Feral Jundi

    Rest in peace to the officers killed, and the last couple of days have been rough for this kind of deal.  I think we will see more of this too, as the stresses of the recession and lost jobs continues to kick in. And often the idea for such a thing, comes from the previous news attention of another incident.  This stuff really sucks.

   One thing I wanted to comment on with this, is the continued use of the AK 47 in some of these shootings.  It is a cheap weapon, reliable, and the round is very effective.  And if the active shooter has armor piercing rounds, then that makes that weapons system really scary.  Either way, more departments out there should continue to make it mandatory to get a plate carrier with a carbine in each patrol car.  There should also be more training out there for officers to deal with active shooters and the super empowered individual.  We must be prepared for all and any scenario, and to not give an officer the best chance at ending a active shooter rampage or at least protecting himself on scene, is just wrong.

   I also look at this from the Mumbai perspective, and what terrorists are learning about the US system of response.  They are watching, and they are learning, and realizing the strategy and tactics necessary to inflict the most amount of damage.  In Pakistan, they are strapping bomb belts on to themselves, along with AK’s and and ammo, and the goal is to shoot until they are out, and then blow themselves up.  Or blow themselves up, if they see an opportunity.  God help us when we come across an active shooter in the US that has this mindset.  So the ability to deal with an active shooter quick, or even an active killer is extremely important.  I say killer, because look at the terrorists that used bulldozers in Israel to kill.  

   Another key element is Incident Command.  An IC (the first guy on scene) must take charge of the scene immediately, make and assessment of what they need, and get resources moving quickly.  An IC can also tell other first responders what is going on, and where the danger exists.  So more Incident Command training would be vital as well, to combat the Mumbai style assault or the active shooter attack.  Time is of the essence, and that first cop on scene, if he had a little incident command training and knew what they were doing, could save lives by controlling the scene and getting resources rolling. 

     The other angle on this, is the first responders, no matter who they are, have to know that they are the best chance at ending an active shooter’s rampage.  Or if there was a citizen in the crowd that was legally carrying a concealed weapon, could end it as well.  These things happen so fast, that to depend upon the cavalry to show to end a problem, could result in even more lives lost.  Seconds and minutes are all it takes for these guys to execute their deadly plan.

   I also fear the gun control lobby and their reaction to such a thing.  Gun control, at this point in the game, only hurts the citizen that legally recognizes these gun control measures.  Meanwhile, the criminals and active shooters, who really want this stuff, are able to get it by any means necessary.  To me, I think allowing more concealed carry permits, and promoting training for self defense is the answer.  There will always be crime, and there will always be incidents like this.  What needs to change is the ability to react to them, and the first responder or the trained citizen with a gun is really the only way to end something like this. –Matt

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Police official: 3 officers killed in Pa. shooting

April 4, 2009

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A police official says a man opened fire on officers responding to a domestic disturbance call in Pittsburgh, killing three of them.

The police official is at the scene and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Police spokeswoman Diane Richard says the man who fired at the officers has been arrested. She says at least five officers were wounded, but it’s not clear if that includes the slain officers.

One witness reported hearing hundreds of shots.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A man opened fire on officers responding to a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, injuring at least four of them, some seriously, before barricading himself in the home, police said.

Police were unable to reach one of the wounded officers, because the man in the house was armed and the area had not yet been secured, police spokeswoman Diane Richard said. One witness reported hearing hundreds of shots.

Richard declined to comment specifically on the extent of the officers’ injuries.

The officers were called to the home in the Stanton Heights neighborhood at about 7 a.m., Richard said.

A family member was believed to be with the gunman in the home and police negotiators were trying to persuade the gunman to surrender, she said. State, county and city police were at the scene with a SWAT team and a state police helicopter.

Tom Moffitt, 51, a city firefighter who lives two blocks away, said he heard about the shooting on his scanner and came to the scene, where he heard “hundreds, just hundreds of shots. And not just once — several times.”

Rob Gift, 45, who lives a block away, said he heard rapid gunfire as he was letting his dog out.

He said the neighborhood of well-kept single-family houses and manicured lawns is home to many police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other city workers.

“It’s just a very quiet neighborhood,” Gift said.

Story Here

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Gunman blocks N.Y. center’s door, kills 13, self

By William Kates

Associated Press

Posted: 04/03/2009 06:55:55 PM PDT

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — The community center was filled with people from countries as far off as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, all working to become more a part of their new home — learning English, taking a class to gain U.S. citizenship. The gunman may have walked a similar path to become an American decades ago.

He parked his car against the back door, stormed through the front and shot two receptionists, apparently without saying a word. Then he fired on a citizenship class while terrified people, their only escape route blocked, scrambled into a boiler room and a storage room and prayed he wouldn’t follow.

“I heard the shots, every shot. I heard no screams, just silence, shooting,” said Zhanar Tokhtabayeva, a 30-year-old Kazakh who was in an English class when her teacher screamed for everyone to go to the storage room. “I heard shooting, very long time, and I was thinking, when will this stop? I was thinking that my life was finished.”

The gunman killed 13 people — all but one of them in the classroom — before apparently killing himself Friday morning at the American Civic Association building in Binghamton. Four people were critically wounded.

One of the receptionists survived; shot in the abdomen, she played dead before crawling under a desk and calling 911. Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said she stayed on the phone for 90 minutes, “feeding us information constantly,” despite her serious wound. “She’s a

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hero in her own right,” he said.

Investigators said they had yet to establish a motive for the massacre, which was at least the fifth deadly mass shooting in the U.S. in the past month alone.

Police said they arrived within two minutes at the American Civic Association, an organization that helps immigrants settle in this country. The gunman was believed to be a Vietnamese immigrant.

The man believed to have carried out the attack was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an office, a satchel containing ammunition slung around his neck, authorities said. Police found two handguns — a 9 mm and a .45-caliber — as well as a hunting knife, authorities said.

Thirty-seven people in all made it out of the building, including 26 who hid in the boiler room in the basement, cowering there for three hours while police methodically searched the building and tried to determine whether the gunman was still alive and whether he was holding any hostages, Zikuski said. Those in the basement stayed in contact with police by cell phone, switching from one phone to another when their batteries ran out, Zikuski said. Others hid in closets and under desks.

Police heard no gunfire after they arrived but waited for about an hour before entering the building to make sure it was safe for officers. They then spent two hours searching the building.

At one point, police led a number of men out of the building in plastic handcuffs while they tried to sort out the victims from the killer or killers.

Most of the people brought out couldn’t speak English, the chief said.

Counselors tended to relatives of victims at a Catholic Charities office. Outside, Omri Yigal waited for word on his wife, Delores, who was taking English lessons when the gunman attacked.

He left hours later, with no answers.

“They told me they don’t have much hope for me,” the Filipino immigrant said before going home to wait for a telephone call.

Dr. Jeffrey King, speaking at Catholic Charities, said he was certain his mother, 72-year-old Roberta King, who taught English at the community center, was among the dead. Authorities read a list of survivors and his mother’s name wasn’t on it, he said.

Gov. David Paterson said the massacre was probably “the worst tragedy and senseless crime in the history of this city.” Noting mass killings in Alabama and Oakland last month, he said: “When are we going to be able to curb the kind of violence that is so fraught and so rapid that we can’t even keep track of the incidents?”

The suspected gunman carried ID with the name of 42-year-old Jiverly Voong of nearby Johnson City, N.Y., but that was believed to be an alias, said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.A second law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said the two handguns were registered to Jiverly Wong, another name the man used.

Initial reports suggested Voong had recently been let go from IBM, which was started in Binghamton. But a person at IBM said there was no record of a Jiverly Voong ever working at the company.

The police chief would not confirm the name of the dead man with the ammunition satchel, saying authorities were still trying to establish with certainty that he was the gunman.

“We have no idea what the motive is,” Zikuski said. He said the suspected gunman “was no stranger” to the community center and may have gone there to take a class.

Friday evening, police who searched the suspected gunman’s home carried out three computer hard drives, a brown canvas rifle case, a briefcase, a small suitcase and several paper bags.

A woman who answered the phone at a listing for Henry D. Voong said she was Jiverly Voong’s sister but would not give her name. She said her brother had been in the country for 28 years and had citizenship. She said he didn’t have a gun and suspected someone else shot her brother.

# March 29: Robert Stewart, 45, shot and killed eight people at Pinelake Health and Rehab in Carthage, N.C., before a police officer shot him and ended the rampage.

# March 29: Devan Kalathat, 42, shot and killed his two children and three other relatives, then killed himself in an upscale neighborhood of Santa Clara. Kalathat”s wife was critically injured.

# March 21: Lovelle Mixon, 26, shot and killed four Oakland police officers after a traffic stop. Mixon was killed in a shootout with SWAT officers.

# March 10: Michael McLendon, 28, killed 10 people “” including his mother, four other relatives, and the wife and child of a local sheriff”s deputy “” across two rural Alabama counties. He then killed himself.

# Feb. 14, 2008: Former student Steven Kazmierczak, 27, opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, fatally shooting five students and wounding 18 others before committing suicide.

# Dec. 5, 2007: Robert A. Hawkins, 19, opened fire with a rifle at a Von Maur store in an Omaha, Neb., mall, killing eight people before taking his own life. Five more people were wounded, two critically.

# April 16, 2007: Seung-Hui Cho, 23, fatally shot 32 people in a dorm and a classroom building at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, then killed himself in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

# Oct. 2, 2006: Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, shot to death five girls at West Nickel Mines Amish School in Pennsylvania, then killed himself.

# March 21, 2005: Student Jeffrey Weise, 16, killed nine people, including his grandfather and his grandfather”s companion at home. Also included were five fellow students, a teacher and a security guard at Red Lake High School in Red Lake, Minn. He then killed himself. Seven students were wounded.

Story Here