Death By Bull Statue

The Summer Solstice saw a strange death on a statue's horn.

An unidentified 14-year-old boy was killed early Saturday morning, June 22, 2013, when he was impaled on a bull statue’s horn at the National Ranching Heritage Museum. (Visit their website here.)

The incident occurred at about 3 a.m., said Chris Cook, director of marketing and communications for Texas Tech University.

The boy was playing hide-and-seek with friends and struck the statue while running on the museum’s lawn.

The red barn on the ranch of the National Ranching Heritage Museum.

Meanwhile, also in the news is a story of a spinning Egyptian statue.

H/T Demetrius M.

Death by Stunt Plane: Weird Wicker Aurora Name Game

The name of the biplane: Aurora.

The name of the wingwalker: Wicker.

The twilight elements of time, space, and name came together on Saturday, June 22, 2013, just after the Summer Solstice.

A biplane carrying a wing-walker – an aerial daredevil who traverses the length of an aircraft during flight – crashed into a field and burst into a ball of flames during an air show in Ohio, killing the stunt performer and the pilot.

Jane Wicker and her veteran pilot, Charles Schwenker, were killed after their biplane slammed into the ground just before 1 p.m. Saturday at the 39th Vectren Air Show at Dayton International Airport in Ohio. Federal records show that the Boeing Stearman was registered to Wicker, who lived in Loudon, Virginia.

Jane Wicker

(Thanh V Tran and Facebook photographs)

Wicker’s website says she took up her risky hobby in 1990 after responding to a classified advertisement from the Flying Circus Airshow in Bealeton, Va., and within years was among an elite cadre of high-altitude daredevils.

Saturday's Dayton air show website described her act as "daring and breathtaking."

"With no safety line and no parachute, Jane amazes the crowd by climbing, walking, and hanging all over her beautiful 450 HP Stearman aircraft she affectionately calls 'Aurora,'" the site noted.

Wicker was reportedly a contract budget analyst with the Federal Aviation Administration, according to the AP.

The Facebook page "Jane Wicker Airshows" released a statement over the weekend: 

It is with sad hearts that we announce that Jane Wicker and Charlie Schwenker were tragically killed while performing at the Vectren Dayton Airshow.

Even the media's quoting of eyewitnesses, strangely, oriented towards the "Wicker" name game. Shawn Warwick of New Knoxville, Ohio, remarked to the Dayton Daily News that the Aurora appeared to be flying unusually low to the ground before plummeting.

“I noticed it was upside-down really close to the ground. She was sitting on the bottom of the plane,” Warwick told the newspaper. “I saw it just go right into the ground and explode.”

Pilot Charlie Schwenker.

This event brings together several twilight language threads.

The Aurora building in the James Bond movie, Skyfall.

The name of the stunt plane in this crash was Aurora.

Aurora, due to The Dark Knight Rises shootings at Aurora, Colorado, is a familiar word. Aurora means "dawn." The entire appearance of Aurora highlighted a synchromystic wonderland.

At the Twilight Language blog, Aurora has been the topic of many postings. (The term arises in context here, with its link to Solstice and literal dawns, and metaphorically, of course.)

Charlie Schwenker's surname's origins are in Schwenke, which is derived from the Middle High German word swenke, meaning "to swing." This was probably a hint concerning the gait of the person. Unfortunately, the final swing of this plane was fatal to Schwenker and Wicker.

Much has been written in the twilight language and synchromystic fields of the significance of the name Wicker. These are Wicker Man (above) in folklore and film, Wicker Street and the Wicker name in the Son of Sam murders, and many other links to Jane Wicker's name and her fiery death, symbolically.

As recently as April, the name Wicker came up tied to the ricin letters.

Wicker Man burnings include Burning Man in Nevada, and the seemingly isolated incident of the burning of Big Tex in Texas (below).

For fuller details on Wicker, see The Wicker Man Burns.

Solstice Shootings in North Carolina

There has been a multiple shooting incident in North Carolina.

An as-yet-unidentified gunman has wounded 4 people in a shooting at the Kellum Law Firm and the Wal-Mart near Greenville Blvd, in Greenville, on Summer Solstice, June 21, 2013, Friday afternoon.

The shooter armed with a shotgun wounded one person at the law firm before crossing Greenville Blvd. and shot three more people in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Police reportedly fired on the shooter, near Hooker Road, after he turned the weapon on authorities. Greenville Police Chief Hassan Aden confirmed a suspect was in custody at about 1:15 p.m. Aden said the shooter's condition is unknown.

Aden said that the victims were shot in both locations. Another was reportedly shot outside the retail store.

Eyewitnesses said that a man with a rifle and a bullet-proof vest walked up and shot an insurance adjustor who was hiding behind a car.

Meanwhile, another story of violence is the one that is getting more media play: "Aaron Hernandez, Tangled in Murder Probe, Also Sued for Allegedly Shooting Friend"

Synchrocinema's Lone Ranger

As the new film Lone Ranger is soon set to open on July 3rd, let us not forget the twilight language of this event. This includes the recent history of this new movie's death-on-the-set, the mystical origins of Johnny Depp's Tonto, and the fictional relationship between the Green Hornet and the Lone Ranger. Synchrocinema rises again.

Water. Bridger. Death. Synchrocinema.

For details and more, see "Lone Ranger Death."

Shooting At Cherokee

A workplace shooting at a St. Louis, Missouri, business on Thursday, June 13, 2013, left four people dead. It appears to be a murder-suicide, a police official said.

The owner of AK Home Health Care is believed to be the gunman, and the victims were his employees.

After a review of evidence, including a surveillance video, officers determined there had been an argument in the office of the business, Capt. Michael Sack told reporters.

"Shortly thereafter, gunshots are shown penetrating a wall inside of the business," police said in a statement.

It was unclear whether the "brief" dispute carried over from another day, Sack said.

A semiautomatic handgun was recovered. No other people were injured.

The shooting occurred at the Cherokee Place Business Incubator, apparently named after Cherokee Street where the business was located. All those dead were Somalis. 

After receiving a call at about 1:30 p.m., police rushed to the building, which houses several businesses.

Police have identified the shooter as Ahmed Dirir, a 59-year-old businessman. He killed three employees before turning the gun on himself. St. Louis police said in a news release that 44-year-old Khadra Muse of Olivette; 29-year-old Seaeed Abdulla of St. Louis; and 54-year-old Bernice Solomon-Redd of East St. Louis were killed by Dirir in the shooting at AK Home Health Care LLC, just south of the downtown area.

St. Louis Police Capt. Michael Sack has said the gunman was the owner or co-owner of the nursing services provider, and that the victims were his employees.

100 Involved in Miami Sports Bar Deck Collapse

On June 13, 20013, the collapse of an outdoor deck at a Miami area sports bar dumped dozens of people watching Game 4 of the NBA finals into Biscayne Bay, Florida. Reports are that 33 of them were injured, two of them seriously.

"It was shock," said Martin Torres, 42. "People were yelling. Nobody knew. People came out all wet. They were crying. For a while, nobody knows what was going on."

Many people seemed in shock, with cuts and gashes on their faces. Eric Williams, also 42, of Atlanta described the scene as "pandemonium," with people scrambling to get out.

About 100 people were on the deck behind Shuckers Bar and Grill when it collapsed about 9:45 p.m., said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesman Lieutenant Arnold Piedrahita.
"Fortunately only 33 people were injured, 24 of those people were transported to local hospitals and only two were in serious condition," Piedrahita said.
...
Shuckers, which has an outdoor patio deck, is attached to a hotel on a busy, four-lane causeway linking Miami and Miami Beach.
Fans had packed into the bar to cheer on the Miami Heat against NBA rivals the San Antonio Spurs, when the decking gave way just before half time and crashed into the bay, patrons told local television news.
"We heard a crunch, crunch, crunch, and then we saw the pillars went down one by one," said Anthony Herrera, a witness at the bar, told local WPLG television station.
"Everything went lower and lower ... it was panic," said Cesar Cabana, one of the bar patrons who ended up in the water. Source.

Reports that certain celebrities were at the bar and part of the accident are unconfirmed.

Threat of Building Collapse Above State Theatre, Portland, Maine

Before noon on Sunday, June 9, 2013, Michelle Souliere of the Green Hand Books was told that the High Street side of the Congress Street's State Theatre building was collapsing. She ran down to take a look, and found it wasn't as bad as the imagination might indicate. But something rather incredible was happening. The building was buckling out.

Traffic was disrupted anyway, in Portland, because down by the waterfront, the Old Port Festival, attended by upwards of 30,000 people, was in full swing. Live music, food vendors, artists, street performers, crafts, and lots of fun.

Here are some images of the way it normally looks around the State Theatre, and down below are Michelle's photos.

Loren Coleman photo.

Portland Press Herald photo.

Michelle Souliere writes, on Strange Maine:

You can see the collapse is very centralized. A source with a studio on the Congress Street side of the building was in her studio this morning, and when she noticed the fire engines and cordoned off street, tried to leave via the High Street exit and was told by officials that she had to leave the building from the Congress Street exit because the High Street exit was "unsafe."
She also reported hearsay from other building tenants that there had been a small explosion that morning (a jeweler's torch tank? seems likely with all the artist studios in there), which would explain how centralized the incident is. Another friend did point out, however, that none of the windows are broken, which could belie that explanation. Another person has stated since that the loud "CRACK!" could have simply been the facade forcibly separating from the structure.

WCSH-6-NBC reports:

3:40 UPDATE: State Theater says tonight's show will go on, but there will be delays due to parking concerns. Doors will open at 8pm, show now starts at 9pm.
3:15 UPDATE: Contractors have knocked down a large portion of the facade that was bowing in the building. Bricks are now strewn over High Street, and a business's front window on the bottom floor of 142 High Street has been damaged.

High Street will be closed down through Monday's commute.

 Portland Fire and Police moved into action.

The four photographs above are courtesy of Michelle Souliere, Green Hand Books. 

See more photos here. And here.

I had an office in this building for two years, which I obtained through a charity auction. It is an old building, but one that has lots of character, is filled with creative people, and many folks would be impacted with any structural disruption.

The State Theatre is a quick walk down the block from the Green Hand Books (661 Congress St) and the International Cryptozoology Museum (11 Avon St), both in separate locations in the Outer Arts District of Portland, Maine - within the 101-year-old Trelawny Building.

Of course, it is just a coincidence that the deadly collapse of the building on June 5th, in Philadelphia, occurred across a side street from the Mütter Museum.

The State Theatre opened on November 8, 1929, and was designed in a semi-atmospheric/Spanish style with an original seating capacity of 2,300. It operated as a first run movie house until the late 1960s, when it became a porn theatre. In 1989, the theatre was closed and fell into disrepair. By the mid-1990s, the theatre was saved and restored. It closed for a brief time after its restoration and was reopened by new owners as a performing arts and concert venue. Then it closed in 2006. Major repair work occurred during 2010, and the newly renovated State Theatre was reopened in October 2010.

Update: Suspect Identified ~ Santa Monica College Shootings

Santa Monica College's gunman has been identified as 23-year-old John Zawahri, a former student at the college. Police said he had prepared with an arsenal of weapons and ammunition.

This is his high school photo. Source.

Zawahri enters Santa Monica College.

The shooting suspect first killed his father and brother before moving on to engage in random shootings on his way to Santa Monica College's library to have his own life ended in a "suicide by cop" exchange.

President Obama was three miles away when a shooting began at Santa Monica Community College, west of Los Angeles, on Friday, June 7, 2013. (Above, President Obama is shown arriving in California earlier.)

A man dressed in black walked onto the Santa Monica College campus, dressed all in black and paramilitary, with an assault weapon. Several shots were fired at women, at passing cars, and at a bus near campus. Reportedly two people were killed, also near campus, in a house that was set on fire.

The suspect was killed.

Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said the shooter was killed on the campus of Santa Monica College after attempting to evade police responding to multiple shootings that began about a mile from the school. Seabrooks said that two people were dead in a home in Yorkshire Avenue that was ablaze about a mile from campus. Another person died on Cloverfield Boulevard, and two were killed on 19th and Pearl streets. Another woman later died in the hospital, Seabrooks said.

The dead body of the suspect, who looked like he was a SWAT member, was seen by several eyewitnesses in the campus library.

At midnight, on Friday, police revised the number of people killed in the shooting rampage in Santa Monica, California, to four deaths plus one dead gunman.  All the victims were from shots of a lone gunman. The next day, another victim died. Five dead, plus the gunman. Six dead, in total.

The gunman died on the campus of Santa Monica College after being shot by police.

Sgt. Richard Lewis of the Santa Monica Police Department added that five people were injured, one is in critical condition and one is in serious but stable condition.

One witness to the shooting who was not identified told a local CNN affiliate that he saw a man drive up in a car, walk into the middle of an intersection with a gun and open fire at passing vehicles and a building before "he jumped back in the car and took off."

"It seemed like he was alone in his car," the witness said, recounting that he took cover under the dashboard of his own car, which was struck by gunfire. "I saw him jumping out of the car. He had a big, black gun in his hand and he just started blasting maybe 10 rounds from the left to the right."

Obama was attending a fundraising event at the Santa Monica home of former News Corp President Peter Chernin at about the time of the shooting and had just finished his remarks, but he made no mention of the incident.

A Secret Service spokesman in Washington said: "We are aware of the incident and it is not impacting the visit. It's a local police matter at this point."

Santa Monica College also had a gunfire incident on that campus on August 16, 2011.

Weird Day of Night Stalker/Walking Dead News

Ever notice how some days cluster the weirdness?

Shannon Rogers Richardson was arrested on Friday, June 7, 2013, in connection with alleged ricin-tainted letters mailed last month to President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, federal law enforcement sources said. She also allegedly also mailed a third letter with the toxin ricin to Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which was founded and co-chaired by Bloomberg, according to an FBI arrest affidavit from U.S. Attorney John M. Bales' office in Texas. The three letters were mailed from Shreveport, Louisiana, last month.

She made an initial appearance Friday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Caroline Craven in Texarkana, Texas, the prosecutor said. She was arrested in Mount Pleasant, Texas.

Richardson is an actress also known as Shannon Rogers Guess, Shannon Rogers, or Shannon Guess. She has had minor roles in Nefertari and House from Hell, and in the television series The Walking Dead and The Vampire Diaries.

Meanwhile, also on Friday, Richard Ramirez, 53, known as the "Night Stalker," during his 1984-1985 reign of terror in California, died. The mass murderer and serial rapist was reported deceased natural causes by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.The death row inmate died at Marin General Hospital north of San Francisco, in Greenbrae, California.

Ramirez was convicted in 1985 of 13 murders -- 11 in Southern California and two others in the San Francisco area -- along with five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries.

Ramirez, a professed "satanist," was dubbed the "Night Stalker" for his preference of breaking into houses in the wee hours of the morning.

Ramirez was born on February 29, 1960, Leap Day, as was another serial killer who was born on Leap Day, Aileen Wournos. Aileen Carol Wuornos (February 29, 1956 – October 9, 2002) killed seven men in Florida in 1989 and 1990.

As a child, Ramirez was influenced by his cousin, Mike, a Special Forces veteran who boasted of his gruesome exploits during the Vietnam War and showed him Polaroid pictures of his victims. These included pictures of Mike raping a Vietnamese woman. The last picture of that series showed Mike posing with the woman's severed head. Ramirez was present the night Mike shot and killed his wife, and her blood spattered on Ramirez's face. Ramirez was 13 years old at the time. After the murder, his behavior changed dramatically; he dropped out of school, began using drugs, and adopted odd sleeping habits. Source.

Meanwhile, there's been a school shooting incident in Santa Monica. More on that in a moment here at Twilight Language.

Collapsed Philadelphia Building Next to Mütter Museum

Newsflash!

The building collapse occurred immediatley next to the world-famous Mütter Museum at 19 South 22nd Street. The Mütter Museum in Rittenhouse (ritten, Germanic origin, ride + hausen, house) Square neighborhood offers a vast collection of medical and anatomical oddities. The medical museum located in the Center City area of Philadelphia contains a collection of medical oddities, anatomical and pathological specimens, wax models, and antique medical equipment.

Above, on the right, is the Mütter Museum. To the left, in white, is the building that collapsed.

America's finest museum of medical history, the Mütter displays its beautifully preserved collections of anatomical specimens, models, and medical instruments in a 19th century "cabinet museum" setting. The goal of the Museum is to help the public understand the mysteries and beauty of the human body while appreciating the history of diagnosis and treatment of disease.
The Collection began as a donation from Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter, who was determined to improve and reform medical education. The donation stipulated that the College had to hire a Curator, maintain and expand the collection, fund annual lectures and erect a brick building to house the collection. Since 1858, the College has held true to its promise to Dr. Mütter. Today the museum enjoys steadily rising international popularity. Mutter Museum website. 

The building and area, before the collapse. The Mütter is immediately down 22nd Street.

Posted, as it was happening...

Emergency crews are at the scene of a building collapse in Philadelphia, and the fire commissioner says as many as eight to 10 people are believed to be trapped in the rubble.

The accident happened at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, June 5, 2013.

A building on the block had been under construction.

The collapse happened at a building at 22nd and Market Street in Center City. The building was reportedly being demolished at the time of the collapse.

Debris came through the roof of a Salvation Army thrift store on the corner.

+++

Later...

Thirteen people were rescued from the building by firefighters.

One man and five women are dead after a building collapsed in downtown Philadelphia.

The collapse at 2140 Market Street happened around 10:40 a.m. when a four-story building came down on top of a two-story building, which housed a Salvation Army Thrift Store. Early reports from Philadelphia Police indicate that the collapse may have been the result of an industrial accident, as construction crews were working on the nearby structure.
***
Mayor Nutter said the woman who died was 35 years old and that her family didn't want any more information about her to be discussed publicly. Sources close to the investigation say the woman was a cashier at the thrift store and that Wednesday was her first day on the job. Source.

+++

According to the demolition permit from Philadelphia's Licenses and Inspections, that building was a four-story structure. The demolition contractor is Griffin-Campbell Construction.

H/T to anon for Mütter link.