Florida school shooting suspect a troubled ex-student who loved guns

PARKLAND, Fla. — The man accused of opening fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing 17 people, was a troubled former student who loved guns and was expelled for disciplinary reasons, police and former classmates said.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was arrested about an hour after a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters.

Cruz, who had been expelled from the school for reasons that have not been made public, was found with multiple ammunition magazines and one AR-15-style rifle, Israel said.

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

Chad Williams, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High school, remembered Cruz as a troubled classmate from when they attended middle school together. He said Cruz would set off the fire alarm, day after day, and finally got expelled in the eighth grade.


More recently, Williams saw Cruz carrying several publications about guns when they ran into each other at the high school. Williams thought Cruz was there to pick up a younger sibling.

“He was crazy about guns,” Williams told Reuters, speaking by the side of the road near the high school. “He was kind of an outcast. He didn’t have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble.”

Jillian Davis, 19, said she was in a school Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps with Cruz in the 9th grade. She remembered him as a quiet and shy young man who would almost change personality when angry. He talked a lot about guns and knives but no one took him seriously, she told Reuters.

“I would say he was not the most normal or sane kid in JROTC. He definitely had a little something off about him. He was a little extra quirky,” said Davis, who graduated from the school last year.

Math teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald that Cruz had been banned from returning to campus while carrying a backpack.

“There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus,” Gard told the newspaper in an interview.

Administrators sent an email to teachers warning them about Cruz, Gard told the paper.

Another student at the school told local WSVN-TV that Cruz was known to have guns at home.

source: interaksyon.com

1 dead in 'civilian-on-civilian' shooting as unrest flares anew in US city over police violence

CHARLOTTE -- A protester in Charlotte, North Carolina was fatally shot by a civilian Wednesday during a second night of unrest after the police killed a black man, officials said.

"Fatal shot uptown was civilian on civilian," the southern US city said in a statement on Twitter. "@CMPD did not fire shot," it added, referring to the police.

Several hundred people taunted riot police in front of a hotel in the city center, during which a man fell to the ground. Witnesses said police brought him into the hotel after he fell, leaving blood on the sidewalk.

Some protesters banged on glass windows, others threw objects at police and stood on cars as police appeared to fire tear gas, prompting demonstrators to run.

"We are calling for peace, we are calling for calm, we are calling for dialogue," Mayor Jennifer Roberts said earlier in the day. "We all see this as a tragedy."

Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was shot dead in an apartment complex parking lot on Tuesday after an encounter with officers searching for a suspect wanted for arrest.

The authorities said 16 officers and several demonstrators were injured in clashes overnight Tuesday following Scott's death, the latest in a string of police-involved killings of black men that have fueled outrage across the United States.

Earlier on Wednesday, presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton weighed in on the violence in Charlotte, which came on the heels of another fatal police shooting of a black man, Terence Crutcher, on Friday in Tulsa.

"Keith Lamont Scott. Terence Crutcher. Too many others. This has got to end. -H," tweeted Democrat Clinton, signing the post herself.

After calling to "make America safe again" in a tweet, Trump suggested later Wednesday that the Tulsa officer who shot Crutcher had "choked."

"I don't know what she was thinking," the Republican said, speaking at an African-American church in Cleveland, Ohio.

Divergent accounts

The Charlotte shooting took place at 4:00 pm (2000 GMT) Tuesday as officers searching for a suspect arrived in the parking lot of an apartment complex.

They spotted a man with a handgun -- later identified as Scott -- exit and then reenter a vehicle, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief Kerr Putney told journalists.

Officers approached the man and loudly commanded him to get out and drop the weapon, at which point Scott exited the vehicle armed, according to police.

"He stepped out, posing a threat to the officers, and officer Brentley Vinson subsequently fired his weapon, striking the subject," the police chief said.

However, Putney added that he did not know whether Scott "definitively pointed the weapon specifically toward an officer."

Carrying a firearm is legal under local "open carry" gun laws.

Scott's relatives told local media that he was waiting for his young son at school bus stop when police arrived. He was not carrying a gun but a book when he was shot dead, they said -- an account police disputed.

"I can tell you a weapon was seized. A handgun," Putney said. "I can also tell you we did not find a book that has been made reference to."

Protests turn violent

Anger was simmering in Charlotte, especially over the police chief's assertion that Scott had been armed.

"It's a lie," said Taheshia Williams, whose daughter attends school with the victim's son. "They took the book and replaced it with a gun."

On Wednesday afternoon, 100 students, mostly African-American, participated in a "lay-in" protesting police brutality, singing gospel songs.

"I do this for hope," one protester called out. "I do this because I'm tired of being silent," another said.

One man held a sign reading "Legalize being black."

Protests had swelled Tuesday evening as news of the shooting spread, with demonstrators carrying signs that read "Black Lives Matter" and chanting "No justice, no peace!"

Putney said the situation turned violent, with "agitators" damaging police vehicles and throwing rocks at officers.

Riot control police were deployed and used tear gas to disperse the crowd, Putney said.

A group of protesters nevertheless marched to a major highway early Wednesday, shutting down traffic in both directions. They broke into the back of truck and set goods on fire, according to police.

Series of shootings

A string of fatal police shootings -- from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to St. Paul, Minnesota -- has left many Americans demanding law enforcement reforms and greater accountability.

In the southern state of Oklahoma, Tulsa police chief Chuck Jordan called video footage of Crutcher's deadly shooting on Friday disturbing and "very difficult to watch."

The 40-year-old is seen with his hands up, appearing to comply with police officers before he is shot once by officer Betty Shelby and falls to the ground. Another officer fires his stun gun.

The US Department of Justice said Monday it would conduct a federal civil rights probe into the Tulsa shooting, parallel to an investigation being carried out by local authorities.

source: interaksyon.com

Man charged after 8 found shot dead in Texas home

WASHINGTON -- A man who engaged police in a standoff at a Texas home has been charged with capital murder after the bullet-riddled bodies of six children and two adults were found inside, officials said Sunday.

The eight people were discovered Saturday by deputies performing a welfare check at the Houston-area residence after a concerned relative requested the search, officials with the Harris County Sheriff's Office said.

The victims were found in each of the house's three bedrooms. They had been shot, some multiple times, and many were restrained with metal handcuffs, lead investigator Sergeant Craig Clopton told reporters.

The deputies initially tried to contact residents inside the home before spotting a child's body through a window, Chief Deputy Tim Cannon told reporters.

They then forced their way in and were peppered with gunfire and withdrew. Negotiators from a high-risk operations unit later convinced the alleged assailant to surrender, Cannon said.

Police have identified the man as David Conley, 48, a former domestic partner of Valerie Jackson, who died in the attack.

Jackson, 40, also lived in the house where she, her husband and children were killed.

"There was a prior relationship" between Conley and Jackson and at least one of the dead children, the oldest, could be Conley's, Clopton said.

"The killer's motives appear to be related to the dispute with Valerie," Cannon said.

"It's obvious he had some distaste for what was going on within his personal life and his family life," he added.

A prior warrant was already outstanding for Conley related to assault of family members, the police said.

Conley's rap sheet of domestic violence dates back to at least 2000, the Houston Chronicle reported, and he had previously threatened and attacked Jackson.

Conley has been charged with three counts of murder, with some of the counts covering multiple killings. He is being held without bond.

"We do not, and cannot, fully comprehend the motive of someone who would take the lives of so many innocent people, especially the lives of the young ones," Cannon said, adding that police would conduct a thorough investigation into the grisly killings.

"This case is in its initial stages, we have a long way to go," he said.

The children ranged in age from six to 13. Three of the victims were female and five were male. All are believed to have died on Saturday, Clopton said.

Earlier, police reports stated that five children and three adults had died, and that Conley was 49.

A man who said he was Jackson's brother set up a fundraising page to appeal for donations to cover funeral costs and to pay to have his relatives' remains brought to the US state of Wisconsin.

"Unfortunately we have limited income for this heinous tragedy. The onset of people expressing sympathy has been wonderful and our family appreciates it immensely," said the appeal on Go Fund Me, which set a target of $50,000.

source: interaksyon.com

8 people found dead in Texas home: media

WASHINGTON - Police found the bodies of five children and three adults in a Texas home after a standoff that ended with a man's surrender, US media reported Sunday.

The eight people were found in a Houston-area house after deputies from the Harris County Sheriff's Office were called to the residence at about 9:00 pm on Saturday, spokesman Thomas Gilliland told the KHOU news channel.

A 49-year-old man inside the house began shooting after deputies forced their way into the home, KHOU reported.

The officers pulled back and began negotiating with the man, who eventually surrendered.

KHOU reported that a man in the home was wanted on a warrant for aggravated assault on a family member.

No additional information was immediately available and a call to the sheriff's office early Sunday went unanswered.

source: interaksyon.com

Gunman opens fire in South Carolina church, casualties reported

WASHINGTON -- A gunman opened fire at a historic black church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina late Wednesday, police said.

It was not immediately clear how many people had been shot, but the Charleston Post and Courier said eight people had been wounded.

The Charleston police department said the suspect is a clean-shaven white man, aged about 21. As of 11:30 pm (0330 GMT), the suspect was still at large.

Local network ABC4 News said police were also investigating a possible bomb threat.

The shooting happened at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. According to its website, it is the oldest such church in the US south.

source: interaksyon.com

Ferguson police come under gunfire, arrest 31 in racial unrest

FERGUSON - U.S. police said early on Tuesday they came under heavy gunfire and arrested 31 people during another night of racially charged protests in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman 10 days ago.

Demonstrations, mostly peaceful but with spasms of violence by smaller groups, have flared since Michael Brown, 18, was shot dead while walking down a residential street on August 9.

State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, briefing reporters on Monday's night's violence, said "our officers came under heavy gunfire" in one area.

"Not a single bullet was fired by officers despite coming under heavy attack," he told a news conference. Riot police had confiscated two guns from protesters and what looked like a petrol bomb. Four officers had been injured.

Johnson separately told CNN that two people were shot within the crowd, but not by police, and were taken to hospital. There was no immediate word on their condition.

The violence has captured headlines around the world, raising questions about the state of U.S. race relations nearly six years after Americans elected their first black president.

"This has to stop. I don't want anybody to get hurt. We have to find a way to stop this," said Johnson, an African-American who grew up in the area and who took over security efforts after the mostly white local force was accused of using excessive force against blacks.

An overnight curfew has been imposed and the National Guard, the U.S. state militia, has been deployed in the St. Louis suburb of 21,000 people to stop looting and burning that have punctuated the protests.

President Barack Obama and civil rights leaders have appealed for calm while a federal investigation into the shooting proceeds.

"While I understand the passions and the anger that arise over the death of Michael Brown, giving in to that anger by looting or carrying guns, and even attacking the police, only serves to raise tensions and stir chaos," Obama told a news conference on Monday (Tuesday in the Philippines).

source: interaksyon.com