History > 2008 > USA > Gun violence (V)

Man in a Santa Suit Kills

at Least 8 at a Party

December 26, 2008
The New York Times
By SOLOMON MOORE and ANAHAD O’CONNOR

COVINA, Calif. — A man in a Santa Claus outfit opened fire on a Christmas Eve gathering of his in-laws in this Los Angeles suburb and then methodically set their house ablaze, killing at least eight people and injuring several others, the authorities said Thursday.

Shortly after the attack, the gunman, identified as Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, 45, killed himself with a single shot to the head at the home of his brother in the Sylmar section of Los Angeles, the police said.

In addition to the eight people whose bodies were found in the ashes of the house here, none of whom were identified, at least one other person was thought to be missing, and perhaps as many as three. Among the total of dead or missing were the couple who owned the home and their daughter, the estranged wife of the gunman, the police said.

Investigators continued to search the charred structure Thursday, and coroners said dental records would be needed to identify some of the remains.

The frenzied shooting occurred just before midnight Wednesday at the two-story house, set on a cul-de-sac in this middle-class town about 22 miles east of Los Angeles. Lt. Pat Buchanan of the Covina Police Department said Mr. Pardo, armed with one or two handguns and fire accelerant, had gone to the house looking for his former wife, Sylvia, with whom he was finalizing a contentious divorce after only a year of marriage.

People who escaped the house got out by smashing through glass and jumping. One woman broke an ankle when she leapt from a second-floor window.

The house was owned by James and Alicia Ortega, an elderly couple who were retired from their spray-painting business and who often invited their large extended family over for parties, particularly around Christmas.

Relatives said about 25 people, among them many children, were inside the home celebrating when Mr. Pardo knocked on the door around 11:30 p.m. He had apparently disguised himself as a hired entertainer for the children in order to gain access.

When a guest opened the door, Lieutenant Buchanan said, Mr. Pardo stepped inside the house, drew a semiautomatic handgun and immediately started shooting, beginning with an 8-year-old girl who was hit in the face but who survived, as did an older girl who was shot in the back.

As Mr. Pardo unleashed a barrage of gunfire in the living room, relatives smashed through windows, hid behind furniture or bounded upstairs. Then he sprayed the room with accelerant, using a device made of two pressurized tanks, one of which held pressurized gas. Within seconds, the house was ablaze.

Joshua Chavez of Seattle was visiting his mother’s house, which sits behind the Ortegas’, when he heard a loud explosion. “Then I saw black smoke and this large flame,” he said.

Mr. Chavez ran out to the backyard and heard three girls, including the one who had been shot in the back, trying to climb over his mother’s wall. “There’s some guy shooting in there,” he said one of the girls told him.

“About 20 seconds after that,” he continued, “the house was totally on fire. One girl said that a guy dressed as Santa started shooting.”

Another neighbor, Jeannie Goltz, 51, saw three more partygoers fleeing the burning home. One of them, a young woman, had escaped upstairs from the living room but broke her ankle when she jumped out a second-story window.

SWAT teams arrived shortly after Ms. Goltz had shepherded these three survivors into another neighbor’s house, but by that time Mr. Pardo was on his way back to Los Angeles.

Police officers said they could not recall so horrific a crime in Covina, and neighbors said they would never have imagined anything so grisly on their quiet block.

The Ortegas had lived in the house for more than two decades and were known for their family spirit, their generosity and their dog, which frequently escaped their yard.

“I would generally play Santa for the family every year,” said Pat Bower, a neighbor of the Ortegas for 25 years. “The family was always together. Brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles were always in the house. They were a gigantic family. We all envied them, actually.”

Robert and Gloria Magcalas lived next door to the Ortegas for 11 years but were celebrating Christmas Eve with relatives in Los Angeles. Their own home was barely spared the flames.

“They were a big, loving family,” Mrs. Magcalas said. “We usually exchanged gifts with them today. They gave us tamales and cookies every Christmas.”

The police said they had found two handguns in the ruins, and an additional two pistols at the scene of Mr. Pardo’s apparent suicide. Officials said they would continue to search the crime scene Friday, seeking information about the identities of the dead.

Solomon Moore reported from Covina, and Anahad O’Connor from New York.

    Man in a Santa Suit Kills at Least 8 at a Party, NYT, 26.12.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/us/26Santa.html?hp

Ex-Trooper Is Suspect in Texas Shootings

December 24, 2008
The New York Times
By PAMELA GWYN KRIPKE

DALLAS — A former Utah state trooper who quit the force this year is the preliminary suspect in a flurry of drive-by shootings that killed two drivers here on Monday evening, the authorities said Tuesday.

Police officials said early ballistics analyses pointed to the former trooper, Brian Smith, 37, who, hours after four separate attacks, shot himself in the head when confronted by officers.

Mr. Smith, who faced burglary and robbery charges in Texas and remains on life support at a hospital, is thought to be responsible for the death of the driver of an 18-wheel truck.

“Bullet fragments found inside one of the victims are consistent with the types of bullets found in the car in which the suicide was attempted,” said Lt. Craig Miller of the Dallas Police Department.

On Wednesday, the semiautomatic handgun Mr. Smith used to try to kill himself will be fired to examine the link to the bullet fragments. A gun will create specific indentations on a bullet as it fired, marks that could determine a match.

“Some people may think we’re speaking too soon, but we think there is a good chance the bullets will match up,” Lieutenant Miller said. “People have been afraid to get in their cars, and we needed to reassure them that there is no concern. ”

In the first shooting, a vehicle crept alongside a car, killing the 20-year-old driver as he waited at a red light in Garland, a Dallas suburb. Within minutes, shots were fired at three tractor-trailer trucks on Interstate 635 in Dallas, leaving a 42-year-old driver dead in the cab of his rig. “We don’t know if he slammed on the brakes or was conscious enough to do the good deed and bring the truck to a stop,” said Sgt. Eugene Reyes, homicide supervisor. “We are lucky no one was hit.”

Another trucker was hit by broken glass and debris after shots were fired at his rig, and a third trucker was uninjured.

Just 11 minutes before the first shooting, the police were called to a robbery at a nearby supermarket. A man had identified himself by name, jumped over the counter and stole OxyContin. His description fit that of the gunman at the nearby intersection, according to a witness who said she saw the man. The police identified him as Mr. Smith, who was with the Utah Highway Patrol for 12 years. Near midnight, the police pulled Mr. Smith over in Garland, discovering warrants out for his arrest on the burglary and robbery charges.

“We’re still waiting for forensics, but do we think he’s responsible for the first murder?” said Officer Joe Harn of the Garland Police Department. “Yes we do.”

    Ex-Trooper Is Suspect in Texas Shootings, NYT, 24.12.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/us/24dallas.html?hp

Gunman Kills One at a Church in New Jersey

November 24, 2008
The New York Times
By ROBERT D. MCFADDEN and PATRICK MCGEEHAN

A gunman invaded a small church in Clifton, N.J., during services on Sunday and killed his estranged wife and critically wounded two other people with shots to the head in what appeared to be the climax of a violent domestic quarrel that had reached from California to India to New Jersey over the past year, authorities and witnesses said.

As more than 100 worshipers dived under the pews of St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church, the assailant, after an argument in the foyer, fired four shots from a silver handgun, striking his wife, who had refused to leave the church with him; a relative who had recently taken her in; and a man who either happened upon or tried to intervene in the confrontation, the police and witnesses said.

The shootings happened at 11:44 a.m., a witness said.

The gunman ran from the church and drove away in a green convertible Jeep Wrangler with a black soft top and the California license 5JHD200, said the police, who identified him as Joseph Pallipurath, 27, of Sacramento. He remained at large Sunday night as the New Jersey State Police and law enforcement authorities in northern New Jersey widened a manhunt on highways and at transportation terminals.

The victims were taken to St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson, where Mr. Pallipurath’s wife, Reshma James, 24, died about 4 p.m., the police said. The other victims, both listed in very critical condition, were identified by church members as Ms. James’s relative, Silvy Perincheril, 47, of Hawthorne, N.J., who is the principal of the church’s Sunday school, and Dennis John Malloosseril, 23, a church director.

Members of the congregation, families of Indian descent from across northern New Jersey and some from as far away as Long Island, gathered outside the steepled red-brick, one-story church in the harsh afternoon cold, huddling in bright silk dresses and shirts, consoling one another, weeping and awaiting word on the victims.

“It was very scary,” Anna Manimalethu said. “My kids are still scared.”

The Clifton police described Mr. Pallipurath as armed and dangerous, 5 feet 8 inches tall and 160 pounds. They said active restraining orders had been issued in California and New Jersey against him after domestic violence complaints by his wife, who had moved recently to New Jersey. Detective Capt. Robert Rowan said it appeared the gunman had driven from California to try to force her to return with him.

Members of the church gave a more elaborate account of the woman’s hardships, citing an arranged and abusive marriage that had left her terrified. A family friend, Aniyan Panavelil, said Ms. James, a registered nurse who grew up in India, had wed Mr. Pallipurath, an American, in India a year ago in an arrangement made by their families.

It was unclear if they had met before their wedding. Mr. Panavelil said the husband returned first to the United States and she joined him in Sacramento in January, and soon became a victim of domestic violence. Mr. Panavelil said the couple returned to India for a month to try to work things out with counselors, but the effort failed.

“He said he couldn’t do it anymore,” Mr. Panavelil said. As for Ms. James, he said, “He was torturing her too much.” The couple separated when they returned to this country, Mr. Pallipurath going to California and Ms. James to New Jersey, where she took refuge with Ms. Perincheril.

Ms. James began attending services with Ms. Perincheril at St. Thomas Knanaya, where some 60 families — first-generation Indian immigrants and their children — worship in a Christian tradition that traces its heritage to Abraham and its culture to Jews of the Aramaic-speaking regions of Israel and Syria, who migrated in 345 A.D. to the Malabar coast, in what is now the state of Kerala, in southwest India.

In recent decades, thousands of Knanaya people have migrated to North America, starting churches in Canada, New York, Massachusetts, Texas and elsewhere. They preserve many customs modeled on Jewish traditions, including the menorah, unleavened bread at Passover and wedding canopies, and they practice endogamous marriage.

The parish of St. Thomas Knanaya was founded in 1987 as part of the Universal Orthodox Church, with allegiance to the Holy See of Antioch. Most members formerly belonged to St. Peter’s in Yonkers, and the congregation met in rented spaces. But in February 2000, it bought the building at 186 Third Street in Clifton, set on a residential block in a working-class neighborhood 10 miles west of Manhattan.

On Sunday morning, the congregation was nearing the end of its regular service in Malayalam, a Dravidian language spoken on the Malabar Coast, when the gunman arrived. The Eucharist had been distributed, the Rev. Father Thomas Abraham had given his sermon and worshipers were saying a prayer for the dead and preparing to disperse.

Suja Alummoottil, 40, of Stockholm, N.J., was in the foyer with Ms. Perincheril and Ms. James, discussing an essay contest for Sunday school classes. The man who came in, she said, wore a black hooded sweatshirt and light-colored slacks. He was thin and bearded, and he interrupted to say he was Reshma James’s husband and had come to take her home.

“He was telling her, ‘I’ve been roaming around without my wife for too long,’ ” Ms. Alummoottil said. Ms. James did not respond, but Ms. Perincheril asked him to leave and talk it over later. She was worried, though, and asked Ms. Alummoottil to go into the sanctuary and get help.

“I don’t want you going anywhere,” the man said.

But Ms. Alummoottil ignored him, entered the sanctuary and summoned Ms. Perincheril’s husband, Thampi. They were returning to the foyer when they heard the shots.

“Everyone got down on the floor,” Ms. Alummoottil said.

Liya Manimalethu, 16, said the congregation had been kneeling in prayer for the dead and was just rising when she heard the shots. The sounds were confusing at first — “Like a flagpole went down,” was the way she described it. “Then people started screaming and crying. Someone told us to get down, so we all got down.”

“We were finishing the Holy Mass,” Father Abraham said. “It was almost over and then I heard the gunshots. There were three to four shots, and I saw people running around.”

Moments later, parishioners found Ms. James, Ms. Perincheril and Mr. Malloosseril shot in the head and lying in the foyer.

“This is a very unfortunate incident, very tragic,” Father Abraham said. “I am still traumatized.”

Nate Schweber, Daniel E. Slotnik and Karen Zraick contributed reporting.

    Gunman Kills One at a Church in New Jersey, NYT, 24.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/24/nyregion/24church.html

Gunfire, Mayhem Erupt in Lobby of Waldorf-Astoria

November 16, 2008
Filed at 11:33 a.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) -- Gunfire erupted in the storied Waldorf-Astoria hotel during a brazen robbery attempt Saturday at a lobby jewelry store, wounding a security guard and sending guests diving for cover.

The 54-year-old guard, Gregory J. Boyle, was shot in the chest but was expected to survive, and a suspect was arrested on charges including attempted murder and assault.

Hotel guest Christine Cataldo said she was looking at a display of engagement rings near the entrance to the store, Cellini Jewelers, when she heard the first shot.

''It sounded like a bomb. One big boom. And then people started running,'' said Cataldo, of Long Island. ''I looked up, and I saw a man in a suit with silver hair grabbing another guy.''

The mayhem began when the black-garbed suspect, identified as Rafael Rabinovich-Ardans, 20, pulled out a gun in the jewelry store and used the weapon to smash two display cases full of expensive rings and necklaces, said a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because detectives were still investigating.

Boyle, a retired New York Police Department detective, confronted the man. About three gunshots rang out as the two wrestled and fell to the floor, though it wasn't clear who fired, the official said. Both were armed.

One bullet hit Boyle in the left upper chest, the official said.

Another hotel employee then tackled the suspect, the police official said. The suspect's gun went off again as they grappled, but that bullet apparently struck no one. Hotel security staffers arrived and took Rabinovich-Ardans into custody.

No telephone number could be found for Rabinovich-Ardans, of Queens, and police did not know whether he had a lawyer. It was unclear whether he had any previous connection to the jewelry store, they said.

Witness Jeff Johnston of Raleigh, N.C., said he was near the store when chaos broke out.

''All of a sudden people were running and hiding behind hotel furniture,'' he said.

Boyle was in stable condition late Saturday at Bellevue Hospital, police said.

The suspect was not identified. A telephone message left with the hotel was not immediately returned.

The Waldorf-Astoria was the world's largest hotel when it opened in its current Park Avenue spot in 1931, according to the hotel's Web site. It was previously on Fifth Avenue.

The Art Deco hotel quickly became synonymous with luxury and part of popular culture, appearing in the 1945 Ginger Rogers film ''Weekend at the Waldorf'' and garnering a mention in the classic Cole Porter song ''You're the Top.''

Cellini Jewelers, a high-end boutique that specializes in luxury watches adorned with diamonds and gold, opened in the hotel lobby in 1977.

No one answered the phone at the store Saturday. A saleswoman at Cellini's sister store in Manhattan said she hadn't heard from the managers at the location where the shooting took place and had no additional information.

    Gunfire, Mayhem Erupt in Lobby of Waldorf-Astoria, NYT, 16.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Waldorf-Shooting.html

Suspect in Office Deaths Described as Family Man

November 16, 2008
Filed at 11:32 a.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) -- Those who know Jing Hua Wu said the 47-year-old engineer was a smart, unassuming family man whose three young boys played among neighborhood children on a quiet street in this Silicon Valley city.

After Wu was arrested Saturday on suspicion of fatally shooting three of his co-workers after being laid off from a high-tech company in Santa Clara, neighbors said they were struggling to make sense of the tragedy.

Those who know Wu referred to him fondly as ''Jerry'' and his wife as ''Jane,'' and described him as a happily married father of 6-year-old twin boys and another boy under 3.

''It's shocking and emotionally jarring,'' said Jim Pollart, 47, a neighbor who met Wu and his wife when the couple moved into the area some 11 years ago. ''Who knows what happened to cause him to do such a horrible thing. It's unbelievable.''

Wu will be booked into jail on three counts of murder, police said.

''Wu is a nice, smart guy who is quiet by nature,'' Pollart said, adding that his children regularly played with Wu's kids. He also recalled how joyous Wu and his wife were when their parents made annual visits from China.

Wu was laid off from his job as a product test engineer at SiPort Inc. on Friday morning, and returned hours later to request a meeting with company officials, said Santa Clara Police Chief Stephen Lodge. Witnesses told police that Wu did not give any indication that he was upset when he arrived at the office park.

''It was during this meeting that Jing Wu took out a 9 mm handgun and shot and killed all three officials,'' Lodge said.

The shots killed 56-year-old Sid Agrawal, SiPort's chief executive officer; Brian Pugh, 47, vice president of operations; and Marilyn Lewis, 67, head of human resources.

He was not armed when he was arrested, and officers were still looking for the gun used in the slayings, police said.

Standing outside Wu's home Saturday evening, Pollart saw a woman come out the house and he asked her how Wu's wife was doing. The woman replied: ''Not so well.''

A man holding a briefcase walked into Wu's house and was met by Wu's wife at the door. They did not respond to a reporter's subsequent knocks on the door.

''This is a truly tragic event. These people are innocent victims just trying to do their jobs,'' said Santa Clara Police Lt. Mike Sellers. ''To get him into custody within hours of the event was very, very important to our department.''

    Suspect in Office Deaths Described as Family Man, NYT, 16.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Office-Park-Slayings.html

Laid-Off Worker Kills 3 in California

November 15, 2008
Filed at 1:28 a.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A laid-off worker returned to his former office in Northern California and opened fire Friday, killing three people before fleeing and leading police on an intensive search.

The suspect was identified as 47-year-old Jing Wu of Mountain View, who police say was an engineer at SiPort Inc., a semiconductor company.

Authorities identified one of the victims as Sid Agrawal, SiPort chief executive officer. The identities of the other victims were not released pending notification of family, said Santa Clara Police Sgt. Jerry Rodriguez.

Officers responded to the office complex late Friday afternoon and found the bodies of two men and one women, said Santa Clara Police Lt. Mike Sellers.

Police stopped cars and scoured the office park where SiPort is located in search of Wu. They also went to his Mountain View home, Rodriguez said.

Sellers described Wu as about 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighing 170 pounds. Investigators believe he fled the complex in a silver SUV, possibly a rented Mercury Mountaineer.

''He could be anywhere,'' Sellers said. ''He's considered armed and dangerous. If you see him don't approach him, call the police.''

    Laid-Off Worker Kills 3 in California, NYT, 15.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Office-Park-Slayings.html?hp

Mother Baffled in Arizona Murders

November 13, 2008
The New York Times
By SOLOMON MOORE

ST. JOHNS, Ariz. — A week after the police charged an 8-year-old boy in the premeditated shooting deaths of his father and another man, the boy’s mother, teachers and others who know him say they are no closer to understanding the roots of such a heinous crime.

“I don’t believe he did this,” said the mother, Erin Bloomfield, 26, who has shared custody of her son with his father, Vincent Romero, 29, since the couple divorced six years ago. She said she talked to the boy every week and visited an average of once a month, driving the 20 hours to St. Johns from her home in Mississippi.

Ms. Bloomfield had just returned from her latest visit when she got a call about the shooting and immediately returned to St. Johns, a windy hamlet of horse ranches, low-slung houses and double-wide trailers about 170 miles east-northeast of Phoenix. The largest buildings are a few churches and schools along the single main road, which has no stoplights.

“People like their independence and freedom here,” said Wendy Guffey, 60, a substance abuse counselor at a local health clinic. “It’s sort of the redneck ethic. A lot of people haul their own water and live off generators and candles out here. Back to the land.”

Many of her clients struggle with unemployment, drugs and tedium. “A lot of people around here say there’s nothing to do,” Ms. Guffey said.

Ms. Bloomfield described her son as a “normal boy” who played video games nonstop and doted on his new dog, a boxer. But in recent months, she said, he “seemed to be changing.”

“There was a distance with me after a while,” she said.

Whenever she spoke with her son, Ms. Bloomfield said, “I had to go through Tiffany,” a reference to his stepmother, Tiffany Romero. “Tiffany would always sit there while he talked to me on the phone, and after a while, he became more and more distant.”

She worried, she said, that the boy might be being abused although she had no proof.

Before Judge Michael P. Roca of Apache County Superior Court blocked anyone connected to the case from talking to the news media, Police Chief Roy Melnick of St. Johns said there was no evidence that the boy had been abused at home or in school.

A person answering the door at the Romero home on Tuesday said Tiffany Romero would not discuss the case because of Judge Roca’s order.

Ms. Bloomfield said that after her son told her that his father and stepmother quarreled often, “I called Tiffany about that, and I think I got my son into trouble.”

“The next time I talked to him about it,” she added, “he said that Tiffany told him that ‘what happens in this house stays in this house.’ ”

Ms. Bloomfield also said that her son was close to his father, and that the two regularly played softball and basketball, and went hiking and hunting together, sometimes joined by the other man who was killed, Timothy Romans, 39. Mr. Romans worked in construction with Mr. Romero and rented a room in the family house.

Ms. Bloomfield confirmed that after first seeking permission from their parish priest, her ex-husband recently bought their son a .22 rifle for hunting, a common pastime of young boys and their fathers in this town of about 4,000 people.

The boy “took his religious faith very seriously,” said Sister Angelina Chavez, who has known him since he was a baby and taught his religious class every Monday at St. Johns Catholic Church. It is the church where the Romeros were married in September, and where hundreds of townspeople turned out for Mr. Romero’s funeral on Monday. “I just don’t know what happened to him spiritually, emotionally,” she said.

“This is going to take a while to get over,” Sister Angelina said. “Parishioners have come to me asking why it happened. I just don’t know.”

Ms. Bloomfield expressed disgust at rumors sweeping the town, among them that her son killed his father because he had not been allowed to go trick-or-treating on Halloween. “This town is too small,” she said. “Everybody thinks they know what happened. They’re saying all kinds of things about my son. They have smashed him down to nothing.”

Chief Melnick has said only that the boy unexpectedly confessed to the killings during the second of two interviews on Nov. 5. Neither a lawyer nor a family member was present either time, the chief said, because the boy was being questioned as a witness, not a suspect.

Prosecutors charged the boy as an adult, and Ms. Bloomfield said she was terrified they would also attempt to try him as one. The boy is scheduled to undergo three psychological examinations in the coming weeks to determine whether that is possible.

A Phoenix defense lawyer, Karyn Klausner, who is a former municipal judge, said that for the boy to be tried as an adult, the tests must show that he is competent to understand the charges against him, has a basic understanding of the court process and is able to assist in his defense. In addition, prosecutors must prove that he cannot be rehabilitated by the time he turns 18 and leaves the juvenile justice system.

Ms. Klausner said she was appalled that the authorities were considering such an option. “There’s no way on God’s green earth that an 8-year-old should be subject to the adult system,” she said.

Prosecutors also have what Ms. Klausner called the unlikely option of deciding that the boy is incompetent to stand trial, detaining him in a psychiatric facility until he is deemed competent, and then trying him as an adult.

In a separate case, a county judge in Bisbee, Ariz., on Monday denied a motion to try as an adult a 12-year-old boy accused of killing his mother. In that case, court mental health evaluators determined that the boy could be rehabilitated by the time he turned 18.

The sight of her young son being led into court in shackles on Monday was especially upsetting, Ms. Bloomfield said. His hands were bound to a security belt that had to be looped around his waist three times because of his small frame. The judge ordered the restraints removed.

“I blew some kisses at him and told him to put some in his pocket for later,” the mother said. “Later he told me he needed more kisses to put in his pocket.”

The next hearing, set for next Wednesday, is to focus on requests by defense lawyers for DNA, blood samples, ballistics and other forensics evidence from the crime scene.

Two of the boy’s friends, Lucas Graf, 12, and Jude Chavez, 11, said they, too, were baffled as to how someone with whom they wrestled and swam in the scorching summer just past could have committed such a brutal act.

“He’s a nice kid,” Lucas said. “He’s normal.”

    Mother Baffled in Arizona Murders, NYT, 13.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/us/13child.html

Man, 55, Is Shot to Death Delivering Meals for Charity

November 11, 2008
The New York Times
By MICHAEL WILSON

A man delivering food to the homebound elderly was shot and killed in the lobby of an apartment building in Brownsville, Brooklyn, on Monday morning, the police said.

Whether the shooting was part of a robbery was not immediately known. The victim, Imonil Aminov, 55, worked as a deliveryman for the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged, which brings food to Brownsville and East New York through the city’s Department for the Aging, said Aileen Gitelson, chief executive officer of the Jewish Association.

The shooter, who was seen fleeing the scene, was described by the police as a black man in his 20s, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt. The police said they were reviewing footage from surveillance cameras, but it was not clear whether the shooting had been captured.

Mr. Aminov was filling in for another worker on Monday, Ms. Gitelson said. He had a wife and three daughters, and came to the country from Tajikistan in 1989, working various jobs, including stints as a hot-dog vendor and a livery driver, his family said. After an accident while working as a livery driver left him unemployed, he started work with the meal-delivery program in August, his family said.

“He was delivering food to poor people, and they shot him down,” said his wife, Nadezhda Aminov.

The shooting occurred shortly after 10:15 a.m. at 341 Dumont Avenue in the Brownsville Houses, the police said. Mr. Aminov was shot once in the chest. He was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, the police said.

The shooting seemed unusual, even in the sometimes dangerous world of food deliveries. Robberies of food deliverymen, especially those employed by Chinese restaurants, while not routine, are far from unheard of in the city. But the shooting of a deliveryman working for a nonprofit organization on behalf of the elderly left many wondering what could have motivated the shooting.

Delivery drivers for the Jewish Association occasionally carry cash, picking up voluntary contributions once a week, Ms. Gitelson said. But, she said, the donations are very small and are usually collected at week’s end.

Mr. Aminov, who drove a truck marked “Nutritional Meals Delivered to Homebound Seniors,” had just made his delivery to Gertie Johnson, 73, a meal of pasta and broccoli, Ms. Johnson said.

“He’s a very nice man,” Ms. Johnson said. “I hate it so bad.”

After he left the food with her granddaughter and made a second delivery, “We heard a bang,” Ms. Johnson said. “I said, ‘Was that a shot?’ ”

Ms. Johnson said her granddaughter replied, “It sounds like a shot.” The granddaughter looked out and saw Mr. Aminov lying in the hall, Ms. Johnson said.

Another resident, Bernadette Jones, said she heard a noise, “like something dropped” in the hallway. About two minutes later, her 20-year-old daughter, Kady, opened the apartment door to go to the store, and screamed.

Bernadette Jones said Mr. Aminov’s glasses and black cap were still on and, not seeing any blood, she assumed he had had a heart attack. Another neighbor lifted Mr. Aminov’s hand, but it flopped back to the floor, she said.

Ms. Jones said that across the hall from her apartment, a woman screamed, “God, what did they do? He just brought me my lunch.”

Another neighbor, Martha Surgener, 68, believed he was new to Brownsville because he arrived at her home early.

“They bring nice meals — chicken, beef stew, all kinds of things,” she said. “They can’t go around killing people like that. It’s a depressing day. It’s crazy.”

Accounts varied as to how often Mr. Aminov, who lived in the Starrett City complex in East New York, Brooklyn, visited the Brownsville Houses. Some tenants said they had seen him before. But Mr. Aminov’s nephew, Arthur Leviyeva, 28, said Mr. Aminov feared the Brownsville Houses and had refused to go there on Monday, only to be ordered to go by a dispatcher. “He saw it as a very dangerous place,” Mr. Leviyeva said. “Maybe he was trying to fight them and they shot him in the heart.”

Ms. Gitelson said she did not know of any such exchange between Mr. Aminov and a dispatcher.

“If someone refuses to work, they just refuse to work,” she said, and added that she had never heard of a driver refusing to enter a neighborhood. “We deliver I don’t know how many meals a year,” she said. “I’ve never heard it.”

A co-worker, Anita Acevedo, 44, said Mr. Aminov was a popular and eager deliveryman, nicknamed “Running Man.”

“He took the meals and he would just run with them,” Ms. Acevedo said. “Everybody loved him here.”

All drivers are routinely warned of possible danger in neighborhoods with high rates of crime, she said.

“I would tell the guys, ‘Guys if there’s ever anything, please give up what you have,’ ” Ms. Acevedo said. “ ‘Don’t resist.’ ”
 

Ann Farmer, Karen Zraick and Carolyn Wilder contributed reporting.

    Man, 55, Is Shot to Death Delivering Meals for Charity, NYT, 11.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/nyregion/11meals.html

Prosecutors Say Boy Methodically Shot His Father

November 11, 2008
The New York Times
By JOHN DOUGHERTY and ANAHAD O’CONNOR

An 8-year-old Arizona boy charged with premeditated murder in the deaths of his father and another man shot each victim at least four times with a .22-caliber rifle, methodically stopping and reloading as he killed them, prosecutors said Monday.

Although investigators initially said they thought the boy might have suffered severe physical or sexual trauma, they have found no evidence of abuse, said Roy Melnick, the police chief in St. Johns, Ariz., where the shootings occurred. Psychologists say such abuse is often a factor in the extremely rare instances in which a small child murders a parent.

An investigation found no evidence that the boy had had disciplinary problems at school or shown signs that he was troubled, Chief Melnick said. “That’s what makes this case somewhat puzzling,” he said, adding that the court had ordered a psychological evaluation for the boy. “Our goal is to get him some help.”

Kathleen M. Heide, a criminology professor at the University of South Florida, said the odds of such killings “are so infinitesimal, it’s really hard to even comprehend.”

From 1976 to 2005, there were 62 cases in the United States in which a 7- or 8-year-old was arrested on murder charges, said Dr. Heide, who analyzed F.B.I. data. Only two of those cases involved a child killing a parent. Children younger than 7 who commit killings are not charged in most states.

In cases in which a child kills a parent, the child is typically a teenager and usually acts for one of three reasons, psychologists say. Most often, the child has suffered years of physical or sexual abuse. Others kill because of severe mental illness. And some have extreme antisocial or psychopathic tendencies — a child who is used to getting his way and kills out of anger.

“The wrinkle here,” Dr. Heide said, “is that this boy is so young, it could possibly be immaturity and impulsivity.” In children as young as 8, parts of the brain that weigh decisions and consequences are so underdeveloped that a child might not understand the finality of death.

The boy in Arizona was no stranger to weapons — his father, an avid hunter, reportedly trained his son to shoot prairie dogs — and psychologists said that might have played a role.

The shootings occurred Wednesday afternoon in the two-story home in St. Johns, about 200 miles northeast of Phoenix, where the boy lived with his father, Vincent Romero, 29. The deputy attorney for Apache County, Brad Carlyon, said Monday that the boy was taken to the police by his grandmother and initially considered a victim because he was believed to have discovered the men’s bodies.

But about 45 minutes into an hourlong police interview, Mr. Carlyon said, the boy confessed to shooting his father and a man who rented a room in the house, Timothy Romans, 39, of San Carlos, Ariz.

Mr. Carlyon said the boy told the police that he had been spanked at home the night before because he was having trouble at school. But, the prosecutor said, the boy “did not say that was the reason he committed any of the acts.”

Prosecutors said the murder weapon was a single-action .22-caliber hunting rifle that requires reloading before each shot. “He had to eject the shell from the rifle and put in a new shell each time he fired,” Mr. Carlyon said.

Mr. Carlyon and Chief Melnick spoke to The New York Times shortly before an Apache County judge placed a gag order on lawyers and the police a little before noon Monday.

Mr. Romero, who was divorced from the boy’s mother, had recently remarried and had custody of his son. Mr. Romero was the first victim, investigators said, shot in the head and chest as he walked up a staircase inside the house shortly after 5 p.m.

Mr. Romans was outside the house talking on his cellphone to his wife, Mr. Carlyon said, when he heard some commotion inside. Mr. Carlyon said the rifle produced only a “muffled, soft popping” sound, making it likely that Mr. Romans had no idea what had happened inside. Mr. Carlyon said Mr. Romans had told his wife that the boy was calling for him. He was on the porch on his way into the house when he was shot in the chest and head, the authorities said.

The police arrived at the house one minute after receiving a phone call from a neighbor at 5:08 p.m., Chief Melnick said. Both men were dead. The chief said the boy was not immediately taken into custody. “He was considered a witness,” Chief Melnick said.

A secretary for the boy’s lawyer, Benjamin Brewer, said Mr. Brewer was in court all day Monday and could not be reached for comment. Mr. Brewer has said that neither he nor the boy’s family was present for the questioning and that the boy was not read his rights. He is being held at the Apache County Juvenile Detention Center.

    Prosecutors Say Boy Methodically Shot His Father, NYT, 11.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/us/11child.html?hp

Arizona police aim to put eight-year-old on trial as an adult for shooting deaths

Boy confessed to shooting his father and family friend with a .22 calibre rifle

Monday November 10 2008
17.52 GMT
Guardian.co.uk
Ed Pilkington in New York
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday November 10 2008.
It was last updated at 18.39 on November 10 2008.

Police officers in a small town in Arizona are pushing to put an eight-year-old boy on trial as an adult for the premeditated murder of his father and a family friend.

The boy has confessed to shooting at close range his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, who was renting a room in their house in St Johns. The boy is alleged to have shot both men with a .22 calibre rifle last Wednesday, one on the front step, the other in an upstairs room. He then walked to a neighbour's house and announced that he believed his father was dead.

Officers allege that the shootings were planned. They are investigating whether there was any abuse that could have led to the incident.

"He's just eight years old. He just doesn't decide one day that he's going to shoot his father and his father's friend for no reason. Something led up to this," the local police chief Roy Melnick told the Associated Press.

Romero was an avid hunter who taught his son how to use rifles to shoot prairie dogs. He was buried yesterday wearing his hunter's cap. The boy's stepmother, who married Romero in September, had suggested he have his own gun.

The Catholic priest who conducted the funeral said Romero had come to him before the shooting to ask his advice about whether his son should be allowed to handle guns. "That child, I don't think he knows what he did, and it was brutal," Rev John Paul Sauter said.

The boy has no history of any violence or irregular behaviour. His lawyer, Benjamin Brewer, said "He's trying to be tough, but he's scared."

The killings have shocked the town of 4,000 people that lies 170 miles north-east of Arizona's capitol, Phoenix. St Johns mayor, Ross Overson, said the incident "makes us ask 'Why?' No community can understand how something like this could happen."

    Arizona police aim to put eight-year-old on trial as an adult for shooting deaths, G, 10.11.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/10/usa-arizona-child-deaths

On Concerns Over Gun Control, Gun Sales Are Up

November 7, 2008
The New York Times
By KIRK JOHNSON

DENVER — Sales of handguns, rifles and ammunition have surged in the last week, according to gun store owners around the nation who describe a wave of buyers concerned that an Obama administration will curtail their right to bear arms.

“He’s a gun-snatcher,” said Jim Pruett, owner of Jim Pruett’s Guns and Ammo in northwest Houston, which was packed with shoppers on Thursday.

“He wants to take our guns from us and create a socialist society policed by his own police force,” added Mr. Pruett, a former radio personality, of President-elect Barack Obama.

Mr. Pruett said that sales last Saturday, just before Election Day, ran about seven times higher than a typical good Saturday.

A spot check by reporters in four other states easily found Mr. Pruett’s comments echoed from both sides of the counter.

David Nelson, a co-owner of Montana Ordnance & Supply in Missoula, Mont., said his buyers were “awake and aware and see a dangerous trend.”

Mr. Nelson said sales at his store had risen about 30 percent since Mr. Obama declared his candidacy. “People are concerned about overreaching legislation from Washington,” he said. “They are educating themselves on the Internet.”

In Colorado, would-be gun buyers set a one-day record last Saturday with the highest number of background check requests in a 24-hour period, according to figures from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

“We’re not really sure who is promoting the concept that a change in federal administrations might affect firearms possession rights,” said an agency spokesman, Lance Clem, “but we do know that it’s increased business considerably.”

Federal law-enforcement officials cautioned that gun sales were extremely volatile. Nationally, rifle and handgun sales surged 17 percent, for example, in May, compared with May 2007, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation figures. That was before Mr. Obama had clinched the Democratic nomination. Sales then fell and were essentially flat by September compared with the year before, even as the campaign heated up, before rising 14 percent in October. November figures were not yet available.

What is clear is that every gun seller — not to mention every advocacy group for gun ownership that depends on dues-paying members — has an incentive to stoke the concern that can prompt a gun sale. Political uncertainty, gun dealers say, is great for business.

“Clinton was the best gun salesman the gun manufacturers ever had,” said Rick Gray, owner of the Accuracy Gun Shop in Las Vegas. “Obama’s going to be right up there with him.”

Sales at his shop doubled on Wednesday, Mr. Gray said, to more than 20 guns from three to 10 on a typical day.

Asked if that made him root for Democratic candidates, Mr. Gray said no. “It’s not all about profits; it’s about what’s he going to do for the country,” he said, noting that he had supported Senator John McCain, who was the Republican nominee.

A National Rifle Association spokesman, Wayne LaPierre, dismissed the notion that the group had any incentive to increase gun sales or membership. “Ridiculous,” Mr. LaPierre said. “I hope President-elect Obama keeps his promises and protects gun rights. If he does that, we’ll be cheering.”

The political battle over guns raged fiercely throughout the campaign in many states where gun ownership is common. On Monday, the day before the election, home-delivered copies of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette arrived in plastic bags that said, “Vote Freedom First” and “Defend Freedom — Defeat Obama.” The bags were paid for by the N.R.A., whose initials were printed on each one.

Democrats fired back all over the country, with mail campaigns in many states with fliers stating flatly that as president, Mr. Obama would respect an individual’s right to own guns.

“Obama will protect our gun rights,” said one flier sent to homes in Minnesota.

In Montana, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, was photographed shooting his guns outdoors.

But some gun buyers and sellers never forgot, or forgave, Mr. Obama’s widely reported comment in April to a group in San Francisco that some Americans “cling to guns or religion” in times of adversity.

“It was an annoying comment, and it showed there’s a lot more to him,” said Mike Warner, 38, of Las Vegas, who was shopping for a gun there on Thursday.

Mr. Warner said he was an N.R.A. member and an owner of two guns but wanted at least one more.

Other people, even some shopping for guns, said they thought that some gun enthusiasts’ fears about Mr. Obama were unjustified. James Sykes, a gun collector who was shopping at the Gun Room in Lakewood, Colo., called the rush to buy guns “a lot of hysteria about very little.”

Mr. Sykes, who said he had voted mostly Republican in the past but supported Mr. Obama this year, said that issues like war and the global economic crisis were more pressing for him right now and that he imagined the same was true for Mr. Obama.

“My Second Amendment rights are unquestionably important to me, but so is feeding my family,” he said. “In reality, you won’t be able to afford to buy a gun if your job goes overseas.”

But markets, whether for guns or stocks and bonds, tend to move with their own internal dynamics even in — perhaps especially in — gloomy economic times.

Chris Casella, general manager of Federal Firearms Company in Oakdale, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh, said he had been fielding about 30 calls a day from people interested in buying assault-type rifles, especially semiautomatic weapons, often with magazines that could hold lots of ammunition.

“A lot of people are buying them as an investment,” Mr. Casella said. “Better than gold.”

Reporting was contributed by Thayer Evans from Houston; Steve Friess from Las Vegas; Dan Frosch from Lakewood, Colo.; Sean D. Hamill from Pittsburgh; and Pamela J. Podger from Missoula, Mont.

    On Concerns Over Gun Control, Gun Sales Are Up, NYT, 7.11.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/us/07guns.html?hp

Five people shot dead in California homeless camp

Mon Nov 3, 2008
2:33am EST
Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Five people were found shot dead in a homeless encampment south of Los Angeles on Sunday, police said.

The two women and three men were not identified and officials with the Long Beach Police Dept. said they did not have a motive or suspect.

Acting on an anonymous tip, police discovered the bodies in a brush-filled area between some commercial buildings and a freeway in the city of Long Beach, about 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

It was not clear if the victims were homeless, or had just been visiting the encampment, police said.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman)

    Five people shot dead in California homeless camp, R, 3.11.2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE4A20YG20081103

Police: Ohio minister shot dead near Ky. church

2 November 2008
USA Today
By Brenna Kelly and Carrie Whitaker, The Cincinnati Enquirer

COVINGTON, Ky. — A Cincinnati minister was killed and a deacon at his church was wounded in a shooting

Saturday morning as they arrived for a funeral at Ninth Street Baptist Church here.
Police said the shootings happened around 10:50 a.m. outside the church, at East Ninth and Prospect Street.

The Rev. Donald Fairbanks Sr., pastor of New St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church on Freeman Avenue, was taken to St. Elizabeth Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, hospital officials said.

Deacon Dowdell Cobb was wounded and was in stable condition at University Hospital. About 30 friends and family members were at the hospital awaiting word on his condition this afternoon.

Police have arrested Frederick L. Davis, 40, of Covington, and charged him with murder, assault, criminal mischief and violation of a protection order, according to booking information from the Kenton County Jail.

Covington Police Chief Lee Russo said Davis was waiting when Fairbanks arrived at the church in a black Cadillac. After he was shot, Fairbanks tried to run but the gunman chased him down the street to a nearby park. Davis then shot him again in the park at Ninth and Prospect, police said.

Police officers arrived moments after the shooting and Davis surrendered at the park, Russo said.

The Rev. Richard Fowler, pastor of Ninth Street Baptist, said the victims had come to the church to support a relative member of Alice Turner, whose funeral was scheduled today at the church. Fowler said he conducted brief services after the shooting; they will resume Monday night.

Fowler said he was shocked that a shooting would take place during a funeral outside his church.

"To think that somebody would have total disregard for the family already in bereavement over the loss of a family member," he said.

"And to not be concerned about safety either as far as the number of people who are here, and not even be concerned about whom else could be affected. It?s beyond thinking."

Fairbanks had recently celebrated his 22nd anniversary as pastor of St. Paul.

"He preached about love," said another St. Paul deacon, Rob Fuqua of Mount Airy. "Everybody was welcome at the church," which helps feed the needy and tries to keep kids off the streets.

"He wasn?t just a pastor, but a friend."

The church has about 300 members who live in all parts of the city, Fuqua said.

    Police: Ohio minister shot dead near Ky. church, UT, 2.11.2008, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-11-02-minister-killed_N.htm

S.C. boy shot, killed trick-or-treating; 2 injured

1 November 2008
USA Today

SUMTER, S.C. (AP) — A 12-year-old boy trick-or-treating with his family in central South Carolina was shot from inside a home Friday and killed, and his father and brother were wounded by the gunfire, authorities said.

The shooting suspect, Quentin Patrick, was in custody, a jail official said. Patrick, 22, has been charged with murder and three counts of assault and battery with intent to kill. The jail official said she didn't know whether Patrick had an attorney. Patrick's telephone number was unpublished.

The family was headed home from a city-sponsored event downtown when they decided to stop at a few homes, Sumter Police Chief Patty Patterson said. The father and his four children approached a home with a porch light on about 8:30 p.m. ET while their mother waited nearby in a vehicle.

As the family was at the door, they thought they heard fireworks. The 12-year-old boy, his father and brother all were hit by the gunfire. The boy died at a hospital, Coroner Verna Moore said. The other two children were not hurt.

The boy's father and brother were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Authorities have not released the identity of the family.

Patterson also would not release any more details about the shooting.

"The investigation is continuing into what has been a very tragic evening," Patterson said. "Our sorrow and sympathy goes out to this family."

The police chief said there were other people inside the home at the time of the shooting, but she didn't expect any of them to be charged.

A neighbor said he heard a loud noise about the time of the shooting and thought it was simply Halloween mischief.

"I thought, trick-or-treat night — pranks go down. Anything goes," said Lenwood Dixon, 49, who works at a hazardous waste and recycling company. "I heard a noise like maybe gunfire, then my daughter saw a bunch of lights flashing and saw some cops."

In his six years in the neighborhood, he said he wasn't aware of any violent crimes. He said a few trick-or-treaters had been on his block that night.

"I'm surprised. Since I was here, I'd never heard of anything like that happening. It's a quiet neighborhood," he said. "You don't see many children in the neighborhood. It's more elderly."

    S.C. boy shot, killed trick-or-treating; 2 injured, UT, 1.11.2008, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-11-01-halloween-shooting_N.htm

Police: Shooting at Ark. university leaves 2 dead, 1 wounded

27 October 2008
USA Today

CONWAY, Arkansas (AP) — A shooting in the heart of the University of Central Arkansas' campus killed two students and wounded a third person, authorities said early Monday.
UCA police spokeswoman Lt. Rhonda Swindle said the first report of shots fired came at 9:19 p.m. local time. An officer heard the shots, which were fired near a male dormitory and behind the campus police station, and arrived on the scene in less than a minute, she said.

Witnesses described hearing as many as five gunshots ring out. One man died at the scene and another at a local hospital. A wounded man who wasn't a student was treated and released, Swindle said.

Swindle had no immediate explanation for the shooting, though she said police questioned one "person of interest" into the early morning hours. She said detectives believed four people were involved in the attack, though no arrest or search warrants had been issued in the case.

"We have really good leads we're following up on right now and we feel the campus is safe," Swindle said.

Swindle declined to identify the victims of the shooting, saying officers continued to try and reach their families. The lieutenant said their bodies would be sent to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for autopsies.

Interim UCA President Tom Courtway canceled classes Monday at the university, which serves 12,500 students. He stressed that every precaution was being taken to ensure the safety of the students who remained in their dormitory rooms.

"It doesn't matter where this happens in the country — it's awful," Courtway said.

Police used crime scene tape to keep people out of a large area around where the shootings occurred, including a nearby intersection.

Student Aprille Hanson, 20, said the shooting was "definitely an eye-opener" in the quiet city of Conway, about 26 miles north of Little Rock.

"This campus is very safe. I've never felt afraid on this campus," Hanson said. "Everyone's going to be a little more tense."

The campus remained under guard Monday morning, with police cruisers circling its quiet streets and officers roaming the grounds in flak jackets and blue jeans.

"The UCA campus itself is not locked down, although officers are posted at every campus entrance, and access to campus is limited to residents and authorized personnel," UCA spokesman Warwick Sabin said in an e-mail early Monday.

Faculty and students received phone calls and e-mails through an automated system at 9:38 p.m. warning them of the shooting and encouraging them to stay inside behind locked doors. Sabin said it was the first incident to prompt use of the university's new emergency e-mail and phone call system, purchased last year after the Virginia Tech massacre.

Swindle said video captured by surveillance cameras also installed at the campus after the massacre would be examined.

Sunday's shooting is the second at an Arkansas college this year. On Feb. 27, a man was shot and wounded at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Two suspects were eventually charged. The victim, James Earl Matthews, was hospitalized and had surgery before being released.

    Police: Shooting at Ark. university leaves 2 dead, 1 wounded, UT, 27.10.2008, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-10-27-campus-shooting_N.htm

NY dad gunned down

while holding son, who's unhurt

September 30, 2008
Filed at 5:00 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- The gunmen probably weren't expecting to see a baby.

But that didn't keep them from firing at their target, a father who was cradling his 1-year-old son outside his house on Sunday morning, police said.

''This is an especially vicious killing,'' said Mount Vernon police Commissioner David Chong. ''It's very vicious and cold-hearted that they would be firing shots at an individual with a baby in his arms.''

The attackers fired four to six bullets, one of which hit and killed the father, 18-year-old Hassan Green-Cane. The baby, also named Hassan, was unhurt.

''We were extremely lucky that this baby was not harmed,'' the commissioner said Monday. ''The fact that this young man was hit means it was just inches from the baby.''

The father, who apparently had taken the crying baby outside to calm him, staggered back in and handed the baby to a relative, then collapsed, Chong said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Chong said Green-Cane was probably targeted, but he wouldn't elaborate. He said the unknown number of attackers were ''probably looking for him or waiting for him'' when he emerged from his house at 7:10 a.m.

Chong said detectives had several leads.

''I'm quite confident we will make an arrest,'' he said.

The homicide was the eighth this year in Mount Vernon, which is just north of New York City. There were seven all of last year.

''It's extremely frustrating and disheartening that this behavior is continuing despite our efforts,'' Chong said.

Green-Cane was the youngest of eight children, and family members told The Journal News he had just re-enrolled in high school.

''He was our nephew, grandson, brother, cousin,'' said an aunt, Ellen Session. ''And he got shot. And he's gone. His son will never get to know him.''

    NY dad gunned down while holding son, who's unhurt, NYT, 30.9.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Baby-Unscathed.html

6 dead, 2 wounded

in Wash. state shooting spree

September 3, 2008
Filed at 1:39 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALGER, Wash. (AP) -- A terrifying shooting spree that stretched from a small northwest Washington town onto the state's busiest highway left six people dead and two more wounded on Tuesday.

The dead included a Skagit County sheriff's deputy and the wounded included a Washington State Patrol trooper shot while trying to chase the shooter down on Interstate 5, the State Patrol said. A suspect in the shootings has surrendered.

The man who turned himself in was known to authorities as ''someone with a mental illness,'' Trooper Keith Leary said. State Department of Corrections officials are ''99 percent sure'' the man is a 28-year-old with a lengthy criminal record, spokesman Chad Lewis said.

The victims were not immediately identified.

The dead were found at multiple crime scenes. They included the deputy shot while responding to a call and a second person killed at the same location near the small town of Alger; two construction workers found shot nearby, and a third body found a few houses away, Leary said. Authorities were investigating any connection among those sites

A motorist was shot and killed on Interstate 5 as the suspect fled south.

The wounded included a motorcyclist who was shot in the arm at a Shell gas station in Alger and the trooper hit as the suspect raced along I-5.

After the shootings in the Alger area, the armed man raced south on Interstate 5 at speeds in excess of 90 mph, with troopers, sheriff's deputies and Mount Vernon police in pursuit, Leary said.

The civilian motorist was shot and killed and the unidentified trooper was grazed by a bullet along I-5 near a rest stop, Leary said. The trooper was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

The first shootings were reported shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday and the suspect was in custody by about 4:30 p.m.

State Patrol troopers temporarily closed all southbound lanes of I-5 north of Burlington for a period Tuesday evening, backing up traffic for miles, as they investigated that crime scene.

------

Associated Press writer Kathy McCarthy in Seattle contributed to this report.

6 dead, 2 wounded in Wash. state shooting spree, NYT, 3.9.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Shooting-Rampage.html