Salon.com > School shooting

A 6-year-old Newtown survivor seeks $100m from Ct.

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 15:56:00 +0000

A lawyer who's asking to sue Connecticut for $100 million on behalf of a 6-year-old Newtown school shooting survivor who heard violence over the school's intercom system says the potential claim is about improving school security, not money.

"It's about living in a world that's safe," New Haven attorney Irving Pinsky told The Associated Press on Saturday. "The answer is about protecting the kids."

Pinsky asked this week to sue the state, which has immunity against most lawsuits unless it gives a party permission to go forward with a claim. Connecticut's claims commissioner couldn't be reached for comment Saturday.

Pinksy's client, whom he calls "Jill Doe" in the claim, sustained "emotional and psychological trauma and injury" on Dec. 14 after gunman Adam Lanza forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and gunned down 20 children and six adults inside in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

The child heard "conversations, gunfire and screaming" over Sandy Hook's intercom after someone in the office apparently switched on the system, according to the claim. Pinsky said Saturday he didn't know whether his client saw anyone die.

Man arrested after online threats to shoot up LA schools

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:11:00 +0000

According to the LA Times, a man has been arrested for threatening to shoot up schools via Facebook. Via the LA Times:

Investigators received information about the Facebook post on Sunday, sources said. When officers arrived at the suspect's Northeast Los Angeles home about 2 p.m., they found numerous weapons inside.

The suspect was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats. His name, age and address have not been released by authorities.

Following the mass shooting in a Connecticut school Friday, which left 20 children dead, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced daily dedicated patrols in Los Angeles schools to protect against potential shooters would begin when children return from their holiday break. Police departments in states across the country have put in place similar plans in the wake of the Newtown massacre.

6-year-old played dead among friends’ bodies at Sandy Hook

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:47:00 +0000

In yet another horrifying detail to emerge from the Newtown school massacre, ABC reported that one six-year-old girl was the only child from her class of 16 to survive the shooting. She reportedly played dead among the bodies of her murdered friends.

The little girl was the first person to escape the school; she ran out of the building "covered from head to toe with blood" according to the account of a local pastor, who has been counseling the child's mother. "The first thing she said to her mom was, 'Mommy, I'm OK but all my friends are dead,'" Pastor Jim Solomon told ABC.

Oklahoma HS student arrested for plotting massacre

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 17:22:00 +0000

Police arrested a high school student in Bartlesville, Okla. Friday for allegedly plotting a school massacre involving guns and bombs, the Tulsa World writes. Bail was set at $1 million.

The paper reports:

“Sammie [Eaglebear Chavez] tried to recruit other students to assist him with carrying out a plan to lure students into the school auditorium where he planned to begin shooting them after chaining the doors shut,” Bartlesville Police Lt. Kevin Ickleberry wrote in the affidavit, which was filed in Washington County District Court.

“He also told them that if the students assisting him did not do what they were supposed to do, he would not hesitate to kill them and/or himself.”

Police were notified of the plot Thursday afternoon by school administrators who had been told of the alleged plan by another student, the affidavit states. Chavez had told the students he would place bombs by the auditorium doors and that when police arrived, he would detonate them.

The affidavit also states that Chavez had acquired a Colt .45 pistol, and had been trying to secure a map of the school. In addition students had witnessed him researching the 1999 Columbine massacre and instructions for making pipe bombs.

CBS station KJRH reports that Chavez was arrested at 5 a.m. Friday morning, before the massacre in Newtown, Conn.

Now’s the time to talk guns

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 19:02:00 +0000

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney may wish he could take back these words. But pressed at a press conference to talk about whether the Sandy Hook school shooting tragedy would motivate President Obama to push to renew the assault weapons ban, Carney replied:

It does remain a commitment of his. What I said is, today is not the day, I believe as a father, a day to engage in the usual Washington policy debates. I think that that they will come, but today is not that day, especially as we are awaiting more information about the situation in Connecticut.

I beg to differ. Today is precisely the day. It's true, we still don't know details about the weapons the school shooter, or shooters, used in Connecticut. But we know that there are too many guns, and that the gun lobby fights all efforts to regulate them. The grief and outrage sparked by the Newtown tragedy ought to strengthen the arguments of those who fight for sane restrictions, as well as broader mental health services.

UPDATE: 26 dead in Connecticut school shooting

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 18:16:00 +0000

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) - CBS News is reporting at least 27 people, including children, have died in shooting at a Connecticut elementary school Friday morning.

The shooter was killed and apparently had two guns, a person with knowledge of the shooting said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way.

It wasn't clear how many people were injured at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. A dispatcher at the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps said a teacher had been shot in the foot and taken to Danbury Hospital.

Stephen Delgiadice said his 8-year-old daughter heard two big bangs and teachers told her to get in a corner. His daughter was fine.

School shooting liveblog

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:54:00 +0000

[liveblog id=43]

Our school shooting

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 01:00:00 +0000

I felt a familiar, creeping dread when I saw the first mention of the July shooting in Aurora, Colorado, on Twitter and again not two weeks later when I read newspaper reports about the massacre at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. It had been even worse when I first became aware of the shootings at Virginia Tech and Columbine.

These incidents upset me not only because the violence was shocking and terrible to consider – a fear so deep we don’t allow ourselves to think about it until moments like this: that an ordinary day will be shattered by pain, death, loss and the horrible accident of being in the wrong place at the wrong time -- but also because I am not only an observer. The images from these news stories open a portal to my past and bring up memories that have dimmed but never cease to be accompanied by grief, confusion and the question, "Why did this have to happen?"