4/15/24 In Chicago’s violence-ridden New City neighborhood, shots fired from a passing car at a family gathered in its front yard to celebrate a confirmation killed a 9-year old girl and wounded three other children, two critically. Seven adults, ages 19 to 40, were also wounded. The homeowner, who was shot in the foot, said that gun violence had led his family, which had lived in the area more than thirty years, to seek a home elsewhere. “We were just a little too late.” No arrests have yet been made, and police said that gang violence was suspected.

Plainclothes-wearing police tactical officers in Chicago’s beset Humboldt Park area pulled over James Reed on March 21 because he wasn’t belted. His windows were tinted, and he refused to roll them down. Reed then opened fire on the officer on the passenger side of the car, wounding him in the arm. Police responded with a barrage of 96 shots, and an officer reportedly kept shooting as Reed, fatally wounded, lay on the ground. COPA, the city’s civilian police overseer, criticized the stop and urged that the four officers involved (they’re under investigation for alleged past misdeeds) be suspended. At the time, Reed was pending charges for “aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.” COPA reports and videos

12/12/23  Proof that Robert E. Crimo III committed last year’s Fourth of July massacre in Highland Park, Illinois seems, well, overwhelming. Crimo, though, pled innocent. And although he also seems to be deeply mentally disturbed, Judge Victoria Rossetti just agreed - albeit, most reluctantly - to let him discard his court-appointed counsel and represent himself at his forthcoming trial. It’s set for February. (See 11/7/23 update)

12/4/23  Citywide, Chicago homicide is down 12 percent so far this year, from 644 to 569 thru November 26. But the Chicago Tribune isn’t celebrating. According to its analysis, the gain reflects  improvements in the city’s traditionally peaceful areas. Say, Rogers Park (CPD Dist. 24), where homicides dropped 21%, from 14 to 11. But the city’s notoriously violent areas have remained so. For example, murders in Englewood (CPD Dist. 7) increased from 51 to 55. That’s 8 percent worse.

11/27/23  Chicago CRED provides youths who live in the city’s most highly violence-impacted neighborhoods “with a modest stipend, a life coach, trauma treatment, education and job training.” According to a recent study, young men who complete the two-year program are significantly less likely to be subsequently arrested for a violent crime. But their victimization rate is not yet provably affected. CRED website   Study

11/17/23  Juvenile deaths by gunfire are soaring in Chicago, with “twelve shot in under two weeks.”  Fifty-five Chicago youths under eighteen have been shot and killed in 2023, compared with sixty-six in all of 2022. Across the U.S., at a Las Vegas high school campus, ten students beat another to death over “headphones and a vape pen.” So far eight have been charged with murder. In both cities, the killings struck in chronically beset and poor neighborhoods. In Chicago, it was Austin, Avalon Park and East Side; in Las Vegas, the high school is located in a Zip code (89101) with 31.2% poverty.

11/9/23  Going against the current grain, a three-judge panel of the 7th. Circuit Court of Appeals let stand, by a 2-1 vote, Illinois’ ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, which was enacted in response to the Highland Park massacre. But the dissenting jurist cited the “historical” rationale that undepinned the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, and an appeal to the full Circuit, then perhaps to the Supreme Court, seems likely.

11/7/23  Robert Crimo Jr., the father of accused Highland Park shooter Robert Crimo III, pled guilty to recklessly facilitating his son’s purchase of the guns used in the massacre by falsely certifying on an application for an Illinois Firearms card that his son was mentally competent. In fact, the father allegedly knew that Crimo III (as a brother is expected to testify) had spoken about committing suicide. Crimo Jr. was sentenced to 60 days in jail and two years probation. (See 12/12/23 update)

10/30/23  Chicago’s beset North Lawndale neighborhood became the scene of yet another massacre as an armed intruder opened fire at an early morning Halloween party, wounding 15, two critically. Police arrested the still-armed shooter nearby. He had been kicked out of the gathering earlier. One year earlier, a Halloween shooting in the city’s equally beset Garfield Park area wounded fourteen, one fatally.

10/2/23  Robbery crews beset Chicago. Masked and attired in dark clothes, gun-toting hoodlums, including many juveniles, accost pedestrians, shoppers and persons sitting in their cars, stealing cash and goods and taking their vehicles. Robbery is up 24 percent this year, and it’s striking with force at Blacks, Hispanics and residents of “disinvested” neighborhoods such as Humboldt Park. Some arrests are being made, but victims complain that a liberal agenda has led to “privileging the rights of perpetrators.”

7/10/23  Another weekend of gun violence beset the nation. NYPD officers arrested an “extremely emotionally disturbed” 25-year old man who roamed Brooklyn and Queens on a scooter and randomly fired on pedestrians, killing one and wounding three. Police recovered an unserialized 9mm “ghost gun” pistol with an extended magazine. The suspect was later identified as Thomas Abreu. In Chicago, a series of shootings left at least four dead and fourteen wounded. And in Cleveland, an early-morning mass shooting in a nightclub district wounded nine.

7/5/23  Attired in a ballistic vest and carrying an AR-15 rifle, a handgun, extra ammunition magazines and a police scanner, a 40-year old man randomly opened fire as he walked the streets of Philadelphia’s poverty-stricken Kingsessing neighborhood, where he lived. He killed five persons, ages 15 to 59, and wounded two children. Kimbrady Carriker shot at police but soon surrendered. His only reported criminal record are gun and drug misdemeanor charges in 2003, for which he got probation. Carriker is said to have made “disturbing” social media posts prior to the shooting. A video shows him firing.

7/3/23  A tripling in the number of applications for firearms restraining orders (i.e., “red flag laws”) and a doubling in citizen submissions of “clear and present danger” reports to police have followed on last year’s Fourth of July massacre in Highland Park, Illinois. According to the State Police director, widespread awareness of these options has increased their use. But Illinois’ use of red flag laws still lags, and moves are afoot to strengthen their provisions and encourage their use.

6/28/23  Chicago PD has logged 11,000 complaints of officer misconduct during the four and one-half year run of its Federal consent decree, which was imposed after the 2014 police killing of Laquan McDonald. But an overseer reports that the agency has come into “full compliance” with only five percent of the decree’s 552 paragraphs. Officers in Districts that suffer more violence get more misconduct allegations. But in three particularly crime-ridden districts, the number of homicides (“more than 850”) have actually exceeded the number of complaints (755).

6/21/23  Three top members of the notorious “Goonies” street gang are on Federal trial for terrorizing the residents of Chicago’s poverty-stricken, violence-ridden Englewood district through a wave of violence that took ten lives during 2014-2016.  Romeo Blackman, Terrance “T” Smith and Jolicious “Jo Jo” Turman are charged with racketeering and murder, and if convicted face life without parole. A subset of the Gangster Disciples, “Goonies” acted as “urban hunters” and acquired large numbers of guns through straw purchases in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

5/31/23  In 2014 Illinois generally barred the police use of drones (click here for the law). Eight years later came the July 4th. 2022 massacre in Highland Park. A bill now sits on the Governor’s desk that amends the law to permit the use of drones to monitor special events, help in search and rescue, and aid victims or identify suspects when responding to dispatched calls for service (click here for the bill).

5/24/23  Illinois is dispatching more than thirty civilian “peacekeepers” trained in de-escalation and violence interruption to Chicago. Timed for the Memorial Day weekend and the start of summer, it’s hoped that street outreach workers will help tone down the violence that besets the city's gang-ridden neighborhoods. This move is part of a “holistic”, not just police approach to violence that's championed by Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago's progressive new mayor, Brandon Johnson.

4/5/23  Elected by a slim margin, Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s progressive new Mayor, faces the city’s seemingly intractable problem of gun violence, with murder counts exceeding more populous Los Angeles and New York City. Johnson has “walked back” promises to cut police. But his plans to replace vacant officer slots with community workers, to increase detectives by cutting patrol, and to remove Shot Spotter gunfire detectors because they can cause dangerous encounters remain on the table.

2/23/23  According to a new study published in JAMA Open, “Comparing Risks of Firearm-Related Death and Injury Among Young Adult Males in Selected US Cities With Wartime Service in Iraq and Afghanistan,” those living in the most violent ZIP codes in Chicago and Philadelphia were at substantially higher risk of being shot dead than wartime service personnel. That did not hold true for the most violent Zip codes in Los Angeles and New York City.

2/21/23  A nighttime vehicle-to-vehicle shooting on Chicago’s I-57 expressway killed a 19-year old youth, a 14-year old child and a one-year old infant. Three other occupants, including two children, were wounded. According to the Tribune, it was the sixteenth shooting on a local expressway this year. The assailant vehicle fled and no arrests have yet been announced.

1/28/23  With Chicago’s Mayoral campaign in full swing, crime is taking center stage. Touting her pro-police record, Mayor Lori Lightfoot blasted one challenger as a notorious “defunder” and another for “embellishing...his so-called public safety bona fides.” Problem is, violence has risen since Lightfoot took office in 2019, but she notes the numbers have come down. Meanwhile her competitors insist they’re all for the cops. One, Willie Wilson, criticized Lightfoot for putting too many restrictions on police and seconded his former comments that persons fleeing officers should be “hunted down like rabbits.”

1/11/23  “Groups of armed and masked men” have taken to robbing street food vendors in Chicago’s impoverished Little Village area, taking “cash, sometimes their phones, and even the tamales”. Days ago robbers held a pistol to a vendor’s head. Robberies in the 10th Police District are way up, with 541 last year v. 378 in 2021. But police say they don’t have enough cops to increase patrols. So local residents have formed their own patrols, and monitor the streets between 4 and 9 am each day.

1/3/23  Complaints about slow 9-1-1 response  continue to beset Chicago police. In an episode last August, officers didn’t arrive for over an hour after citizens reported an early-morning bar fight. In the meantime the assailant drove his car into the crowd, killing three. According to the Tribune, Black and Hispanic areas endure substantially slower reponse times than majority White areas. Delays are especially lengthy in the city’s South side, which has a Black majority.

12/30/22  Alleged serial killer Wesley Brownlee, whom authorities recently charged with murdering three Stockton (Calif.) residents last year, is now accused of committing four additional killings in 2021. Two of his victims also lived in Stockton, while the others resided in surrounding Alameda County. Brownlee also faces an attempted murder charge in the wounding of a middle-aged Stockton woman. As a twice-convicted drug felon, Brownlee was barred from buying guns, so he used a “ghost gun” instead.

12/28/22  Crime and violence on Chicago’s public train system, the “L”, has subsided a bit since last year’s record-high numbers, but they remain well above pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, arrests plunged. Ditto the clearance rate. That’s discouraged many Chicagoans. After helping out a victim of violence, one young rider switched to buses. “Even with the security guards and cameras and a decent police response time, there are no arrests made...And it doesn’t seem like there’s anything to deter this kind of crime on the trains if there aren’t arrests when it happens.

12/13/22  Survivors of two recent Chicago-area massacres - at the 4th. of July parade in Highland Park, and on Halloween night in East Garfield Park - testified at an Illinois House hearing in favor of proposed gun control laws. Among its provisions would be prohibitions on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. Persons under 21 would also be barred from obtaining permits to buy guns.

12/12/22  Gunfire broke out during an early morning fight in a Chicago tavern, leaving three dead and a woman in critical condition with a head wound. And so far this year sixteen juveniles have been shot dead in D.C. That’s twice 2021’s toll at this point. Eighty-two youths have also been wounded. D.C.’s police chief blames courts for “being too soft.” But the head juvenile prosecutor attributes the problem to “inadequate investment in social services.” D.C.’s Attorney General agrees. “There are other, evidence-based ways of providing accountability and putting young people on a path toward success.”

11/3/22  As many areas of Chicago continue to be beset by violence, the newly formed Community Commission for Police Safety and Accountability criticizes “slow [police] response times and inadequate staffing at the times crime and violence occur the most.” While Police Commissioner David Brown insists that he deploys according to crime trends, analyses continue to show striking disparities between officer deployment and the times and places where shootings occur. Meanwhile, a Federal consent decree requires that officers have regular shifts and the same supervisors to promote “unity and control.”

11/2/22  Fourteen persons, including three children, were shot in a drive-by Monday night as they attended a vigil in Chicago’s troubled East Garfield Park neighborhood. A camera captured the image of two persons firing shots into the crowd from a “black Audi.” Injuries ranged from minor to critical, and so far no one has died. Police could offer no motive. “I just want to know why. Why would you shoot into a crowd of women and children?” asked the area’s Alderman.

10/24/22  Nine persons (yes, nine) were shot and killed in Chicago “overnight,” between Saturday evening October 23 and Sunday morning, October 24. A flurry of gunfire during an early a.m. “drifting” event left three gang members dead and two wounded. A drive-by took the life of a 16-year old boy and wounded a 13-year old girl. And five Chicagoans, ages 18 to 63, were shot dead in private homes, a parking lot and elsewhere.

10/21/22  Lakeview East, home of Chicago’s Wrigley Field, is in the violence-beset 19th. police district. Five kidnappings and armed robberies happened there last weekend, leading residents to demand an increased police presence. Police say they will deploy specialized teams and pay particular attention during Halloween. Meanwhile an alderman and candidate for mayor plans, if elected, to create a 1,000-police officer reserve comprised of retirees.

10/17/22  Stockton, Calif. police announced the arrest of Wesley Brownlee, 43, a long-time resident, for committing a string of killings that were linked by ballistics. Identified as a suspect with the help of citizen tips, he was arrested as police watched him apparently preparing for another killing. Brownlee, who has an arrest record, was wearing dark clothes, was armed with a pistol and had a mask around his neck. (See 10/5 update)

10/15/22  Decked out in camouflage, a 15-year old high-school sophomore whom neighbors said exhibited “unusual behavior” went on a shooting rampage in his Raleigh, North Carolina neighborhood, killing his 16-year old brother and four unrelated adult residents ages 29-53. He also wounded two other adults, one critically. Austin Thompson was soon cornered by police and is hospitalized in critical condition. He reportedly carried a long gun, possibly a shotgun, and perhaps a handgun.

10/5/22  Is a killer on the loose in Stockton? Ballistics have apparently led police in the economically beset, violence-stricken central California city (pop. 322,000) to conclude that five murders between July and September were committed with the same gun. Each victim was male; four are Latino, and all were unconnected. Also part of the chain are the wounding of a Black Stockton woman this year and the killing of an Oakland man last year. Indistinct surveillance images from several scenes depict a tall man. (See 10/17 update)

9/30/22  Families of mass shooting victims at Texas’ Uvalde Elementary and the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill. have filed lawsuits. Defendants include the gun industry. Daniel Defense, the maker of the assault rifle used in Texas, allegedly “violated federal law by negligently entrusting their deadly weapons to the Uvalde school shooter.” Smith & Wesson, manufacturer of the assault rifle used in Illinois, supposedly linked the weapon to the military so as “to appeal to individuals like Mr. Crimo.” Its seller also ignored that an assault weapons ban was in effect at the youth’s city of residence.

9/29/22  Six adults were wounded - two, critically - by gunfire at an Oakland school complex. Two were reportedly carpenters who got caught up in “crossfire.” Oakland’s severe violence problem - it’s reported 93 homicides so far in 2022, with eight in the past week - led Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong to declare “we are going all-hands-on-deck to address the gun violence in the city of Oakland.” He promised more investigators and increased deployment in areas dominated by gangs. But activists insist that the violence is caused by “poverty and disinvestment,” and that more cops are not the solution.

9/22/22  Oakland’s fourth fatal shooting in less than a day, which happened just outside City Hall, led the City Council to take a quick break. With 91 murders so far this year - in 2021 there were 100 at this point - that’s the reality in the crime-beset community. A violence interrupter bemoans that young people have “normalized” the harm: “they feel like there’s no chance and it’s supposed to be like this.” So they do “whatever [they] can to survive. It’s survival of the fittest.”

8/10/22  In 2017 Chicago PD entered into DOJ Consent Decree to correct a “pattern or practice of unconstitutional use of force.” To that end it established an “Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform (OCPR).” But violence and a shortage of cops have beset the city. That recently led Police Supt. David Brown to request that OCPR send 46 officers back to patrol. But Robert Boik, OCPR’s head, protested it would interfere with his cop-training efforts, including a gender-based violence course. So he was fired.

8/9/22  Authorities don’t think that the circumstances that brought Robert Crimo to police attention three years before the Highland Park massacre would have merited a restraining order. After all, Crimo didn’t then have any guns. His family could have sought one, but they apparently didn’t know about the option. Still, Illinois lags behind other States in the use of restraining orders, and training and outreach efforts are underway to promote their use.

8/3/22  Rebelling against progressively-minded D.A. Kim Foxx, Chicago prosecutors continue to resign. Most recently that includes James Murphy, who headed the prosecution of murder and other serious crimes. He called his boss’s excuse, that the shift away from prosecuting lower-level crimes was a way to concentrate on serious matters, a lie. “This administration is more concerned with political narratives and agendas than with victims and prosecuting violent crime. That is why I can’t stay any longer.”

7/26/22  Chicago isn’t just short on cops. One “longtime prosecutor” told reporters “we’re so short of attorneys, there’s twice as much work with no help.” Over the past year 235 employees have left, compared with 130 during a pre-pandemic year. Shortages and overwork have “cratered” morale and backlogged prosecutions. And another violence-filled summer looms.

3/13/24  After 25 years on the job, Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez resigned. He escaped direct blame for the loss of life at Robb Elementary, as he was in Phoenix when the massacre took place and had left a subordinate in charge. Chief Rodriguez’s resignation came only a few days after the city’s release of a report that has been highly criticized for absolving Uvalde’s officers of blame. But city leaders praised Chief Rodriguez and wished him well.

3/8/24  According to a comprehensive report by the City of Uvalde, police Lt. Javier Martinez and Sgt. Eduardo Canales promptly went after the Robb Elementary school shooter. But Salvador Ramos had ensconced in a classroom and was unleashing barrages through its door. They couldn’t see him, thus couldn’t return fire because it might strike students. Ramos was armed with an AR-15, and there were no shields or body armor on site that could defeat its highly penetrating rounds.

1/19/24  DOJ released a comprehensive assessment of the law enforcement response to the May 24, 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. It praises the initial response, in which five of the first officers on scene “continued to press down the hallway and toward a barrage of gunfire erupting inside of rooms 111/112.” But it severely criticizes the abandonment of an aggressive response and the adoption of a prolonged, hour-long “barricaded subject” approach because two of the five officers suffered "graze wounds from shrapnel".  Full Report

5/25/23  Trial is set to begin on May 31 for a fired Sheriff’s deputy who responded to the 2018 massacre at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida. Scot Peterson, 60, is charged with multiple counts of child neglect and culpable negligence for failing to enter the school and confront Nikolas Cruz as he shot multiple students on the third floor. Peterson, who took cover outside the building, claims that he didn’t go in because he thought the gunfire was originating from elsewhere.

5/23/23  One year after the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas, a State grand jury inquiry into the police response continues. The school police chief was fired, and five officers employed by various agencies were fired or quit. But DPS Chief Steve McCraw, who had ninety officers on scene, refuses to resign. Meanwhile Gov. Greg Abbott continues to turn away requests to tighten gun laws, as he did after the mass shootings in Sutherland Springs in 2017 and the El Paso Walmart in 2018.

5/22/23  Two weeks after the March 27th. Nashville massacre, Tennessee’s governor signed a law that  further limits lawsuits against the firearms industry. According to the bill’s sponsor, its purpose “is just to try to help businesses in this state.” Still, some “high profile” shootings have led to settlements. For example, the $73 million paid by Remington to the families of the Sandy Hook victims. Meanwhile in Texas, families of the Uvalde victims are pressing on with their lawsuit against gun manufacturer Daniel Defense over its allegedly risky marketing practices.

5/9/23  A bill to raise the minimum purchase age for semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21 reportedly has “no chance” to be enacted in Texas. But in the wake of the mass shooting in Allen, it was nonetheless moved along from committee with votes from House “Reds”. Allen’s shooter, though, was in his thirties, so the bill actually relates to Uvalde, whose gunman bought an AR-15 type rifle when he turned eighteen.

3/30/23  When interviewed after the Uvalde massacre, responding officers agreed that they didn’t storm the shooter because he had an AR-15 rifle, whose powerful projectiles made their regular ballistics vests useless. Two of their colleagues had already been grazed by rounds. “There was no way of going in,” said a sergeant. “We had no choice but to wait and try to get something that had better coverage where we could actually stand up to him.” A major legislative report made no mention of the officers’ remarks.

3/29/23  Audrey Hale, the 28-year old Nashville resident who staged a massacre at a Christian elementary school two days ago, was receiving medical care for an “emotional disorder.” Hale legally purchased the three guns used in the shooting, and four others, at local stores. All the guns were kept hidden from Hale’s parents, with whom Hale resided.

3/28/23 Yesterday morning 28-year old Audrey Hale entered Covenant School, a Christian elementary school in Nashville, carrying two assault rifles and a pistol. Hale promptly opened fire, killing three nine-year old students and three employees, each in their early sixties. Officers soon arrived and shot Hale dead. According to police, Hale, once a student at the school, had no criminal record and two of the weapons were legally acquired from local sources. More guns, plans for the massacre and a “manifesto” suggesting Hale’s motives were found in the residence where Hale and Hale’s father resided.

3/17/23  Cullman, Ala. is home to West Elementary School. And it’s now home to bulletproof fold-out 8 X 8 rooms that can protect up to thirty persons from deranged shooters. Designed and installed by a local contractor, they were inspired by a plea from his wife as she watched coverage of the Uvalde massacre. Their ballistic protection is said to protect occupants from “most handguns and rifles,” and their locks are supposedly impermeable. Each costs about $50,000, and there’s hope for funding.

2/20/23  A profusion of inaccurate leads, including false reports of gunfire at multiple locations, and the mystifying complexities of a university campus with 400 buildings greatly complicated the response to the February 13 massacre at Michigan State University. Anthony McRae, the 43-year old man who opened fire in the Student Union and a nearby building, killing three students and wounding five, was later found off campus, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

12/3/22  Families of Uvalde school massacre victims have filed legal actions against school and state and local law enforcement authorities claiming $27 billion in damages for failing to properly follow mass shooting protocols and promptly confront the gunman. Daniel Defense, the manufacturer of the shooter’s gun, and the store where he bought it are being separately sued for $6 billion. While two officers have been fired and others resigned, the State’s public safety director insists that his officers “did not fail” the public.

11/18/22  Uvalde police Lt. Mariano Pargas, Jr. was the city’s acting police chief when the school massacre took place. He was also one of the first responders. Like the school police chief, he’s been severely criticized for the delay in confronting the assailant. And like the school police chief, he has consistently denied having been in charge of the response. Facing a bleak future, Lt. Pargas just resigned his cop job. But he remains a county commissioner, a position to which he was recently re-elected.

10/28/22  Orlando Harris, the 19-year old who stormed his old St. Louis high school with an AR-15 style rifle and killed a student and a teacher, reportedly bought his gun from a private party after a gun dealer turned him away. He was rejected because the FBI purchase check revealed that he had been committed for mental treatment. Indeed, his parents had recently done so. And when they discovered he got a gun they called police, who took it and gave it to a family friend. But he got it back.

10/26/22  Orlando Harris, the former student who returned to his St. Louis high school to stage a massacre, was armed with an AR-15 style rifle and carried extra ammunition magazines in a “chest rig” and a bag. He left behind a note in his car complaining that “I don’t have any friends. I don’t have any family. I’ve never had a girlfriend. I’ve never had a social life. I’ve been an isolated loner my entire life.”

10/25/22  Armed with a “long gun” and high-capacity magazines and dressed “all in black” a 19-year old graduate of a St. Louis high school returned to campus and opened fire, killing a 61-year old teacher and a 16-year old student and wounding four other students. At one point he fired into an occupied classroom but the door was locked and he could not get in. Fourteen minutes after the “active shooter call” came in police encountered Orlando Harris, 19, on the fourth floor and shot him dead.

10/22/22  A Texas State police sergeant who responded to the massacre at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde has been fired, supposedly for doing nothing. His Captain, Joel Betancourt, is also under internal investigation for ordering the ninety-one officers at ther scene who were under his command to keep out and simply establish a perimeter. It’s been reported that he also radioed the impromptu team that ultimately went after the gunman to hold back. But none were State police and they ignored him.

10/8/22  Facing continuing public pressure after its firing of Police Chief Pete Arredondo in August, Uvalde’s school board suspended the operations of its five-member police force and reassigned the officers who remained to other jobs. For the near future security will be provided by State police.

9/30/22  Families of mass shooting victims at Texas’ Uvalde Elementary and the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill. have filed lawsuits. Defendants include the gun industry. Daniel Defense, the maker of the assault rifle used in Texas, allegedly “violated federal law by negligently entrusting their deadly weapons to the Uvalde school shooter.” Smith & Wesson, manufacturer of the assault rifle used in Illinois, supposedly linked the weapon to the military so as “to appeal to individuals like Mr. Crimo.” Its seller also ignored that an assault weapons ban was in effect at the youth’s city of residence.

9/7/22  Setting aside previous policies and training, Texas State Police Director Steven McCraw issued a rule that forbids troopers from delaying confronting a school shooter. “When a subject fires a weapon at a school he remains an active shooter until he is neutralized and is not to be treated as a ‘barricaded subject.’” Five of the ninety troopers who responded to Robb Elementary are being investigated; two were suspended. Meanwhile the school awaits being demolished and its students have been transferred.

8/25/22  Faced with unrelenting criticism by families and students over law enforcement’s failure to promptly go after the gunman who stormed Robb Elementary, the school district fired police chief Pete Arredondo. In a prior statement he insisted he was not in charge, but that was disputed by Texas’ director of public safety, who said that the chief of the five-officer agency was in command. Arredondo wasn’t present, but his lawyer testified that his client’s level-headed approach saved lives.

8/23/22  Many experts dispute the notion that mental illness is a useful predictor of one’s propensity to commit a mass shooting. Many persons suffer from mental problems, but there is no test that can weed out who might become a killer. Some shooters didn’t evidence prior mental distress, while others who did either failed to draw official attention or didn’t meet the requirements of “Red Flag” laws. One approach is to concentrate on persons who are suffering from a “life crisis.” NIJ pamphlet on school shootings

8/17/22  In the House, the Committee on Oversight and Reform continues to “examine the role of gun manufacturers in flooding our communities with weapons of war and fueling America’s gun violence crisis.” Smith & Wesson’s CEO - his firm made the rifle used in the Highland Park massacre - recently refused to appear. But in earlier testimony, Daniel Defense’s CEO - their weapons were used at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and in the 2017 Las Vegas massacre - insisted that “our nation’s response needs to focus not on the type of gun, but on the type of persons who are likely to commit mass shootings.”

7/25/22  Uvalde’s school district, which seemed set on firing police chief Pete Arredondo for allegedly mishandling the response to the massacre at Robb Elementary, abruptly canceled a special session it had set to finalize the matter. A request for a pause by Chief Arredondo’s lawyer and “due process requirements” apparently intervened.

7/20/22  A 2016 national survey reported that “about half of all local police departments employed less than the equivalent of 10 officers.” That includes the Uvalde, Texas school police, whose six officers responded to Robb Elementary. Tiny agencies, though, lack the training and resources available to larger departments, which can field specialized, well-equipped teams. A Texas sheriff’s association officer recently recommended that contracting school protection with the local sheriff’s office would be best.

7/18/22  A report on the law enforcement response to the Uvalde school massacre faults agencies for failing to coordinate their response and provide leadership. There were 149 Border Patrol officers, 91 State police officers, 25 city police officers, sixteen sheriffs deputies, and five school police officers. School police chief Arredondo caught plenty of blame, but external agencies, which had far more officers and equipment on hand, were severely criticized for not recognizing the chaos and taking charge. Report

7/13/22  A major Texas newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman, just released an hour-plus composite video that depicts the gunman’s arrival at Robb Elementary School, his initial walk down the hallway leading to the two classrooms he attacked, and police activity as officers responded and gathered in the hallway. According to the article, the video “tells in real time the brutal story of how heavily armed officers failed to immediately launch a cohesive and aggressive response to stop the shooter and save more children if possible.” Click here for the full video on YouTube.

7/9/22  Sharply disagreeing with the findings of a Texas State University report, Uvalde mayor Don McLaughlin said that police didn’t have an opportunity to shoot the gunman before he entered Robb Elementary School. According to the Mayor, “it was a coach with children on the playground, not the shooter.” A report by State legislators is being drafted and should soon be on its way.

7/7/22  According to an after-action report on the police response to the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde (TX), an early-arriving officer had his sights on the gunman from 148 yards away.  Concerned about imperiling a student, he asked a supervisor for permission to fire. But by the time he got it, the gunman was inside. Reviewers wrote that the cop didn’t need permission. They also questioned many other police decisions they found “out of protocol” for active shooter situations.

A man with a “military-style rifle” and a handgun opened fire on three Haltom City (TX) police officers as they walked towards his home while answering a shots-fired call. Each officer suffered non-life threatening wounds. Their assailant, Edward Freyman, 28, a military veteran, fled but soon committed suicide. Inside the home police found a 32-year old woman’s body. A second slain person, a 33-year old man, was found outside. Freyman’s Facebook page shows him in uniform, aiming a sniper rifle.

At a political gathering in Highland Park (IL) two days after the July 4th. massacre, Vice President Kamala Harris urged that Congress “have the courage to act and renew the [Federal] assault weapons ban.” She also called for repeal of the Federal 2005 “liability shield” which prohibits lawsuits against the firearms industry for gun misuse. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker recently called for a statewide assault weapons ban, which Illinois does not have. (Highland Park passed one in 2013.)

6/29/22  Shootings at public and private elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. have been tracked by the Department of Education since 2000. During the 2020-2021 school year there were fifty that caused injuries and 43 that caused deaths. That’s the most in each category since recordkeeping began in 2000-2001. Then the corresponding numbers were seven and sixteen. DOE report 

6/28/22  The tiny hamlet of Utopia, Texas, pop. 270, sits in a remote region about 45 miles north of Uvalde. With deputies about a half-hour away, residents must fend for themselves. After the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, the school board authorized teachers at the local elementary school to obtain permits and carry guns. And some - they remain anonymous but are known to deputies and administrators - still do. “If there was a shooter on campus, our job is to neutralize the threats, or at least hold them in the area until law enforcement can get here and do their jobs.” 

6/25/22  Passed in the wake of recent massacres, the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” was signed into law. It enhances background checks to include juvenile records, helps fund State “Red Flag Laws” and mental health programs, includes “boyfriends” in the definition of domestic partners who may be barred from having guns, and specifically prohibits “straw” purchases (i.e. buying guns on behalf of unqualified persons). It does not create waiting periods or ban assault weapons.

6/23/22  Bemoaning “the lack of clarity” of what took place at Robb Elementary School, Uvalde’s school superintendent placed school police chief Pete Arredondo on administrative leave (click here for his memo). Chief Arredondo was denied a leave of absence by the Uvalde City Council, to which he was recently elected, and could be removed from office if he misses three meetings.

6/22/22  According to Texas DPS chief Col. Steve McCraw, neither the exterior nor classroom doors at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary school can be locked from the inside. All are locked externally, but none were. All police had to do, he said, was try them. Col. McCraw said that officers soon got shields - the first arrived within twenty minutes - and that several had AR-15 rifles. Calling the police response an “abject failure”, he blasted the school police chief for delaying entry but said that state troopers on scene didn’t have the authority to take over. Click here for a video clip of Col. McCraw’s remarks.

6/18/22  Two Uvalde city police officers, one armed with an AR-15 rifle, arrived at the elementary school as the gunman was still outside, shooting at buildings. They had a brief opportunity to fire at Salvador Ramos but held off. According to an official who spoke with the officers, they didn’t shoot “because in the background there was kids playing and they were scared of hitting the kids.” He said he understood, as had their bullets struck an innocent person the blowback would have been severe.

6/11/22  Outward-opening, steel doors with steel frames made the Uvalde school’s classrooms exceptionally difficult to forcibly breach. Resistant to ramming, they would have to be pried open, a difficult and, given an active shooter, dangerous task. That’s why the scramble for keys. And it was a key that finally let officers in. School police, a consultant said, should have master keys. But they didn’t. (See 6/22 update)

6/10/22  In a detailed interview with The Texas Tribune, Uvalde School police chief Pete Arredondo says that, as a relatively late arrival, he assumed someone else was in charge of the scene. “I didn’t issue any orders. I called for assistance and asked for an extraction tool to open the [classroom] door.” It was reportedly reinforced by a “steel jamb” to repel intruders. With the suspect’s occasional shots “penetrating the wall,” he was also concerned about the danger to others if the gunfire escalated.

On a party-line vote, House members passed a Federal “Red Flag” law that would apply nationwide. It authorizes Federal courts to order the immediate seizure of guns from persons thought by family members or police to pose an extreme risk. Hearings would come later. Criticized by the “Reds” as overreach, this response to the Uvalde school massacre is thought to have no chance for enactment.

6/9/22  Uvalde residents are troubled with two main questions. Why did police delay moving in? And why wasn’t Ramos’ threatening behavior - particularly, his posts on social media - reported to officials? This wasn’t the first time that the town’s schools had come under the gun. In 2018 two Uvalde teens, ages 13 and 14, devised an elaborate plot to commit mass murder at a junior high school on the anniversary of the Columbine massacre. But their intentions became known and the teens were arrested.

According to a 2018 Secret Service report, early intervention is key to preventing school violence. But its 2019 study of 41 episodes found that although most plotters had leaked their intentions verbally, in writing or otherwise, their warnings weren’t heeded. Peers, says a 2021 Secret Service report, are best positioned to know, but may not take the messages seriously, or may be afraid or reluctant to snitch. It’s up to parents, says the Washington Post, to get their kids to drop the “code of silence” and open up.

6/4/22  A middle-aged Texas inmate serving two life sentences for Cartel-associated murders stabbed the driver of a prison transport bus and escaped into the countryside. Gonzalo Lopez came across a cottage occupied by a man and his four grandsons, ages 11-18. He killed them all and stole a truck and several firearms, including an AR-15. Lopez was soon spotted by police, and fired at them with the rifle through the vehicle’s windows. Lopez eventually crashed the truck and was shot dead.

6/3/22  In a major address, President Joe Biden argued for the restoration of the lapsed Federal assault weapons ban. He also pressed the House to pass a bill that would raise the minimum age to buy “assault-style” weapons to twenty-one. An approved House measure, which is thought to have a poor chance in the Senate, requires that buyers of semi-automatic weapons be twenty-one. But the Senate seems more disposed to help States bolster school security and mental health and implement “Red Flag” laws.

6/2/22  Two doctors, an assistant and a patient were shot and killed at a Tulsa medical complex by a gunman armed with an AR-15 style rifle and a .40 caliber pistol. Michael Louis, 45, a resident of Muskogee, was apparently enraged that recent back surgery had left him in pain. He had bought both weapons legally; the rifle, on the same day as his rampage. Louis committed suicide.

3/26/24  Violence besets New York City. Officer Jonathan Diller was shot and killed by the passenger of a car stopped by NYPD’s Critical Response Team. Return gunfire wounded the shooter. He had four prior arrests, including a recent gun charge. The car’s driver has eleven prior arrests. NYPD’s chief of detectives called it “a recidivist problem. Same bad people doing bad things to good people.” And in the city’s fraught subways, a 24-year old man was arrested for murder after pushing a rider into the path of an oncoming train. Hours earlier, a dispute between passengers about smoking had led to a stabbing.

3/7/24  New York City subways have suffered a 45 percent year-to-year increase in major crimes. That’s led Governor Kathy Hochul to send 1,000 State police officers and National Guard troops to “conduct bag checks” and otherwise help NYPD tamp things down on the beset system. Her move is welcomed by transit workers. But it’s drawing rebukes from civil liberties groups, who prefer she focus on “longstanding problems of homelessness, poverty or access to mental health care.”

10/6/23  New York City subway shooter Frank James, who opened fire with a 9mm. pistol in April 2022, wounding ten passengers, drew ten terms of life imprisonment on his guilty plea to ten counts of terrorism. A chronic YouTuber, aka “prophet of truth 88,” James gave himself up one day after his horrendous crime. He had a long arrest record, but as none of his convictions was for a felony, he remained eligible to buy guns. And so he did.

7/7/23  Washington State man Taylor Taranto, 39, has been in D.C., living in his van and consorting with fellow January 6th. Capitol rioters. But they find him worrisome and “incoherent”. Last week he posted a video threatening to blow up his van at a Federal site. That caused the Feds to get misdemeanor warrants for his arrest in the Capitol affair. Taranto was grabbed after live-streaming from the vicinity of former President Obama’s house. Agents found two 9mm pistols, 400 rounds of ammunition and a machete in his vehicle. But a Federal judge warned that without more his prompt release is likely.

7/5/23  Attired in a ballistic vest and carrying an AR-15 rifle, a handgun, extra ammunition magazines and a police scanner, a 40-year old man randomly opened fire as he walked the streets of Philadelphia’s poverty-stricken Kingsessing neighborhood, where he lived. He killed five persons, ages 15 to 59, and wounded two children. Kimbrady Carriker shot at police but soon surrendered. His only reported criminal record are gun and drug misdemeanor charges in 2003, for which he got probation. Carriker is said to have made “disturbing” social media posts prior to the shooting. A video shows him firing.

6/16/23  Jurors begin deliberating today, and there’s no doubt they will find Robert Bowers guilty. After all, his own lawyers concede that Bowers gunned down eleven worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018. Still, he’s been charged with sixty-three counts, and it’s possible that a few which require a “conscious intent” to obstruct worship may not hold if jurors believe, as his attorneys insist, that Bowers was acting irrationally. What’s really up in the air is whether, during the second, penalty phase of deliberations, the jury will impose the death sentence.

3/2/23  In mid-February LAPD arrested Jaime Tran, 28 for the unprovoked shootings of two men wearing religious Jewish attire. Tran used a handgun and a rifle he said he purchased in Arizona. At the time he was facing felony charges after being caught with a loaded gun on an L.A.-area college campus. It turns out that Tran was also on the FBI’s “Guardian” threat-tracking system for sending text and voice-mail threats to former Jewish classmates in dental school. But Tran, who has reportedly been treated for mental problems, was never confronted about his violent inclinations nor investigated for terrorism.

2/9/23  In exchange for “90 consecutive life sentences”, Patrick Crusius, who gunned down 23 persons and wounded 22 others at an El Paso Walmart in August 2019, pled guilty to hate crimes charges and using a firearm in a Federal crime of violence. Crusius, a 23-year old White nationalist, had targeted Hispanic immigrants, and nearly all who died had Hispanic surnames. Crusius, who “spent countless hours on the Internet” following White supremacy, used an assault rifle.

1/4/23  Frank R. James, the 62-year-old “prophet of truth 88” who opened fire on a New York subway car last April, wounding ten, faces ten years to life after pleading guilty to Federal terrorism charges. A social media addict who posted long-winded, misogynistic monologues, James had an extensive criminal record but no felony convictions. Click here for a couple of his video posts.

9/21/22  With riders shying away from using mass transit because of increased crime and misbehavior - subway ridership is down a staggering forty percent from pre-COVID days - Governor Kathy Hochul has promised to install two video surveillance cameras in every subway car in New York City. But not everyone is convinced that will be enough to regain public confidence in a system beset by “random attacks, muggings and the focus of concerns about rising numbers of homeless people.”

6/9/22  Uvalde residents are troubled with two main questions. Why did police delay moving in? And why wasn’t Ramos’ threatening behavior - particularly, his posts on social media - reported to officials? This wasn’t the first time that the town’s schools had come under the gun. In 2018 two Uvalde teens, ages 13 and 14, devised an elaborate plot to commit mass murder at a junior high school on the anniversary of the Columbine massacre. But their intentions became known and the teens were arrested.

According to a 2018 Secret Service report, early intervention is key to preventing school violence. But its 2019 study of 41 episodes found that although most plotters had leaked their intentions verbally, in writing or otherwise, their warnings weren’t heeded. Peers, says a 2021 Secret Service report, are best positioned to know, but may not take the messages seriously, or may be afraid or reluctant to snitch. It’s up to parents, says the Washington Post, to get their kids to drop the “code of silence” and open up.

6/6/22  Gun-oriented Internet forums redolent with extremist, anti-Government chatter and online sites that sell firearms kits and components offer moral and technical support for those with potentially lethal inclinations. Tactical training videos cover everything from staging an assault to the use of protective gear. While some of the more prominent platforms try to vet content, given the vast online space such efforts have little impact.

5/27/22  In two recent mass killings - one at a Buffalo market, the other in a Texas elementary school - the shooters used “Gen Z” apps, including Snapchat, Instagram, Discord, Yubo and Twitch to communicate and share their intentions. These platforms are designed from the ground up for privacy, and messages and images exchanged within their boundaries can prove impossible for outsiders to monitor.

5/19/22  In response to the Buffalo massacre, New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued an executive order directing that State Police seek an extreme risk protection order barring persons from gun possession “when there is probable cause to believe the respondent is likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious harm to himself, herself, or others.” She also directed that State Police form a counterterrorism team that would, among other things, analyze social media posts for potential threats.

5/18/22  Buffalo Shooter Payton Gendron was friendless and lonely in high school. Other students thought him “socially awkward and nerdy” and avoided him. He didn’t talk much, and when he did “it was about isolation, rejection and desperation.” Gendron learned his racist views online. He became consumed with computer games and was fascinated by guns. He struggled to keep his parents unaware that he had dropped out of college, had bought guns and was readying an attack. And a half-hour before it began, he invited other Discord users into his chat room to view his plans, and to watch.

5/17/22   Buffalo shooter Payton Gendron began posting his plans and intentions in November 2021 on Discord, an online chat application. His screen name was Jimboboiii. One message explained that he avoided losing his gun rights after being taken in for the mental health check by insisting that his “murder-suicide” comment was a joke. But it wasn’t - “I wrote that down because that’s what I was planning to do.” Gendron also wrote that he made an advance visit to Tops to check it out and had a “close call” with the guard, who became suspicious about his multiple entrances and exits to the store.

4/23/22  On Friday afternoon, 4/22, Raymond Spencer, 23, set up a gun tripod on the fifth-floor balcony of an apartment building in a residential area of Washington, D.C. He opened fire on a nearby school, wounding four, including a child. Spencer, who identified himself as a fan of the AR-15 rifle on his Wikipedia bio, apparently posted a video of the assault online. Immediately after, he apologized for his actions, then taunted police on 4chan, a popular social media network. Spencer committed suicide.

His Facebook post complained of “many years of mental illness.” It also announced that “I have made the absolutely horrid choice in not only taking my life, but the lives of my aunt...my uncle...and my two sweet, beyond angelic cousins.” Shortly after posting these comments, Brandon Cole-Skogstad, 29, committed suicide with the same 9mm. pistol he had just used to kill Riana and Sean Barry and their two daughters, ages 9 and 12, in their Duluth, Minnesota home. Police in nearby Hermantown, where Cole-Skogstad lived, had been alerted that he was in a mental health crisis but couldn’t find him at home.