There is an active shooter situation at a high school in Alpine, Texas, according to a sheriff in Brewster County.
TV station Fox 24 said that at least one person was killed.
Ruth Hucke, a spokeswoman for Big Bend Regional Medical Center in Alpine, said hospital personnel were tending to three "victims."
Hucke declined to say how the victims were injured or further identify them. When asked if the victims had been shot, Hucke said she "can't say anything further."
Hucke said the hospital would provide a statement later Thursday. She had no additional details.
Police said schools have been locked down amid the search for the shooter(s). They now believe there may be two active shooters.
The police didn't immediately provide additional information, other than the person was a male.
Students reported hearing about two or three shots, local TV station KWES reported.
The Alpine Independent School District website says the town of about 5,900 residents has three schools — elementary, middle and a high school.
I am amazed that the Mexican authorities aren't putting prices on the heads of Mexican drug lords. Possibly because Mexican drug lords put prices on the heads of anyone who gets in their way.
Hence why beheading women is so methodical in Mexico. Like they've done it before many times. Disgusting.
It just proves that while many Canadians and Americans visit Mexico as tourists you really have to stick to the tourist spots - leave the sanctity of the tourist hot spots and you are likely to be murdered for your wallet or purse.
Because why should they care about you when they murder their own people like sheep in a slaughterhouse?
9 members of a Midwest Christian militia led by ringleader David Brian Stone are in jail now for plotting to overthrow the U.S. government and detonate WMDs at a police funeral.
The ringleader Stone was fond of making speeches and believed he could encourage others to join in a civil war against the government.
“We are the American military. We outnumber them,” a speaker identified as Stone says on an audio tape recorded by an undercover FBI agent. “People should not be afraid of the government. The government should fear the people.”
The agent infiltrated the Hutaree militia and had built explosives under Stone’s direction, accompanied Stone and others as they tried to attend a Feb. 6 meeting of militias in Kentucky.
“Now it’s time to strike and take our nation back so we will be free of tyranny,” Stone, 44, of Clayton, Mich., says on the recording played in court. “The war will come whether we are ready or not.”
Stone and eight other Hutaree members, self-proclaimed “Christian Warriors” who trained themselves in paramilitary techniques in preparation for a battle against the U.S. government, are charged with seditious conspiracy, plotting to levy war against the U.S. They were arrested after a series of weekend raids across the Midwest.
The group planned to make a false 911 call, kill responding police officers, then set off a bomb at the funeral to kill many more. After the attacks the group planned to retreat to “rally points” protected by trip-wired explosives for a violent standoff with law enforcement personnel.
Federal officials began monitoring the militia last summer and discovered an attack was planned for April. The Hutaree was planning training that month where they would kill people that “came upon them.” Court documents said the undercover agent and a cooperating witness were part of the federal probe.
Eight suspects were arraigned Wednesday in Detroit. U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Donald A. Scheer entered not guilty pleas on behalf of seven who stood mute to the charges, including David Brian Stone. Stone’s eldest son, 21-year-old Joshua Matthew Stone, pleaded not guilty.
“It’s not about a religious group,” says prosecutor Waterstreet. “It’s not about the militia. It’s about a group who decided to oppose by force the U.S. by using violence and weapons.”
Stone sought to “own his own country” and send police retreating to the cities. Waterstreet said Stone “indicated the wives and children of the brotherhood (police) were equal targets.”
In the hierarchy of Hutaree David Brian Stone led the militia and Joshua Matthew Stone was a squad leader. David Brian Stone Jr., the elder Stone’s 19-year-old son, was in charge of detonations and explosives.
Kristopher Sickles, 27, of Sandusky, Ohio described himself as leading the militia in that state. Sickles bragged that he killed his cat to see if he could shoot something he had feelings for.
Others charged in the case had responsibilities including communications and recruitment. Michael David Meeks, 40, and Thomas W. Piatek, 46, of Whiting, Indiana. were “heavy gunners” in charge of “laying down heavy fire” in encounters with the enemy.
Defense lawyers are arguing there's nothing wrong with having an opinion about the United States federal government.
If these men were Muslim militants there wouldn't even be a question about their guilt. Being a Christian doesn't excuse a person from acts of terrorism. Terrorism is terrorism, regardless of what religion you believe in.
UNITED STATES - Eight people are dead in a Georgia trailer park and two more critically injured in what is being called a mass shooting.
In custody is Guy Heinze Jr. who has been charged with possession of marijuana and the drug Darvocet, tampering with evidence and obstruction of an officer. He has NOT been charged with the gruesome murders however although he remains a suspect.
Police received a 911 call shortly after 8:00 am (1200 GMT) Saturday "of multiple deceased persons found in a mobile home in the New Hope mobile park." Officers arriving on the scene found seven dead people and two more who were critically injured in the trailer park in Brunswick, Georgia, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) south of Savannah.
Police are currently withholding motive, who did the shooting and what exactly happened as more details become clear. Today police released the 911 tape:
"My whole family is dead," said Guy Heinze Jr., 22, when he called in the 911 call. Barely coherent, he said he had arrived at the mobile home Saturday morning to find family members dead and bleeding. "My whole family is dead ... it looks like they've been beaten to death, but I don't know, man."
He then says the ambulance "better hurry," because his cousin, Michael Toler, a 19 year-old man with Down syndrome, was alive, but "that his face is smashed in." Michael later died from his wounds.
Later neighbour Orlinski takes the phone and tells the dispatcher: "I know there's a little baby. ... Shoot, there's a little baby. I don't know if the baby was in there or not."
Heinze apparently moved several of the bodies, trying to find someone who was still alive.
One police source says it may have been a mass murder-suicide, but they won't know until all the facts have been confirmed.
An official close to the investigation confirms some of the victims were shot. The quiet community has a low crime rate compared to other parts of Georgia. The killing at the New Hope trailer park, a 250-acre former plantation of pine trees and pecan groves, is the latest in a spate of mass killings in the United States.
In August, a Pennsylvania man embittered by what he described as constant rejection by women, walked into a women's health club and opened fire on a dance class, killing three women before turning the gun on himself in Greenhill, Alabama.
UNITED STATES - A man and his five children are dead in what police believe was a murder-suicide at a mobile home in Washington state.
Police suspect the father shot and killed his children, ages seven to 16, before taking his own life Saturday.
The bodies of four girls and a boy, who was the youngest of the siblings, were found inside their home at the Deer Run mobile park in Pierce County, 70 kilometres south of Seattle.
The body of the 35-year-old father was found in his still-running car, 30 kilometres from his home.
He had apparently killed himself with a rifle, Auburn Police Sgt. Scott Near said. No note was left in the car.
The mother's aunt, Penny Flansburg, identified the couple as Angela and James Harrison and the children as Maxine, Samantha, Heather, Jamie and James.
The father worked as a diesel mechanic, and the mother works at Wal-Mart, Flansburg said.
A classmate of the eldest daughter said she told him Friday night that her parents had fought and her father had followed her mother, trying to persuade her to return after she left the home.
This latest mass murder is part of a string of mass murders in the USA.
Sat 4 April: Father shoots his five children, then himself, near Seattle.
Sat 4 April: Gunman kills three policemen in Pittsburgh before being wounded and captured.
Fri 3 April: Gunman kills 13 people at an immigration centre in Binghamton, New York state, then shoots himself.
Sun 29 March: Gunman kills seven elderly residents and a nurse at a nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina, then is shot and wounded himself.
Sun 29 March: Man kills five relatives and himself in Santa Clara, California.
UNITED STATES - Today three police officers have been killed by a gunman in Pittsburgh - the second mass shooting in the US in the last 24 hours. The three dead officers are Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle and Paul Sciullo III. Kelly had been on the force for 14 years and the other two only two years each. Another officer was shot in the hand and a fifth broke his leg on a fence.
The officers were the first Pittsburgh city officers to die in the line of duty in 18 years. (The last Pittsburgh police officers killed in the line of duty were Officers Thomas L. Herron and Joseph J. Grill, who died after their patrol car collided with another vehicle while chasing a stolen car on March 6th, 1991.)
The officers were responding to an emergency call from the house of the gunman, 23-year-old Richard Poplawski, who was arrested after a four-hour standoff.
Police said he was waiting, armed with multiple assault rifles (including an AK-47), a bulletproof vest, a .357 Magnum handgun, several other handguns and "enough ammunition to take on a small army". He shot and killed two officers as they entered the house, and a third who tried to help them.
Poplawski then traded gunfire with police for four hours before being injured and giving himself up.
Gail Moschetti, who lives diagonally across the street from the Poplawski house, said she heard hundreds of shots as she and her husband took refuge in their basement. Tom Moffitt, 51, a city firefighter who lives two blocks away, said he came to the scene and heard "hundreds, just hundreds of shots."
Poplawski's friends said he had recently lost his job, and was worried that US President Barack Obama was about to ban assault rifles. (I agree, his logic doesn't make much sense.) Poplawski's best friend Edward Perkovic said Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon."
Perkovic, 22, said he got a call at work from him in which Poplawski said, "Eddie, I am going to die today. ... Tell your family I love them and I love you."
Perkovic said: "I heard gunshots and he hung up. ... He sounded like he was in pain, like he got shot."
The shooting comes a day after a immigrant gunman killed 13 people in New York state, because he had lost his job and had poor English.
In a televised press conference, Pittsburgh Police Chief Nathan Harper said it was a "very sad day" for the city. "Our hearts and our prayers go out to the officers who paid the ultimate sacrifice," he said.
Chief Harper said the emergency call had been made by the gunman's mother, who had apparently stayed in the basement of the house during the whole incident, and had learned her son intended to going on a shooting rampage.
According to Pittsburgh Police Chief Harper the gunman had been "lying in wait", and the first two officers who reached the house were shot in the head as they entered.
Poplawski has been charged with three counts of homicide, aggravated assault and a weapons violation.
Poplawski had been laid off from his job at a glass factory earlier this year. A highschool dropout, Poplawski had recently stopped attending classes to get his GED certificate and was hoping to join the Marine Corps so he could fight overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.
UNITED STATES - The small upstate New York town of Binghamton became the latest community to suffer the horror of gun rampage in America when a man yesterday killed 13 people at an immigrant counseling centre where many of his victims were studying to become American citizens.
The gunman was 42-year-old Jiverly Voong (aka Jiverly Wong), who had recently been laid off from an assembly plant during the American recession.
The carnage at the American Civic Association, a language and help centre for immigrants from all over the world settled in New York state, had all the hallmarks of being premeditated. The gunman, an immigrant from Vietnam, drove his car to the back of the building and parked it tight against the rear door – preventing those inside from escaping.
He then went around to the front door armed with two handguns and shot both receptionists, one fatally.
Despite a serious wound to the stomach, the wounded receptionist managed to sound the alarm by mobile phone at 10:31 AM, and spent the next 90 minutes hiding under a desk while she fed information to the police. Officers were at the scene within two minutes, and SWAT teams arrived four minutes later, but by then it was too late to prevent the death toll from rising to horrifying levels.
The gunman walked from the reception area to a classroom where immigrants were studying for their citizenship exams. Twelve of the people in that room were to join the list of the gunman's victims, and only four others were alive last night in hospital in critical condition.
It took police three hours to clear the building, a low-rise concrete structure in a quiet side street in the centre of town. Twenty-six people were cowering in the basement, many crammed in a boiler room, and were so traumatized they refused to come out even when police told them it was safe to finally leave.
Zhanar Tokhtabayeva, a 30-year-old from Kazakhstan, said she was in an English class when she heard a shot and her teacher screamed for everyone to go to the storage room.
"I heard the shots, every shot. I heard no screams, just silence, shooting," said Zhanar. "I heard shooting, very long time ... and I was thinking, when will this stop? I was thinking that my life was finished."
Right: A Beretta 92 FS pistol similar to the one used in the shooting.
Jiverly Voong's body was found among the dead, with a satchel full of ammunition around his neck and the two semi-automatic pistols, a .45-caliber Beretta and a 9 millimeter Beretta, beside him. ID on him identified him as Jiverly Voong and the handguns were registered under the name of Jiverly Wong.
Today, Binghamton's mayor said the man was depressed after recently losing his job. "He had lost a job recently and was somewhat angry," says Mayor Matthew Ryan. "He had language issues, didn't speak English that well, and was really concerned about his employment situation."
This morning, the Pakistani Taliban leader Baituallah Mehsud claimed responsibility for the shooting, saying that it was revenge for US drone attacks in Pakistan, but the FBI ruled out his involvement as a complete lie to get attention.
Binghamton, a university town of 45,000, has a long lineage of immigrant populations, attracted to its industries since the 1920s. The Binghamton civic association helps many of those immigrants to learn English upon arrival in America.
"How could he do this to them? The people who work here are our friends," says Peter Lu, standing down the street from the centre. He came to the US from China 20 years ago and his wife learned English there too.
Last night relatives of the dead were being briefed and comforted at a church meeting house a mile away from the scene. The nationality of those assembled suggested that the victims came from all over the world: China, Laos, South Korea and Slovakia.
Marsha Maroney, who works for the church charities group which provided the facilities, said that the atmosphere among the relatives was heavy. "It's worry, and shock, and now fatigue. It's terribly hard to watch."
The shooting is the latest in a seemingly never-ending stream of incidents of mass murder in the US, which many observers ascribe to the country's gun laws which are the most lax in the developed world. The United States is the only country with 'the right to bear arms'.
Last week, a gunman killed eight people in a North Carolina nursing home. Last month, an Alabama man killed 10 people, including several members of his family, before turning the gun on himself. The largest mass shooting in American history occurred in April 2007, when a mentally ill student at Virginia Tech University killed 32 people and wounded many others before killing himself. This month marks the 10th anniversary of the killing of 13 at Columbine high school in Colorado by two disgruntled students.
Many states have few laws on gun ownership beyond barring immigrants, convicted felons and the severely mentally ill from possessing firearms, which means immigrants, criminals and insane people can own guns just as easily as law-abiding sane American citizens.
The news of yet another gun tragedy may bring the issue of controls back into the political debate, though since Virginia Tech it had receded into the background again under the ever-present pressure of the gun lobby.
The Obama administration has indicated that it supports the renewal of an expired federal ban on assault rifles.
In Europe for G-20 meetings, Barack Obama said last night that he was shocked and saddened to hear of the shooting, which he called an "act of senseless violence".
On Friday, the federal government announced that 663,000 Americans lost their jobs in March. What's truly unsettling in America's new era of gloom and dead ends is wondering how many of those 663,000 might be deeply, irrevocably angry about it — and might have a gun. No wonder the crime rate is going up.
"Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type," a man named Charles Whitman wrote one day in 1966. Then he ascended a tower at the University of Texas, looked out over the campus, pulled out a shotgun, three rifles and three pistols and killed 16 people.
Shocking? No. Whitman had received a court martial as a United States Marine and lost his job, which combined with poor family life and declining health led him to want to go out with a bang.
During a recession, it really should not be considered a surprise.
UNITED STATES - Four police officers were shot dead and a fifth is now brain dead and on life support in the northern California city of Oakland, marking the deadliest day in the department's history.
The shootings started Saturday after a routine traffic stop. Two officers on motorcycle patrol were shot by a man wanted for violating his parole (The gunman was 'on parole for assault with a deadly weapon'). The gunman then fled the scene.
The suspect was later killed by police during an intense manhunt by dozens of Oakland police, California Highway Patrol officers and Alameda County sheriff deputies. Streets were roped off and an entire area of east Oakland was closed to traffic so they could corner the gunman.
At approx. 3:30 pm, officers received an anonymous tip that the gunman was inside a nearby apartment building. A SWAT team entered the building and the gunman opened fire. Two more police SWAT officers were killed and a third officer was grazed by a bullet.
Officers returned fire, killing the suspect.
One witness, said he heard gunshots outside, where he saw two SWAT officers lying on the ground. "I went over to one officer and saw he was bleeding from his helmet pretty bad," he said. "The other officer was laying motionless." He said one officer had gunshot wounds to the jaw and neck.
The man proceeded to administer first aid to the officer until police arrived.
Another wounded officer was treated and released from hospital on Saturday night.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called the officers' deaths "tragic", and ordered state flags to be flown at half-mast. Schwarzenegger arrived in Oakland on Sunday to meet members of the police department.
"This is a tragic day for law enforcement officers everywhere," he said in a statement, adding the slain police officers had "dedicated their lives to public safety and selflessly worked to protect the people of Oakland".
The dead gunman had recently got out of prison on parole and had a long criminal record, was identified by police as Lovelle Mixon, 26. Mixon was previously convicted of an armed robbery in San Francisco.
Police said Mixon used different weapons in each incident. One gun was used at first and an assault rifle was used at the apartment building where he was hiding when he killed the SWAT officers.
Police don't know why the officers initially stopped the suspect, but said it apparently was a routine traffic stop, possibly for speeding or erratic driving.
Mixon's family have apologized to the families of the killed officers, saying he was not a monster.
"He's not a monster," his sister, Enjoli Mixon says. "I don't want people to think he's a monster. He's just not. He's just not."
"We're crushed that this happened," said his grandmother, Mary Mixon. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the officers' families ... this shouldn't have happened."
Mary Mixon says Mixon had a feud with his parole officer, and said he was even willing to return to prison so he could get a new parole officer.
Authorities said the Oakland officers killed were Mark Dunakin (40), Ervin Romans (43), Dan Saki (35), and John Hege (41).
It was the first time an officer in Oakland was killed in the line of duty in five years.
In other news...
1 dies as bikers rampage in Sydney Australia airport
Warring bikers brawled through Australia's largest airport Sunday, beating one suspected gang member to death and brandishing metal poles "like swords" as they rampaged through the main domestic terminal in front of terrified travellers.
Police said a group of suspected gang members was ambushed as they disembarked from an airplane.
"A fight ensued, the fight moved through various parts of the terminal," said Police Detective Inspector Peter Williams. 15 men were involved in the violence, which rampaged from the ground floor up one level to the departures hall before most of the men fled.
One man died in hospital from head injuries after the brawl, the latest sign of a biker war in Sydney.
"They came running through picking up the big metal barrier poles and swinging them like swords at each other," says witness Naomi Constantine. "I saw one of the men lying on the ground and another man came up with a pole and just started smashing it into his head," she says.
Four men were arrested but many others escaped, some of them by hailing taxis and escaping in the confusion.
Authorities fear the gang war brewing in Sydney will get worse, especially following a string of drive-by shootings and an explosion last month outside a fortified Hell's Angels clubhouse.
CANADA/POLITICS - A Montreal university student is being credited with foiling a firebomb attack on a British high school and says he tried to stall the bomber while he tipped off local police in the United Kingdom.
J.P. Neufeld phoned police in Norfolk, England, after he spotted a posting on an online forum Tuesday that threatened to torch Attleborough High School and the nearly 1,000 students inside.
The entry, on the website newgrounds.com, featured a photo of a gasoline jerry can and the message: "Today at 11:30 GMT I will attack my school with arson and other forms of violence. Those bastards will pay."
By calculating the time-zone difference, Neufeld realized the assault was less than an hour away, so he attempted to slow the website member while trying to identify him.
"So you're gonna walk around the school with a gas can?" asked Neufeld, 21, a moderator for the website.
The member flatly replied: "Pretty much."
Meanwhile, with the help of other users surfing the site that morning, the Concordia University student quickly identified the suspect and phoned Norfolk police.
"They took me quite seriously the first time I called them, they didn't even bother to ask 'Who are you? Is this a hoax?'," says the Canadian.
The police force swiftly alerted Attleborough high school, where teachers detained a 16-year-old inside the school office until police officers arrived.
The arrest was made about 40 minutes after Neufeld placed the call. The teenager was caught carrying a knife, matches and a container of flammable liquid inside his bag.
Police confiscated the computer belonging to the teen, who is being held under the Mental Health Act and cannot be identified due to his age.
"Given the fact that he had all that stuff with him it was obviously a very serious incident - or had the potential to be very serious," says investigator John Dack. "I know (the school is) extremely grateful to the young person from Canada who called us."
The police chief in Norfolk, about 170 kilometres northeast of London, plans to send Neufeld a letter thanking his effort.
Neufeld said he had noticed the user on the website many times, mostly because the member's online signature features a still frame from a cafeteria tape of Columbine High School. The image shows the time and date of the 1999 massacre that left 15 people dead - including the two shooters - and 23 wounded. He evidently thought of the Columbine murderers as heroes.
"There's always the risk that it's going to be a waste of time, but I knew I couldn't take the chance since all the school shootings that have happened recently," says Neufeld.
"It's just something you don't fool around with anymore."
Question: Does Attleborough High School have an anti-bullying program that could have prevented this incident entirely?
POLITICS - Authorities grappled today for the reason a 27-year-old Alabama man shot dead 10 people, including his mother, before killing himself after a gun battle with police and a car chase down a rural highway.
Michael McLendon, who lived with his mother, killed five of his victims in yesterday's shooting spree at a mobile home in Samson, in south-eastern Alabama, according to a local coroner and Wynnton Melton, mayor of nearby Geneva.
The victims at the mobile home included the wife of a local deputy sheriff and her child. He also killed two people at a convenience store and a man in a pickup truck who died during a car chase as Michael McLendon apparently fired at random.
"We sent 11 bodies to Montgomery (the state capital)," said Robert Preachers, the coroner in neighbouring Coffee County who said he knew most of the victims including the killer.
"He (McLendon) was a nice quiet kid, no trouble. He was always polite and nice," Preachers said. Asked about a possible motive, he said: "He carried it with him to the grave."
Rural south-eastern Alabama, which borders Florida, is a largely agricultural area with many low-income families.
Mass shootings have become more frequent in the United States in recent years. Guns are widely available for purchase in the United States, a country that prides itself on the right to own weapons for self defence and hunting.
Michael McLendon was armed with a large collection of both pistols and assault rifles.
The shooting spree began in Kinston, a small town in Coffee County, and continued to Samson, where McLendon killed his grandmother, uncle and others.
It ended after a car chase and gun battle in Geneva, the county seat about 12 miles away, they said.
"Officer Ricky Morgan rammed his car to distract him and was rewarded with a hail of bullets .... One bullet grazed the shoulder of police chief Frankie Lindsey," said one of the investigators.
A police officer in Geneva said the gunman "shot at several vehicles on the highway and then he shot at Wal-Mart and Piggly Wiggly," a grocery store.
Michael McLendon also shot the family's dogs, Preachers said. "He killed her (his mother) and her dogs. He shot the dogs in the head. Then he piled them up and gassed them (poured gasoline on them and lit it). He laid the dogs next to her," he said.
According to police Michael McLendon kept a list of co-workers, teachers and family members who had upset him. The list also included several companies including Kelley Foods, a sausage factory where McLendon worked until last week, and Reliant Metals, a factory where he worked in 2003.
McLendon's murderous spree ended at Reliant Metals where he was cornered by police and shot himself in the head.
POLITICS - A 17-year-old gunman dressed in black opened fire at his former high school in southwestern Germany today, killing at least 13 people there and another two elsewhere, before police shot him to death, German state officials said.
The teenager killed nine students, three teachers, and a passer-by outside Albertville high school in Winnenden, authorities said.
Triggering a land and air manhunt, he hijacked a car, let the passengers go and drove about 40 kilometers before police found him. When confronted, he killed two bystanders in a shootout with police before he was slain, Baden Wuerttemburg Gov. Guenther Oettinger said. Two officers were seriously injured, but there was no immediate information on other casualties.
Police have identified the gunman as Tim Kretschmer, who graduated last year from the school of about 1,000 students.
It was the country's worst shooting since another teenage gunman killed 16 people and himself in another high school in 2002.
"He went into the school with a weapon and carried out a bloodbath," said police Chief Erwin Hetger. "I've never seen anything like this in my life."
The gunman entered the school in the town 20 kilometers northeast of Stuttgart and opened fire, shooting at random, police said.
Right: The 9-mm Beretta that Tim Kretschmer used in the killings.
Witnesses said students jumped from the windows of the school building. Concerned parents quickly swarmed around the school, which was evacuated.
It was about four hours later that authorities said the gunman had been killed, but it was not immediately clear at what time police shot him.
The German government was "deeply shocked and incensed about the appalling killing spree," Ulrich Wilhelm, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in Berlin.
In 2002, 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser shot and killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer before turning his gun on himself in the Gutenberg high school in Erfurt, in eastern Germany.
Steinhaeuser, who had been expelled for forging a doctor's note, was a gun club member licensed to own weapons. The attack led Germany to raise the age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21.
UNITED STATES - This morning in the town of Wampum, 45 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, 11-year-old fifth-grader Jordan Brown boarded the bus and headed to school like he did most other mornings in this rural western Pennsylvania community.
But before he left home on Friday, the 11-year-old boy shot his father's pregnant fiancée in the back of the head as she slept in bed. He then put his youth model 20-gauge shotgun back in his room before going out to catch his bus, police say. Houk's fetus died within minutes due to a lack of oxygen
Brown was charged Saturday as an adult in the death of 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk, who was eight months pregnant. Houk's family and friends says that there had been past problems with the boy.
"He actually told my son that he wanted to do that to her," said Houk's brother-in-law, Jason Kraner. "There was an issue with jealousy.''
Pennsylvania State Police found Houk's body in the rented farmhouse after her 4-year-old daughter told tree cutters on the property she thought her mother was dead.
The boy told police there was a black truck on the property that morning – possibly the man who feeds the cows – sending investigators to follow a false lead for about five hours. Inconsistencies in Brown's description of the truck led police to re-interview Houk's 7-year-old daughter, who implicated the boy in the killing. State troopers went to get the boy at school.
"She didn't actually eyewitness the shooting. She saw him with what she believed to be a shotgun and heard a loud bang," says police. The gun was found in a "location we believe to be in the defendant's bedroom."
"An 11-year-old kid – what would give him the motive to shoot someone?" said Houk's father, Jack Houk. "Maybe he was just jealous of my daughter and the baby and thought he would be overpowered."
The boy's father, Christopher Brown, is "a mess" and had no indication his son had a problem with Houk. "He's in a state of actual shock and disbelief," says Jack Houk.
The shotgun used is designed for children and has a shorter arm and such weapons do not have to be registered. Jack Houk, 57, said the boy and his father used to practice shooting behind their farmhouse, and the two enjoyed going hunting together.
HEALTH - A mentally disturbed Australian man pulled over on a highway bridge, took his 4-year-old daughter out of the car and dropped her over the side to her death at 9 AM today in Australia's second-largest city.
Arthur Freeman, 36, of Melbourne was later charged with the murder of 4-year-old Darcey Freeman, but he did not appear in court because police said he was psychologically unfit to do so. He is to be held in custody while an investigation continues. He faces a maximum life sentence if convicted.
The motive is unknown, but the man appeared to be suffering from a mental breakdown due to a divorce/custody battle with his wife over the couple's three children.
The two other children, boys aged 6 and 8, were in Freeman's SUV when he pulled over on the West Gate Bridge in morning peak-hour traffic and dropped the girl 58 metres into the Yarra River.
Stunned witnesses called police, who were able to pull the girl from the river within 10 minutes of receiving the alert. She was barely alive when she was pulled out and later died in Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital four hours after the fall.
About an hour later, Freeman was arrested with the two surviving children outside the family court.
HEALTH - A man went on a rampage at a Belgium day care centre today, stabbing two young children and a female worker to death and sending 10 other children to hospital, officials said.
Sobbing parents rushed to the scene and to the hospitals, as officials reported some of the wounded children were in serious condition.
Christian Du Four, a local prosecutor, said in the mayhem that ensued the attacker simply walked out and got on his bicycle before being arrested in a nearby supermarket shortly after the 10 a.m. attack.
"We have three people dead and 10 in various hospitals," Du Four told a news conference.
The attack caused widespread panic in the day care centre, which serves 18 children on a residential street in this town 30 kilometres northwest of Brussels.
"People are totally in shock," said Leene Du Bois, a spokeswoman for the regional government of Flanders. "Nobody would have imagined anyone could do so much harm. There is much grief."
She said the perpetrator had no connection to the day care centre.
Media reports said he had a history of mental illness.
Du Four and witnesses said the man rode his bike to the Fabeltjesland day care centre, entered and immediately began slashing a knife around. The dead included two children – ranging in age up to three – and a woman working in the day care centre.
Du Four did not immediately identify the suspect, who was injured as police detained him and taken to a nearby hospital. The VRT television network said the man was a local resident.
Du Four said police showed shaken parents digital photographs of the youngsters who had been taken to the hospital, asking them to identify their children.
The city opened up a nearby community centre to provide psychological counselling to victims and witnesses of the stabbings.
Veerle Heeren, the social welfare minister for the regional Flemish government, said she would be investigating security measures at the centre.
Such an violent attack is rare in Belgium. Although the country has been plagued by notorious child abuse cases, it has escaped the shooting or stabbing attacks at schools witnessed in other European countries.
UNITED STATES - An 8 year old boy in Arizona has been charged with two counts of premeditated murder after he gunned down his father and another man with a .22 rifle, St. Johns Police Chief Roy Melnick said. The boy has since confessed to the murder, but investigators are still trying to determine if the deaths were accident or intentional.
The crime occurred on Wednesday when the boy’s father, 29-year-old Vincent Romero, and 39-year-old Timothy Romans were fatally shot. Police reportedly arrived at the crime scene shortly after the shootings took place. One victim was just outside the front door, while the other was found dead in an upstairs room. Police arrived at the scene at about 5 p.m. Wednesday, within minutes after the neighbors reported hearing gunfire.
Police Chief Melnick refused to discuss the probable motives that led the child to commit the horrendous crimes or how he came to have the gun.
The cases of juvenile murderers are very rare and also extremely difficult for the justice system. According to FBI's Uniform Crime Report lists, there were no murder defendants under the age of 9 in the past 3 years.
A quite similar case happened in 1998 in Illinois when a 7-year-old and an 8-year-old were accused of killing an 11-year-old. They were both exonerated as specialist tend to consider the juvenile murderers as products of abuse.
Incidents like this, school shooting and the like, will fuel the belief that banning guns and creating tighter controls around children and guns will make a difference in the USA. Remember that America has more guns than cars, people or even pets. Americans LOVE their guns. See Americans buying guns like crazy after Obama win.
POSSIBLE MOTIVES:
The boy walked in on his father, Vincent Romero, and his friend Timothy Romans kissing or having gay sex together. The boy, confused as to what was happening or perhaps homophobic, went and got a gun and shot them both.
Or... the men had sexually abused the boy, and this was revenge.
SCHOOL SHOOTING IN DETROIT
October 16th - A shooting in a primary school in Detroit, Michigan, Thursday left one high-school student dead and three others injured, police said.
The students were from Henry Ford High School and were sitting on a lawn of a primary school near to their own school, Detroit Police Chief James Barren told reporters.
An unknown man came out of a car and shot them, before fleeing with his car.
One 16-year-old male student was killed while three others were seriously injured and still in critical condition.
A witness heard at least 12 or 13 gunshots and then he saw one male student was shot in the eye. The gunman is still at large and police is trying to find his motive.
A 22-year-old gunman who killed 11 people before killing himself Tuesday at a vocational school in Finland left notes saying he hated humankind, police said.
The shooter, who was a student at the school, left two handwritten notes in the dormitory, saying he had planned the attack since 2002 and he hated humanity, police said.
He also wrote that the solution was a Walther 22, referring to the .22-calibre pistol he used in the attack.
He fired on students who were taking an exam and then shot himself in the head, He was taken to hospital, where he died hours later.
The shooting occurred just before 11 a.m. local time at the Kauhajoki School of Hospitality, 290 kilometres northwest of Helsinki.
Finland's Interior Minister Anne Holmlund said the man had been questioned by police on Monday but was released because police had no legal grounds to detain him.
Holmlund said the man was detained briefly because of YouTube postings in which he is shown firing a handgun at what appears to be a shooting range.
She said the man had obtained the licence for the gun in August.
Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen declared Wednesday as a day of mourning for the victims, with flags to fly at half-mast, and he expressed condolences to their families.
"We have experienced a tragic day," he said.
Reijo Lindroos, chief correspondent for Radio Finland, told CBC News he believed many of the victims were women because the shooting took place in a domestic sciences building. Dozens of shots fired
Witnesses said the gunman was hooded as he made his way into the school and panic spread as he opened fire.
"Within a short space of time, I heard several dozen rounds of shots. In other words, it was an automatic pistol," school janitor Jukka Forsberg told broadcaster YLE.
"I saw some female students who were wailing and moaning, and one managed to escape out of the back door."
The attacker walked into the school armed with a pistol and what appeared to be explosive devices that were used to start a fire, police spokesman Jari Neulaniemi said. Some of those he killed were burned beyond recognition, Neulaniemi said.
Jussi Muotio, superintendent of the Kauhajoki police, said: "The incident is over now."
Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat identified the gunman as Matti Juhani Saari, but police would say only that he was born in 1986 and was a student at the school.
In one of the YouTube videos brought to the attention of police, a young man wearing a leather jacket fires several shots with a handgun in rapid succession, Finnish media reported.
The posting, made five days before Tuesday's shooting, gives its location as Kauhajoki.
The posting includes the message: "Whole life is war and whole life is pain. And you will fight alone in your personal war."
Nearly a year ago, gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen killed eight people and himself at a school in southern Finland. Police at the time said Auvinen, 18, was bullied and a social outcast.
Auvinen killed six students, a school nurse and the principal before killing himself with a gunshot to the head on Nov. 7, 2007.
Police have said Auvinen left a suicide note for his family and posted videos to YouTube before his attack.
There are 1.6 million firearms in Finland. After the shooting last year, the government pledged to raise the minimum age for buying guns from 15 to 18 but made no promises about making major changes its gun laws.
Feb. 2, 1996 Moses Lake, Wash. Two students and one teacher killed, one other wounded when 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis opened fire on his algebra class.
March 13, 1996 Dunblane, Scotland 16 children and one teacher killed at Dunblane Primary School by Thomas Hamilton, who then killed himself. 10 others wounded in attack.
Feb. 19, 1997 Bethel, Alaska Principal and one student killed, two others wounded by Evan Ramsey, 16.
March 1997 Sanaa, Yemen Eight people (six students and two others) at two schools killed by Mohammad Ahman al-Naziri.
Oct. 1, 1997 Pearl, Miss. Two students killed and seven wounded by Luke Woodham, 16, who was also accused of killing his mother. He and his friends were outcasts who were teased and students claimed they worshiped Satan.
Dec. 1, 1997 West Paducah, Ky. Three students killed, five wounded by Michael Carneal, 14, as they participated in a prayer circle at Heath High School.
Dec. 15, 1997 Stamps, Ark. Two students wounded. Colt Todd, 14, was hiding in the woods when he shot the students as they stood in the parking lot.
March 24, 1998 Jonesboro, Ark. Four students and one teacher killed, ten others wounded outside as Westside Middle School emptied during a false fire alarm. Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, shot at their classmates and teachers from the woods.
April 24, 1998 Edinboro, Pa. One teacher, John Gillette, killed, two students wounded at a dance at James W. Parker Middle School. Andrew Wurst, 14, was charged.
May 19, 1998 Fayetteville, Tenn. One student killed in the parking lot at Lincoln County High School three days before he was to graduate. The victim was dating the ex-girlfriend of his killer, 18-year-old honor student Jacob Davis.
May 21, 1998 Springfield, Ore. Two students killed, 22 others wounded in the cafeteria at Thurston High School by 15-year-old Kip Kinkel. Kinkel had been arrested and released a day earlier for bringing a gun to school. His parents were later found dead at home.
June 15, 1998 Richmond, Va. One teacher and one guidance counselor wounded by a 14-year-old boy in the school hallway.
April 20, 1999 Littleton, Colo. 14 students (including killers) and one teacher killed, 23 others wounded at Columbine High School in the nation's deadliest school shooting. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, had plotted for a year to kill at least 500 and blow up their school. At the end of their hour-long rampage, they turned their guns on themselves.
April 28, 1999 Taber, Alberta, Canada One student killed, one wounded at W. R. Myers High School in first fatal high school shooting in Canada in 20 years. The suspect, a 14-year-old boy, had dropped out of school after he was severely ostracized by his classmates.
May 20, 1999 Conyers, Ga. Six students injured at Heritage High School by Thomas Solomon, 15, who was reportedly depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend.
Nov. 19, 1999 Deming, N.M. Victor Cordova Jr., 12, shot and killed Araceli Tena, 13, in the lobby of Deming Middle School.
Dec. 6, 1999 Fort Gibson, Okla. Four students wounded as Seth Trickey, 13, opened fire with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun at Fort Gibson Middle School.
Dec. 7, 1999 Veghel, Netherlands One teacher and three students wounded by a 17-year-old student.
Feb. 29, 2000 Mount Morris Township, Mich. Six-year-old Kayla Rolland shot dead at Buell Elementary School near Flint, Mich. The assailant was identified as a six-year-old boy with a .32-caliber handgun.
March 2000 Branneburg, Germany One teacher killed by a 15-year-old student, who then shot himself. The shooter has been in a coma ever since.
March 10, 2000 Savannah, Ga. Two students killed by Darrell Ingram, 19, while leaving a dance sponsored by Beach High School.
May 26, 2000 Lake Worth, Fla. One teacher, Barry Grunow, shot and killed at Lake Worth Middle School by Nate Brazill, 13, with .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol on the last day of classes.
Sept. 26, 2000 New Orleans, La. Two students wounded with the same gun during a fight at Woodson Middle School.
Jan. 17, 2001 Baltimore, Md. One student shot and killed in front of Lake Clifton Eastern High School.
Jan. 18, 2001 Jan, Sweden One student killed by two boys, ages 17 and 19.
March 5, 2001 Santee, Calif. Two killed and 13 wounded by Charles Andrew Williams, 15, firing from a bathroom at Santana High School.
March 7, 2001 Williamsport, Pa. Elizabeth Catherine Bush, 14, wounded student Kimberly Marchese in the cafeteria of Bishop Neumann High School; she was depressed and frequently teased.
March 22, 2001 Granite Hills, Calif. One teacher and three students wounded by Jason Hoffman, 18, at Granite Hills High School. A policeman shot and wounded Hoffman.
March 30, 2001 Gary, Ind. One student killed by Donald R. Burt, Jr., a 17-year-old student who had been expelled from Lew Wallace High School.
Nov. 12, 2001 Caro, Mich. Chris Buschbacher, 17, took two hostages at the Caro Learning Center before killing himself.
Jan. 15, 2002 New York, N.Y. A teenager wounded two students at Martin Luther King Jr. High School.
Feb. 19, 2002 Freising, Germany Two killed in Eching by a man at the factory from which he had been fired; he then traveled to Freising and killed the headmaster of the technical school from which he had been expelled. He also wounded another teacher before killing himself.
April 26, 2002 Erfurt, Germany 13 teachers, two students, and one policeman killed, ten wounded by Robert Steinhaeuser, 19, at the Johann Gutenberg secondary school. Steinhaeuser then killed himself.
April 29, 2002 Vlasenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina One teacher killed, one wounded by Dragoslav Petkovic, 17, who then killed himself.
October 28, 2002 Tucson, Ariz. Robert S. Flores Jr., 41, a student at the nursing school at the University of Arizona, shot and killed three female professors and then himself.
April 14, 2003 New Orleans, La. One 15-year-old killed, and three students wounded at John McDonogh High School by gunfire from four teenagers (none were students at the school). The motive was gang-related.
April 24, 2003 Red Lion, Pa. James Sheets, 14, killed principal Eugene Segro of Red Lion Area Junior High School before killing himself.
Sept. 24, 2003 Cold Spring, Minn. Two students are killed at Rocori High School by John Jason McLaughlin, 15.
Sept. 28, 2004 Carmen de Patagones, Argentina Three students killed and 6 wounded by a 15-year-old Argentininan student in a town 620 miles south of Buenos Aires.
March 21, 2005 Red Lake, Minn. Jeff Weise, 16, killed grandfather and companion, then arrived at school where he killed a teacher, a security guard, 5 students, and finally himself, leaving a total of 10 dead.
Nov. 8, 2005 Jacksboro, Tenn. One 15-year-old shot and killed an assistant principal at Campbell County High School and seriously wounded two other administrators.
Aug. 24, 2006 Essex, Vt. Christopher Williams, 27, looking for his ex-girlfriend at Essex Elementary School, shot two teachers, killing one and wounding another. Before going to the school, he had killed the ex-girlfriend's mother.
Sept. 13, 2006 Montreal, Canada Kimveer Gill, 25, opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon at Dawson College. Anastasia De Sousa, 18, died and more than a dozen students and faculty were wounded before Gill killed himself.
Sept. 27, 2006 Bailey, Colo. Adult male held six students hostage at Platte Canyon High School and then shot and killed Emily Keyes, 16, and himself.
Sept. 29, 2006 Cazenovia, Wis. A 15-year-old student shot and killed Weston School principal John Klang.
Oct. 3, 2006 Nickel Mines, Pa. 32-year-old Carl Charles Roberts IV entered the one-room West Nickel Mines Amish School and shot 10 schoolgirls, ranging in age from 6 to 13 years old, and then himself. Five of the girls and Roberts died.
Jan. 3, 2007 Tacoma, Wash. Douglas Chanthabouly, 18, shot fellow student Samnang Kok, 17, in the hallway of Henry Foss High School.
April 16, 2007 Blacksburg, Va. A 23-year-old Virginia Tech student, Cho Seung-Hui, killed two in a dorm, then killed 30 more 2 hours later in a classroom building. His suicide brought the death toll to 33, making the shooting rampage the most deadly in U.S. history. Fifteen others were wounded.
Sept. 21, 2007 Dover, Del. A Delaware State Univesity Freshman, Loyer D. Brandon, shot and wounded two other Freshman students on the University campus. Brandon is being charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless engagement, as well as a gun charge.
Oct. 10, 2007 Cleveland, Ohio A 14-year-old student at a Cleveland high school, Asa H. Coon, shot and injured two students and two teachers before he shot and killed himself. The victims' injuries were not life-threatening.
Nov. 7, 2007 Tuusula, Finland An 18-year-old student in southern Finland shot and killed five boys, two girls, and the female principal at Jokela High School. At least 10 others were injured. The gunman shot himself and died from his wounds in the hospital.
Feb. 8, 2008 Baton Rouge, Louisiana A nursing student shot and killed two women and then herself in a classroom at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge.
Feb. 11, 2008 Memphis, Tennessee A 17-year-old student at Mitchell High School shot and wounded a classmate in gym class.
Feb. 12, 2008 Oxnard, California A 14-year-old boy shot a student at E.O. Green Junior High School causing the 15-year-old victim to be brain dead.
Feb. 14, 2008 DeKalb, Illinois Gunman kills five students and then himself, and wounds 17 more when he opens fire on a classroom at Northern Illinois University. The gunman, Stephen P. Kazmierczak, was identified as a former graduate student at the university in 2007.
This blog doesn't post very often unless we hear about something particularly violent event in a domestic setting. Perhaps we should be thankful for that.
