woo /Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Athos Karistinos, 18, of Tarpon Springs, retrieves the cross from Spring Bayou while participating in the 120th Epiphany celebration on Tuesday, Jan 6, 2026, in Tarpon Springs, Fla. (Jefferee Woo /Tampa Bay Times via AP)

His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America tosses the cross into the water during the annual cross dive in the Spring Bayou, part of the Epiphany celebration on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Tarpon Springs, Fla. (Jefferee Woo /Tampa Bay Times via AP)

His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America venerates an icon moments after arriving at the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral during the 120th Epiphany celebration on Tuesday, Jan 6, 2026, in Tarpon Springs, Fla. (Jefferee Woo /Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Fr. Michael Kouremetis transports the Epiphany Cross into the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral while participating in the 120th Epiphany celebration on Tuesday, Jan 6, 2026, in Tarpon Springs, Fla. (Jefferee Woo /Tampa Bay Times via AP)

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown in a major U.S. city — a shooting that federal officials claimed was an act of self-defense but that the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary.

Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The SUV begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the SUV at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him. It was not clear from the videos if the vehicle made contact with the officer. The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop.

The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of a series of immigration enforcement operations in major U.S. cities under the Trump administration. The killing was at least the fifth linked to immigration crackdowns in a handful of states since 2024.

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That’s according to Commissioner Bob Jacobson of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

“Keep in mind that this is an investigation that is also in its infancy. So any speculation about what has happened would be just that,” Jacobson told reporters.

The shooting happened in the district of Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who called it “state violence,” not law enforcement.

The Department of Justice says in its Justice Manual that firearms should not be used simply to disable a moving vehicle.

The policy allows deadly force only in limited circumstances, such as when someone in the vehicle is threatening another person with deadly force, or when the vehicle itself is being used in a way that poses an imminent risk and no reasonable alternative exists, including moving out of the vehicle’s path.

Police training experts have told The Associated Press that officers are generally taught not to step in front of moving vehicles to try to block them.

Training also emphasizes weighing the totality of the situation, including whether the person involved poses an immediate danger and whether the underlying allegation involves violence.

Many department policies specifically bar firing at vehicles just to stop a fleeing suspect.

Some policing experts say the rules need flexibility, pointing to cases in which people have used vehicles as weapons, including attacks in recent years where cars were driven into crowds.

The debate has been sharpened by high-profile cases, including a 2023 shooting in Ohio in which an officer fired through a windshield in a grocery store parking lot while investigating a shoplifting allegation, killing the pregnant motorist. The officer was later charged and acquitted.

For decades, police departments across the U.S. have limited when officers are allowed to fire at moving vehicles, citing the danger to bystanders and the risk that a driver who is shot will lose control.

The New York Police Department was among the first major agencies to adopt those limits. The department barred officers from firing at or from moving vehicles after a 1972 shooting killed a 10-year-old passenger in a stolen car and sparked protests.

Researchers in the late 1970s and early 1980s later found that the policy, along with other use-of-force restrictions, helped reduce bystanders being struck by police gunfire and led to fewer deaths in police shootings.

Over the years, many law enforcement agencies followed New York’s lead. Policing organizations such as the Police Executive Research Forum and the International Association of Chiefs of Police have recommended similar limits, warning that shooting at vehicles creates serious risks from stray gunfire or from a vehicle crashing if the driver is hit.

Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters. Unlike federal officials, O’Hara didn’t say the driver was trying to harm anyone. He said she had been shot in the head.

“This woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. ... At some point a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off,” the chief said.

“At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”

The governor said he’s prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary. He also said that like many, he is outraged about the killing, which he described as “predictable” and “avoidable.” But he called for calm.

“They want a show. We can’t give it to them. We cannot,” the governor said during a news conference.

“If you protest and express your First Amendment rights, please do so peacefully, as you always do. We can’t give them what they want.”

The president, in a social media post, said he’d viewed video footage of the incident and criticized the woman who was shot as acting “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting” and “then violently, willfully, and viciously” running over the ICE officer.

The president also described another woman seen screaming in the footage of the incident he viewed as “obviously, a professional agitator.”

“Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital,” Trump said of the ICE officer.

“The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE.”

An immigrant rights group says on Facebook that it will hold a vigil for the woman who was shot.

“We witnessed an atrocious attack on our community today,” read the post from the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. “Community members were taken from us and an observer was shot dead. ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA NOW.”

Minnesota initially grabbed President Donald Trump’s and Republicans’ attention over a series of fraud cases where many of the defendants had roots in Somalia. Prosecutors say that billions of dollars were stolen from federally funded health care benefits and a COVID-19 program in recent years.

Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the U.S., a group Trump called “garbage” in December and said he didn’t want them in the country.

The president has also criticized Democratic Gov. Walz for failing to catch the alleged crimes.

Late last month, a right-wing influencer posted a video claiming that day care centers in Minneapolis run by Somali residents had taken over $100 million in fraud. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel then posted on social media about increased operations in the city partly targeting, as Patel put it, “large-scale fraud schemes.”

On Tuesday, DHS said it planned to deploy 2,000 federal agents and officers to the Minneapolis area.

In October, a Chicago woman was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in a similar incident involving a vehicle, though she survived.

Almost immediately, Homeland Security officials issued a statement labeling Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old teaching assistant at a Montessori school, as a “domestic terrorist” who had “ambushed” and “rammed” agents with her vehicle.

She was charged in federal court with assaulting a federal officer, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. But federal prosecutors were later forced to dismiss the case against Martinez before trial after security camera video and bodycam footage emerged that her defense lawyers said undermined the official narrative.

The videos showed a Border Patrol agent steering his vehicle into Martinez’s truck, rather than the other way around, her attorney said.

“I’ve seen the video. Don’t believe this propaganda machine,” Walz wrote on X, responding to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s post alleging that a woman had “weaponized her vehicle” before she was shot and killed by an ICE officer.

The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice,” wrote the governor.

Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, says that “We have jurisdiction to bring charges, as do the feds.

“It’s a little bit of a complicated interplay but the bottom line is yes, we have jurisdiction to bring criminal charges.”

Secretary Kristi Noem, during a visit to Texas, says it was carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”

But Mayor Frey blasted that characterization as well as the federal deployment in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

“They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said.

The location is just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets in the area and a mile from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.

During a news conference in Texas on Wednesday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the agency had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities and already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.

The mayor says in a social media post that immigration agents are “causing chaos in our city.”

“We are demanding ICE leave the city and state immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities,” Frey said.

The crowd vented its anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.

In a scene that harkened back to the Los Angeles and Chicago immigration crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.

“Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” they loudly chanted from behind the police tape.

That’s according to a statement from department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.

The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major American cities under the Trump administration. It’s at least the fifth person killed in a handful of states since 2024.

The twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, with more than 2,000 agents and officers expected to participate in the crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Wednesday that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot and killed a motorist acted recklessly. Fry rejected federal officials’ claims that the officer had acted in self-defense.

During a news conference hours after the ICE officer shot the woman, an angry Frey blasted the federal immigration crackdown on the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

“They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets and in this case quite literally killing people.”

“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense," the mayor said.

Law enforcement agents stand on the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis, on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Alex Kormann/Star Tribune via AP)

A bullet hole is seen in the windshield as law enforcement officers work the scene of a shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

A bullet hole and blood stains are seen in a crashed vehicle on at the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Ben Hovland/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)