Suspense of a Texas School Shooting Shooting by an 18-year-old Gunman Who Shot at a Student’s Own Object: A Civil, Non-Incriminating, Second-Class Shooting
The parents of survivors of the Uvalde school massacre have filed a federal lawsuit against the gun manufacturer, the school district and the city for a host of allegations.
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.
It said that Daniel Defense didn’t want to do any studies about the effects of their marketing strategies on health and well-being of Americans and they chose not to look at the cost to families and communities in Texas.
Days before the shooting, the complaint notes, the Georgia-based company tweeted an image of a toddler holding an assault-style weapon with the caption: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Firequest International sells its products to untrained civilians, young adults, and minor in Uvalde, according to the claim. These kinds of devices let semi-automatic rifles fire more rapidly.
The Uvalde school shooter had a clean background check, and Oasis Outback knew he was likely dangerous, according to a legal document. “The store owner and his staff did not act on their suspicions and block the purchases or notify law enforcement.”
The gunman legally purchased two AR platform rifles at a local federal firearms licensee on May 17 and on May 20. On May 18 he bought about 350 rounds of ammunition, according to officials.
Uvalde PD, Motorola Solutions, Inc., and Schneider Electric failed to lock the door at a school: A lawsuit alleging negligence from Gutierrez
The lawsuit states that the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and its police chief, Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, failed to act and created a dangerous environment for the people who sued them. Gutierrez’s attorney told CNN his client will not be commenting on the pending litigation.
UvaldePD retreated and never tried again after making an initial attempt to break into the classroom. 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 claims the acting police chief and two other companies were responsible for the massacre, because they had defects in their products. Motorola Solutions, Inc.’s radio communications devices, which were used by some first responders, “were defective and unreasonably dangerous because they did not contain adequate warnings or instructions concerning failure during normal use,” said the claim.
Lawyers also say Schneider Electric, the manufacturer of the door locking mechanisms used at the school, “failed to lock as designed after being shut.”
Venancio Figueroa III, a spokesman for Schneider Electric, told CNN that the Uvalde massacre was an “unspeakable tragedy”. The filing we are reviewing does not address pending litigation.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, Oasis Outreach, Daniel Defense, Pargas and Arredondo are not responding to CNN’s request for comment.
The case of a 15-year-old student charged with four counts of manslaughter at a Michigan high school: A lawyer for the accused student is due in court
The story included an extra plaintiffs’s name in the previous version. The person that was removed from the complaint is not a party.
A teenager accused of killing four students and wounding seven others at a Michigan high school last year is expected to plead guilty to murder charges Monday, prosecutors said.
Crumbley, who was 15 when the shooting happened, previously pleaded not guilty to the charges, but is expected to change his plea at a hearing in Oakland County Circuit Court.
The teenager was charged with four counts of manslaughter after prosecutors said that he was given an easy access to a gun and that his parents ignored signs that he was threatening.
Attorneys for the parents argued in court documents that the charges against their son should be dropped, and that he shouldn’t be held responsible for the killings of his parents.
The parents trial was originally scheduled to start Monday, but was delayed until January. Meanwhile, Jennifer and James Crumbley remain in custody at a county jail.
The teacher crawled over and asked for help to remove the lockers from the door so they couldn’t get in. “And we started hearing glass breaking from the outside and gunshots outside the door.”
Four students died that day: Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17. Six other students and one teacher were injured.
A St. Louis School Shooting: What Happened When a Student Shoots and Kills Two People at a High School Monday?
There was enough bullets for a much worse situation when a teenager shot and killed two people at his school Monday.
Police response and locked doors were credited with keeping people safe at the high school.
Police Commissioner Michael Sack said that the situation could have been a lot worse. The individual had a number of 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 the near future, according to her daughter.
The officer who shot the man died at the hospital. He was identified as Orlando Harris, who graduated from the school last year.
As the shooting unfolded in St. Louis, a Michigan prosecutor who just heard the guilty plea of a teen 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.
We must inform the public about how we can prevent gun violence. We shouldn’t allow that to be something that we should have to live with.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/us/st-louis-school-shooting-tuesday/index.html
Alexandria Bell, the Brightest Princess, and Jean Kuczka: A Conversation with an Optical Instructor and a High School Principal
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 would celebrate Halloween together. “She was always funny and always kept the smile on her face and kept everybody laughing,” Robinson said, fighting back tears.
Alumni remembered Jean Kuczka’s impact on her students. “She was kindhearted. She was very sweet. She always made you laugh even when you wasn’t trying to laugh,” Allen-Brown said.
Kuczka claimed on the school’s website that she had been at the school for three years. She believes that every child deserves a chance to learn.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/us/st-louis-school-shooting-tuesday/index.html
The story of a shooting shooter in the St. Louis elementary school, according to the deputies and police commissioner Adrianne Bolden
Seven other teens were injured, some with gunshot or graze wounds. One had a broken ankle. They were all in stable conditions, the police commissioner said.
The commissioner said that there was no mystery about what was going to happen after he entered. He entered in a violent way after he got out.
The students thought the drill was a drill until they heard the sirens and realized their teachers were scared.
Adrianne told us that the class stayed put until students in the classroom saw the assistant principal come up to 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.
David Williams, a math teacher, said that everyone went intodrill mode, turning off lights, locking doors and huddling in corners so they couldn’t see.
Sack said that officers in St. Louis rushed into the school to stop the shooter after they were accused of waiting too long to confront the shooter.
When phone calls came in from people hiding in different places, officers went to look for students and staff to get them out of the building.
A SWAT team that was together for a training exercise was also able to quickly load up and get to the school to perform a secondary sweep of the building, Sack said.
What to Look For in School Shootings? A Former FBI Special Agent, Profiler, and a Public Safety Specialist: How to Stop Worrying
Mary Ellen O’Toole, a former FBI Special agent and profiler who has studied school shootings, said that the general public had no idea what to look for.
The key is to look out for drastic changes in behavior, said school safety consultant Melissa Reeves, past president of the National Association of School Psychologists.
For some, it’s increased outward behavior. “So we will see an escalation in grievances. An escalation, potentially, in anger. “We will see an increase in difficulty managing their emotions.”
Changes are still happening, but they may now be withdrawing. “They’re no longer interacting with groups of friends. They are spending more time on the internet.
Leakage can also involve a fixation on previous mass shootings “to the point where the English teacher knows about it, their friends at the lunch table know about it,” O’Toole said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/26/us/school-shootings-warning-signs-red-flags-xpn/index.html
An investigation of a Michigan student’s social media post about a gun that became a photo of her new beauty and a weapon that had become her own
“They’re typically done because the offender is really excited about what they’re going to do. Some people believe that it is a cry for help and if they are found before then they can be used for that.
They plan it, for those who are bent on violence. They think about it. They fantasize about it. They are ready for it. And all of that period of time in which that is done, that’s very pleasant for them. They enjoy it.”
A few days before the 2021 school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, the 15-year-old suspect posted a photo of a gun on Instagram with the caption: “Just got my new beauty today. SIG SAUER 9mm,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said.
By itself, that post isn’t necessarily a cause for alarm, Reeves said. Under certain circumstances, people under age 18 in Michigan can possess a gun.
The morning of the shooting, a teacher found a drawing by the suspect depicting violence and phrases such as “the thoughts won’t stop help me,” “blood everywhere” and “my life is useless,” the prosecutor said.
It is still worth telling a teacher or school official if they hear of a worrisome social media post or disturbing comment in class.
Make it so that students can call in on a confidential line if they feel like they are in danger, or if they are experiencing red-flag behaviors.
“We strive for prevention – based on knowing what warning behaviors are, how to spot them and how to use appropriate intervention in an objective and compassionate way,” she said.
According to best practice recommendations from the US Secret Service National Threat Assessment center and the US Department of Education, if students report concerns, those messages should be monitored and the information sent to a school threat assessment team.
At least one mental health professional, an administrator, and a school resource officer can be included in the core team.
“Oftentimes, when we’re doing the threat assessment is where we find out there’s abuse going on in the home. Or that one parent just got arrested for domestic violence and they’re sitting in jail. Their caretakers who they loved the most died. Now they feel that they have nobody,” Reeves said.
If an individual makes a threat but it is not true, then law enforcement will not need to be involved. School personnel can work with the student and parents by implementing a problem solving and/or conflict resolution process,” Reeves and her colleagues wrote.
“However, if the threat is legitimate and mitigation actions need to be taken, an SRO/law enforcement officer may become engaged in a consultative or direct role. Local law enforcement should be notified of reports of physical violence, threats of violence, and weapons.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/26/us/school-shootings-warning-signs-red-flags-xpn/index.html
Black Holes and Red Flags in Schools: A Case Study of a Student who was taken into custody for a violent crime at a school
The student was “immediately removed from the classroom” and taken to the guidance counselors’ office, where he told a counselor “the drawing was part of a video game he was designing,” the school district’s superintendent said.
“It’s a very low bar for a school to search a backpack or a locker,” CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig said. The Supreme Court has reasonable suspicion and it is very low.
One of the least reliable information that you can get is self- reported information. So you need to find other sources to corroborate what this person is telling you,” the former FBI special agent said.
It is important to look for anything that would suggest that this person is having violent thoughts. To see if there have been any reports of incidents at the home, you have to speak to the parents, teachers and law enforcement.
Therefore, “these types of consequences should be implemented only after careful team consideration and should always be paired with supportive interventions,” the team of school psychologists wrote.
Keeping the student at school supervised reduces the chance for them to be alone at home where they have more time to conduct research and plan how to carry out the act of violence.
“We need parents to be more aware of what is happening in their child’s life and what they may have in their possession. While we need students and school staff to report, we also need more parent engagement at home and also need them to reach out when their child is struggling.”
“Not just reading, writing, and arithmetic but reading, writing, arithmetic and gun safety,” Saint Louis Public Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams said.
It is the totality of all those behaviors. Someone may know about it. Someone may know that they have access to a gun. And another person might report a separate concern about the same student, O’Toole said.
Red flags are often on social media, in the classroom, and outside of school, and students often have the best chance to notice them.
A Six-Year-Old Student Shooting a 1st Grade Teacher and Reopened a Public School in Newport News
Police said a six-year-old boy shot his first-grade teacher in Virginia on January 6. The teacher is recovering from a gunshot wound to the chest and the school has since reopened with new security measures in place, including metal detectors.
Novah Jones, who was in a different classroom, said she heard an announcement stating that they were going to be locked down. “I was scared … it was like my first lockdown and I didn’t know what to do, so I just hid under my desk like everybody was.”
The Newport News Police Department said the teacher who was wounded in the shooting was in stable condition by Saturday.
The Newport News public school district and the teacher’s alma mater, James Madison University, didn’t identify her, but she was.
The police chief said in the news conference that the boy had taken into custody and that it was not an accidental shooting.
The student fired a round at Zwerner after an argument, Police Chief Drew said at the time.
Following the shooting, the school closed for roughly three weeks and returned with added security measures including metal detectors and clear backpacks.
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.”
Novah is a child who has witnessed a school shooting. Shootings in US schools, while still rare when compared with other incidents of gun violence, have become far more common than they are in any other country. In 2022, there were at least 60 shootings at K-12 schools, according to a CNN analysis.
Richneck Elementary has been closed since the shooting, and some parents have expressed their concern ahead of classes resuming. Mark Garcia Sr. told CNN last week that his son is in the same class as the student accused of shooting Zwerner and has been distraught since the shooting.
“It is almost impossible to wrap our minds around the fact that a 6 year old 1st grader brought a loaded handgun to school and shot a teacher; however, this is exactly what our community is grappling with today,” Newport News Mayor Phillip D. Jones said in a statement posted on Twitter.
We are asking the question how did this happen, and authorities are working to get an answer. Jones said that the child received the supports and services he needed as they continued to process what had happened.
The Investigation of a First Grader, Briana Foster Newton, at Richneck Elementary School, Virginia, Following a January 6, Inclusive School Shooting
The principal of Richneck Elementary School in Virginia has been reassigned within Newport News Public Schools, according to a spokesperson for the district.
School and district leadership have come under fire in the weeks since a first grader allegedly shot a teacher inside a Richneck classroom on January 6, with students there slated to resume classes for the first time since the incident on Monday.
“At the time of the shooting incident on January 6, Briana Foster Newton served as the principal of Richneck Elementary and Dr. Ebony Parker served as the assistant principal. Briana Foster Newton is still employed with Newport News Public Schools. Dr.Parker resigned her position. The district told CNN that there is no more they can give at this time.
Karen Lynch will serve as the administrator on special assignment “leading the Richneck team and coordinating the students’ return to instruction,” the district said.
As Police Chief Steve Drew has said, “no School Resource Officers have been assigned to Richneck. In addition, doors have been installed in classroom areas without one, and others have been repaired or replaced,” the district told CNN.
Following the announcement of her appointment Sunday, administrator Lynch sent an email to students’ families highlighting new protocols for the first day of full instruction.
Lynch encouraged families to send their children to school using “their typical mode of transportation to school and home” and asked that families send their children to school without a book bag as the school will provide them with clear book bags for use on Monday.
According to an email, visitors will be limited in the school to allow staff the chance to establish routines and procedures with students. Parents are not allowed to enter classrooms and those who chose to walk their children to class must show identification and are also subject to search, it added.
“Is my son scared”? Comment on the alleged shooting death of a 6-year-old student in a Los Alamos, Virginia, school district
The school also shared an Amazon Wish List of emotional support items that teachers had requested for students to aid in the healing process in a post on the school’s Facebook account Sunday evening.
“This is a scary situation, my son is still scared,” Garcia told CNN. “He wants to go back to school, but he just wants to know that he’s gonna to be safe, and that’s the biggest thing.”
The school’s alleged failure to act is “horrifying,” Garcia said, adding, “The people who know about this failed us and they failed the security measures of everyone that’s inside of that school.”
Police have said that Zwerner was critically injured when she was struck in the chest by a bullet. The teacher has since been released from hospital.
Diane Toscano, an attorney, said that three different times, teachers and employees had warned the school’s administration that a boy had a gun and was threatening people.
On January 19, the family said the boy has an “acute disability” and was receiving care at the school. A family member usually went to class with him, but not the week of the shooting, they said.
Under Virginia law, it is a misdemeanor for an adult to leave a loaded, unsecured firearm in such a way that it could endanger a child under the age of 14. It is against the law to allow a child under the age of 12 to use a firearm.
The Case of a Six-Year-old Student Bringing a Gun to School: An Attorney’s Notice to the Newport News School Board
The allegations were detailed in a legal notice Diane Toscano sent to officials of Newport News School Board to inform them of a lawsuit her client, a teacher, plans to file against administrators.
The child displayed some warning signs of violence according to instances described in the legal notice. The child has a disability, according to their family.
CNN obtained the legal notice Tuesday from the Newport News School District through a Freedom of Information Act request. The document was provided to CNN by the district.
Branch said that people who were aware of a student possibly having a gun on the premises didn’t report it to Mrs.Newton.
A woman in Pennsylvania and a man in North Carolina were charged this week after a six-year-old in each case brought a gun to school, officials said, marking at least three times an elementary school student has brought a weapon to campus this year, including when a six-year-old allegedly shot his teacher in Newport News, Virginia, last month.
In Pennsylvania, a mother in Norristown was arrested after her 6-year-old son brought a gun to Joseph K. Gotwals Elementary School on February 9, prosecutors said.
Jasmin Devlin, 30, turned herself in Tuesday and has been arraigned on charges of felony endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment for failing to secure a firearm in her home, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. It is unclear if Devlin currently has an attorney.
Police believe a boy found a gun. Arms semi-automatic handgun – in a dresser in his mother’s room the night before bringing it to school, prosecutors said. The news release said his brother pretended to shoot him when he took the bullets out of his gun. The 6-year-old told detectives he returned to his mother’s room in the middle of the night, put the firearm in his backpack and took it to school, according to the release.
The children who notified the school of the danger were applauded by the acting police chief. These children are the true heroes. The safety of students and staff was ensured by the quick response by the police.
A Preliminary Hearing in the Case of Marvin J. Davis, of North Carolina, for Misdemeanor Misuse of a Firearm to Protect a Minor
Devlin’s bond was set at $50,000 and she’s been ordered to not have contact with children as part of her bond conditions. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for February 24.
Marvin Ray Davis, 58, of North Carolina was charged with a misdemeanor count of improper Storage of a Firearm to protect a Minor after an unloaded 9mm handgun was discovered in the backpack of a 6-year-old at a school.
A department spokesman told CNN that Davis was not related to the child and lived in the same house. He was issued a $4,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Rocky Mount Court on March 1, the release said.
It’s unclear if Davis has an attorney and CNN has made several attempts to contact him. CNN reached out to Nash County Public Schools.
It is a reminder to all gun owners to keep their weapons out of the hands of people under the age of 18. He claimed that the situation was preventable.