Machine gun bullets hit home near mom, girl

Local authorities have contacted federal investigators after police said stray gunfire from a northern Indiana gun store’s shooting event narrowly missed a woman and young child inside their home more than a mile away. A Cass County Sheriff’s Department report says the .308-caliber bullets from a Russian-made machine gun struck two homes and a garage in the town of Galveston. No injuries were reported from the shootings and no arrests were made, the Pharos-Tribune reported Thursday (http://bit.ly/I76bXD ). A prosecutor didn’t immediately return a phone call Thursday seeking comment about possible charges. Investigators contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives concerning the incident, but a spokesman for the ATF office in Fort Wayne didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment Thursday. Lori Stout told the newspaper she was sitting at the dining room table at her mother’s home April 14 while her 5-year-old daughter ate lunch nearby when she heard the glass break in a window above the front door. At first she thought someone was throwing rocks, but when she heard a popping noise she realized it was gunfire and called 911. “I just didn’t know where to go,” Stout said. “I had to go get my phone and I thought, ‘What if they start shooting again?’ ” Police found a bullet lodged in a wooden door frame inside the home and another bullet in the drywall upstairs. The first bullet nearly hit the mother and daughter, a police report said. “If the round would have traveled three inches to the right, there is a high probability chance that Lori and/or her daughter could have been struck,” the report said. Police said officers determined the bullets came from a shooting event at a rural property sponsored by Down by the Tracks Gun Store in Galveston. Police went to the shoot and ordered the 60 to 70 people present to stop shooting their weapons, the report said. Store attorney Larry Hansen said active shooting was taking place at other nearby properties that day and declined to comment on whether any laws were broken. He also said there only were about 15 to 20 shooters. Gun store owner Melvin Cardwell and others helped police identify the weapon from which the bullet had been fired. Witnesses told police the machine gun had been fired by an unidentified woman. Shooters were supposed to fire at a backstop that was about 4 feet tall and 5 feet wide, the police report said. Other nearby properties also were hit by bullets, the police report said. Stout said she is grateful no one was harmed, but she would like to see some sort of judicial action taken. “I’d like someone to be held responsible,” Stout said. “Accidents happen, but there needs to be some level of accountability.”

Cops wound ex-con in Harlem shootout

Police shot and wounded a 23-year-old ex-con who opened fire on a Harlem street Sunday evening, cops said. Franklyn Nunez was in stable condition at Harlem Hospital with wounds to his chest and thigh after the 6:30 p.m. confrontation outside a 99-cent store on Frederick Douglass Blvd. and 143rd St. Police said they recovered the suspect’s Colt .45, which was reported stolen in North Carolina. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Nunez was part of a crowd hanging out on the street but started to walk away as police approached.

Heists, overdoses rise after Canada bans painkiller

Canadian police and doctors on Thursday reported a rash of pharmacy robberies and a rise in overdoses after the prescription drug OxyContin was pulled from circulation last month. Addicts and drug dealers stepped up raids on drug stores at gunpoint in search of the last doses of the painkiller or turned to alternative mind benders with sometimes deadly results. Meanwhile, detox clinics with few beds are being overwhelmed by demand for services, as some optimistically viewed the Canadian ban on OxyContin as an opportunity to kick their addiction and asked for help. "The big unknown is whether the supply has dried up on the street, how many people are turning to other substances and what is going to happen in the next few weeks," said Rita Shahin, Toronto's associate medical officer of health. Pharmacy robberies are already up, so far to 38 in the capital Ottawa this year. That is nearly as many as the 40 drug store robberies in all of 2011. Ottawa police staff sergeant Mike Haarbosch said the dwindling supply of OxyContin and continued high demand is part of the reason for the increase in robberies. "We noticed a spike in robberies in November when the switchover from OxyContin to OxyNeo started to be publicized," he said. Purdue Pharma stopped manufacturing OxyContin in Canada in March and replaced it with a new drug called OxyNeo that is harder to abuse because it cannot be easily crushed or injected to get high. Although no longer prescribed, some pharmacies still have small quantities of OxyContin left over in their stores. "The persons doing the robberies are either feeding their own addiction or turning the drugs around for resale on the street to people who are feeding that addiction," said Haarbosch. A 22-year-old man was the last to be charged this week in connection with a rash of robberies, including two pharmacies in Ottawa. "Overdoses are another big concern with people moving to other substances, especially Fentanyl because it's much stronger than OxyContin and it's very hard to determine the dose that you're injecting because it's scraped off a patch," Shahin told AFP. She pointed also to unknown health effects of injecting OxyNeo, a gel pill with identical chemical properties as OxyContin, into veins. Two percent of adults in Ontario province, the Canadian epicenter of prescription drug abuse, or more than 25,000 people have reported using opiates for non-medical reasons in the past year, which is indicative of addiction, said Shahin. When the OxyContin ban took effect on March 1, authorities braced for a withdrawal epidemic in many remote aboriginal communities, where as many as 80 percent of adults are hooked on prescription painkillers and few treatment options are available. In Cat Lake in northwest Ontario, school children wrote in an open letter to their parents to shine a spotlight on the problem: "It hurts us and shoomis and kokum (grandpa and grandma) when you're doing drugs and you're not at home." The drug is intended for relief of intense pain, by prescription only. But it had become widely available on bootleg markets throughout North America, particularly in Canada's native communities. When crushed, snorted or injected, it creates an instant high. Kicking the addiction can be too punishing for many. Withdrawal symptoms include irregular sleeping, shakes, diarrhea, headaches and anxiety, and relapses are frequent. So far a crisis has not emerged. But recovering addict Tony Sabourin in Ottawa told public broadcaster CBC that the transition to the new drug has already claimed three people he knows who unsuccessfully tried to cook OxyNeo and inject it earlier this month.

Gun industry's economic impact skyrockets during Obama years

 

The economic impact of the firearms industry is up 66 percent since the beginning of the Great Recession, providing an unexpected shot in the arm for the economy, according to a new study. The National Shooting Sports Foundation says the economic impact of firearm sales — a figure that includes jobs. taxes and sales — hit $31 billion in 2011, up from $19 billion in 2008. Jobs in the firearms business jumped 30 percent from 2008 to 2011, when the industry employed 98,750. The industry paid $2.5 billion in federal taxes in 2011, up 66 percent in three years. “Ours is an industry with a rich history and heritage that remains vital and important to the American economy today,” NSSF Senior Vice President Lawrence G. Keane said in a statement. “To millions of Americans our industry’s products represent liberty, security and recreation.” Some in the industry attribute the jump in sales to fears the Obama administration will tighten gun control laws in a possible second term. “There’s a concern that in the second term the Obama administration would lead an attempt to restrict gun ownership,” Mr. Keane said. That concern, known in the industry as “the Obama factor,” has led many gun owners to purchase now in hopes of avoiding more restrictions and regulations later. “Some people jokingly refer to [President Obama] as the salesman of the year for the industry,” Mr. Keane said. Mr. Keane said the president doesn’t deserve all the credit for the sales growth. He said more young people and women are getting into gun ownership. “You cannot attribute all the increase simply to the Obama factor,” he said. “It’s a factor, it’s an important factor, but it’s not the only reason.” Although there is no single indicator that tracks the number of firearms sold in the country, the FBI reported that a record 14.4 million criminal background checks were requested for gun purchases in 2010, and that preliminary numbers project the figure to be above 16 million for 2011. According to the NSSF’s numbers, requests for gun-related background checks was up some 17.3 percent for the month of January 2012 compared to the same period a year earlier — the 20th straight monthly increase in background check requests. FBI officials say that just over 1 percent of such background checks result in denials, and not every background check results in a final gun purchase. But the numbers are widely considered a reliable proxy for gun sales trends generally.

Bicyclist jailed after brief chase in Palm Springs

call from residents of a suspicious person in the area of Calle de Mimosas and El Alameda led police to arrest a man they say had a loaded handgun in his backpack. Felix Santos, 24, of Palm Springs, tried to ride his bicycle away from police when they spotted him at about 8:50 a.m. at Cerritos Drive and Tamarisk Road, Sgt. Mike Kovaleff said. Santos rode a few hundred feet, then jumped off the bike and began running into a nearby condominium complex, ditching the backpack along the way, Kovaleff said. Santos got about 100 feet when police caught up with him in the rear yard of one of the condos, Kovaleff said. They found his backpack, which contained a 9 mm handgun, several rounds of ammunition, a laptop computer and some hashish, in another yard, Kovaleff said. Santos was arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest; possession of hashish; carrying a concealed and loaded weapon; and violation of probation. He was booked into the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning where he is being held without bail. Police were still investigating whether the laptop was stolen or belonged to Santos, Kovaleff said.

Man, 23, shot in the head in drive-by shooting outside Sushi restaurant at Eight Mile Plainsl

23-year old man is fighting for his life in a critical condition after being shot in the head in a drive-by shooting outside a Sushi restaurant in a busy shopping centre at Eight Miles Plains. It's the second shooting in suburban Brisbane in less than 24 hours after a 56-year-old father of two was slain in his loungroom in Rochedale overnight. The man, 23, is now fighting for his life after the young waiter called Triple 0 at 7:15pm. Paramedics rushed him to the Princess Alexandra Hospital. Pictures from the scene of the Eight Mile Plans shopping centre shooting Ambulance officers say they transported the man at 9pm and he was taken to hospital in a critical condition. Warrigal Square Shopping Centre Drive-By Shooting at Eight Mile Plains A 24-year-old worker rushed to the aid of the shot man. "Someone I knew came running into my store because he knew I was a trainee nurse. I ran up with a first-aid kit and saw a man's body lying on the ground face down," he told The Courier-Mail late tonight. "Someone handed me a phone where emergency service people gave me instructions. "I put the man on his side and they told me to try and stop the bleeding but I couldn't see where he was bleeding from. He had long black hair which was caught up in all the blood over his face. He was breathing but not responsive. "He looked like a young fit healthy guy." There was chaos at the Warrigal Square Shopping Centre as up to 200 late night shoppers were forbidden by police from returning to their vehicles in the carpark. Police attend the scene of a shooting at a shopping centre in Eight Mile Planes. Picture: Isaac Lawrence Source: The Courier-Mail "My waiter was the witness to the shooting. He says a silver two-door BMW drove up and shot the young Asian man who had been eating at the sushi restaurant," said the owner of Little Nyonya Singapore Restaurant. "He saw the silver BMW drive up and shoot him and drive away. There was blood all over his face. Then he called Triple 0 and he hung up and they called him back two minutes later and they asked him to check on the guy. "He heard the one single gunshot and saw the blood on his face. There was a huge pool of blood on the ground. There was also a trolley boy standing by." Hairdresser Takuro Nishikawa, who works at Glams Hair Lounge, was working tonight less than 100 metres from where the 23-year-old man was shot. "I was in the salon and didn't hear anything over the music. But I turned around when I saw flashing lights and people were crowding around," said the 27-year-old who had worked at the Eight Mile Plains salon for a year. "I am totally shocked and now I just want to get into my car I cannot." Police were at the scene of the incident where a crime scene had been quickly declared at the location and a major incident room has been established at Mount Gravatt Police Station. Police Detective Superintendent Mick Niland said: “It’s in the very early stages of the investigation. We are searching for offenders and we are seeking the assistance of the public. We are speaking with witnesses in relation to this matter. “The shot man has come to the shopping centre to have dinner with friends. The friends are speaking with police."

Police accuse Palm Beach Gardens man of shooting transvestite prostitutes

The Riviera Beach and West Palm Beach Police departments Thursday arrested a Palm Beach Gardens man who is accused of shooting at transvestite prostitutes. This morning, a judge ordered that 22-year-old Luis Rijo De Los Santos be held at the Palm Beach County Jail in lieu of $300,000. He is facing charges of robbery with a firearm and aggravated battery with a firearm. He may also face first-degree murder charges after one of the men he allegedly shot died because his injuries. According to the police departments' arrest reports, both dealt with reports of transvestite prostitutes being shot at by a man who was described as possibly being of "Dominican decent." In the Riviera Beach case, 23-year-old Tyrell M. Jackson and 20-year-old Michael B. Hunter were walking home on March 24 when one of them complained of foot pain. They flagged down a silver sport-utility vehicle at 3:26 a.m. that took them for a ride in the direction that the men had requested. But the driver, who was later identified as De Los Santos, eventually drove to the 500 block of West Fifth Street and opened fire on both men. Jackson later died of his injuries. Just 30 minutes later, in West Palm Beach, a 27-year-old transvestite prostitute was shot in the right hip. The man, whose name was withheld in the report, told officers that he had struck an agreement with a man matching De Los Santos' description. He went on to say that the driver of the SUV "became very upset" after parking the vehicle and pulled out a gun. The man ran out of fear for his safety, but was shot in the right hip before he could dive over a four-foot wall. A witness in Riviera Beach was able to identify the first three letters of the SUV's license tag. Detectives were able to trace the SUV - a 2003 Buick Rendezvous - to a woman in Palm Beach Gardens. During the investigation, they learned that on the night of the shooting, De Los Santos had access to the woman's SUV. Detectives executed a search warrant at De Los Santos' home and found two firearms and ammunition, which matched the spent casings found at both shooting scenes, the report said.

Canadian man detained in Spain 'extremely thin and weak,'

Philip Halliday, the Nova Scotia man who has been detained in Spain for more than two years on drug-trafficking charges without a trial date, is extremely weak and thin but in good spirits, his family said Monday, hours after returning home from their first visit to him in jail. "It was pretty emotional. It's hard to describe. Definitely a lot of hugs, some tears," Halliday's son, Daren, told Postmedia News. Philip Halliday, 55, was arrested in December 2009 about 300 kilometres off the coast of Spain aboard a converted Canadian Coast Guard research vessel, the Destiny Empress. Inside a hidden compartment, authorities found more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of $600 million. Halliday, an ex-fisherman who spent more than 30 years dragging scallops off the sea floor, insists he had no idea the drugs were onboard and believed he was simply delivering the vessel to a new owner. Daren Halliday said he, his older brother Cody, and their mother Sheree, were able to spend several hours with Philip in a private room over a span of two days. Recalling the first moments they laid eyes on their father, Daren said, "I don't know if there was a lot said. We hugged him pretty quick. Told him it was good to see him, that we missed him and how much we love him." One thing that was readily apparent to everyone was how much weight Philip, dressed in a buttoned-up shirt and blue jeans, had lost. Since landing in jail, he has had to have his gall bladder removed. He has also had problems with his liver and kidneys. "I thought I'd prepared myself for what Philip would look like, but I must admit I was shocked," Sheree later recalled in a Facebook posting. "He is extremely thin and weak. He walks like an elderly man and is quite emotional." "But," Sheree added, "he still has that beautiful smile that I've missed! And he hasn't lost his sense of humour." Philip was able to buy some pop, juice, chips and some sweets for the occasion, turning it into something of a family picnic, Sheree recalled. Daren said family members peppered Philip with questions about what life was like in jail. Philip, in turn, asked about life back home in Digby, N.S. The family brought Philip some novels, Sudoku game books and some clothes, including a T-shirt that said "Canada" that one of Philip's fellow inmates had requested. Philip gave the family a duffle bag full of letters that people had written to him to bring home. On the third day of their visit, the family was only able to communicate with Philip through a glass partition. "We couldn't physically touch him," Daren said. "He was on a phone. We talked through a mic. Like the movies, we put our hands on the glass. "There was a hallway he had to walk down. And one we walked down. We waved goodbye. And that was it. That was pretty hard." Family and friends back home have been pleading with Canadian officials to help get Halliday released — or at least to get a trial date set. "We're hoping to get him a quick and fair trial, to speed things up," Daren said. "It's very frustrating that nothing's changed." The amount of time someone spends in pre-trial detention varies widely across the European Union. Some countries, including Spain, can hold someone for up to four years, while other countries don't have a limit. Canadian foreign affairs officials have said that while this country cannot interfere with the judicial proceedings of another country, they have been pressing Spanish authorities for a timely and transparent trial. So far, the Halliday family has incurred $90,000 in legal fees and has had to sell their home in Digby. Family friend Peter Dickie said Monday that a Halliday Family Support Society has been formed with the goal of raising $250,000 to help cover expenses.

$10 mln bounty on LeT founder Hafiz Saeed

 

The United States has put up a $10 million reward to help arrest Pakistani Islamist leader Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, suspected of masterminding two spectacular attacks on Mumbai and the parliament building in New Delhi. The offer comes at a time of heightened tension between Washington and Pakistan and increases pressure on Pakistan to take action against the former Arabic scholar, who has recently addressed rallies despite an Interpol warrant against him. India has long called for Saeed's arrest and said the bounty - one of the highest on offer - was a sign the United States understood its security concerns. Only last week Saeed evaded police to address an anti-U.S. rally in Islamabad. "India welcomes this new initiative of the government of the United States," External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said on Tuesday of the reward announced on the U.S. Rewards for Justice website. "In recent years, India and the United States have moved much closer than ever before in our common endeavour of fighting terrorists." The United States only offers a $10 million reward for three other people it suspects of terrorism, with a single reward of up to $25 million for Egyptian-born Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Saeed, 61, is suspected of masterminding numerous terrorist attacks, including the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Poor train commuters, foreigners and some of India's wealthy business elite were killed by 10 Pakistani gunmen in a three-day rampage through some of Mumbai's best-known landmarks, including two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre. A total of 166 people died, including six U.S. citizens. In the 1990s, he founded Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), or the Army of the Pure, one of the largest and best-funded Islamist militant organisations in South Asia. He abandoned its leadership after India blamed it and another militant group for an attack on the parliament in December 2001. Saeed, released from prison by a Pakistani court in 2010, now heads an Islamic charity that the United Nations says is a front for the militant group. LeT was nurtured by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency to fight India in disputed Kashmir and analysts say it is still unofficially tolerated by Pakistan, though it was banned in the country in 2002. Admiral Robert Willard, the head of the United States military's Pacific Command, last year expressed concern over the expanding reach of LeT, saying it was no longer solely focused on India, or even in South Asia.

Suspect detained after 7 killed on California campus

gunman opened fire Monday at a Christian university in California, killing at least seven people, wounding three more and setting off an intense, chaotic manhunt that ended with his capture at a nearby shopping center, authorities said. The gunfire erupted around midmorning at Oikos University. Heavily armed officers swarmed the school in a large industrial park near the Oakland airport and, for at least an hour, believed the gunman could still be inside.  Tashi Wangchuk, whose wife attended the school and witnessed the shooting, said he was told by police that the gunman first shot a woman at the front desk, then continued shooting randomly in classrooms. Mr. Wangchuk said his wife, Dechen Wangzom, was in her vocational nursing class when she heard gunshots. She locked the door and turned off the lights, Mr. Wangchuk said he was told by his wife, who was still being questioned by police Monday afternoon. The gunman “banged on the door several times and started shooting outside and left,” he said. Mr. Wangchuk said no one was hurt inside his wife's classroom, but that the gunman shot out the glass in the door. He said she did not know the man. “She's a hero,” he said. Television footage showed bloodied victims on stretchers being loaded into ambulances. Several bodies covered in sheets were laid out on a patch of grass at the school. One body was loaded into a van. Police spokeswoman Cynthia Perkins said seven people were dead. She did not release any other details about the victims. Myung Soon Ma, the school's secretary, said she could not provide any details about what happened at the small private school, which serves the Korean community with courses from theology to Asian medicine. “I feel really sad, so I cannot talk right now,” she said, speaking from her home. Police believe the shooter acted alone, though they have not discussed a possible motive. Those connected to the school, including the founder and several students, described the gunman as a former nursing student, though there were conflicting reports about his current status. Officer Johnna Watson said the suspect is an Asian male in his 40s and was taken into custody at a shopping center in the neighboring city of Alameda. Officer Watson said most of the wounded or dead were shot inside the building. The industrial park in which the school is located also includes the county food bank and a local Girl Scouts headquarters. “It's a very fluid situation,” Officer Watson said, declining to discuss details of the arrest or a possible motive. The suspect was detained at a Safeway supermarket about three miles from the university, about an hour after the shooting. A security guard at the supermarket approached the man because he was acting suspiciously, KGO-TV reported. The man told the guard that he needed to talk to police because he shot people, and the guard called authorities. Lisa Resler said she was buying fruit at Safeway with her 4-year-old daughter when she saw the man she later learned was the suspect walk toward the store exit. “He was just in the store looking like somebody who was going to pick a deli sandwich up or something,” she said. When she left the store, she said, she saw him standing on the sidewalk next to two police cars. She said she saw an officer kick his legs apart and pat him down for weapons but said they didn't appear to find anything. The officers then placed him in handcuffs. “He didn't look like he had a sign of relief on him. He didn't look like he had much of any emotion on his face,” she said. “From what I could see he was completely co-operative with police. He wasn't saying a word.” Pastor Jong Kim, who founded the school about 10 years ago, told the Oakland Tribune that he did not know if the shooter was expelled or dropped out. Mr. Kim said he heard about 30 rapid-fire gunshots in the building. “I stayed in my office,” he said. Deborah Lee, who was in an English language class, said she heard five to six gunshots at first. “The teacher said, `Run,' and we run,” she said. “I was okay, because I know God protects me. I'm not afraid of him.” Angie Johnson told the San Francisco Chronicle that she saw a young woman leave the building with blood coming from her arm and crying: “I've been shot. I've been shot.” The injured woman said the shooter was a man in her nursing class who got up and shot one person at point-blank range in the chest before spraying the room with bullets, Ms. Johnson said. “She said he looked crazy all the time,” she said the victim told her, “but they never knew how far he would go.” According to its website, Oikos University also offers studies in music and nursing. A telephone message left on the university's main voicemail was not immediately returned. Jerry Sung, the university's accountant, said the school offers courses in both Korean and English to less than 100 students. He said the campus consisted of one building. Mr. Sung said many of its students went on to work in nursing and ministry. “The founder felt there was a need for theology and nursing courses for Korean-Americans who were newer to the community,” Mr. Sung said. “He felt they would feed more comfortable if they had Korean-American professors.”

BRIT Government 'planning new Internet snooping laws'

The British government wants to expand its powers to monitor email exchanges and website visits, The Sunday Times reported. Internet companies would be instructed to install hardware to allow the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) to go through "on demand" every text message and email sent, websites accessed and phone calls made "in real time, the paper said. The plans are expected to be unveiled next month. The Home Office said ministers were preparing to legislate "as soon as parliamentary time allows" but said the data to be monitored would not include content. "It is vital that police and security services are able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public," a spokesman said. "We need to take action to maintain the continued availability of communications data as technology changes. "Communications data includes time, duration and dialling numbers of a phone call, or an email address. "It does not include the content of any phone call or email and it is not the intention of government to make changes to the existing legal basis for the interception of communications." An attempt to bring in similar measures was abandoned by the Labour government in 2006 amid strong opposition. However, ministers in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government believe it is essential that the police and security services have access to such communications data in order to tackle terrorism and protect the public. The plans would not allow GCHQ to access the content of communications without a warrant. However, they would enable the agency to trace whom a group or individual had contacted, how often and for how long, the report said.