Bloodbath in Chinatown: Joker Tie-In?

Early on Saturday am, October 5, 2019, a man, described as wearing a black jacket and black pants, was randomly hitting homeless men in New York City's Chinatown. He reportedly killed at least four. 

The victims appeared to be sleeping when the attacks occurred. The first call came from Bowery Street near Doyers Street in Chinatown at about 1:50 a.m. Later, three were found on East Broadway, while another was found on Bowery.

Doyers Street, the heart of NYC's Chinatown

All four were pronounced dead at the scenes, police said. A 24-year-old man, who police also believe is homeless, is in custody and considered a person of interest, named Rodriguez “Randy” Santos, who has 14 past arrests — including an assault charge from May 2019.

A three-foot-long, blood-covered metal object, described as a pipe, was recovered.

The first victim, found neart Mulberry and Canal Streets, around 1:50 a.m., after police responded to reports of an assault and discovered an unconscious man in his 60s lying in the street on Bowery "with severe head trauma." Other victims were found on East Broadway. Three victims on East Broadway and one on Bowery were found deceased.

Please note one of the promotional shots from Joker shows an obvious reference to Gotham City's Chinatown.

In the fall of 2018, Joker used Chinatown as a filming location, especially near East Broadway and Catherine street.

In

The Red Danger Zone of April 2016

We are heading into a time of the year full of peril.

(Above) The man who drove his car into a crowded Dutch royal parade, attempting to assassinate Queen Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, on April 30, 2009, had shaved his hair into a Mohawk, like the homicidal anti-hero of the highly political film Taxi Driver (1976).

The explosive American political climate of 2015-2016 has produced wall-to-wall media coverage of the infighting on the Republican and Democratic fronts. Due to the almost nonstop attention to the conflicts between the candidates, have you noticed the mainstream news channels (e.g. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC) have mostly ignored school shootings and workplace violence? Have the lack of coverage actually caused a decline in the incidents? Or are they happening but not being reinforced? Certainly, the terrorist incidents in San Bernardino, Paris and Brussels resulted in a few days of reportage, but then the media returned to politics.

Watch for that to change during the last two weeks of April 2016.

Predictive programming consciousness, copycat effect studies, twilight language analysis, and just plain common sense should tell even the most unaware investigators and reporters that the month of April is perilous. The fourth month of the year, the second month of spring in the northern hemisphere, has become a minefield of anniversaries and remembrances of things which have gone tragically wrong. Homicidal, suicidal, vulnerable, and impulsive violent individuals will react strongly to this upcoming "red zone" of anniversaries. Expect the worst, hope for the best. The pressure has been building.

The dates may be remarkably covert in the unfolding of the incidents, but they are there as the stimuli for more events.

Take for example, what occurred this week, on Wednesday, April 6, 2016. At the middle school in Newtown, Connecticut, a middle school teacher, Jason M. Adams, 46, was detained because he brought a concealed firearm to school. Adams, 46, was released without posting bond and was scheduled to appear in Danbury Superior Court on the 2nd week anniversary of his "weapon's oversight," on April 20, 2016.

Of all the school systems in the country, the Newtown/Sandy Hook group may be one of the most sensitive about such "mistakes." On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza, 20, entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, killing 20 first-grade students, six adults, and himself.

Adam Peter Lanza, briefly a student at Sandy Hook Elementary, was born on April 22, 1992, in Kingston, New Hampshire. April 22nd is a hidden anniversary even within the Newtown-Sandy Hook story.

This year, 2016, the Boston Marathon will be run on Monday, April 18, 2016, which is Patriots' Day in Massachusetts, Patriot's Day in Maine, and a school vacation day in Wisconsin.

For 2016, April 18th begins the intensive "Red Danger Zone" on the April calendar that I have warned about for several years. The violence has begun to spread to nearby dates.

Let me walk you through some of the events tied to these dates.

April 14-5

1865 – On the eve of the fifth day of Passover, April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot and died of his wounds in the early morning of April 15th, which had already been scheduled as a national day of prayer to mark the end of the Civil War. Jews across the land were gathering in synagogues to give thanks. When news of Lincoln's death arrived, the synagogue altars were quickly draped in black and, instead of Passover melodies, the congregations chanted Yom Kippur hymns. Lincoln had been protective of American Jewry, overturning General Grant's infamous General Order #11 expelling Jews from the Department of the Tennessee and supporting legislation allowing Jewish chaplains to serve in the military.

April 15

2013 – The Boston Marathon bombing was a terrorist attack, followed by subsequent related shootings, that occurred when two pressure cooker bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Six died in the events, and 280 injured, some with loss of legs and arms.

April 16
73 – Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Great Jewish Revolt.
1947 – French freighter S.S. Grandcamp explosion loaded with ammonium nitrate docked at the Port of Texas City, Texas, and erupted in flames, causing a massive explosion that killed at least 581 people.
1995 – George W. Bush names April 16 as Selena Day in Texas, after she was killed two weeks earlier.

2007 – Virginia Tech shooting: Seung-Hui Cho guns down 32 people and injures 17 before dying by suicide.

April 17

1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
1978 – Mir Akbar Khyber is assassinated, provoking a communist coup d'état in Afghanistan.
1984 – Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher is killed by gunfire from the Libyan People's Bureau (Embassy) in London during a small demonstration outside the embassy. Ten others are wounded. The events lead to an 11-day siege of the building.
2006 – A Palestinian suicide bomber detonates an explosive device in Tel Aviv, killing 11 people and injuring 70.

April 18

1775 – American Revolution: The British advancement by sea begins; Paul Revere, William Dawes (above) and other riders warn the countryside of the troop movements. (The syncinematic film, 2009's Knowing has student Caleb Koestler - a name game there - going to the fictional William Dawes Elementary, located in 1959 Lexington.)
1906 – An earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California.
1983 – A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
2007 – A series of bombings, two of them being suicides, occur in Baghdad, killing 198 and injuring 251.
2013 – A suicide bombing in a Baghdad cafe kills 27 people and injures another 65.
2013 – Fertilizer plant explosion, West, just north of Waco, Texas, killed 15 killed and about 200 injured. Eighty homes and a middle school are leveled.

April 19

Blood Sacrifice to the Beast. Fire sacrifice is required for this specific date.
1775 – Battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. This is the actual anniversary of the battles, even though the observance has become a date tied to the third Monday in April.
1897 – First running of the Boston Marathon, with marathons named after the Greek Battle of Marathon. 

1993 – The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.
1993 – South Dakota governor George Mickelson and seven others are killed when a state-owned aircraft crashes in Iowa.
1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, is bombed, killing 168.
1995 – Richard Wayne Snell, a convicted murderer, member of the white supremacist group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA), is executed in Arkansas. Snell was involved in filming the planes that landed at the restricted airport in Mena, Arkansas, believed by many conspiracy theorists to be used in a CIA-sanctioned cover-up to smuggle drugs into America. Snell had been accused of plotting to bomb the Murrah Building in the 1980s. Snell reportedly watched televised reports of the Oklahoma City bombing on the day of his execution and nodded in approval. 

2013 – Boston Marathon bombings suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is captured while hiding in a boat inside a backyard in Watertown, Massachusetts.

April 20 

1889 – Adolf Hitler, Austrian-German soldier and politician, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1945) is born
1939 – Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday is celebrated as a national holiday in Nazi Germany.
1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.
1961 – Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.
1971 – According to Steven Hager, editor of High Times, he found the term 420 originated at San Rafael High School in 1971, among the Waldos. They would meet every day after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke marijuana at the Louis Pasteur statue. One of the Waldos notes, "We did discover we could talk about getting high in front of our parents without them knowing by using the phrase 420." By extension now, April 20 ("4/20" in U.S. dating shorthand) has evolved into a counterculture holiday, where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis.
1978 – Korean Air Lines Flight 902 is shot down by the Soviet Union. 

1999 – Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, killed 13 people and injured 21 others before dying by suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.
2007 – Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips with a handgun barricades himself in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.

2015 – A substitute teacher was killed at the Joan Fuster School in the La Sager neighborhood of Barcelona, Spain, by a 13-year-old student with a crossbow and machete. Four other people were injured.

April 21
1506 – The three-day Lisbon Massacre comes to an end with the slaughter of over 1,900 suspected Jews by Portuguese Catholics.
1985 – The compound of the militant group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord surrenders to federal authorities in Arkansas after a two-day government siege.

April 22
2004 – Two fuel trains collide in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing up to 150 people.
2013 – Six people die in a shooting in Belgorod, Russia.
2013 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrest and charge two men with plotting to disrupt a Toronto area train service in a plot claimed to be backed by Al-Qaeda elements.
2014 – More than 60 people are killed and 80 are seriously injured in a train crash in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Katanga Province.
2016 – The one-month anniversary of three suicide bombers killing 35 people and injuring 316 in the 2016 Brussels bombings at the airport and at the Maelbeek/Maalbeek metro station.

April 23
303 – Saint George, Roman soldier and martyr (b. 275) dies
St George's Day (England) and its related observances
1343 – St. George's Night Uprising commences in the Duchy of Estonia.
1968 – Timothy James McVeigh, who blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Building in 1995, on April 19, was born. He is executed on June 11, 2001.

April 24
1184 BC – Traditional date of the fall of Troy.

April 25
1946 – Naperville train disaster kills 47 in Naperville, Illinois.

1965 – Teenage sniper Michael Andrew Clark kills three and wounds six others shooting from a hilltop along Highway 101 just south of Santa Maria, California.
2005 – One hundred seven people die in Amagasaki rail crash in Japan.
2010 – Joseph McVey, 23, from Ohio, is arrested with a shotgun, in a car made to look like a police vehicle with working lights and sirens in the Asheville, NC airport parking lot, when President Obama and his family were departing in Air Force One.

April 26
1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.
1894 – Birthdate of Rudolf Walter Richard Heß, also spelled Hess, who was a prominent politician in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, he served in this position until 1941, when he flew solo to Scotland. Neo-nazi "celebrations" have been held for him in Germany, on the date of his death, August 17, but some indications are that his birthdate is acknowledged, as well.
1982 – Fifty-seven people are killed by former police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea.
2002 – Robert Steinhäuser, 19, infiltrates the Gutenberg-Gymnasium (a secondary school) in Erfurt, Germany. He stalked the halls, and killed 12 teachers, an administrator, two students, one policeman, and wounded 10 other people before he killed himself. Seventeen people in total died.

April 27
711 – Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).
1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' Hymn).
2011 – The April 25–28 tornado outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Two hundred five tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more.
2012 – At least four explosions hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk with at least 27 people injured.
2014 – A tornado outbreak over much of the eastern United States kills 35 people.

April 28
1192 – Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin.
1949 – The Hukbalahap are accused of assassinating former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, while she is en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and ten others are also killed.
1978 – President of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.
1996 – Port Arthur massacre, Tasmania: A gunman, Martin Bryant, opens fire at the Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killing 35 people and wounding 23 others.

April 29
1429 – Joan of Arc (tied to name game, Fay/Fairy/Beech) arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans.
1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor. Both Hitler and Braun died by suicide the following day.

April 30
1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun die by suicide after being married for less than 40 hours. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building. 

2009 – Eight people are killed and another ten injured at a Queen's Day parade in Netherlands in an attempted assassination on Queen Beatrix and members of the Royal Family. The attack occurred at the De Naald (in English The Needle), which is the obelisk monument in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn. The car of the assailant, identified as Richard Karst Tates, ended up crashed at the base of the obelisk.

2009 – Azerbaijan State Oil Academy shooting: Twelve people were killed (students and staff members) by an armed attacker.

Beltaine Festival - April 30-May 1. Walpurgis Night. This is the highest day on the Druidic Witch's Calendar. May 1 is the Illuminati's second most sacred holiday. Human sacrifice is required.

+++++++++++++++++

Bridget Brown of Toronto's Canadian TV online edition wrote the following on October 4, 2006:

Coleman says violent offenders, intent on shocking the public, sometimes "compete for the highest body count."...the copycat crimes will likely slow down as we near winter. He says spring, and the anniversary of Columbine, could be enough to spark another cycle of tragedy.

Here's a snippet from Montana's Daily Inter Lake, for October 5, 2006:

There is also the influence of cable news to be accounted for, as wall-to-wall coverage of shootings and murder could easily sway sick minds to think of killers as culture heroes. Indeed, researcher Loren Coleman believes copycats imitate previous violent attacks on a regular basis. He says school attacks follow a pattern after a media event in a day, a week, two weeks, a month, a year, or 10 years. "Vulnerable humans have internal media clocks," he maintains.

"Killers often pick special dates for their attack," April 17, 2009 by Trish Crawford, in Toronto Star

...Loren Coleman is worried, because mass killers often choose special dates and anniversaries for their carnage. The killers at Columbine did, by picking the birthday of one of history's monsters.
The author of The Copycat Effect (Simon & Schuster) says the amount of attention this anniversary gets may determine whether any other disaffected males bent on vengeance pick April 20 for their act of destruction.
"Anniversaries can be dangerous," Coleman says. "These individuals compete with each other."
...Coleman called schools "a fish bowl setting with a vulnerable population."
...The killers are uniformly "homicidal, suicidal, sexually dysfunctional males" who feel powerless and blame others for their problems. Attacking school students – young girls are favored targets – makes these people feel powerful and strong, Coleman says.

Michael Hoffman III, being interviewed for "Cereal Murder and the Group Mind" in 2000, notes:

There is an occult nose-thumbing at the bottom of many of these twilight language cereal murders, such as Jack the Ripper - poking fun at the investigators and the public because so many don't get the black comedy at the heart of it. It's a feeling of superiority magnified exponentially. 

+++

H/T to R. Sullivan for news of the new Newtown incident.

Fifty Church Shootings & Killings: 1999 - 2015

June 17, 2015 - Charleston, South Carolina - On the evening of June 17, 2015, a mass shooting took place at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. The church is one of the United States' oldest black churches. The senior pastor, the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, a state senator, was among the nine people killed. In the immediate aftermath, police sought a white male, later identified as Dylann Storm Roof. He was captured the morning after the attack in Shelby, North Carolina, at a traffic stop on Route 74.

May 24, 2015 - Hartford, Connecticut - The Rev. Dr. Augustus Sealy, 54, who leads the First Church of the Nazarene in Hartford, was shot outside the church. Sealy was placing flags in front of First Church of Nazarene there in honor of Memorial day when he was shot three times. He was shot twice in the right leg, and once in the left shoulder. The date was his fifth anniversary as the pastor.

December 4, 2014 - Bradenton, Florida – Manatee County Sheriff reported that Pastor Tripp Battle of Bayshore Baptist Church and Bayshore Baptist’s Nursery/Children’s director Amber Avalos were killed by the husband of suspected shooter Andy Avalos.

June 13, 2014 - Phoenix, Arizona - Two Priest were shot at Mother of Mercy church in Phoenix. Pastor Walker died at the scene and Pastor Joseph Terra was injured.

September 27, 2013 – Lake Charles, Louisiana – Woodrow Karey, 53, of Lake Charles, is accused of walking into a Calcasieu church, shooting and killing Pastor Ronald J. Harris Sr., as he was preaching during a revival.

September 18, 2013 - South Bend, Indiana - Police officials reported that a gunman wearing a mask entered a South Bend church Wednesday Evening and shot two bullets at a church member working inside. Sunday Kingdom Christian Center in South Bend. 

August 20, 2013 – Chicago, Illinois - Three men in a white vehicle fired gunshots at a group of people on the steps of the Uptown Baptist Church. Witnesses told police that one gunman fired as many as 20 shots from the vehicle. Three of the people who were shot were listed from stable to critical condition. One person shot was in critical condition and on life support, and was not expected to survive.

July 22, 2013 - Norwood, Missouri – Earnest J. Smith, 48, was arrested and faced five separate felony charges after Police say he fired two shots inside the Norwood First Baptist Church during Sunday morning services. Earnest Smith was held in the Wright County Jail on $250,000 cash only bond. Earnest Smith had made previous threats in the past to kill the pastor and members of the church. People attending the church at the time had tackled Smith and held him until deputies could arrive.

March 31, 2013 – Ashtabula, Ohio - On Easter Sunday during mass, Reshad Riddle entered Hiawatha Church of God in Christ screaming about God and Allah, with a gun in his hand according to witnesses. While parishioners were leaving the church, Reshad then shot his 52-year old father, Richard Riddle. Riddle was immediately arrested and taken into custody by police.  

January 12, 2013 – Flint, Michigan – Police authorities report that Steven E. Lawson, 28, was shot to death just outside the sanctuary of Full Gospel Christian Church on King Avenue near Home Avenue, while attending the funeral for Gerrell Tyler. No arrest have been made at the time of this posting.

December 25, 2012 – Oakland, California - Bullets were fired outside the East Oakland church during church services. Authorities reported that a 17-year-old male was struck outside the church, and inside, a 38-year-old woman was struck by a stray bullet while shielding her 7-year-old twins. Police reported that injuries were not life-threatening.

December 10, 2012 – Sunrise, Florida – A man shot what authorities believed to be his ex-girlfriend woman multiple times outside of Faith Center Church, before killing himself, according to authorities and witnesses. The shooting took place while hundreds of congregants were exiting the sanctuary just before 1 p.m.

December 3, 2012 – Coudersport, Pennyslvania – A man walked inside First United Presbyterian Church and shot his ex-wife as she sat in the church pew. According to officials, the man's ex-wife served as organist and choir director. Gregory Eldred, 52, of Coudersport, has been charged with first-degree murder, accused of twice shooting Darlene Sitler, 53.

November 5, 2012 – Los Angeles, California - One churchgoer was killed and another wounded while trying to stop a teenage girl from spray-painting graffiti on the side of the Principe de Paz (“Prince of Peace”) church located on the Beverly Boulevard in the Westlake district. Janeth Lopez, 22; Pedro Martinez, 24; and Ivy Navarrete, 31, were charged in the killing of Adres Ordonez, 25, who had been a churchgoer there since he was 10.

October 29, 2012 – Fort Worth, Texas - A paster was killed by an attacker who rammed a car into a church wall, chased the pastor and beat him with an electric guitar. Pastor Danny Kirk Sr., was the founding pastor of Greater Sweethome Missionary Baptist Church.  

October 31, 2012 – Atlanta, Georgia - Floyd Palmer walked into the chapel of World Changers Church International, during prayer services in the evening and shot Gregory McDowell as he led a prayer service. Palmer was charged with murder in McDowell’s shooting death.

September 6, 2012 – Pensacola, Florida - Escambia County Sheriff’s deputies received a call around 6 p.m. of a shooting. The victim was Pastor Laddie Pierce of West Pensacola Baptist Church. Pierce was shot during bible study, before their normal Wednesday service. Officials at the scene did not believe the injuries are life threatening. The 72-year-old man who shot the pastor of West Pensacola Baptist Church on Wednesday night did so because he thought the minister was cheating with his wife, according to an arrest report.

August 5, 2012 - Oak Creek, Wisconsin - Six Sikh temple members were killed when 40-year-old Army veteran Wade Michael Page opened fire in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, at their temple. Page killed himself as cops moved in.

June 7, 2012 – DeKalb County, Georgia - Two people were killed and two others were wounded during a shooting outside of a funeral at Victory for the World Church in DeKalb County.

May 3, 2012 – Ellicott City, Maryland – Rev. Mary-Marguerite Kohn, co-rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, and Brenda Brewington, were killed on May 3, 2012 by a homeless man, after he was apparently turned away from the church’s food bank. The homeless man identified by authorities as Douglas Jones, was found dead in the woods nearby the church by self inflected gun shot wounds.

April 22, 2012 – Aurora, Colorado – Police say the mother of Pastor De Lono Straham, Destiny Christian Center, was shot and killed in the afternoon at the end of the Sunday worship service. The Police say the shooting suspect and the pastor’s mother were shot and taken to a local hospital where they both died. The suspect was shot by an off-duty Denver Police officer who was a member of the church and is the pastor’s cousin. Police had no motive for the shooting.

February 14, 2012 – St. Petersburg, Florida – A pastor’s daughter was accidentally shot in the head in a Florida church and died. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office says 20-year-old Hannah Kelley died in the hospital.

January 24, 2012 – Wentzville, Missouri – A man was unintentional shot after a fundraiser at St. Patrick Catholic Church. Police report that during the taking down of decorations while people were popping balloons there was a pop that was unrecognizable and members discovered that 23-year-old Aaron Dwan, was the victim of a gunshot wound. Aaron was rushed to the hospital where he was reported as in serious condition but stable condition. Police report that a “person of interest” went to the police where the police have determined that the shooting was not intentional. 

September 18, 2011 – Lakeland, Florida - Jeremiah Fogle, 57, was charged with murder and attempted murder after Sunday’s shootings at Greater Faith Christian Center Church. Pastor William Boss and associate pastor Carl Stewart were shot from behind, authorities said. Boss was shot in the head, and Stewart was shot three times in the back and ear.

December 24, 2010 – Chattanooga, Tennessee – Nine people were injured after a Christmas Eve party at Club Fathom, Mosaic’s outreach program for urban youth. The Christmas shooting stemmed from an argument inside the church during a party. Police have arrested two juveniles, one being a 15-year-old with nine counts of attempted first-degree murder, nine counts of aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy and reckless endangerment. 

November 16, 2010 – Oakland, California – At 11:45 am, a man attending a class at an East Oakland church was lured outside and shot to death on the sidewalk under a cross, church members said.

September 27, 2010 - Youngstown, Ohio - A church community haunted by the parking-lot shooting death of an 80-year-old member is mourning the killing of another elderly parishioner minutes after leaving church. Someone fired up to a dozen shots at Thomas Repchic, 75, as he drove from church with his 74-year-old wife, who was wounded but expected to recover. The couple had just left St. Dominic Roman Catholic Church, where Jacqueline Repchic works in the office on Saturdays. 

August 30, 2010 - Visalia, California - The fatal shooting of a lay bishop occurred at a Mormon church by a man who was killed in an ensuing confrontation with officers. Clay Sannar, a 42-year-old father of six boys, was doing administrative paperwork on Sunday between services when a man came in and asked for a leader of the congregation, said church official Ralph Jordan. The man was directed to Sannar and fatally shot him, said Colleen Mestas, the police chief in Visalia, southeast of Fresno in California’s Central Valley. Then, someone called police and identified himself as the gunman. When police arrived at the church, they confronted the man and exchanged gunfire, said Mestas. The gunman was shot multiple times and pronounced dead at nearby hospital.

February 14, 2010 - Richmond, California - Three hooded men walk into Gethsemane Church of God in Christ and opened fire and then fled the scene, as the singing of the choir was replaced by frightened screams. The two victims, a 14-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man, were hospitalized.

January 7, 2010 – Gaines Township, Michigan – Youth Pastor MarShon Peoples was shot in the head after he denied eight teens entry into the “Streams of Hope” party he was hosting because they smelled like alcohol and marijuana, according to Pastor Peoples. After teens refused to leave after repeatedly being asked by Pastor Peoples who then elected to contact the police. According to Pastor Peoples, that is when he was shot. Witnesses said that approximately 25 shots were fired but no else was hurt. Pastor People is recovering well after surgery to remove the bullet from his head. Pastor Peoples said that he harbors no hard feelings toward the young men who shot him.

March 8, 2009 - Maryville, Illinois - Suspect Terry Joe Sedlacek, 27, of Troy, walked into the First Baptist Church, and shot pastor Fred Winters dead, point blank. Several
church members were injured by a knife in the struggle to capture after the attack. The suspect also stabbed himself, but survived, when his gun jammed.

Feb. 18, 2009 - Garden Grove, California - A man walks into the internationally known Crystal Cathedral, hands a greeter a note, then kneels in front of a cross and shoots himself in the head, leaving him dead at the altar.

July 27, 2008 - Knoxville, Tennessee - A gunman opens fire in a church during a youth performance, killing two people and injuring seven. Motivated by a desire to kill liberals and Democrats, gunman Jim David Adkisson fired a shotgun at members of the congregation during a youth performance of a musical, Annie Jr.

December 9, 2007 - Arvada-Colorado Springs, Colorado - The 2007 Colorado YWAM and New Life shootings were a killing spree beginning in the early morning hours, when 24-year-old Matthew J. Murray opened fire at the Youth With A Mission training center in Arvada, Colorado, with a pistol, killing two and wounding two others before escaping. Later that afternoon, he attacked the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with a number of firearms, killing two more people and injuring three before being shot and wounded by a member of the church's congregation; he then died by suicide.

May 20, 2007 - Moscow, Idaho - A standoff between police and a suspect in the shootings of three people in a Presbyterian Church ended with three dead, including one police officer.

Aug. 12, 2007 - Neosho, Missouri - First Congregational Church - 3 killed - Eiken Elam Saimon shot and killed the pastor and two deacons and wounded five others.

Oct. 2, 2006 - Lancaster County, Pennsylvania - Attack by a gunman who killed five girls and then himself. While not at a church, this occurred at an Amish school targeted as a religious site.

May 21, 2006 - Baton Rouge, Louisiana - The Ministry of Jesus Christ Church - 4 killed - The four at the church who were shot were members of Erica Bell's family; she was abducted and murdered elsewhere; Bell's mother, church pastor Claudia Brown, was seriously wounded - Anthony Bell, 25, was the shooter.

Feb. 26, 2006 - Detroit, Michigan - Zion Hope Missionary Baptist Church - 2 killed + shooter - Kevin L. Collins, who reportedly went to the church looking for his girlfriend, later killed himself.

April 9, 2005 - College Park, Georgia - A 27-year-old airman died after being shot at a church, where he had once worked as a security guard.

March 12, 2005 - Brookfield, Wisconsin - Living Church of God - 7 killed + shooter - Terry Ratzmann opened fire on the congregation, killing seven and wounding four before taking his own life.

July 30, 2005 - College Park, Georgia - World Changers Church International - shooter killed - Air Force Staff Sgt. John Givens was shot five times by a police officer after charging the officer, following violent behavior.

Dec. 17, 2004, Garden Grove, Calif.: A veteran musician at the Crystal Cathedral shoots himself to death after a nine-hour standoff.

Oct. 5, 2003 - Atlanta, Georgia - Turner Monumental AME Church - 2 killed + shooter - Shelia Wilson walked into the church while preparations are being made for service and shot the pastor, her mother and then herself.

June 10, 2002 - Conception, Missouri - Benedictine monastery - 2 killed + shooter - Lloyd Robert Jeffress shot four monks in the monastery killing two and wounding two, before killing himself.

March 12, 2002 - Lynbrook, New York - Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church - 2 killed - Peter Troy, a former mental patient, opens fire during Mass, killing the priest and a parishioner. He later receives a life sentence.

May 18, 2001 - Hopkinsville, Kentucky - Greater Oak Missionary Baptist Church - 2 killed - Frederick Radford stood up in the middle of a revival service and began shooting at his estranged wife, Nicole Radford, killing her and a woman trying to help her.

Nov. 1, 2000, Kansas City: The wife of a minister fatally shoots her daughter and then herself.

Sept. 15, 1999 - Fort Worth, Texas - Wedgewood Baptist Church - 7 killed + shooter - Larry Gene Ashbrook shot dead seven people and injured a further seven at a concert by Christian rock group Forty Days in Fort Worth, Texas before killing himself.

April 15, 1999 - Salt Lake City, Utah - LDS Church Family History Library - 2 killed + shooter - Sergei Babarin, 70, with a history of mental illness, entered the library, killed two people and wounded four others before he was gunned down by police.

From the Gateway Arch to the Khyber Pass Gateway

The Gateway to the Khyber Pass, at Peshawar, is an archway to a mountain pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Pass was an integral part of the ancient Silk Road and throughout history, it has been an important trade route between Central Asia and South Asia and a strategic military location. It also lies at the end of the Grand Trunk Road.

The heart of Khyber Pakhtonkhwa was initially termed “Pushpapura” and means "the city of flora." Peshawar is sited on the boundary of South Asia and Central Asia and become the business center of South Asia. Peshawar is also known as “The City of Frontier” because the city that link the Afghanistan and Pakistan through the Khyber Pass. Peshawar is the commercial center of the Pakistan based, in part, on their connection to its unique food industry and home of textile, silk, carpets and other items.

From the Gateway Arch to the Khyber Pass Gateway, the thread of destruction of human life continues. We living in times of violence.

The Taliban stormed a military-run school in northwest Pakistan, gunning down and killing at least 141 people -- most of them children -- in one of the bloodiest attacks in the country's history.

The Army Public School is located at Warsak Road near Cantonment, Peshawar, which is part of Army Public Schools & Colleges System that runs 146 schools in Pakistan.

The attack began at around noon when seven gunmen, dressed in uniforms of the Pakistani Frontier Corps, entered the school from the back through a cemetery adjacent to the school, after scaling its walls. Before entering the school the gunmen set fire to vehicles, then indiscriminately opened fire with automatic weapons in the central auditorium of the school, where children were gathered for a school function.

The Pakistani Taliban killed 141 people, including 132 children, in an attack on an army run school in Peshawar, a city in the country’s north-west. The attack was the deadliest in Pakistan’s history.

All of the militants in the school attack in northwest Pakistan have been killed, a Peshawar police official says.

Pakistan’s Major General Asim Bajwa says there were seven militants, all wearing suicide jackets, and that several special forces soldiers were wounded in the fighting.

“The terrorists used a ladder to cross the school walls from the graveyard behind the school. The terrorists and the Pakistani army fought in the administrative block of the school.”

He says 960 students and staff were saved in the rescue operation, and that 121 children were wounded during the attack.

This is a short overview of similar attacks in Pakistan.

16 December 2014: Taliban attack on school in Peshawar leaves at least 135 people dead, most of them children

22 September 2013: Militants linked to the Taliban kill at least 80 people at a church in Peshawar, in one of the worst attacks on Christians

10 January 2013: Militant bombers target the Hazara Shia Muslim minority in the city of Quetta, killing 120 at a snooker hall and on a street

28 May 2010: Gunmen attack two mosques of the minority Ahmadi Islamic sect in Lahore, killing more than 80 people

18 October 2007: Twin bomb attack at a rally for Benazir Bhutto in Karachi leaves at least 130 dead. Unclear if Taliban behind attack.

Peshawar is situated in a large valley near the eastern end of the Khyber

Pass.

In 2002, Osama bin Laden slipped into Pakistan. He then lived in at least

five different places including Peshawar before finally settling down in

Abbottabad in 2005. It was there where he was eventually killed by US Navy

SEALs in a covert raid begun on May 1, 2011. The official death date for

Osama bin Laden is given as May 2, 2011.

The operation, code named Zero Dark Thirty, and used as the title of a

famed film on the event, was defined as "a military term for 30 minutes

after midnight, and it refers also to the darkness and secrecy that

cloaked the entire decade-long mission."

The raid was completed shortly after 1am local time when he was shot once

in the chest and once in the head by a Navy Seal who announced, "For God

and country Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo," because Geronimo was the

code-name given to the al-Qaeda leader.

Bloody Valentine's Day?

It is a full moon on February 14, 2014, from Albania to Sochi, from Alaska to Xinjiang. May everyone be safe on this Bloody Friday.

I have low expectations for humans on February 14th. The love and romance associated with Valentine's Day seem to turn into killings of different varieties. It is as if, of all the days during the year, this one brings forth the most tension for a few individuals.

Extend this to what has been occurring with homicidal-suicidal feelings recently, and the outcomes are tragic. School shootings, domestic violence in murder-suicide clusters, workplace violence, and more. Are mall shootings, church killings, terrorist attacks, and new domestic murder-suicides in our near future? Does Valentine's Day have an international reach? Will violence visit global locations on February 14th?

On February 14, 2008, six people were dead due to a Northern Illinois University shooting, including the gunman. There were 22 casualties in all.

Yesterday, I received a call from a reporter based in Montreal for the Globe and Mail newspaper. He discussed with me, as he described them, "a recent series of multiple murders involving rage-filled men killing their lovers or ex-lovers and their loved-ones. Three cases involving a total of about 10 deaths, in the space of about 2 weeks." 

I pointed out that Valentine's Day could be a day to watch out for and warn about in his article. Unfortunately, the reporter Les Perreaux felt the story won't get published until the weekend due to the fact there just had been a new murder-suicide, on Thursday, February 13th.

This topic hits close to home for me, and I've always acknowledged that. 

My book, The Copycat Effect, is dedicated to my maternal grandmother (pictured above), who died in a Valentine's Day murder-suicide.

I penned that dedication this way:

For Nellie Gray,

The grandmother I never knew,
as she was killed during a murder-suicide
on Valentine’s Day, 1940.

In my book I wrote an entire section entitled the "Significant of Dates," and began with one special example, St. Valentine's Day. I reprint below what you will find in my book about February 14th, from pages 246-247:

Dates are important, anniversary events especially so. Suicides, murder-suicides, murders tend to clump around dates of loss for at-risk victims.

One such date is one that most people assume should be associated with happy feelings, but it is not. That is Valentine’s Day. For many people, it’s a day that speaks more to emptiness and loss than to joy and love.

One cultural event seems to point to this feeling: the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” of February 14, 1929, in Chicago. On this day the alleged henchman of gangster “Scarface” Al Capone murdered seven members of the George “Bugs” Moran gang in a North Clark Street garage. Colorful names, a memorable day, the windy city, a grand crime, and huge headlines have made this event enormously “infamous” in history. Books and movies have fueled the copycat effect of this date.

A year after “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre,” Ben Hecht...authoredScarface(1930), which was made into a Howard Hughes produced, Howard Hawks directed movie (1932) about the North Clark Street killings. Hughes supposedly asked that Scarfacebe "realistic, as exciting, as grisly as possible." Censors blocked Scarfacefor two years before Hawks got it to theaters.

How does culture make a 1929 event into currency for a future generation? Through the movies and other media, of course. Some Like It Hot(1959) had Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis playing two Chicago musicians who witnessed the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and are forced to cross-dress as women in order to hide from Al Capone. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre(1967) starring Jason Robards portrays the event in docudrama style.

But beyond fiction, real murders and murder-suicides have also been linked to the specific Valentine’s Day 1929 gangland murders. The gangland and other ripples from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre certainly demonstrate an awareness of the twilight language of the event.

The individual most often identified as the organizer of the Moran gang killings was Jack "Machine Gun" McGurn, one of Capone's most trusted men. McGurn (whose real name was James DeMora), an expert with the Tommy gun who had an “eye for the ladies,” especially for blonde women, was killed on the eve of Valentine’s Day, 1936. A nickel was put in McGurn's right hand and, next to his body the killers left a humorous valentine card.

Sometimes personal histories reinforce the negative Valentine’s Day link. My grandmother was killed by her second husband on Valentine’s Day, 1940, in Illinois, in a murder-suicide, as my future mother, a 12 old girl, looked on in horror. The copycat effect sometimes hits close to home.

During the 1980s, St. Valentine’s Day was a focus of teen suicide clusters around the United States, and many families felt the impact of the day.

Earlier in the book, I described a teen suicide cluster in Peekskill, New York. I mentioned on February 4, 1984, Robert DeLaValliere, 13, hanged himself in Depew Park, and then I wrote:

Did another teen then imitate DeLaValliere? Ten days after his suicide, 14‑year‑old Justin Spoonhour picked a tree in back of his home and hanged himself. Spoonhour lived in Putnam Valley, five miles north of where DeLaValliere died. His mother graphically described in a People magazine article how she found her boy. "I turned my light on and saw Justin hanging from a tree,” she wrote. "His eyes and mouth were open, and his tongue was swollen and protruding." As we have noted, this was Valentine’s Day in Peekskill.

Elsewhere in The Copycat Effect, Valentine's Day figures as a touchstone for understanding the context of violence in which we find ourselves. I noted:

In 2002, National Review online editor Jonah Goldberg, a conservative, commented on liberal Senator Patrick Moynihan’s 1993 essay, “Defining Deviancy Down,” to make some points about the media’s normalizing of terrorism. Goldberg’s and Moynihan’s insights apply here, in understanding how the media makes “celebrities” of events, which then serve as cultural icons that are held up for emulation by followers. In this way, copycats are produced. Calling the essay “one of the most influential articles of the last decade,” Goldberg notes that “Moynihan argued that deviancy - crime, mental illness, out-of-wedlock births, etc. -- had become so rampant, had so thoroughly soaked into the culture, that we simply had to redefine the abnormal as normal to cope.”

“Moynihan's most famous example was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre,” noted Goldberg. “That event was a major turning point in American history, credited with helping to convince Americans to abandon prohibition…The actual details? Four gangsters murdered seven gangsters. In the early 1990s, Moynihan noted, Los Angeles suffered from the equivalent of one St. Valentine's Day Massacre every weekend. And, of course, we can say much the same about suicide bombings in Israel.”

The above passages are from my 2004 book, The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines, a work the American media does not wish you to buy or read. In Canada, intriguingly, they are more open to research findings and the lessons learned.

Black Friday's Dark News

Black Friday's first victim: Jdimytai Damour

The 2011 Honda Civic of Black Friday's latest victim: Patrick Henry Boyd.

Some have asked, "Why is there a concentration of attention on 'bad news' on this blog?".

Fair enough.

The simple answer is that social science on the twilight language is done more easily through tracking violent events in the media, as those are noted more routinely.

In The Copycat Effect: How The Media and Popular Culture Trigger The Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004), I document how this attitude is dealt to us as "death sells."

While it would be wonderful to track daily events and changes in terms of positive behaviors, that is rather difficult. The copycat effect, for example, is working all the time, whether in milder forms such as people copying "fads" like hula hoops, buying the same color of cars or shooting victims in schools.

The media gets more involved with acts of violence, because, if it bleeds, it leads is a truth of modern news.

So, here we are, the day after Thanksgiving 2013, in the USA. It is Black Friday, which is named for businesses going into the "black" (turning a profit) in revenue. The death is rising, and even the English are following the history of "worst clashes."

The day's name - Black Friday - originated in Philadelphia, where it first was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term started before 1961 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975.

In reality, in recent years, it has become capitalism's version of "Devil's Night," chiefly associated with the serious vandalism and arson seen in Detroit, Michigan from the 1970s to the 1990s. Violence has been frequent news byproduct of reports on Black Fridays, since 2006, and the media appears to be enjoying detailing every fight, shooting, or near riots on Black Fridays.

Black Friday 2008 seemed especially dangerous. A New York Wal-Mart employee Jdimytai Damour died after 2000 bargain hunters broke down the doors to the store, pushing him to the ground. The 34-year-old male employee was pronounced dead an hour after shoppers breached the doors to the shopping center at 77 Green Acres Road, Valley Stream, Long Island. On the same day, two people were fatally shot during an altercation at a Toys "R" Us, Desert Crossing Shopping Center at 72314 Highway 111, in Palm Desert, California.

This year, here's the rundown, thus far, as noted by the Black Friday Death Count:

2013 Teen returning home from Black Friday shopping fell asleep at wheel, killed in wreck

The wreck happened at 7:24 a.m. on South Point Road near Tucker Road, in front of Jim's Grocery. The driver, 19-year-old Patrick Henry Boyd, of 6915 Treebark Lane, Clover, South Carolina, died in the wreck. Boyd's 2011 Honda Accord struck a sign at 1901 South Point Road.

2013 Man Stabbed During Black Friday Event at Carlsbad Mall

A man was hospitalized after being stabbed, just after 12:30 a.m., police received a report of a stabbing at the Westfield Plaza Camino Real mall located at 2525 El Camino Real. An 18-year-old man, who they identified as Javier Covarrubias, stabbed the man in the stomach, and then fled the scene on foot with another suspect towards the Movie Max Theater at the mall. He was arrested; the other man vanished.

Click the links, below, for more details on each incident:
2013 Newport, Arkansas Walmart employee injured during Black Friday sales
2013 NBPD confirm woman trampled at Wal-Mart
2013 Scenes of chaos during chain store's Black Friday sales in Ireland
2013 Several injured in Black Friday-related shooting outside Kohl's in Illinois
2013 Black Friday: Virginia Man Stabbed In Walmart Parking Lot Over Space
2013 Rialto Walmart brawl sends one police officer to hospital
2013 Shopper carrying TV home from Target shot in Las Vegas

More collections of Black Friday's Dark News (2013 edition) can be found here, here, and here. Heck, you can just follow it on the Drudge Report too, for the next few hours.

(H/T to Enki & JWC.)

Capitol Hill Violence: Miriam, Biblical Sister of Aaron

Washington D.C. has been hit by another shooting incident that captured the media's attention. The US Navy Yard shooting left 12 dead and the gunman, Aaron Alexis.

Today something more bizarre occurred.

NBC reports:

A woman who tried to force her car through a White House security fence Thursday afternoon was shot and killed by police after a 12-block chase past the Capitol, which was locked down for a half-hour, authorities said.
The suspect — a dental hygienist with a history of mental issues, according to sources — had a 1-year-old child with her who was not hurt, police said.
One Secret Service officer was struck by the woman's car, and a Capitol Police officer was injured when he slammed into a barricade during the pursuit.
The U.S. Capitol was placed on lockdown following a car chase and shooting involving a woman who attempted to ram the White House gates.
All the shots fired came from the officers involved in the pursuit, and the woman — identified as Miriam Carey, 34, of Stamford, Conn. — did not have a gun, law-enforcement sources said.

The woman seemed to be doing the unthinkable.

The Washington Post tried to understand what had happened.

Her sister, Amy Carey, a Brooklyn nurse, was incredulous when she was reached Thursday afternoon and told what had happened outside the Capitol.
“That’s impossible. She works, she holds a job,” said Amy Carey, who confirmed that her Stamford-based sister drove a black car. She said she knew of nothing that would bring her sister to Washington. “She wouldn’t be in D.C. She was just in Connecticut two days ago, I spoke to her. . . . I don’t know what’s happening. I can’t answer any more.”

S. Hunter notes, "both Miriam and Aaron openly claimed they were being stalked by government officials."

Aaron Alexis was arrested in Seattle in 2004 for shooting out the tires on an individual's vehicle." Miriam Carey's tires had recently been slashed in an incident in Connecticut, shares correspondent Hunter.

What does the woman's name Miriam Carey mean?

Miriam is the original Hebrew form of Mary. It is used in the Old Testament, where it belongs to the elder sister of Moses and Aaron. It has long been popular among Jews, and it has been used as an English Christian name since the Protestant Reformation.

Carey is from an Irish surname which was derived from Ó Ciardha meaning "descendent of Ciardha," derived from Irish ciar "black".

A black woman in a black car with a black name attacking the White House of our first black president?

For several incidents of late, as in this one, AfricanAmericans have been the foci. 

There are no coincidences.

++++

After years of workplace shootings and "random" acts of mass violence in schools, malls, and other settings being linked to "lone nut" Caucasian males, we have entered a period of intense media attention to African-American/black individuals being involved.

June 21, 2013 ~ Lakim Faust (African-American shooter)

August 19, 2013 ~ Michael Brandon Hill (Caucasian shooter) targets African-American school, formerly named after George Washington Carver, which was renamed after Ron McNair (who went to another Carver HS)

August 30, 2013 ~ Christopher Lamont Richardson Jr. (African-American) targets Carver HS, a traditional African-American HS

September 1, 2013 ~ Daquan Breland and Daquan Wright (African-American shooters) kill African-American infant

September 4, 2013 ~ Hispanics target African-Americans, kill Joshua Broussard

September 16, 2013 ~ Aaron Alexis (African-American shooter) kills 12 (see also here)

On the Damascus Road

Why do a few multiple news items appear to play name game tricks of their own?

On Saturday, May 18, 2013, a powerful car explosion hit the Ruken al-Deen neighborhood in Damascus, killing at least three people in the latest blast to strike the Syrian capital (population 1.7 million). The SANA news agency reported that an explosive device was planted under a car parked on Rukneddin highway near Ibn al-Nafis Hospital in Damascus, Syria. The initial death toll was put at three, and the number of injured at five.

Also on Saturday, May 18th, around 2:10 p.m. during the Hikers Parade at the Trail Days festival in Damascus, Viriginia, an annual celebration of the Appalachian Trail,  was interrupted by tragedy. 

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/05/19/3494077/medical-emergency-eyed-in-va-parade.html#storylink=cpy

An elderly driver in a 1997 Cadillac plowed into the parade, injuring at least 60 people, sending a dozen to the hospital.

"In 27 years of this, we've never had anything of this magnitude, and is it our job to make sure it doesn't happen again," Damacus Mayor Jack McCrady said.

Damascus is a small town of less than 1000 people in Washington County, Virginia, United States. Damascus is the home of the annual Trail Days festival (with reportedly 20,000 people visiting). The community is known as Trail Town USA due to the convergence of four scenic trails in the town, including the Appalachian Trail, U.S. Bicycle Route 76, The Iron Mountain Trail, and the Virginia Creeper Trail.

The word Damascus means "a well-watered place."

Conversion of Saint Paul, 1542 by Michelangelo Buonarroti

At top, The Conversion of St. Paul, 1767 by Nicolas-Bernard Lepicie

In the West, Damascus is most frequently associated with the conversion incident mentioned in the New Testament of the Bible. Saint Paul was on the road to Damascus (present day Syria) when he received a vision of Jesus, and as a result accepted The Christ as the Messiah. (Some Fortean theories for what really happened have been developed in recent years.)

Ten years ago, it is intriguingly how Palestine popped up in the context of the first Israeli astronaut being killed.

On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia on mission STS-107 disintegrated during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard. 

One who died was Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut. His first name, Ilan, means "tree" in Hebrew. Ilan changed his last name from Wolferman when he joined the Israeli Air Force. On June 7, 1981, he was the youngest pilot taking part in Operation Opera, Israel's strike against Iraq's unfinished Osiraq nuclear reactor, 10 miles southeast of Baghdad.

A location often mentioned ten years ago for where the parts of the Columbia fell was Palestine, Texas. The irony of that location was not lost on many at the time, considering the fact the Columbia carried an Israeli aboard. 

Even this remarkable "coincidence" is apparent in this Wikipedia mention:

Palestine entered the news in February 2003, as one of the East Texas towns that received much of the debris from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, where seven astronauts were killed, including the first Israeli astronaut. Palestine is also home to the NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (renamed after the shuttle crash), which has flown 1700 high-altitude balloons for universities and research agencies. Source.

An FBI agent and a Texas Department of Public Safety officer looked over a 4-foot by 6-foot piece of the Space Shuttle Columbia that was found in the median along State Highway 155 north of Palestine, Texas on Sunday, February 2, 2003.