Category Archives: Gun crime

Texas gunman who killed eight had ‘neo-Nazi’ ideation, say officials

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Mauricio Garcia, who was discharged from the US army in 2008, reportedly also had Nazi tattoos on his body

The gunman who killed eight people and wounded seven others at a suburban Dallas shopping mall had no prior criminal record but had “neo-Nazi ideation”, authorities said on Tuesday.

Investigators are still trying to determine why Mauricio Garcia opened fire on Saturday at the Allen Premium Outlets, Hank Sibley, the regional director of the Texas department of public safety, said at a news conference.

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US on track to set record in 2023 for mass killings after series of shootings

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Country is seeing an average of more than one mass killing weekly – amid little political prospect of meaningful gun control

After a series of shootings and other attacks, 2023 is on track to be the worst in recent history for mass killings in the US.

Mass killings are defined as incidents in which four or more people are killed, not including the shooter or other type of perpetrator. According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, the US is on pace for 60 mass killings this year. There were 31 in 2019, 21 in 2020, 28 in 2021 and 36 in 2022.

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‘Gun-loving’ ex-US army officer calls for gun control after witnessing Texas mall shooting

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Steven Spainhouer described rushing to the shopping center after his son called and trying to help a girl who ‘had no face’

As an ex-police and US army officer, Steven Spainhouer is comfortable around firearms and goes so far as to describe himself as a “gun lover”.

But Spainhouer is now passionately arguing in favor of meaningful gun control after witnessing a rifle-wielding man murder several people before being shot to death by police outside a suburban Dallas shopping mall Saturday.

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Texas mall shooting: family and friends identify victims as investigation goes on

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Police chief Brian Harvey declined to answer questions Sunday evening after a gunman killed eight people at a shopping mall

The victims of a mass shooting have been named as law enforcement officials in Allen, Texas, are still trying to piece together the events of the Saturday afternoon attack that killed nine people, including the gunman, and left at least seven others injured at a suburban shopping mall.

Brian Harvey, the Allen police chief, declined to answer questions Sunday evening, saying of the investigation, “we actually don’t have a lot”.

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Serbians march in silent protest against gun violence after last week’s shootings

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Protesters condemn gun culture and call for officials to resign after 17 people were killed in under 48 hours

Tens of thousands of Serbians have rallied in the capital, Belgrade, with the protesters calling for the resignation of top officials and the curtailing of violence in the media, after back-to-back shootings stunned the Balkan country.

The “Serbia against violence” demonstration saw members from across the country’s political divide come together after last week’s shootings in which 17 people were killed in less than 48 hours – including nine at an elementary school in the capital.

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Texas takes step toward more gun control as US mass shootings on record pace – as it happened

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The United States is suffering mass shootings this year at a pace that means 2023 is already on track to become a record year for such killings – even as the Republican-controlled legislature of Texas took a small step towards greater gun safety laws.

The mass shooting in Allen, Texas, on Saturday was the second deadliest gun massacre of the year and just the latest in a string of such killings that are blighting 2023 and leaving many Americans in despair that action will be taken to stem the bloodshed.

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Nine dead including gunman after shooting at mall outside Dallas

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Shoppers flee in panic after gunman steps out of silver sedan and opens fire at Premium Outlets mall

Witnesses have described a scene of terror and chaos after a gunman killed eight people and wounded seven others at a shopping mall outside Dallas, Texas on Saturday.

Hundreds of terrified shoppers fled in panic after a man stepped out of a silver sedan and opened fire at the Premium Outlets mall, a sprawling outdoor shopping centre in Allen, a community of about 100,000 people.

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One person killed and at least four injured in shooting in midtown Atlanta

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Police are actively searching for the suspect and additional victims after incident inside building in commercial area

One person was fatally shot and at least four injured on Wednesday in a shooting in a midtown Atlanta building, police said.

Atlanta police, who were still searching for the suspect on Wednesday afternoon, said there had been no additional shots fired since the initial shooting unfolded just after 12.30pm in a waiting room on the 11th floor of the Northside Hospital in midtown Atlanta, a commercial area with office buildings and high-rise apartments.

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Officials arrest Texas man accused of killing five of his neighbors

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Police had launched a four-day manhunt for Francisco Oropeza, who is accused of shooting his neighbors after a noise complaint

The Texas man accused of killing five of his neighbors in the rural town of Cleveland last week was arrested Tuesday after a four-day manhunt, authorities said.

Greg Capers, the San Jacinto county sheriff, said that Francisco Oropeza, 38, was arrested less than 20 miles (32km) from Cleveland. Law enforcement arrested him about an hour after someone called the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s tip line, according to Jimmy Paul, assistant special agent in charge with the FBI’s Houston division.

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Texas man who killed five, including eight-year-old boy, could ‘be anywhere’

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Suspect in fatal shooting of neighbors after noise complaint could be as far as ‘10 or 20 miles’ from murder scene, sheriff says

The man suspected of killing five people, including an eight-year-old boy, with an AR-15-style weapon after neighbors asked him to stop shooting in his yard could be anywhere by now, authorities in Houston, Texas, have said.

The manhunt for 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza could now be as wide as “10 or 20 miles” from the murder scene, San Jacinto county sheriff Greg Capers told reporters late Saturday, more than 24 hours after the shooting occurred near the town of Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston.

Associated Press contributed to reporting

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‘Fearful and trigger happy’: flooded with guns and paranoia, the US reels from shootings

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Permissive self-defense and gun laws spotlighted by recent shootings in which victims approached gunmen by mistake

Waldes Thomas and Diamond Darville were driving for the grocery delivery service Instacart near Miami in mid-April when they drove the order up to the wrong address.

Thomas, 19, and Darville, 18, reportedly told authorities they were backing away from the home when the owner emerged with his son, grabbed on to the driver’s window and fired a gun three times at their car. Antonio Caccavale, who didn’t hit anyone, later reportedly claimed to police who investigated the encounter that he shot because he feared for his and his son’s lives as Thomas and Darville’s car ran over his foot and struck a boulder.

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Texas man fatally shoots five neighbors after noise complaint, sheriff says

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Police are searching for suspect in after shooting in Cleveland, in which one of the victims was an eight-year-old child

After neighbors complained about the noise he was making, a Texas man went next door with an AR-15-style rifle and shot them, killing five people – including an eight-year-old child – as well as wounding three others at a home in Cleveland, Texas, on Friday night.

Law enforcement patrolling the community more than 40 miles outside of Houston were searching for Francisco Oropeza, 38, who had been intoxicated and fled the scene, the sheriff of San Jacinto county, Greg Capers, told reporters on Saturday.

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Republicans ‘glorify political violence’ by embracing extreme gun culture

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Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed two people at an anti-racism protest, was guest of honor at Idaho Republican party fundraiser

Republicans in Idaho have been criticized for “glorifying political violence” after the party hosted Kyle Rittenhouse, the American who shot and killed two people at an anti-racism protest and injured another, as a celebrity guest at a fundraiser.

The 20-year-old was the guest of honor at a Bonneville county Republican party event, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on 15 April, where an AR-15 style rifle signed by Rittenhouse was auctioned off as part of a fundraiser and people could buy tickets to “Trigger time”: a Rittenhouse-hosted shooting event at a gun range.

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Florida prosecutor investigates shots at couple lost while delivering groceries

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Incident in Broward county was one of a spate involving people lost, at wrong address or getting into wrong car by mistake

A Florida prosecutor on Sunday ordered an investigation into a confrontation in which a homeowner fired shots into a couple’s car after they mistakenly turned on to his property while making a late-night grocery delivery.

Police closed the case without consulting the state attorney.

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Calls grow for man who shot Black teen Ralph Yarl to be charged with hate crime

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Homeowner, 84, already faces two felonies for shooting Black teen who knocked on wrong door to pick up siblings

A lawyer for the family of Ralph Yarl, the Black 16-year-old who was shot by a white man in Kansas City, Missouri, after ringing his doorbell by mistake, said the case should qualify as a hate crime.

“Ralph Yarl was shot because he was armed with nothing but other than his Black skin,” Lee Merritt told the Associated Press.

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‘Buckets of tears’: mother of Black teen shot after going to wrong address speaks

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Cleo Nagbe speaks out after white man charged with Missouri’s equivalent for attempted murder for shooting Ralph Yarl

The mother of Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who was shot by a white man after ringing the man’s doorbell, says that her son has been mentally replaying the shooting “over and over”.

Cleo Nagbe says that her son is still facing physical challenges from last week’s attack, when Andrew Lester, a white Kansas City resident, shot Yarl twice, once in the head and once in the arm, after the 16-year-old went to a mistaken address to pick up his siblings.

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Woman shot dead in New York state after friend drove into wrong driveway

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Kevin Monahan charged with second-degree murder of Kaylin Gillis after opening fire on car

A woman looking for a friend’s house in upstate New York was shot dead after the car she was riding in mistakenly went to the wrong address and was met with gunfire in the driveway, authorities have said.

Kaylin Gillis, 20, was travelling through the rural town of Hebron with three people on Saturday night when the group made a wrong turn on to the property.

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Four people killed and 28 injured in Alabama shooting at birthday party

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Most of the victims teenagers from shooting at dance studio during 16th birthday party in Dadeville

At least four people were killed, including a high school football player, in a shooting that erupted during a birthday party held inside a dance studio in the small town of Dadeville, Alabama, state police and local news media said.

More than 28 people were injured, some critically, during the shooting about 60 miles (100km) north-east of the state capital of Montgomery, authorities said. The shooting started shortly after 10.30pm on Saturday.

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One in five Americans has had family member killed by gun violence – study

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Research, published a day after five shot dead at Louisville bank, reflects increasing incidence of gun-related attacks

One in five Americans has lost a family member to gun violence, an alarming survey published on Tuesday claims.

The research came out one day after five people were killed by a gunman at a Louisville bank, at least the 15th mass shooting of the month, and 146th this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

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Fifth victim dies in Louisville bank shooting

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The attacker, who livestreamed the shooting, was killed by police but not before he injured eight others

A Louisville bank employee armed with a rifle opened fire at his workplace on Monday morning, killing five people – including a close friend of Kentucky’s governor – while livestreaming the attack on Instagram, authorities said.

Police arrived as shots were still being fired inside Old National Bank and killed the shooter in an exchange of gunfire, Louisville metro police department chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said. The city’s mayor, Craig Greenberg, called the attack “an evil act of targeted violence”.

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