Daniel Perry, 36, convicted of killing Garrett Foster, 28, at Black Lives Matter protest in 2020 while working as ride-share driver
A US army sergeant was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday, for fatally shooting an armed man during a Black Lives Matter protest in Texas – even after the Republican governor said he wanted to pardon the man.
Daniel Perry, 36, was convicted of murder in April for killing Garrett Foster during the downtown Austin protest in July 2020.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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”.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...George Alvarez accused after SUV drove into migrant crowd in Brownsville, as investigators work to determine if crash was intentional
An SUV driver who killed eight people when he slammed into a group waiting at a bus stop in Brownsville, Texas, was charged with manslaughter, police said on Monday as investigators tried to determine if the crash was intentional.
Authorities believe the driver, George Alvarez, 34, of Brownsville, lost control after running a red light on Sunday morning and plowed into a crowd outside a migrant center in the city, which has long been an epicenter for migration across the US-Mexico border.
Continue reading...Federal agents reportedly examining social media history of alleged shooter Mauricio Garcia
US federal officials are looking into whether the gunman who killed eight people at a Dallas-area mall expressed an interest in white supremacist ideology, as they work to try to discern a motive for the attack, a law enforcement official has told the Associated Press.
The official cautioned that the investigation was in its early stages.
Continue reading...Police say crash may have been intentional, and driver was arrested for reckless driving and could face other charges
Seven people have been killed and 10 others were injured after a car plowed into a crowd outside a shelter serving migrants and homeless people in Brownsville, Texas, on Sunday, and investigators believe it may have been intentional, according to authorities.
The car careened into the crowd of people who were sitting on the curb at a bus stop near the Ozanam Center at about 8.30am, the police department in Brownsville, which is near Texas’s border with Mexico, said. That came four days before the scheduled expiration of Title 42, the Covid-19 era policy that allows border patrol agents to swiftly expel migrants at the US’s southern border.
Continue reading...Critics say the Republican senator should advocate for meaningful gun control rather than invoke prayer after mass, deadly violence
Texas US senator Ted Cruz’s comment that he was “praying” for families of the eight victims killed in a shooting at a shopping mall in his state has sparked outrage as many critics say the Republican should advocate for meaningful gun control rather than repeatedly invoke prayer after mass, deadly violence.
The backlash came as President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass gun control bills in the wake of Saturday’s attack, in which the gunman was also killed, in Allen, Texas.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Record minimum temperatures observed in northern India, as clashing conditions bring thunderstorms in US
It has been a historically chilly start to May in India, thanks to an unusually strong low-pressure system that moved in from the west, sweeping humid air from the Arabian Sea across the subcontinent. The resulting overcast skies reduced the heating effect from the sun, which combined with the brisk winds and abnormally high rainfall to lower temperatures significantly.
May is considered the final month of the Indian summer, before the monsoon season begins in June, and is the hottest time of the year for many parts of India. However, in the past week large parts of the country have been about 10C colder than normal, with many weather stations in northern India observing record minimum temperatures for the month.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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
Continue reading...Erick Aguirre arrested on count of murder after allegedly shooting Elliot Nix while on a date at Texas burger restaurant
What started as a date at a Texas burger joint earlier this month ended with one of the participants going to jail after allegedly murdering someone else over $40 and carrying on with the rest of the date as if nothing happened, according to authorities.
Erick Aguirre, 29, stepped away from a dinner date he had with a woman to grab a pistol from his car and shoot 46-year-old Elliot Nix dead after Aguirre learned from a restaurant employee that he had been scammed by a parking attendant, investigators have said.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...The most powerful rocket ever built destroyed its launchpad and sent a plume of concrete dust and rubble into the air
While the spectacle of SpaceX’s new Starship rocket blowing up over the Gulf of Mexico riveted the public’s attention, it was the explosive nature of the launch at ground level that was drawing heightened scrutiny from the government this week.
The shattering force of last Thursday’s launch in south Texas sent a cloud of pulverized concrete raining over a small town nearby, federal regulators said, raising fresh questions about the environmental impact of ramped-up launch operations at the site.
Continue reading...Diane Wilson took on Formosa Plastics and won a $50m settlement to help clean up decades worth of toxic plastic waste
Grassroots activists who took on British mining giants and a serial plastics polluter – and won – are among this year’s recipients of the world’s most prestigious environmental prize.
The environmental campaigns led by the six 2023 Goldman prize winners highlight the hurdles faced by some local activists, who are often on the frontlines confronting the toxic mix of corporate greed and systemic corruption that is fuelling the climate emergency, biodiversity collapse and increasingly forced displacement.
Continue reading...Firefighters rescued one employee from the fire at South Fork Dairy family farm near Dimmitt
More than 18,000 cows died after an explosion and fire at a family dairy farm in west Texas, marking the deadliest such barn blaze on record in the United States.
Firefighters rescued one employee from the South Fork Dairy near Dimmitt on Monday as flames raced through a building and into holding pens, according to images and statements from the Castro county sheriff’s office.
Continue reading...Mifepristone will lose its FDA approval this week unless an appeals court intervenes in a case likely to reach the supreme court
FDA authorization for a key abortion drug could be nullified after Friday, unless an appeals court acts on a Biden administration request to block last week’s ruling suspending approval of the drug.
The drug, mifepristone, is used in more than half of all the abortions in the US. The ruling, issued by a federal judge in Texas, applies across the country.
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