Shooter kills 6 at Nashville school in targeted attack

WASHINGTON  — A heavily-armed former student killed three young children and three staff in what appeared to be a carefully planned attack at a private elementary school in Nashville on Monday, before being shot dead by police.

Chief of Police John Drake named the suspect as Audrey Hale -- a 28-year-old female, who the officer later said identified as transgender.

Hale had maps of the school, left behind a manifesto, and was "prepared for a confrontation with law enforcement," the police chief told reporters following the latest outburst of gun violence to stun the United States.

Armed with at least two assault rifles and a handgun, Hale entered the Christian Covenant School from a side entrance, allegedly shooting through a door -- firing multiple shots while advancing through the building, according to police.

They said officers were on the scene within about 15 minutes of receiving the first emergency call around 10:00 a.m. (11 p.m. in Manila), engaging the shooter who returned fire before being shot dead.

Police identified the six victims, saying one of the three children was eight years old and two were age nine, while the adults killed were age 60 to 61.

Television images showed young children holding hands as they filed out of the school, and one searing photograph showed a child sobbing through the window of her yellow school bus as it pulled away from the crime scene.

Avery Myrick said her mother, a pre-kindergarten teacher at Covenant, hid as shots rang out through the school.

"She said she was hiding in the closet, and that there was shooting all over and that they had potentially tried to get into her room, and just that she loved us," Myrick told WSMV4 television, an NBC local affiliate.

When she heard her mother was safe it brought "a ton of relief."

"But you know, you're still hurting for the people out there who might not get that call," she said.

School shootings are alarmingly common in the United States, where the proliferation of firearms has soared in recent years.

President Joe Biden described the latest shooting as "sick" and said gun violence was tearing the nation's "soul," as he urged Congress to pass a ban on the assault weapons commonly used in mass shootings.

"It's ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation, ripping at the very soul of the nation," he said.

A Nashville fire department spokesperson, Kendra Loney, said all unharmed students were escorted out of the building with faculty and staff.

"But we are sure that they heard the chaos that was surrounding this, so we do have mental health specialists and professionals that are at that reunification site for both the students and the families."

AN AMERICAN EPIDEMIC

The Covenant School is a private Presbyterian institution with just over 200 students in preschool to roughly age 12.

Local newspaper The Tennessean quoted a police spokesperson as saying the suspect Hale, a former student at the school, was now an illustrator and graphic designer who used he/him pronouns. Police had initially identified him by his birth gender.

Drake said investigators were working on a possible motive but said it was "not confirmed."

Asked whether Hale's gender identity may have been a factor, Drake said: "There is some theory to that, we're investigating all the leads."

There have been 129 mass shootings -- defined as incidents in which four or more people were shot or killed -- so far this year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.

Biden's calls for Congress to reinstate the national ban on assault rifles, which existed from 1994 to 2004, has run up against opposition from Republicans, who are staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms and have had a narrow majority in the House of Representatives since January.

Just hours after the shooting, pro-firearm organization Gun Owners of America assailed Biden as "the man responsible for making schools soft targets," and repeated their call to allow teachers to arm themselves in classrooms.

"When will we start to have conversations about real solutions for hardening schools & protecting kids? Armed teachers are a 100% effective deterrent!" the group tweeted.

The deadlock in Washington has come despite public uproar over high-profile massacres such as the one at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut in 2012, when 26 people, including 20 children, were killed.

Last year a shooter in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 students and two teachers.

Between those two tragedies, the murder of 14 students and three staff members in Parkland, Florida in 2018 fueled a nationwide movement, led by young people, to demand stricter gun controls -- but failed to spur significant action in Congress.

Agence France-Presse

'Do something now:' Mourners demand action after US school shooting

UVALDE, United States — A distraught Texas grandmother of a girl killed in the massacre in Uvalde pleaded Thursday for urgent action by US authorities to prevent future school shootings, as the country plunges again into the roiling debate over guns.

Ten-year-old Amerie Garza -- a fourth-grader who loved her classes, drawing, and playing with clay -- was one of 19 children murdered by a teen gunman at Robb Elementary School in an act of evil that has forever changed this small Texas town.

"My granddaughter was in there. She was an innocent little girl, loving school and looking forward to summer," Dora Mendoza told reporters after paying respects at a makeshift memorial outside the school.

But the 63-year-old, who lived with Amerie and saw her at an end-of-year ceremony Tuesday just hours before she was killed, quickly made clear she wanted US officials such as President Joe Biden and Texas Governor Greg Abbott not to shy away from working together on reforms.

Biden, who is due to visit on Sunday, and Abbott are polar opposites regarding restrictions on gun sales. Like many in the Democrat versus Republican divide, the two also differ on the path to take to curb the nation's surging gun violence. 

"They shouldn't just wait for... tragedy to start," she said. 

"They need to do something about it. They need to not forget us, the babies... Don't forget them, please," Mendoza, speaking in a mix of English and Spanish, pleaded through her tears.

"Do something about it, I beg you. I beg you!" she wailed. "All the cries and all these little innocent babies... we don't know what they went through."

Amerie's "abuela" was among several Uvalde residents who came to pray or leave flowers at the school memorial, where 21 small white wooden crosses have been erected bearing names of the 19 children and 2 teachers who were killed.

Among the mourners was Yaritza Rangel, 23, who brought her 4 children to lay flowers.

'WHAT IF HAPPENS AGAIN?' 

"We're all hurt. We never thought this would happen here," where most town residents know each other, she said.

But Rangel, while avoiding politics, did point to 3 reforms she wants enacted: an expansion of background checks for gun purchases, tightening of security in schools, and raising the minimum age for buying firearms.

"It doesn't make sense," she said. "You have to go and wait until you're 21 to go and buy alcohol. Why are they letting 18-year-olds be able to buy rifles?"

Rangel, whose young nephew was in a Robb Elementary classroom that the shooter tried but failed to enter, is now worried about her own children and says she has been traumatized by the attack.

Her son will be going to elementary school soon, and the prospect of violence keeps her awake at night.

"What if it happens again?"

Dozens of relatives, students and friends have been placing flowers, stuffed animals, candles and jewelry at a second memorial in Uvalde's town square, which has become a gathering place for residents to unite in their anguish.

Like the first memorial, it features white crosses with the names of the victims. Meghan Markle, the wife of Britain's Prince Harry, visited the site on Thursday.

The 40-year-old Duchess of Sussex -- wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a blue baseball cap -- reached down with her head bowed and placed flowers between 2 of the crosses.

Some mourners added messages on the crosses, including a young girl who wrote one for victim Jackie Cazares.

"Love you cousin 'till we meet again," it said.

Agence France-Presse 

8 killed by employee in California rail yard mass shooting

SAN JOSE, Calif.  - A public transit worker shot dead eight people at a California rail yard Wednesday before turning his gun on himself as police arrived, officials said, in the latest mass shooting to hit the United States.

Multiple victims were also wounded in the attack at the train maintenance compound in San Jose, just south of San Francisco, which has once again shone a spotlight on the country's raging gun control debate.

"What the hell is wrong with us, and when are we going to come to grips with this?" said California Governor Gavin Newsom at a press conference, where he praised the swift response of law enforcement. 

Law enforcement officers had rushed to investigate multiple early morning 911 calls reporting gunshots, and entered the compound during an "active shooting," said Russell Davis, a Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputy.

They did not exchange gunfire with the shooter, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

"I know for sure that when the suspect knew that law enforcement was there he took his own life," said Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith. "Our deputies were right there at that time."

Bomb squads were deployed after dogs detected "some type of explosives material at the crime scene," and were continuing to scour the site Wednesday afternoon, Davis said.

US President Joe Biden called the incident a "horrific tragedy" and ordered flags to be flown at half-staff, saying in a statement: "There are at least eight families who will never be whole again."

"Once again, I urge Congress to take immediate action and heed the call of the American people, including the vast majority of gun owners, to help end this epidemic of gun violence in America.

"Every life that is taken by a bullet pierces the soul of our nation. We can, and we must, do more."

'HORRIFIC'

The suspect -- identified by multiple media outlets as Samuel Cassidy -- was an employee of the Valley Transportation Authority, which provides rail and bus services for San Jose, a Silicon Valley tech hub of almost a million people.

Victims including VTA employees were found shot in two different buildings on the site. The authority's chairman Glenn Hendricks called the shooting a "horrible tragedy."

Dozens of police cars and fire engines lining the streets near the rail yard were joined at the scene by FBI officials. Special agent Craig Fair warned the "fairly sizable crime scene" would take a significant amount of time to process.

Nearby, anxious families of employees waited at a county building for word about the safety their relatives.

"This is a very dark moment for our city and for our community," said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.

Many of those killed or wounded were essential workers who had "helped us get through this horrific pandemic" by keeping public transport operating, he added.

San Jose police were also investigating a house fire believed to be linked to the shooting. According to multiple US media reports, the blaze began at the suspect's home shortly before the attack.

Local officials said the shooting -- which was initially reported before 7:00 am local time (1400 GMT) -- had taken place at an employee meeting, with at least 80 staff on site at the time.

GUN 'EPIDEMIC'

The United States has a long and painful history of deadly gun violence, in the form of a steady daily toll of shootings as well as high-profile mass killings that have targeted schools, work places and shopping centers.

Homicides, mostly gun-driven, have surged in the US over the past year. 

Mass shootings have occurred in recent months at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, an office building in California, a grocery store in Colorado and at several spas in Atlanta.

In August 2019, another mass shooting in the Bay Area left two children and a 25-year-old man dead at a garlic festival in Gilroy, around 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of San Jose.

Biden last month branded US gun violence an "epidemic" and an "international embarrassment."

There were more than 43,000 gun-related deaths in the United States last year, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Agence France-Presse

Former NFL player suspected of killing 5 in US, then himself

A former American professional football player is suspected of killing five people including a doctor and his wife in the state of South Carolina before dying by suicide, US media reported Thursday.

The suspect, identified as former San Francisco 49ers cornerback Phillip Adams, allegedly fatally shot the five victims Wednesday in the city of Rock Hill. 

He then returned to his parents' house, where he killed himself early Thursday after a standoff with police.

The five victims include a 70-year-old doctor, his 69-year-old spouse and two of their grandchildren, aged five and nine, as well as a 38-year-old man killed outside their house.

A sixth person was hospitalized with serious gunshot wounds, York County sheriff's spokesman Trent Faris said.

Neither the York County medical examiner's office nor the sheriff's department responded to AFP's request for confirmation of the suspect's identity.

Speaking to a local television channel, Adams' father Alonzo said he believed playing professional football had "messed him up."

Adams' professional career, from 2010-2015, was marred by injuries, including concussions. 

In addition to the 49ers, he also played for the New England Patriots, the New York Jets, the Oakland Raiders and the Atlanta Falcons.

The quintuple murder comes as the United States is still reeling from two mass shootings in early 2021 in Atlanta and Boulder, Colorado.

US President Joe Biden, who unveiled a plan for gun control on Thursday, branded gun violence in the country an "epidemic" and an "international embarrassment."

During his speech, Biden cited the Rock Hill shooting as an example.

Agence France-Presse

Suspect dead after more than 10 killed in Canada rampage: police

MONTREAL  - A gunman who drove a mock-up police car killed at least 16 people in an Atlantic Canada shooting rampage, federal police said Sunday, the worst case of its kind in Canadian history.

The shooter, identified as Gabriel Wortman, 51, was shot dead by officers after a 12-hour manhunt in Nova Scotia province ended Sunday morning.

Among the victims was a veteran female constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which also handles municipal and provincial law enforcement in the province.

Police said the suspect had been on the run since Saturday night, when officers were alerted to shots fired in the town of Portapique, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Halifax.

Gun violence in Canada is far less frequent than in the neighboring United States, and weapons more strictly controlled, but the killings were the country's worst ever, exceeding the toll in 1989 when a gunman murdered 14 female students at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique.

Public broadcaster CBC quoted RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki as saying police know of at least 16 victims, besides the shooter.

"What has unfolded overnight and into this morning is incomprehensible and many families are experiencing the loss of a loved one," Nova Scotia RCMP Commanding Officer, Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman, wrote on the force's local Facebook page.

"That includes our own RCMP family. It is with tremendous sadness that I share with you that we lost Constable Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the Force who was killed this morning, while responding to an active shooter incident."

In addition to Stevenson, a mother of two, a male officer was injured and is in hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Bergerman said.

The National Post newspaper said another victim was an elementary school teacher, citing a Facebook post from the woman's sister.

Several victims were discovered both outside and inside a house in Portapique, sparking the manhunt through multiple communities, police said.

"The search for the suspect ended this morning when the suspect was located. And I can confirm that he is deceased," RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather told a press conference.

Leather said that at one point, the suspect appeared to be wearing part of a police uniform and was driving a vehicle made to look like an RCMP cruiser.

FIRES BURNED

RCMP tweeted several times that he was not an officer and warned he was considered "armed and dangerous."

"The initial search for the suspect led to multiple sites in the area, including structures that were on fire," Leather told the news conference.

Another police spokesperson said, without further details, that the gunman was killed after an officer intervened.

An independent agency, the Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT), which probes certain incidents involving the province's police, said that it "is investigating the shooting of a male in Enfield by RCMP officers."

SiRT said in a statement that a confrontation had occurred in Enfield, which is near the Halifax airport, "resulting in officers discharging their firearms. The suspect was found to be deceased at the scene."

Police said they had no indication of a motive. Lucki told CBC there was no indication "at this point" of a terrorist intent.

"What I would say is that it appears to be at least in part, very random in nature," said Leather.

"We are in the early stages of an incredibly detailed and complex investigation that has forever changed countless lives," he said. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement that he "was saddened to learn about the senseless violence in Nova Scotia," and he hopes for a full recovery of the wounded.

The National Post quoted Tom Taggart, a councilor who represents Portapique in the Municipality of Colchester, as saying the community was devastated.

He described the community as a "subdivision in the woods where people have acre lots along the shore," and where Wortman owned three properties.

"It's absolutely unbelievable this could happen in our community. I never dreamt this would happen here," Taggart said.

Agence France-Presse

Teenager kills 1, injures 3 in Russian college

MOSCOW, Russia - A 19-year-old student in Russia's Far East opened fire in his college Thursday morning, killing one classmate and injuring three other people before shooting himself, investigators said.

The male student in a construction college in the town of Blagoveshchensk "murdered his classmate and wounded three using a rifle registered to him," the Investigative Committee of far-eastern Amur region said.

"During (police) attempts to apprehend him, he shot himself dead," investigators said.

The victim was also 19 while the injured students ranged from 17 to 20 years old.

The small college in the town center was surrounded with police cars and some of the streets were closed off Thursday, local website Amur.Info said, adding that the shooter likely used a shotgun in the middle of a lecture attended by 20 people.

Russia has relatively few school shootings due to normally tight security in education facilities and the difficulty of buying firearms legally, but it is possible to register hunting rifles.

Last October a teenage gunman killed 20 people and injured more than 40 at his college in Moscow-annexed Crimea, apparently inspired by the 1999 Columbine high school shooting in the United States.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Airbnb bans 'party houses' after deadly US shooting

NEW YORK - Airbnb's boss announced Saturday that the online platform, which offers private homes for rent for short periods, is banning "party houses" after a deadly shooting at a Halloween event in California.

Five people were killed and others wounded in a Thursday night shooting in Orinda, California, in a house that had been rented on Airbnb.

More than 100 people were present at the event, which was announced on social media.

"Starting today, we are banning 'party houses' and we are redoubling our efforts to combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct, including conduct that leads to the terrible events we saw in Orinda," Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said on Twitter.

To do this, Airbnb will increase "manual screening of high-risk reservations flagged by our risk detection technology," create a "dedicated 'party house' rapid response team," and take "immediate action" against those who violate guest policies, Chesky wrote.

"We must do better, and we will," he said. "This is unacceptable."

Michael Wang, the owner of the home where the shooting took place, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he rented his house to a woman who said she was organizing a family reunion for a dozen people.

The sheriff's department said they were responding to a noise complaint at the house around the time the shooting was reported.

Three people died at the scene, while two more passed away after being hospitalized, police said.

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8chan owner vows changes in House testimony over links to mass shootings

WASHINGTON - 8chan, the online message board linked to several recent mass shootings, plans to restrict parts of the website during a "state of emergency," the site's owner Jim Watkins told a US House panel in a written statement.

Watkins completed his closed-door deposition on Thursday, said Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and Ranking Republican Mike Rogers. The panel last month subpoenaed the American living in the Philippines to answer its questions about whether the website "amplifies extremist views, leading to the radicalization of its users."

Watkins "provided vast and helpful information to the Committee about the structure, operation, and policies of 8Chan and his other companies. We look forward to his continued cooperation with the Committee as he indicated his desire to do so during today’s deposition," they said in a joint statement.

"If 8chan comes back online, it will be done when 8chan develops additional tools to counter illegal content under United States law," Watkins said in the statement released by his lawyer.

"If 8chan returns, staff would implement a way to restrict certain parts of the website during a state of emergency, in which case any board in question would be put in a read-only mode until it would be deemed safe enough to enable posting again," it said.

Critics last month pressed tech companies to shun 8chan, which in its Twitter profile describes its location as “The Darkest Reaches of the Internet" and has become a hotbed for white extremist content.

Thompson and Rogers said last month the shooting deaths of 22 people at an El Paso Walmart store was "at least the third act of supremacist violence linked to your website this year."

The El Paso gunman allegedly posted a 4-page statement on 8chan before his attack, while the site was also apparently used this year by the shooters who attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand and a synagogue in Poway, California, lawmakers told Watkins in a letter last month.

Benjamin Barr, a lawyer for Watkins, said in a statement to the committee, that "8chan has never tolerated illegal speech and has a consistent track record of working with law enforcement agencies when appropriate."

Watkins said 8chan "has worked responsibly with law enforcement agencies when unprotected speech is discovered on its platform. No single platform can sensibly prevent all hateful, illegal, or threatening speech - it can only act in due time to remove it."

The company did remove some posts soon after mass shootings in Texas, California and New Zealand, he said.

But Watkins added, "my company has no intention of deleting constitutionally protected hate speech. I feel the remedy for this type of speech is counter speech, and I'm certain that this is the view of the American justice system."

The message board has been voluntarily down since late August.

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Obama: Reject language from leaders that 'normalizes racist sentiments'

WASHINGTON -- Former President Barack Obama responded to the weekend mass shootings in Ohio and Texas on Monday with a plea to Americans to reject the language of hatred, fear and intolerance from any of their leaders.

"We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments," Obama said in a statement posted on Twitter that did not refer to President Donald Trump by name.

The shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, killed 31 people.

A 21-year-old white man has been charged with capital murder in Saturday's shooting spree in Texas. Police in El Paso cited a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto posted online shortly before the shooting, which they attributed to the suspect.

Democrats said Trump was indirectly to blame for the attack in Texas, with some drawing connections between his rhetoric to a resurgence in nationalism and xenophobic sentiment.

Trump on Monday proposed tighter monitoring of the internet, mental health reform and wider use of the death penalty in response to mass shootings.

Trump did not address accusations that his own anti-immigrant and racially charged comments have contributed to a rise in race tensions, nor did he call for broad gun control measures.

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Deadliest recent mass shootings in the US

Nine people were killed by a gunman in a mass shooting in the US state of Ohio early Sunday, hours after a shooting in Texas killed 20.

Here are of some of the other deadliest recent mass shootings in the United States:

Vegas concert: 58 killed 
From his hotel, a 64-year-old retired accountant shoots down on a crowd attending an outdoor country music concert on October 1, 2017, killing 58 people and wounding around 550 before committing suicide. It is the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

Florida club: 49 killed
A heavily armed gunman opens fire inside a gay nightclub in the city of Orlando on June 12, 2016, killing 49 people. The attacker is killed in a shootout with police. He pledges allegiance to the Islamic State group, which later claims responsibility.

Sandy Hook: 26 killed 
A 20-year-old man with a history of mental health issues kills his mother in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012 before blasting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and shooting dead 20 six- and seven-year old children and six adults. He commits suicide.

Texas church: 25 killed
A 26-year-old man who was court-martialed while in the Air Force shoots dead 25 worshippers during Sunday services and wounds at least 20 others at a Baptist church in the small rural community of Sutherland Springs outside San Antonio, Texas, on November 5, 2017. The shooter flees and is later found dead in his car with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Florida high school: 17 dead
A 19-year-old former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who was expelled for disciplinary reasons returns to the school in Parkland, Florida, and opens fire on February 14, 2018, killing 14 students and three adult staff members. The gunman's trial is expected to begin in January 2020.

California office party: 14 dead 
A radicalized Muslim couple storm a Christmas office party at a social services center in San Bernardino in December 2015 and gun down 14 people, wounding 22 others. They are shot dead by police.

Virginia Beach: 12 dead 
A disgruntled engineer shoots dead 12 at a municipal building in this coastal city on May 31, 2019. The 40-year-old had worked for the public works department in Virginia Beach for about 15 years before carrying out the rampage at his workplace. He died in a gunfight with police.

California bar: 12 dead 
On November 7, 2018, a 28-year-old US Marine Corps combat veteran opens fire in a crowded country music bar in California, killing 12 people. The assailant, a troubled former machine gunner who served a tour in Afghanistan, dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Colorado cinema: 12 dead
A young man wearing body armor opens fire in a movie theater showing a late-night premiere of a Batman film in Aurora, Colorado in July 2012. Twelve people are killed and 70 wounded. He is sentenced to life in prison.

Synagogue in Pittsburgh: 11 dead
On October 27, 2018, a 46-year-old gunman bursts into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburg during Shabbat services, killing eleven people. He reportedly yells "All Jews must die!" during the attack. He is indicted on 29 counts, some of which carry the death penalty. 

High school in Santa Fe: 10 dead
A 17-year-old student armed with a shotgun and a revolver opens fire just as classes are starting at his school in Santa Fe, Texas, on May 18, 2018, killing ten people including eight students. The student, who authorities say used weapons legally owned by his father, is taken into custody on murder charges. 

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Gunman kills 20 at Texas Walmart store in latest US mass shooting

EL PASO, Texas --A gunman armed with an assault rifle killed 20 people Saturday when he opened fire on shoppers at a packed Walmart store in the latest mass shooting in the United States.

As residents of the southern border town of El Paso in Texas tried to absorb the full horror of what is being treated as a potential "hate crime," fresh calls rang out to end the nationwide "epidemic" of gun violence.

It was the second fatal shooting in less than a week at a Walmart store in the US and comes after a mass shooting in California last weekend. 

One suspect was taken into custody while authorities were studying an extremist manifesto purportedly written by the gunman.

Footage shot on camera phones appeared to show multiple bodies lying on the ground in the store's parking lot while El Paso authorities made a desperate appeal for blood donations. 

Other footage showed terrified shoppers running out of the store as gunfire echoed.

Two to 82 years

"Twenty innocent people from El Paso have lost their lives," Texas Governor Greg Abbott told a press conference.

"We as a state unite in support of these victims and their family members... We pray that God can be with those who have been harmed in any way and bind up their wounds."

Police chief Greg Allen confirmed that in addition to the 20 confirmed fatalities, there were 26 wounded.

Various news reports said the ages of victims being treated at hospitals ranged from two to 82 years.

Police said that Walmart was "at capacity" at the time of the shooting, with 1,000 to 3,000 customers inside.

After officials initially said three people had been detained, police confirmed that a 21-year-old from Allen, Texas, was the only person in custody.

"Right now we have a manifesto from this individual that indicates to some degree, it has a nexus to potential hate crime," Allen said.

US media named the suspect as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, who is white.

The "manifesto" purportedly written by Crusius that was circulated online includes passages railing against the "Hispanic invasion" of Texas and the author makes clear that he expected to be killed during his attack.

Witnesses said the gunman appeared to be shooting at random when he opened fire around 10:30 a.m.

One woman, who gave her name as Vanessa, said she had just pulled into the Walmart parking lot when the shooting began.

"You could hear the pops, one right after another and at that point as I was turning, I saw a lady, seemed she was coming out of Walmart, headed to her car. She had her groceries in her cart and I saw her just fall," she told Fox News.

The witness said the gunman wore black t-shirt, combat trousers and was wearing ear muffs.

"He was just shooting randomly. It wasn't to any particular person. It was any that would cross paths."

Another shopper described how he managed to avoid being hit by hiding along with his mother between two vending machines just outside the store.

"That's where the individual tried to shoot at me, which he missed cause I kind of ducked down," Robert Curado told the El Paso Times.

'How you doing, brother' 

Video captured by a witness in the parking lot in the immediate aftermath of the shooting showed three people lying motionless on the ground.

One had fallen next to a truck, while two were on the sidewalk outside the store entrance. " Ambulance! Help!" people cried as they rushed to the victims.

"How you doing, brother, how you doing," one man was heard saying on the recording.

A still captured from CCTV showed the gunman carrying what appeared to be an AK-47.

President Donald Trump, who is spending the weekend at his golf club in New Jersey, condemned the "terrible" shooting after being briefed by Attorney General Bill Barr and Abbott.

It has been a particularly bad week for gun violence in the United States.

Two people died and a police officer was wounded Tuesday at a Walmart in Mississippi.

Last Sunday a 19-year-old gunman opened fire at a food festival in northern California, killing three, including two children.

Beto O'Rourke, a former US congressman for El Paso who is now running for president, cut off his campaigning in the wake of the shooting.

"I'm incredibly saddened and it's very hard to think about this. But I tell you El Paso is the strongest place in the world, this community is going to come together," he told supporters.

Elizabeth Warren, a senator who is among the frontrunners for the Democratic party's presidential nomination, said "far too many communities have suffered through tragedies like this already.

"We must act now to end our country's gun violence epidemic," she said.

Another presidential hopeful Cory Booker said the US had "to end this national nightmare" and "find the moral courage to take action to end this carnage."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

4 dead, 2 wounded in Los Angeles shooting spree

LOS ANGELES - Four people were shot dead and two were wounded on Thursday in a shooting spree that spread across several Los Angeles neighborhoods and touched off a 12-hour manhunt before police tackled and arrested an armed suspect.

A Los Angeles police spokesperson identified the suspect as Gerry Zaragoza, 26, and said he was held on pending murder charges in the shooting deaths of his father and brother, and the wounding of his mother with a gunshot. The spokesperson did not identify the victims.

The shooting spree started at an apartment the suspect shared with his parents at about 2 a.m. on Thursday in LA's Canoga Park, police said.

Police said the suspect also allegedly shot and killed a woman he knew at a gas station in North Hollywood about 45 minutes later, but did not characterize their relationship.

Some media referred to her as a former girlfriend, others as an acquaintance.

At the same time, he allegedly shot and wounded a gas station clerk. The man was shot five times and was in critical condition, the Los Angeles Times and other media reported.

Later, at about 7:45 a.m., police said Zaragoza allegedly shot a gardener he tried to rob at an ATM. And at about 1 p.m. he allegedly shot and killed a man on a bus in the Van Nuys neighborhood, police said.

Media reports say he did not know the man on the bus and that the shooting appeared to be random.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Zaragoza was arrested in Canoga Park after being tackled by plain clothes officers about 2:30 p.m. Police used a taser to subdue him.

An LAPD spokesperson had no information on any bond set for Zaragoza, but said he remained in police custody early Friday. It was unclear if he had an attorney.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Virginia Beach gunman was disgruntled city engineer — police

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.—The gunman who killed 12 people at a Virginia Beach municipal building before dying in a shootout with police was identified on Saturday as a disgruntled city engineer and co-worker of most of the victims.

All but one of the victims from the mass shooting in the coastal resort community were employed by the city, officials said, while the other was a contractor seeking a permit. Four people were wounded.

The gunman, DeWayne Craddock, had worked for the city's public utilities department for about 15 years, Virginia Beach Police Chief James Cervera said at a news conference. He declined to comment on any possible motive.

"This is a large-scale crime scene, it’s a horrific crime scene," Cervera said, adding that investigators who spent the night inside the building endured a "physical, emotional and psychological toll."

It was the worst mass shooting in the United States since November 2018, when a dozen people were slain at a Los Angeles-area bar and grill by a gunman who then killed himself.

Bodies were found on all three floors of the Virginia Beach building and in a car parked outside, according to authorities.

Police said the gunman used an employee pass to enter secure areas before firing "immediately and indiscriminately" on his victims with a .45 caliber handgun equipped with a "sound suppressor" device and multiple extended ammunition magazines. They said more weapons were found at the scene and at Craddock's home.

Two police supervisors from a building across the street arrived within minutes, Cervera said, and the suspect was killed after a lengthy gun battle.

The victims who worked for Virginia Beach had been employed for between 11 months and 41 years. Six worked in the public utilities department and five were employed in the public works department.

"They leave a void that we will never be able to fill," City Manager Dave Hansen told reporters.

A number of vigils are planned in Virginia Beach to commemorate the victims.

MAKESHIFT BARRICADES

The bloodshed unfolded at Building Two of a municipal center complex on Friday afternoon as workers prepared to leave for the weekend. Some survivors recounted how they cowered in fear after stacking desks against office doors as makeshift barricades.

The four people who were seriously wounded were still being treated at local hospitals. They included a police officer whose life was saved by his ballistic vest, Cervera said.

According to local media, Craddock was 40 years old and had no serious criminal record.

He served in the Virginia National Guard from 1996 to 2002, and was assigned to a Norfolk-based battalion as a cannon crew member, a guard spokesman said in an email. Craddock's records do not indicate any overseas deployments, the spokesman said.

The scene of the shooting lies several miles inland from the town's popular seashore, situated on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Virginia's most populous city has roughly 450,000 year-round residents.

Virginia Beach police had trained for a mass shooting, and had even planned to hold a citizen workshop on active shooter situations on Saturday. The workshop was canceled.

President Donald Trump said in a message on Twitter on Saturday that he had spoken to Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and Virginia Beach officials and offered the federal government's help. "God bless the families and all!" Trump said.

(Reporting by Gary Robertson in Virginia Beach; Additional reporting and writing by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Paul Simao)

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1 killed in Colorado shooting

Parents gather in a circle to pray at a recreation center where students were reunited with their parents after a shooting at a suburban Denver middle school Tuesday, in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, USA. At least one person was reported killed and 8 others injured, according to local reports.

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A year after US school massacre, gun control remains elusive

MIAMI - On Valentine's Day of last year, a 19-year-old armed with a military-style assault rifle walked into his old high school in Parkland, Florida and slaughtered 17 people.

That spasm in America's epidemic of gun violence gave new impetus to the debate on controlling firearms, prompting marches across the country and a fresh round of hand-wringing in cable news studios.

Many of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School survivors such as David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez remain national figures a year on -- a testament to their tenacity in keeping the atrocity in the headlines -- yet concrete reform has remained limited and local.

Meanwhile America risks becoming inured to the carnage: four months before Parkland a gunman killed 58 people at a festival in Las Vegas while, 16 months earlier, a massacre at a gay night club in Orlando left 49 dead.

Nearly 1,200 children lost their lives to gun violence in the year since Parkland, according to a report from McClatchy newspapers and The Trace, a non-profit that chronicles firearms issues. More than 200 teen journalists banded together to profile the young victims for the report.

And with 37 mass shootings -- those with at least four victims, not including the assailant -- recorded already in the US this year, it is tempting to conclude that almost nothing has changed.

The inertia on gun control endures despite the best efforts of the Parkland students, who rejected the usual outpourings of sympathy offered by politicians and launched a nationwide movement seeking tougher regulation on sales.

"So many shootings have happened and you get 'thoughts and prayers' and then nothing happens," said Ryan Servaites, who survived the shooting.

"It's an absolute shame that our government has done absolutely nothing about it. So you know, we're fed up," Servaites, 16, told AFP.

'OUR CHILDHOOD ENDED'

A month after the shooting, the student activists brought together hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Washington, under the "March for Our Lives" banner.

The teenagers toured 26 states, visiting schools and talking with lawmakers. They published a book, took part in an HBO documentary and, most importantly, caused state laws to be changed.

"In just 11 minutes, our childhood ended," Hogg and Gonzalez wrote in November in The Washington Post.

Florida is governed by Republicans and posed a major challenge for the student activists. But they successfully pushed for passage of state laws opposed by the powerful US gun lobby, the National Rifle Association.

Among other changes, a "red flag" law was passed allowing judges to order the seizure of guns from people deemed to be mentally unstable and the minimum age for purchasing a gun was raised to 21.

The sale and possession of devices known as bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire as fast as illegal machineguns, and which were used to such deadly effect in Las Vegas, were also banned.

In December, President Donald Trump barred them at the national level.

After Parkland, 26 states and US capital Washington approved 67 laws related to gun control, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

In a report last December, the center said the movement for gun safety in America "experienced a tectonic shift in 2018."

BIG PLANS FOR 2019

Yet significant nationwide reform to slash gun deaths has largely eluded the activists, who have vowed to entrench their campaign in 2019.

On Friday last week lawmakers from both parties presented Congress with a bill that would require universal background checks prior to gun purchases.

Under current laws, licensed dealers must carry out background checks on would-be buyers, but loopholes allow people to avoid such checks if they buy from a private seller, at gun shows or over the internet.

Defenders of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which establishes the right to bear arms, will fight the bill.

The NRA said such a law would not dissuade criminals, who will always find some way to acquire a firearm.

"These bills attack law-abiding gun owners by placing further burdens on gun ownership and use," its website states.

Tom Palmer, a gun rights supporting political scientist and vice president of free-market think tank Atlas Network, told the Miami Herald the two sides in the gun debate could not be more polarized.

"The gun control people see their opponents as people who don't care about human life, and the gun rights people see their opponents as people who don't care about human freedom," Palmer said.

Also worth noting: in a closely contested race for Florida's governorship in last November's mid-term elections, NRA-endorsed Republican Rick DeSantis beat Democrat Andrew Gillum, who backed stricter gun controls.

Undeterred, a group of Parkland survivors launched a petition on Monday which, if it garners the almost 800,000 signatures needed, will trigger a referendum on banning military-style assault rifles in Florida.

Meanwhile Nikolas Cruz, the defendant in the Parkland shooting, awaits his day in court. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty on 17 counts of pre-meditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.

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Hundreds line up to donate blood after California bar shooting

THOUSAND OAKS, California - The fatal shooting of a dozen people at a Western-themed bar in Thousand Oaks, California, inspired hundreds of area residents to line up for hours on Thursday to donate blood for the wounded.

The blood drive drew at least 300 people to a trailer parked outside a Catholic high school. The line snaked down the driveway and along the street.

The blood drive has been scheduled before the massacre late on Wednesday at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, which had a reputation as one of the country's safest cities.

The big turnout followed a call for donations after the shooting. On a normal day, fewer than 60 people might be expected to turn out, school officials said.

“It just shows great community spirit, it shows people helping people, it doesn’t matter the color of their skin, where they’re from, it doesn’t matter,” said Steven Peisner, 56.

Law enforcement officials said 10 to 15 people went to hospitals with injuries, including at least one with gunshot wounds. The suspected shooter was found inside the bar with a fatal gunshot wound.

Peisner, a regular blood donor from nearby Calabasas, wore a leather vest festooned with metal pins commemorating the dozens of gallons of blood platelets he has donated over the years.

A number of young people in line said they had some connection to the victims or survivors of the shooting.

Delaney Kenney, 17, who was in line, said her brother was a friend of a woman who died in the shooting.

“He’s pretty devastated,” said Kenney, who attends a local high school.

Aaron Lacombe, 23, of Thousand Oaks, said he thought he might have known one of the victims from his days at California Lutheran University. He also has been to the bar, which he described as an “upbeat” place.

“I grew up in this community, went to school in this community, so I kind of felt the obligation to get out here and do what I could,” Lacombe said.

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Relatives mourn death of Fil-Am teen killed in Southern California shooting

THOUSAND OAKS, California - Shock and sadness loomed over the Housley family as their kin, Alaina, was identified among the 12 victims in the Borderline Bar and Grill massacre earlier this week.

The 18-year-old Filipino American recently moved to the area to study in Pepperdine University, the same school where her parents met.

"Words can’t describe our grief over losing our daughter, Alaina," Alaina's father, Arick Housley, said in a statement.

"She was everything we could hope for in a child: kind, smart, beautiful and respectful," he said.

Housley also described his daughter as "a mock trial lover" who enjoyed public debates.

"She would have enjoyed the public debate that is certain to happen after this tragedy, but she would have insisted that it be respectful with an eye toward solving these senseless shootings," Housley said.

"It’s time for leadership in our country to step up," he said.

The family found out about the teen's death in the middle of the night, after a day of searching and hoping, Alaina's maternal grandfather, Ernesto Punzalan, told ABS-CBN News.

"We were hoping she just went somewhere because of the incident but unfortunately it turns out she was one of the victims," Punzalan said.

"Her dad and her mom were there for 4 years and we never had any case like this. This is really a shocking incident," he said.

Punzalan said he last saw his granddaughter in April at her high school graduation and was supposed to meet her during her recital before Christmas.

"It's very unfortunate. She played piano and violin," he said.

"She’s a nice girl, she’s academically extraordinary, she’s involved in all school activities, and athletics also academic and class activities extra curricular activities," he said.

"She has been a very good girl and I hope she will rest in peace," he said.

Pepperdine University held a prayer service for Alaina, Thursday afternoon.

The 18-year old and 11 others were killed by a lone gunman who stormed a crowded bar, Wednesday evening.

Authorities are still looking into the motive of the mass shooting incident.

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Gunman kills 12 in California bar packed with students

THOUSAND OAKS, United States - A gunman killed 12 people, including a police officer, when he opened fire in a country music bar packed with college students in California, officials and witnesses said Thursday.

Police said the gunman was found dead inside the bar on the outskirts of Los Angeles although it was not immediately clear if he was killed by officers or shot himself.

Speaking at press conference in the wee hours of Thursday, a sheriff said that around a dozen other people had been injured. He said the motive of the shooting and the identity of the shooter were not known.

It was the second mass shooting in America in less than two weeks.

Witnesses said that the gunman, who was wearing a black trenchcoat, throw several smoke grenades inside the Borderline Bar and Grill before he started he shooting at around 11:20pm on Wednesday night.

"It's a horrific scene in there. There is blood everywhere," Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean told reporters.

"We have no idea if there is a terrorism link to this or not. As you know, these are ongoing investigations and that information will come out as soon as we are able to determine exactly who the suspect was and what motive he might have had for this horrific event."

"Nothing has led me to believe or the FBI there is a terrorism link here. We certainly will look at that option."

Dean said that the dead police officer, who was named as Ron Helus and had been on the force for 29 years, was among the first on the scene.

"They found 11 victims that had been killed," said Dean of the first response unit before detailing that the death of Helus brought the toll to 12, not including the gunman.

The venue in the quiet, upscale Thousand Oaks suburb had been hosting an event for college students, with possibly several hundred young people in attendance, Captain Garo Kuredjian of the Ventura County Sheriff's office said earlier.

Matt Wennerstron, a 20 year old college student and regular at the bar, said the shooter fired a short-barreled pistol that apparently had a 10-15 round magazine.

"It was just semi-automatic, as many shots as he could pull, and then when it started to reload that's when we got people out of there and I didn't look back."

He said he and others smashed their way out of the bar onto a balcony and then jumped down to safety. "One bar stool and straight through a window," he told reporters.

TV footage showed SWAT teams surrounding the bar, with distraught revelers milling around and using their cell phones as lights from police cars flashed.

Holden Harrah, a young man who saw the incident, cried as he told CNN that a place where he goes every week to have fun with friends had been a scene of carnage.

"A gentleman walked in the front door and shot the girl that was behind the counter. I don't know if she is alive," he said.

- 'He shot a lot' -

The Los Angeles Times quoted a law enforcement official as saying at least 30 shots had been fired.

An unnamed witness told the newspaper that someone ran into the bar around 11:30 pm and started shooting what looked to be a black pistol.

"He shot a lot, at least 30 times. I could still hear gunshots after everyone left," the Times quoted the man as saying.

It was the latest chapter in America's epidemic of gun violence.

Only 10 days ago a gunman killed 11 worshipers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

That shooting was politically sensitive: the suspect, Robert Bowers, who said he wanted to kill Jews, argued that a Jewish advocacy group had been aiding a Central American migrant caravan denounced repeatedly by President Donald Trump in the run-up to Tuesday's midterm election.

Last year a country music festival called Route 91 in Las Vegas was the scene of the worst mass shooting in modern US history. A gunman shooting from the 32 floor of a hotel and casino with high power weapons killed 58 people.

Carl Edgar, a 24 year old regular at the Thousand Oaks club, said he was in the bar with about 20 friends and had not been able to reach some of them since the shooting. They may have turned their phones off, he said.

"A lot of my friends survived Route 91," he told the Times. "If they survived that, they will survive this.”

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At least 11 reported wounded in California bar shooting

WASHINGTON  - A gunman barged into a large, crowded Los Angeles-area country music bar and dance hall and opened fire late Wednesday, wounding at least 11 people including a police officer, US police said.

The venue in a quiet, upscale residential suburb was hosting an event for college students, with possibly several hundred young people in attendance, Captain Garo Kuredjian of the Ventura County Sheriff's office said.

Witnesses told CNN the attacker had a large handgun, wore a black trench coat and glasses and threw smoke grenades inside the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks.

Kuredjian said at around 0915 GMT that the shooter was still confined inside the premises, adding that he did not know if he had been subdued or shot. 

TV footage showed SWAT teams surrounding the bar, with distraught revelers milling around and using their cell phones as lights from police cars flashed.

Holden Harrah, a young man who saw the incident, cried as he told CNN that a place where he goes every week to have fun with friends had been a scene of carnage. 

"A gentleman walked in the front door and shot the girl that was behind the counter. I don't know if she is alive," he said.

Police who responded to reports of a shooting rushed to the scene and engaged the gunman, said Kuredjian.

A deputy sheriff is among the 11 wounded and the injury toll could rise, he added.

The Los Angeles Times quoted a law enforcement official as saying at least 30 shots had been fired.

An unnamed witness told the newspaper that someone ran into the bar around 11:30 pm and started shooting what looked to be a black pistol.

"He shot a lot, at least 30 times. I could still hear gunshots after everyone left," the Times quoted the man as saying.

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No clear motive found for 2017 Las Vegas massacre, says sheriff

Police have uncovered no clear motive for the gunman who killed 58 people at outdoor concert in Las Vegas last year, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, a sheriff said on Friday.

Stephen Paddock, 64, a retired real estate investor, poured gunfire from a sniper's nest in his 32nd-floor Mandalay Bay hotel suite into a crowd of more than 20,000 people attending a music festival in October 2017, then killed himself before police stormed his room.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Joe Lombardo said law enforcement can answer questions as to where, when and how Paddock operated, but had been unable to uncover his exact motive.

"What we have not been able to definitively answer is the why Steven Paddock committed this act," he told a televised news conference in releasing a final criminal investigative report.

Paddock, who had amassed an arsenal of high-powered weapons and accessories, did not leave a suicide note or manifesto explaining his actions, Lombardo said.

The sheriff has previously noted that a large loss of money by Paddock just before the shooting could have been a factor.

At the news conference, Lombardo described Paddock as "an unremarkable man" whose movements leading up to the massacre did not raise any major suspicion.

Lombardo said the investigation concluded there was no second shooter and no conspiracy behind the killing. He also delivered an emotional message to the hundreds of people injured and the families of those killed.

"The heaviest burden will be carried by the families of those who didn't come home and those who suffered life-changing injuries and psychological trauma," he said. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz Editing by Tom Brown)

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