The Suspense of an 18-Year-old School Shooter, Daniel Defense, and a New Gun Dealer in Uvalde, Texas

A lawsuit was brought by the parents on behalf of themselves and their children, who included a boy named “G.M.” who was wounded in the attack. The 9-year-old hid in a nearby classroom with other students.

Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in the May 24 shooting after an 18-year-old gunman walked into Robb Elementary and began firing into classrooms.

The complaint says that Daniel Defense wouldn’t do studies evaluating the effects of their marketing strategies on the health and well-being of Americans and wouldn’t look at the cost to families in Uvalde, Texas.

The complaint states that the Georgia-based company had a meme of a toddler with an assault-style weapon and the caption: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

The claimed that Firequest International, Inc., which makes accessory Trigger Systems similar to illegal bump stocks and sells them to untrained civilians, young adults and children is located in Uvalde. These types of devices give semi-automatic rifles the ability to fire quickly.

According to the legal document, Oasis Outback sold the Uvalde school shooter the guns and ammunition knowing he was suspicious and likely dangerous. “The store owner and his staff did not act on their suspicions and block the purchases or notify law enforcement.”

On May 17 and May 20 the shooter legally purchased two rifles at a local federal firearms licensee. Officials stated that he bought 375 rounds of ammunition on May 18.

In response to the Uvalde School Shooting, a radio communications investigation revealed that Arredondo’s ‘active shooter’ never tried to break the fence

The Texas legislative committee conducted an investigation that found choppy radio signals in the school building. Former Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was fired, abandoned his radio at the fence of the school, the report stated.

“While Uvalde PD did make an early attempt to breach the classroom, they retreated and never tried again. The scene remained ‘active’ and active shooter protocol required Uvalde PD to pursue the primary goal of stopping the killing and gunman no matter how many times it takes,” said the claim.

The suit also faults Lt. Mariano Pargas, the city’s acting police chief on the day of the massacre, as well as two other companies, claiming defects in their products were factors in the response to the shooting. The claim states that the radio communications devices, which were used by some first responders, were unsafe because they didn’t contain adequate warnings or instructions.

Sack told CNN that the doors were locked and that the school was closed. “The security staff did an outstanding job identifying the suspect’s efforts to enter, and immediately notified other staff and ensured that we were contacted.”

Venancio Figueroa III, a spokesman for Schneider Electric, told CNN that what happened in Uvalde was an “unfortunate tragedy”. We can’t comment on pending litigation but we are looking at the recent filing.

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, Daniel Defense and Oasis Outback refused to respond to CNN’s request for comment.

A 19-year-old gunman killed three students and wounded four at a St. Louis elementary school in the early hours of a recent school shooting

The story had an extra name in it’s previous version. That person is not a party in the complaint and the name has been removed.

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.

Authorities credited locked doors and a quick police response – including by off-duty officers – for preventing more killings at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School.

“This could have been much worse,” police Commissioner Michael Sack said. The individual had several high capacity magazines on him. That’s a whole lot of victims there.”

Alexandria was looking forward to her Sweet 16, her father told CNN affiliate KSDK. 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.

The prosecutor who just heard the guilty plea of a teenager 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.

To prevent gun violence, we need to keep the public informed. We should never allow that to become something we need to live with.

Alexandria Bell, 28, and Jean Kuczka: a fun and funny girl that always made you laugh, even though you didn’t know you were there

Alexandria had an outgoing personality, loved to dance and was a member of her high school’s junior varsity dance team, her father Andre Bell told KSDK.

Her friend Dejah Robinson said the two were planning to celebrate Halloween together this weekend. “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 nice. She always made you laugh, even though you weren’t trying to.

Kuczka stated on the website that she had been at Central VPA High School since 2008. She believes that every child should have a chance to learn.

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

Investigation of a Shooting-Injured 6-Year-Old Student at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, on Friday

Seven other teens were injured, some with gunshot or graze wounds. One had a fractured ankle. They were all in stable conditions, the police commissioner said.

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

Students thought it was a drill until they heard the sirens and their teachers were scared, Adrianne said.

Adrianne said that the class stayed put until the assistant principal showed up in one of the locked windows. “We opened it, the teacher said to come on, and we all had to jump out the window,” Bolden recalled.

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.

It was compared to the school shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, last year in which more than an hour passed between the arrival of police officers and when they eventually killed the shooter.

As phone calls came in from people hiding in different locations, officers fanned out and searched for students and staff to escort them out of the building.

Sack said the secondary sweep was performed by a team of people that were together for a training exercise.

As police investigate the circumstances that led to a 6-year-old boy allegedly shooting and injuring a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, Friday, a student at the school described the harrowing moment the lockdown was called.

The caller was a student. She was 10 at the time. 40 minutes after she first got the call, law enforcement forced their way into her classroom.

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.

After the shooting, law enforcement’s response has been criticized, with agencies not taking responsibility and blaming each other. Several top officials have been fired.

A Uvalde city police officer reiterated directly to him, “We’ve got a child on the line, 911,” he said. Nolasco didn’t check to see if help was on the way to Khloie, who survived the massacre, or her classmates and teachers who weren’t under threat.

Officers said they knew the gunman was in one of the rooms, but did not know what was happening behind the closed doors because they did not hear screams or cries, despite hearing several gunshots ringing out.

Officers still did not breach the classroom after a responding officer’s wife, a fourth-grade teacher at the school, was shot, and called her husband saying she was “dying.”

He admitted there were victims at 12:20 p.m., as seen on video obtained through another officer’s body cam. I don’t want to have more. You know the answers I’m giving?

The sheriff rushed towards the school when he heard that a man was shooting his gun after he crashed his truck.

He was one of the 376 officers who went to help children and teachers. He had the rank to take charge, he had vital information about the shooter, and he was seen by others as a commander on the scene with up-to-date information.

Nolasco knew that the man who had tried to kill his grandmother was just half a mile from the school and he decided not to dispatch any of his officers. He stayed with the grandmother as medics arrived, loaded her onto a stretcher and took her to a hospital.

Nolasco suggested to a Texas Ranger that the information that children were with the shooter could’ve slowed things down even more.

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.

CNN has now detailed Nolasco’s actions in our investigation into the leaderless morass and lethal inaction at Uvalde. Nolasco refused to interview for a long time. He answered “Yes,” when asked if he thought his response was adequate, after CNN caught up with him in November. I do.

A Texas House investigative committee into the Robb massacre said it received information that Nolasco learned about the shooting on Diaz Street by means other than being stopped as he headed toward the school, and perhaps earlier. They requested his phone records to determine whether quicker reporting of the attack on the grandmother could have led to an earlier lockdown at the school or a faster response.

“Who did this to you?” CNN obtained a previously undisclosed recording from a body camera worn by one of his deputy’s and it was used to ask Nolasco about it. The Texas Rangers have not released the results of their investigation into the response to the shooting because the footage has not been made public.

The name that CNN is not repeating so as not to fuel his notoriety, was not immediately made public, even though they sought information through other means, according to a CNN analysis of radio traffic.

Someone requested that the truck the man was driving be checked out to see if there was a clue to his identity. Eleven minutes later the owner of the vehicle was identified, but it was not the shooter. Pedro “Pete” Arredondo tried to begin negotiations but without a name, he could only address the person as Individual in Room 111 and 112. Any negotiation goes against the post-Columbine policies to immediately take down active shooters.

After CNN reported that he knew children needed help, Pargas resigned as Uvalde police chief.

CNN has also revealed the actions and inaction that have seen a Texas Ranger and a state police captain put under review, and a state police sergeant terminated. The officer who quit the state force and took the Uvalde school district job after CNN showed her how she waited outside of the school for the attack to start was fired by the district, even though she said it would have been different if her son had been in the school.

Nolasco stood his ground and said he was not at the school for the first 35 minutes of the standoff.

The investigator was told by him that he had a good reason for the delay, and that he helped arrange the transport, persuaded a neighbor to get off the street, and made some calls.

The protocol for active shooter situations didn’t have an effective communication that the threat should be taken down as soon as possible or that the teams heading there should be aware of it. Betancourt told investigators he still believed they were dealing with a “barricaded subject” when he arrived, well into the second hour of the response.

Betancourt said he did not know school police chief Arredondo was there until later. The acting city police chief Pargas wasn’t mentioned. The sergeant who was one of the first to arrive as well as many of his brethren from the department were fired. The department has taken criticism for not taking charge of what its own chief called “an abject failure.” DPS director Col. Steven McCraw told CNN he would resign if his department was culpable but told bereaved families in October he did not think DPS as an institution had failed.

In a second interview with an investigator, he elaborated, “I know the sheriff has operational control there at the time, and we’re getting with the sheriff to get firsthand information from the incident as it was occurring.”

Nolasco and his colleagues: I’m afraid I don’t want to break down doors, but I want to protect myself, and I won’t lose my seat

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

Last month, CNN showed that Pargas had direct knowledge that children and teachers were trapped in classrooms with the gunman when he followed up on a 911 call from a student.

Nolasco complained to an investigator and CNN about how poorly the radios worked in and around the school, and that the noise from helicopters was detrimental too.

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.

In a contradiction to active shooter training, which calls for officers to kill the suspect and not break down doors when hostages are present, he said they don’t want to break down door when hostages are present.

He talked about his deputy’s suffering, and said, “It’s been very traumatic for me as well.”

Novah Jones, who was in a different classroom, said that an announcement came on saying “lockdown, I repeat lockdown.” I hid under my desk because I was scared and no one knew what to do.

According to the Newport News Police Department, the teacher who was wounded in the shooting was listed in stable condition by Saturday.

Authorities and the Newport News public school district did not name the teacher, but her alma mater, James Madison University, identified her as Abby Zwerner.

The Shooting Involved A 6-Year-Old Child at a High School: Police Chief Steve Drew Tells CNN

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

The student had a gun and an altercation occurred with the teacher, Drew said. A single round was fired and no other students were involved, he added.

Following the shooting, all students at the school were evacuated from their classrooms with their teachers and taken to the gymnasium, where they were with counselors and officers, Drew told CNN affiliate WTKR.

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 of the highest-profile school shootings in recent years have taken place at public schools, in part because there are far more public schools in the United States: nearly 100,000, compared with about 30,000 private schools.

The school will be closed on Mondays and Tuesday to give the community time to heal.

It’s hard to wrap your mind around the fact that a 6 year old child brought a loaded gun to school and shot a teacher, but this is exactly what our community is grappling with today.

Authorities are working diligently to find an answer to the question of how this happened. Jones said that they are working to ensure the child gets the services and supports he needs while they process what happened.

A bigail teacher shooting newport-newsvirginia nbc: “My kids need to leave” recalled Savannah Zwerner

“I remember him pointing the gun at me, I remember the look on his face,” Abigail Zwerner told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie in an interview that aired Tuesday, more than two months after the January 6 shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News left her hospitalized with gunshot wounds to the hand and chest. I remember the gun going off.

Zwerner knew, she said, she had been shot – the bullet went through her left hand before getting lodged in her chest, where fragments of it remain – but her first thought was of the safety of her other students.

“I was terrified,” she said. My initial reaction was that your kids need to leave. This is not a safe classroom anymore, that is what it is. … I just wanted to get my babies out of there.”

A hospital spokesman confirmed that Zwerner was released last month. The teacher has had four surgeries since the shooting, and has yet to fully use her hand, according to NBC.

The boy who allegedly shot Zwerner will not be charged, according to the Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney.

The family of the boy said that he was alone at school on the day of the shooting as he was under a care plan that required a parent to attend. “We will regret our absence on this day for the rest of our lives,” the statement read.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/21/us/abigail-zwerner-teacher-shooting-newport-news-virginia-nbc/index.html

An employee had a gun and threatened someone at Richneck Elementary, the district prosecutor ruled out a possible charge for the killing of a student at the college

She told NBC that there are some days when she can not get out of bed. It is better when I am able to get out of bed to go to my appointments. I attempt to stay positive from the experiences that I have gone through.

The outpouring of support from her family and complete strangers is “hard to comprehend sometimes,” she said, but is deeply appreciated and “truly inspiring.”

Zwerner’s attorney, Diane Toscano, has alleged that concerned teachers and employees alerted administrators three times on the day of the shooting that the student had a gun and was threatening people. Despite knowing of the imminent danger, the administrators failed to act.

The incident drew harsh criticism from parents and led the board to vote to remove the administrator. Richneck Elementary’s assistant principal, Ebony Parker, resigned two weeks after the shooting and the principal, Briana Foster Newton, was reassigned to another school, though the district did not say where.

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.

I am closely following the Newport News prosecutor’s decisions in the case to see if anyone is charged.

“My job is to hold those accountable that I can hold accountable,” Toscano said, “and I’m going to do that. Abby’s going to have to deal with this her entire life, both physically, emotionally.”

“I’m not sure when the shock will ever go away, because of just how surreal it was and you know, the vivid memories that I have of that day,” she said. I think about it every day. Sometimes, I have nightmares.

Witnessing a gun-related shooting at a Christian elementary school: Witnessing the death of a former student and the disappearance of her son

Police in Nashville are digging into the background and motivations of a former student who entered a Christian elementary school armed with AR-style weapons and detailed maps and opened fire, killing three children and three adults.

Police have referred to Hale as the “female shooter” and at an evening press conference added that Hale was transgender. CNN was asked for clarification regarding Hale’s use of’male pronouns’ on a social media profile.

Hale, who attended the Christian school years ago, left writings that pertain to the shooting and had scouted a second possible attack location in Nashville, “but because of a threat assessment by the suspect – there’s too much security – they decided not to,” police chief said.

The police chief said during a Monday news conference that he was moved to tears to see the kids being ushered out of the building.

The police in Nashville identified the six victims as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9, and the adults as Cynthia Peak, 61, a substitute teacher; Mike Hill, 61, a custodian; and Katherine Koonce, 60. The school website shows that Dr. Koonce was the head of school. A biography about the pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Dallas says that they had a daughter named Hallie, who was also his daughter. The elementary school is connected to Covenant Presbyterian.

Shaundelle Brooks, who lost her son Akilah DaSilva during a 2018 mass shooting at a Nashville-area Waffle House, said she was brought back to that painful moment as her other son was placed on lockdown at a nearby school Monday.

The Shooting of a Nashville School, the Covenant Presbyterian Church and School of Law Enforcement: Michael Drake, a Senior at the College, and a Student at Green Hills

The police chief said the shooter was prepared for confrontation with law enforcement and had multiple rounds of bullets.

Three weapons – an AR-style rifle, an AR-style pistol and a handgun – were found and police believe Hale obtained at least two of the weapons legally, Drake said. A search warrant executed at Hale’s home also resulted in the seizure of a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other evidence, according to police.

The shooter had been firing at the police cars and police went upstairs to confront him, according to the news release. Two officers then opened fire, killing the shooter at 10:27 a.m., police spokesperson Don Aaron said.

“I was hoping this day would never ever come here in the city. But we will never wait to make entry and to go in and to stop a threat especially when it deals with our children,” Drake said in a Monday news conference.

The school prepared for this with active shooter training. We do not want to believe that this is going to happen to us. But experience has taught us that we need to be prepared because in this day and time it is the reality of where we are,” Nashville Metropolitan Councilman Russ Pulley told CNN.

Katherine Koonce was identified as the head of the school on its website, which also says she attended school in Nashville at Vanderbilt University and Trevecca Nazarene University, along with getting her master’s degree from Georgia State University.

Mike Hill was identified in the staff section of the Covenant Presbyterian Church’s website, which is now offline. He was listed as facilities/kitchen staff. A friend of Mike Hill confirmed his image to CNN. The police said Hill was a custodian at the school.

The community is very sad. We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church. We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing,” Covenant school said in a statement obtained by CNN affiliate WZTV.

The shooting shattered the wealthy enclave of Green Hills, a few miles south of downtown Nashville, where the small school and stone church sit atop a hill, nestled in a residential neighborhood filled with stately homes and lush landscaping. Founded in 2001 as a ministry of the Covenant Presbyterian Church, the Covenant School bills itself as “intentionally small” with about 200 students, according to its website, and a teacher-to-student ratio of 8 to 1. Tuition costs around $16,000 per year.

The loss of the families and the future lost by them is something that Nashville Mayor John Cooper is overwhelmed with.

Shooting in the Green Hills: A Newly-Detected Assailant and a New Look at the Case of Covenant School

A recent study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics in December backs that point, finding that homicide is a leading cause of death for children in the United States and the overall rate has increased an average of 4.3% each year for nearly a decade.

Biden said Congress needs to pass an assault weapons ban because we “need to do more to protect our schools.” This Congress has a slim Democratic majority in the Senate and a GOP-led House, so it is not likely to be a bipartisan solution.

In the latest episode of gun violence that has devastated American families and communities, the assailant opened fire just after 10 a.m. inside the Covenant School, in the affluent Green Hills neighborhood, where children in preschool through sixth grade had just begun their final full week of classes before Easter break.

The police released video on Monday showing the shooter driving to the school in a Honda Fit. In the video, the glass doors shatter as the attacker ducks into the building.

The man wearing camouflage pants and a black vest is walking through rooms and hallways with a weapon. At one point, the shooter can be seen walking in and out of the church office and down a hallway past the children’s ministry, as the lights of what appear to be a fire alarm flash.

There was confusion about the gender identity of the attacker after the attack. Chief Drake said the shooter identified as transgender. Officials used “she” and “her” to refer to the shooter, but, according to a social media post and a LinkedIn profile, the shooter appeared to identify as male in recent months.

Chief Drake said it was too early to discuss a possible motive for the shooting, though he confirmed that the attack was targeted. The authorities were reviewing writings, and had made contact with the shooter’s father, Chief Drake said.

He said there was a map drawn from how this would take place. We will put out the theory as soon as we can, because there is a chance that we can talk about it later.

The Nashville Sheriff’s Office in the Context of a School Shooting: An Educated, Scared Child in a Bullock

Sirens and the buzz of helicopters pierced the still of a sunny spring morning on Monday, sending residents of the area out of their homes to wait for news about the shooting or assurances that their children at neighboring schools had been released from lockdown. A few women watching a news conference gasp and shake their heads.

Lisa DeBusk said it was scary to see parents running up the hill. She said she had considered sending her daughter to Covenant, calling it “the sweetest, most wonderful place.”

A total of 108 people were taken to the nearby Woodmont Baptist Church after the shooting, and schools and staff were escorted out of the building, according to a Nashville Fire Department spokeswoman.

The children in the school uniform who are walking from the buses to the church held hands as they entered a conference-like room. Parents were waiting in the building for the safety of their children.

Rachael Anne Elrod, the Metro Nashville School Board chair, said she was inside “the worst waiting room you can imagine” as officials set about reuniting children with their parents. Some, she said, were debating how to manage the rest of the day after such a traumatic morning.

They are trying to figure out how they will talk to their children about this. “What is the next best step? What should they do next? Do we take them to get ice cream? Are they going to the playground? Do they have to tell us what they saw? Do we not talk about what they saw? Are they going to school tomorrow? Is there school tomorrow?”

Rachel Dibble, whose children attend a different private school in Nashville, had also visited with Covenant families, some of whom she knew through youth sports.

The school shooting needs to stop, Ms. Dibble said. I want a politician to sit in a church with a bunch of families and a bunch of children and they are all scared and trembling and yellow and green and blue and white.

Speaking of the students, she added: “They started this morning, they had their cute little uniforms on, they probably had some Froot Loops. Their whole lives changed today.”

The Nashville, Tenn., fatal confrontation of an armed attacker with an active shooter identified as Emily Trevathan, the director of the Gun Violence Archive

There is no consensus on what constitutes a mass shooting; groups define it differently, depending on the circumstances. But the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group that tracks gun violence using police reports, news coverage and other public sources, defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are killed or injured. As of late March, the archive has counted 130 mass shootings in the United States in 2023.

During her time in Woodmont Baptist she said that she had gotten to know Dr. Koonce through her work with children. Ms. Trevathan, who had come with Pippa, a therapy dog in training, to offer support, characterized Dr. Koonce “very magnetic” and strong, and recalled her passion for education, sense of humor and love for adventure.

Emily was reporting from Nashville. Jamie McGee contributed reporting from Nashville. Reporting was done by Ruth Graham, Emily Schmall, Daniel Victor, Sarah Mervosh, Nicholas Borgl-Burroughs and Victoria Kim. Kirsten Noyes , Susan C. Beachy and Kitty Bennett contributed research.

Nashville, Tenn., authorities on Tuesday released graphic body camera footage showing the fatal confrontation between police and an armed assailant who attacked a grade school on Monday morning.

Six people — including three children — were killed in the shooting, and the suspected attacker was killed by police within minutes of the first call of an active shooter.

A New Investigation of a Student’s Behavior at an Independent School: The Revealing of an Unarmed, Unarmed Officer at a High School

Hale, a 28-year-old from the Nashville area, was a former student of the school. Hale was initially identified as a woman but later as a man.

The footage shows the officer grabbing his gun from the back of his vehicle as he arrives at the school.

She tells him, “The kids are all locked down, but we have two kids that we don’t know where they are.” She said that the children are upstairs in the school.

Engelbert and at least two other officers begin searching the school’s first floor as an alarm blares. They check several rooms, including what appear to be classrooms. Some doors are locked, and the rooms are dark.

The gunshots get louder and Engelbert enters an lobby that has a shooter standing near a window The shooter falls to the ground after being fired at four times.

A four-year veteran of the force is Engelbert, as well as a nine-year veteran is Collazo. The officers shot and killed Hale at 10:27 a.m. — 14 minutes after the first emergency call.

Drake, the police chief, said the two officers were trying to “decompress” and “make sense of all of this” following the shooting. Drake said Biden told him that he intended to reach out to the officers as well.