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.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Daycare stabbing in Belgium
2 children, 1 adult dead in daycare stabbing
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.
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.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
8 year old Arizona boy kills father and his friend
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.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Obama Wins US Election
Barack Obama has won the US Presidency! Congratulations!
Maybe he can pass some new gun laws that will get guns out of the hands of teenagers.
Maybe he can pass some new gun laws that will get guns out of the hands of teenagers.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Finnish Gunman Kills 11

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.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Timeline of Recent School Shootings
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.
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