Two dead in school shooting in Saudi Arabia; no children present

RIYADH - Two people were killed and another injured when a man opened fire inside a private school's administration building in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh, on Wednesday, but no students were present, the head of the school told Reuters.

The shooting was "a case of a disgruntled employee," said Talal al-Maiman, CEO of Kingdom Holding and chairman of Kingdom Schools, which operated the school.

"It is with regret that the administration building of Kingdom Schools witnessed this morning a shooting incident by an Arab national who was dismissed from the school four years ago on the basis of anger issues and an unstable personality," he told Reuters.

The victims were a Saudi national and a Palestinian national, he said, and the situation at the school was contained as of mid-afternoon.

The school had been closed about a week before the Ramadan holiday, in line with a royal decree. The holiday began on Saturday. Police cars could be seen at the school campus, but the scene was otherwise quiet.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said it was a "criminal case" and that Riyadh Police would issue a statement with further details.

Kingdom Schools is owned and operated by Kingdom Holdings, a company of Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. It is situated in northern Riyadh.

Maiman said the school's private security guards followed established procedures until the case was handed over to government authorities.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Police officer killed, 2 hurt in Paris shooting

PARIS - A French policeman was shot dead and two others were wounded in a shooting in central Paris on Thursday night before the gunman himself was killed by officers, police and the Interior Ministry said.

The Islamic State group claimed the shooting, days before French presidential elections, via its Amaq news agency, naming the attacker as Abu Yousif the Belgian. President Francois Hollande said he was convinced it was a terrorist attack.

A second suspect who might have been involved in the incident on the Champs Elysees shopping boulevard may still be on the loose, authorities said. The famous wide street that leads away from the Arc de Triomphe that had earlier been crowded with Parisians and tourists enjoying a spring evening remained closed off hours after the incident.

France has lived under a state of emergency since 2015 and has suffered a spate of Islamist militant attacks, mostly perpetrated by young men who grew up in France and Belgium, and that have killed more than 230 people in the past two years.

Interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said it was too early to say what the motive of the attack was, but that it was clear the police officers had been deliberately targeted.

"A little after 9 PM a vehicle stopped alongside a police car which was parked. Immediately a man got out and fired on the police vehicle, mortally wounding a police officer," Brandet said.

Officers at the scene said they were searching for a potential second assailant, and Brandet said it could not be ruled out that there was another or others involved.

Officers also conducted a search at the home in eastern Paris of the dead attacker.

"I came out of the Sephora shop and I was walking along the pavement.... A man got out of a car and opened fire with a kalashnikov on a policeman," witness Chelloug, a kitchen assistant, told Reuters.

"The policeman fell down. I heard six shots, I was afraid. I have a two year-old girl and I thought I was going to die... He shot straight at the police officer."

POLICE CLEAR THE AREA
Police authorities called on the public to avoid the area.

TV footage showed the Arc de Triomphe monument and the top half of the Champs Elysees packed with police vans, lights flashing and heavily armed police shutting the area down after what was described by one journalist as a major exchange of fire near a Marks and Spencers store.

The incident came as French voters prepared go to the polls on Sunday in the most tightly-contested presidential election in living memory.

"We shall be of the utmost vigilance, especially in relation to the election," said President Francois Hollande, who is not himself running for re-election.

Earlier this week, two men were arrested in Marseille who police said had been planning an attack ahead of the election.

That incident brought issues of security and immigration back to the forefront of the campaign, with the anti-immigration National Front leader Marine Le Pen repeating her call for Europe's partly open borders to be closed.

A machine gun, two hand guns and three kilos of TATP explosive were among the weapons found at a flat in the southern city along with jihadist propaganda materials according to the Paris prosecutor.

Candidates in the election said they had been warned about the Marseille attackers. Francois Fillon, who is the conservative candidate, said he would cancel the campaign events he had been planning for Friday. In November, 2015, Paris was rocked by near simultaneous gun-and-bomb attacks on entertainment sites, in which 130 people died and 368 were wounded. Islamic State claimed responsibility. Two of the 10 known perpetrators were Belgian citizens and three others were French.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Protesters remain on Charlotte streets, defying midnight curfew

CHARLOTTE, United States - Hundreds of protesters defied a midnight (0400 GMT) curfew Friday and continued demonstrations in Charlotte, North Carolina over the fatal police shooting of a black man.

An AFP correspondent at the scene reported several hundred demonstrators milling around the downtown area of the southern US city for a third consecutive night, amid a strong police presence.

The protests follow the shooting on Tuesday of Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old African American -- the latest in a string of police-involved killings of black men that have fueled outrage across the United States.

North Carolina's governor has declared a state of emergency in Charlotte, and several hundred National Guard troops and highway police officers were deployed to reinforce the local force.

Police late Thursday fired tear gas and what appeared to be rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators blocking a main highway, but the demonstrations otherwise proceeded in a relatively calm manner.

Earlier, several hundred demonstrators blocked one lane of a major highway near the Bank of America Stadium, with some lying down as panicking drivers turned their cars around and drove off in the wrong direction.

In the center of Charlotte, the atmosphere was calmer as hundreds marched to the city police station carrying signs saying "Stop killing us" and "Resistance is beautiful."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Shooting incident in SM Megamall causes panic

MANILA, Philippines – An alleged shooting incident in SM Megamall Saturday night caused panic among shoppers.

Initial reports from several mall-goers said gunshots were heard and stores have been shut down.

According to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), a robbery incident occurred inside the mall’s department store at around 7:40 p.m.

Mandaluyong Police have yet to verify what caused the shooting incident, as of posting.

The mall’s entry points have been closed and people are not being allowed to enter.

Ambulances are also on standby outside the mall. -- Report from Robert Mano, dzMM

source: abs-cbnnews.com

Officer fatally shot near Texas A&M was serving eviction notice

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- A county constable was serving an eviction order when he was killed Monday, prompting a shootout in which the suspected gunman and an unidentified man also died, according to local police.

A police officer and a 55-year-old woman were shot and wounded, and two other police officers also suffered non-life-threatening injuries while responding to reports of the initial shooting, according to College Station Assistant Police Chief Scott McCollum.

He was shot by officers who responded to a 911 call of shots fired at a home in a leafy neighborhood near the Texas A&M University campus shortly after noon, McCollum said at a late afternoon press conference.

The gunman was identified as Thomas Caffall, 35, according to College Station Police spokeswoman Officer Rhonda Seaton.

The gunfire prompted Texas A&M to issue a Code Maroon warning on its website just before 12:30 p.m., stating that an "active shooter’’ was in the area and warning students and others to stay away.

Brazos County constable Bryan Bachmann was shot by a 35-year-old man at the home, McCollum said. He refused to describe the gunman’s weapon, whether he owned or rented the home, or whether he said anything at the time of the shooting.

McCollum said police "took fire from the suspect’’ and fired back, "neutralizing the threat.’’

He added: "They took cover and defended themselves.’’

The other officer who was shot was treated for a leg wound, said Seaton.

She said one injured officer was treated at the scene and another at a local hospital. Neither had been shot, Seaton said.

Seaton declined to provide information about the circumstances in which a 65-year-old man was shot dead at the scene. She said only that he was shot by the gunman.

The wounded woman was undergoing surgery for at least one bullet wound and was listed in critical but stable condition, she said. No other information about her was released.

Seaton said she believed the gunman was renting the home, and police were seeking information from the home's owners.

Officers blocked streets surrounding the home on Fidelity Street in College Station's historic Southside neighborhood and cordoned off several areas with yellow police tape. Officers were investigating "multiple scenes,’’ McCollum said.

"We have a lot of information coming in, a lot of witnesses to secure," he said.

George Clemenceau, 20, said he was at a nearby house when shots rang out just after noon. He said he could hear the whizzing as bullets passed overhead.

Clemenceau said he saw an older man lying on his back, dressed in a flannel shirt, jeans and work boots. The man appeared to have been shot in the back, he said.

He thought: "That was someone like me that was just out on the street.’’

source: latimes.com

Finland gunman kills two students

HELSINKI -- Police arrested Saturday an 18-year-old man in camouflage fatigues suspected of killing two students in a shooting targeting restaurants packed with teenagers in southern Finland.

The gunman opened fire around 1:53 am (2253 GMT) from a rooftop in Hyvinkaa, a city about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Helsinki, aiming at two restaurants where many young people had gathered outside, police said.

The motives for the attack were not yet clear.

Finland has in recent years been hit by several cases of deadly shootings by teenagers, and President Sauli Niinisto said the killing sprees showed that "something has broken in society".

An 18-year-old woman was killed on the spot in Saturday's attack while an 19-year-old man later died from his injuries. Both were students at a local technical college.

Another seven people were hurt including a 23-year-old police officer who was wounded as she left her vehicle after arriving at the scene, a police spokesman said.

"Shooting erupted suddenly," Jani Kuronen, a man in his 20s, told public television YLE. "People starting running. One person had a horrible wound on the face. I called an ambulance."

Another witness, Santeri Silvenoinen, said he heard the gunshots and "then looking around me, I saw a woman lying on the ground and I started running."

Police did not identify the suspect, but said he was dressed in camouflage fatigues. He was arrested near Hyvinkaa, a city of 45,000 people, without putting up any resistance.

Three firearms including a hunting rife were seized from the suspect, who was not in possession of any gun permits, police said, adding that he had no criminal record.

Asked about the gunman's motives, police spokesman Satu Koivo said an investigation was ongoing, adding: "For the moment, it is not possible to confirm anything."

The spokesman told AFP however that police did not believe that the gunman knew his victims.

Hyvinkaa mayor Raimo Lahti told YLE that the whole town was in shock.

On September 23, 2008, a student who went on a murderous rampage at a school in Kauhajoki in the southwest killed 10 people before turning his gun on himself.

In a similar incident on November 7, 2007 at Jokela, not far from Hyvinkaa, an 18-year-old killed seven classmates and the headmistress then shot himself in the head.

source: interaksyon.com