Recent Mass Shootings: St. John's Day to a city formerly named St. John's

A mass shooting has occurred at Highland Park, Illinois during a 4th of July parade. 

===============================================

End of the Day: June 24, 2022

In the US, we began hearing the reports of a mass shooting in a gay bar around 7 pm, on the night of June 24, 2022. Two people were dead and several wounded. (It was predictable.)

The shooting took place at locations associated with Oslo Pride, the local LGBT pride event hosted by the Oslo branch of the Norwegian Organisation for Sexual and Gender Diversity, the night before the planned Pride parade in Oslo. The first shooting occurred at London Pub, a popular gay bar and nightclub. A journalist from the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, stated he witnessed a man arrive with a bag, who then picked up a weapon and started shooting. The journalist thought it was an air gun at first, until the bar next door had glass shatter. According to one witness, the perpetrator shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he started shooting. He was identified as 42-year-old Norwegian Iranian Zaniar Matapour.

The perpetrator then moved to two more nearby locations, including Per på hjørnet, a bar popular among the adult LGBT community, and a takeaway. Police were called at 01:15 local time, and arrived minutes later. The suspect was detained five minutes after the attacks. 80 to 100 people hid in the pub's basement during the attack, and wounded people were lying both inside and outside the bar with the police describing the scene as "chaotic".

Two people were killed and twenty-one more were injured, ten of whom were critically injured while the other eleven were slightly injured. The deceased victims were 60-year old Kaare Hesvik, a gay man celebrating pride, and 54-year old Jon Isachsen, both residing in Bærum.

According to Eskil Pedersen, many of those present in London Pub, including himself, were also on Utøya during the shooting by domestic terrorist Anders Behring Breivik.

This shooting was said to be the first one in Norway for 11 years.

It also recalled the Pulse shooting. On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old man, killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States. Orlando Police officers shot and killed him after a three-hour standoff.

===============================================

June 25, 2022	Bolingbrook, Illinois	1	2		WeatherTech shooting: Police were dispatched around 6:25 a.m. to WeatherTech Way after receiving reports that someone was shot. The suspect, identified as Charles C. McKnight Jr. of Chicago, fled the building but was located about three hours later at the back of a home on Larkspur Lane and taken into custody. A handgun was also found at the scene. According to police, one victim died, one is in critical condition and a third was released from the hospital. All three are WeatherTech employees. The victim who died was identified as Central Hightower, 37, of Plainfield, Illinois. The critical condition victim is a 25-year-old man, and the third victim is a 43-year-old man.
June 30, 2022	Allen, Kentucky	3	4	7	2022 shooting of Kentucky police officers: A man fired out the window of his home, shooting seven people, six of whom were law enforcement officers. Two of the officers died at the scene, and a third died in the hospital the day after. The third officer was a canine handler, and his dog also died.

===============================================

July 3, 2022: Copenhagen, Denmark mall shooting: On 3 July 2022, a man opened fire at the Field's shopping mall in Copenhagen, Denmark, killing three people and critically wounding three others. The mass shooting is the first in Denmark since the 2015 Copenhagen shootings.


The shooting took place at the Field's shopping mall located in Ørestad, a developing city area on Amager in Copenhagen. A man carrying a hunting rifle entered the mall sometime before 5:30 p.m. A photo showed him wearing knee-length shorts and a vest or sleeveless shirt. Police received the first shooting reports at 5:37 p.m. and arrested a man 11 minutes later. A witness said the shooter seemed violent and angry, running and shouting. During the attack, a number of people attempted to shelter in a KFC restaurant in the Field's Centre.


Three people were killed, and four more were wounded. Three people went to the Rigshospitalet trauma center. The deceased victims were a 17-year-old girl, a 17-year-old boy and a 47-year-old Russian man. Four of the wounded were seriously injured, including two Swedish citizens and two Danish citizens, and one remains in critical condition.

There are reports the white male chased Muslims to shoot them.

===============================================

4th of July 2022

July 4, 2022

Highland Park, Illinois

6+

24+

30+

2022 Highland Park parade shooting: Six people were killed after a shooting during Highland Park's Fourth of July parade and a further 24 were injured. Lake County sheriff’s office deputy chief Christopher Covelli said at the press conference Monday that the suspect was an 18- to 20-year-old white male with long black hair who should be considered "armed and dangerous."

The original name of Highland Park is St. John's.


Highland Park has several landmark structures listed in the National Register of Historic Places, notably the Willits House by Frank Lloyd Wright. In addition to several houses designed by Wright, the National Register lists homes designed by prominent architects including John S. Van Bergen, Howard Van Doren Shaw, Robert E. Seyfarth, and David Adler. Landscape architect Jens Jensen lived in Highland Park and designed a number of projects in the community that are listed on the register.

Highland Park, Illinois is known as the original home of Fate Magazine.

"About a third of the 30,000 residents in the suburb along Lake Michigan about 25 miles north of Chicago are Jewish, according to some estimates, and they include many Israelis. There are synagogues from multiple denominations, and substantial Jewish populations in many of the neighboring suburbs," notes The Cleveland Jewish News.

The suspect has been identified as 22-year-old Robert "Bobby" E. Crimo.

Below is Crimo photographed at a Trump rally in 2021.

Paris Copycats? Copenhagen Shootings Target Cartoonist and Synagogue

The dead gunman has been identified as Omar El-Hussein (shown above and below).

Beginning on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2015, Copenhagen, Denmark was rocked by two shootings that mirrored the terrorist shootings in Paris last month.

Krudttoenden Attack

A shooting at a free speech event featuring Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist, who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad and a second shooting hours later outside a synagogue left two dead and five police officers wounded in Copenhagen, stirring fears that another terror spree was under way in a European capital a month after 17 people were killed in Paris attacks.

No suspects were arrested.

The first shooting happened shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday, February 14th. Danish police said the gunman used an automatic weapon to shoot through the windows of the Krudttoenden cultural center during a panel discussion on freedom of expression following the Paris attacks. A 55-year-old man attending the event was killed, while three police officers were wounded. The victim has not been identified.

The gunman then fled in a carjacked Volkswagen Polo that was found later a few miles away, police said.

Police initially said there were two gunmen at the cultural center but later said they believed there was only one shooter. They described him as 25 to 30 years old with an athletic build and carrying a black automatic weapon. They released a blurred photograph of the suspect wearing dark clothes and a scarf covering part of his face.

Lars Vilks, 68, who has faced numerous death threats for caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad, was one of the main speakers at the event, titled "Art, blasphemy and freedom of expression." He was whisked away by his bodyguards unharmed as the shooting began. He felt he was targeted.

Filmmaker Killed

The man who was killed on Valentine's Day in the Copenhagen attack was a documentary filmmaker who worked on a film about terrorists and another about an Australian boomerang champion.

Finn Nørgaard (1959 – February 14, 2015) was a Danish filmmaker who was involved in several documentary and feature films.

Nørgaard received a cand.phil. degree in Film and Communication from the University of Copenhagen in 1991.

Nørgaard was a photographer for the 1983 Danish detective film Adam Hart i Sahara and editor of the 1986 Danish documentary film Soul to Soul. He served as producer for Kun for Forrykte, a 1988 documentary film about Eik Skaløe and Steppeulvene. He worked behind the camera as clapper loader in Peter Eszterhás' 1989 film En afgrund af frihed.

From 1989 until 2001 Nørgaard worked at DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation). In 2001 he became co-owner of Filmselskabet (Film Company). During this period he is also credited as assistant camera in the 1992 German film Die Terroristen! and made an appearance as a bodyguard in Thomas Borch Nielsen's 1998 film Skyggen (Webmaster).

In 2004 he directed the documentary film Boomerang Drengen (Boomerang Boy) and was responsible for production of documentary films about the Lê Lê restaurant chain: Lê Lê - De jyske vietnamesere from 2008.

In 2009, for TV 2, Nørgaard directed and produced En anden vej: Historien om fire nydanskere og en koncernchef, which followed former Tryg-CEO Stine Bosse and four young immigrants to Denmark with a criminal background on a pilgrimage to El Camino.

Nørgaard also directed and produced film for Mærsk, SAS and Microsoft, among others.

Finn Nørgaard was killed on February 14, 2015 in an attack on a discussion meeting titled "Art, Blasphemy, and Freedom of Expression" organized by the Lars Vilks Committee and held at the Krudttønden culture center in Østerbro. The perpetrator shot with a submachine gun from close range. In the same incident two PET bodyguards and a police officer were wounded.

Krystalgade Synagogue Attack

After searching for the first gunman for hours, police reported the second shooting in downtown Copenhagen after midnight Sunday. The gunman opened fire at two police officers outside the synagogue on Krystalgade. They were wounded in the arms and legs but were not in life-threatening condition.

Right behind the synagogue, a young girl was celebrating her confirmation (bat mitzvah) with a party of about 80 people, the Jewish Society of Denmark said.

Dan Uzan, 37, who was standing at the gate providing security for the party, was shot and killed.

The gunman fled on foot.

On Sunday, February 15, CNN reported,

Authorities pieced together surveillance images from across the capital and tracked the suspect's movements....
The footage shows the man going from the scene of a shooting to where he apparently abandoned a vehicle, and to a taxi cab.
"By interviewing the taxi driver, we got the address where he dropped off the person," [Copenhagen police investigator Joergen] Skov said. "We have been keeping that address under observation."
He said when officers tried to make contact with the suspect at the Copenhagen apartment on Sunday, the suspect opened fire. Police fired back, killing the gunman.

The dead gunman was Danish-Arab, 22, living in Copenhagen, and was on the radar of authorities for gang activity, not for suspected Islamist extremism.

The suspect remains unidentified.

The Copycat Effect

The targets and methodology in the Paris and Copenhagen attacks appear to be extremely similar.

The cartoonists in Paris were the prime targets of the terrorists. In Copenhagen, Lars Vilks felt targeted.

In March 2013, this poster appeared:

"Wanted: Dead or Alive for Crimes Against Islam," the page reads. The list includes: Molly Norris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Flemming Rose, Morris Swadiq, Salman Rushdie, Girt Wilders [sic], Lars Vilks, Stephane Charbonnie, Carsten Luste, Terry Jones, and Kurt Westergaard. Most are or were notable critics of radical Islam, and one heading says "WANTED Dead or Alive for Crimes Against Islam."

"Yes We Can," the image reads. "A Bullet A Day Keeps the Infidel Away."

Vilks became a target after his 2007 cartoon depicting Mohammed with the body of a dog -- an animal that conservative Muslims consider unclean...
Like Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier -- who was killed in the attack on that magazine's Paris offices last month -- Vilks was one of nine faces on a "Most Wanted" graphic published by al Qaeda's Inspire magazine for "crimes against Islam."
Others include a pair of Danish journalists who published 12 cartoons depicting Mohammed in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper; Florida pastor Terry Jones, who burned a Quran; and Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.
[Helle Merete Brix, a journalist and founder of the Lars Vilks Committee] said, "there's no doubt" the Copenhagen event was targeted because of Vilks, who has "not been able to live a normal life" for years. Source.

"What other motive could there be? It's possible it was inspired by Charlie Hebdo," Lars Vilks said, referring to the January 7 attack by Islamic extremists on the French newspaper that had angered Muslims by lampooning Muhammad.

Police spokesman Joergen Skov said it was possible the gunman had planned the "same scenario" as in the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

The Name Game

Krudttønden means "the powder keg."

Krystalgade (literally 'crystal street') is a street in central Copenhagen, Denmark, connecting Nørregade to Købmagergade.

Krystalgade has been associated, historically, to the location of the Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, with origins dating back to 1537, of an often-illustrated cabinet of natural history curiosities (also known as Kunstkabinett, Kunstkammer, Wunderkammer, Cabinets of Wonder, and wonder-room) of Ole Worm (13 May 1588 – 31 August 1654), also known as Olaus Wormius, a Danish physician and antiquary.

The synagogue on Krystalgade.

Regarding the photograph at top: "It's only a trick produced by the angle of the camera and what the suspected shooter is wearing, but doesn't he look a bit like the Joker in this CCTV picture?" ~ Author Robert Schneck.