29 killed in 2 US shootings, and it could have been worse

It took just 30 seconds in Ohio and zero bullets in Texas for officers to stop two mass shooters this weekend, but not before 29 people were killed and about 50 injured in less than 24 hours.

Officers gunned down the Ohio shooter at the doorstep of a bar-turned-hiding place in the middle of Dayton’s nightclub district and arrested the El Paso shooter as hundreds fled a crowded shopping center. Though the two attacks staggered a nation accustomed to gun violence, the bigger shock may have been that the death toll wasn’t worse.


In the Texas border city of El Paso, a gunman opened fire Saturday morning in a shopping area packed with thousands of people during the busy back-to-school season. The attack killed 20 and wounded more than two dozen, many of them critically.

Hours later in Dayton, Ohio, a gunman wearing body armor and carrying extra magazines opened fire in a popular nightlife area, killing nine and injuring at least 26 people.

The attacks came less than a week after a 19-year-old gunman killed three people and injured 13 others at the popular Gilroy Garlic Festival in California before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The El Paso shooting was being investigated as a possible hate crime as authorities worked to confirm whether a racist, anti-immigrant screed posted online shortly beforehand was written by the man arrested. The border city is home to 680,000 people, many of them Latino.


El Paso authorities offered few details about the assault, but Police Chief Greg Allen described the scene as “horrific” and said many of the 26 people who were hurt had life-threatening injuries.


In Dayton, the bloodshed was likely limited by the swift police response. Officers patrolling the area took just 30 seconds to stop the shooting, which unfolded around 1 a.m. on the streets of the downtown Oregon District, Mayor Nan Whaley said.

Video released by police shows 24-year-old Connor Betts being shot down by officers, just steps away from entering a bar filled with hiding patrons.

Had police not responded so quickly, “hundreds of people in the Oregon District could be dead today,” Whaley said.

Betts’ 22-year-old sister, Megan Betts, was among those killed in Dayton.



Authorities identified the El Paso suspect as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius from Allen, a Dallas suburb which is a nearly 10-hour drive from El Paso.

El Paso Mayor Dee Margo said he knew the shooter was not from his city.

“It’s not what we’re about,” the mayor said at a news conference with Gov. Greg Abbott and the police chief.

President Donald Trump tweeted Monday that Washington “must come together” in the wake of the shootings “to get strong background checks” for gun users. But he provided no details on what sort of legislation he would support.

The Democrat-led House has passed a gun control bill that includes fixes to the nation’s firearm background check system, but it has languished in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Trump suggested Monday that a background check bill could be paired with his long-sought effort to toughen the nation’s immigration system. He didn’t say how.

Democratic presidential candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, who is from El Paso and was at a candidate forum Saturday in Las Vegas, appeared shaken after receiving news of the shooting in his hometown.

He said he heard early reports that the shooter might have had a military-style weapon, saying we need to “keep that (expletive) on the battlefield. Do not bring it into our communities.”

The shootings were the 21st and 22nd mass killings of 2019 in the U.S., according to the AP/USA Today/Northeastern University mass murder database that tracks homicides where four or more people killed — not including the offender.

Including the two latest attacks, 125 people had been killed in the 2019 shootings. 

/atm

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Man survives California, Las Vegas shootings one year apart

One man who lived through the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017, had another brush with death when he survived a mass shooting at a college bar in Thousand Oaks, California, on Wednesday, Nov. 7.

Brendan Kelly was inside the Borderline Bar and Grill on Wednesday night when former US Marine Ian David Long opened fire, killing 12 people in the process, including Ventura County Sgt. Ron Helus. As per ABC News on Nov. 8, Long used a .45-caliber handgun, Glock 21, and had with him an extended ammunition magazine.


Kelly is a regular at the bar and was inside for around an hour when he heard the first shots. “Pop pop,” Kelly was quoted as describing the gun shots as per ABC7-New York on Nov. 8. “Being in the military, being in the Marine Corps, I’m aware of what that sounds like, especially in an enclosed area.”

Upon hearing the gunshots, he immediately grabbed people around him and brought them to the ground for cover.

“As soon as I identified where the target was or where the threat was, I grabbed at least two people around me and yanked them as hard as I could to get to the nearest exit,” he said in the report.

After escaping, Kelly made a call to his family to tell them of the news, the kind he never thought he would ever have to make again following the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017.

As injured victims started to surface from the bar, Kelly immediately came to their aid and performed a tourniquet to one friend’s arm with his belt.

“I wanted to help as best I could,” Kelly said. “If we could be the first level of first responders before they got there, then you do all you can do instead of standing around not doing much.”  Cody Cepeda /ra

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

‘Why are you Americans killing the black people…?’ – Duterte

PRESIDENT Duterte on Sunday lashed out at the U.S. police killings of black men in his latest outburst against critics of his anti-drug campaign, which has left hundreds of suspects dead.

The Philippines’ brash-talking President also threatened Sunday to withdraw the country from the United Nations after its human rights experts criticized the extra-judicial killings committed under his anti-crime drive.

Reacting to U.S. criticisms, Duterte cited the string of shootings involving police and black men that have sparked protests in the U.S.

“Why are you Americans killing the black people there, shooting them down when they are already on the ground?” he asked. “Answer that question, because even if it’s just one or two or three, it is still human rights violations.”

Criticisms against Duterte’s crusade against a problem that he says has become a pandemic provoked an angry outburst from Duterte, who held a news conference after midnight Saturday that dragged on for more than two hours.

The U.S. State Department and two U.N. human rights experts have urged Duterte and Filipino authorities to stop extrajudicial killings in the fight against illegal drugs and ensure law enforcement compliance with international human rights obligations. Philippine police say more than 500 drug suspects have been killed in gunbattles with police since Duterte was sworn in eight weeks ago.

Agnes Callamard, the new U.N. Special Rapporteur on summary executions, suggested that Philippine officials could be held liable, saying in a recent statement that “claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its international legal obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings.”

Responding to the criticisms, Duterte pointed to the haunting image of a bloodied child being pulled from the rubble of a missile-struck building in the Syrian city of Aleppo to note the inability of the U.S. and the U.N. to stop such deadly conflicts, complaining that he comes under fire for the killings of criminals.

“Maybe we’ll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you’re that rude, son of a bitch, we’ll just leave you,” Duterte told reporters in Davao, where he first built a reputation for his tough crime-busting style while serving as the southern city’s longtime mayor.

Duterte also belittled U.N. work in the Philippines without providing facts, raising questions, for example, about the performance of the world body’s agency that fights hunger.

If the Philippines breaks off from the U.N. — which Duterte called “inutile” and “stupid” — he said he would invite other countries like China and African nations to form a new international body. The U.N., he said, should return Manila’s financial contributions.

“Look at the iconic boy that was taken out from the rubble and he was made to sit in the ambulance and we saw it,” Duterte said, referring to the photo of a 5-year-old Syrian boy, Omran Daqneesh, that has gone viral online.

“Why is it that United States is not doing anything? I do not read you,” Duterte said. “Anybody in that stupid body complaining about the stench there of death?”

When asked about the possible repercussions of his remarks, Duterte replied: “I don’t give a shit about them. They are the ones interfering.”

Duterte wondered whether U.N. officials were threatening to put him in prison and repeated that he was ready to sacrifice his life and presidency for his country.

Duterte’s drug crackdown has left more than 500 suspected dealers dead and more than 4,400 arrested since he took office on June 30. Nearly 600,000 people have surrendered to authorities, hoping to avoid getting killed. The arrests have further overwhelmed the Philippines’ overcrowded jails. AP/ac/rga

source: globalnation.inquirer.net

Police say Munich suspect was obsessed with mass shootings

MUNICH — The 18-year-old gunman who opened fire at a crowded Munich shopping mall and fast-food restaurant, killing nine people and wounding 16 others before killing himself, was obsessed with mass shootings, police said Saturday.

Investigators searched the unnamed German-Iranian man’s home overnight and found a considerable amount of literature about mass killings, including a book titled “Rampage in Head: Why Students Kill,” but no evidence that he was linked to extremist groups such as the Islamic State.

“(He) was obsessed with shooting rampages,” Munich’s police chief Hubertus Andrae told reporters.

Investigators also found evidence that the Munich-born suspect had suffered from psychological problems and received treatment, but details were still being confirmed, said Munich prosecutor Thomas Steinkraus-Koch.

The attack in the Bavarian capital sparked a massive security operation as authorities — already on edge after the recent attacks in Wuerzburg and Nice, France — received witness reports of multiple shooters carrying rifles shortly before 6 p.m. (1600 GMT). Eight hours later police declared a “cautious all clear,” saying the suspect was among the 10 dead and that he had likely acted alone.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was due to chair a meeting of her government’s security Cabinet Saturday.

At an address on Dachauer Strasse that was searched by police early Saturday, a neighbor described the suspect as “very quiet.”

“He only ever said ‘hi’. His whole body language was of somebody who was very shy,” said Stephan, a coffee shop owner who would only give his first name.

“He never came in to the cafe,” he added. “He was just a neighbor and took out the trash but never talked.”

Some 2,300 police from across Germany and neighboring Austria were scrambled in response to the attack, which happened less than a week after a 17-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker wounded five people in an ax-and-knife rampage that started on a regional train near the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the train attack, but authorities have said the teen — who was shot and killed by police — likely acted alone.

The suspect’s body was found about 2 1/2 hours after the attack, which started shortly before 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) at a McDonald’s restaurant across the street from the mall.

A cell-phone video posted online showed the suspect dressed in black standing on a rooftop parking area of the mall yelling back and forth with the person filming, saying at one point “I’m German” and eventually firing shots. Andrae said police believe the video is genuine.

David Akhavan, a 37-year-old who from Tehran, Iran, who works at the Shandiz Persian restaurant, described his anguish as he learned of the shooting.

“I started to get texts from friends asking if I was safe,” he said. “Then, my thoughts were: please, don’t be a Muslim. Please don’t be Middle Eastern. Please don’t be Afghan. I don’t accept any of this violence.”

Witnesses had reported seeing three men with firearms near the Olympia Einkaufszentrum mall, but Andrae said two other people who fled the area were investigated but had “nothing to do with the incident.”

Local residents described the scene as the shooting unfolded.

“I was standing on the balcony smoking a cigarette. Suddenly I heard shots,” said Ferdinand Bozorgzad, who lives in a high-rise building next to Olympic Shopping Center. “First I thought someone had thrown some firecrackers. I looked down at the McDonald*s and saw someone shooting into the crowd. Then I saw two people lying there. ”

Franco Augustini, another local resident, said his daughter hid in the shopping center during the attack.

“Next to our flat was a woman who was full of blood,” Augustini said. “My wife had a bottle of water. Then we helped to wash her. It was horrible and made me speechless.”

Andrae, the police chief, said seven of the victim were teenagers; a 20-year-old man and a 45-year-old woman were also killed. All were residents of Munich, he said.

Munich’s mayor, Dieter Reiter, declared a day of mourning for the victims of “this terrible act.”

“These are difficult hours for Munich,” he said, adding that the city’s citizens had shown great solidarity toward each other. “Our city stands united,” he said. TVJ

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net