Free Republic

Full Title: "Newtown anniversary: US schools keep trying wrong fixes to deter school shootings, experts say." It happened after Columbine, after Virginia Tech, and after Newtown, too. After every massacre in a school, Americans grasp at quick cures. Let's install metal detectors and give guns to teachers. Let's crack down on troublemakers, weeding out kids who fit the profile of a gunman. Let's buy bulletproof whiteboards for the students to scurry behind, or train kids to throw erasers or cans of soup at an attacker.

An Iraq veteran who thought he was buying an iPad as a Christmas present after responding to a Craigslist posting, has been shot dead in an Indianapolis parking lot by the fake sellers. New-dad Jim Vester, 32, was lured to an address on Wednesday in the west side of the city and brothers Tyron Kincade, 19, and Tyshaune Kincade, 18, have been arrested after Vester was shot dead leaving behind his one-year-old son, Gavin and wife, Jamie. In the wake of the senseless murder, nearly 1,500 people have donated $58,000 to a YouCaring.com fundraiser set up by Vester's family for...

A Palm Bay homeowner says he shot and killed two men in self-defense during an altercation inside his house, according to police. Dispatchers received a 911 call around 1 a.m. from someone at a home on Thuringer Street NW. The caller said shots had been fired, and officers found two men dead inside the home. According to Palm Bay police, two men who had a mutual friend with the homeowner were loitering

A postal worker has been shot and killed while delivering mail in Prince George's County, Maryland, on Saturday evening. Police have identified the victim as 26-year-old Tyson Jerome Barnette of Upper Marlboro. Authorities are still trying to identify suspects and a motive in the case. Officers were called to Reed Street in Cheverly-Landover just after 7.20pm on Saturday and found Barnette suffering from gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

LAS VEGS -- Metro police are investigating a shooting that injured a Black Friday shopper. It happened around 9:45 p.m. Thursday. According to police, a man purchased a big-screen television from the Target near Flamingo Rd. and Maryland Pkwy. While he was walking to a nearby apartment complex, a suspect approached and fired a warning shot, causing the victim to drop the television. Officers tell 8 News NOW the suspect then took the television to a nearby waiting vehicle, where a second suspect was waiting. As the first suspect was loading the television into the vehicle, the victim approached and...

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A horse pulling a buggy with an Amish family aboard in rural Pennsylvania was struck by a bullet fired from a moving car and later died, police said on Tuesday. No people were injured in the drive-by shooting, which occurred on Sunday in the village of Ronks in the heart of Lancaster County's Amish country, said Lieutenant Robin Weaver of the East Lampeter Township Police Department. The buggy was about a mile from home when the two adults and three children aboard heard a loud crack, police said. {snip} The family continued home, where they realized the...

A man suspected of shootings in Paris that left a photographer seriously injured in Paris two days ago has been taken into custody, the French prosecutor’s office has said. A suspect “with a strong resemblance” to the gunman was arrested this evening, a spokeswoman for the office said. ...

A manhunt is continuing in Paris after a gunman attacked offices of the newspaper Liberation and fired outside the HQ of the Societe Generale bank. A photographer, 27, was critically hurt at Liberation. The gunman later forced a motorist to drive him to the Champs Elysees before allowing him to go. Police are looking for the same man who broke into the Paris offices of the 24-hour news channel BFMTV on Friday. Police have now been stationed outside all the main media offices in Paris. ...

The father of a 4-year-old Toms River boy who authorities said shot and killed his 6-year-old neighbor while playing rejected a plea bargain today that would have required him to serve seven years in prison. Instead, Anthony Senatore's lawyer, Robert Ebberup, entered a not guilty plea to six counts of child endangerment on his client's behalf at a hearing in Ocean County Superior Court in Toms River. Senatore, wearing a suit, black shirt and a tie, sat silent throughout the hearing, at times pressing his fingertips together. Senatore's 4-year-old son was playing with 6-year-old Brandon Holt, on April 8 in...

Long Beach Police Shooting Gallery? By Robert Farago on November 17, 2013 The wimps at the Los Angeles CBS station don’t show the moments when Long Beach police open fire on a clearly mentally disturbed woman holding a pistol. And they buried the key fact—the two-hour timeline—in the story. “A perimeter near downtown Long Beach was established shortly after 9:47 a.m. after police received a report of a ‘person with a gun.’ Shortly after, authorities reported that Long Beach Boulevard and Elm Avenue were closed due to an ongoing investigation. It is believed the woman was a patient at a...

Shocking dashcam video shows the moment two cops open fire on a car being driven by a mom with CHILDREN in the back as she fled the scene after a heated altercation A shocking dashcam video shows the moment a New Mexico state trooper opened fire on a minivan with five children inside after a route traffic stop went horribly wrong. Now the New Mexico State Police have opened an investigation into the conduct of the troopers - and driver Rihanna Ferrell and her 14-year-old son are facing charges. The traffic stop took place south of Taos, New Mexico, on...

FULL TITLE: Man Fires Gun While Discussing Gun Rights In Vitamin Store, Flees Saying, "I Can't Go Down For This" A man in Wilkesboro, N.C. was engaged in a spirited discussion about gun rights when his gun went off Tuesday. The man has not been identified because, rather than stay and make a stand in favor of his right to bear arms, he hightailed it out of there. The incident happened in a GNC nutrition store on Winkler Street in Wilkesboro sometime around 6:50 pm in the evening. The customer was talking to an employee of the store at the...

PITTSBURGH — Students at Brashear High School in Pittsburgh will return to school Thursday, less than a day after a shooting outside the school injured three students. (snip) The shooting happened just blocks away from the campus Wednesday. Investigators said the 16-year-old charged in the shooting “planned the ambush” as retaliation to a fight that happened at the school last month. A.J. Willet was taken into custody shortly after the incident. Channel 11 News was there as he was taken from Pittsburgh police headquarters to the Allegheny County Jail late Wednesday night. As of Thursday morning, two of the victims...

Authorities in Pittsburgh, Pa., responded to reports of gunfire near an area high school just after dismissal Wednesday afternoon. Police officers rushed to Brashear High School, where three male students were reportedly injured, according to KDKA. Authorities were searching for the suspected shooter or shooters in the woods behind the school, WPXI reports.

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Pittsburgh Police dispatch reports that they are responding to a possible shooting at Brashear High School. Police and other emergency personnel are on the scene of the high school. Pittsburgh Police dispatch will only confirm that they are getting reports of at least three people shot.

Lately not a day seems to pass without some tragic mass shooting. The latest comes from Pittsburgh, where Channel 11 News reports that three people were shot Wednesday afternoon outside Brashear High School. More: According to emergency dispatchers, police were sent to the school on Crane Avenue just before 3 p.m. Wednesday.Channel's Rick Earle has confirmed that authorities are looking for a shooter in the woods behind the school.At this time, the extent of the victims’ injuries is unknown Live webcast available in the original article

The teenage gunman who allegedly opened fire on a crowded ice-skating rink over a pricey jacket — hitting two people, including a boy who may never walk again — was all smiles and swear words as cops hauled him from a police precinct Monday. “F— all you ni–as! It wasn’t over a jacket, it was over your mother, ni–a!,” a beaming 16-year-old Corey Dunton yelled at photographers outside the police Manhattan Midtown South police precinct.

A Georgia police officer shot and killed a tiny Jack Russell Terrier that he claims threatened him during a routine probationary checkup on Monday. The officer, Antoine Jones, is over six feet tall and weighs nearly 300 pounds. Patches, the dog he killed, weighs just 12 pounds, according to a local news channel. Jones visited the Albany residence of Cherrie Shelton earlier this week to check on her son, who is serving probation. Upon Jones’s arrival, two-year-old Patches approached the officer and began barking. Shelton claims she told Jones that Patches was no threat, but the officer drew his weapon...

A man kicked out of his indie rock band shot three of his bandmates to death in their Brooklyn apartment early Monday and wounded a fourth before killing himself on the roof, police said. The band members were all from Iran but had come the United States in the past few years seeking more musical freedom. It wasn't immediately clear why the ex-member snapped, police said. The shooting happened shortly after midnight in a row house in East Williamsburg, an industrial neighborhood home to mostly warehouses where artists can rent cheaper space than in trendier parts of the city.

One of two victims identified as Adonis Mera, 14, who was skating with his friends and sister [may never walk again] A New York teenager has been charged with attempted murder after he allegedly opened fire at skaters in Manhattan's Bryant Park and then seemed to confess to the crime on Facebook. During an hour-long standoff at his Bronx apartment on Sunday morning, Corey Dunton, 16, wrote on the social media website: 'Feds trien [sic] kick down my door its over were do i go from hereeeee...[I don't know] wat to do i f----ed up.' Minutes later, he added: 'These...

A 16-year-old alleged gang-banger from The Bronx was busted Sunday in the Bryant Park skating-rink double-shooting — which may have left a 14-year-old bystander paralyzed — after brazenly posting to Facebook his plans to bring a handgun to the hot spot Saturday. “Bryant Park Looking To Litt Saterday Gotta Bring Da amp,” Corey Dunton wrote just after midnight Saturday, using the slang word “amp” to refer to a pistol.

If you are stopped by a police officer in Cotati, the event will likely be captured on a video camera worn on the officer's shirt. The city's 10 police officers now carry the pager-sized cameras, joining law enforcement agencies around the world that are rapidly adopting the devices to reduce complaints and record valuable information. Santa Rosa police officers are testing models, with about 15 cameras now on the street. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office expects to start a pilot program next year with cameras on 11 patrol deputies and two jail officers. [. . .] Currently, deputies do not...

The parents of the 13-year-old Santa Rosa boy shot dead by a Sonoma County sheriff's deputy filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Monday and laid out the findings of their own private investigation into the shooting, which they claim was unjustified. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by the parents of Andy Lopez, accuses Deputy Erick Gelhaus of acting recklessly when he shot Lopez seven times as the boy walked through a southwest Santa Rosa neighborhood with an airsoft BB gun that resembled an AK-47 assault rifle. The lawsuit also faults the Sheriff's Office, accusing it...

The 20-year-old suspected in a New Jersey mall shooting was found dead early Tuesday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said. The body of Richard Shoop, 20, of Teaneck, was found in a storage area inside the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus about 3:20 a.m., about six hours after the terrifying incident began. Officials don’t believe Shoop – a pizza deliveryman with a history of drug abuse – intended to hurt anyone other than himself. Authorities say the 22-caliber assault-style rifle he fired was legally registered to his brother and that Shoop had taken it without permission, squeezing off...

PARAMUS N.J. (CBSNewYork) — Police responded in force Monday evening, as an active shooter was reported on the rampage at the Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall. Police sources told WCBS 880′s Steve Scott there was still an active shooter at the mall as of 10:15 p.m. No details about injuries were immediately available. Law enforcement sources initially said people had been hit, but it was not immediately confirmed whether anyone was. A SWAT team was seen storming the mall as of just before 10:30 p.m. Shots were fired inside the mall beginning sometime before the mall in Paramus, N.J. closed...

Reports: Shots fired at Garden State Plaza mall By LUKE FUNK, Senior Web Producer - bio NEW JERSEY (MYFOXNY.COM) - There were unconfirmed reports of shots being fired at the Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus, N.J. on Monday night. It reportedly happened about 9:30 p.m. Police had not confirmed any information but there were several reports on Twitter about a gunman opening fire inside the mall. Law enforcement scanner traffic reported a male wearing body armor and a rifle in the mall. Witnesses report a large police presence at the mall. The Hackensack tactical team was being deployed to...

Developing story.

The autopsy of an unarmed man killed by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer in September shows he had 10 bullet wounds, including five that were fatal. The report released Friday also revealed no illegal drugs in Jonathon Ferrell’s system. The 24-year-old had a blood-alcohol content of 0.06, which is within the legal limit of 0.08 for driving, the autopsy results also show. He also had traces of nicotine and caffeine. On the night of Sept. 14, Ferrell wrecked his car on Reedy Creek Road in northeast Charlotte and then banged on the door of a nearby house. The woman inside the...

On a Sunday afternoon in October of this year, Gabrielle Stropkai’s dog was shot by a police officer investigating a burglary nearby. The dog “was walking by and went ‘ruff ruff’ — just a couple of little ruffs,” a neighbor of the Stropkais’ told local television in Boise, Idado. But “she didn’t jump at him or anything.” In response, the owner remembers, the officer “pulled his weapon, asked whose dog it was, and shot her in the back of the head.” The dog died instantly. The Stropkais are not alone in their grief. A Google search for “dog shot by...

Deputy who shot and killed toy gun-carrying teen, 13, allegedly pulled gun Deputy who shot and killed toy gun-carrying teen, 13, allegedly pulled gun on a driver during traffic stop two months earlier A driver has come forward saying the deputy who shot dead a 13-year-old California boy after mistaking his fake AK-47 as real pulled a gun on him also, after he failed to signal a lane change during a carpool. Jeff Westbrook, 57, of Santa Rosa said he was mistreated by Deputy Erick Gelhaus after being pulled over Aug. 21 in Cotati, so much so that at one...

WASHINGTON, January 26, 2013 ― Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint screeners are receiving training to prepare them for the possibility of a mass shooting at one of the agency’s airport checkpoints, and those TSA personnel are being instructed to “save themselves” should a shooting occur. It is unclear whether the TSA is conducting the reported mass shooting scenario training at airports around the nation or only at the airport where our source, a veteran of the TSA, is assigned. The TSA source claims with obvious concern that his own life, along with the lives of other unarmed TSA personnel, would...

[LA Times title and SUBTITLE on paper's website front page: Chaos follows LAX shooting - Anti-government sentiment may be motive for attack __________________________________________________ A composed, solitary gunman shot his way into Los Angeles International Airport on Friday morning, killing a transit security screener and injuring at least one more before being wounded by police and taken into custody. The incident was over in less than 10 minutes but caused chaos at the world's sixth-busiest airport and disrupted thousands of flights across the nation. The suspected gunman was identified as Paul Anthony Ciancia, 23, a New Jersey native who lives in...

[...] [P]aramedic Aram Bronston, 43, of Santa Rosa said that his “heart sank” when a friend told him the deputy involved in the shooting was [Deputy Erick] Gelhaus.... [...] About eight years ago, Bronston was struggling on the shoulder of Highway 101 in south Santa Rosa with a woman who was distraught over her brother's death and became “verbally and physically abusive.” [...] Gelhaus drove up to the scene as the woman began running into traffic, pulling Bronston with her, he said. Gelhaus “grabbed me by my shirt — with cars literally two inches from hitting me — and pulled...

The FBI is not conducting a full, independent investigation into the death of a teenage boy who was shot by a sheriff's deputy last week, but instead offering local police “support,” several local law enforcement leaders said this week. The stance is an apparent reversal from the bureau's notice last week, when its agents told command staff at the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office and Santa Rosa Police Department that the agency would conduct its own investigation of the Oct. 22 shooting death of Andy Lopez, looking for potential violations of federal civil rights laws. [...] The FBI's role in the...

As a large wooden shrine sprung up Friday in the southwest Santa Rosa lot where a sheriff's deputy killed Andy Lopez last week, an attorney for the teen's family outlined the framework of a federal civil rights lawsuit the family intends to file next week. Arnoldo Casillas, the attorney representing the Lopez family, said the Oct. 22 shooting was unconstitutional because it violated the Fourth Amendment's limits on police authority. The family will file a lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco contending that Deputy Erick Gelhaus shot Lopez “without reasonable cause,” Casillas said in a statement. The...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- A drive-by shooting killed two members of Greece's Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn party and wounded one outside a party office in Athens on Friday night, in what officials are treating as a likely far-left domestic terrorist attack. The government and opposition parties - all who have long ostracized Golden Dawn as a group of neo-Nazis - quickly condemned the attack, which the left-wing main opposition Syriza said "targets democracy" in Greece. The two victims, aged 22 and 27, were shot at close range from a motorcycle carrying two men, Golden Dawn lawmaker Georgios Germenis told The Associated...

Deputies say Gregory approached Saunders and pulled out a kitchen knife. The two men began struggling outside Saunders' vehicle. Investigators say one round was fired from a handgun in Saunders' possession.

Back in January, an oddly prescient investigative report revealed that should a shooting occur at one of the nation’s airports – such as happened in Los Angeles Friday – Transportation Security Administration screeners were being trained to first “save themselves.” Writing in the Washington Times, Alan Jones reported a veteran TSA agent disclosed he had recently undergone agency training during which TSA personnel were confronted with a checkpoint shooting. The training reportedly changed the agent’s workday habits. “Every day when I arrive for work, I look for an escape route in case someone opens fire,” said the TSA worker. “We...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A TSA agent was killed and several other people were injured Friday in a shooting at Los Angeles International Airport, police said. CBS News’ John Miller said the gunman, who was outfitted in camouflage, entered Terminal 3 at 9:20 a.m. and opened fire. Preliminary information suggests he was targeting TSA employees, according to Miller. The suspect pulled an assault rifle — possibly an AR-15 — out of his bag, started shooting and proceeded to the TSA screening area, where he was able to gain access to the airport itself, according to Chief Patrick Gannon of Los...

http://twitchy.com/2013/11/01/report-shooting-at-lax/

SANTA ROSA, CALIF. - 3:14 p.m. Tuesday, less than 10 seconds elapsed from the time sheriff's deputies spotted a 13-year-old California boy carrying what they thought was an assault rifle and the moment they shot him dead, only to learn afterward the gun was a plastic replica. It took 16 seconds more for the two officers to call for medical assistance, according to the time line of events released by police investigating Tuesday's shooting Andy Lopez Cruz, had been on his way to a friend's house (with a toy) gun... He died at the scene... seven bullets struck the boy,...

A Dallas police officer involved in the shooting of a mentally ill man, that was caught on camera, has been fired. Surveillance video shows Cardan Spencer was 20 feet away from paranoid schizophrenic Bobby Bennet when he shot him in the stomach. The police officer and his partner had maintained their story: that they were forced to shoot after the man threatened their safety by lunging at the pair with a knife. Officer Spencer has now been fired pending a criminal investigation after a neighbor released surveillance video capturing the incident that showed nothing documented in the police report actually...

The FBI is launching its own investigation into the shooting this week of Andy Lopez, the 13-year-old Santa Rosa boy killed by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy who mistook the BB gun Lopez was holding for an assault rifle. FBI officials notified command staff for Sheriff Steve Freitas and Santa Rosa Police Chief Tom Schwedhelm of the move Friday. The federal inquiry is separate from the investigation led by Santa Rosa police into the deputy-involved shooting. A spokesman in the FBI’s San Francisco office called the agency’s inquiry a “shooting review,” looking into the “incident itself (and) the deputies’ response.”...

WASHINGTON, October 22, 2013 — Before his murderous rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, Aaron Alexis sent a series of emails to an anti-surveillance group headquartered in California claiming he feared he was being monitored by the government and being attacked by extremely low frequency (ELF) weapons. “I don’t want to call you from my phone, they record everything I’ve been saying,” Mr. Alexis wrote in one such email obtained by The Washington Times Communities that was sent just days before his mass shooting last month. The FBI has obtained the emails and recently visited the group, Freedom From Covert...

MILLINGTON, TN - (WMC-TV) - It is confirmed that at least two people have been shot near the Millington Navy Base. Both victims are reported to be in non-critical condition. The base is currently on lock down, but the shooter is in custody. Photos sent in to Action News 5 show crime scene tape and several medics on the scene. The U.S. Navy put out the following tweet to its Twitter account: #BREAKING: #USNavy can confirm incident near Naval Support Activity Midsouth in #Millington. Details to follow. Action News 5 has crews on its way. Stay with WMCTV.COM for the...

A small farm town in the shadow of Picacho Peak was left in disbelief after what Pinal County Sheriff's Deputies are calling a tragic accident. Investigators say a prank left 19-year-old Dina Dicochea dead. According to deputies, Dicochea's boyfriend, 20-year-old Ramiro Delcid, shot her while the two were sitting in his company truck at Red Rock Feed Company just before 7 p.m. Monday. Delcid told investigators that he thought he had taken all of the bullets out of his revolver when he aimed the gun at his girlfriend and pulled the trigger. Delcid admitted to detectives he was trying to...

SPARKS, Nev. – Police are responding to reports of a shooting at Sparks Middle School in northern Nevada. A Sparks police dispatcher says the call came in at 7:16 a.m. Monday. Sparks police spokesman Rocky Triplett told the Reno Gazette-Journal that a suspect is in custody.

(CNN) -- Some people were shot Monday at Sparks Middle School outside Reno, Nevada, police said. Commander Rocky Triplett of the Sparks Police Department said it was unclear how many people were shot.

VIDEO AT LINK"DALLAS –– Footage from a surveillance camera pointed at the street where officers shot a mentally ill man in the abdomen earlier this week shows the man never walked toward police nor raised a knife to them, disputing a police officer’s narrative provided in a sworn affidavit."

In late summer 2012, Army First Lieutenant Clint Lorance ordered one his "marksman to engage" Afghan men approaching their position on a motorcycle. The marksmen killed two of the three men; because they were unarmed, Lorance was charged, tried, and, in just over a year, sentenced to 20 years in Leavenworth. Yet as the Washington Times reports, the charges ignore the fact that "a common enemy tactic is for unarmed fighters on motorcycles... to track [U.S.] unit movements... with cell phones." On the other hand, after Army Major Nidal Hasan killed 13 soldiers and wounded more than 30 during his...