Media, McNuggets and Madness

The Easter Sunday killer's hold over the media started coming to an end on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 18, 2017.

Read more about the initial Easter events, here.

The manhunt had covered many states in the Midwest. Then there was a "ping" in Erie, Pennsylvania. Presque Isle Downs & Casino, which Stephens was last known to visit in March, is in Erie County.

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At a news conference on April 18, the announcement was made.

Steve Stephens died by his own hand in Erie, Pennsylvania, after an alert drive-through employee at McDonalds on Buffalo Road in Harborcreek Township, recognized the wanted man.

Stephens reportedly ordered a 20-piece McNugget and a large fry. What happened next probably has happened to you.

The Buffalo Road McDonalds.

[Side note: Buffalo Soldiers originally were members of the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, formed on September 21, 1866, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This nickname was given to the "Negro Cavalry" by the Native American tribes they fought in the Indian Wars. The term eventually became synonymous with all of the African American regiments formed in 1866...."Buffalo Soldiers" were established by Congress as the first peacetime all-black regiments in the regular U.S. Army. On September 6, 2005, Mark Matthews, who was the last living Buffalo Soldier, died at the age of 111. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.]

The manager said employees tried to stall Stephens by telling him the fries weren't ready, but Stephens took the chicken and drove away.

Police gave chase, which never went above 50 miles per hour, involved four state police vehicles and was joined by members of the Wesleyville Police Department.
Soon caught up with Stephen's Ford Fusion. During a direct action "PIT" (precision immobilization technique) Stephen's took his own life.

The location was across from Rodger Young Park, the site of the former Burton Elementary School, 1660 Buffalo Road, Erie, Pennsylvania.

Buffalo Road and near Downing Ave, where Stephens killed himself.

Tabloid media pounced on the McDonalds' angle of the case.

There probably will be more examples tomorrow.

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Updates:

April 19, 2017

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In, perhaps, a form of copycat suicide, Aaron Hernandez may be an example. Information on that incident has been moved here.

Amoklauf Munich Olympia Mall: Nine Dead

Okay, this is getting weird, considering what I have just previously written about borrowing the Malay-German word Amoklauf. A copy of the above book Amok Im Kopf was found in the Munich shooter's room.  German police say he studied school and other mass shootings, and hacked into a woman's account on Facebook to lure children to the McDonald's for free meal items.

It's become quite apparent: He picked the date because it was the 5th anniversary of Breivik.

Someone on Twitter claimed the Munich shooter used a photo of Breivik as his WhatsApp profile pic.

"Obvious link" between Munich gunman and Norway's mass killer Anders Behring Breivik, German police say, the day after.

He appears to have been born in Germany, of Iranian descent, but was extremely xenophobic, anti-immigrants, during the shouted statements he made to his victims and eyewitnesses.

Amoklauf in Munich. At a McDonalds. A mall. Another day, another rampage - a shooting rampage - hit Germany on Friday, July 22, 2016.

Today is the 5th anniversary of the Norway: 7.22.11 Breivik Attacks. The attack was revealed to have a strong rightwing foundation. The Breivik events assisted me in predicting the Aurora shootings.

Now this German attack in Munich, a location heavy with terrorism history tied to the Olympics, as the August 5th date for the 2016 Summer Olympics nears.

Well, Loren, no sooner do you invite the word Amoklauf into our language than another Amoklauf happens --- and in Germany, specifically in the city of Munich where I was stationed in the US Army exactly 42 years ago. ~ Tom Mellet.

The shooter targeted children came the early reports said. Children at a McDonalds, next to the Olympia shopping mall. Reports of multiple shooters - up to three - probably were wrong, as they have been lately.

At least nine people were killed when gunfire erupted at a shopping center in Munich, Germany, in what police officials said "looks like a terror attack."

Munich police have verified that one of the ten dead bodies was the shooter.

The shooter has now been identified as an 18-year-old Iranian, who has been living in Munich for more than two years.

Police said no one was in custody, and the city was under a virtual lockdown, with residents being urged to stay home, restaurants and other business closing and public transit shutting down.

The shooting broke out at a McDonald's across from the Olympia shopping mall at about 5:50 p.m. local time, police spokeswoman Claudia Küntzel said. Shots also were fired inside the mall, witnesses said.

On Facebook, police said gunfire was reported in several locations and that witnesses said they saw three people with firearms. These reports appear to have mistaken.

A witness identified as Lauretta told CNN her son was in a bathroom with a shooter at the McDonald's. "That's where he loaded his weapon," she said. "I hear like an alarm and boom, boom, boom... And he's still killing the children. The children were sitting to eat. They can't run."

[Lauretta said she heard the gunman say, "Allahu Akbar," or God is great. "I know this because I'm Muslim. I hear this and I only cry." - Some are disputing this claim.]

This McDonald's shooting was only days after another infamous McDonald's rampage. It also was laid to a motivation rooted in xenophobia, as appears the Munich one.

The San Ysidro McDonald's massacre was a mass shooting that occurred in and around a McDonald's restaurant in the San Diego neighborhood of San Ysidro on July 18, 1984. The perpetrator, 41-year-old James Huberty, shot and killed 21 people and injured 19 others before being fatally shot by a SWAT team sniper.

It will be noted that the first victim killed in this 1984 massacre was named "Caine" and another fatality had the first name "Aurora."

The shooting ranked as the deadliest mass shooting committed in the United States until the 1991 Luby's shooting. It is the second deadliest shooting rampage in which the perpetrator was killed by police as opposed to dying by suicide, behind only the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting.

Some insights from others about the Munich shooting:

Olym(Pi)a on Pi day. 22/7. ~ Rory Sonya

Just as the Micah X. Johnson Amoklauf in Dallas took place just 1/4 mile East of Dealey Plaza, so did the latest Amoklauf in the Olympia shopping mall in Munich take place 3/4 mile West of the Olympic Village Building 31 where the Palestinian terrorist group called Black September took the Israeli Wrestling team hostage at the Munich Olympics on September 5, 1972. Just 4 months later, on January 7, 1973, Mark Essex took to the Howard Johnson's rooftop in New Orleans to carry out his Amoklauf mission. ~ Tom Mellet.

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Let us also recall, beside the recent German train attack and the German cinema attack, there was a train station incident in May.

On May 10, 2016, there was a 5 a.m. attack at the Grafing train station, near Munich, Germany. One person was killed, three injured, as the man with a knife was quickly arrested. He yelled "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is great."

The Grafing Bahnhof suspect was taken into custody with bare feet, and his shoes could not be found.

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(Thanks to Enki King for updates.)