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Western Psychiatric Institute And Clinic Shooting

March 8, 2012 by · Comments Off on Western Psychiatric Institute And Clinic Shooting 

Western Psychiatric Institute And Clinic Shooting, At least five people were shot and a police officer was grazed by a bullet Thursday during a shooting at a psychiatric institute in Pittsburgh, the Post-Gazette reported.

One shooter has been “accounted for,” but a possible second shooter might still be inside the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, according to the Gazette. The University of Pittsburgh and adjacent medical center where the clinic is located were placed on lockdown.

WPXI-TV reported that two people have been killed, including one shooter, but that was not immediately confirmed.

The motive behind the shooting was not immediately clear.

Law enforcement officials told the Post-Gazette at least five people were shot, among them a University of Pittsburgh police officer.

Classes are on break this week at the university, however, employees were at work as usual.

Western Pysch, as the clinic is known is “a national leader in providing research-base care and treatment of mental health and addictive disorders,” according to its website.

A message was sent to employees at 2:08 pm local time saying that several people had been injured and that a lock-down was “recommended until further notice.”

It also said, “If safe to do so, tell others of this message.”

A witness told the Post-Gazette she was returning to the clinic when someone warned her not to enter the building because someone was in the lobby shooting people.

Ranger Shot

January 3, 2012 by · Comments Off on Ranger Shot 

Ranger ShotRanger Shot, The suspect in a fatal shooting at Mount Rainier was found dead today in the national park. Yesterday, park ranger Margaret Anderson was shot and killed there. Margaret grew up in Wilton, Conn. for part of her childhood and her husband Eric, also a ranger at Rainier, is a native of Hanson, Massachusetts, where his family still lives. And where his mother and some friends are trying to cope with unimaginable sorrow.

The Anderson family of four, picking out a Christmas tree together just a few weeks ago.

Margaret Anderson in front of the tree on Christmas Eve with her two young daughters, Anna, almost 4, and her little sister, 1 and a half year old Katie.

Just eight days later, sorrow for the family.

Margaret, 34, a ranger at Mt. Rainier, in Washington state, was gunned down at a checkpoint New Year’s morning, as she attempted to stop a man from driving into a snow covered section of the park without chains on his tires.

The suspect, 24-year-old Benjamin Colton Barnes, an Iraq War veteran, who family say suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, was found dead in the park one day later, after more than 100 people were evacuated from Rainier.

Barnes was wanted in a New Year’s Eve shooting of four people in Skyway, a Seattle suburb.

A survivalist, authorities say he fled the scene and headed for Rainier.

“The chaplain called us and told us that she was gone. Oh it’s unbelievable,” said mother-in-law Cindy Anderson.

Margaret’s husband Eric Anderson is also a ranger at Rainier.

He grew up in Hanson, Mass. and was a 1997 graduate of Whitman-Hanson High School.

His parents still live in town, and we spoke with his mother Cindy by phone where she shared with us the unimaginable, her son having to tell his two young daughters about their mother’s death.

“He told the girls yesterday. And the baby doesn’t understand and the older one, she almost seems like she understands. It’s heartbreaking,” Cindy Anderson said.

Neighbor and family friend Mike O’Connell says he grieves for the entire Anderson family.

“I couldn’t think of anything worse. I don’t know how they’re getting through it. It’s a tough situation so God bless them,” O’Connell said.

The national park is still closed.

When we think of park rangers, we think more of rescues in bad weather and from falls on trails.

But this was a law enforcement job and Cindy Anderson says her son and daughter-in-law were not naïve about that in spite of the beauty of the mountains.

The Anderson family will head from Massachusetts to Washington later this week.

School Board Shooting Video

December 15, 2010 by · Comments Off on School Board Shooting Video 

School Board Shooting Video, (AP) – The ex-prisoner who quietly held a school board at gunpoint and began randomly shooting had circled the date on a calendar found in his mobile home, proof that he had been planning the attack for some time, police said.

Shooting at the meeting Bay District Council was not “a spur of the moment thing,” Panama City Police Chief John Van Etten told the Associated Press. Police also found paraphernalia anti-government at home s Clay A. Duke, but the head did not provide details.

“He was obviously not happy with our government,” said Van Etten.

Video of Tuesday’s show meeting Duke, 56 years, complaining about taxes and his wife by the fire district before shooting from close range as the superintendent begged, “Please do not.”

A few minutes earlier, the room was filled with students from accepting prize, but nobody was hurt, except the Duke, who shot himself after exchanging gunfire with a security guard, said the police.

“It could have been a monumental tragedy,” said Superintendent Bill Husfelt. “God was standing before me and I’ll go to my grave believing.”

A video shows the Duke rising from his seat, spray painting a red V on the wall and waving a handgun 9mm Smith & Wesson and ordered everyone to leave the room except the men on the board. They dived under the desk long they had been seated behind as he shot them.

Duke motivation was still dark on Wednesday. He rambled to the Commission on tax increases and his wife, but apparently also created a Facebook page last week that refers to the class struggle and laced with images from the film “V for Vendetta,” in which a mysterious figure fighting a totalitarian government.

The school board was in the midst of a discussion of routine when the Duke went to the front of the room.

“We could tell by the look in his eyes that was not going to end well,” Husfelt told the AP.

Husfelt was calm as he tried to convince the Duke to drop the gun, but the Duke shook his head. The only woman on the board, Ginger Littleton, had been ordered to leave the room too, but she slipped back behind him and stumble his arms fire with his large brown handbag.

“In my mind, that was the last attempt or possibility of diversion,” said Littleton.

Duke, a big fat man in a dark sweater coat became angry and turned around. She fell to the ground, as council members pleaded with her to stop. Duke pointed the gun at his head and said, “You stupid b —-,” but he did not shoot him. She does not know why.

She joked at a press conference Wednesday that his three daughters asked, “Are you just stupid? What were you thinking? I have no answer for that. ”

After several minutes, the video showed Duke slowly raising the gun and leveling Husfelt, who pleaded “Please no, please do not.”

Duke shot twice Husfelt about 8 feet away and squeezed several more laps before the district security chief Mike Jones, a former policeman, bolted police said on Wednesday the pair exchanged at least 14 shots, with Jones Duke hit four times, killing him. Duke then shot himself fatally in the head. Police said he had at least 25 more rounds of ammunition.

Somehow, nobody else in the small room was injured in the clash that lasted several minutes. Husfelt said at least two rounds lodged in the wall behind him.

In brief exchange with the Duke board, he said his wife had been fired by the Northern District of Florida, but never said Husfelt or council that she was or what she did. The members promised to help him find a new job, but the Duke shook his head. Husfelt said Duke does not remember his wife, but would be responsible for his dismissal if the board members should be allowed to leave.

“He said that his wife was fired, but we do not really know what he was talking,” Husfelt told the AP on Tuesday at his home in Panama City.

Duke woman had apparently lived with his mother near Lynn Haven. It was unclear how long they were not living, “said the chief.

Video of the meeting shows Husfelt said Duke: “I have a feeling that you want the cops to come and kill you because you said you’ll die today.” Later, the head of more than 30 schools in the district that includes tourism and beach Air Force Panama City said he was sure someone would be killed.

Tommy Lou Richardson, director of the school district personnel, was at the meeting and called Jones a hero. As Duke was lying on the floor, colleagues cheered the agitated man, who said he never had anyone shot before.

SWAT officers then stormed the room and ordered everyone onto the floor. School officials told them that the Duke was shot and seemed dead. His feet could be seen near the seats of the council.

People gathered at the home of the Duke Women’s Tuesday night asked reporters to leave. On a Facebook page under his name, the entries are dated December 7 and 8. The page displays a cryptic message in the “About Me” section.

“My Will: Some people (the media sponsored by the Government) will say that I was evil, a monster (V) … no … I was just born poor in a country where the rich manipulate, use, abuse, and economically enslave 95 percent of the population. Rich Republicans, Democrats Rich … same same … rich … They take turns to cheat us … our few dollars … pyramid of wealth for themselves. ”

Her Facebook profile picture is the red symbol V, spray painted on the wall at the meeting, and his page with photos of the movie version “V for Vendetta”, who was also a graphic novel.

It quotes the billionaire Warren Buffett, who told the New York Times in 2006: “There is class struggle, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class who make war and we win.”

Duke was charged in October 1999 with aggravated stalking, or launching a missile into a building or vehicle and obstruction of justice, according to state records. He was convicted and sentenced in January 2000 to five years in prison and was released in January 2004. Records indicate Duke was a certified massage therapist before his arrest, but it was unclear whether he was employed.

Attorney Ben Bollinger, who represented Duke at his trial, told The News Herald of Panama City that the Duke was waiting in the woods for his wife with a gun, wear a mask and a bulletproof vest. She confronted him and then tried to leave in a vehicle and the Duke blow the tires.

It was not immediately clear if the woman in Crime 1999 was the same woman Duke was referring to the school board meeting.

Bollinger said in the context of the sentence at Duke, he was required to complete counseling. Bollinger did not return a phone message from the AP.

Copyright © 2010 the Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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