Shooting kills college football player, injures Giants’ pick

TOPEKA, Kan. — Washburn University’s joy over one of its own going to the pros quickly shifted to grief this weekend after a shooting killed a current Washburn football player and wounded the former member of the team who was drafted by the New York Giants just hours earlier.

Police in Topeka, Kansas, where the university is located, said officers found 23-year-old defensive back Dwane Simmons dead when they investigated gunshots shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday. Cornerback Corey Ballentine was wounded, but his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. Ballentine, also 23, grew up in Topeka and was picked by the Giants on Saturday in the sixth round of the NFL draft.


A preliminary investigation determined that the shooting occurred during a social gathering outside a residence, Topeka police spokeswoman Gretchen Koenen said in an email Sunday evening. She said dozens of people were at the gathering and police were working to gather evidence and witness statements.

“We want to emphasize that we need those who were present to let us know what they saw,” Koenen said.

Washburn president Jerry Farley said, “This was a terrible way to end a day which should have been a day of celebration and a day to look forward to Dwane’s upcoming year at Washburn and the beginning of Corey’s professional career.”

Washburn coach Craig Schurig said Simmons’ death is heartbreaking. He said Simmons, a junior from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, maintained a great attitude even while battling through two knee injuries.

“Dwane is one of the most energetic and well-liked players I have ever coached at Washburn,” Schurig said. “Dwane’s infectious smile and love for football and his teammates was truly inspirational.”

Farley said both Simmons and Ballentine have been great representatives of the university.

It’s not yet clear how Ballentine’s injuries from the shooting might affect his football career.

In a statement Sunday, the Giants said, “We are aware of the tragic situation and continue to gather information. We have spoken to Corey, and he is recovering in the hospital. Our thoughts are with Dwane Simmons’ family, friends and teammates and the rest of the Washburn community.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Golden Knights continue healing process for Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — With the city reeling from the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, Golden Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland delivered an emotional 58-second speech last October that continues to echo through Las Vegas today.

Engelland’s address came days after the Oct. 1 massacre during a pregame ceremony honoring victims and first responders. It ended with the reassurances: “We’ll do everything we can to help you and our city heal. We are Vegas strong.”


As the one-year anniversary of the massacre on the Las Vegas Strip that left 58 dead approaches, Vegas’ beloved NHL team remains very much a part of the healing process, true to Engelland’s words.

“Anything like that happens, you definitely want to keep helping the process of the healing,” Engelland said following a recent preseason game as the Knights prepared for their second season. “I think last year was a good stepping stone and I think we can still do more this year.”

The Golden Knights, who became a rallying point for many residents after the shooting, will make their way around town Monday, with several players and team personnel visiting command and dispatch centers for police and other first responders and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority for a blood drive.

“Being from here, you want to do as much as you can for the community you call home,” Engelland said. “I think every guy in this room wants to do what they can for Las Vegas. A lot of guys are going to be calling this home for a long time. We got a lot of great leaders in here that step up and do a lot of good things. We just try to help each other out and do whatever we can for the community.”

Lifelong Vegas resident Tina Cartwright, who was at the outdoor concert when the gunman opened fire from a room in the Mandalay Bay casino-resort, said it took a long time for her to attend a crowded event after the shooting, during which she remembers running her life. It was a Golden Knights game that brought her back to enjoying her social life.

“They gave me hope, because I didn’t want to go out in crowds and put myself in that position where I wasn’t close to an exit,” said Cartwright, 47. “I didn’t want to go out right away, so they were an immediate part of the healing process. I have friends who still won’t go to concerts or big gatherings, and I think the longer you wait it can be detrimental. They just gave us something to look forward to in times that were dark.”

Knights newcomer Max Pacioretty was with the Montreal Canadiens last season but said he remembers the shooting vividly. He said it was tough to watch on television. But he said watching the Knights from afar as they helped with the recovery process helped him see how special the team had become to the community.

They had become much more than the town’s first major sports franchise, and much more than a team embarking on an inaugural campaign that would end in the Stanley Cup Final.

“It’s something I feel that this community will never forget, and it’s a big reason why there’s such good chemistry between the fans and the city and this team,” Pacioretty said. “I feel as if people didn’t really know what to expect, what type of people and human beings hockey players are in a general spectrum. But I think they learned real quick. As soon as they knew that they were going to have to help this community overcome what they were going through, you saw them step up to the occasion right away.”

During each home game last season, the Golden Knights recognized the Vegas Strong Hero of the Game, a first responder or citizen who risked his or her own life during the shooting to aid others. Engelland would talk to those heroes after the games.

In September, Engelland and his family announced the Vegas Born Heroes Foundation. The mission of the foundation is to publicly recognize and reward charities and community members who consistently and selflessly help others to benefit the city.

“It’s been an honor to honor those people who sacrificed their lives or made it out of there,” Engelland said. “We still talk to a lot of them here and there. We wanted to start our foundation and kind of branch a little bit away from that but not completely. Those first responders, we wanted to grow it and make it the heroes around Las Vegas that do the little things that might go unnoticed.”

Unnoticed, until now.

source: sports.inquirer.net

‘Numerous fatalities’ in US school shooting, suspect in custody

PARKLAND, United States — Authorities in Florida could offer no explanation Wednesday night as to why a former student armed with an AR-15 rifle opened fire at a high school earlier that day, killing at least 17 people.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel identified the gunman as Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland who had been expelled for “disciplinary reasons,” but was currently enrolled in Broward County Public Schools.

Cruz, whose fellow students described him as “troubled,” was arrested without incident in the nearby town of Coral Springs after the Valentine’s Day rampage and taken to hospital with minor injuries, the sheriff said.

“We have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media that he was on and some of the things… are very, very disturbing,” Israel said.

“If a person is predisposed to commit such a horrific event by going to a school and shooting people … there’s not anybody or not a lot law enforcement can do about it.”

Israel said both students and adults had been killed, 12 of whom have now been identified.

He said at least 14 were taken to hospital and two had died there of their wounds. He added one of those killed was a football coach, and one student injured was a deputy sheriff’s son.

“This is a terrible day for Parkland,” Israel said, speaking of the city of about 30,000 people, located 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Miami.

A teacher at the school said Cruz had been identified previously as a potential threat to his classmates.

“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” math teacher Jim Gard said in a Miami Herald interview.

“There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”

Cruz was also said to have been in the Junior ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program while at school.

A law enforcement source told CBS News that the gunman pulled a fire alarm before opening fire, but Israel could not confirm that report.

‘Everyone started running’
The shooting, one of nearly 20 at a school since the start of the year, will once again throw the spotlight on the epidemic of gun violence in the United States, where there are 33,000 gun-related deaths annually.

But when questioned at a press conference late Wednesday, Florida Governor Rick Scott — who described the massacre as “just pure evil” — declined to make a statement on gun control in the aftermath of the shooting.

“There’s a time to continue to have these conversations about how through law enforcement, how through mental illness funding that we make sure people are safe, and we’ll continue to do that,” said Scott, a Republican.

At the same briefing, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said the state will cover the costs of funerals and counseling for survivors.

“We will continue to work together as a team, as a family, and love and take care of all of these victims and their family members,” she said.

Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky told CNN she had spoken to a number of students after the shooting erupted shortly after 2:00 pm (1900 GMT).

“They were very scared,” she said. “And almost in shock when they came out.”

Students, some with their hands in the air, were led out of the school by heavily armed police officers and an armored vehicle filled with a SWAT team on the scene.

Student Jeiella Dodoo told CBS News that she and her schoolmates evacuated calmly after hearing what they thought was a routine fire alarm.

“The alarm went off so we had to evacuate from our classes,” she said. “Then we heard gunshots.

“I heard about six gunshots,” she said, “and then some people started running and then everyone started running because we were like ‘If it’s real, then just run.'”

Teacher Melissa Falkowski told US networks that she had helped 19 students squeeze into a closet with her.

“We were in there for probably 40 minutes. We were locked in the closet until SWAT came and got us,” she told CNN.

Police officers in helmets, bulletproof vests and armed with automatic weapons could be seen stationed at several points around the sprawling school complex, which serves nearly 3,000 students.

“Just a horrible day for us,” said the superintendent of the county’s school district, Robert Runcie.

“This is very sad to me and our family too,” 61-year-old Joseph Panikulangara, whose 17-year-old niece Dhiya attends the school, told AFP.

The FBI said it was assisting local law enforcement with the investigation.

When asked about security, Hunschofsky said a police officer is always stationed at the school and there is a “single point of entry.”

No child should ‘feel unsafe’

President Donald Trump offered his “prayers and condolences to the families of the victims.”

“No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school,” he said on Twitter.

But since January 2013, there have been at least 291 school shootings across the country — an average of about one a week, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit group that advocates for gun control.

“It is pretty clear that we’re failing our kids here,” said Falkowski, the teacher who helped shield her students from harm in a closet. /cbb

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

2 dead 4 wounded in German nightclub shooting

A gunman opened fire at a packed nightclub in southern Germany early Sunday, killing one and wounding four before being shot by police, authorities said, ruling out a terror attack.

The 34-year-old man, identified as an Iraqi national, “was critically injured in a shootout with police officers as he left the disco, and later succumbed to his wounds in hospital,” police said in a statement.

“We’re not assuming that this is an act of terrorist violence,” police spokesman Fritz Bezikofer told rolling news channel NTV.

“The events in the disco and all the links are somewhat clearer and they actually rule out a terror background,” he said, adding that the gunman was not an asylum seeker and has been living in Germany for some time.

Another police source said he could have been motivated by personal relationship issues.

Officers began receiving emergency calls from terrified clubbers at around 4:30 am (0230 GMT) as the man began shooting in the nightclub heaving with “several hundred” people, said police.

One person was killed on the spot and three others seriously wounded in the club called “Grey”, located in an industrial zone in Constance, a city on the banks of the eponymous lake near the Swiss border.

Shortly after the gunman left the building, he was shot by police. One officer was also injured in the exchange of fire.

Terrified nightclubbers had either fled the building or found a place to hide, police said, adding that the danger was now over.

Helicopters were circling overhead and special forces were also deployed to secure the site.

‘Club was jam-packed’

A witness told national news agency DPA that the attacker was shooting randomly at clubbers around him.

“The club was jam-packed,” added the unnamed man, who said he had seen the attacker and fled quickly with his friends.

A bouncer at the site had sought to stop the attacker, but was himself injured by the man, local broadcaster SWR said, also reporting witnesses saying that the gunman was armed with an automatic pistol.

Police was unable to confirm the type of weapon used, but Bezikofer said it was “not just a pistol, the talk is of a long weapon or an automatic pistol”.

The shooting came just two days after Germany was shaken by a knife attack in the northern port city of Hamburg.

A 26-year-old Palestinian had killed one and injured six in an assault at a supermarket.

He was a known Islamist with psychological problems, and investigators say his motives remain unclear.

Germany has been on high alert about the threat of a jihadist attack, especially since last December’s truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market that claimed 12 lives.

But it has also been hit by other assaults unrelated to the jihadist threat.

Among the deadliest in recent years is a Munich shopping mall rampage last June by 18-year-old German-Iranian man which left 10 people dead including the gunman himself.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Teen gunman in Oregon school shooting got weapons from home

TROUTDALE, Oregon - The teenage gunman who killed a classmate at an Oregon high school on Tuesday was armed with a military-style rifle and a semiautomatic pistol obtained from his home and lacked any known connection to his victim, police said on Wednesday.

Police said an autopsy of the suspect, Jared Michael Padgett, 15, confirmed that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after exchanging fire with police inside Reynolds High School in Troutdale, a Portland suburb.

The shooting, which ended with Padgett's body being found in a bathroom stall of the gymnasium building, marked the third outbreak of deadly gun violence to shake a US high school or college campus in less than three weeks.

Troutdale Police Chief Scott Anderson declined at a news conference to offer an explanation for what may have driven Padgett to walk into a boy's locker room and shoot a fellow freshman, 14-year-old Emilio Hoffman.

"We have not established any link between the student and shooter," Anderson said. "At this time it would be inappropriate to discuss a motive."

But he credited a school gym teacher, Todd Rispler, with preventing further loss of life. Rispler was grazed by gunfire as he encountered Padgett but made his way to the school office to warn administrators of the attack and initiate a lockdown, Anderson said.

Anderson said Padgett opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle and also was carrying a semiautomatic handgun that he did not use, as well as a large knife and nine loaded ammunition magazines with a capacity for several hundred rounds.

The youth arrived at the school on Tuesday morning by school bus, carrying a guitar case and a duffel bag. When confronted in the locker room by the teacher, the boy wore a vest used for carrying ammunition and other items and a camouflage-colored athletic helmet, Anderson said.

"The shooter obtained the weapons from his family home," the chief said. "The weapons had been secured, but he defeated the security measures."

Police have not said whether the firearms were legally owned or registered by family members.

A statement released by Hoffman's family described him as an avid soccer player who also enjoyed science and history and whose laughter was infectious. "You couldn't be around Emilio without laughing," his mother, Jennifer, wrote.

The Portland Oregonian newspaper reported that Padgett was active in the Mormon church as well as the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, with a strong interest in guns and aspirations to follow his older brother into the military.

One fellow member of his JROTC class, Agustin Guzman, 16, told the newspaper that Padgett had a rigid side.

"He was one of those organized people who liked order, liked everything to be really perfect," he said, recounting that Padgett became "really irritated if we messed up" when folding the American flag.

Another friend, Kaylah Ensign, recalled Padgett losing his temper when others disagreed with him during a class presentation on a book he read about Adolf Hitler. —Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com