When a 19-year-old gunman opened fire at a St. Louis school on Monday, killing two and injuring four

When a 19-year-old gunman opened fire at a St. Louis school Monday, killing two and injuring several others, he was armed with a long gun and nearly a dozen high-capacity magazines – enough ammunition for a “much worse” situation, police said.

There were locked doors, and a quick police response, to prevent more killings at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School.

“This could have been much worse,” police Commissioner Michael Sack said. There were over a dozen high capacity magazines on the individual. That’s a whole lot of victims there.”

Alexandria was excited for her Sweet 16 according to her father. Kuczka was looking forward to retiring in a few years, her daughter told CNN.

The gunman died at a hospital after a gun battle with officers, Sack said. He was identified as Orlando Harris, who graduated from the school last year.

As the shooting unfolded in St. Louis, a Michigan prosecutor who just heard the guilty plea of a teen who killed four students last fall said she was no longer shocked to hear of another school shooting. “The fact that there is another school shooting does not surprise me – which is horrific,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said.

We need to keep the public informed about how we can prevent gun violence. It is preventable, and we should never ever allow that to be something we just should have to live with.”

Alexandra Kuczka: “Everything is possible”: A tribute to a great, funny person at Central VPA High School

Alexandria was a member of the junior varsity dance team at her high school and loved to dance, according to her father.

Her friend Dejah Robinson said the two were going to celebrate Halloween together. “She was always funny and always kept the smile on her face and kept everybody laughing,” Robinson said, fighting back tears.

Alexis Allen-Brown was among the alumni who fondly remembered Jean Kuczka’s impact on her students. She was kindhearted. She was very pleasant. She always made you laugh even when you wasn’t trying to laugh,” Allen-Brown said.

In her biography on the school’s website, Kuczka said she had been at Central VPA High School since 2008. “I believe that every child is a unique human being and deserves a chance to learn,” she wrote.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/us/st-louis-school-shooting-tuesday/index.html

The First CNN Call from a Student During the May 24 Shooting: Why Police and Dispatchers Shouldn’t Be Communicated

Seven other teens were injured, some with gunshot or graze wounds. One of them had a broken ankle. The police commissioner said they were in good condition.

“When he entered, it was out … there was no mystery about what was going to happen,” the commissioner said. “He had it out and entered in an aggressive, violent manner.”

Adrianne Bolden, a freshman at the school, told KSDK that students thought it was a drill until they heard the sirens and saw their teachers were scared.

“We actually found a classroom with some children, and they were OK. We realized that this is where the shooter was. He had a chance to hit us. He said that they elected to not clear the kids. “We tell them, ‘Y’all are gonna be OK. You just stay there.

Math teacher David Williams told CNN everyone went into “drill mode,” turning off lights, locking doors and huddling in corners so they couldn’t be seen.

The entire law enforcement response has been rejected by the public. And agencies have blamed each other in changing narratives since the massacre on May 24, for not following up on the initial attempt to go into the classroom when the gunman fired back, to treating the suspect as barricaded but not an active threat, and long waits for equipment and specialist personnel.

As officers searched for people who hid in different locations, they received phone calls from people who said they wanted to leave the building.

Sack said there was a team that was together for a training exercise that was able to quickly get to the school to do a sweep of the building.

CNN has heard other calls like the one above, as well as whispers and pleas for help from the same girl and classmates. The call that should have ended any doubt or hesitation that there was a teen who needed to be stopped should have been made the day of the shooting.

That caller was student Khloie Torres. She was 10 at the time. After law enforcement forced their way into her classroom, it would take 40 minutes from the time of her first call.

According to reports, the newly surfaced recordings include more than 20 calls, including those between officers and Dispatchers, and reveal a chaotic response without clear communication. At least one time a dispatcher gave misinformation to personnel.

Since the shooting, law enforcement’s response has been widely criticized, with agencies failing to take responsibility and blaming each other. A number of officials have been fired.

A Uvalde city policeman told him that they had a child on the line. Nolasco did not bother to check if anyone was going to help Khloie, who survived the massacre, and her classmates or teachers, and instead just left them to go to class.

An investigation by a Texas legislative committee revealed that law enforcement’s radio signals were choppy inside the school building. The report states that Pete Arredondo abandoned his radio at the fence of the Uvalde School after he was fired.

The officers did not hear screams or cries while they heard gunshots and did not know what was happening behind the closed doors.

The officer’s wife had been shot and called her husband saying she was going to die, so officers did not go into the classroom.

The officer said that there were victims at 12:20 p.m. on the footage obtained from his body cam. I don’t want to have any more. You know what I’m saying?”

But “the general public, they really don’t know what to look for,” said former FBI special agent and profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole, who has studied school shootings for more than 20 years.

The key is to look out for drastic changes in behavior and be prepared for them, said the past president of the National Association of School Psychologists.

Some people say it’s increased outward behavior. You will see an increase in grievances. An increase that could be in anger. We will see an escalation in difficulty managing their emotions,” Reeves said.

Significant changes are still going on, but they could be starting to withdraw. “They’re no longer interacting with groups of friends. They’re starting to spend more time on the internet.”

School Shootings Warning Signs Red Flags XPn: Why Do Some Kids Hate Them? How Do They Prevent It?

I have seen it in almost every case. And leakage is very specific because it is the shooter talking about what they’re going to do before they do it,” she said.

“They’re typically done because the offender is really excited about what they’re going to do. Some people think it’s a cry for help and could be used for that purpose.

But for those bent on violence, “They plan it. They think about it. They fantasize about it. They prepare for it. And all of that period of time in which that is done, that’s very pleasant for them. They like it.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/26/us/school-shootings-warning-signs-red-flags-xpn/index.html

Educating Schools and the School System to Monitor Radical Threats on Social Media: A Case Study of a 15-year-old Shooting in Oakland, Michigan

A few days before the Oxford, Michigan, shooting, the 15-year-old suspect posted a picture of a gun on the social media site, saying he had got his new beauty today. Karen McDonald is the prosecutor for Oakland County.

The post isn’t necessarily a cause for alarm by itself. Under certain circumstances, under the age of 18, Michigan residents may possess a gun.

A teacher saw a drawing by the suspect that had a gun pointing at the words “the thoughts won’t stop help me”, the lead prosecutor said. She said it also stated, “My life is useless” and a drawing of a bullet with the words “blood everywhere” written above it.

Even if a social media post is not indicative of a threat, it would still be worth telling a teacher or school official.

O’Donoghue said to educate the students and the faculty to what red-flag behaviors are and also to make it so that students can call in on a confidential line.

She said that prevention was based on knowing what warning behaviors are and how to spot them.

Regardless of how students report concerns, those messages should be actively monitored, and the information should go to a school threat assessment team, according to best practice recommendations from the US Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center and US Department of Education.

The core team “should include an administrator, at least one school mental health professional (school psychologist, school counselor, school social worker), and a school resource officer (SRO)/law enforcement,” Reeves and colleagues wrote about behavioral threat assessment and management in K-12 schools.

When we do the threat assessment, we look for signs of abuse in the home. Or that one parent just got arrested for domestic violence and they’re sitting in jail. The person who they loved the most was their grandma. Now they feel that they have nobody,” Reeves said.

Law enforcement would probably not need to be involved if a threat is found to be false, low level, or Transient. School personnel can help students and their parents by implementing a problem solving process or conflict resolution process, according to a letter written by Reeves and her colleagues.

An law enforcement officer may become engaged in a consultative role if the threat needs to be mitigated. … Reports involving weapons, threats of violence, and physical violence should immediately be reported to local law enforcement.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/26/us/school-shootings-warning-signs-red-flags-xpn/index.html

When a student was removed from the classroom, police discovered a gun in a black hole, and she called the local astrophysical institute

The student was “immediately removed from the classroom” and taken to the guidance counselors’ office, where he told a counselor “the drawing was part of a video game he was designing,” the school district’s superintendent said.

The backpack was secured and the child was removed from the classroom. Police stated that the weapon was never displayed and that no threats were made with it.

Some of the less reliable information you can have is self- reported. So you need to find other sources to corroborate what this person is telling you,” the former FBI special agent said.

She said that you should look for anything else that might suggest that this person is having violent thoughts. To know if there were any reports of incidents at the home, you have to talk to the parents, teachers and law enforcement.

Therefore, “these types of consequences should be implemented only after careful team consideration and should always be paired with supportive interventions,” the team of school psychologists wrote.

On the other hand, keeping the student of concern supervised at school “decreases the opportunity for them to be at home alone where they have more time to conduct research and plan how to carry out the act of violence.”

“We need parents to be more aware of what is happening in their child’s life and what they may have in their possession. While we need the students to report, we also need more parent engagement at home and they need to reach out when their child is struggling.

According to the leader of the Saint Louis Public Schools, not just reading, writing, and arithmetic, but reading, writing, and gun safety is important.

All of those behaviors are part of the totality. One person could possibly know about it. A person may know that he has access to a gun. And another person might report a separate concern about the same student, O’Toole said.

Red flags can be found in social media, in the classroom, and outside of school, and students are often in the best position to notice them.

An Elementary School Detective’s Tale of Khloie and the “Failure of the Police Chief”: CNN Associated with the Robb Elementary School

Khloie is trapped at Robb Elementary School with a suspect who killed her friends and a teacher. Khloie is 11 years old.

Betancourt said he did not know school police chief Arredondo was there until later. He didn’t mention the police chief. A number of its own officers were on scene, as well as one of the first to arrive: now-fired Sgt. Juan Maldonado. The department has taken criticism for not taking charge of what its own chief called “an abject failure.” In an interview with CNN in October, the director of DPS said that he didn’t think his department had failed and would not resign.

CNN obtained the calls from a source and is using excerpts with the approval of Khloie’s parents. CNN told families of people who died in the massacre that the story was coming.

Ruben said he knew how hard it was to give good information when under fire. He said that the things her daughter did on that day were incredible. Of the adults who responded, he said: “None of them had courage that day.”

Uvalde (911) room-call-delay: a student’s response to a gunman’s shot and a friend’s gun

“I need help … please. Have y’all captured the person?” the fourth grader asks at 12:12 p.m. A few minutes later, you would like me to open the door.

The girl is on the phone as the police try to force their way into the room next door. Loud, prolonged bursts of gunfire can be heard as the dispatcher tells her: “Stay down. You do not have to get up. Stay down. Do not move.

At 12:12 p.m. the radio call goes out: “Uvalde to any units: Be advised we do have a child on the line … room 12 [sic]. Is anybody inside of the building at this time?”

There was plenty of confusion at the start of the massive response to the school shooting, which came after the gunman shot his grandmother in the head and crashed a truck near the school, both of which triggered emergency calls.

“We don’t know if he has anybody in the room with him, do we?” asks an officer in the hallway outside the classrooms. The reply says that he does. It could be eight or nine children.

While some are talking about the dangers of using gas masks and shields, an emergency medic from Border Patrol arrives. He is aware of the children.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/01/us/uvalde-911-classroom-call-delay/index.html

A Maryland elementary school teacher made unfounded claims that multiple stabbings occurred in the Green Valley Elementary School, Monrovia, Maryland, on Thursday

Khloie tells police that she used her teacher’s phone and was able to make an emergency call from it without being stuck on the phone.

She also told of how she had time to try to help her friends while the gunman was in the adjoining classroom, where he killed all the students and wounded the teacher.

The girl survives. She is taken to the hospital on a school bus with other injured classmates where she’s able to speak face to face with one of the responders, saying she was on the phone.

Maryland law enforcement and school district officials are investigating why an elementary school teacher made unfounded claims that multiple stabbings occurred at the school before walking 27 fifth-graders off campus to a local café.

Shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, deputies received a call about multiple stabbings at Green Valley Elementary School in Monrovia, according to a news release from the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office. Monrovia is roughly 40 minutes west of Baltimore.

27 students and a teacher were missing after the sheriff’s office found out there had been no stabbings at the school. Authorities soon found all the students and the teacher at a local cafe, the sheriff’s office added. All of the missing students were accounted for and reunited with their families and guardians, authorities said.

According to a statement from Frederick County Public Schools, the teacher believed “there was a concern for safety” and acted in what the district called the “avoid strategy,” which staff and students are trained to use when they believe there is an immediate threat to student safety.

The teacher then decided to lead the students through the woods up to a nearby cafe – a decision which authorities say she made due to her taking a part in emergency management procedures.

“As they are walking through the woods, she has the children remove any brightly colored clothing or accessories and removes her own brightly colored shirt to avoid detection,” the sheriff’s office added.

Ruben Nolasco, the Elected Sheriff of Robb Elementary School, a Longtime Collapse and a Loose Hero

We are grateful that this was a hoax but we know that it was upsetting for students involved and the community at large. We regret that this happened,” the school district added.

The teacher was taken into custody, which is not a sign that she was charged or arrested. She was taken to a hospital for an evaluation but not handcuffs, they said.

Additional mental health staff will be hired at the school and the school district held a meeting with parents of the impacted students to get more information and services for the children.

Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco rushed toward Robb Elementary School after getting calls that a man was firing his gun after crashing his truck.

He was one of the 376 officers who went to help children and teachers. But, unlike the vast majority, he had the rank to easily take charge, he had vital information about the shooter and a call about victims in a classroom, and others looked to him as a commander on the scene with up-to-date information.

But despite more than 30 years of law enforcement experience for the city and county, despite knowing not only his own staff but many in the command structures in the multiple agencies that arrived at Robb, Nolasco chose to stay at a different crime scene, already under control, as a far greater disaster initially unfolded. He did not take charge when he did arrive because he didn’t know how to help the trapped girls.

Nolasco was comforted by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and US Sen. Ted Cruz who were his political allies after the massacre.

An elected leader answering only to voters, he has not been subject to the same scrutiny as the school police chief – now fired; the acting city police chief – now retired before he could be fired; and members of the Texas Rangers and the Texas Department of Public Safety, who have all faced official scrutiny, leading to suspensions and at least one termination.

What Have We Learned About the Shooting of Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, the Uvalde Police Chief, and the Texas Ranger?

In his nine day after attack interview, Nolasco was emotional and angry. He called some of the routine questions “insulting” but added, “I know I didn’t do anything wrong. I have nothing to hide.”

“I’ve been advised that there’s a woman that’s been shot in the head off of Diaz Street. Woman shot in the head off of Diaz Street by (an) unknown subject,” Nolasco radioed at 11:35 a.m. on May 24 on the sheriff’s office frequency, repeating the information seconds later on the police department channel that was already full of transmissions about shots fired and a gunman jumping a school fence. Why Nolasco deviated from his course to the woman’s house has been unanswered by state investigators. He said he was stopped as he drove past by a resident who had heard about the attack on the woman.

“Who did this to you?” Nolasco can be heard asking on a previously undisclosed recording from a body camera worn by one of his deputies and obtained by CNN. Within hours of the shooting, the video footage was uploaded to the police server and made available to the Texas Rangers who were tasked with investigating the response but haven’t made it public.

At this time, the school police chief was trying to negotiate with the shooter but still did not have his name. A CNN analysis of footage from inside the school has found no indication that Arredondo was told the gunman had family trouble, even when his identity was known.

At 11:43 a.m., a request was made to check the plates of the truck the gunman was driving for a clue to his identity. The owner of the vehicle was identified eleven minutes later, but it wasn’t the shooter. Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, the school police chief, tried to begin negotiations at midnight but could only address the shooter as Individual in Room 112. Post-Columbine policy requires any negotiation to have a direct effect on taking down active shooters.

CNN reported that Nolasco could have taken command if the acting Uvalde police chief had been more forthcoming about how he knew children needed rescue.

CNN has revealed the actions and inaction that have seen the Texas Ranger and a state police captain put under review and the state police sergeant terminated. Another officer who quit the state force while she was under investigation and took a job with the Uvalde school district was fired by that district after CNN showed how she waited outside the school during the attack but said it would have been different if her own son had been inside.

Nolasco stood up for himself and insisted that he was not at the school for the first 35 minutes of the standoff.

He told the investigator he “had a good reason” for the delay, saying he stayed to arrange the EMS transport, persuaded a neighbor to get off the street while the shooter was loose and then made some calls.

But there was no effective communication that active shooter protocol should be followed – that the threat should be neutralized as quickly as possible – either on the scene or among the many teams, some under DPS leadership, that were heading there. Betancourt told investigators he still believed they were dealing with a “barricaded subject” when he arrived, well into the second hour of the response.

The captain is under investigation for his actions. He told investigators he asked Nolasco while he was driving if he had a command post set up, and again when he arrived as he thought the sheriff was in charge. “I assumed the sheriff was running the show,” he said in one interview.

He said in a second interview that he knew the sheriff was in charge of the incident at the time and that they would be getting information from him as it happened.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/07/us/uvalde-sheriff-ruben-nolasco-robb-elementary-massacre/index.html

Nolasco, the DPS, and a teacher who was shot by a gunman at a school: The student who shot him died

Nolasco denied that to CNN. “It’s his impression, that’s on him. He’s a captain. And if that’s what he assumed, then it was an assumption. It was not validated.”

CNN reported last month that Pargas was aware of the situation when he responded to a student’s call for help.

Nolasco was dissatisfied with the radio work at the school and with the noise from the helicopter.

The sheriff was with DPS Capt. Betancourt when Betancourt issued an order – that no one heeded – to stop the entry to the classroom that finally killed the gunman at 12:50 p.m.

The training for law enforcement calls first for officers to disarm a suspect and then to stop the killing, even if it puts responders or hostages in danger.

After a hour of interviewing, he talked about the suffering of his officers and said that it had been difficult for him.

Novah Jones said an announcement came on saying that they were in a different classroom and that it was time to lock down. “I was scared … it was like my first lockdown and I didn’t know what to do, so I just hid under my desk like everybody was.”

Police said that a six year old shot his first grade teacher in Virginia on January 6. The school reopened after the teacher received a gunshot wound to the chest and new security measures were put in place.

James Madison University identified the teacher as Abbey Zwerner, despite the school district and authorities not naming her.

The Attictic Shooting of a 6-year-old High School Student: The Case for a Shot and Shooting at a K-12 School

The police took the 6-year-old into custody, Police Chief Steve Drew said in a news conference, “this was not an accidental shooting.”

The shooting occurred after an altercation between Zwerner and the student, who pointed the gun at her and fired a single round, Police Chief Drew said at the time.

The students were taken to the gymnasium with their teachers after the shooting as they were surrounded by counselors and officers.

Though she was able to return home safely, Novah said she had trouble sleeping that night, worried that “he still had the gun and he was going to come to my house.”

Many children are having to deal with the trauma caused by a shooting at school. US schools have become more and more the scene of gun violence than any other country, despite still being rare. In 2022, there were at least 60 shootings at K-12 schools, according to a CNN analysis.

The principal stated that the school would remain closed on Monday and Tuesday to give the community time to heal.

Two days before the shooting, the student allegedly “slammed” and broke Zwerner’s cell phone and cursed at guidance counselors, which led to him being suspended for one day, according to a legal notice sent to the Newport News School Board by Zwerner’s attorney that also informed officials about the teacher’s plan to sue school administrators.

Authorities are “working diligently to get an answer to the question we are all asking – how did this happen? We are also working to ensure the child receives the supports and services he needs as we continue to process what took place,” Jones said.

The Richneck School Principal Reassigned to Newport News Public Schools and the First Day of Class Resummation after a First Grader Shoot

The principal of Richneck Elementary School in Virginia has been reassigned within Newport News Public Schools, according to a spokesperson for the district.

School and district leadership have come under fire in the weeks since a first grader allegedly shot a teacher inside a Richneck classroom on January 6, with students there slated to resume classes for the first time since the incident on Monday.

Parker resigned on January 25, nearly three weeks after the shooting and one day after the legal notice was sent to the school board. CNN reached out to Parker for comment on Tuesday but did not immediately receive a response.

Karen Lynch will serve as the administrator on special assignment “leading the Richneck team and coordinating the students’ return to instruction,” the district said.

School Resource Officers haven’t been assigned to Rich Neck according to Police Chief Steve Drew. In addition, doors have been installed in classroom areas without one, and others have been repaired or replaced,” the district told CNN.

Lynch sent an email to students and their families detailing new protocols for the first day of full instruction following her appointment.

Lynch encouraged families to send their children to school using their normal mode of transportation and asked that families bring clear book bags for use on Monday as the school will provide them with clear bag for use.

The school will be limiting visitors in the beginning of the first week of school because they want staff to have an opportunity to set procedures with students. It was stated that parents are not allowed to enter classrooms and people who walk their children to class are subject to search.

A 58-Year-Old Shooter at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, New Jersey, was Arrested by a Student Bringing a Gun to School

The school also shared an Amazon Wish List of emotional support items that teachers had requested for students to aid in the healing process in a post on the school’s Facebook account Sunday evening.

“This is a scary situation, my son is still scared,” Garcia told CNN. “He wants to go back to school, but he just wants to know that he’s gonna to be safe, and that’s the biggest thing.”

Zwerner could not get into details about what occurred prior to the shooting due to the potential litigation, but is also dealing with emotional injuries, too.

Police were alerted to the gun on campus after a group of students on a school bus with the 6-year-old that morning told the school’s secretary he showed them the weapon and bullets.

The student’s family said in a statement that the boy had an acute disability and that he was under a care plan that required a parent to accompany him on the day of the shooting. The statement said that they would regret their absence for the rest of their lives.

The child brought a gun to school and the mother was arrested, police said in a statement. This is at least the fourth incident of a 6-year-old bringing a gun to school this year, according to CNN’s reporting.

The allegations were detailed in a January 24 legal notice by attorney Diane Toscano, who sent the letter to the Newport News School Board to inform officials of a lawsuit her client, teacher Abigail Zwerner, plans to file against administrators at Richneck Elementary School.

The legal notice indicates that the child displayed some warning signs of violence. The student’s family said previously the child has a disability.

It is a miracle that no one was harmed, according to the legal notice. “The shooter spent his entire recess with a gun in his pocket … with his hand in that pocket while lots of first grade students played,” the legal notice states.

CNN obtained the legal notice Tuesday from the Newport News School District through a Freedom of Information Act request. The district gave the document to CNN.

The school district told CNN previously that it could not comment on whether Newton or anyone else was made aware of a potential gun on campus because that is part of an ongoing investigation.

On Wednesday, a 58-year-old man was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor after an unloaded gun was found inside a 6-year-old’s backpack at a North Carolina school the day before, according to police. The Philadelphia area woman was arrested after her son was accused of bringing a gun to school. In January, a Virginia teacher was shot and injured by her 6-year-old student.

A woman was arrested in Pennsylvania after her child brought a gun to school.

Jasmin Devlin, 30, turned herself in Tuesday and has been arraigned on charges of felony endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment for failing to secure a firearm in her home, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. It is unclear if Devlin currently has an attorney.

Police believe the boy found the weapon – a 9 mm Jimenez Arms semi-automatic handgun – in a dresser in his mother’s room the night before bringing it to school, prosecutors said. His 10-year-old brother took the bullets out of the gun and was pointing it at his brother, pretending to shoot him, the news release said. The 6-year-old told detectives he returned to his mother’s room in the middle of the night, put the firearm in his backpack and took it to school, according to the release.

Devlin obtained the gun through a straw purchase conducted by a Norristown man on March 4, 2022, the statement from the district attorney’s office said. Straw purchases happen when someone buys a gun for another person who is ineligible to own one.

Devlin’s bond was set at $50,000 and she’s been ordered to not have contact with children as part of her bond conditions. There will be a preliminary hearing on February 24.

In North Carolina, Marvin Ray Davis was arrested for a count of improper storage of a firearm to protect a minor after a 9mm handgun was found in a 6-year-old’s backpack.

Davis is not related to the child but did live in the same home, a department spokesperson told CNN. He was released on a $4,000 bond and will be in court on March 1, the release said.

It’s unclear if Davis has an attorney and CNN has made several attempts to contact him. CNN has also reached out to Nash County Public Schools for comment.

“The situation … should be a reminder to all gun owners to secure their weapons in a safe manner so that minors cannot possess them,” Rocky Mount Police Chief Robert Hassell said. “This was a preventable situation,” he added.

When a student accidentally shot himself: how Daz-Muoz and his classmates were pushed out of the room 114 of Berkey Hall

The world changed for Daz-Muoz and his students when he was halfway through his class on Cuban literature. In minutes a welcoming, open campus community was shattered by another mass shooting in America that killed the innocent followed by another mass shooting in another school.

The first place Daz-Muoz’s class was targeted was by the man who killed himself after opening fire in the student union.

“I could see this figure, and it was so horrible because when you see someone who’s totally masked, you don’t see their face, you don’t see their hands – it was like seeing a robot,” Díaz-Muñoz said of the man who came in his classroom.

He was so traumatised by seeing his class killed in his favorite room that he had to leave his beloved campus. DaZ-Muoz was a graduate student at the time she came back to teach. Whenever schedules were drawn up, he always asked to be put back in room 114 of Berkey Hall. He knew how to work the tech there and loved the view through the windows towards the Broad Art Museum, he explained.

The professor wasn’t sure how long he stood there. He shot at least 15 shots, one after the other. Bang, bang, bang.”

He held his hands together in front of his face to keep his weight off the wall, as he said, throwing himself at that door. He said he was aware the shooter could shot through the handle he was holding.

Students were told to kick out the windows to escape the ground floor room. The bottom panes would not break, but those above did, and some students were able to scramble out, he said.

Others did not go. They tried to prevent the injured from dying by covering their wounds with their hands. They were heroic because they could have made it through the windows. They did not leave, helping their classmates.

It was 10, maybe 12, minutes before Dz-Muoz saw police officers at his door and moved his barricade so he could go check on his students.

The students tried to hide under the seats. A man with asthma is in the middle of a row asking for help because he can’t breathe.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/us/msu-shooting-professor-marco-diaz-munoz/index.html

A Conversation with Jorge Daz-Muoz on the “Case of Two Shootings” and How to Raise the Causes of Gun Violence

Díaz-Muñoz says he cannot handle seeing blood, always turning away if any is drawn from him for a test. He thought he would faint from the sight in some other situations, but that didn’t happen.

Díaz-Muñoz said he got home at about 3 a.m. on Tuesday. His wife was waiting for him in a different hallway, the one that the man believed was used to kill him. A chronic insomniac, he took medication and slept, he said.

He said there is a part of him that would rather sleep under the blankets and not wake up for a while. “I want to not remember these scenes and not have to go teach that class.

“But there is another part of me that feels a great need, a strong need to see my students again … to see that they are alive, I need to see their faces.” He is trying to write them a letter, but is struggling with what to say.

He adds his voice to those who want more to be done about the mental health crisis in the US, and to address gun control. And by telling his story, he hopes he can paint a picture of what happened.

As a professor, he says he knows how to rationalize – to argue one side and get you to believe it and then turn around and argue the other side and be just as convincing.

He believes politicians are rationalizing the causes of shootings to meet their own agendas while the most beneficial changes in history have come from people allowing themselves to listen to their humanity.

He said he has felt the weight of what happened. He said that he cried in that class, and that he was especially upset by the images of the two girls.

For now, he does want to teach again. To once again be the strict but fair professor who pushes students to maximize their ability in the classes they pay for. Especially for the students in his Monday night Cuban lit class, with whom he now shares even more of a bond.

On the investigation of a missing student, Letty M. Lopez, of Norfolk, for contributing to the delinquency of an elementary student, and allowing access to a loaded firearm

Police said around 3:30 p.m. Thursday, officers responded to Little Creek Elementary School following a report of a student having a weapon. School staff turned over a handgun to police when they arrived. No one was injured, police said.

Letty M. Lopez, of Norfolk, has been arrested and charged with allowing access to a loaded firearm by children and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Lopez had a criminal summons. CNN tried to contact Lopez.

After students at the school were dismissed for the day, police went to the school to investigate, according to Washington. Washington said that school administration immediately enacted safety and security protocols. “School administration also immediately contacted division leadership and the Communications office.”

Washington added the division has invested in school security in recent years, including installing video doorbell cameras at every school, enforcing ID checks for visitors, and requiring all who enter school buildings to undergo a background check through its visitor management system.

The school board is considering a budget proposal that includes the purchase of weapons detection systems for all schools in the division, upgrading school security cameras, hiring 18 additional security officers, and creating additional security supervisory positions, Washington said.

The Shooting of a 9-Year-Long-Law Girl by a Newly-Olled Sheriff’s Officer

A 9-year-old girl, who was fatally wounded when a gunman broke into her family’s Florida home after shooting a woman nearby hours earlier, told her mother, “He shot me!” According to the affidavit, as she ran for help.

Sheriff’s investigators have said the suspected shooter, Keith Moses, is accused of killing a woman on the morning of February 22 – which brought news crews to the scene. Hours later in the neighborhood just west of Orlando, a gunman shot T’Yonna Major and her mother, then went outside and fatally shot a reporter and wounded another journalist, according to affidavit for the arrest warrant.

A court document says that the attacker entered the backyard while T’Yonna’s mom was sleeping. She had told T’Yonna to get her “dance items” together so she could be ready when her father got home. The mother has not been identified by law enforcement.

Two journalists for Spectrum News 13 in Orlando who were covering the initial shooting were targeted with gunfire as the assailant left the home, the document says – making an adjustment to a timeline of the three incidents previously released by the sheriff’s office.

According to the affidavit, minutes after the news crew arrived, reporter Dylan Lyons was shot while in the front passenger seat of the crew’s Ford Escape. He passed away at the hospital about an hour later. According to the station, Lyons was 24 years old.

Photojournalist Jesse Walden was found wounded by the trunk of the SUV, deputies said. Authorities in the initial aftermath had said the journalists were shot before the girl and her mother.

The first victim was killed about five hours after the others. The affidavit says she was lying outside of a car that had been driven by her cousin.

According to a previous affidavit, the cousin said he was driving around with the woman in his car and had offered Moses a ride. The suspect entered the rear passenger side and sat behind the woman.

An affidavit says that less than a minute later, the cousin heard a loud bang. The court document says that the driver pulled over to call after the suspect fled.

According to the affidavit, Moses was taken into custody within 20 minutes after the shootings at the third scene. Investigators recovered a Glock .40 caliber pistol used in the shooting spree, authorities have said.

Moses initially pleaded not guilty to one charge of first-degree murder. Authorities on Tuesday added two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first degree murder and burglary charges. His attorney excused him from the court due to his behavior.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/28/us/florida-orange-county-shooting-arrest-affidavit/index.html

A spokesperson for the juvenile deportation of Zwerner, the boy allegedly shot by Mina, told CNN AM 21: ‘This is not a safe classroom anymore’

John Mina said at a press conference Tuesday that it was important to bring the charges forward. Authorities have not discovered a motive and the affidavit says.

“Some days are not-so-good days where I can’t get up out of bed,” she told NBC. “Some days are better than others where I’m able to get out of bed and make it to my appointments. I try to remain positive when I go through things like that.

The boy who allegedly shot Zwerner will not be criminally charged, Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn told CNN affiliate WTKR earlier this month.

She said she was terrified. I was the first one to say that your kids need to get out of here. ‘This is not a safe classroom anymore.’ … I just wanted to get my babies out of there.”

She said that the support of her family and complete strangers was hard to comprehend at times, but they were appreciated and truly inspiring.

How did I become a mother in High School, and what have I learned from the experience of losing my mom in Newport News (and what will I do next)?

“But I am following very closely the Newport News prosecutor to see what they do in this case and who they do charge, ultimately, if they do charge anybody.”

“My job is to hold those accountable that I can hold accountable,” Toscano said, “and I’m going to do that. They are going to deal with this for her entire life.

She said that the vivid memories of that day are still vivid, so she is unsure when the shock will ever go away. I think about it daily. Sometimes I have nightmares.