Category Archives: Gun crime

‘There are two pandemics’: Chicago’s gun violence persists amid lockdown

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Shootings and murders have remained fairly consistent during shelter-in-place, with the city registering more shootings in March than the previous year

The coronavirus pandemic has forced Chicago into lockdown, closing restaurants, bars, stores and even its celebrated lakefront. But the crisis hasn’t slowed the city’s devastating gun violence epidemic.

While crime overall has ticked down slightly amid shelter-in-place orders from local leaders, shootings and murders have remained fairly consistent so far, with the city registering more shootings in March this year than the previous year.

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Thailand shopping mall shooting: what we know so far – video report

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A soldier shot dead 26 people and injured at least 52 before he was killed by police at a Thai shopping mall. Eight people were held hostage by the gunman in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima, according to sources quoted by Reuters. Dozens more were trapped for hours on Saturday night as police attempted to regain control of the seven-floor building

• Rogue soldier shot dead after Thai shopping mall massacre

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Thai PM defends security at military base after soldier’s killing spree

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Rogue soldier stole weapons from base and opened fire at mall, leaving at least 29 dead

Thailand’s prime minister has denied suggestions that arms were not properly secured at a military base where a rogue soldier stole multiple weapons before killing at least 29 people in a mass shooting.

Prayuth Chan-ocha described the attack as unprecedented and responded abruptly when he was asked about details of the operation to stop the attack and about the theft of the weapons.

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Mass shooting in Seattle leaves one dead and seven injured

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  • Police searching for suspect
  • Attack marks third shooting in the area in two days

Eight people were shot in Seattle on Wednesday, authorities said, and one of them succumbed to their injuries.

The Seattle fire chief, Harold Scoggins, said authorities began receiving calls at about 5pm warning of multiple gunshot victims. One person was found dead in a heavily trafficked area of downtown and five others were taken to a Seattle hospital, he said.

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Two people struck by gunfire during US New Year’s Eve celebrations

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  • Three-year-old wounded by backyard gunfire in Phoenix
  • 61-year-old woman killed by stray bullet in Houston

A three-year-old boy was shot and wounded in Phoenix and a 61-year-old woman was shot and killed in Houston as people celebrated the New Year, authorities said.

Related: Headless torso found in cave identified as murderer who escaped jail in 1916

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Texas shooting details supercharge NRA’s ‘good guy with a gun’ defense

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Security duo shot and killed gunman in Texas, prompting gun-rights groups to urge states to pass laws expanding firearms access

Every time the US suffers another mass shooting, gun rights activists make an argument that goes something like this: if a good guy with a gun had been there, this terrible tragedy could have been prevented.

Related: Texas shooting: two dead and one injured at Fort Worth church

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2019 saw most mass killings on record, US database reveals

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Thirty-three of 41 incidents involved firearms, research shows, even as overall number of homicides fell

This year saw the highest number of mass killings on record, database records show, with 41 incidents claiming 211 lives in 2019 even as the overall US homicide rated dropped.

According to the database complied by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University, 33 of the incidents, defined as when four or more people are killed excluding the perpetrator, involved firearms.

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Riley Howell, US student who died tackling gunman in shooting, honored as Jedi

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The Star Wars fan has been immortalised in a visual dictionary as Ri-Lee Howell, Jedi master and historian

A college student hailed by police as a hero for preventing more injuries and deaths after a gunman opened fire in a classroom has been immortalized as a Jedi by the production company behind the Star Wars franchise.

News outlets report the family of Riley Howell, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte student who is described as a huge Star Wars fan, was tipped off by Lucasfilm in May that it planned to honor him in a forthcoming book, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary.

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Gun violence is a health crisis. More policing isn’t the solution

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The unsung heroes of Oakland’s drastic reduction in gun violence are the communities themselves

There is a saying, made famous by the criminal justice reformers Glenn Martin and Piper Kerman, that those closest to the problem are closest to the solution, but are also furthest from the resources and power to address it.

No one is closer to the decades-long epidemic of violence in Oakland than those who have grown up around it, those who live daily with the specter of violence, whose sleep has been punctured by the sound of gunfire, whose lives are forever marked by the pain of loved ones lost. Now that Oakland homicides are finally on the decline, it is these people, and the organizations within which they work, who are the unsung heroes.

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Jersey City shooting at Jewish store was ‘targeted attack’ – video

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A four-hour long gun battle which left six people dead started as a targeted attack by two suspects on a Jewish kosher market in New Jersey, say officials.

Police in the New York metropolitan area were put on high alert to protect Jewish neighbourhoods after the attack

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Pentagon suspends military training of Saudi students after Pensacola shooting

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  • Decision grounds more than 300 military aviation students
  • Three US military members were killed in shooting Friday

The Pentagon announced on Tuesday it was halting operational training of all Saudi Arabian military personnel in the United States until further notice in the wake of the deadly shooting by a Saudi air force officer.

The decision will have far-reaching impacts, including grounding more than 300 Saudi Arabian military aviation students.

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Houston police chief criticises politicians and NRA after officer death – video

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Houston's police chief Art Acevedo criticised politicians for not standing up to the National Rifle Association after the the fatal shooting of an officer. 'The NRA doesn't like the fact that we want to take firearms out of the hands of boyfriends that abuse their girlfriends. And who killed our sergeant? A boyfriend abusing his girlfriend,' Acevedo said


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Pensacola shooting: FBI working with presumption it was ‘act of terrorism’

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No arrests made, FBI said, while Mark Esper instructed US armed forces to review security at military bases

Three days after a Saudi air force lieutenant shot dead three people at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida, the FBI said it was working “with the presumption that this was an act of terrorism”.

The gunman who struck in a classroom at Naval Air Station Pensacola on Friday morning was killed by sheriff’s deputies, two of whom were among eight people wounded. All were expected to survive.

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Pensacola: suspect watched mass shooting videos at dinner party, official says

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  • Three killed before gunman shot at US navy base
  • Student who attended dinner party filmed outside building where shooting took place, official says

The Saudi student suspected of killing three people at a US navy base in Florida hosted a dinner party earlier in the week where he and three others watched videos of mass shootings, a US official told the Associated Press on Saturday.

Related: Pensacola shooting: Saudi student kills three at Florida naval air station, says official

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Saudi student kills three in attack at Florida naval air station, says official

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  • Shooter killed by sheriff’s deputies who responded
  • Saudi government condemns the attack

An aviation student from Saudi Arabia opened fire in a classroom building at the naval air station (Nas) in Pensacola, Florida, on Friday morning, a US official said, an attack the Saudi government quickly condemned and that US officials were investigating for possible links to terrorism.

The assault, which left three dead in addition to the assailant, was the second at a US navy base this week and prompted a massive law enforcement response and a lockdown at the base.

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Santa Clarita: Students escorted out of Saugus high school after reports of active shooter – video

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At least two people have died and several more have been injured in a shooting at Saugus high school in Santa Clarita, California, on Thursday. Footage showed sheriff's deputies swarming the school and lines of students being escorted away

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Santa Clarita: multiple people hurt in high school shooting, authorities say

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  • Police say ‘male suspect in black clothing’ not yet apprehended
  • Shooting happened at Saugus high school in California city

Authorities said multiple people were hurt in a shooting on Thursday morning at Saugus high school in Santa Clarita, a city 30 miles north of Los Angeles.

The Santa Clarita sheriff’s department said “a male Asian suspect [in] black clothing” had not been apprehended and told people “anywhere near” Saugus high to lock themselves inside.

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Father of black woman killed by police in her Fort Worth home dies

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Marquis Jefferson, whose daughter Atatiana was shot dead by police during a welfare check, has died from a heart attack

The father of a black woman fatally shot by a white police officer inside her Fort Worth, Texas, home has died.

A spokesman for Marquis Jefferson, Bruce Carter, told the Dallas Morning News that the father of Atatiana Jefferson suffered a heart attack and died Saturday night at a Dallas hospital. Carter told KDFW that Jefferson “just couldn’t get back from what happened with his daughter”.

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After a Halloween party shooting, focus on Airbnb policy draws outrage

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A community is frustrated by the lack of empathy for the five victims shot at an event in an affluent San Francisco Bay area city

Five days after a mass shooting at an Airbnb in a small, wealthy community left five people dead, residents across California’s Bay Area are frustrated by the response from law enforcement and news media and their focus on Airbnb policies rather than the victims of the killing.

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Boy, 15, charged in Chicago Halloween shooting of seven-year-old girl

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A 15-year-old boy was charged on Friday night with attempted murder in the suspected gang-related shooting of two people on Chicago’s West Side, including a seven-year-old girl who was out trick-or-treating in a bumblebee costume when she was shot in the neck and critically injured.

The shooting was another grim example of children in the city being caught in crossfire while walking down the street, sitting on a porch or laughing with friends inside a house.

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