Tag Archives: Mass Shooting

Islamic State-linked account posts photo purported to be Orlando nightclub shooter

Police and fire trucks in front of Pulse night club

CAIRO (Reuters) – A Twitter account associated with Islamic State on Sunday posted a photo purported to be Omar Mateen, identified by U.S. authorities as the shooter who killed at least 50 people in a massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

“The man who carried out the Florida nightclub attack which killed 50 people and injured dozens,” the caption accompanying the photo read. There was no official Islamic State statement.

It was not possible to verify whether the picture was in fact of Mateen. Other Twitter accounts linked to Islamist militancy also carried photos of the same individual, and Islamic State supporters posted messages of praise for the attack.

(Reporting by Ali Abdelaty; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Fifty people killed in massacre at Florida gay nightclub: police

Friends/Family mourning at Orlando shooting

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) – A gunman killed 50 people and injured 53 in a crowded gay nightclub in the tourist hub of Orlando, Florida, early on Sunday before being shot dead by police, authorities said, in what appeared the deadliest mass shooting in American history.

The shooter was identified as Omar S. Mateen, a man that a senior FBI official said might have had leanings toward Islamic State militants. Officials described the attack as a “terrorism incident” though cautioned that the suspected Islamist connection required further investigation.

The death toll given by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and police to reporters made the attack the deadliest single shooting incident in U.S. history, eclipsing the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech university, which left 32 dead.

“Today we’re dealing with something that we never imagined and is unimaginable,” Dyer said. Recalling earlier estimates that 20 people had been killed, he added, “It is with great sadness I share that we not have 20 but 50 casualties (dead), in addition to the shooter. There are another 53 …hospitalized.”

A police officer working as a security guard inside the Pulse nightclub, which has operated in downtown Orlando since 2004, exchanged fire with the suspect at about 2 a.m. EDT, police officials said.

A hostage situation quickly developed, and three hours later a squad of officers stormed the club and shot dead the gunman. It was unclear when the gunman shot the victims.

“Do we consider this an act of terrorism? Absolutely, we are investigating this from all parties’ perspective as an act of terrorism,” said Danny Banks, special agent in charge of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. “Whether that is domestic terrorist activity or an international one, that is something we will certainly get to the bottom of.”

When asked if the FBI suspected the gunman might have had inclinations toward militant Islam, including a possible sympathy for Islamic State, Ronald Hopper, an assistant FBI agent in charge, told reporters: “We do have suggestions that the individual may have leanings toward that particular ideology. But right now we can’t say definitively.”

The FBI said it was still trying to pin down whether the mass shooting was a hate crime against gays or a terrorist act.

President Barack Obama ordered the federal government to provide any assistance needed to Florida police investigating the shooting, the White House said in a statement.

The attacker was carrying an assault rifle and a handgun, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said. He was also carrying an unidentified “device”, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said earlier.

Javer Antonetti, 53, told the Orlando Sentinel newspaper that he was near the back of the dance club when he heard gunfire. “There were so many (shots), at least 40,” he said. “I saw two guys and it was constant, like ‘pow, pow, pow,’.”

Video footage showed police officers and civilians carrying injured people away from the club and bending over others who were lying on the ground. Dozens of police cruisers, ambulances and other emergency vehicles could be seen in the area.

‘HORRIFIC ACT’

Pulse is described on its website as more than “just another gay club.” One of the club’s founders and owners, Barbara Poma, opened it in 2004 in an effort to keep alive the spirit of her brother, who died after battling HIV.

The choice of target was especially heart-wrenching for members of the U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, LGBT advocacy group Equality Florida said in a statement.

“Gay clubs hold a significant place in LGBTQ history. They were often the only safe gathering place and this horrific act strikes directly at our sense of safety,” the group said. “We will await the details in tears of sadness and anger.”

It was the second deadly shooting at an Orlando night spot in as many nights. Late Friday, a man thought to be a deranged fan fatally shot Christina Grimmie, a rising singing star and a former contestant on “The Voice”, as she was signing autographs after a concert in the central Florida city.

Orlando has a population of 270,930 and is the home of the famed Disney World amusement park and many other tourist attractions that attracted 62 million visitors in 2014.

(Additional reporting by Letitia Stein in Tampa, Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Chris Michaud in New York and Mary Milliken in Los Angeles; Writing by Frank McGurty and Scott Malone; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Kansas shooting suspect had been served protection order

(Reuters) – The man suspected of killing three people at the Kansas lawnmower factory where he worked had been served a protection order 90 minutes before his shooting spree, which also wounded 14 people, authorities said on Friday.

The suspect, identified as Cedric Ford, 38, was armed with a .223-caliber assault-style rifle and a pistol as he fired randomly at coworkers and others over about 30 minutes on Thursday.

He was killed in an exchange of gunfire with the first police officer to reach the scene, Hesston Police Chief Doug Schroeder, police secretary Jeannine Hoheisel said. Hesston is a town of about 4,000 people about 36 miles north of Wichita, Hoheisel said.

“The man was not going to stop shooting,” Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said at a news conference on Friday, noting that there were up to 300 people in the Excel Industries factory where the worst of the rampage took place. “The only reason he stopped shooting is because that officer stopped the shooter.”

Ford had been served a protection from abuse order earlier Thursday at the factory, which may have triggered the bloodshed, authorities said. He left the factory after being served but began shooting about 90 minutes later.

The order, posted by the Wichita Eagle on its web site, was sought by an unidentified woman who had been living with Ford and said he had been physically abusive. She wrote in the order that he was alcoholic, violent, depressed and in need of medical and psychological help.

Ford had been jailed a couple of times before, Walton said.

Police identified the victims as Renee Benjamin, 30; Josh Higbee, 31; and Brian Sadowsky, 40, according to the KWCH television station.

The shooting began with Ford firing out of his vehicle as he drove through two cities back to the factory, Walton has said. He stole one victim’s car, went to Excel Industries and shot someone in the parking lot before going inside.

Law enforcement officials were checking to see if the firearms were legally purchased.

All 14 wounded victims remain at hospitals and at least five were initially listed in critical condition.

The attack follows a mass shooting in Michigan last weekend, when a driver for car-hailing service Uber [UBER.UL] killed six people.

President Barack Obama, at an event in Jacksonville, Florida, expressed exasperation with the U.S. Congress’ failure to act on gun violence issues.

“The real tragedy is the degree to which this has become routine,” he said.

The number of mass shootings in the United States has elevated gun control as a campaign issue in the November U.S. presidential election.

(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere, Suzannah Gonzales, Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton; Writing by Jon Herskovitz and Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn; Bill Trott and Andrew Hay)

Michigan Uber driver admits role in deadly shooting spree, police say

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (Reuters) – A man working as an Uber driver admitted to the fatal weekend shootings of six people in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a police detective testified on Monday in a case raising questions about how the car service vets its drivers.

Jason Dalton, 45, was denied bail as he made his first court appearance on 16 charges including six of murder that can bring life in prison.

Dalton told detectives “he took people’s lives”, Kalamazoo Public Safety Detective Cory Ghiringhelli testified in a county district court ahead of the suspect’s arraignment.

Dalton appeared via a video link and was seen on a monitor at the Kalamazoo County court wearing glasses and dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit.

When asked if he had anything to say, Dalton, who appeared emotionless through the proceedings, said he preferred to “remain silent”.

The judge denied bail and set March 3 for the next hearing.

After the hearing Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney Jeffrey Getting told reporters Dalton had been cooperative with authorities but possible motives for the shootings were still unclear.

“No one understands why it happened, and that adds to the fear and the sorrow,” Getting said.

Prosecutors alleged Dalton randomly shot multiple times at people during a five-hour period on Saturday at an apartment complex, a car dealership and a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kalamazoo, about 150 miles (240 km) west of Detroit.

Police were investigating reports Dalton drove customers of the Uber car-hailing service the night of the rampage. Two people were wounded in the shootings, including a teenage girl who was initially thought to have died but was showing signs of improvement on Monday, state police said.

Initial checks with a key federal agency indicate Dalton was unknown to both law enforcement and counterterrorism agencies for having any known connection to extremist groups.

President Barack Obama said on Monday he had spoken to the mayor and top law enforcement in Kalamazoo about the shootings and pledged whatever federal support they need.

“Earlier this year, I took some steps that will make it harder for dangerous people like this individual to buy a gun. But clearly, we’re going to need to do more if we’re going to keep innocent Americans safe,” Obama said in remarks before the National Governors Association at the White House.

Uber said on Monday it would not be changing the way it screened its drivers following the weekend shooting spree. It also said Dalton had received “very favorable” feedback from riders.

“There were no red flags, if you will, that we could anticipate something like this,” said Uber’s chief security officer, Joe Sullivan.

Uber drivers use their personal vehicles to ferry customers at prices generally below those of established taxi companies. Critics contend vetting is inadequate and the company never meets potential drivers in person.

“A background check is just that – a background check. It does not foresee the future,” Ed Davis, of the Uber Safety Advisory Board, told a teleconference with reporters.

The Dalton family said in a statement: “There are no words which can express our shock and disbelief, and we are devastated and saddened for the victims and the families of the victims,” Michigan State Police said the shooting began at about 5:30 p.m. (2230 GMT) on Saturday with a woman wounded outside an apartment building. At about 10 p.m., Richard Smith and his son Tyler were killed at the car dealership.

About 15 minutes later four women identified as Mary Lou Nye, 62, of Baroda, Michigan; and Dorothy Brown, 74; Barbara Hawthorne, 68; and Mary Jo Nye, 60, were fatally shot outside the restaurant.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, Mark Hosenball and Ayesha Rascoe in Washington, D.C. Curtis Skinner in San Francisco, Barbara Goldberg in New York, Mary Wisniewski in Chicago and Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Trott and Tom Brown)

FBI: Chattanooga Shooter Motivated By Terrorist Propaganda

The man who killed five people in shootings this summer in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was inspired by foreign terrorist propaganda, FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday.

Comey made the comments while speaking at a news conference in New York.

“We have concluded that the Chattanooga killer was inspired by a foreign terrorist organization’s propaganda,” Comey told reporters, though he added the source of the propaganda couldn’t be determined and stopped short of mentioning a specific group.

“There’s competing foreign terrorist poison out there,” Comey said at the news conference. “But, to my mind, there’s no doubt that the Chattanooga killer was inspired and motivated by foreign terrorist organization propaganda. We’ve investigated it from the beginning as a terrorist case.”

Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire at two military locations on July 16.

The Kuwait native and naturalized U.S. citizen first fired upon a recruiting center, then drove seven miles to a Naval reserve facility and opened fire again. The 24-year-old killed four Marines and a sailor, all of them located at the reserve, before he was killed in a shootout with police.

In a televised address to the nation from the Oval Office on Dec. 6, President Barack Obama called the Chattanooga shooting an act of terrorism. But authorities had offered little public detail about why they believed it was terrorism-related until Comey’s comments Wednesday.

Terrorist groups often use social media to spread propaganda and communicate, and federal lawmakers have proposed new bills to combat that in the wake of the Dec. 2 mass shooting that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California. Obama has also called that an act of terrorism.

California Shooting Suspects Had Arsenal of Bombs and Ammunition

The suspects who allegedly killed 14 people and wounded 21 more during a mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., on Wednesday had a dozen explosive devices in their home, police said.

San Bernardino police chief Jarrod Burguan said at a Thursday news conference that “12 pipe bomb-type devices” were found at the home of the two deceased suspects, along with “hundreds of tools” that the two could have used to manufacture other explosive devices. That’s in addition to an unexploded pipe bomb that Burguan said police discovered at the scene of the shooting.

One day after the violent attack, the nation’s deadliest mass shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012, authorities were still working to piece together the precise set of circumstances that surrounded the carnage. But there were some details that emerged.

Burguan said the suspects, who police have identified as Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, allegedly sprayed between 65 and 75 bullets during a rampage at the Inland Regional Center before fleeing in a dark-colored SUV. They were later killed in a shootout with police.

The chief said police also discovered at least 4,500 additional rounds of ammunition at the home of the married couple, fueling speculation about what the suspects might have been planning. Police had not released an exact motive as of Thursday afternoon, though CNN quoted Burguan as saying that the two “were equipped … and they could have done another attack.”

According to numerous published reports, Farook was an employee of the San Bernardino County Public Health Department, which was hosting a holiday party at Inland Regional Center at the time of the shooting. Burguan is quoted in several reports as saying that Farook left the event angrily and abruptly, then he and his wife returned in tactical gear and began shooting.

Speaking from the Oval Office, President Barack Obama told reporters that the attackers might have had “mixed motives.” The Los Angeles Times quoted a federal law enforcement source as saying that a “combination of terrorism and workplace” was what investigators were focusing on, and they were trying to determine if the act was inspired by or directed by a terrorist group.

Multiple media organizations report that Farook was Muslim, though it’s not clear if he had been radicalized or had any links to religious extremist groups. Co-workers told The Los Angeles Times that he seldom discussed his religion at work, and had attended the same holiday event last year.

A relative told the New York Times the suspects met on an Internet dating site. Farook was born to Pakistani parents in Illinois and Malik was a Pakistani native living in Saudi Arabia. A relative told the newspaper that Farook flew to Saudi Arabia twice, including once to marry Malik. They had been married for about two years, according to an NPR report.

Citing family members, CNN reported that the suspects had a six-month-old daughter that they left at a grandmother’s house sometime on Wednesday. They claimed to be going to the doctor. Instead, police say they went to the party at about 11 a.m. and opened fire. Police believe they were the only two gunmen, and earlier reports of a potential third shooter were inaccurate.

Residents of the Redlands, California, neighborhood where the suspects lived spoke to the BBC and described it “peaceful” and home to “a bunch of innocent people.” The neighbors said there was no indication that the suspects were planning or capable of committing such a shooting.

It was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since a gunman killed 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.