Austin Shootings: Ponder and Pause in the Midst of a Media Frenzy

Saturday, July 30, 2016's wreck of a hot-air balloon was only miles from Austin, Texas. Lockhart is about 30 miles south of Austin.

Overnight, in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 31, 2016, reports out of Austin, Texas, tell of an "active shooter," and accounts of "separate shootings within the same area."

A moment to pause....

As I had to note a few years ago, gang shootings, domestic violence shootings, and friend-on-friend or gender-related-passion shootings take place all the time in America. But during news cycles of increased media attention to mass shootings, shooting sprees, terrorism attacks, and "rampages," every dispute that ends in gunfire will initially be reported as if it is an extraordinary and similar situation.

I'm not sure what's up with this Austin shooting, but I'm wondering if it is just another one of these types of shootings that is being overblown by the media. This is not to diminish the deaths of anyone involved in any such incident, but we have to start being able to discriminate between shootings, even if the media does not.

Calling something a "mass shooter situation" does not make it like all the rest.

The Austin, Texas police have said that one person (a female) was killed and four were injured following an "active shooter incident" in Austin.

The Austin-Travis County EMS tweeted there were "multiple" individuals with gunshot wounds.

Units were responding to the area of 208 East 6th Street.  This is the address of the Friends bar.

This section of town is a busy area, very youth-oriented and tourist-oriented. To get some idea of where this spot is, two blocks away, the Museum of the Weird is located at 412 East 6th Street, which is next to the Jackalope and the Chupacabra Cantina. A block in between is the Alamo Drafthouse. The Friends bar is in back behind Voodoo Doughnuts.

Residents are being told to stay away from the downtown area.

The location of the shooter or shooters is unknown.

Be careful. Be safe.

Thanks to Mike Playfair for the alert.

Mehr Amokläufe: More Rampages

Germany again! What is the central problem? One event appears to be triggering others - it is the copycat effect on steroids.

Over the weekend, there have been Mehr Amokläufe (more rampages) in Deutschland.

Europe was rocked on 14 July 2016, Bastille Day, on the "Promenade des Anglais: 84 Dead in Nice," France. The location, Promenade des Anglais means "Avenue of the English."

Then the series of German Amokläufe (plural of Amokläuf, rampages) began.

18 July 2016: A 17-year-old Afghan refugee [Riaz Khan Ahmadzai (also known as Muhammad Riyad)] injured four people seriously, two critically, with a knife and hatchet on a train near Würzburg in Germany. See "Amoklauf Würzburg Axe Attack."

22 July 2016: On the the 5th anniversary of the Norway: 7.22.11 Breivik Attacks, a mass shooting took place at the Olympia Mall's McDonald's in Munich, Germany. Ten were killed (including the gunman) and 35 injured. Ali David Sonboly (Persian: علی داوید سنبلی‎‎; called David S. by the police) was identified as the assailant. He was an 18-year-old Iranian-German with dual nationality. Police in Munich said the gunman had Amok Im Kopf a German translation of a book on mass school shootings, along with materials related to the 2009 Winnenden school shooting in Germany and the bomb-and-gun attacks in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people. See also "Amoklauf Munich Olympia Mall: Nine Dead."

24 July 2016: A Syrian asylum seeker armed with a knife attacked pedestrians in Reutlingen, Germany, killing a pregnant woman and wounding two other people.

24 July 2016: Twelve people were injured, three seriously, in a suicide bombing outside a wine bar. At 22:12 CEST (20:12 UTC), a bomb exploded outside Eugene's Wine Bar (German: Eugens Weinstube) in Ansbach, Germany. The bomber, the only fatality, was a 27-year-old Syrian man who had been denied asylum. The actual target of the bombing may have been the Ansbach Open music festival with around 2,500 people in attendance. The explosion occurred near the entrance to the festival. The suicide bomber, known to police after trying to die by suicide twice prior to the bombing, carried a backpack filled with screws, nails, and miscellaneous metal parts used in wood manufacturing and was denied entry into the music festival due to the lack of a ticket shortly before the blast. German authorities have found a video showing the bomber pledging allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on his phone. Joachim Herrmann, the Bavarian interior minister, said "it is unquestionable that it is a terror attack with corresponding Islamist convictions of the perpetrator."

Thus, from the 18th through the 24th, there have been four Amoklauf events in Germany. More is expected.

Enki King observes:

Batman: The Killing Joke will be shown in theaters across the country [only] on July 25 [and July 26, 2016]. It is based on a graphic novel by occultist Alan Moore.

As we enter the week and a half period bookmarked by the appearance of Joker films in cinemas, it is worth recalling that the Joker's appearance was based on German actor Conrad Veidt's portrayal of Gwynplaine in the expressionist film The Man Who Laughs.

The end date, August 5, 2016, is capped by the first appearance of the Suicide Squad and its new Joker.

+++ 

In the early morning hours of July 25, 2016, there was a shooting at the closing hour of a nightclub in Florida, giving people flashbacks to the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting of June 12, 2016.

25 July 2016: A shooting occurred inside the Club Blu Bar and Grill nightclub in Fort Myers, Florida. Preliminary reports indicate at least two individuals, both teenagers, are dead with 20 injured. The deceased have been identified as 14-year-old Sean Archilles and 18-year-old Stefan Strawder. Two suspects and a person of interest have been detained in connection with the shooting. The venue was reportedly hosting an all ages event for teenagers and ID was not required. The shooters apparently involved not teenagers, but those who were there to pick up the adolescents at closing.

"Zoo" Shootings: Kalamazoo to Kansas

Preprogramming from the summer of 2015?

On Saturday, February 20, 2016, Uber driver Jason Brian Dalton, 45, killed six people in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the 42nd mass shooting of 2016. The first people killed were Tyler D. Smith (17), and his father Richard E. Smith (53), who were both killed at the Kia car dealership. Four women – Mary Jo Nye (60), Mary Lou Nye (62), Dorothy Brown (74), and Barbara Hawthorne (68) – were killed at the Cracker Barrel. A 14-year-old girl who was with the four women at Cracker Barrel was shot in the head, and was initially presumed dead, but later confirmed to have survived. As of February 23, she remained on a ventilator and in critical condition.

Then another shooting happened in Kansas.

Gabrielle Giffords was to observe:

On February 25, 2016, three people were killed and fourteen others injured in a series of shootings in Newton and Hesston, Kansas, including in and outside an Excel Industries building. The dead victims were identified as Randall "Renee" Benjamin, 30; Joshua Higbee, 31; and Brian Sadowsky, 44. All were killed inside the Excel plant.The shooter, identified as Excel employee Cedric Larry Ford (pictured below), was then killed by a responding police officer.

The shootings began at around 4:57 p.m. at a street intersection in Newton, where Ford shot at two vehicles in a drive-by shooting. The first motorist suffered a non-fatal gunshot wound to the shoulder, while the second motorist escaped unscathed after a bullet pierced the car's windshield. He then drove down Old U.S. Route 81 and fired at oncoming traffic. His vehicle and another one crashed in a nearby ditch, after which he got out, shot and injured the other driver in the leg, and stole that victim's vehicle.

To excel is to do better than others. Mass shooters often covertly compete against each other.

Ford then arrived at Excel Industries, a manufacturer of lawnmowers, in Hesston, injured an elderly woman in the parking lot, went inside the building, and fired randomly at the assembly lines, shooting several employees. He then shot at the first officer to respond to the scene, and the officer fired back. He was struck by bullets and died at 5:23 p.m. Ford was armed with a Zastava Arms AK-47-style semi-automatic rifle and a Glock 22 semi-automatic pistol. At least 150 people were inside the plant at the time of the shooting there.

Recall that the mass shooting right before Newton-Hesston, Kansas, was the one in Kalamazoo. Strangely, in a CNN article on Cedric Larry Ford, it was noted: "On his first visit to a zoo, he was awestruck by the beauty of wildlife, friend and co-worker Matt Jarrell said." It seems an odd detail.

Attention should be given also to the fact that this shooting spree began in Newton, Kansas, reminding some of Newtown, Connecticut, the site of the Sandy Hook school shooting of December 14, 2012, occurred.

Many of the early settlers of Hesston, Kansas, were Mennonite farmers. In 1909, the Mennonite Church founded the Hesston College, because of that fact.

Cedric (French spelling: Cédric) is a masculine given name invented by Sir Walter Scott in the 1819 novel Ivanhoe. It is of Old English origin, and the meaning of Cedric is "kind and loved." The invented name is based on Cerdic, the name of a 6th-century Anglo-Saxon king (itself from Brittonic Cortices).

Have you noticed how the mainstream media are not talking about mass shootings as much as usual?

President Obama told the media that to mass shootings should dominate the news on Friday, February 26, 2016, saying "the real tragedy is the degree to which this has become routine."

The media is overwhelming the US public with its obsessive attention to ad hominem attacks between politicians, especially on the Republican side. Covert violence. Those who are being triggered to "go off" are getting the message.

It really is a zoo out there!

Star Wars Alerts, Incidents, and Security

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened widely on Friday, December 18, 2015. The film had limited showings earlier in the week, and some events have caused alarm.

Even before the new Star Wars movie was nationally released in the US, the widest, most discussed level of theater security every reported has been noted by the media. Some theaters installed metal detectors, banned backpacks and costumes, and allowed patrons with nothing more than lightsabers to cos-play. In the wake of the Aurora theater shooting of 2012, the Lafayette movie shooting in July 2015, the attack at a performing venue in Paris a few months ago, and the San Bernardino terrorist shootings of last month, the Star Wars movie was considered a major target for trouble.

There seems to have been some, but the media appears to have quieted what is really occurring. And the security is high.

There have been hints of a few instances that have bothered theater owners this week.

In an incident Wednesday night [December 16, 2015], two men in their 20s who were “Middle Eastern in appearance” and “spoke with a heavy foreign accent” entered a theater inside a mall in Tempe, Arizona, without tickets, and one of the men began recording video of the theater with his cellphone “in one slow swooping motion,” according to documentation of the incident obtained by Deadline. When asked what they were doing by theater security, the men replied they had “just wanted to see the restaurant,” pointing to the concession stand, and then exited the theater to a patio, where both men made phone calls.
In a separate incident last week, a man reportedly drove up to a theater in Southern California and began asking suspicious questions including, “When are the most people here?” and “How crowded is it going to be this weekend?” before driving off in a car with no license plates. A second man reportedly drove up to the theater and asked similar questions, before again driving off in a car with no plates. ~ Source.

The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) then sent a notice out to its members about these suspicious incidents, on Thursday, December 17, 2015, to be alert, aware, and heightened security.

One film buyer who has the film booked on the majority of their screens said they have five security guards employed at each theater. “We’ve hired security at every location to be safe,” the buyer said. “We will have five (guards) posted and reserve the right to check (customers’) bags. We will not let anyone walk in with a backpack or anything larger than a purse, and whatever they are carrying will be checked.” ~ Deadline. 

The incidents continued Thursday, December 17, 2015:

Moviegoers were evacuated from the Pacific Theatres at The Grove after a fire alarm was pulled on Dec. 17, 2015. (Credit: Michael Drake)

Hundreds of moviegoers were briefly evacuated from the Pacific Theatres at the Grove in Fairfax on Thursday evening. The evacuation occurred after a fire alarm was triggered inside the building, said Officer Norma Eisenman of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Section. There was no threat to the theater or "anything else of that nature," she said.Several disgruntled movie fans took to Twitter and Instagram after the incident, which prompted a response from the Los Angeles Fire Department.Showings of the much-anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens were interrupted, according to witnesses."As soon as the previews were over and the movie was about to start -- fire alarm. They evacuated the whole building," said an exasperated Andrew Gouch, adding that he had purchased his Star Wars tickets two months in advance."My kids want to still sit in there but … I don't know," he said. "I don't drink; I may start."The screenings resumed after firefighters determined that no fire had occurred and the building was safe. ~ Source.

A more serious threat occurred on Friday, December 18, 2015:

A showing of the new Star Wars movie was interrupted Friday in New Jersey after a theater was abruptly evacuated during the show. Friday night, police in Freehold Township announced that they had arrested a Middletown man and charged him with making a pair of bomb threats at the AMC Theater.
22-year-old Jesse Carroll of Middletown is charged with two counts of second degree Public False Alarm. He is currently being held in the Monmouth County Correction Institution on $200,000 bail with no 10% option.
On Monday evening, Dec. 14, and again on Friday afternoon, Dec. 18, notes were found in the men's room of the movie complex containing threats to either the theater management or specific threats of bombs inside the theater. One note on Friday afternoon read: "I'm coming for blood; 4pm bomb, 6pm empty mag in guests." ~ Source.

How widespread are these security measures? As of December 17, 2015, Disney (who owns the Star Wars franchise after George Lucas and Lucasfilms sold it to them) ceased the sales, display or brandishing of Star Wars blasters and any other type of toy guns as part of enhanced security policies.

There are also new metal detectors at the entrance of California's Disneyland and Florida’s Disney World. Furthermore, there is now a ban on individuals over the age of 14 wearing costumes or masks on the properties. Similar measures are going in place at Universal theme parks across the nation, reportedly. Random more extensive checks will now occur too, in addition to the bag checks that have been taking place at the parks for years.

Predictions, prevention and preparedness appear to be working.  Sometimes paranoid is really total awareness.

Two In One Day

Consider this. Copycats are so routine, nowadays, that the media, the public, and law enforcement agencies take it for granted that after a major violent event, more will follow. Following the community college shooting in Roseburg, Oregon on October 1, 2015 (http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2015/10/Umpqua.html), it seemed only a matter of time before more college or university shootings would occur. Despite calmer heads have now largely debunked the almost folkloric "Christians were targeted" part of the story (see here http://news.discovery.com/history/us-history/were-christians-targeted-in-oregon-shooting-151006.htm), the ripples from that event continue having an impact.

The fatal part of the Copycat Effect happened on Friday, October 9, 2015. But this time, two shootings were discussed as if they were the same kind as the Oregon one. On closer examination, they really do not seem to be. First off, in each case, one fatality each (needless to say awful) but it was not ten. In both cases, there are hints that the shootings were specifically targeted.

As the New York Times observed, "Unlike the attack in Oregon and other mass shootings at colleges and schools in recent years, the two on Friday were not so-called active-shooter episodes, but instead appeared to stem from ordinary disputes and altercations that quickly turned violent."

First up was the 1:20 a.m. PDT Friday incident at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. 

One person was killed and three injured.

The shooting occurred in a parking lot outside Mountainview Hall dormitory at the northeast side of the Flagstaff campus.

Colin Brough (above) was allegedly killed by Steven Jones (below).

A freshman, Steven Jones, 18, pulled a gun and shot four male students, killing one. The slain student has been identified as Colin Brough, according to the university’s website.  The injured are Nicholas Prato, Kyle Zientek and Nicholas Piring. The victims were shot multiple times. The victims were all members of the Delta Chi fraternity, the organization said Friday. The suspected gunman was not, the fraternity told CNN.

Later in the day, tragedy hit Texas, outside an apartment complex on the campus of Texas Southern University, police confirm. The site was the Courtyard Apartments on Blodgett at Canfield, and the time around 11:30 a.m. Friday. After the shooting, the three suspects ran inside the building, up to the fourth floor.

Two suspects are in custody, according to HPD. A third suspect remains at large. HPD has not yet released a description.

One shooting victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition, where the person later died. The other person was hit in the upper torso and in the back. They are listed in stable condition at the hospital, media reported.

Meanwhile, the number could have been higher. "Also in the news today, two eerily similar stories about planned school shootings which were thwarted by police or friends of the aspiring mass murderer. One involves a high school in Great Falls, Montana. Another report out of Denver, Colorado also involved a single male gunman on a high school campus," noted Boing Boing.  http://t.co/001D6Zm3he http://t.co/FYmhdnsXnZ

In Montana, The court document said Brock Doty, 17, texted friends he was going to carry out a school shooting. He then next sent a picture of a rifle leaning against the wall and under the picture, it said: "I hide my gun from my family." Great Falls Police detective and school resource officer Cory Reeves testified that he arrested Doty after receiving information of the text conversation. Four rifles were found in his room.

Shootings like these do happened frequently, but the media feels in the contagion factor linked to such incident. 

Were they gang-related? Group violence?

In general, even with the slight facts we do have, these do not seem to be random acts committed on student bodies without regard to the targeted individuals.

Jim Brandon's highlighting of the name "Nicholas" certainly jumps out in the Arizona scenario. 

Likewise, in going over recent violence on the Flagstaff campus, the New York Times noted another "Nicholas/Nichols" name game, for "in late August [2015], two people were shot after a man fired into a crowd near where the shooting on Friday took place. In that case, a university officer responding to a disturbance in the student-housing parking lot saw the man fire and told him to drop the gun, but the man turned toward the officer, the authorities said. The officer fired but missed, and the suspect, identified by the police as Darrius T. Nichols, 20, surrendered. Mr. Nichols was charged with murder after one of the two victims, LaKeytrick Quinn, 24, died. The second victim, a woman, was treated and released." Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/us/campus-shootings-texas-arizona.html

Brough is an "interesting surname, of Anglo-Saxon origin, is a locational name from any of the various places so called, of which there are several in Yorkshire, and Derbyshire, as well as elsewhere, deriving from the Olde English pre 7th Century "burh" meaning "fortress". In most cases these are the sites of Roman fortifications. The name is widely distributed, but mainly found in Staffordshire, where the pronunciation is usually "braf". The surname dates back to the early 13th Century (see below). Further recordings include one William de Brugh (1275) in the Hundred Rolls of Norfolk. Variations in the idiom of the spelling include Broghe, Broughe, Brouf, Bruff, and Broffe." Source: https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Brough

One wonders what names will pop up in the Texas case?

Route 66's Blue Phantom

In hosts of minds, today, are impressions that the word "eerie" means nothing except convenience to makers of crossword puzzles. There are gulfs of the unaccountable but they are bridged by terminology ... Probably vast holes of ignorance always will be bridged by very slender pedantries. ~ Charles Fort

In my Mysterious America, I chronicled Illinois’ Blue Phantom. Here are the highlights of that case, which I wrote about in that book, for the first time in 1983:

The blue phantom first showed up, it is said, on US 66 near Joliet, Illinois, late in May [1952]. Two drivers independently reported that someone had fired at them from a moving blue car. One of them was wounded, though not seriously. Later the same day another driver said a man in a blue automobile had taken a shot at him, this time three miles south of Lincoln on US 66.

On the afternoon of June 2nd, the phantom chose a new tactic: ambush. Edward Smith of St. Louis, Illinois, was driving just south of the Sangamon River when something hit his car. He slowed down and glanced back just in time to see a man jump from bushes beside the road, hop into a big blue car, and speed north on Route 48. Police interviewed an eleven-year-old girl who had watched the sniper make his escape in what she thought was either a Ford or Buick sedan. Highway patrolmen speculated that a .38 caliber bullet had caused the crease in Smith's back window.

By June 8th there had been ten reported shootings along central Illinois highways, including one in which the sniper's bullet shattered a windshield. State police and sheriff's deputies set up roadblocks along a 70-mile area and even employed the services of a low-flying airplane in an attempt to nab the gunman all – but to no avail. On June 10th the phantom, as if to thumb his nose at those so desperately trying to stop him, chose as his fifteenth target a Marengo squad car. Police officer Lawrence Brown, who had been patrolling the streets at dawn when the incident occurred, chased his assailant's car at speeds up to 90 m.p.h. but could not overtake it.

The same day, State Police Chief Thomas J. O'Donnell was telling reporters, “We have not relaxed our search and we are investigating every case but we are not convinced there is a phantom gunman or that any shots were fired in most of the 'shooting incidents' reported.

“We have yet to find anyone who saw a gun or who could give anything definite about the description of the sniper. On the other hand, we have a maze of vague and conflicting information that does not add up to the conclusion that one gunman is causing all these reports.”

Perhaps not. On June 9th, on Route 66 east of Springfield, William Moffit's car window was struck by a bullet fired from a dark green automobile speeding by in the opposite direction. But it is unlikely that Moffit took seriously O'Donnell's theory that nearly all the “sniping” incidents resulted from stones hitting cars or from the setting off of “torpedo” firecrackers. Neither, one suspects, did a truck driver in the Clinton area who early in the morning of June 17th saw two bullets penetrate his windshield. Police officers who inspected the holes concluded they were made by .22 caliber slugs fired from an automatic rifle. Nothing was said about stones or firecrackers.

The previous evening, in fact just a matter of hours before the Clinton incident, D. L. Weatherford had observed someone standing on a bridge on Route 121 north of Mount Pulaski. The “someone,” a man who wore khaki shirt and trousers, held a revolver and stood close to a parked blue Chrysler sedan. Weatherford did not stop to ask questions.

It was a blue Ford, however, which a Decatur couple pursued through the city the evening of June 19th after its occupant ungraciously took a pot shot at them. And at Mattoon (of all places) the same night police investigated a report from Fred Manley who said a man in a yellow Chevrolet panel truck had fired at him with a shotgun about 7:30 p.m. as he was driving on Route 16 between Charleston and Ashmore.

Near Champaign on June 24th, in what seems to have been the last appearance of the phantom sniper – or at least a phantom sniper – a man in a black sedan pulled up alongside a car driven by L. J. Wiles and let loose a volley of four shots, one of which crashed through Wiles' right window. Wiles, understandably shaken, still managed to collect his wits enough to chase the gunman's car into Champaign, but lost it in the city traffic.

The phantom was lost to history as well apparently, for that was the last anyone saw of him, or them, or whomever....

 1983

 1989

2001

2007

Blue Phantom drawing from Mysterious America (©Loren Coleman, 1983, 2001, 2007).

June 7, 1952: Dixon Evening Telegraph, Dixon, Illinois, Page 1

Harry Potter, Fenrir, Haskell, and Norse Name Games

FedEx Again

In two recent postings, the FedEx came up as an organizing reality: "Rambo-Style Shooter Goes Postal at FedEx" and "Aurora Name Game & FedEx." In the latter case, several instances of FedEx events were detailed.

In the last week, the FedEx connection and mayhem combined in the news again.

Six people died in a Spring, Texas shooting Wednesday, July 9, 2014, when a gunman opened fire at 711 Leaflet Lane in suburban Houston. Four children were among the victims, who had been tied up and shot in the back of the head.

“It appears this stems from a domestic issue with a breakup in the family from what our witness has told us,” assistant chief deputy constable Mark Herman of the Harris County Precinct 4 constable’s office told reporters.

Haskell "came to this location yesterday afternoon … and came under the guise of a FedEx driver wearing a FedEx shirt,” Hickman said in a news conference. “[He] gathered up the children that were here and awaited the arrival of the parents. Sometime later the victims were shot in this residence, and we now learned that Mr. Haskell was married to a relative [the wife and mother of the children] of this home.”

Haskell, 33, was disguised as a FedEx delivery worker when he went to the suburban Houston home of his ex-wife’s sister, Katie Stay, on Wednesday afternoon, police said. Oldest child Cassidy was home alone and answered the door. She told Haskell her parents weren’t home. He later returned, forcing his way in and tying Cassidy up, police said.

Minutes later, her parents and her four siblings, ages 4 to 13, returned. Haskell allegedly tied them up as well, and demanded to know the whereabouts of his ex-wife, Melannie Lyon. They said they didn’t know, and they were each shot in the back of the head.

Stephen and Katie Stay and four of their young children were found dead from gunshots. The victims included 39-year-old Stephen Robert Stay; his wife, 33-year-old Katie Stay; and their four children: Bryan, 13; Emily, 9; Rebecca, 7; and Zachary, 4. One of the Stay children, 15-year-old Cassidy, survived the rampage with a bullet fracture to the skull by playing dead. She called 911, and told police that the shooter planned to target her grandparents next.

The suspect led law enforcement officers and SWAT team members a car chase late Wednesday. They later cornered the suspect before he surrendered several miles away from the scene of the initial shooting. Ronald Lee Haskell, 33, surrendered after a three-hour standoff.

One resident who lives close to the scene of the crime said he was shocked by the tragedy. “I’ve lived here 20 years. It’s a very quiet neighborhood,” Wesley Carr told the Houston Chronicle.

"It was a Mormon family," one neighbor told Houston Chronicle. "They were very sweet and their kids were very shy. This is a sad, sad day."

Ronald Haskell had previously had domestic violence situations occur between himself and his then wife in Logan, Utah (a Mormon community).

.

Harry Potter links

While in the hospital, Cassidy Stay talked about angels she had learned in Sunday school are sent to "protect his children in times of great need," according to her grandfather Roger Lyon.

Cassidy Stay recovered and appeared at a public memorial service for her parents and siblings on Saturday, July 12, 2014. The ceremony occurred outside Lemm Elementary School in Spring, Texas. The 15-year-old lone survivor of the mass shooting quoted Dumbledore, the wise man from the Harry Potter series, in hopes of finding some good amid the horror. "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times," Cassidy said, citing J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, "if one only remembers to turn on the light."

At the end of the memorial service, Cassidy Stay flashed a hand signal for those who could translate it. The "Hook 'em Horns" is associated, in Texas, with a greeting saying "Good-bye." But in some European cultures, the identical corna gesture, the "Sign of the Horns," is used to suggest Satanic association. In 1985, five Americans were arrested, due to its satanic connotations, after dancing and displaying the gesture in front of the Vatican.

By coincidence, the same day that the media spotlighted Cassidy's quotes from Harry Potter, it was revealed a Harry Potter actor's body had been found earlier in the week, in Death Valley. David "Dave" Legeno (October 12, 1963 – July ?, 2014) was an English actor, boxer, poet, and mixed martial artist (of Muay-Thai). Legeno's first major film role was in Guy Richie's Snatch. Since then he has had roles in Batman Begins (he played a League of Shadows Warrior), Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and Centurion. 

Legeno's body was found by a pair of hikers on July 6, 2014, in Death Valley, California, United States. Due to the remote area, a helicopter was called in to retrieve his remains. It appears Legeno died of heat-related issues and may have been dead for three to four days before his body was discovered. The temperature in Death Valley on July 6, 2014, was 177 degrees. (As Red Dirt Report's AWG reminded me, Legeno's body was found near Zabriskie Point, Death Valley. Zabriskie Point is also the name of a 1970 movie by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni; its soundtrack features music by British band Pink Floyd and Jerry Garcia.)

Dave Legeno was mostly well-known for having played werewolf Fenrir Greyback in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

In Norse mythology, Fenrir (Old Norse: "fen-dweller"), Fenrisúlfr (Old Norse: "Fenris wolf"), Hróðvitnir (Old Norse: "fame-wolf"), or Vánagandr (Old Norse: "the monster of the river Ván") is a monstrous wolf. Fenrir is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, Fenrir is the father of the wolves Sköll and Hati Hróðvitnisson, is a son of Loki, and is foretold to kill the god Odin during the events of Ragnarök, but will in turn be killed by Odin's son Víðarr. In the Prose Edda, additional information is given about Fenrir, including that, due to the gods' knowledge of prophecies foretelling great trouble from Fenrir and his rapid growth, the gods bound him, and as a result Fenrir bit off the right hand of the god Týr. Depictions of Fenrir have been identified on various objects, and scholarly theories have been proposed regarding Fenrir's relation to other canine beings in Norse mythology. Fenrir has been the subject of artistic depictions, and he appears in literature.

Haskell Name Game

Ronald Haskell has been accused of the killings, and was in court last week. He almost passed out, and authorities kept him from falling, eventually using a wheelchair.

Earlier in his life, Haskell appeared to have an ordinary upbringing. He went to high school in Alaska, played on the football team and was even voted prom king and class clown his senior year, according to The Alaska Dispatch.

He was quoted in his yearbook: “Why did they pick me to be class clown? I think it’s because I'm so darn good looking.”

The Anchorage Daily News reported Ronald Lee Haskell Jr. lived in Alaska until 2004. He attended Chugiak High School and was part of a tight-knit Mormon community in Eagle River, about 10 miles north of Anchorage.

Drew Nevitt attended the same Mormon church as Haskell and says Haskell was an older peer he looked up to. Nevitt says Haskell was just “a funny, red-headed, freckled guy with a good personality.”

Nevitt described Ron Haskell as “the Chris Farley of Eagle River.”

Haskell? Haskell? Why does the name sound vaguely familiar. Ah, yes, Edward Clark "Eddie" Haskell (also referred to as Edward W. Haskell) is a fictional character on the Leave It to Beaver television situation comedy, which ran on CBS from October 4, 1957, to 1958 and then on ABC from 1958 to 1963. Eddie Haskell was the smart-mouthed best-friend of Wally Cleaver. The character recognized as an archetype for insincere sycophants. Eddie exhibited a two-faced style, polite to parents and adults, but always up to no good behind their backs—either conniving with his friends or picking on Wally's younger brother, Beaver.

This unusual name Haskell is of Norse origin, dating from the time of the settlement of northern and eastern counties of England by Scandinavian people, mostly during the 8th Century. The modern surname Haskell, which can also be found as Ashkettle, Askel, Axtell, and Astell, among other forms, drives from the Olde Norse personal name Asketill, which is composed of the elements oss or ass, meaning god and ketill, meaning a kettle or sacrificial cauldron, the latter being a common element in Olde Norse names. Arkle or Arkell derive from Arnkell, arn being eagle, with ketill, as above.

In rarer cases, Haskell is a Jewish surname derived from the equivalent of English Ezekiel [Hebrew יְחֶזְקֵאל (God strengthens).]

Spring, Texas, School Stabbing

Spring, Texas, has been a focus of violence before. An event took place at Spring High School, in Spring, Texas, around 7 a.m. on Wednesday, September 4, 2013. Harris County (Texas) Sheriff's Office said one person died after a stabbing in cafeteria at a Spring ISD high school. The incident happened at the high school on Cypresswood at North Freeway. A 17-year-old student was killed, and three other teenage males were injured during a stabbing attack at the school. Luis Alonzo Alfaro, age 17, was charged with murder. Alfaro admitted pulling a knife during the fight and stabbing four people.

This is the Spring High School's patch of their mascot, the lion.

One last sync: Ron Haskell's intended prime target was the former Melannie Kaye Lyon.

H/T to Xenkenito, Robert S., and Steve L.

Schoolboy Q's SUV Targeted At Red Rocks Shootings

UPDATE: ScHoolboy Q was briefly detained following a shooting in the parking lot of Red Rocks Amphitheater after his Colorado show with Nas last night. The shooter was firing at his SUV.

Police, looking like they had stepped from a military action movie, are shown searching a parking lot at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, after a shooting the night of June 19, 2004. Apparently, the shooting was an attempt on ScHoolboy Q. (Photo: Glen Ross)

Rapper Schoolboy Q was inside of the vehicle that a gunman opened fire on late Thursday outside of Red Rocks Amphitheater, injuring three other people, authorities said Friday.

Earlier...

The uniforms of the responding officers to the Red Rock incident appeared to denote this as a SWAT-worthy reaction. SWAT (acronym for "Special Weapons And Tactics") is a commonly used proper name for law enforcement units, which use military-style light weapons and specialized tactics in high-risk operations that fall outside of the capabilities of regular, uniformed police.

It was August 1, 1966, a tragic event occurred in Austin, Texas. A man named Charles Joseph Whitman, a honor student, used a high-powered rifle to randomly kill over a dozen people and wounded over thirty more from the University of Texas Clock Tower Building in Austin. This incident is best known as the Texas Tower Sniper and is credited as being the sparking event for "The Birth of SWAT." Source

The Jefferson County (Colorado) Sheriff's Office investigated a triple shooting late Thursday night that happened following a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Three victims (all alive) were found in a Chevy Suburban stopped by police at 7th Avenue and Kalamath Street at about 11 p.m. Red Rocks was shut down afterwards, with no one being allowed in or out of the park.

Police put this man (which turns out to be ScHoolboy Q) in handcuffs during an investigation into the shooting that occurred at Red Rocks Amphitheater Thursday night. No arrests, said The Denver Post, (the photograph above shows Q being detained, apparently) have been made in the shooting. (Credit: Karl Gehring, The Denver Post) 

Nas

Schoolboy Q

Flying Lotus

The Red Rocks concert, noted the Denver media, featured Nas, Schoolboy Q and Flying Lotus.

Jefferson County Sheriff's officers, Denver Police, the Lakewood and Morrison Police Departments and the Colorado State Patrol were searching the cars of all concertgoers. Almost two hours after the conclusion of the concert, there were still many people on the scene.

Red Rocks Amphitheatre is a rock structure near Morrison, Colorado, 10 miles west of Denver, where concerts are given in the open-air amphitheatre. There is a large, tilted, disc-shaped rock behind the stage, a huge vertical rock angled outwards from stage right, several large outcrops angled outwards from stage left and a seating area for up to 9,450 people in between. The amphitheatre is owned and operated by the City and County of Denver, Colorado and is located in Red Rocks Park, part of the Denver Mountain Parks system.

Originally the place was known as the "Garden of the Angels" (1870s-1906), and then as "Garden of the Titans" during the Walker years (1906–1928). The park, however, had always been known by the folk name of "Red Rocks", which became its formal name when Denver acquired it in 1928. The amphitheatre's rocks are named "Creation Rock" on the north, "Ship Rock" on the south, and "Stage Rock" to the east. Red Rocks Amphitheatre was designed by Denver architect Burnham Hoyt.

Vancouver Starbucks-Telus World of Science Shootings

Another shooting has occurred. This one happened in Vancouver, British Columbia. A recent concentration of shootings has occurred in the Pacific Northwest. On Friday, June 6th, there was one at the Seattle Pacific University, and earlier today, June 10th, there was a school shooting in Troutdale, Oregon, near Portland. In Vancouver, specifically, local law enforcement officials noted that today's shootings "followed two other public shootings that injured two people and killed a third since Saturday night."

Reacting to the events of the week, President Obama said on June 10, 2014, the nation should do "some soul-searching" over its epidemic of deadly gun violence and "should be ashamed" it has been unable to address it.

"We're the only developed country on Earth where this happens," Obama said during a question-and-answer session on the social media website Tumblr.

"And it happens now once a week," Obama added. "And it's a one-day story. There's no place else like this."

The CTV had this summary for today's shootings:

Shortly after 11 a.m., police receive reports of shots fired in the city’s Yaletown neighbourhood, at Davie Street and Marinaside Crescent, outside a Starbucks coffee shop (pictured)
Police arrive to find a 61-year-old man suffering a gunshot wound. He is rushed to hospital in serious condition
A 52-year-old male suspect flees the scene. At least part of the way he is riding a bike
Second shooting scene

Vancouver police officers follow the suspect to an area outside the Telus World of Science, at the edge of False Creek
Two officers were looking for the suspect when gunfire broke out just outside the building
Construction workers near the scene report hearing up to 12 shots fired
An unmarked police car remained parked at the scene with its back window smashed out. What appeared to be a pool of blood could be seen behind the vehicle.
Dozens of people are trapped inside the science centre, a popular family attraction
A female officer is hurt. She was treated in hospital for a minor injury and released from hospital
The suspect is taken into custody, and police say they aren’t looking for anyone else
1:30 p.m. Vancouver police press conference
VPD Spokesperson Const. Brian Montague says hundreds of people witnessed the shootings
Police are inundated with videos and photos of the incident
Police ask witnesses to hold onto their photos and videos, police will want to see them all
Say it’s too early to know whether the event is targeted
Police say they will not release any information into the suspect or victim identities
The Independent Investigations Office takes over the probe into the officer-involved shooting

When Vancouver was awarded to host the transportation-themed 1986 World's Fair (Expo 86), a Buckminster Fuller-inspired geodesic dome was designed by Expo's chief architect Bruno Freschi to serve as the fair's Expo Centre. Construction began in 1984 and was completed by early 1985. After the World's Fair closed, this dome and its buildings became the Science World, now the Telus World of Science.