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US Setting Record Pace for Mass Killings​

April 22, 2023 7:19 PM

FILE - Students are taken to a reunification site after a deadly shooting at their school in Nashville, Tennessee, March 27, 2023. The United States is setting a record pace for mass killings in 2023, with an average of one every 6.53 days, according to a data analysis.

FILE - Students are taken to a reunification site after a deadly shooting at their school in Nashville, Tennessee, March 27, 2023. The United States is setting a record pace for mass killings in 2023, with an average of one every 6.53 days, according to a data analysis.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA —
The United States is setting a record pace for mass killings in 2023, replaying the horror on a loop roughly once a week so far this year.

Eighty-eight people have died in 17 mass killings over 111 days. Each time, the killers wielded firearms. Only 2009 was marked by as many such tragedies in the same period of time.
Children at a Tennessee grade school, gunned down on an ordinary Monday. Farmworkers in Northern California, sprayed with bullets over a workplace grudge. Dancers at a ballroom outside Los Angeles, California, massacred as they celebrated the Lunar New Year.

In just the last week, four partygoers were slain and 32 injured in Dadeville, Alabama, when bullets rained down on a Sweet 16 celebration. And a man just released from prison fatally shot four people, including his parents, in Bowdoin, Maine, before opening fire on motorists traveling a busy interstate highway.

"Nobody should be shocked," said Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, was one of 17 people killed at a Parkland, Florida, high school in 2018. "I visit my daughter in a cemetery. Outrage doesn't begin to describe how I feel."

The National Rifle Association did not respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment.

More than 2,842 killed
The Parkland victims are among the 2,842 people who have died in mass killings in the U.S. since 2006, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today, in partnership with Northeastern University. It counts killings involving four or more fatalities, not including the perpetrator, the same standard as the FBI, and tracks a number of variables for each.

The bloodshed represents a small fraction of the fatal violence that occurs in the U.S. annually. Yet mass killings are happening with staggering frequency this year: an average of once every 6.53 days, according to an analysis of The AP/USA Today data.

The 2023 numbers stand out even more when they are compared to the tally for full-year totals since data was collected. The U.S. recorded 30 or fewer mass killings in more than half of the years in the database, so to be at 17 less than a third of the way through is remarkable.

Motives range
From coast to coast, the violence is sparked by a range of motives. Murder-suicides and domestic violence; gang retaliation; school shootings and workplace vendettas. All have taken the lives of four or more people at once since January 1.

Yet the violence continues and barriers to change remain. The likelihood of Congress reinstating a ban on semi-automatic rifles appears far off, and the U.S. Supreme Court last year set new standards for reviewing the nation's gun laws, calling into question firearms restrictions across the country.

The pace of mass shootings so far this year doesn't necessarily foretell a new annual record. In 2009, the bloodshed slowed, and the year finished with a final count of 32 mass killings and 172 fatalities. Those figures just barely exceed the averages of 31.1 mass killings and 162 victims a year, according to an analysis of data dating back to 2006.

Gruesome records have been set within the last decade. The data shows a high of 45 mass killings in 2019 and 230 people slain in such tragedies in 2017. That year, 60 people died when a gunman opened fire over an outdoor country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. The massacre still accounts for the most fatalities from a mass shooting in modern America.

"Here's the reality: If somebody is determined to commit mass violence, they're going to," said Jaclyn Schildkraut, executive director of the Rockefeller Institute of Government's Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium. "And it's our role as society to try and put up obstacles and barriers to make that more difficult."

But there's little indication at either the state or federal level — with a handful of exceptions — that many major policy changes are on the horizon.

Some states have tried to impose more gun control within their own borders. Last week, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a new law mandating criminal background checks to purchase rifles and shotguns, whereas the state previously required them only for people buying pistols. And on Wednesday, a ban on dozens of types of semi-automatic rifles cleared the Washington state Legislature and is headed to the governor's desk.

Other states are experiencing a new round of pressure. In conservative Tennessee, protesters descended on the state Capitol to demand more gun regulation after six people were killed at the Nashville private elementary school last month.

At the federal level, President Joe Biden last year signed a milestone gun violence bill, toughening background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keeping firearms from more domestic violence offenders, and helping states use red flag laws that enable police to ask courts to take guns from people who show signs they could turn violent.

Despite the blaring headlines, mass killings are statistically rare, perpetrated by just a handful of people each year in a country of nearly 335 million. And there's no way to predict whether this year's events will continue at this rate.

Sometimes mass killings happen back-to-back — like in January, when deadly events in California occurred just two days apart — while other months pass without bloodshed.
"We shouldn't necessarily expect that this — one mass killing every less than seven days — will continue," said Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox, who oversees the database. "Hopefully it won't."

Still, experts and advocates decry the proliferation of guns in the U.S. in recent years, including record sales during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

4 killed in US's Maine home; 3 wounded in linked highway shooting​


Man allegedly guns down parents and their 2 friends days after his release from prison​

Joseph Eaton allegedly confessed to the quadruple homicide, police said.

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Looks like the guy from "Sling blade".
 
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US: Shooting at teen birthday party kills several in Alabama​

Published April 17, 2023

At least four people have died and dozens were injured in the shooting at a dance studio. US President Joe Biden has reiterated his call for gun reform after the tragedy.

At least four people were killed and multiple people were injured in a shooting at a birthday party in the small city of Dadeville in the southern US state of Alabama, officials said Sunday.

More than 28 people were injured, some critically, during the shooting late Saturday about 60 miles (97 kilometers) northeast of the state capital of Montgomery.

Officials provided no information about what led to the shooting or whether any suspect had been killed or arrested.

"We're going to continue to work in a very methodical way to go through this scene, to look at the facts, and ensure that justice is brought to bear for the families," Jeremy Burkett, a spokesman for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said.

Shooting at US teenager's party kills four people, wounds 28

Dadeville Police Chief Jonathan L. Floyd asked for patience at a press conference, saying "What we've dealt with is something that no community should have to endure."

"It's going to be a long process, but I do earnestly solicit your prayers," he added.

Ben Hayes, a senior pastor of Dadeville’s First Baptist Church, said the shooting happened at a birthday party and most of the victims were teenagers.

"Dadeville is a small town and this is going to affect everybody in this area," he said.

Shooter targets downtown dance studio during birthday party

Witnesses told CBS-affiliated television station WRBL that the shooting occurred at a dance studio during a birthday party.

Among the dead was a rising US-football star who planned to play college football and was celebrating at his sister's "Sweet 16" birthday celebration.

Philstavious "Phil" Dowdell, a Dadeville High School senior who had committed to Jacksonville State University, was shot dead at the party, his grandmother Annette Allen told local media.

"What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear?" President Joe Biden said in a statement on Sunday.

Biden again urged Congress to pass laws that would make firearms manufacturers more liable for gun violence, ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, and require safe storage of firearms and background checks for gun sales.

"Guns are the leading killer of children in America, and the numbers are rising — not declining," he added. "This is outrageous and unacceptable."
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement that: "This morning, I grieve with the people of Dadeville and my fellow Alabamians. Violent crime has NO place in our state, and we are staying closely updated by law enforcement as details emerge."

The shooting occurred within weeks of two high-profile deadly mass shootings in two other southern US states, Tennessee and Kentucky.

There has been a staggering number of shootings in America this year alone. Data from the Gun Violence Archive show there has been more than 163 mass shootings in 2023. The group defines mass shootings as those in which four or more people are killed, excluding the shooter.


Alabama mass shooting: Police search for motive in Dadeville Sweet 16 attack after 3rd suspect arrested​



Three suspects facing reckless murder charges in Dadeville mass shooting

From left to right, Travis McCullough, 16, and Tyreese "Ty Reik" McCullough, 17, both brothers, and a third suspect, Wilson LaMar Hill Jr., 20, are charged in connection to a mass shooting in Dadeville, Alabama. (Tallapoosa County Sheriff’s Office)


Alabama shooting victim KeKe Smith smiles

Shaunkivia Nicole "Keke" Smith, 17, was killed at a Sweet 16 party in Dadeville, Alabama. (Family of KeKe Smith via AP)





Manhunt underway for Mexican male suspect after shooting in Texas leaves 5 dead, including an 8-year-old child, identified as immigrants from Honduras​

230429-Francisco-Oropeza-mjf-1141-deaede.jpg

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


the problem is not Gun itself , its lack of enough gun or more precisely enough people carrying Gun.
if by law every American over 9 had to carry at least two gun one of them automatic then I'm sure we could solve this mass shooting issues in no time
 

At least 6 killed, dozens injured in weekend shootings across US​


By MATTHEW BROWNtoday


Investigators look over the scene of an overnight mass shooting at a strip mall in Willowbrook, Ill., Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Marton)
Investigators look over the scene of an overnight mass shooting at a strip mall in Willowbrook, Ill., Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Marton)

At least six people including a Pennsylvania state trooper were killed and dozens injured in a string of weekend violence and mass shootings across the U.S.

The shootings in suburban Chicago, Washington state, Pennsylvania, St. Louis, Southern California and Baltimore follow a surge in homicides and other violence over the past several years that experts say accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic.

“There’s no question there’s been a spike in violence,” said Daniel Nagin, a professor of public policy and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University. “Some of these cases seem to be just disputes, often among adolescents, and those disputes are played out with firearms, not with fists.”

Researchers disagree over the cause of the increase. Theories include the possibility that violence is driven by the prevalence of guns in America, or by less aggressive police tactics or a decline in prosecutions for misdemeanor weapon offenses, Nagin said.

As of Sunday evening, none of the weekend events fit the definition of a mass killing, because fewer than four people died at each location. However, the number of injured in most of the cases does match the widely accepted definition for mass shootings.

Here’s a look at the shootings this weekend:

WILLOWBROOK, ILLINOIS​

At least 23 people were shot, one fatally, early Sunday in a suburban Chicago parking lot where hundreds of people had gathered to celebrate Juneteenth, authorities said.
The DuPage County sheriff’s office described a “peaceful gathering” that suddenly turned violent as a number of people fired multiple shots into the crowd in Willowbrook, Illinois, about 20 miles southwest of Chicago.

A motive for the attack wasn’t immediately known. Sheriff’s spokesman Robert Carroll said authorities were interviewing “persons of interest” in the shooting, the Daily Herald reported.

A witness, Markeshia Avery, said the celebration was meant to mark Juneteenth, Monday’s federal holiday commemorating the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

“We just started hearing shooting, so we dropped down until they stopped,” Avery told WLS-TV.

WASHINGTON STATE​

Two people were killed and two others were injured when a shooter began firing “randomly” into a crowd at a Washington state campground where people stayed to attend a nearby music festival on Saturday night, police said.

The suspect was shot in a confrontation with law enforcement officers and taken into custody, several hundred yards from the Beyond Wonderland electronic dance music festival.

A public alert advised people of an active shooter in the area and advised them to “run, hide or fight.”

The festival carried on until early Sunday morning, Grant County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kyle Foreman said. Organizers then posted a tweet saying Sunday’s concert was canceled.

CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA​

One state trooper was killed and a second critically wounded just hours apart in central Pennsylvania on Saturday after a gunman attacked a state police barracks.

The suspect drove his truck into the parking lot of the Lewistown barracks about 11 a.m. Saturday and opened fire with a large-caliber rifle on marked patrol cars before fleeing, authorities said Sunday.

Lt. James Wagner, 45, was shot and critically wounded after encountering the suspect several miles away in Mifflintown. Later, Trooper Jacques Rougeau Jr., 29, was ambushed and killed by a gunshot through the windshield of his patrol car as he drove down a road in nearby Walker Township, authorities said.

The suspect was shot and killed after a fierce gunbattle, said Lt. Col. George Bivens, who went up in a helicopter to coordinate the search for the 38-year-old suspect.

“What I witnessed ... was one of the most intense, unbelievable gunfights I have ever witnessed,” Bivens said, lauding troopers for launching an aggressive search despite the fact that they were facing a weapon that “would defeat any of the body armor that they had available to them.”
A motive was not immediately known.

ST. LOUIS​

An early Sunday shooting in a downtown St. Louis office building killed a 17-year-old and wounded nine other teenagers, the city’s police commissioner said.

St. Louis Metropolitan Police Commissioner Robert Tracy identified the victim who was killed as 17-year-old Makao Moore. A spokesman said a minor who had a handgun was in police custody as a person of interest.

Teenagers were having a party in an office space when the shooting broke out around 1 a.m. Sunday.

The victims ranged from 15 to 19 years old and had injuries including multiple gunshot wounds. A 17-year-old girl was trampled as she fled, seriously injuring her spine, Tracy said.

Shell casings from AR-style rifles and other firearms were scattered on the ground.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA​

A shooting at a pool party at a Southern California home left eight people wounded, authorities said Saturday.

KABC-TV reported authorities were dispatched shortly after midnight in Carson, California, south of Los Angeles.

The victims range in age from 16 to 24, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. They were taken to hospitals, and two were listed in critical condition, the statement said.

Authorities said they found another 16-year-old boy with a gunshot wound when they responded to a call about a vehicle that crashed into a wall nearby.

BALTIMORE​

Six people were injured in a Friday night shooting in Baltimore. All were expected to survive.

Officers heard gunshots in the north of the city just before 9 p.m. and found three men with numerous gunshot wounds. Medics took them to area hospitals for treatment.
Police later learned of three additional victims who walked into area hospitals with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.

The wounded ranged in age from 17 to 26, Baltimore Police Department spokesperson Lindsey Eldridge said.

 

At least 6 killed, dozens injured in weekend shootings across US​


By MATTHEW BROWNtoday


Investigators look over the scene of an overnight mass shooting at a strip mall in Willowbrook, Ill., Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Marton)
Investigators look over the scene of an overnight mass shooting at a strip mall in Willowbrook, Ill., Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Marton)

At least six people including a Pennsylvania state trooper were killed and dozens injured in a string of weekend violence and mass shootings across the U.S.

The shootings in suburban Chicago, Washington state, Pennsylvania, St. Louis, Southern California and Baltimore follow a surge in homicides and other violence over the past several years that experts say accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic.

“There’s no question there’s been a spike in violence,” said Daniel Nagin, a professor of public policy and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University. “Some of these cases seem to be just disputes, often among adolescents, and those disputes are played out with firearms, not with fists.”

Researchers disagree over the cause of the increase. Theories include the possibility that violence is driven by the prevalence of guns in America, or by less aggressive police tactics or a decline in prosecutions for misdemeanor weapon offenses, Nagin said.

As of Sunday evening, none of the weekend events fit the definition of a mass killing, because fewer than four people died at each location. However, the number of injured in most of the cases does match the widely accepted definition for mass shootings.

Here’s a look at the shootings this weekend:

WILLOWBROOK, ILLINOIS​

At least 23 people were shot, one fatally, early Sunday in a suburban Chicago parking lot where hundreds of people had gathered to celebrate Juneteenth, authorities said.
The DuPage County sheriff’s office described a “peaceful gathering” that suddenly turned violent as a number of people fired multiple shots into the crowd in Willowbrook, Illinois, about 20 miles southwest of Chicago.

A motive for the attack wasn’t immediately known. Sheriff’s spokesman Robert Carroll said authorities were interviewing “persons of interest” in the shooting, the Daily Herald reported.

A witness, Markeshia Avery, said the celebration was meant to mark Juneteenth, Monday’s federal holiday commemorating the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

“We just started hearing shooting, so we dropped down until they stopped,” Avery told WLS-TV.

WASHINGTON STATE​

Two people were killed and two others were injured when a shooter began firing “randomly” into a crowd at a Washington state campground where people stayed to attend a nearby music festival on Saturday night, police said.

The suspect was shot in a confrontation with law enforcement officers and taken into custody, several hundred yards from the Beyond Wonderland electronic dance music festival.

A public alert advised people of an active shooter in the area and advised them to “run, hide or fight.”

The festival carried on until early Sunday morning, Grant County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kyle Foreman said. Organizers then posted a tweet saying Sunday’s concert was canceled.

CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA​

One state trooper was killed and a second critically wounded just hours apart in central Pennsylvania on Saturday after a gunman attacked a state police barracks.

The suspect drove his truck into the parking lot of the Lewistown barracks about 11 a.m. Saturday and opened fire with a large-caliber rifle on marked patrol cars before fleeing, authorities said Sunday.

Lt. James Wagner, 45, was shot and critically wounded after encountering the suspect several miles away in Mifflintown. Later, Trooper Jacques Rougeau Jr., 29, was ambushed and killed by a gunshot through the windshield of his patrol car as he drove down a road in nearby Walker Township, authorities said.

The suspect was shot and killed after a fierce gunbattle, said Lt. Col. George Bivens, who went up in a helicopter to coordinate the search for the 38-year-old suspect.

“What I witnessed ... was one of the most intense, unbelievable gunfights I have ever witnessed,” Bivens said, lauding troopers for launching an aggressive search despite the fact that they were facing a weapon that “would defeat any of the body armor that they had available to them.”
A motive was not immediately known.

ST. LOUIS​

An early Sunday shooting in a downtown St. Louis office building killed a 17-year-old and wounded nine other teenagers, the city’s police commissioner said.

St. Louis Metropolitan Police Commissioner Robert Tracy identified the victim who was killed as 17-year-old Makao Moore. A spokesman said a minor who had a handgun was in police custody as a person of interest.

Teenagers were having a party in an office space when the shooting broke out around 1 a.m. Sunday.

The victims ranged from 15 to 19 years old and had injuries including multiple gunshot wounds. A 17-year-old girl was trampled as she fled, seriously injuring her spine, Tracy said.

Shell casings from AR-style rifles and other firearms were scattered on the ground.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA​

A shooting at a pool party at a Southern California home left eight people wounded, authorities said Saturday.

KABC-TV reported authorities were dispatched shortly after midnight in Carson, California, south of Los Angeles.

The victims range in age from 16 to 24, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. They were taken to hospitals, and two were listed in critical condition, the statement said.

Authorities said they found another 16-year-old boy with a gunshot wound when they responded to a call about a vehicle that crashed into a wall nearby.

BALTIMORE​

Six people were injured in a Friday night shooting in Baltimore. All were expected to survive.

Officers heard gunshots in the north of the city just before 9 p.m. and found three men with numerous gunshot wounds. Medics took them to area hospitals for treatment.
Police later learned of three additional victims who walked into area hospitals with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.

The wounded ranged in age from 17 to 26, Baltimore Police Department spokesperson Lindsey Eldridge said.



Willowbrook

St Louis

Baltimore
 
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It's just another shooting in some inner city area..just like it has been for every week for the last 40 years.


See the victims
 

US mass shooting: Man wanted in four killings in Georgia shot dead after manhunt​


367358-andre-longmore.png

A photo of shooting suspect Andre Longmore is shown at a press conference

Another shooting incident happened late Saturday and the suspect behind the alleged killing of four neighbours in the Atlanta suburb of Hampton, Georgia, was killed a day after in a manhunt.

Who were the victims?

Longmore fatally shot four residents of Dogwood Lakes Drive and Dogwood Ridge on Saturday, but the motive behind the killings is unknown.
Hampton City Manager Alex Cohilas said, "This community is grieving. We're thankful we have achieved a resolution in which no more loss of life has occurred."
 

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