Another Red Dawn: The Webster Link

Aurora, the red-haired Roman Goddess of the Dawn, is back.

Dawn Nguyen is escorted into the Federal Building, Friday in Rochester, New York, and charged in connection with the guns used in the Christmas Eve ambush slaying of two volunteer firefighters responding to a house fire in Webster, New York. Photo source.

Dawn Nguyen is being charged with the false declarations she made when she purchases the AR-15 semiautomatic (Bushmaster) rifle and the 12-gauge shotgun that Spengler had with him Monday when firefighters Michael Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka were gunned down. A handgun Spengler also had is not linked to the killings. Spengler's missing and presumed killed sister would bring the death toll to 5 for the Webster event. Spengler shot himself.

What significance is there to the "86" on Dawn Nguyen's sweatshirt.

The first verse lyrics to the song "86" by Dawn Richard:

Somethings change babe
Somethings stay the same
Sometimes love wins
Sometimes it's a losing game
Tried to do it the easy way but
You seen how big my heart was
Had my share of hurricanes the
Proof is in the blood

"86" was released in 2012, and is from her forthcoming album, Goldenheart (due January 15, 2013.)

Read here for my first posting on Red Dawn events. And Red Dawn Again. Plus this overview.

Please consult the comments for some remarkable new pieces of information.

"86" is a phrase often used to me "get rid of," or in street jargon, "to kill someone," as in "go 86 that guy."

The beginning of the chaos in the film The Dark Knight Rises begins at the professional football field, with star player wearing "86," running with the ball in front of the collapsing field. Earlier, a youthful fan was shown with an "86" on his shirt too. (This movie, of course, is the one tied to the Aurora mass shooting.)

Webster-Dawn newstip, thanks to Rob Sullivan. See comments for other credits.

Red Hook's Mask + Van Incident

Killers in ski-masks, and as clowns, Jokers, and Bane haunt this year.

Masked mass shooters in vans, theaters, malls, and schools are nothing new.

Now comes a report from last week of the old classic masked uncaught potential child kidnapper (akin to the "phantom clowns"), this time from Red Hook, New York.

Sandy Hook, Red Hook.

Masks. White vans.

On December 19, 2012 at approximately 8:41 pm the Red Hook Police Department were dispatched to West Market Street for a report of a suspicious vehicle with the driver wearing a black ski mask.
A parent and her child were traveling Westbound on West Market Street returning home from a school event when she began to notice a white full-sized van she was following was traveling at an extremely slow speed past the schools. The caller stated that when she began to follow the white van he pulled over on Rt. 199 just south of the Red Hook High School. The caller stated that when she and her daughter drove past the white van they notice the driver wearing a dark jacket and wearing a black ski mask. Source.

BTW, some really scary masks are being produced out there.

Thanks to Anonymous for alerting me to this report.

Speaking of Serpents

"Makes me think of Moses turning a rod into a serpent in front of the pharaoh," said @anomalistnews's tweet after reading my Bushmaster essay about the assault rifle and the venomous snake.

Meanwhile, earlier The Secret Sun pondered The Dark Jokers.

On December 20th, @red_pill_junkie tweeted,

"Just to be safe, don't let any strangers wearing feathered headdresses 

into your home for the next 24 hours." 

Dangerous Times overviewed how the End Times didn't come, 

but did we get something worst? Red dawns, at Aurora and post-Aurora?

Plus, have we seen the reincarnation of the rods into serpents of the NRA, 

post-Newtown?

Lest we forget, Charlton Heston was born John Carter.
Yes, just like John Carter from Mars.

Is the storm still coming?

Or is it already here?

Listen To The Fates: Bushmasters Measure How Long Life Will Be

Be alert. Look deeply.

A snake. A semi-automatic assault rifle. But not a leader of men.

Josh Voorhees said it all in the headline to his December 26th article in The Slatest: "Weapon of Choice: Holmes, Roberts, Lanza and Spengler All Used Same Type of Assault Rifle."

A frequent pattern of some copycat effect events, whether of a series of mass shootings, suicides, or murder-suicides, is the same method being used, often down to the specific type of weapon employed. 

Sadly, the gun of choice in recent horrific shootings has forever linked Aurora, Clackamas, Sandy Hook-Newtown, and Webster. A little research probably will link this assault rifle to other multiple victim shootings. 

Oh, yes, it already has. John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo, the Beltway Snipers, used a Bushmaster to kill ten and injure three others in Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland in October 2002. Prior to those shootings, apparently Muhammed and Malvo were involved other killings, such as the one on September 23, 2002. That killing of a victim in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was also with a Bushmaster rifle. The Beltway snipers killed people with a Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic .223 caliber rifle equipped with a reflex sight. The manufacturer of the rifle in 2002 was Bushmaster Firearms, Inc. of Windham, Maine.

The Bushmaster is the gun in the news of late. 

It would seem (and some sites confirm it) that this assault rifle was named after the largest venomous snake in the Western Hemisphere. Indeed, the snake is part of the logo of the company. (See at top.)

Lachesis mutus

Lachesis, The Measurer, is on the right.

The common names for the three different species of this snake are the black-headed, the Central American, and the South American bushmasters. The bushmaster's genus name is Lachesis.

Lachesis is a genus of venomous pitvipers found in remote forested areas of Central and South America. The generic name refers to one of the Three Fates in Greek mythology who determined the length of the thread of life.....

One of the largest and most dangerous snakes in South America, this snake is capable of multiple-bite strikes and the injection of large amounts of venom. Even the bite of a juvenile specimen can be fatal. However, this snake is basically nocturnal and contact with humans is minimized for this reason.  Source.

Lachesis, The Measurer

The Three Fates are:

Clotho, the spinner, who spins the thread of life. Lachesis, the measurer, who choses the lot in life one will have and measures off how long it is to be. Atropos, she who cannot be turned, who at death with her shears cuts the thread of life. Source.

As a boy, I remember the bushmaster being mentioned, often, in the books of early naturalists like Raymond Ditmars. Recently one writer recalled a memorably dangerous encounter Ditmars had with a bushmaster in the 1920s, at the Bronx Zoo. Bushmasters are snakes not to be discounted.

The Bushmaster products site has teeshirts, cups, and bomber hats. They all subtly push the myth-making that the assault rifle makes its owner into venomous warriors among men.

The Bushmaster .223 rifle has a history that appears to attract symbolic names.

"The AR-15 rifle was first developed by the Fairchild ArmaLite corporation in 1957. ArmaLite sold the rights to the design to Colt in 1959, and the weapon was adapted for military use as the M16; it went in to service in Vietnam in 1963. The modern AR-15 is a demilitarized version of the M16, and is now manufactured by several companies including Bushmaster...," noted Time.

The Bushmaster and its corporate parent, Freedom Group, is a private company owned by a New York-based hedge fund, Cerberus Capital Management, since 2006.

Cerberus figurine, SafariLtd.

Cerberus in Greek and Roman mythology is a multi-headed hound (usually three-headed), which guards the gates of the Underworld (Hades), to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping.

But now, in the wake of the Newtown shooting, Bushmaster is being put up for sale by Cerebrus because of the new attention to the rifle.

One name origin for the Bushmaster is approaching almost comical mythical status: That the Bushmaster rifle was named after (now former) President George W. Bush. Not true.

The Bushmaster, clearly, is the most venomous of guns, the one that measures the length of the lives of too many innocents.

The underlying theme with this gun is death and more death.

Year 2012: Failed Apocalypse, Foundering Twinkies, and Falling Frogs

As 2012 ends, we did come through the alleged Mayan Apocalypse, not unexpectedly.

But what didn't?

Amazingly, we've known we all would survive since the broadcast of this Chevrolet Silverado 2012 commercial played during the last Super Bowl game (XLVI), in February 2012. Did that one ad give hints to other events and endings?

Unfortunately, Twinkies didn't fare as well as we did. 

Twinkies' company, Hostess, disappeared in 2012. Can we be assured that their revival through another owner will ever be as good? The survival of Twinkies after an apocalypse is a well-known allusion to the movie Zombieland.

The loss in 2012 is resulting in some future events, such as the tribute occurring on 1-3-13 in Austin, Texas.

But how about some other things?

Newspapers? Newsweek?

Drive-in restaurants? Like Big Boy?

How are the volcanoes?

UFOs? Seems more people are talking about Bigfoot, humm?

Then there are those Twinkies.

The ad ends with falling frogs. If we view the year by its Twinkies, why not its frogs?

The Year 2012 saw a rather well-documented report of falling frogs in the United Kingdom:

An actual fallen frog, Norwich, UK. Photo: ITV Anglia News 22 March 2012.

Reports of frogs raining down from the sky over Norwich have baffled weather forecasters at the Met Office. A viewer told Anglia News that she had been hit on the head by a frog while she walked along Prince of Wales Road, and that several more landed on the ground nearby. Source: ITV.

Of course, the falling frogs are a Fortean phenomenon and reference the movie Magnolia.

Magnolia, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999 (the year of the feared Y2K Apocalypse)

One of the actual frogs from Magnolia, 

at the International Cryptozoology Museum.

Terrified horses, up on their hind legs, hoofing a storm of frogs.
Frenzied springboks, capering their exasperations against frogs that were tickling them.
Storekeepers, in London, gaping at frogs that were tapping on their window panes.
We shall pick up an existence by its frogs.
Wise men have tried other ways. They have tried to understand our state of being, by grasping at its stars, or its arts, or its economics. But, if there is an underlying oneness of all things, it does not matter where we begin, whether with stars, or laws of supply and demand, or frogs, or Napoleon Bonaparte. One measures a circle, beginning anywhere. ~ Lo!, Charles Fort, 1931

###

I'll spend some future time reviewing the rather incredible year of bloody, red dawn events, other than on today. For now, wish for lighter moments.

During December, hoping everyone enjoyed or will enjoy their Hanukkah (beginning sundown on 8th), Human Rights Day (10th), Wright Brothers Day (17th), End of the World Day (21st), Winter Solstice (22nd), Christmas (25th), Kwanzaa begins (26th), and New Year's Eve (31st).

Webster Shooting: 2 Volunteer Firefighters & Shooter Dead

Have the media and/or law enforcement, in their rush to publish a photograph of the Webster shooter, pulled incorrect images of "William Spengler"?

Source: Huffington Post

Is this the same man, after prison - or a different individual?

Source: William Spengler, Evening Tribune

Source: Facebook, William Spengler who went to high school in South Caroline

In Webster, New York, a random shooter has killed two and injured others at a house fire, before taking his own life. This happened hours after the shooting reported at the Seahawks After Party.

During the unfolding of the Webster event, a second house caught on fire, but due to the gunfire, firefighters could not respond to that fire.

Later, CNN reported at 10 am Eastern:

At least two firefighters were fatally shot and two wounded after arriving to battle a blaze at a house in upstate New York today, police in Webster, New York, told reporters.

Authorities believe someone shot at the firefighters shortly after they exited their vehicles, said Rob Boutillier, fire marshal in the town of Webster, New York. 

For hours, the gunfire stopped firefighters from working to extinguish the flames and forced police SWAT teams to evacuate homes in the area. 

Several people have been shot at the scene of a fire on Lake Road in Webster [New York]. The fire is at 191 Lake Road near Bay Road. A source tells 13WHAM News that at that scene, an unknown gunman opened fire on fire crews on the scene. ~ Source.

CBS News tweets that "Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering says fire apparently was 'trap' set for first responders; shooter 'eliminated.'"

NBC News tweets that "Suspect responsible for shooting 4 firefighters, 2 fatally, in Webster, New York, was found dead at scene."

WTHI - TV reported, in part,

The West Webster Fire District learned of the fire early Monday after a report of a car and house on fire on Lake Road, on a narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario, Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn said. The fire appeared from a distance as a pulsating ball of flame glowing against the early morning sky, flames licking into treetops and reflecting on the water, with huge bursts of smoke billowing away in a brisk wind.

Two of the firefighters arrived on a fire engine and two in their own vehicles, Pickering said. After the gunman fired, one of the wounded men managed to flee, but the other three couldn't because of flying gunfire.

A police armored vehicle was used to recover two of the men, and eventually it evacuated 33 people from nearby homes, the police chief said.

The dead men were identified as Police Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, the Webster Police Department's public information officer; and Tomasz Kaczowka, also a 911 dispatcher, whose age was not released.

Pickering described Chiapperini as a "lifetime firefighter" with nearly 20 years with the department, and called Kaczowka a "tremendous young man."Source.

Tomasz Kaczowka

Huffington Post is reporting, in part,

Police in New York state say a man who ambushed firefighters had served 17 years for manslaughter in the death of his grandmother.
Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering says 62-year-old William Spengler was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.
Police say he set fire to a car and house to lure firefighters to his house...

On Christmas Day, CNN News released this bulletin:

The shooter who ambushed and killed two upstate New York firefighters Monday left a note behind indicating his intentions, police said today. "I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down and do what I like doing best -- killing people," the three-page typewritten note said.
Two other firefighters who were wounded in the ambush are in stable condition after surgery, police say.
The gunman, William Spengler, 62, was convicted decades ago of killing his grandmother. He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound hours after the firefighters were shot.

******

O'Day on Seahawks Shooting, 1 Dead

A former Playboy Playmate broke another shooting story this morning. (Click here for more on the concurrent East Coast shooting, "Webster Shooting: 2 Volunteer Firefighters  & Shooter Dead."

The Seahawks After Party at Munchbar Bellevue (in Washington State) was the site of a multiple shooting at 1:00 am, early morning Christmas Eve Day, December 24, 2012.

This occurred following the victory of the NFL's Seahawks professional football team vs the San Francisco 49ers, 42 to 13, clinching the Seahawks' berth in the playoffs.

One individual was reported dead, with, at least, three others injured. Rumors are circulating that another fatality has occurred.

All the Seahawks players there, reportedly, were said to be safe.

+++

Update: Bellevue Police have identified 19 year-old, Ja’mari Alexander Alan Jones as a suspect and obtained a warrant for his arrest. The shooter remains at-large, and is believed to be armed and dangerous, according to the Bellevue Reporter.

++++

A main source of inside-the-party events were first picked up by the media from the tweets of Aubrey Morgan O'Day (b. February 11, 1984). The former Playboy Playmate, and reality television and shorts performer (The Aubrey O'Day Show, All About Aubrey, Celebrity Apprentice, Making the Band 3 + 4, Ed Hardy Boyz 2: The Case of When That Hot Filipina Girl Lost Her Tramp Stamp at Mini-Golf, and others) was there with the Seahawks to celebrate.

It is intriguing in the days of Twitter, this social media exchange became a detailed reference point for the incident.

O'Day's tweets (@AubreyODay) moved from her descriptions of "dancing on tables in Hawks VIP" in a "Niners jersey" to the horror of the shooting.

O'Day wrote:

never been n a situation like that. Every1 was screaming on the floor, we had to crawl out the kitchen. Sea, someone tell me what happened?
++
Shit is crazy. I'm telling you. Everyone was on the floor. People got shot. WTF.
++
Seriously ppl just got shot n front of me. We hit the ground, never been in a situation like this. For real. Seattle, what's going on?!
++
So sad.

Beside the Seahawks there, O'Day tweeted:

there as well as some WSU football players

O'Day said security got her out. As she describes, most people dived to the floored, and then crawled out through the kitchen. Others tweeting her told of a man on the ground, with "blood everywhere."

Update: A 30-year-year old Seattle man was said to be killed and other man wounded. The suspect escaped among the crowd of 600 at the Seahawks festive event.

At Seahawks shooting scene

Munchbar is a chain. Here's what the one in Las Vegas promotes as package experience:

*Guns subject to availability

Start your adventure on the gun range at Machine Guns Vegas, where you’ll fire the HK MP5, made famous by Her Majesty’s Secret Air Service, and the Sig P226, designed for the U.S. Army and carried by U.S. Navy SEALs.

You’ll be hungry from concentrating on targets as you send rounds down range, so we’ll take you over to Munchbar at Ceasar’s Palace, where you’ll dine on the best burgers in Las Vegas. Munchbar is located next to the Sports Bar and Pure Night Club in Caesars Palace, and combines culinary creativity and high-caliber ingredients with wholesome comfort food in an electric atmosphere.

$163.00 per person

Your MGV shoot includes:

Transportation to MGV and drop off at Munchbar

MP5: 25 rounds

Sig 226: 5 rounds

Targets: X3

T – shirt

Note: Some bloggers are incorrectly spelling the Bellevue bar/restaurant/music hotspot as "Munch Bar." Technically, it's name is"Munchbar Bellevue," and it adjoins the Mirror. The Munchbar is known locally as a regular gathering site for the Seahawks.

************

More details will be updated as this story develop.

Former MLB Player Ryan Freel Dies by Suicide

Ryan Freel was born on Monday, March 8, 1976, in Jacksonville, Florida. Freel was 25 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 4, 2001, with the Toronto Blue Jays. ~ Baseball Almanac

Jacksonville native Ryan Freel, 36, a former professional baseball player, died by in his home on Saturday, December 22, 2012.

Freel was discovered deceased from a self-inflicted shotgun blast which occurred around 4:00 p.m. at his Brookchase Lane home in Jacksonville, Florida.

On June 28, Freel was named the baseball coach at the St. Joseph Academy, but later withdrew from taking the position.

A Jacksonville native, Freel grew up in Jacksonville, played Little League baseball in Arlington and was a star high school baseball player at Englewood and Sandalwood high schools.

Freel was selected by Toronto in the 10th round of the 1995 draft out of Tallahassee Community College and played in the Blue Jays farm system six seasons before his major league debut in 2001. Freel’s best stretch was a six-year run with the Cincinnati Reds. He was a career .268 hitter with 143 stolen bases. Source.

The Cincinnati Reds, where Freel played from 2003-2008, released the following statement:

The Reds family is deeply saddened to hear of the death of Ryan Freel. His teammates and our fans loved him for how hard he played the game, and he loved giving back to the community. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

USA Today noted that,

He was hit in the head with a pickoff throw in 2009, an injury that put him on the disabled list. Two years earlier he went on the disabled list for five weeks with head and neck injuries after colliding in the outfield with Norris Hopper. He said at the time that he'd had "probably nine or 10" concussions in his life.

Baseball player suicides are not as rare as one assumes, and my study of them in the mid-1980s predicted a wave of self-deaths in 1989. Half of the suicide victims were pitchers, and all of those during the 20th century were right-handed.

Ryan Freel is survived by his wife, Christie, and three young daughters. Our condolences to his family and friends.