Tag Archives: Mass Shooting

Multiple people were shot at a Tulsa medical building

2 Timothy 3:1-5 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

Important Takeaways:

  • Four Killed in Shooting at Tulsa, Oklahoma Medical Building
  • A gunman carrying a rifle and a handgun killed four people Wednesday at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus
  • Multiple people were wounded and that the medical complex was a “catastrophic scene.”
  • “It was definitely a ‘this is happening here’ moment.”
  • Since January, there have been 12 shootings where four or more people have been killed

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10-year-old in Florida arrested for threatening to conduct a mass shooting

Rev 6:3-4 NCV When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!”4 Then another horse came out, a red one. Its rider was given power to take away peace from the earth and to make people kill each other, and he was given a big sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • A 10-year-old in Florida was arrested after threatening to shoot up a school, police said.
  • Sending a text message threatening to conduct a mass shooting
  • The 10-year-old was charged with making a written threat to conduct a mass shooting.

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Now considered a mass shooting in Denver

Important Takeaways:

  • ‘It’s a shock’: Colorado police ID shooter who killed 5 people in Denver-area shooting spree
  • Six people died, including the shooter, authorities said. Two people were injured, including a police officer.
  • This was the 13th mass shooting in Colorado this year
  • The archive defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot, not including the shooter, at the same general time and location.
  • In the U.S., there have been nearly 700 mass shootings in 2021

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U.S. settles suits over 2015 massacre at historic South Carolina church

By Tyler Clifford

(Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday said it settled civil cases brought by survivors and families of victims of a massacre in 2015, in which nine Black people were killed at a historic South Carolina church.

The agreement settles more than a dozen claims that blamed the FBI for failing to prevent a gun from being sold to Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who said he wanted to start a “race war” when he opened fire inside the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015.

Five survivors will receive $5 million, while the families of those killed in the shooting will each receive between $6 million and $7.5 million, according to a news release.

“The mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church was a horrific hate crime that caused immeasurable suffering for the families of the victims and the survivors,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “Since the day of the shooting, the Justice Department has sought to bring justice to the community, first by a successful hate crime prosecution and today by settling civil claims.”

Families and survivors argued in lawsuits that the FBI’s background check system did not flag that Roof was banned from having a firearm before he purchased a handgun that was used in the mass shooting.

In December 2016, a jury found Roof guilty of 33 federal charges for the mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, whose congregation dates back two centuries. The same jury sentenced him to death in January 2017.

(Reporting by Tyler Clifford; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bernadette Baum)

In rare British mass shooting, gunman kills five, including 3-year-old girl

By Natalie Thomas

PLYMOUTH, England (Reuters) -A man shot dead five people, including a 3-year-old girl, during a six-minute killing spree with a pump-action shotgun in the southern English city of Plymouth in what police believe was a case of domestic-related violence.

Mass shootings are rare in the United Kingdom, where gun ownership is relatively low, and Thursday’s rampage was the worst such incident in more than decade.

Police on Friday named the shooter as Jake Davison, a 22-year-old crane operator. He turned his gun on himself after killing the five victims on Thursday evening, the police said.

Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer said police had found no motive but they were not considering terrorism or any far-right associations, although they were trawling through Davison’s computer.

“We believe we have an incident that is domestically related, that has spilled into the street and seen several people within Plymouth losing their lives in an extraordinarily tragic circumstance,” Sawyer told reporters.

The shooting started at about 6 p.m. on Thursday, first killing a 51-year-old woman whom Davison knew in a house. He then ran outside and immediately shot dead the young girl in the street along with her 43-year-old male relative.

Davison shot at two other passers-by who were badly injured, then entered a park and shot dead another man before killing another woman.

He then turned the gun on himself before firearms officers could tackle him. The deadly shooting spree was over in just a few minutes.

Sawyer said witnesses described the weapon as a pump-action shotgun. He could not say whether or not Davison had mental health issues. Davison had a firearms license.

In videos posted on the internet, Davison had complained of not losing his virginity as a teenager and described himself as an “incel” – or involuntary celibate. He complained in the videos of being beaten down by life, the Times reported.

Britain has suffered a number of deadly militant attacks in the past several years, but this was the worst mass killing of its kind since a taxi-driver killed 12 people then shot himself in a rampage in Cumbria, northern England, in June 2010.

The deadliest mass shooting in Britain’s modern history is the 1996 massacre in Dunblane, Scotland, when a gunman killed 16 pupils and a teacher at the local school before killing himself.

(Reporting by Sarah Young Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kate Holton, Mark Potter and Angus MacSwan)

Suspected Colorado supermarket shooter appears in court, faces more charges

By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) – A 22-year-old man accused of fatally shooting 10 people at a Colorado grocery store in March made a brief court appearance on Tuesday, a day after prosecutors added dozens of new charges stemming from the rampage.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa now faces 115 charges related to the March 22 mass shooting at a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, about 28 miles northwest of Denver.

He previously was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and more than 30 counts of attempted murder, among other offenses.

On Tuesday, Boulder County District Court Judge Ingrid Bakke set a September 7 date for a preliminary hearing, when prosecutors will lay out their evidence and Bakke will decide if it is sufficient to move ahead with the case.

On Monday, prosecutors added dozens of new counts of attempted murder, weapons, and assault charges.

District Attorney Michael Dougherty said in a written statement that investigators have identified other victims, leading to the additional charges.

“Based on developments in the ongoing investigation, the District Attorney’s Office has determined that additional crimes and sentence enhancers must be charged in this matter,” Dougherty said.

The state public defender’s office, which represents Alissa, does not comment on its cases outside of court, but at an earlier hearing a defense lawyer said Alissa has a “mental illness.”

If convicted of first-degree murder, Alissa faces a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors allege Alissa opened fire with a semiautomatic pistol that he had legally purchased. He surrendered after he was wounded by police during an exchange of gunfire.

Prosecutors said they have not yet determined a possible motive for the attack.

Alissa, who has not entered a plea, is being held without bond at an undisclosed lockup.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman, Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Latest U.S. mass shooting puts pressure on Biden to secure new gun laws

By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The second deadly U.S. mass shooting in a week is putting new pressure on President Joe Biden to deliver on the gun control promises he made as a candidate.

A gunman on Monday killed 10 people, including a police officer, at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, just six days after another gunman fatally shot eight people at Atlanta-area day spas.

“I don’t need to wait another minute – let alone an hour – to take common sense steps that will save the lives in the future, and I urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act,” Biden said at the White House on Tuesday.

The Democratic president called on the Senate to approve two bills passed by the House of Representatives on March 11 that would broaden background checks for gun buyers. In addition, Biden also called for a ban on assault-style weapons.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters Biden also is “considering a range” of executive actions to address gun violence. Such actions would not require congressional approval.

Biden, who took office in January, faces an uphill battle in winning congressional passage of gun-related measures he pledged during his presidential campaign.

The United States has the world’s highest rate of civilian gun ownership, RAND Corp research shows. There were more than 43,000 U.S. gun deaths last year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, in a country with a gun fatality rate consistently higher than other rich nations.

“I’ve beaten the National Rifle Association nationally twice, passed meaningful gun legislation at the federal level, and I’ll do it again,” Biden said last year at one of several campaign events focused on firearms violence, referring to the Republican-aligned NRA gun rights group.

“As president, I promise you I will get these weapons of war off the street again,” Biden added, referring to a national ban on assault-style weapons that lapsed in 2004.

CONGRESSIONAL ACTION

The numerous U.S. mass shootings have failed to prompt lawmakers to pass gun control legislation, thanks in large part to opposition from congressional Republicans and the NRA. The right to bear arms is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment and many Americans cherish gun rights.

Still, nearly 70% of Americans support adding “strong or moderate” federal gun restrictions, and ideas such as background checks and databases to track ownership have even greater public support, a 2019 Reuters poll found.

Biden’s fellow Democrats hold slim majorities in the House and Senate. Most bills require 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate to move forward, a tough hurdle for gun control legislation considering that Republicans hold 50 of those seats.

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, a swing vote who holds near veto power over his party’s Senate agenda because of its razor-thin majority in the chamber, told reporters he does not support the House bills. Manchin and Republican Senator Pat Toomey instead favor their own bill, which would allow private sales of firearms without a background check.

Background checks are conducted to review a buyer’s criminal and mental health history and other factors that could bar someone from buying a gun.

A Senate panel held a hearing on gun issues on Tuesday.

“This is not and should not be a partisan issue,” Biden said. “It will save lives – American lives – and we have to act.”

Any new gun control measures signed by Biden would almost certainly face a legal challenge that could reach the Supreme Court, whose 6-3 conservative majority is seen as sympathetic to an expansive view of gun rights.

Biden has long embraced gun control. As a candidate, Biden pledged to hold gun makers accountable in the courts for firearms violence, to sign new laws restricting assault weapons and to expand background checks for gun sales.

As vice president under President Barack Obama, Biden was instrumental in seeking congressional approval of legislation after a 2012 mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.

After fierce NRA lobbying, Senate Republicans in 2013 thwarted legislation that would expand background checks, ban assault-style weapons and bar high-capacity gun magazines. The NRA since then has encountered internal upheaval and legal challenges.

Gun control activists have urged Biden to take executive action on matters they have said he can address unilaterally.

These activists have proposed that Biden direct the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to block the sale of self-assembled “ghost guns” without background checks or serial numbers to identify the finished product. They also urged Biden to name a permanent director of that bureau, which currently is led by an interim chief.

Gun control activists have been holding virtual meetings with senior White House aides Susan Rice and Cedric Richmond. These sessions have been focused on soliciting views rather than outlining policy action, according to people who attended, speaking on condition of anonymity.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Lawrence Hurley, David Morgan, Jeff Mason, Susan Cornwell and Steve Holland in Washington, Nandita Bose on board Air Force One and Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Heather Timmons and Will Dunham)

Death toll reaches 23 from last year’s mass shooting in El Paso, Texas

By Julio-Cesar Chavez

(Reuters) – The death toll from a mass shooting last August at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart store has climbed to 23 after the last victim left hospitalized from the rampage succumbed to his injuries over the weekend, the hospital said on Sunday.

“After a nearly nine-month fight, our hearts are heavy as we report Guillermo ‘Memo’ Garcia, our last remaining patient being treated from the El Paso shooting, has passed away,” David Shimp, chief executive of Del Sol Medical Center in El Paso, said in a statement.

Garcia was a youth soccer coach who was on a fundraising event with his team outside the store on the morning of Aug. 3, 2019, when a man opened fire on shoppers with an AK-47 rifle in a massacre prosecutors have branded an anti-Hispanic hate crime.

About four dozen people were struck by gunfire, and 20 were killed outright. Two more victims died of their wounds two days later.

Garcia had remained hospitalized since the shooting, undergoing several surgeries and spending almost nine months in intensive care before he died on Saturday night. He is survived by his wife, Jessica Coca Garcia, who was also injured in the shooting, and two children.

The accused gunman, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, who police said drove 11 hours from his hometown in the Dallas suburb of Allen, Texas, to commit the slayings, remains in custody charged with capital murder and federal hate crimes. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Prosecutors said Crusius deliberately targeted people of Mexican heritage in the massacre, citing an anti-immigrant manifesto he allegedly posted online calling the attack “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

The assault in the Texas border city was followed just 13 hours later by a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, where a gunman killed nine people and wounded 27 others before he was shot dead by police.

The back-to-back massacres sparked a political outcry, with El Paso native and then-Democratic Party presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke demanding the mandatory confiscation of the assault-style rifles often used in mass shootings.

The El Paso shooting also prompted leading Texas Republicans including Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to retreat somewhat on their staunch defense of gun rights.

(This story has been refiled to restore dropped word in headline)

(Reporting by Julio-Cesar Chavez in Washington; Editing by Steve Gorman and Peter Cooney)

‘Multiple people’ killed in shooting at Molson Coors facility in Milwaukee

By Steve Gorman

(Reuters) – “Multiple people” were killed in a mass shooting at a Molson Coors Beverage Co facility in Milwaukee on Wednesday, with the suspect apparently among the dead, the city’s mayor, Tom Barrett, said.

Milwaukee police said on Twitter they were responding to a “critical incident,” but released no immediate details.

“What has happened is there was a horrific shooting that has occurred,” Barrett said, speaking to reporters near the scene. “There are multiple people who have died, including, I believe, the shooter.”

Emergency vehicles are parked near the entrance to Molson Coors headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, February 26, 2020. Rick Wood/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/USA TODAY NETWORK via REUTERS

The Milwaukee Police Department provided no details on the incident or the number of fatalities. But in a post on Twitter it said: “There are various sources citing various numbers of casualties. At this time that information has not been confirmed.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, citing unnamed sources, said seven people had been killed, including the shooter, at the Molson Coors brewery complex. ABC News reported eight fatalities.

The Police Department said on Twitter only that police were “investigating a critical incident” and urged the public to “stay clear of the area” near the city center.

“There is no active threat; however, this scene is still an active scene,” the department said in an updated post at about 4:40 p.m. CST.

Police and fire department officials did not immediately return phone calls or email queries from Reuters.

The Molson Coors Beverage Co said in a statement: “There is an active situation at our Milwaukee facility and we are working closely with the Milwaukee Police Department. Our top priority is our employees and we’ll provide updates in conjunction with the police as we are able.”

The entire Molson Coors campus headquarters was placed under a security lockdown, and the company told employees in an email that the shooter was located in or near a second-floor stairwell near a packaging facility, The Journal Sentinel reported.

Video footage from the scene showed streets cordoned off with numerous police and fire department vehicles ringing the area as brewery workers were escorted from buildings.

Local television station WISN, an ABC affiliate, said police appeared to be searching a vehicle on or near the scene.

According to the Journal Sentinel, Molson Coors Beverage Co, which operates MillerCoors, announced plans last fall to close a Denver office and relocate some corporate support jobs to the Milwaukee office. The newspaper said the restructuring was designed to cut costs and resulted in 400 to 500 jobs being eliminated throughout Molson Coors.

It said the company now has 610 jobs at its Milwaukee corporate office, in addition to 750 jobs at two breweries in the city.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York and Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Mass shooting puts Thai army officers’ side deals under scrutiny

By Panu Wongcha-um

NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand (Reuters) – A Thai soldier’s killing of 29 people in a rage over a housing deal involving his superior officer has brought attention to the business dealings of army personnel in a country that just emerged from direct military rule.

Thailand’s army chief has promised to investigate and also acknowledged a wider problem of inappropriate business deals involving army officers and their subordinates, vowing to root out the practise.

The military, which staged its latest coups 2006 and 2014, wields extraordinary power in Thailand and proclaims its discipline to justify repeatedly overthrowing elected governments, but the killings on the weekend put a spotlight on some of its own members’ questionable dealings.

Sergeant Major Jakrapanth Thomma was meeting on Saturday with his commanding officer and the officer’s mother-in-law to discuss their dispute when he opened fire, killing both of them. He then drove to his army camp, a Buddhist temple and a shopping mall, gunning people down until security forces killed him on Sunday morning.

Hours before, Jakrapanth had posted on Facebook denouncing people who cheated others to become wealthy.

“Do they think they can spend the money in hell?” Jakrapanth asked.

The military has a long tradition of involvement in business and it has been an open secret that some officers branch out into private business deals.

“It is actually quite common for senior military officers to be involved in real estate, especially in Thailand’s rural areas,” said Paul Chambers, a politics expert at Naresuan University in northern Thailand.

The military is one of the largest land-holders in some provinces, controlling vast bases that also can be mini-cities unto themselves.

“Many officers tend to want to supplement their meager salaries with money they can easily make through military power regarding real estate,” Chambers said.

Military discipline is regularly extolled by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who launched the last coup in 2014 and last year retained power by leading a pro-army party to victory in an election opposition parties said was engineered to cement army influence.

One prominent opposition group, the Future Forward Party, has openly opposed military influence over politics, arguing for changes in the military-written constitution, an end to conscription and cutting the army budget.

‘INJUSTICE’

Army chief General Apirat Kongsompong has said he will set up a direct line for soldiers who feel they are being exploited by superior officers.

“The cause and reason for the perpetrator in this incident were the injustice he received from his commanding officer and relatives,” Apirat said in a press briefing on Tuesday.

He also acknowledged wider reports of officers exploiting a system of military housing loans and welfare schemes for personal gain.

“There are cooperation between units and private contractor that lobby for deals,” Apirat said

“I know about this and I want to assure that in the next three months some generals and colonels will lose their jobs,” he said.

Details of the deal that enraged Jakrapanth are not clear, but it appears to have involved his purchase of a house, brokered by the mother-in-law of his commanding officer, Colonel Anantharot Krasae.

Police told Reuters that Jakrapanth argued he was owed 50,000 baht ($1,600) by the mother-in-law, whose husband said she had already given the money to an agent who failed to pass it on to the soldier. Members of the family did not respond to messages from Reuters.

However, lawyer Atchariya Ruangrattanapong, said the dispute may have been over a larger amount – 375,000 baht ($12,000) – and said he has been approached since the shooting by 20 other members of Jakrapanth’s unit complaining about the same scheme.

“Apart from this group, I have been informed that there are hundreds of other soldiers who are scammed in a similar situation,” said Atchariya.

‘CLOSED KINGDOM’

Defense Ministry spokesman Kongcheep Tantrawanit acknowledged reports of officers profiting from sweetheart deals but said the issue was endemic in society.

“All this is an ongoing problem that not just the army but also the government faces,” Kongcheep said.

But the military has a lack of transparency beyond other institutions that makes it easier to exploit the system, said Anusorn Unno, a lecturer at Thammasat University.

“The army is like a closed kingdom,” Anusorn said.

“Those with higher ranks have the advantage in doing business within this closed system.”

The Bangkok Post said in an editorial that questionable personal deals were “the tip of the iceberg” and argued the military budget should be subject to independent audits, instead of the internal ones established by the last ruling junta.

“Without allowing greater external audits, the army risks harboring more and more shady operations.”

(Writing by Kay Johnson; Editing by Robert Birsel)