"News of the Week"   Daily Local & Regional NewsWatch July 2019 - Week 5

Terri Lanahan ~~~~~~~~~~ Many thanks to NAASCA's Terri Lanahan, Butte, Montana, for her research into the news that appears on the LACP & NAASCA web sites.

National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live. National Night Out enhances the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while bringing back a true sense of community. Furthermore, it provides a great opportunity to bring police and neighbors together under positive circumstances. Millions of neighbors take part in National Night Out across thousands of communities from all fifty states, U.S. territories and military bases worldwide on the first Tuesday in August (Texas celebrates on the first Tuesday in October). Neighborhoods host block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts and various other community events with safety demonstrations, seminars, youth events, visits from emergency personnel, exhibits and much, much more.

NATIONAL NIGHT OUT

National Night Out is observed annually on the first Tuesday in August. This night focuses on the community and raising awareness in the United States.  Promoting police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer.

Shining a spotlight on community police programs, National Night Out increases connections between those who serve and their neighborhoods through the programs they provide.  Some of these programs include:

• Drug prevention
  
  
• Town watch
  
  
• Neighborhood watch
  
  
• Other anti-watch

Some of the largest National Night Out events include live music, food, and entertainment.

HOW TO OBSERVE

Block watches, not-for-profits, business, and police departments organize events around the country. They may be as small as a backyard barbecue or as large as a full-blown festival. Events around the country are normally organized by block watches, not-for-profit organizations, companies, and police departments.  Join a local National Night Out event near you. Post on social media using #NationalNightOutDay.

HISTORY

The National Association of Town Watch sponsors National Night Out in the United States and Canada. Although the origin dates back to the early 1970s the day has been celebrated since 1984. 

More recently 'Dog Walker Watch' has been incorporated into being a part of the program. Dog owners, 75 million of them, are out day and night with their dogs walking neighborhoods. These neighbors can assist local law enforcement as extra eyes and ears while out walking their dog. As extra pairs of eyes all over communities, these neighbors can assist local law enforcement to be more aware of the goings-on in communities.

https://natw.org/

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Texas

(video on site)

'Multiple fatalities' in mass shooting at El Paso Walmart, male suspect in custody, officials say

A gunman opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, Saturday morning, causing "multiple fatalities," city police and officials said.

Sgt. Robert Gomez, a police spokesman, told reporters in the afternoon that the suspect was a white male in his mid-20s who used a rifle. Police said the suspect was taken into custody without incident and no law enforcement fired their weapons.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Fox News that there were between 15 and 20 "casualties" of the shooting, but did not give a number of fatalities. Ryan Mielke, a spokesman for University Medical Center of El Paso, told Fox News that 13 patients -- 1 of whom died at the hospital -- were being treated at the facility's Level 1 trauma center. Mielke told the Associated Press that two children, ages 2 and 9, were stabilized at the medical center before being transferred to the neighboring El Paso Children's Hospital.

Del Sol Medical Center told Fox News it has received 11 patients, 9 of whom were critical but stable condition and 2 who were in stable condition. The patients' ages ranged from 35 to 82, the hospital said. El Paso police tweeted that blood donations were "needed urgently" to aid the injured.

"Terrible shootings in ElPaso, Texas," President Trump tweeted. "Reports are very bad, many killed. Working with State and Local authorities, and Law Enforcement."

Terrible shootings in ElPaso, Texas. Reports are very bad, many killed. Working with State and Local authorities, and Law Enforcement. Spoke to Governor to pledge total support of Federal Government. God be with you all!

"Spoke to Governor to pledge total support of Federal Government. God be with you all!" Trump added. White House Deputy Press Secretary Steven Groves said earlier that Trump had been briefed on the shooting "and we continue to monitor the situation." Groves added that Trump had spoken to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as well as Attorney General Willian Barr.

Police responded to reports of an active shooting in the area of the Cielo Vista Mall shortly before 11 a.m. and asked people to stay away from the area and to look for missing family members at a school being used as a reunification area. El Paso Police Sgt. Enrique Carrillo told reporters shortly before 1 p.m. that one person was in custody and there was no longer an "imminent threat" to the area.

Vanessa Saenz, a witness, told Fox News that she heard several "pops" near the area and saw a man in a black shirt and cargo pants with a weapon shooting outside the building before entering the Walmart.

"He was just pointing at people and just shooting," she added. Another witness told Fox News that his mother died at the scene.

A witness told CBS News that he was about to enter the Walmart when he heard at least 10 gunshots and saw an elderly lady fall to the ground. He said he was not sure if she was shot.

A family of three was among a dozen people waiting outside a bus station. They were trying to return to their car that was in a blocked-off Walmart parking lot.

"I heard the shots but I thought they were hits, like roof construction," Adriana Quezada, 39, who was in the women's clothing section of Walmart with her two children, told The Associated Press.

Videos showed some injured people being brought to a nearby Sam's Club.

Abbott said the shooting was "a heinous and senseless act of violence."

"Our hearts go out to the victims of this horrific shooting and to the entire community in this time of loss," he said.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office was "ready to give full support to all federal, state, and local law enforcement who are on the scene now and to those who will be conducting the ongoing investigation."

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourk, who used to represent El Paso in the House of Representatives, tweeted that the shooting was truly heartbreaking."

O'Rourke appeared shaken as he appeared at a candidate forum in Las Vegas on Saturday shortly after news of the shooting was reported. He said he had called his wife before taking the stage and said the shooting shatters "any illusion that we have that progress is inevitable" on tackling gun violence.

"We have to find some reason for optimism and hope or else we consign ourselves to a future where nearly 40,000 people are year will lose their lives to gun violence and I cannot accept that," O'Rourke said.

O'Rourke's campaign later said the candidate had canceled planned campaign events in Nevada and California. O'Rourke told reporters he was going back to El Paso to "be with my family and to be with my hometown."

The Democrat said he'd heard early reports that the shooter might have had a military-style weapon, saying we need to "keep that s--t on the battlefield and do not bring it into our communities."

Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar tweeted that she is “utterly heartbroken” by the news of the shooting in El Paso and said she is monitoring the situation.

“Please stay safe,” she added.

Utterly heartbroken by the developing news in El Paso. Monitoring the situation and in communication with our law enforcement. Please stay safe.

“Stay safe, El Paso. Please follow all directions of emergency personnel as we continue to get more updates,” he tweeted.

My grandmother used to take me to Cielo Vista Mall. Now it's one more mass shooting scene. How many more must grieve before we act?

South Bend, Ind., Mayor and 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg also weighed, tweeting: "My grandmother used to take me to Cielo Vista Mall. Now it's one more mass shooting scene. How many more must grieve before we act? #ElPaso".

Saturday's shooting comes just days after a gunman opened fire at a Walmart in Northern Mississippi, leaving two dead and a police officer injured. In response to the latest shooting, Walmart tweeted: "We're in shock over the tragic events at Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso ... We're praying for the victims, the community & our associates, as well as the first responders. We're working closely with law enforcement & will update as appropriate.

And last week, a gunman killed three people – including a 6-year-old boy – before turning the gun on himself at a Northern California food festival.

El Paso, which has about 680,000 residents, is in West Texas sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/el-paso-walmart-shooting-multiple-fatalities-suspect-in-custody

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Dayton, Ohio

9 killed in Ohio in second U.S. mass shooting within 24 hours

by Kevin Williams and Hannah Knowles

DAYTON — Nine people were killed and 27 were injured Sunday morning in a shooting in Dayton, Ohio, authorities said, the latest such incident in a grim week of mass shootings across the nation.

Officials say they have identified the suspected shooter, who is also dead, but are not releasing information yet.

The attack came less than a day after a man with an assault-style weapon killed 20 people in El Paso and a week after a gunman fired on a garlic festival in Gilroy, Calif., killing three people, including a 6-year-old boy, and wounding 12. With the country still grieving, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley noted that the tragedy in her city was just the latest.

“As a mayor, this is a day that we all dread happening,” she said in a Sunday morning news conference. “And certainly what's very sad as I've gotten messages from cities across the country is that so many of us have gone through it.”

The shooting shattered a typical summer weekend night's revelry in Dayton's Oregon District, outside the 400 block of East Fifth Street and amid a busy nightlife scene of bars and restaurants, according to authorities. Police said officers ended the violence “quickly” by shooting the gunman, who began firing at 1:07 a.m. with what Whalen called an “AK-like gun.”

The gunman used a .223-caliber high-capacity magazine and was wearing body armor, according to Whalen. The suspect had additional magazines. Officers neutralized him in under a minute, she said, and that quick response saved lives.

“While this is a terribly sad day for our city, I am amazed by the quick response of Dayton police that saved literally hundreds of lives,” she said, adding that the 26 injured are at area hospitals and that Gov. Mike DeWine — who she has been in contact with — conveyed his condolences.

Whalen said that as of 10 a.m., 27 hurt in the shooting and its aftermath have been treated and 15 have been discharged.

Miami Valley Hospital received 16 victims, 12 of which have been released, hospital staff said at a press conference. One of the remaining patients is in critical condition, and some have undergone or are undergoing surgery Sunday.

Kettering Health Network was treating multiple victims as well, spokeswoman Elizabeth Long said. The network's Grandview Medical Center received the most patients, she said, with nine people treated; seven were brought to the center by authorities, while two others walked in. Three of those nine are in serious conditions, while three more are in fair condition and others are discharged, according to Long.

Injuries ranged from gunshot wounds to the abdomen and extremities to a foot laceration sustained in the chaos after the shooting, Long said. Other Kettering Health Network facilities are treating more patients.

Authorities said they believe there was only one shooter and have yet to provide details about the suspect, though they are interviewing dozens of people. The FBI is aiding the investigation. Police have not yet provided the names of victims.

Whaley would not speculate on the gunman's motive.

“I can't get inside his head,” she said.

Police Lt. Col. Matt Carper said it is too early in the investigation to determine whether the gunman was targeting anyone or any place specifically.

A vigil for victims and their loved ones will be held at 8 p.m. Sunday. City officials have yet to announce a location.

Just hours after the shooting, the scene of the shooting had been cordoned off with police tape and the area was largely deserted. But as daybreak settled over the city, more and more people filed into Dayton's convention center seeking information about missing loved ones at a station set up by the city.

Joe Oglesby said he was “numb” when he found out that his niece, Lois Oglesby, was among those killed. Oglesby said his 29-year-old niece had just had a baby last month and had an older child.

“She was a nurse's aide and a very devoted mother,” Oglesby said.

Jazze Pigue, 26, of Dayton arrived at the convention center to find her cousin. Initial reports put the shooting around Ned Peppers nightclub, which Pigue said her cousin liked to visit. The recent rash of U.S. shootings and Dayton's addition to the long list of places attacked is “disheartening,” she said.

The shooting is one in a string of high-profile challenges the city has faced this year. A Ku Klux Klan rally drew hundreds of protesters to the city in May, followed by a round of tornadoes that chewed through the northern party of the city.

“Dayton has been through a lot lately, but I continue to be amazed at the grit and resiliency of the community,” Whaley said.

The governor ordered flags to fly at half-staff as people from around the world expressed sadness over the latest mass shooting in the United States. Pope Francis offered his condolences for the victims of U.S. shootings that hurt “defenseless people.” New British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted out his sympathy, too.

President Trump has been briefed on the Dayton shooting and is monitoring the situation, deputy White House press secretary Steven Groves told the Associated Press.

Trump's first tweet on the shooting Sunday morning focused on law enforcement's response, praising the speed, and said that “information is rapidly being accumulated in Dayton.”

"Much has already [been] learned in El Paso,” he wrote.

“God bless the people of El Paso Texas,” he added in another tweet. “God bless the people of Dayton, Ohio.”

The Oregon District, sandwiched between the city's downtown and the nearby University of Dayton, wrote in a Facebook post, “We are heartbroken for the victims and their families.” The district will reopen Sunday afternoon, Whalen said, maintaining that the district is “one of the safest places in the whole region" while saying that recent attacks show any place in the country could be hit by gun violence.

Ohio leaders also shared their grief. Some went beyond condolences to call for stricter gun control, echoing Democratic leaders who renewed their condemnations of inaction on guns after the El Paso shooting.

“We are also angry — angry that shooting after shooting politicians in Washington and Columbus refuse to pass sensible gun-safety laws to protect our communities,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) tweeted.

Sen. Rob Portman (R- Ohio) did not mention gun control but said in a statement that these “senseless acts of violence must stop.”

Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio) wrote on Twitter that his daughter and a friend were across the street from the site of the shooting when it began. They watched as officers ran toward gunfire, he said.

“Thank you to @DaytonPolice for their bravery in stopping this evil,” Turner said.

The terrible numbers that grow with each mass shooting

Nine people killed in a popular nightlife area in Dayton, Ohio

The places change, the numbers change, but the choice of weapon remains the same. In the United States, people who want to kill a lot of other people most often do it with guns.

Public mass shootings account for a tiny fraction of the country's gun deaths, but they are uniquely terrifying because they occur without warning in the most mundane places. Most of the victims are chosen not for what they have done but simply for where they happen to be.

There is no universally accepted definition of a public mass shooting, and this piece defines it narrowly. It looks at the 165 shootings in which four or more people were killed by a lone shooter (two shooters in a few cases). It does not include shootings tied to gang disputes or robberies that went awry, and it does not include domestic shootings that took place exclusively in private homes. A broader definition would yield much higher numbers.

This tally begins Aug. 1, 1966, when a student sniper fired down on passersby from the observation deck of a clock tower at the University of Texas. By the time police killed him, 17 other people were dead or dying. As Texas Monthly's Pamela Colloff wrote, the shooting “ushered in the notion that any group of people, anywhere — even walking around a university campus on a summer day — could be killed at random by a stranger.”

1,194 killed

The people who were killed came from nearly every imaginable race, religion and socioeconomic background. Their ages range from the unborn to the elderly; 189 were children and teenagers . In addition, thousands of survivors were left with devastating injuries, shattered families and psychological scars.

The oldest victim

Louise De Kler, 98, still took her pool cue and boombox to the rec room at Pinelake Health and Rehab to play pool with the “young guys,” her daughter told the Associated Press. She was shot to death in 2009 by a man who had come to her Carthage, N.C., nursing home looking for his estranged wife.

The youngest victims

Eight-month-old Carlos Reyes was buried in a casket with his mother, Jackie, who had tried to shield him as an unemployed father of two opened fire at a busy McDonald's in San Ysidro, Calif., in 1984. Three unborn children are included in the official death tolls from shootings in Austin, Wilkinsburg, Pa., and Sutherland Springs, Texas.

315 guns

Shooters often carried more than one weapon; one was found with 24. At least 175 of mass shooters' weapons were obtained legally and 59 were obtained illegally . It's unclear how 81 weapons were acquired.

Semiautomatic rifles

Semiautomatic rifles have been used in some of the country's deadliest shootings, such as those in Newtown, Orlando, San Bernardino and Las Vegas. The AR-15, a lightweight, customizable version of the military's M16, soared in popularity after a 10-year federal ban on assault weapons expired in 2004. Some of the Las Vegas shooter's guns had been fitted with legal devices called “bump-fire stocks,” which allow semiautomatic rifles to fire as quickly as automatic ones.

Semiautomatic pistols

The country's most popular type of firearm, 9mm semiautomatic handguns, are used by many law enforcement officers. They are generally light and inexpensive, easy to conceal and control, and they fire as quickly as a person can pull the trigger. The gunman who killed 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech in 2007 used a 9mm semiautomatic Glock 19 (and a .22-caliber Walther P22, another popular caliber). In this data, 9mm semiautomatic handguns show up more than any other weapon.

169 shooters

Some of these mass shooters were known to have violent tendencies or criminal pasts. Others seemed largely fine until they attacked. All but 3 were male. The vast majority were between the ages of 20 and 49. More than half — 95 of them — died at or near the scene of the shooting, often by killing themselves.

Women

The most recent female shooter was a Pakistani mother who helped kill 14 partygoers at her husband's workplace in San Bernardino, Calif., in 2015. The others are an ex-postal worker who killed a former neighbor and six employees at a Goleta, Calif., mail-processing facility in 2006; and a former tribal council chairwoman who killed her brother and three others during an eviction hearing in Alturas, Calif., in 2014.

Middle-schoolers

Andrew Golden, 11, and Mitchell Johnson, 13, pulled a fire alarm to flush students and teachers out of their Jonesboro, Ark., middle school in 1998, and began shooting from a wooded perch nearby. They killed four girls and a teacher and wounded 10 others.

165 shootings

In the 50 years before the Texas tower shooting, there were just 25 public mass shootings in which four or more people were killed, according to author and criminologist Grant Duwe. Since then, the number has risen dramatically, and many of the deadliest shootings have occurred within the past few years.

42 states and the District

Shootings in schools and houses of worship tend to stand out in our minds, but they make up a relatively small portion of public mass shootings. More common are those in offices and retail establishments such as restaurants and stores. California has had more of these public mass shootings than any other state, with 25.

Some locations have simply become shorthand for the horrors that occurred there — Columbine, Aurora, Sandy Hook. And some have added other tragic phrases to the national vocabulary:

“Going postal”

One of the most notorious workplace shootings was carried out by an ex-Marine in an Edmond, Okla., post office in 1986. He killed 14 and wounded six before killing himself. It was the deadliest in a string of rage-fueled killings by current and former postal employees that gave rise to the phrase “going postal.”

“Active shooter”

The 1999 siege by two seniors at Columbine High School in Colorado became a turning point after which school shootings could no longer be considered unthinkable aberrations. After a confused response that played out over several hours while a wounded teacher bled to death, U.S. law enforcement agencies overhauled procedures and officer training to create protocols for stopping an “active shooter.”

“Lockdown drill”

After Columbine, many schools created safety plans so that children and educators would know what to do during an attack. After Sandy Hook, “lockdown drills” became as common as fire drills. No children were killed at the Rancho Tehama Elementary School shooting in California in 2017, when fast-acting educators and students executed lockdown procedures that kept the gunman out of the school.

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About this story

This data is compiled from Mother Jones; Grant Duwe, author of “Mass Murder in the United States: A History,” and Washington Post research.

Death tolls include victims killed by shooters within a day of the main shooting, including any who were killed in another way. Totals also include people who later died from injuries received during the shootings. Injuries include everyone reportedly hurt in the event, not just gunshot injuries. A gun purchase that should have been rejected but was allowed because of a bureaucratic or reporting glitch is considered illegal. Reports disagree on some ages in this dataset.

Additional sources: Violence Policy Center, Gun Violence Archive; FBI 2014 Study of Active Shooter Incidents; published reports.

This is an updated version of a piece originally published in December 2015.

Originally published Feb. 14, 2018.

A Guide to Understanding Mass Shootings in America

A gun rampage in El Paso, Texas was followed hours later by another in Dayton, Ohio. Here's the essential context for the latest examples of a deadly phenomenon.

by TEAM TRACE

A nation still processing the news of the latest mass shooting woke up Sunday to reports that another American community had been scarred by a gunman spraying bullets into a crowd.

The first incident occurred Saturday morning, August 3, in El Paso, Texas, where at least 20 people were fatally shot at a Walmart in a busy shopping center. Another 26 people were injured and a suspect is in custody. He has been unofficially identified as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Dallas, Texas.

Thirteen hours later, nine people were shot and killed and 16 others were wounded in downtown Dayton, Ohio, according to preliminary reports from the local police. The shooting began at 1 a.m. in a downtown entertainment district. Officers on the scene “put an end to it quickly” by killing the suspect, who was reportedly wearing body armor, police said.

The rampages come one weekend after 15 people were shot, three of them fatally, at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California, and another 12 people were shot, one of them fatally, at a block party in Brooklyn, New York.

Here's the big picture on mass shootings in America, and how they fit into our country's epidemic of gun violence.

There is no official definition of “mass shooting,” though it is often understood as an incident in a public place that claims four or more lives, and attracts widespread media coverage. In the last five decades, these events have become far more common.

Other groups use a much broader definition for what counts as a mass shooting, sweeping in incidents that happen in homes, and where there are four or more casualties — not just deaths.  According to Gun Violence Archive, the there have now been 150 mass shootings in 2019.

The random nature of indiscriminate gunfire unleashed without warning is all the more frightening because it can happen anywhere. In recent years, gunmen have killed worshipers at a church, moviegoers at a theater, people at a gay nightclub, and young children at an elementary school. In July 2016, a 25-year-old Army reservist who was reportedly angry over police shootings of unarmed black men killed five officers and wounded 11 others during a rampage in Dallas.

Mass shootings are both tragedy and spectacle. As a result, they attract a huge amount of attention, which tends to distort views about the prevalence of incidents, the most common victims, and how the weapons that are used are obtained.

Most of the deadliest mass shootings in modern American history have occurred within the past 10 years. 

Roughly two out of three Americans who die from a gunshot wound are victims of homicide, according to the latest federal data. Everyday gun homicides comprise the second largest share of firearm fatalities and disproportionately kill young black men. 

Omar Mateen, the gunman who killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, purchased the rifle and handgun he used in the assault from a federally licensed firearms dealer. Syed Farook purchased two of the handguns used in the San Bernardino massacre from a California gun shop.

An analysis of recent large-scale mass shootings by the New York Times found that 13 of 16 purchased their guns in a similar fashion — legally, after undergoing a background check administered by a federally licensed dealer.

Here's a step-by-step guide to what that entails.

Probably not. Many experts believe it is not what the gun looks like that matters most — it's how many rounds it can fire without reloading.

An examination by the New York Times found that gunmen who perpetrated 16 recent mass shootings used a variety of firearms in their attacks, including handguns and assault-style weapons. While rifles like the AR-15 could increase the lethality of an attack in some situations, experts say that the use of high capacity magazines that can hold dozens of rounds of ammunition may give shooters an even greater advantage, allowing for more bullets to be fired without reloading without pause — breaks that can provide an opportunity for an officer or civilian to interrupt an attack.

America's most notorious mass shooters have been young, angry men who displayed antisocial behavior before they carried out attacks. Many perpetrators of mass killing also have a history of domestic violence; social scientists have found that the same factors drive the two phenomena.

A 2015 HuffPost analysis looked at incidents over a five year period in which at least four people were killed with a gun, including shootings in domestic settings (a criteria which the FBI's definition excludes). A majority of the shootings involved a family member or intimate partner — women and children comprised 64 percent of victims.

While mental illness may drive some mass shooters to kill, media coverage of the mentally ill exaggerates their role in gun violence. Less than 4 percent of violent acts are carried out by someone who is mentally ill — and research shows that individuals with mental illness are a greater risk to themselves.

Violent behavior and substance abuse is a better predictor of future violence than a mental health diagnosis. The substance most often associated with violent crimes is alcohol.

A University of Alabama researcher found that a uniquely American cultural and mental strain leads mass shooters to target workplaces and schools — as opposed to the military installations often targeted by international mass shooters — because these institutions represent the social systems that the gunmen believe mistreated them.

The gun violence burden is disproportionately carried by men of color, who comprise half of American gun death victims — despite making up just 6 percent of the population. A New York Times analysis of shootings that killed or wounded four or more people in 2015 found that two-thirds of the victims were black. Seventy-two percent of the victims were men.

Some urban neighborhoods are plagued by persistent, truly epidemic shooting rates. Violent gun crime varies even more within American cities than between them. A glance at murder rates by neighborhood — not just by city — reveals a terrible murder inequality that is ensnaring men of color in a cycle of killing.

Gun rights activists say they want to abolish so-called gun-free zones — areas where guns are not permitted, including schools and many private businesses — because they deny civilians carrying concealed handguns the opportunity to stop a massacre, while providing an unprotected target for mass shooters looking to perpetrate large-scale carnage.

Indeed, the foundational tenet of the National Rifle Association's agenda is that more “good guys” carrying guns in public will reduce crime and make society safer. There is no evidence to support this claim. Of the 160 active-shooting incidents from 2000 to 2013 that were analyzed by the FBI in 2014, only one active shooting was stopped by a concealed-carry license holder. Twenty-one were stopped by unarmed civilians.

To find out how many mass shootings have happened near you, type an address here to see how much gun violence has touched your community. If you spot a cluster of four or more victims, that counts as a mass shooting, according to one definition of the terrible phenomenon.

https://www.thetrace.org/2017/01/understanding-mass-shootings-in-america/

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New York City

NYPD judge recommends Daniel Pantaleo be fired over Eric Garner's chokehold death

by Tina Moore, Larry Celona and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo should be fired for the chokehold incident involving Eric Garner, an NYPD judge ruled.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado had been weighing whether Pantaleo, whom a grand jury declined to indict and whom the feds chose not to hit with civil rights charges, should face department discipline.

Garner's July 17, 2014, death on Staten Island became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement after cellphone video captured the 43-year-old repeatedly yelling, “I can't breathe!” while being busted on suspicion of illegally selling loose cigarettes.

Under NYPD rules, the verdict will now go to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which prosecuted the case, according to Stuart London, Pantaleo's lawyer. Each side will have two weeks to submit responses to NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill, who can go along with or overrule Maldonado's verdict.

“This decision is pure political insanity. If it is allowed to stand, it will paralyze the NYPD for years to come,” Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch said. “This judge ignored the evidence and trampled P.O. Pantaleo's due process rights in order to deliver the result that the grandstanding politicians and protesters demanded.

“The only hope for justice now lies with Police Commissioner O'Neill,” the police union boss said. “He knows the message that this decision sends to every cop: We are expendable, and we cannot expect any support from the city we protect. He knows that if he affirms this horrendous decision, he will lose his police department.”

O'Neill has previously declined to say if he will follow the administrative judge's decision. But law enforcement sources told The Post he will go along with the ruling.

Pantaleo was suspended immediately after the administrative judge's decision was made public, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Philip Walzak said in a statement, “as is the longstanding practice in these matters when the recommendation is termination.”

Walzak said O'Neill's decision on Pantaleo's employment is expected sometime this month, but that the commissioner has not been provided with a copy of Maldonado's ruling.

“It has been shared with the CCRB and the defense, for a standard period of final comment from each,” he said. Maldonado “will then deliver the completed report, with those comments, to the police commissioner for final disposition.”

Garner's family reacted after the ruling, calling on the commissioner to fire Pantaleo.

“This has been a long battle — five years too long,” Emerald Snipes Garner, Eric Garner's daughter, said Friday in a brief press conference at the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network. “And finally somebody has said that there is some information that this cop has done something wrong.”

“Commissioner O'Neill, fire Pantaleo. That's all we are asking. We are asking for the congressional hearing. We are going to keep fighting for the Eric Garner law,” she said. “But five years is too long. Commissioner O'Neill, do your job.”

The Garner family and supporters have circulated petitions seeking a law that would ban the chokehold allegedly used on the day that Garner died.

But the recommendation is not sitting well with some cops. “I don't think he should be fired. The man resisted arrest. No matter how minor the charge was, he shouldn't have resisted arrest. They told him he had to leave and he didn't leave. He said, ‘No, I'm not going to leave.' But you guys don't report that part,” said a high-ranking NYPD source.

“What do you do? Walk away. He grabbed him to get him down to the ground. If his arm slipped while he was going down, that was an accident. The stupid mayor gave them money before there was any trial or anything. That tainted the jury. It's just ridiculous.”

In a statement Friday, the Civilian Complaint Review Board said the evidence presented by prosecutors at the hearing “was more than sufficient to prove that Pantaleo is unfit to serve.”

NYPD union rips de Blasio over Eric Garner cop case, warns police department is ‘frozen'

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio makes remarks after NYPD judge recommends firing police officer in Eric Garner's death.

The New York Police Department union on Friday tore into Mayor Bill de Blasio over his handling of the case of the officer charged in the 2014 death of Eric Garner -- accusing him of creating a "chilling effect."

“Over the last number of years since this mayor walked into City Hall, I've stood at this podium and said [de Blasio's] decisions will have a chilling effect on New York City police officers,” a furious New York City Police Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch told reporters Friday. “Well, the criminal advocates have gotten what they want -- the police department is frozen.”

The union, which represents the 24,000 rank-and-file of New York's Finest, has had a tense relationship with the left-wing mayor, particularly in relation to de Blasio's comments about policing and race. But that has deteriorated even further with his handling of the Garner case and Friday's decision by a NYPD judge to recommend the officer involved be fired.

Garner died in 2014 after his arrest for the sale of untaxed cigarettes. After Garner refused to be handcuffed, Officer Daniel Pantaleo took him down using what prosecutors said was a banned chokehold. The officer's attorney argued the hold used an approved “seat belt” technique.

Garner died of cardiac arrest and video of him saying “I can't breathe” during the confrontation before passing out went viral. It became a rallying cry for the “Black Lives Matter” movement, with activists using the incident as a example of alleged racist discrimination by police. (Garner was black; Pantaleo is white.)

A grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo, and last month the Justice Department ruled against the Civil Rights Division's recommendation that charges be brought against him. But on Friday, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado recommended Pantaleo be fired.

The case now goes to Police Commissioner James O'Neill, who will decide later this month whether to accept the recommendation.

De Blasio, who is running for president, angered officers when he commented on the pending case during Wednesday's Democratic primary debate, when he promised the Garner family would get “justice.”

“I know the Garner family,” de Blasio said at the debate in Detroit. “They've gone through extraordinary pain. They are waiting for justice and are going to get justice. There's finally going to be justice.”

De Blasio was surrounded by other Democrats demanding Pantaleo be fired, and was interrupted by protesters demanding the same.

“How dare the mayor say it was a clean process. How dare the mayor say ‘I didn't give my opinion, I didn't talk to anyone,'” Lynch said, before addressing de Blasio. “You didn't have to talk to anyone, you're talking to the cameras, you talked to the nation the other day and you said justice will be served for that family and you sent your message to the judge advocate.”

Approximately 20 police officers followed de Blasio to Detroit, where they protested over pay, alleging that they are paid on average 30 percent less than other police forces in the region.

“Can't run the city, can't run the country,” the officers chanted outside the site of the debate.

But it is what cops see as de Blasio's failure to back his officers that has angered the union the most. On Friday, Lynch said de Blasio has lost the confidence of the force and “brought the police department to the gutter.”

He also warned officers that the case shows they won't have the backing of City Hall if they are put in a situation where they have to put their hands on an alleged perpetrator.

“Don't believe when they give you that story in the academy, ‘let's get out there and do it for the gipper' because they're not going to back you,” he said. "The gipper's not going to be there, the mayor's not going to be there.”

“Is the police commissioner going to be there?” he asked. “We'll find out.”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nypd-union-rips-de-blasio-garner-cop-case

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New York City

Here's what happens next after Daniel Pantaleo's suspension

by Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

An administrative judge's recommendation Friday that NYPD cop Daniel Pantaleo be fired over the 2014 death of Eric Garner is far from the end of the controversial case.

Here are the next steps:

• The Civilian Complaint Review Board, which prosecuted the case against Pantaleo at the departmental hearing, and Stuart London, the officer's attorney, have two weeks to review the findings by NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado.
  
  
• The CCRB and London have the opportunity to submit comments or motions either contesting or supporting the findings during that ­period.
  
  
• Police Commissioner James O'Neill will review the final report and decide if he'll follow Maldonado's recommendation or not.
  
  
• Police sources said ­Panta­leo could also choose to resign before the commissioner's ruling.

Former Santa Ana Police Officer Criminally Charged with Using Unreasonable Force, Filing False Reports in Connection with Beating

Brian Patric Booker, 50, of Chino Hills, was named in an indictment that charges him with one felony count of deprivation of rights under color of law and two felony counts of falsification of records. He will be arraigned on the indictment on August 12 in United States District Court in Santa Ana.

According to the indictment, on June 19, 2014, Booker used unreasonable force in connection with the arrest of the victim. The victim was not resisting arrest.

Following the incident, Booker allegedly caused false police reports to be filed. Booker falsely claimed that the victim reached toward Booker and grabbed Booker by his right leg, the indictment alleges. Booker also falsely stated that he delivered three or four punches to the back of the victim's head because he believed the victim was about to tackle him and possibly have access to Booker's firearm, according to the indictment. Booker allegedly knew these statements were false when the reports were filed.

Booker retired from the Santa Ana Police Department last year after approximately 19 years of service.

If convicted of all counts, Booker would face a statutory maximum sentence of 60 years in federal prison.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Santa Ana Police Department cooperated fully with the FBI's investigation.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer L. Waier and Robert J. Keenan of the Santa Ana Branch Office.

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www.usdoj.gov

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