Shootings

[Isgrimnur]

Homicides in 30 US cities dropped by nearly 10% in the first half of 2023 compared to last year, study finds

The report analyzed homicide data from cities that make it readily available, including New York, Atlanta and Chicago. In the 30 cities examined, homicides declined 9.4% in the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year, with about 200 fewer homicides in that period.

Twenty cities recorded a drop in homicides in that period, while 10 cities saw an increase, the study found. Raleigh, North Carolina, saw the steepest drop of 59%, while Lincoln, Nebraska, saw a 133% increase in homicides.

Additionally, the study said a snapshot of its findings “suggests that levels of nearly all offenses are lower, or have changed little, in the first six months of 2023 compared with the same period in 2022.”

Gun assaults, defined as aggravated assaults committed with a firearm, committed during the first half of this year are 5.6% lower on average than during the same period last year, “representing 514 fewer gun assaults in the cities that reported data,” the report found.

The one major exception is motor vehicle thefts, which have continued to increase in numbers, according to the study.

“There were 33.5% more motor vehicle thefts from January through June 2023 compared to the first half of 2022,” the report said.

[ImLawBoy]

I was reading about that and I was pleased to see the numbers going down a bit, including in Chicago. To add to the good news, the drive-by I witnessed out my front window yesterday resulted in no injuries!

[LawBeefaroni]

Chicago's trauma centers are getting pretty good at treating bullet holes in extremities.

"If the artery is missed, we can probably assist."




https://heyjackass.com/2023-shot-placement/

[Unagi]

Wow, what a graphic.

For those that don't know, the four mullets of six points and blue stripes are the Flag of Chicago.

[Isgrimnur]

[Unagi]

I like to imagine this is the relationship we share.

[Isgrimnur]

[Isgrimnur]

Pittsburgh synagogue gunman will be sentenced to death for the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack

The same federal jury that convicted the 50-year-old Bowers on 63 criminal counts recommended that he be put to death for an attack whose impacts continue to reverberate nearly five years later. He showed little reaction as the sentence was announced, briefly acknowledging his legal team and family as he was led from the courtroom. A judge will formally impose the sentence Thursday.

Jurors were unanimous in finding that Bowers’ attack was motivated by his hatred of Jews, and that he chose Tree of Life for its location in one the largest and most historic Jewish communities in the U.S. so that he could “maximize the devastation, amplify the harm of his crimes, and instill fear within the local, national, and international Jewish communities.” They also found that Bowers lacked remorse.

[Isgrimnur]

Uvalde shooter's cousin arrested in San Antonio for threatening to shoot a school

Nathan James Cruz, 17, was arrested on a felony charge of making a terroristic threat to the public and a misdemeanor charge of making a terroristic threat against a family member, according to Bexar County Central Magistrate records.

It was Cruz's mother who called the police and reported threats that her son had made, Officer Nick Soliz of the San Antonio Police Department tells NPR.

[LawBeefaroni]

Uvalde shooter's cousin arrested in San Antonio for threatening to shoot a school

Nathan James Cruz, 17, was arrested on a felony charge of making a terroristic threat to the public and a misdemeanor charge of making a terroristic threat against a family member, according to Bexar County Central Magistrate records.

It was Cruz's mother who called the police and reported threats that her son had made, Officer Nick Soliz of the San Antonio Police Department tells NPR.

We won't know if would have actually gone through with it but that mother did the right thing.

[Isgrimnur]

Cruz reportedly made the statements to his sister while she was driving him in a car. He threatened to shoot her in the head and "shoot the school." She informed their mother, who called the police.

According to the Times and News 4, the mother was concerned because her son made the remarks while "intoxicated" and they live near an elementary school.

The mother "overheard a phone conversation the suspect made this morning in which the suspect attempted to acquire an AR-15 through an illegal private sale" according to the arrest warrant, the Times reports. When confronted by police, Cruz denied making any threats, the warrant states.

[Isgrimnur]

White supremacist charged with threatening jurors on Pittsburgh synagogue shooter trial

A West Virginia man and known white supremacist was arrested Thursday for allegedly targeting the Jewish community in social media posts and online comments during the trial for the Tree of Life synagogue shooter.

Hardy Carroll Lloyd, 45, was taken into custody without incident on federal charges of witness tampering, obstruction and transmitting threats.

Lloyd, a self-proclaimed "reverend" of a white supremacy movement, is accused of making several comments in May calling for Robert Bowers' release and threatening people who served on the jury at his trial.

[Isgrimnur]

Man who threatened Biden shot dead in FBI raid in Utah

A man who posted violent threats against President Joe Biden and other officials online was shot dead during an FBI raid on Wednesday.

Agents were attempting to serve an arrest warrant on Craig Robertson at his home in Utah, just hours ahead of a planned visit to the state by Mr Biden.
...
A criminal complaint outlined messages that Robertson made on Facebook including pictures of guns and threats to kill Mr Biden and Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney leading an investigation into a hush-money payment by Mr Trump to an adult film star.

According to the complaint, other messages targeted US Attorney General Merrick Garland and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Robertson posted on Facebook: "I hear Biden is coming to Utah. Digging out my old ghillie suit and cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle."

[Isgrimnur]

Alex Murdaugh's defense to seek new trial based on claims of jury tampering

Attorneys Richard "Dick" Harpootlian and Jim Griffin claim in the motion that Rebecca Hill, the Colleton County clerk of court, "tampered with the jury by advising them not to believe Murdaugh's testimony and other evidence presented by the defense, pressuring them to reach a quick guilty verdict, and even misrepresenting critical and material information to the trial judge in her campaign to remove a juror she believed to be favorable to the defense."
...
Hill co-authored the book, "Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders," published in July. It details Hill's experience overseeing such a major trial and her family's history with the Murdaughs, whose family patriarchs had previously wielded power as the top prosecutor in South Carolina's coastal Lowcountry.

The motion for a new trial accuses Hill of pressuring jurors in the trial, who took less than three hours to deliberate to find Murdaugh guilty, to reach a quick verdict.

[Unagi]

Or maybe it was just because he was guilty as f*ck

[Isgrimnur]

Or maybe it was just because he was guilty as f*ck

Naaah...

[Pyperkub]

Very important:

Infowars host Alex Jones was temporarily blocked from transferring any assets or spending money other than for ordinary living expenses by the judge overseeing the Sandy Hook defamation trial in Connecticut.

State court Judge Barbara Bellis, who oversaw the case in which a jury last month ordered Jones to pay nearly $1 billion for spreading lies about the 2012 elementary school massacre, issued the freezing order late Wednesday over concerns that he was “looting” his own estate and hiding assets through a series of shell companies owned by family members

He's been trying, and I think has succeeded temporarily, to hide assets. Will be much harder for him to do that now.

Getting even harder to avoid justice...

The judge in Alex Jones’s bankruptcy case ruled on Thursday that he will not be allowed to use his Chapter 11 filing to evade paying more than $1 billion in verdicts to families of the Sandy Hook shooting.

The ruling by Judge Christopher Lopez in a Houston bankruptcy court means that Mr. Jones, the Infowars conspiracy broadcaster, will likely be working the rest of his life to pay his debt to the families. Last year, they were awarded historic damages in defamation lawsuits against him.

It also closes off the possibility that Mr. Jones could liquidate Infowars and force the families to accept whatever proceeds result, leaving him free to start a new business.

Earlier this year, the families asked that Judge Lopez order Mr. Jones to pay them the full damage awards, with no possibility of a trial or a forced settlement over a lesser amount — in legal terms, to make Mr. Jones’s debts to the families “non-dischargeable” through bankruptcy.

No "bankruptcy" protections for you!

[Zarathud]

Judges are not lenient when you get caught squarely trying to evade creditor claims.

[Unagi]

At least 20 dead in Lewiston, Maine mass shooting.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/ ... =104322983

At least 20 people are believed to be dead from a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday evening, according to multiple sources briefed on the situation.
Dozens are injured, sources said.
The suspect is still at large.
The shooting may have unfolded in multiple locations, including a bowling alley and a local bar.

Police in Maine have identified the suspected shooter, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

The suspect has a history of military service and is a firearms instructor, the sources said.

The sources said he also has a mental health history, including a two-week stay this summer at a mental health facility after he allegedly made threats about carrying out a shooting at a National Guard facility.

Authorities have traced the suspect's white Subaru to a location in Lisbon, Maine, sources said.

A nurse at Maine Medical told ABC News the shooting unfolded at a bowling alley during its youth night.

[em2nought]

A Subaru? Hmm.

[Blackhawk]

A Subaru? Hmm.

What, exactly, is funny?

[em2nought]

A Subaru? Hmm.

What, exactly, is funny?

Subaru isn't the typical ride of the white supremacist.

[naednek]

A Subaru? Hmm.

What, exactly, is funny?

i'm guessing suburu means liberal driver, liberal shooter goes against the stereotype of only conservatives shoot people. Which in turns validates his beliefs. (it doesn't)

[naednek]

A Subaru? Hmm.

What, exactly, is funny?

Subaru isn't the typical ride of the white supremacist.

my analysis seems to be spot on

[Kraken]

A Subaru? Hmm.

What, exactly, is funny?

Subaru isn't the typical ride of the white supremacist.

my analysis seems to be spot on

For at least a moment in time in New England, Subarus were called Lesbarus. The company's US sales were disproportionately in the Northeast, and disproportionately to women. IDk if that's still true but It was a thing, once, when we owned our Forester. Wife drove a lesbaru and I drove my gay Miata and we thought the stereotypes were funny.

(edit) Now back to your regular scheduled shootings.

[Victoria Raverna]

New Zealand's Christchurch mosque shooter drove Subaru. I think he counted as white supremacist, right?

And

https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/202 ... ghborhood/

And



So some white supremacists drive Subaru.

[Alefroth]

A Subaru? Hmm.

True colors.

[em2nought]

A Subaru? Hmm.

True colors.

You've got me, I like dark humor. Particularly if it's the kind that can get you cancelled in this new normal.

[Victoria Raverna]

A Subaru? Hmm.

True colors.

You've got me, I like dark humor. Particularly if it's the kind that can get you cancelled in this new normal.

People getting killed are funny.

[waitingtoconnect]

A Subaru? Hmm.

What, exactly, is funny?

Subaru isn't the typical ride of the white supremacist.

It’s as American as all the workers who helped build trump tower.

[Skinypupy]

A Subaru? Hmm.

True colors.

You've got me, I like dark humor. Particularly if it's the kind that can get you cancelled in this new normal.

One of my 10 year olds likes to say or do rude or gross things, simply because it gets him attention. We’re working hard with him to help him mature and grow out of this phase.

Em2nought (and MAGA in general, I suppose) is proof that some people simply never do.

[Octavious]

Hey if you can't laugh at a bunch of kids being killed in a bowling alley what can you laugh at? Snowflakes.

[Hamlet3145]

Well, I guess it was my state's turn this week. I live just outside the lockdown area. The local community college I teach for is shut down. I just posted an annnouncement in all my classes giving a blanket extension for this week's work. I expect to have students directly affected by the shooting.

[Skinypupy]

Shit Hamlet, I'm so sorry.

[LawBeefaroni]

The sources said he also has a mental health history, including a two-week stay this summer at a mental health facility after he allegedly made threats about carrying out a shooting at a National Guard facility.

How are these people unmonitored? I mean I guess that's a rhetorical question, since we value guns over mental health, but it's infuriating that signs like this are just ignored.

[$iljanus]

The sources said he also has a mental health history, including a two-week stay this summer at a mental health facility after he allegedly made threats about carrying out a shooting at a National Guard facility.

How are these people unmonitored? I mean I guess that's a rhetorical question, since we value guns over mental health, but it's infuriating that signs like this are just ignored.

It is and unfortunately it’s by design because state’s rights and all.

Federal law generally prohibits possession of firearms and ammunition by people who have been found by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority to be a danger to themselves or others, or to lack “the mental capacity to contract or manage [their] own affairs,” as a result of their mental condition or illness.1 Federal law also generally prohibits people from possessing firearms if they have been involuntarily hospitalized or committed to a mental health or substance abuse treatment facility by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority.2

No federal law, however, requires states to report the identities of these individuals when they become ineligible to possess firearms to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (“NICS”) database, which the FBI uses to perform background checks prior to firearm transfers. As a result, state laws in this area are critical to ensuring the accuracy and effectiveness of the background check system.

https://giffords.org/lawcenter/state-la ... achusetts/

It’s not like we are murder free in MA which has restrictive gun ownership laws but being in a mass shooting at this scale is at the bottom of my worry list. Dying in a car crash because someone doesn’t know how to navigate a traffic circle however is more of a concern. Of course, I’m thankful that so far some gun toting dipshit from neighboring states with less restrictive law’s hasn’t crossed the border to make a violent point…

[LawBeefaroni]

POI and his family were known gun fanatics. Maine has no red flag laws.

So he made threats about a mass shooting, was committed for two weeks, and is allowed to go back to his armory.

Our asymmetrical gun laws across the country are insane.

[Octavious]

I'm shocked no good guy with a guy stepped in. Shocked...

[LawBeefaroni]

I'm shocked no good guy with a guy stepped in. Shocked...

From what I understand, the bowling alley and pool hall were posted gun-free zones. Don't know if they were targeted for that reason or just because they would be crowded.

Regardless, a guy with a semi auto rifle on the attack has the upper hand against someone with a handgun scrambling to defend themselves. And this guy was apparently pretty well trained.

[$iljanus]

There will be the usual call for better mental health services which is always a good thing. But perhaps while people are undergoing treatment or evaluation, maybe we should also keep things like guns out of their reach? I feel like we’ve had this conversation before…