Anticipating A Viking Attack?

Anniversaries are strong indicators of possible future copycat behavior, including of acts of violence. But what should be expected and what should not?

On March 29, 845, Paris was sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collected a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.

But there are probably no Vikings around in 2017, who wish to recall this date to justify a new attack against Paris.

In 1882, on March 29, The Knights of Columbus were established. The Knights of Columbus, apparently, are not warring Knights in 2017, if they ever.

Other recent events, however, may show up via current anniversary events.

Ones like...

On March 29, 2010, two suicide bombers hit the Moscow Metro system at the peak of the morning rush hour, killing 40.

...might make a ripple, a year later.

Today's news are not over but one strange story caused some concern this morning to law enforcement authorities and the media.

A female is in custody after apparently attempting to strike a Capitol Police cruiser and run over other officers during a traffic stop near the U.S. Botanic Garden, on March 29, 2017.

The driver is taken into custody.

The incident, which happened about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, sparked a heavy police response. At one point, police fired a weapon but no one was struck, but media reported a window of the car being driven was broken out.

Capitol Police spokeswoman Eva Malecki said the incident, near the 100 block of Independence Avenue, began as a traffic stop after police spotted a car driving erratically.

My question: What was her name?

Moscow School Shooting

Headlines are using the phrase "hostage situation," but this event is a "school shooting," which had as a component the taking of hostages. 

As I've noted before, in one of first modern school shootings, the Moses Lake, Washington State incident, on Groundhog’s Day, 1996, Barry Loukaitis, 14, took his classroom hostage, killed two students and his algebra teacher.

Students of Moscow School #263 leave the building escorted by police on February 3, 2014 after an armed student took more than 20 teenagers hostage (Photo Credit: Dmitry Serebryakov)

CNN is reporting:

A Moscow high school student shot a teacher and a police officer dead and held about 20 other pupils hostage in a classroom Monday before he was disarmed and detained, Russian authorities said, just days before Russia hosts the Winter Olympics.
In a rare school shooting in Russia, the attacker entered his school in northern Moscow with a rifle and held students and a teacher hostage in a biology classroom, the Investigative Committee of Russia said.
The incident, at School No. 263, happened around noon local time when the armed student forced his way past a security guard, who raised an alarm.
"On his way to the class the shooter injured one of the teachers who died later," said the committee, Russia's federal intelligence agency. "The police officers arrived to the school. When they entered the building the shooter opened a gun fire, injured one and killed another."
All of the hostages were released and the gunman was detained, it added.
State media said there were about 20 students in the classroom.
The incident comes as Russia prepares to host the Winter Olympic Games, due to start in Sochi this week.

AFP said:

Witnesses said the suspect -- described as a 'straight-A' pupil named Sergei Gordeyev -- charged into the school wielding two rifles and ordered a security guard to lead him to a specific classroom in the two-story building on the northern outskirts of Moscow.

Russia 24 said the student is said to have had an issue with a geography teacher. This was not the teacher who was shot or who was among the hostages.

CNN also noted:

The media outlets said the student had a small-bore rifle and a hunting carbine, which were registered under his father's name.
They reported he is said to have fired 11 times. His father called him and spoke to him for 15 minutes to try to convince him to release his hostages. The father then went to the school and talked to the student in the classroom. Only then did he agree to release his hostages, state media said.
CNN could not immediately independently verify this.

The hostage scenario is infrequently a part of American school shootings, and is part of the Stephen King book Rage.