shooting – Page 2 – The Burning Platform

COULDN’T YOU SHOOT YOUR FATHER AT HOME?

I thought I had experienced every possible scenario on my daily commute. Tonight was a new one. If you look closely I’m the car about four miles further down the Schuylkill Expressway parked in the right lane, along with the hundreds of other cars, just trying to get home for dinner. My commute home was 2 hours and 5 minutes because some douchebag decided to have a domestic dispute in the left lane of the Schuylkill Expressway at rush hour. A guy shoots another guy while they are driving in the same car. WTF. Didn’t he think how this would inconvenience me?

He couldn’t wait until they got home? He couldn’t do it in a parking lot? He had to do it on the fucking Schuylkill Expressway during my evening commute? And then the fucking cops have to conduct their investigation by blocking the entire expressway for one hour? I’m really getting tired of this shit. When will sons develop the common decency to shoot their fathers at home?

A man was shot during a domestic incident inside a car on the Schuylkill Expressway near the Conshohocken exit Tuesday evening, state police said.

The incident occurred around 6 p.m. on the westbound side of I-76, which led to all westbound lanes being closed and traffic being jammed for miles in both directions.

The man was allegedly shot by another man, 22, who is possibly the victim’s son. The suspect was in custody, state police said. The victim was reported in stable condition at an area hospital.

The westbound lanes were later reopened after the on-scene investigation was completed. – Robert Moran

SHOOT FIRST, ASK QUESTIONS LATER

How about a shot in the leg?

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has released mobile phone footage that seems to be at odds with parts of its story surrounding the officer-involved shooting of Kajieme Powell in the weeks after Michael Brown’s death.

According to St. Louis Public Radio, the police released the video Wednesday evening as part of an effort to be more transparent when it comes to violent incidents involving law enforcement. In addition to the cell phone footage, the department also released security camera footage of the alleged robbery, as well as the two 911 calls made to police.

Police were first called to the scene – less than four miles away from the spot Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, was killed – when a local store owner reported the 25-year-old Powell for stealing drinks and snacks. A separate woman, meanwhile, also reported Powell for allegedly having a knife in his pocket and acting strangely.

As RT noted previously, St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said Powell was brandishing a knife and ignored commands to drop it. Dotson said Powell approached the officers carrying the knife “in an aggressive manner,” with an overhand grip, and was shot when he came within three or four feet of police.

In the newly released video, Powell can be seen walking in the direction of and yelling at the two responding officers, telling them to shoot him. However, his hands look to be at his side while this is happening, and he also appears to be further than three or four feet from police when they decide to shoot him.

Powell had a well-known history of mental illness, though it’s unclear how, if at all, that played into police decision-making. He was shot about 15-20 seconds after police arrived, about nine times total.

Speaking to CNN, Dotson acknowledged that Powell’s hands were down when he was shot, but said the man was brandishing a knife and walking towards officers at a close enough range that the knife was considered a lethal weapon.

“The officers did what I think you or I would do, they protected their life in that situation,” Dotson said, as quoted by the Huffington Post. He mentioned that tasers aren’t “100 percent” successful, concluding, “In a lethal situation, they used lethal force.”

Previously, Dotson also pointed to the safety of his officers as the most important concern.

“I think officer safety is the number one issue,” he said on Tuesday. “I think you have the right to protect yourself and defend yourself” if someone approaches you with a knife and gets too close.

20 MORE IRAQ WAR CASUALTIES

Well there was another mass shooting at Fort Hood yesterday. The liberals will be wringing their hands over the ease at which people can acquire guns. We surely need tougher gun laws. Obama gave an incomprehensible sound bite about how sad he was over the shooting. Without a teleprompter he is a blithering idiot. The compliant MSM and local news stations dutifully reported the false storyline that he had trouble with another soldier that caused him to shoot 19 people and himself. Obama, the military, the Fox News neo-cons, and the MSM in general will not report the true story. The Obama haters are already blaming his “gutting” of the military budget. What a joke these people are.

Only people who have completely snapped, shoot 19 people randomly. If this guy had a problem with a specific soldier he would have killed that soldier. That storyline is complete and utter bullshit. This guy was already being treated for mental illness. He got fucked up in the head in Iraq. He had PTSD or some mental illness caused by fighting a war with no mission and no clear enemy. He either snapped due to this mental illness OR he snapped due to the Psychotropic Drugs they were feeding him. Of course, they will never blame the drugs because that would affect the profits of the drug makers. Virtually every mass shooting in the last ten years was committed by men taking these drugs.

These people are more casualties of our wars of choice in the Middle East. The Iraq and Afghan wars will be the gifts that keep on giving for decades. The total monetary cost will exceed $6 trillion and the human tragedy will be incalculable. Bush and Obama have the victims blood on their hands.

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — An Iraq War veteran being treated for mental illness opened fire Wednesday on fellow service members at the Fort Hood military base, killing three people and wounding 16 before committing suicide at the same post where more than a dozen people were slain in a 2009 attack, authorities said.

The shooter apparently walked into a building and began firing a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol. He then got into a vehicle and continued firing before entering another building.

He was eventually confronted by military police in a parking lot. As he came within 20 feet of an officer, the gunman put his hands up but then reached under his jacket and pulled out his gun. The officer drew her own weapon, and the suspect put his gun to his head and pulled the trigger a final time, according to Lt. Gen. Mark A. Milley, senior officer on the base.

Lucy Hamlin and her husband, Spc. Timothy Hamlin, wait for permission to re-enter the Fort Hood military base, where they live, following a shooting on base on Wednesday, April 2, 2014, in Fort Hood, Texas. One person was killed and 14 injured in the shooting, and officials at the base said the shooter is believed to be dead. The details about the number of people hurt came from two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the information by name. (AP Photo/ Tamir Kalifa)

The gunman, who served in Iraq for four months in 2011, had sought help for depression, anxiety and other problems. Before the attack, he had been undergoing an assessment to determine whether he had post-traumatic stress disorder, Milley said.

The married suspect had arrived at Fort Hood in February from another base in Texas. He was taking medication, and there were reports that he had complained after returning from Iraq about suffering a traumatic brain injury, Milley said. The commander did not elaborate.

The gunman was never wounded in action, according to military records, Milley said.

There was no indication the attack was related to terrorism, Milley said.

The military declined to identify the gunman until his family members had been notified. Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he was named Ivan Lopez but offered no other details.

The weapon had been purchased recently in the local area and was not registered to be on the base, Milley said.

Late Wednesday, investigators had already started looking into whether Lopez’s combat experience caused lingering psychological trauma. Among the possibilities they planned to explore was whether a fight or argument on the base triggered the attack.

“We have to find all those witnesses, the witnesses to every one of those shootings, and find out what his actions were, and what was said to the victims,” said a federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case by name.

The official said authorities would begin by speaking with Lopez’s wife and expected to search his home and any computers he owned.

The injured were taken to the base hospital and other local hospitals. At least three of the nine patients at Scott and White Hospital in Temple were listed in critical condition.

Wednesday’s attack immediately revived memories of the shocking 2009 assault on Fort Hood, which was the deadliest attack on a domestic military installation in U.S. history. Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 wounded.

Until an all-clear siren sounded hours after Wednesday’s shooting began, relatives of soldiers waited anxiously for news about their loved ones.

“The last two hours have been the most nerve-wracking I’ve ever felt,” said Tayra DeHart, 33, who had earlier heard from her husband that he was safe but was waiting to hear from him again.

Brooke Conover, whose husband was on base at the time of the shooting, said she found out about it while checking Facebook. She immediately called her husband, Staff Sgt. Sean Conover.

“I just want him to come home,” Conover said.

President Barack Obama vowed that investigators would get to the bottom of the shooting.

In a hastily arranged statement in Chicago, Obama reflected on the sacrifices that troops stationed at Fort Hood have made — including enduring multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan.

“They serve with valor. They serve with distinction, and when they’re at their home base, they need to feel safe,” Obama said. “We don’t yet know what happened tonight, but obviously that sense of safety has been broken once again.”

The president spoke in the same room of a steakhouse where he had just met with about 25 donors at a previously scheduled fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee.

The November 2009 attack happened inside a crowded building where soldiers were waiting to get vaccines and routine paperwork after recently returning from deployments or preparing to go to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan was convicted and sentenced to death last year in that mass shooting. He said he acted to protect Islamic insurgents abroad from American aggression.

According to testimony during Hasan’s trial last August, Hasan walked inside carrying two weapons and several loaded magazines, shouted “Allahu Akbar!” — Arabic for “God is great!” — and opened fire with a handgun.

The rampage ended when Hasan was shot in the back by Fort Hood police officers. He was paralyzed from the waist down and is now on death row at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

After that shooting, the military tightened security at bases nationwide. Those measures included issuing security personnel long-barreled weapons, adding an insider-attack scenario to their training and strengthening ties to local law enforcement. The military also joined an FBI intelligence-sharing program aimed at identifying terror threats.

In September, a former Navy man opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard, leaving 13 people dead, including the gunman. After that shooting, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the Pentagon to review security at all U.S. defense installations worldwide and examine the granting of security clearances that allow access to them.

Asked Wednesday about security improvements in the wake of the shootings, Hagel said, “Obviously when we have these kinds of tragedies on our bases, something’s not working.”

WHY DOES THE MSM COVER-UP THE RACE OF SHOOTERS?

There were two high profile shootings over the weekend that made the national headlines. The liberal anti-gun nuts in the mainstream media pray for a story about a Tea Party member going ballistic with an AK-47. The possibility sends a tingle up their legs. One problem. It never happens. It’s usually a teenager who has been drugged up by psychiatrists and their parents. This weekend’s killings were more traditional. I read they had a suspect in the Maryland Mall murders of two people at a Zumiez store. The MSM was all over the identities of the victims. They were both white. Then the police announced they had the identity of the suspect. This was 24 hours after the crime. He had killed himself at the scene of the crime. The MSM stories made no mention of the race of the suspect. The police knew. The mass media knew. Is it not politically correct to say the shooter was BLACK? I wonder if it was a hate crime against whites. I’m sure Eric Holder will investigate.

A football player was killed at South Carolina State University. It was the identical MO from the mainstream press. They knew the killer was BLACK and felt there was no need to mention it in their politically correct stories. We wouldn’t want to upset Sharpton and Jackson by singling out black men as killers.

I see this every night on the evening news. People are gunned down on a daily basis in West Philly and North Philly. The politically correct talking head news boobs will describe the age and height of the perpetrator, but they NEVER say whether they were black.

The liberal bias of the mainstream media does not change the Federal Crime Statistics. Propaganda and misinformation does not change the facts: