Catholic Mass Shooting: Update

On Monday, November 19, 2018, two mass shooting stories became "breaking news" out of Chicago and St. Louis.

Update:

Wednesday, November 21, 2018.

A Missouri man was arrested in connection with a heinous crime spree at a Catholic Supply chain store in St. Louis in which a female customer was fatally shot and at least one other woman was sexually assaulted, officials said.
Thomas Bruce, 53, is now in police custody on 14 charges including first-degree murder, sodomy, kidnapping, burglary, tampering with evidence and armed criminal action, according to the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney.

A St. Louis County police officer looks from a home on Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018, as they investigate in the Quail Run mobile home park in Jefferson County. Photo credit by Christian Gooden.

Bruce worked as a pastor from about 2003 to 2007 for a few dozen people at Calvary Chapel of Cape Girardeau....
The chapel folded about 10 years ago....The Missouri Secretary of State’s office identifies Bruce as the operator of a nonprofit church that was formed in 2003 and dissolved in 2007....

On social media, Bruce was outspoken on politics and social issues. A supporter of President Donald Trump, he posted video from the president’s rally this month in Cape Girardeau, Mo., and frequently slammed Democrats and members of the GOP establishment who criticized Trump.
He has also retweeted comments expressing support for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and criticizing Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Blasey Ford during the Senate judicial confirmation hearings in October. He also shared or wrote comments arguing for allowing fewer immigrants or refugees into the U.S., fewer restrictions on gun control and for a ban on abortion....

On his Twitter account, started in 2016, Bruce has mainly shared his views on politics, occasionally commenting on some prominent media personalities.
In one tweet, for example, he called commentator Ann Coulter “the smartest sexiest sweetest gal in the WORLD.” In another tweet, he said Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro has the “best damn legs” and also told Pirro she was a “1,000 times more sexy” than former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman.
In September, Bruce tweeted: “As an American male, I’ve often been accused of being obsessed with sex.” Source.

The captured suspect looks remarkably like the suspect from Indiana's 2017 Delphi murders.

Background...originally posted November 20, 2018.

St. Louis

The Chicago shooting was followed shortly by a mass violence incident in St. Louis. Police reported that around 3:20 pm Monday, November 19, 2018, multiple sexual assaults and a shooting happened at the Catholic Supply store in a shopping center near the intersection of Manchester Road and Weidman Road in west St. Louis County, Missouri. 

Note: The flag visible in the window is the City of St. Louis flag.

The flag with a solid red background has two broad heraldic wavy bars, colored blue and white, extending from the left top and bottom corners toward left center where they join and continue as one to the center right edge. This symbolizes the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Over the point of confluence a round golden disk upon which is the fleur-de-lis of France (blue) calling attention to the French background of the early city and more particularly to St. Louis of France for whom the City is named. The golden disk represents the City and/or the Louisiana Purchase. (Heraldically, the disk is a "bezant" or Byzantine coin signifying, money or simply purchase.) The flag's colors recall those of Spain (red and yellow or gold), Bourbon France (white and gold), Napoleonic and Republican France (blue, white and red), and the United States of America (red, white, and blue). Official City of St. Louis description.

It is worthy of noting that Catholic Supply is a family owned religious goods store with Catholic and Christian religious gifts, books, Bibles, church supplies and church furnishings, for the clergy, staff, and members.

St. Louis County Police confirmed that a 53-year-old woman shot at a Catholic Supply store died. 

The 53-year-old victim, Jamie Schmidt

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that a 911 caller reported that the shooter went inside the store and ordered all of the women inside to strip at gunpoint, sexually assaulted several of them, then shot one (Jamie Schmidt) of them in the head (reportedly after she refused to have oral sex with him). St. Louis County Police say that the victims did not know the suspect.

Police are looking for a white man, 5’7”, age 40 - 50 years-old, with a heavy build wearing a black jacket, blue jeans, and a large belt. The suspect was also wearing a black or gray hat. The description was updated his appearance saying he is wearing a paper-boy style hat, a navy blue Carhartt-style jacket, and a red, white and black plaid shirt. The suspect is considered armed and dangerous. Police are not sure, if he left the scene on foot or in a vehicle.

As of 9:00 pm Eastern time Tuesday, November 20, 2018, the suspect was still at large.

The sexual assault details of this crime are graphic and disturbing. That the suspect was uncaught is likewise upsetting to local community members. 

Suspect Similarities?

The bodies of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams were discovered on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2017, close to an abandoned railroad bridge near Delphi, about 20 miles from Lafayette, and around 60 miles from Indianapolis, Indiana. They went missing the day before.

Liberty German, one of the two girls killed along a northern Indiana hiking trail used her mobile phone beforehand to capture video of the man who killer her and her friend, Abigail Williams.  Soon after the killing, Indiana State Police played a clip of the man’s voice during a news conference, where he can be heard saying: “down the hill.”

Liberty also captured a grainy image released by police of a man walking near the hiking trail outside Delphi about the time she and Abigail disappeared on February 13, 2017. See here.

In November 2018, some people online are comparing this image of the Delphi suspect with the reported description of the alleged Catholic Supply molester/killer.

St. Louis 2018: White man, 5’7”, age 40 - 50 years-old, with a heavy build wearing a black jacket, blue jeans, and a large belt. The suspect was also wearing a black or gray hat. The description was updated his appearance saying he is wearing a paper-boy style hat, a navy blue Carhartt-style jacket, and a red, white and black plaid shirt. 

Photos of similar articles of clothing have been posted by law enforcement.

The St. Louis Police Department posted this: "UPDATE: We have a bit more information regarding the #CatholicSupply store homicide: The suspect may have been wearing a black or gray 'paperboy-style' hat. See the example."

Delphi, Indiana 2017: From the cell video and description, the local law enforcement agencies posted the following.

The match appears to be remarkable.

Other Incidents?

In 2017, after the Delphi murders, Inside Edition did a story comparing the killings to those of two young girl also murdered on the 13th of a month, in 2012.

Source.

Elizabeth June Marie Collins, 8

Lyric Ray Lynn Cook, 10
Went Missing from Meyers Lake: Friday, July 13, 2012, in Evansdale, Iowa, in Black Hawk County
Bodies Found in Seven Bridges Wildlife Park in Bremer County: Dec. 5, 2012
Date of Deaths: July 13, 2012 Source.

The date of the murders in Indiana (2/13/17) are a flip/reversal of the date of the killings in Iowa (7/13/12).

The date of the St. Louis killing (11/19/18) do not fit into any pattern we can see. The cap and coat do. The hatred of females does.

Reflecting on the 2018 Missouri case, it reminds me of the Amish School (Pennsylvania) shooting, also called the West Nickel Mines School shooting of October 2, 2006. While this involved the shooting of eight of ten girls (ages 6-13) and the killing of five, as well as the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, it began as a hostage situation. And it was an event that very much involved the molestation of the girls being held hostage.

Roberts ordered the girls to line up against the chalkboard and allowed a pregnant woman, three parents with infants, and all remaining boys to exit. One girl, nine-year-old Emma Fisher, escaped without her older sister.

The Amish School incident of 2006 and the Catholic Supply Store event of 2018 appear to be related to the underlying theme of maltreatment, sexual hate, and molestation directed towards females, a la' the Incel Effect.

See also 

Fifty Church Shootings & Killings: 1999-2015.

Mercy Hospital Mass Shooting

On Monday, November 19, 2018, two mass shooting stories became "breaking news" out of Chicago and St. Louis. This posting about Chicago.


Chicago

Chicago's Mercy Hospital victims: Samuel Jimenez, Tamara O'Neal, Dayna Less

The situation at the Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, began between 3:00 pm and 3:30 pm, in the parking lot.

It began between an emergency room doctor, and her ex-fiance. Then that doctor, identified as Tamara O'Neal, was killed by the perpetrator in the parking lot.

The devil is in the details: Juan Lopez graduated with a Master's degree in public service, from DePaul University. The DePaul Blue Demons are the athletic teams that represent DePaul University.

Sibyl Hunter mentions the following, from Wikipedia: "Blue devils, demons causing depression, according to some the etymology of the blues music genre." 

The perpetrator, 32-year-old male, Juan Lopez, demanded a ring from O'Neal, and returned with a gun and shot her six times when it emerged she did not have the ring.

Lopez continued into the hospital and shot others. Police arrived and exchanged fire with the gunman, who retreated into the hospital and was pursued by officers.

A police officer was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, where he later died. He was identified as 28-year-old Samuel Jimenez. The other two victims were identified as O'Neal and 25-year-old Dayna Less, a pharmaceutical assistant. The gunman also died in the shooting.

It was all over by 4:40 pm Central Time.

The Chicago Tribune dubbed the incident "chaos at Mercy Hospital" and quotes Mayor Rahm Emmanuel as saying: "This tears at the soul of our city. It is the face and the consequence of evil."

The origins of this Mercy Hospital is directly tied to the Sisters of Mercy, from Ireland.

Mercy’s history of caring reaches back more than two centuries to the commitment of one person, Catherine McAuley, who was born in Dublin in 1778. It was a time of strife and widespread poverty in Ireland. British law excluded Catholics from educational opportunities, equal civil rights, and the open practice of their faith. Catherine was born the daughter of a successful Catholic businessman, James McAuley. In this time of despair, Catherine's father was very concerned about the plight of the poor and oppressed. He died when Catherine was only five years old.
The death of Catherine’s father and then her mother left the McAuley children orphans. Catherine was taken in by the Callaghans, close family friends and strict Quakers. While she was able to follow in her father’s footsteps by working with the poor of Dublin, this strict household did not allow for the open practice of Catholicism. Twenty years later, however, Catherine inherited the Callaghan family estate and was able to practice her religion and pursue her calling to help those in need.
Catherine commissioned a building for the needy on Dublin’s fashionable Baggot Street. It was called the House of Mercy and opened September 24, 1827. The social elite of Dublin began volunteering to teach and care for the children of the poor. Staff members tended to the sick in their homes and in public hospitals. Young women were trained in needlework, etiquette and domestic services so that they might find paying work in the nearby homes of the wealthy.
The spirit of selflessness and giving at the House of Mercy so moved the Archbishop of Dublin that he asked Catherine to establish a religious order that her work might endure. In 1831, after training and preparation for a life of religious service, Catherine McAuley and two colleagues founded the Sisters of Mercy upon a commitment to help the poor, sick and uneducated and all of those wounded by contemporary society. This commitment remains central to the Mercy Mission.
Catherine McAuley died of tuberculosis just ten years after founding her community, but by then there were 100 Sisters to carry on her work. Today there are more than 4,500 Sisters of Mercy.
In 1843, only two years after Catherine’s death, her closest friend and assistant Mother Mary Frances Xavier Warde brought a group of Sisters to America. They would establish Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh – the oldest Catholic hospital in the United States.
Three years later, at the request of Bishop Quarter from the new frontier diocese of Chicago, Mother Mary Frances Xavier Warde chose five Sisters from the growing community in Pittsburgh and set out for Chicago. Source.

For details on the Catholic Supply store, see here.