And again... (Another US Shooting)

[spaminator]

Texas state police fire first officer over Uvalde school shooting response
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Paul J. Weber
Publishing date:Oct 21, 2022 • 6 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Department of Public Safety has fired an officer who was at the scene of the Uvalde school massacre and becomes the first member of the state police force to lose their job in the fallout over the hesitant response to the May attack.


Sgt. Juan Maldonado was served with termination papers Friday, said Ericka Miller, a department spokeswoman. The firing comes five months after the shooting at Robb Elementary School that has put state police under scrutiny over their actions on the campus as a gunman with an AR-15-style rifle killed 19 children and two teachers.


Body camera footage and media reports have shown that DPS had a larger role at the scene than the department appeared to suggest after the May 24 shooting. State troopers were among the first wave of officers to arrive but did not immediately confront the gunman, which experts say goes against standard police procedure during mass shootings.

Instead, more than 70 minutes passed before officers finally stormed inside a fourth-grade classroom and killed the gunman, ending one of the deadliest school attacks in U.S. history. Nearly 400 officers in all eventually made their way to the scene, including state police, Uvalde police, school officers and U.S. Border Patrol agents.


Maldonado could not be reached for comment Friday night.

Seven DPS troopers were put under internal investigation this summer after a damning report by lawmakers revealed that state police has more 90 officers at the scene, more than any other agency.

Steve McCraw, the DPS director, has called the law enforcement response an “abject failure” but put most of the blame on former Uvalde school police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was fired in August and can be seen on body cam video searching in futility for a key to the classroom door that may been unlocked the entire time.

But the Uvalde mayor, parents of the victims and some lawmakers have accused DPS of trying to minimize its own failures.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district includes Uvalde, reacted to news of the firing by saying that accountability in the department should not end there.


“Ninety more to go, plus the DPS director,” he said.

Gutierrez has sued DPS in an effort to obtain documents surrounding the response to the shooting. Several media outlets, including The Associated Press, have also asked courts to compel authorities and Uvalde officials to release records under public information laws.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is up for reelection in November, has stood by McCraw and said during a September debate there needed to be “accountability for law enforcement at every level.” A spokesperson for Abbott did not return messages seeking comment about the firing.

One of the DPS troopers put under internal investigation was Crimson Elizondo, who resigned and later was hired by Uvalde schools to work as a campus police officer. She was fired less than 24 hours after outraged parents in Uvalde found out about her hiring.

Texas state police fire first officer over Uvalde school shooting response

The Texas Department of Public Safety has fired an officer who was at the scene of the Uvalde school massacre.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Acting Uvalde police chief during school shooting steps down
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jake Bleiberg
Publishing date:Nov 17, 2022 • 1 day ago • 3 minute read

DALLAS — The Uvalde officer who was leading the city’s police department during the hesitant law enforcement response to an elementary school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers has stepped down, a city spokeswoman said Thursday.


Lt. Mariano Pargas left the department voluntarily but it was not immediately clear whether he retired or resigned, according to city spokeswoman Gina Eisenberg.


Pargas is the second police leader to leave law enforcement in the fallout since the massacre in May, when hundreds of officers waited more than an hour to confront the gunman inside a classroom at Robb Elementary School.

The city placed Pargas, who was running the department during the shooting because the chief, Daniel Rodriguez, was out of town, on administrative leave in July following a damning report from lawmakers on the police response. His departure comes days after new audio highlighted that Pargas was told there were children alive in a classroom with the gunman half an hour before officers breached the room. The city council was set to consider firing him during a special meeting Saturday.


At a meeting Wednesday of the Uvalde County commissioners’ court, several community members called on Pargas to resign from his spot on the panel. Pargas, who was re-elected to county government on Nov. 8, was absent from the meeting, the Uvalde Leader-News reports.

Berlinda Arreola, whose 10-year-old granddaughter Amerie Jo Garza was killed, said Pargas needed to do “the right thing” and step down, according to CNN.

“He was a coward that day and he’s cowardly now, that he couldn’t show face,” Arreola said.

In the months after the shooting, state officials have focused blame on the school district police chief, Pete Arredondo, saying he made “terrible decisions” as the on-scene commander not to confront the gunman sooner. Arredondo was fired in August but has said he didn’t consider himself the person in charge and assumed someone else had taken control of the police response that eventually swelled to nearly 400 officers.


Audio recordings published by CNN show that as officers were massing around the school a dispatcher told Pargas there were “eight to nine” kids still alive inside the classroom where the shooter was holed up. Pargas can be heard acknowledging the information but more than 30 minutes would pass before a tactical team entered and killed the gunman.

Authorities have said the gunman did most of his shooting within minutes of entering the classroom but it’s unclear whether there’s an official tally of how many children in the room survived. Corina Camacho, whose son was shot and was one of the survivors, told The Associated Press that 11 children were not killed and their families try to stay in touch. Kids have publicly recounted playing dead to avoid being noticed by the gunman.


In addition to Pargas’ and Arredondo’s ousters, victims families and some lawmakers have called in recent months for the resignation or firing of Col. Steve McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety. Body camera footage, a legislative investigation and media reports have shown the state police had a larger role at the scene than the department appeared to suggest in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

Ninety-one DPS troopers were among the 376 law enforcement officers who ultimately responded. Seven were put under internal investigation this summer, but McCraw has defended his agency’s overall response, saying it “did not fail” Uvalde.

At a school board meeting Wednesday, Josh Gutierrez was named interim chief of police for the Uvalde school district. Gutierrez will lead the handful of officers who have been hired since the shooting. Five officers who were part of the law enforcement response were assigned other duties pending the outcome of an investigation into their actions that day.


Interim superintendent Gary Patterson opened the meeting by talking about the courage that the families of the victims have shown. Patterson takes the spot from Hal Harrell, who announced last month his plans to retire.

“We have all the respect in the world for how you’ve handled things in the worst possible circumstance,” Patterson said.

School district trustees on Wednesday also approved the location of the new school that will replace Robb Elementary, deciding it will be built next to another school a few miles away. The board decided months ago to demolish Robb Elementary, and the panel on Wednesday recommended that a committee be formed to decide what should happen to the site.

Acting Uvalde police chief during school shooting steps down

The Uvalde officer who was leading the city's police during a school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers has stepped down,

torontosun.com

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Refreshing news. We had a mass stabbing at the University of Idaho!

What, couldn't get a gun? In Idaho?

 

[spaminator]

Uvalde mom sues police, gunmaker in school massacre
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Lindsay Whitehurst
Publishing date:Nov 28, 2022 • 1 day ago • 3 minute read

WASHINGTON — The last conversation Sandra Torres had with her 10-year-old daughter was about her nervous excitement over whether she’d make the all-star softball team. Hours later, Eliahna Torres was one of 19 children and two teachers massacred at their elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.


With little closure and few answers about law enforcement’s 77-minute wait on May 24 in the school hallway rather than confronting the gunman, Sandra Torres filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against police, the school district and the maker of the gun the shooter used.


“My baby never made it out of the school,” she said. “There’s no accountability or transparency. There’s nothing being done.”

The lawsuit accuses the city, the school district and several police departments of a “complete failure” to follow active shooter protocols and violations of the victims’ constitutional rights by “barricading them” inside two classrooms with the killer for more than an hour. The city, school district and police did not immediately return messages seeking comment.


Torres is being helped by the legal arm of the group Everytown for Gun Safety. Her suit also names the manufacturer of the AR-style semiautomatic rifle that Salvador Ramos used to fire more than 100 rounds in the horrific mass shooting.

The claim is part of a new and expanding legal front in the nationwide court battle over firearms. While gunmakers are typically immune under federal law from lawsuits over crimes committed with their products, families of victims of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, secured a $73 million settlement with Remington, the maker of the weapon used in that shooting a decade ago.

The settlement came after the victims successfully argued that suing over marketing under state law was an exception to the federal immunity measure.


The new Uvalde suit alleges that marketing tactics by Daniel Defense violated the Federal Trade Commission Act by negligently using militaristic imagery, product placement in combat video games and social media to target “vulnerable and violent young men,” said Eric Tirschwell, executive director at Everytown Law.

“It wasn’t by accident that he went from never firing a gun to wielding a Daniel Defense AR-15,” Tirschwell said, citing the findings of a report written by an investigative committee from the Texas House of Representatives. “We intend to prove Daniel Defense marketing was a significant factor in the choices that Ramos made.”

The company, based in Black Creek, Georgia, did not immediately return a message seeking comment, but in a congressional hearing over the summer CEO Marty Daniels called the Uvalde shooting and others like it “pure evil” and “deeply disturbing.” Still, he separated the weapons themselves from the violence, saying mass shootings in America are local problems to be solved locally.


Everytown is also part of a similar lawsuit after a shooting attack on parade-goers in Highland Park, Illinois, based on a state law. If arguments based on federal law are successful, it could open up gunmakers to costly civil lawsuits as the nation grapples with rising gun violence and a brutal string of mass shootings.

“It would be an important step forward to holding gun manufacturers to account if their marketing crosses a line,” Tirschwell said.

The case also names the gun shop where Ramos bought the weapon used in the shooting, along with another AR-15 and ammunition, purchases that totaled thousands of dollars, though only one weapon was used in the shooting. One patron later told the FBI he “looked like … a school shooter,” according to the report from the Texas House of Representatives.


The July report found that nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to the mass shooting, but “egregiously poor decision-making” resulted in more than an hour of chaos before the gunman was finally confronted and killed. It criticized state and federal law enforcement as well as local authorities for failing to follow active shooter training and prioritizing their own safety over the victims’ lives.

Another parent whose child was wounded in the shooting and two parents whose children were on campus at the time filed the first suit related to the Uvalde shooting in late September.

For Sandra Torres, the case is also another way to seek answers about the botched police response.

“For 77 minutes they did nothing. Nothing at all,” she said. “She’ll never know what it’s like to get married, to graduate, to go to her first prom … never forget their faces.”

Uvalde mom sues police, gunmaker in school massacre

The last conversation Sandra Torres had with her daughter was about her excitement over whether she'd make the all-star softball team.

torontosun.com

 

[petros]

Goodluck! NRA lawyers will walk all over that.

 

[The_Foxer]

Goodluck! NRA lawyers will walk all over that.

the gun case is probably going nowhere, but she might have some traction against the cops.

Honestly i don't get it. After L'ecole in the 80's canadian police learned that you absolutely have to rush in and engage an active shooter and that waiting is death for a lot more people. And that concept has saved many lives even when the cops rushing in can't actually hit the guy. Dawson for example - two cops rushed in and just started pining the guy down with fire until more showed up and took him out. But now he couldn't shoot people, he was pinned even tho the 2 cops never really got a good angle on him.

But in every single us case i hear about the cops sit around waiting for ages. And the kids die. I just don't get why they aren't trained to engage the shooters first chance they get. The old saying "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" is true - but the good guy has to show up.

 

[spaminator]

Uvalde shooting victims seek $27 billion in class action lawsuit
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Publishing dateec 02, 2022 • 17 hours ago • 2 minute read

AUSTIN, Texas — Victims of the Uvalde school shooting that left 21 people dead have filed a lawsuit seeking $27 billion against local and state police, the city and other school and law enforcement officials for failing to follow active shooter protocol because authorities waited more than an hour to confront the attacker inside a fourth-grade classroom, according to court documents.


The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Austin on Tuesday, seeks class action status and damages for survivors of the May 24 shooting who have sustained “emotional or psychological damages as a result of the defendants’ conduct and omissions on that date.”


Among those who filed the lawsuit are school staff and representatives of minors who were present at Robb Elementary when a gunman stormed the campus, killing 19 children and two teachers in the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. in nearly a decade.

Instead of following previous training to stop an active shooter “the conduct of the three hundred and seventy-six (376) law enforcement officials who were on hand for the exhaustively torturous seventy- seven minutes of law enforcement indecision, dysfunction, and harm, fell exceedingly short of their duty bound standards,” the lawsuit claims.


City of Uvalde officials said they had not been served the paperwork as of Friday and did not comment on pending litigation.

The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Uvalde Consolidated School District did not respond to requests for comment.

A group of the survivors also sued Daniel Defense, the company that made the gun used by the shooter, and the store where he bought the gun. That separate lawsuit seeks $6 billion in damages.

Daniel Defense, based in Black Creek, Georgia, did not respond to a request for comment. In a congressional hearing over the summer, CEO Marty Daniels called the Uvalde shooting and others like it “deeply disturbing” but separated the weapons themselves from the violence, saying America’s mass shootings are local problems to be solved locally.


Earlier this week, the mother of a child killed in the shooting filed another federal lawsuit against many of the same people and entities.

Two officers have been fired because of their actions at the scene and others have resigned or been placed on leave. In October, Col. Steve McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, acknowledged mistakes by officers when confronted for the first time by families of the Uvalde victims over false and shifting accounts from law enforcement and lack of transparency in the available information. But McCraw defended his agency, saying they “did not fail” Uvalde.

Uvalde shooting victims seek $27 billion in class action lawsuit

Victims of the Uvalde school shooting have filed a lawsuit seeking $27 billion against police, the city and other school and law enforcement

torontosun.com

 

[petros]

I wish somone would shoot my kid so I could sue and profit from it.

 

[Taxslave2]

Can I borrow 20 bucks to buy some ammo?

 

[Taxslave2]

Uvalde mom sues police, gunmaker in school massacre
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Lindsay Whitehurst
Publishing date:Nov 28, 2022 • 1 day ago • 3 minute read

WASHINGTON — The last conversation Sandra Torres had with her 10-year-old daughter was about her nervous excitement over whether she’d make the all-star softball team. Hours later, Eliahna Torres was one of 19 children and two teachers massacred at their elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.


With little closure and few answers about law enforcement’s 77-minute wait on May 24 in the school hallway rather than confronting the gunman, Sandra Torres filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against police, the school district and the maker of the gun the shooter used.


“My baby never made it out of the school,” she said. “There’s no accountability or transparency. There’s nothing being done.”

The lawsuit accuses the city, the school district and several police departments of a “complete failure” to follow active shooter protocols and violations of the victims’ constitutional rights by “barricading them” inside two classrooms with the killer for more than an hour. The city, school district and police did not immediately return messages seeking comment.


Torres is being helped by the legal arm of the group Everytown for Gun Safety. Her suit also names the manufacturer of the AR-style semiautomatic rifle that Salvador Ramos used to fire more than 100 rounds in the horrific mass shooting.

The claim is part of a new and expanding legal front in the nationwide court battle over firearms. While gunmakers are typically immune under federal law from lawsuits over crimes committed with their products, families of victims of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, secured a $73 million settlement with Remington, the maker of the weapon used in that shooting a decade ago.

The settlement came after the victims successfully argued that suing over marketing under state law was an exception to the federal immunity measure.


The new Uvalde suit alleges that marketing tactics by Daniel Defense violated the Federal Trade Commission Act by negligently using militaristic imagery, product placement in combat video games and social media to target “vulnerable and violent young men,” said Eric Tirschwell, executive director at Everytown Law.

“It wasn’t by accident that he went from never firing a gun to wielding a Daniel Defense AR-15,” Tirschwell said, citing the findings of a report written by an investigative committee from the Texas House of Representatives. “We intend to prove Daniel Defense marketing was a significant factor in the choices that Ramos made.”

The company, based in Black Creek, Georgia, did not immediately return a message seeking comment, but in a congressional hearing over the summer CEO Marty Daniels called the Uvalde shooting and others like it “pure evil” and “deeply disturbing.” Still, he separated the weapons themselves from the violence, saying mass shootings in America are local problems to be solved locally.


Everytown is also part of a similar lawsuit after a shooting attack on parade-goers in Highland Park, Illinois, based on a state law. If arguments based on federal law are successful, it could open up gunmakers to costly civil lawsuits as the nation grapples with rising gun violence and a brutal string of mass shootings.

“It would be an important step forward to holding gun manufacturers to account if their marketing crosses a line,” Tirschwell said.

The case also names the gun shop where Ramos bought the weapon used in the shooting, along with another AR-15 and ammunition, purchases that totaled thousands of dollars, though only one weapon was used in the shooting. One patron later told the FBI he “looked like … a school shooter,” according to the report from the Texas House of Representatives.


The July report found that nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to the mass shooting, but “egregiously poor decision-making” resulted in more than an hour of chaos before the gunman was finally confronted and killed. It criticized state and federal law enforcement as well as local authorities for failing to follow active shooter training and prioritizing their own safety over the victims’ lives.

Another parent whose child was wounded in the shooting and two parents whose children were on campus at the time filed the first suit related to the Uvalde shooting in late September.

For Sandra Torres, the case is also another way to seek answers about the botched police response.

“For 77 minutes they did nothing. Nothing at all,” she said. “She’ll never know what it’s like to get married, to graduate, to go to her first prom … never forget their faces.”

Uvalde mom sues police, gunmaker in school massacre

The last conversation Sandra Torres had with her daughter was about her excitement over whether she'd make the all-star softball team.

torontosun.com

Always blame the messenger.

 

[The_Foxer]

Always blame the messenger.

Not even the messenger in this case, the company didn't even have anything to do with this. the company makes a product which someone criminally misuses and it's their fault? It's not the gun's fault someone decided to kill people. Why is the company even involved?

nobody sues ford just because a drunk driver hits someone with an f-150. How is this any different?

 

[Taxslave2]

Not even the messenger in this case, the company didn't even have anything to do with this. the company makes a product which someone criminally misuses and it's their fault? It's not the gun's fault someone decided to kill people. Why is the company even involved?

nobody sues ford just because a drunk driver hits someone with an f-150. How is this any different?

Well, actually they have. And that is the problem. No one is responsible for their own actions and civil cases always follow the money.
All it takes is one lefty nut job judge to set a president.

 

[The_Foxer]

Well, actually they have.

Really? Man that's pathetic.

 

[Taxslave2]

The most pathetic I recall was a guy rented a motorhome and piled it up on a freeway because he set the cruise and went back to make coffee. Along with a Darwin award he got some money because the cruise switch said"RV Cruise".

 

[Dixie Cup]

Well, actually they have. And that is the problem. No one is responsible for their own actions and civil cases always follow the money.
All it takes is one lefty nut job judge to set a president.

I think the word is precedence not "president" LOL Too funny

 

[Taxslave2]

I think the word is precedence not "president" LOL Too funny

Auto correct is such a wonderful thing.

 

[spaminator]

Uvalde school police chief says he chose to leave kids in classroom
Author of the article:Kevin Connor
Published Jan 12, 2023 • 2 minute read

The former Texas police chief who led the response to the Uvalde school shooting has admitted to making the call not to rescue kids trapped with the gunman.


The 19 children and two teachers killed in Uvalde school shooting in May of last year.


Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, who was fired as Uvalde schools’ top officer, admitted he made the call in his briefing with investigators.

CNN obtained the interview where Arredondo said he decided to evacuate the rest of the school rather than those trapped with the 18-year-old shooter, Salvador Ramos.

“When I opened the (school) door, I saw the smoke,” he recalled, saying “shots started firing” again as he and a colleague started nearing the classroom where Ramos was holed up with kids and teachers.

“Obviously, I backed off and started taking cover,” the lead officer said, which CNN noted was in clear defiance of training that insists officers risk their own lives to “neutralize” active shooters.


Arredondo said he backed off even after hearing Ramos shooting and reloading his weapon.

“I know there’s probably victims in there and with the shots I heard, I know there’s probably somebody who’s going to be deceased,” Arredondo said in the interview.

“Once I realized that was going on, my first thought is that we need to vacate” the rest of the school, he said, telling arriving officers that “we’re taking (other) kids out first.”

“I know this is horrible,” he said, claiming it was what “our training tells us to do,” seemingly contradicting the actual guidance. We have him contained, there’s probably going to be some deceased in there — but we don’t need any more from out here.”

Arredondo said his priority was to clear the rest of the school.

It took more than an hour for police to enter the room and confront Ramos.

“We’re going to get scrutinized, I’m expecting that. We’re getting scrutinized for why we didn’t go in there,” Arredondo said.

Arredondo said he was unable to speak with dispatch because he did not have a radio.

He said he called Ramos several time but got no response.

“I’m certain I heard him reload … I know he did something” with the clip, he said.

During the delay for help, some of the kids trapped inside the room made 911 calls begging for help.

Uvalde school police chief says he chose to leave kids in classroom

Nineteen children and two teachers killed in Uvalde school shooting in May of last year.

torontosun.com

 

[The_Foxer]

That's pretty horrible. What kind of man can sit back while kids are alive and calling for help when he's armed and armoured and can do something about it? He just let them die from the sounds of it. If as he claimed the guy was contained - then THERE IS NO NEED TO FOCUS ON CLEARING THE REST OF THE BUILDING. He's contained - he's not going to be getting out and killing people - go in and get him. Save the children.

The us is breeding some pretty terrible people these days - and it's hard to decide if i mean the killer or the cops who let him kill.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

I think the word is precedence not "president" LOL Too funny

The word is "precedent." Not as funny as "correcting" something from wrong. . . to wrong.

 

[Dixie Cup]

We say Christmas Tree
Apparently the White House referred to Christmas Trees as Holiday Trees for the first time this year, which prompted CBS presenter Steven Levy to present this piece.
The following was written by Steven Levy and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.
My confession:
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat...
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.
In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school... The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself And we said OK.
Then Dr. Steven Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about.. And we said okay.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing yet?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit.
If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.
I decided to send it on. Will you?