Police Hunt Lewiston Gunman, Saying Toll Is Likely to Rise

Maine Shootings
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The city was on lockdown early Thursday with an “armed and dangerous” man at large. At least seven people were killed in two shootings, the sheriff said.

Residents of multiple towns in southern Maine were under shelter-in-place orders early Thursday, as the police continued an overnight hunt for a man suspected of killing at least seven people in shootings at a bowling alley and a bar.

The gunman walked into the bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday evening and fatally shot at least seven people before moving on to a nearby bar, according to Sheriff Eric Samson of Androscoggin County. The total number of people killed and wounded was unclear. Mr. Samson said he did not know the number of casualties from the shooting at the bar.

Law enforcement officials said early Thursday that the gunman was still at large, and they released information about a man they described as a “person of interest.” They said they were searching for Robert R. Card, 40, of Bowdoin, Maine. On social media, law enforcement agencies said Mr. Card “should be considered armed and dangerous” and posted a photo of a man in a brown, hooded sweatshirt carrying a military-style semiautomatic rifle.

Local officials closed roads asked residents to stay home. The campus of Bates College, which is in Lewiston halfway between the sites of the two shootings, was on lockdown. » | Eoin Higgins, Orlando Mayorquin and Livia Albeck-Ripka ; Eoin Higgins reported from Portland, Maine. | Thursday, October 26, 2023

Etats-Unis : un tireur tue au moins vingt-deux personnes à Lewiston, dans le Maine : Trois attaques armées se sont produites dans une salle de bowling, un restaurant et un centre logistique d’un supermarché de la ville de l’Etat du nord-est américain. Le tireur est toujours en fuite. »

New Zealand Shooting: Two Dead and Multiple People Injured in Auckland after Gunman Opens Fire in Building Site

THE GUARDIAN: Police confirm serious incident in Auckland hours before Women’s World Cup Opening on Thursday

A police officer stands guard amid reports of a shooting in Auckland, New Zealand. Photograph: Nathan Frandino/Reuters
Two people have died and multiple people are injured after a shooting in Auckland city centre on the day that the Women’s World Cup is kicking off in the city.

Police confirmed the deaths and said a gunman was also dead.

A statement from police said the incident took place in a building site on Thursday morning.

“The offender has moved through the building site and continued to discharge his firearm. Upon reaching the upper levels of the building, the male has contained himself within the elevator shaft and our staff have attempted to engage with him,” it said.

“Further shots were fired from the male and he was located deceased a short time later.” » | Anna Rankin in Auckland and AAP | Wednesday, July 19, 2023

‘People were yelling to get out’: witnesses tell of chaos and confusion in Auckland shooting: Commuters were travelling to work and World Cup fans were streaming into the New Zealand city when a gunman attacked »

Auckland shooting: what we know so far about New Zealand killings: Gunman kills two at building site in Auckland CBD, with six victims injured, hours before New Zealand city was due to host the Women’s World Cup »

Nouvelle-Zélande : fusillade mortelle le même jour que l’ouverture du Mondial féminin : A Auckland, trois personnes ont été tuées, dont le tireur, et six blessées, dont des policiers. Cela n’aura aucune incidence sur le Mondial de football féminin qui y débute ce soir, ont rassuré les autorités. »

Macron Condemns Attack in Paris | DW News

Dec 23, 2022 | French president Emmanuel Macron has condemned a deadly shooting in Paris which he says was a deliberate attack on the Kurdish community. Three people have died in the shooting in the capital and several others are seriously injured. Police have arrested a 69-year-old French citizen in connection with the attack.

Two Dead and Four Injured in Paris Shooting, Reports Say

THE GUARDIAN: Man aged 69 arrested after reportedly opening fire on a group of people at a Kurdish cultural centre

Two people died and four have been wounded, including two in a critical condition, after a shooting in central Paris, French media reported.

Le Parisien newspaper said a 69-year-old man opened fire on a group of people at the Ahmet-Kaya Kurdish cultural centre on rue d’Enghien in the French capital’s 10th arrondissement on Friday morning.

Shots were also fired at a hairdresser’s and a restaurant in the street, the arrondissement’s mayor, Alexandra Cordebard, told BFM TV, adding that the suspect himself had been wounded.

Paris prosecutors told the public broadcaster France Télévisions that police had arrested the alleged gunman and seized his weapon soon after the shooting. The suspect, a French national, was a retired train conductor, according to reports. » | Jon Henley | Friday, December 23, 2022

LIVE EN COURS : Coups de feu à Paris en direct : au moins trois personnes tuées près d’un centre culturel kurde, un homme arrêté : Trois autres personnes ont été grièvement blessées rue d’Enghien, dans le 10e arrondissement. Selon une source proche de l’enquête contactée par « Le Monde », le suspect, William M., 69 ans, était déjà connu « pour tentative d’homicide volontaire dans un camp de migrants » du 12e arrondissement en 2021. »

America, How Long Will You Sacrifice Your Children on the Altar of Gun Worship?

THE GUARDIAN: This devotion to the right to bear arms is horrifyingly outdated. It brought terror to Texas – and it will happen again and again

There have been more mass shootings in the US in 2022 than days of the year.’ People mourn victims of the Robb elementary school mass shooting, in Uvalde, Texas, 26 May 2022. Photograph: Veronica Cardenas/Reuters
America’s great appeal to the world was its promise of possibility. It presented itself as virgin territory, a tabula rasa where a society could form anew, free of the past, and where individuals might do the same, reinventing themselves, renewing themselves, starting over. It was a myth, of course: it took no account of those people who were already there, and whose lives and lands were taken, or of those who had been brought to America in shackles. But it was a powerful myth all the same, one whose grip on the global imagination lives on: witness the success of the stage show Hamilton in seducing yet another generation into the romance of a new world and its revolutionary creation.

But now we see something else: a country uniquely burdened with the dead weight of its past, and therefore powerless either to deal with a danger in its present or to make a better future. The land of possibility stands paralysed, apparently unable to make even the smallest change that might save the lives of its young.

The evidence came again this week in the Texan town of Uvalde, where an 18-year-old walked into an elementary school and killed 19 children, aged between eight and 10, and two of their teachers. It was the 27th school shooting in the US this year, and it’s not yet June. » | Jonathan Freedland | Friday, May 27, 2022

This school shooting, like all others before it, is a national disgrace. Apparently, as nothing is ever done about such barbarity, one would be perfectly justified in concluding that it is more important for Americans to retain access to their guns and assault weapons than it is to keep their innocent, helpless children safe! What an appalling state of affairs! – © Mark

This, my comment, also appears here.

Run Away

May 27, 2022 • When all eyes are on the GOP following a national tragedy, what do they do? They run away.

They also say they pray for the victims. As if that's going to help when you've lost a child! What a load of BS! – Mark

Buffalo Massacre: Gunman Cited Racist “Great Replacement” Conspiracy Theory Popularized by Fox News

May 16, 2022 • The mass shooter who killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday posted a racist manifesto online before targeting a majority-Black neighborhood. His writings took heavily from conservative conspiracy theories that white people were in danger of being replaced by people of color. This so-called Great Replacement conspiracy theory has been promoted by major far-right media figures including Tucker Carlson of Fox News. “What it does is create a dynamic where believers view immigrants and nonwhite people as an existential threat not only to themselves physically but to their position in society,” says Nikki McCann Ramírez, associate research director at Media Matters for America, who has researched how Carlson uses his show to launder white nationalist ideology. We also speak with prominent antiracist scholar Ibram X. Kendi, who says mainstream conservatives are increasingly parroting extremist talking points.

'Millions of People Absorb This Garbage': Acosta Calls Out Carlson for Dangerous Rhetoric

May 16, 2022 • CNN's Jim Acosta talks to NAACP President Derrick Johnson about Tucker Carlson's dangerous rhetoric around replacement theory after an 18-year-old was charged with killing ten people in a racially-motivated supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York.

Reporter and Cameraman Shot Dead in Virginia during Live Broadcast

Reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward.

THE GUARDIAN: Suspect is at large after killing reporter Alison Parker, 24, cameraman Adam Ward, 27, and injuring third person on scene of live TV news segment

A gunman killed two members of a news crew and injured one more in Moneta, Virginia, in a shooting that was partially captured on video on Wednesday morning.

Police are investigating the shooting at the Bridgewater Plaza near Smith Mountain Lake that took place at about 6.45am ET. A news crew from WDBJ7 local news was on the scene to film a segment for the morning news when several shots rang out. Screams followed and the camera recording the feature fell, as producers cut to the shocked studio news team.

The station later announced that two of their team, Alison Parker, 24, and Adam Ward, 27, had been shot dead.

Police are searching for a suspect at the scene. » | Alan Yuhas in New York | Wednesday, August 25, 2015

Pakistani Singer Ghazala Javed Shot Dead
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A glamorous young Pakistani pop singer, who was forced to record her songs in Dubai after being threatened by the Taliban, has been shot dead in an apparent honour killing.

Ghazala Javed, 24, was shot six times by gunmen on a motorbike in the north-western city of Peshawar, according to police officers.

They said they believed her ex-husband was responsible rather than the Islamic extremists who had blighted her career with brutally-enforced bans on singing on dancing.

She was killed alongside her father as she left a beauty salon.

“Two men on a motorbike sprayed bullets and fled leaving them in a pool of blood,” said Dilawar Bangash, a senior police officer. » | Rob Crilly, Islamabad | Tuesday, June 19, 2012

THE TIMES OF INDIA: Pashto singer Ghazala Javed and her father shot dead in Pakistan » | PTI | Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Yemen Unrest: 'Dozens Killed' as Gunmen Target Rally
BBC: Unidentified gunmen firing on an anti-government rally in the Yemeni capital Sanaa have killed at least 39 people and injured 200, doctors told the BBC.

The gunmen fired from rooftops overlooking the central square in what the opposition called a massacre.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared a national state of emergency but denied his forces were behind the shooting.

US President Barack Obama condemned the violence, urging Mr Saleh to allow peaceful protests.

In a statement, he said those responsible for Friday's violence "must be held accountable".

Separately, France demanded an end to attacks "by security forces and armed pro-government groups... against people exercising their rights to free speech and demonstration", Reuters reports. (+ video) » | Friday, March 18, 2011

Sarah Palin: “America’s Enduring Strength”

Sarah Palin: "America's Enduring Strength" from Sarah Palin on Vimeo.

THE GUARDIAN: Sarah Palin Brands Media's Attacks Over Arizona Shooting as 'Blood Libel': Politician breaks silence on Giffords shooting and lambasts opponents with controversial choice of language >>> Matthew Weaver | Wednesday, January 12, 2011

White Supremacist James W von Brunn Kills Guard at Holocaust Museum
James W von Brunn (left), white supremacist and Holocaust denier, opened fire in Washington’s Holocaust Museum. He killed Stephen Tyrone Johns, one of the guards (right). Photos courtesy of TimesOnline
TIMES ONLINE: An 88-year-old white supremacist and Holocaust denier opened fire in Washington’s Holocaust Museum yesterday, killing a security guard before being shot in the head.

James W von Brunn, who was convicted in 1983 for running towards the boardroom of Washington’s Federal Reserve building with a shotgun, entered the Holocaust Museum just before 1pm wearing a Confederate hat, and opened fire “indiscriminately” with a long rifle. Witnesses said that he had parked his red car directly outside, displaying a disabled badge.

A guard, named as Stephen Tyrone Johns, was hit and later died of his injuries. Two other security officers at the heavily guarded museum, less than a mile from the White House, hit von Brunn in the head with return fire. He was taken to George Washington University Hospital in a critical condition. Officials said he may not survive.

The shooting, at one of Washington’s most popular tourist destinations - filled with schoolchildren - came after a visit last week by President Obama to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp near Dresden, in Germany. It sparked alarm in the heart of the US capital and caused most of the National Mall to be closed down.

Von Brunn, who claims on his own website to have been a decorated PT-boat captain and lieutenant in the US Navy during World War II, has written a book entitled ‘Kill the Best Gentiles!” According to its preface, its purpose it “to present WHITE YOUTH” with factual information to explain that an “age old CONSPIRACY does exist to destroy Western Civilisation.”

Von Brunn also has a Wikipedia user profile in which he champions the virtues of Western culture and the practice of eugenics. In another article he claims that Holocaust history is destroying Western civilization. >>> Tim Reid in Washington | Thursday, June 11, 2009

THE WASHINGTON POST – Photo gallery:

Shooting at Holocaust Memorial Museum >>>

Virginia Massacre
The following is an excerpt from Matt Frei’s Washington Diary - Virginia shootings:

”Yes, this tragedy has sparked a debate about gun control but mostly outside America. Even Australian Prime Minister John Howard, that stalwart friend of George W Bush, was quick to blame "the US gun culture".

But on Capitol Hill, the Democrats, who have sunk their teeth into every other aspect of the administration, have remained largely silent on the issue. Gun control puts voters off in swing states, their research has discovered. Best to say little about it especially with an election approaching.

Remember Howard Dean, the country doctor turned governor, turned Presidential candidate, turned Chairman of the Democratic Party? He railed against George W Bush "shooting from the hip" but he never really spoke out for gun control.
Why? Because his liberal home state of Vermont hates fast-food as much as it likes hunting.

Despite this week's bloodbath there will be no overwhelming demand for gun control in this country. Like evangelical Christianity, baseball and a love of Pumpkin Pie it is just one of those things that separates Europeans from Americans.

Will the next shooting take place at another university, a high school, a nursery or a secretarial college?” - Matt Frei

Mark Alexander