Violence and atrocities : gun violence

Showing posts with label gun violence. Show all posts

Monday, November 14, 2022

Police arrest a student of University of Virginia suspected of shooting dead three football players of the school

In another of incident of gun violence in a school, a student of University of Virginia is suspected of shooting down three of the school's football players. The authorities have identified the suspect as well as the victims. UVA President Jim Ryan announced this during a press conference. The shooting incident injured two other students and one of them is in critical condition. It happened late Sunday night near a campus-parking garage on a bus "full of students." They were returning from a play in Washington, D.C. "This is a sad, shocking and tragic day for our UVA community," Ryan told reporters. Police took the 22-year-old suspect into custody from Henrico County, Virginia and charged him with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony. UVA shooting: 3 football players killed, 2 students wounded and suspect in custody. It seems the suspect was involved in a criminal incident involving a concealed weapon violation outside Charlottesville in February 2021.

The suspect was listed as a member of the UVA football team in 2018, when he was a freshman. He had not been on the football team for over a year. First-year head football coach Tony Elliott said the victims "were all good kids" and that he would talk more about them "when the time is right." Warnings were given to students and staff to shelter in place late Sunday night after the shooting. It was later lifted. Elected leaders of Virginia reacted to the shooting on social media. Gov. Glenn Youngkin went to Twitter and said - "This morning, Suzanne and I are praying for the UVA community." Suzanne Youngkin was his wife. Sen. Tim Kaine added in a tweet - "Heartbroken to hear of another Virginia community devastated by gun violence. Praying for the UVA community and closely monitoring the situation."

Monday, October 24, 2022

A school in Missouri was the scene of another incident of gun violence with three dead, including the shooter

Another tragic incident of gun violence happened at the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in the Midwestern U.S. city of St. Louis, Missouri. The school specializes in the visual and performing arts and has a student body of around 380. On Monday, a gunman opened fire inside the premises of the high school, killed two people and wounded six others. The police fatally shot the suspect. St. Louis Police identified the victims as a teacher and a teenage girl. Other victims suffered gunshot or shrapnel wounds. The police took prompt action to rush to the scene of shooting and exchanged fire with the shooter. That helped to end the violence on priority. Many of the students barricaded themselves in their classrooms for safety. It seems the principal of the school announced a code word over the loudspeaker. That word indicated the presence of a school shooter in the building. 3 Dead, Including Suspected Gunman, at High School Shooting in Missouri.

The identity of the suspected shooter is not yet established. However, the police described him as a man in his early 20s. His motive is also not known. This was the latest such shooting to happen at a U.S. school. Only last May, a gunman killed 19 children and 2 adults in Uvalde, Texas. At that time, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said lawmakers must take measures to stop gun violence. In her words - “Every day that the Senate fails to send an assault-weapons ban to the president’s desk or waits to take any other common-sense action is a day too late for families and communities impacted by gun violence." Such violence leads to not only the death of innocents but to traumatic experiences for those who witness the sight of blood and bodies writhing in pain all around them.

Saturday, October 15, 2022

Another incident of gun violence in North Carolina kills five, police arrests a 15-year-old boy

North Carolina witnessed another incident of gun violence in which a 15-year-old boy shot and killed five people. The gunman is in a critical condition in hospital. Police have not disclosed the identity of the boy. He is alleged to have fatally shot two people in the state's capital city of Raleigh. Later he opened fire on a walking trail, killed three more people, and wounded two others. Those killed included people of different ages an off-duty police officer. Another police officer was also injured but has been released. Raleigh police Chief Estella Patterson said the victims were a racially diverse group, and the motive for the shooting is yet to be established. The police officers cornered the suspect inside a house and arrested him. North Carolina shooting: Boy, 15, arrested after five killed in 'infuriating and tragic act of gun violence'. Governor Roy Cooper described the attack an "infuriating and tragic act of gun violence."

President Joe Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden are grieving with victims' families. He also said that his administration is working with Mr Cooper to help local authorities with their investigation. This incident in Raleigh is the latest in a violent week across America, with another five people killed in a shooting in South Carolina on Sunday. On Wednesday night, two police officers were fatally shot in Connecticut. Incidentally, in this week gunmen have targeted police officers in Greenville, Mississippi; Decatur, Illinois; Philadelphia, Las Vegas, and central Florida. Two of them, one in Greenville and one in Las Vegas, died. The latest violence was the 25th mass killing in 2022 involving fatal shootings. This is as per the database of Northeastern University Mass Killings. The definition of mass killing is one when four or more people are killed, excluding the perpetrator.

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Shooting incident in school in Russia kills at least 17, injures another 24 - gunman takes his own life

A gunman opens fire in a school in central Russia, kills at least 17 people and injures another 24 before committing suicide. The tragic incident happened in the city of Izhevsk, a city located some 600 miles east of Moscow. Russian authorities have identified the gunman. He was in his early 30s and a graduate of the same school. It seems he wore a black T-shirt bearing “Nazi symbols.” His motives are still shrouded in mystery. The dead included 11 children. Another 22 children suffered injuries in the attack. According to the governor of Udmurtia, Alexander Brechalov, the gunman was registered as a patient at a psychiatric facility. He committed suicide after the attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the attack as “inhuman.” Russia: At least 17 dead, 24 wounded in Izhevsk school shooting. A spokesman of the Kremlin said - “President Putin deeply mourns the deaths of people, children, at a school where there was a terrorist attack by a person, who apparently belongs to a neo-fascist group.” He added - the president wishes for the recovery of those injured as a result of this inhuman terrorist attack.

Authorities of Russia reveals that the gunman used two non-lethal handguns adapted to fire real bullets. The guns were not registered. The authorities have launched criminal investigation into the incident on charges of multiple murders and illegal possession of firearms. After the incident, students were made to evacuate the premises and it was cordoned off. The school caters to children aged six to 17. The population of the city of Izhevsk is about 640,000 people and it is located west of the Ural Mountains in central Russia. While shooting in schools is more frequent in the United States and many other countries, it is not so in Russia. In April 2022, a man killed two children and a teacher at a kindergarten in the central Ulyanovsk region before killing himself. Before that, in May 2021, a lone teenage gunman opened fire in the city of Kazan and killed nine people. Seven of them were children. In another incident of 2018, a student at a college in Russian-annexed Crimea killed 20 people. Then he committed suicide. Incidentally, in Russia, military service is compulsory for men aged between 18 and 27. There have been a few incidents in the past of death from gun violence in the military.