Tree of Life Mass Shooting

"People are nice to each other in Squirrel Hill. For crying out loud, it was literally Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. We had a mass murder in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood." Boston Globe 

The Incident

The Victims

The Suspect

The Location

Squirrel Hill

Jewish Population

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The Incident

A gunman screaming “All Jews must die!” burst into a Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood synagogue during Sabbath services, shooting and killing at least 11 people and wounding a half-dozen more, including four police officers, before surrendering.

The conservative Tree of Life Synagogue had been packed with three separate congregations attending Saturday morning, October 27, 2018, services when the bloodbath began at around 10 a.m.

The 11 victims of the shooting range from 54 to 97 and include a married couple and two brothers. They were gunned down by a man shouting anti-Semitic comments and carrying an AR-15 assault rifle as they attended a baby-naming ceremony at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill on Saturday.

The Victims

Dr, Karl Williams, chief medical examiner of Allegheny County, said the 11 people were identified late Saturday and their next of kin notified.

They include Joyce Feinberg, 75, of Oakland; Richard Gottfried, 65, of Ross Township; Rose Malinger, 97, of Squirrel Hill; Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, of Edgewood; Cecil Rosenthal, 59, of Squirrel Hill; David Rosenthal, 54, of Squirrel Hill; Bernice Simon, 84, of Wilkinsburg; Sylvan Simon, 86, of Wilkingsburg; Daniel Stein, 71, of Squirrel Hill; Melvin Wax, 88, of Squirrel Hill, and Irving Youngner, 69, of Mount Washington.

The Simons were married and the Rosenthals were brothers.

Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro said the shooting happened during the portion of the ceremony when the child is given a Hebrew name.

The “shooter claimed innocent lives — and injured first responders — at a baby naming,” Shapiro said.

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The Suspect

The suspect — identified as 46-year-old Robert Bowers, a bearded, heavy-set resident of Pittsburgh — was armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle and three Glock handguns, according to multiple reports.

The mass shooting occurred at Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 27, 2018. The shooting took place during three scheduled Shabbat morning services, one of which was reportedly a brit milah, a Jewish circumcision and naming ceremony for eight-day-old boys. A member of the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh told reporters that between 60 and 100 people were inside the building at the time of the incident.

The suspect was identified by local authorities as Robert D. Bowers (46), a resident of Baldwin, Pennsylvania. He was taken into police custody after the shooting and sent to a hospital. 

Bowers' Gab.com social media profile was registered in January 2018 under the handle, "onedingo" with the description, "jews are the children of satan. (john 8:44) --- --- the lord jesus christ is come in the flesh". The cover picture was a photo with the number 1488 — used by neo-Nazis and white supremacists to evoke David Lane's "Fourteen Words" slogan and the Nazi slogan Heil Hitler. Bowers had published one post that referenced the white genocide conspiracy theory. He also reposted content by other anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi, and Holocaust-denying users, and criticized President Donald Trump for being a "globalist, not a nationalist" and for supposedly being controlled by Jews. After the shooting, Gab deleted Bowers' profile.

A month before the attack, Bowers posted photos showing the results of his target practice, and a photo of his three handguns. In the post, he identified the .357-caliber handguns as Glock 31, Glock 32, and Glock 33.

Bowers reportedly made anti-Semitic posts directed at the HIAS National Refugee Shabbat in the weeks before the shooting.

Shortly before the attack, in an apparent reference to immigrants to the United States, Bowers posted on Gab that "HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in".

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The Location

The location is 42 miles down river from the Kittanning Citizens Bridge used as the stand-in for the Silver Bridge in the 2002 movie, The Mothman Prophecies. As noted in Mothman: Evil Incarnate (2017), the sinister nature of this location is well-documented.

Pittsburgh is "the City of Bridges". . . Constantine the Great received his vision of the cross on October 27th, prior to his victory at the Milvian Bridge. . . pontiff originally meant "bridge builder" shooting date appropriate for the Saturday vs Sunday debate. . . Pope Francis' birthday 51 days after massacre, "Rome"=51, 2018 is 51 years after the Six Day War. . Pope Francis' 80th birthday was 51 days before Super Bowl 51 (end date inclusive)/ shooting 137 days before Pope Francis' 6th anniversary as pontiff. . . 137 is the 33rd prime number. Pope's birthday on the 351st day of the year, "Catholic"=351, Satanic gematria. ~ RCW

The McKees Rocks Mound, located at the confluence of Chartiers Creek and the Ohio River four miles south of downtown Pittsburgh, is just one of thousands of Indian burial mounds, ranging from a few feet to 100 feet tall, that were still visible in Jefferson's day throughout the Ohio-Mississippi Valley watershed. 

"At the head of Mansion Street, Glenwood, was an ancient burying ground of that aboriginal tribe known as the Mound Builders. It included several mounds, the largest being about fifteen feet in height. Their tops were rounded, and the mounds were heaped with stone." ~ Early Settlements in the Fifteenth Ward of Pittsburgh by M.S. Kussart, 1924.

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Squirrel Hill

In 2010, about 40% of Squirrel Hill's residents were Jewish. According to a 2002 study by the United Jewish Federation, 33% of the Jewish population of Greater Pittsburgh lives in Squirrel Hill, and another 14% lives in the surrounding neighborhoods. The report states that: "The stability of Squirrel Hill, a geographic hub of the Jewish community located within the city limits, is unique in North America."

The name "Squirrel Hill" may have been given to the area by the Native Americans who lived in its vicinity. The neighborhood most likely was named for the abundance of gray squirrels.

The growth and development of Squirrel Hill was initially focused on the riverfront along the Monongahela River.

Around 1820, William "Killymoon" Steward built one of the first tavern/inns in the area. His tavern, located near the intersection of Beechwood and Brown's Hill Road, survived for over 100 years. Slowly, Squirrel Hill became a prosperous and affluent suburb.

Around 1840, the Murdoch family started a farm and nursery business in the part of Squirrel Hill North which is known today as Murdoch Farms. Today, this quiet area contains many upscale homes.

On December 24, 1860, protests broke out in the streets of Squirrel Hill after news arrived that the U.S. Secretary of War, John B. Floyd had ordered 124 cannons to be shipped from Allegheny Arsenal to two forts under construction in Louisiana and Texas. The inhabitants of Pittsburgh predicted that these weapons would be used against them if the South seceded, and this did indeed happen at Fort Sumter.

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Jewish Population

Squirrel Hill has had a large Jewish population since the 1920s, when Eastern European Jews began to move to the neighborhood in large numbers from Oakland and the Hill District. Many of them took up residence in rows of brick houses on the cross streets of Murray Avenue south of Forbes, such as Darlington Road, Bartlett Street, and Beacon Street. The neighborhood became the center of Jewish culture in the city, with kosher butcher shops, delicatessens, Jewish restaurants, bookstores, and designer boutiques. Several hundred Russian Jewish immigrants moved to the neighborhood in the 1990s.

A 2017 study of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish community, conducted by researchers at Brandeis University and commissioned by the local Jewish Federation, found that 26% of Pittsburg-area Jews live in Squirrel Hill, 20% live in South Hills, 9% live in North Hills, 31% live in other areas of Pittsburgh, and 14% live in other areas of the region. Although Squirrel Hill remains the traditional center of Jewish life in the region, the study found a shift to more suburban areas. The study also found an increase in the population of Jews who identify as Orthodox or secular, and a decrease in the number of Jews who identify as Conservative and Reform denominations.

All of Squirrel Hill, as well as much of the neighboring neighborhoods of Greenfield and Regent Square, is within an eruv, a symbolic enclosure that allows Orthodox Jews to push or carry items on Shabbat (the Jewish sabbath, in which no work is traditionally done). The irregular boundaries of the eruv are such that, as one writer noted, "an Orthodox Jew could carry something within the eruv's boundaries all the way from the north end of the Hot Metal Bridge to the intersection of Wilkins and South Dallas in Point Breeze."

Squirrel Hill contains three Jewish day schools: two are affiliated with the Chabad and Modern Orthodox movements, respectively, while Community Day School is a co-ed, independent Jewish day school in the neighborhood that attracts families across the wide spectrum of Jewish belief and practice.

On October 27, 2018, a gunman entered the Tree of Life synagogue and opened fire, killing at least 11 people and injuring 6 more.

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Other Attacks Against Jewish Sites

Seattle Jewish Federation

The Seattle Jewish Federation shooting occurred on July 28, 2006, at around 4:00 p.m. PT, when Naveed Afzal Haq shot six women, one fatally, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle building in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. 

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

At about 12:50 p.m. on June 10, 2009, 88-year-old white supremacist James Wenneker von Brunn entered the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.with a rifle and fatally shot Museum Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns. Other security guards returned fire, wounding von Brunn, who was apprehended.

Overland Park Jewish Community Center

On April 13, 2014, a pair of shootings occurred at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and Village Shalom, a Jewish retirement community, both located in Overland Park, Kansas. A total of three people were killed in the shootings, two who were shot at the community center and one who was shot at the retirement community.

The gunman, 73-year-old Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. of Aurora, Missouri, originally from North Carolina, was arrested in the attack and was subsequently tried, convicted of murder and other crimes, and sentenced to death. Miller was a Neo-Nazi and former political candidate.

Parkland High School

On February 14, 2018, at approximately 2:20 p.m. EST, a shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen people died. Soon after the event in February, I felt it important to view this school shooting as having an undercurrent of antisemitic violence due to the number of Jewish students killed. (The Boston Globe also made this point in April 2018.)

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According to the known, past patterns of the copycat effect, look for incidents of mass violence on the following dates, in the wake of the Squirrel Hill synagogue shooting:

Wednesday, Halloween, October 31, 2018;

Saturday, November 3, 2018; and

Saturday, November 24, 2018 - or - Tuesday, November 27, 2018.

The Copycat Effect

Dawn of the Dead Film Site Is Scene of Multiple Mall Shooting

Gunfire erupted at the Monroeville Mall, a Pittsburgh-area shopping center, on February 7, 2015, Saturday evening, critically wounding two of the three people hit in a shooting that targeted one of the victims. The Monroeville Mall and Forbes Hospital's emergency room were placed on lockdown as police searched for the suspect (a black male in his late teens who is between 5-foot-7 and 5-foot-9 inches tall and was wearing dark clothing).

 Photo credit (above and below).

The shootings occurred inside the Macy's at the Monroeville Mall at about 7:30 p.m., sending shoppers running. Police closed the entire mall for the night. 

Seventeen-year-old Tarod Thornhill was arrested at 3:15 am, February 8, 2015, and charged as an adult in the Monroeville Mall shootings.

Chief Douglas Cole said two men and a woman were shot, including a man who was targeted and was struck at least once. Bystanders were the others, who were caught in the line of fire.

Jeanette, Pennsylvania native and NFL (Oakland Raiders, Seattle Seahawks, Kansas City Chiefs, 2011-Present) quarterback Terrelle Pryor, 25, tweeted that he was at the mall, a short drive east of Pittsburgh.

"Damn was just in monroeville mall and just saw 2 ppl get shot," he tweeted. "They are letting guns go in there."

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On January 17, 2015, one person was killed and one was wounded in a shooting inside the Melbourne (Florida) Square Mall's food court before the gunman, José Garcia Rodriguez, died by suicide. Source.
In late December 2014, hundreds of teenagers gathered at the Monroeville (Pennsylvania) Mall and several fights broke out. The fights caused local officials and mall administration to agree on a plan to increase security there.

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Four on-duty police officers have been stationed in the Monroeville Mall on Friday and Saturday evenings at the mall's request.

The Monroeville Mall was the film location for George Romero's Dawn of the Dead which completed primary filming 37 years ago this month (February 1978-February 2015). [The remake, Dawn of the Dead (2004) was directed by Zack Snyder in his feature film directorial debut. The screenplay for the 2004 version was by James Gunn, who went on to direct Guardians of the Galaxy.]

Dawn of the Dead (also known internationally as Zombi) is a 1978 American horror film written and directed by George A. Romero. It was the second film made in Romero's Living Deadseries, but contains no characters or settings from Night of the Living Dead, and shows in a larger scale the apocalyptic effects on society. Dawn of the Dead was filmed over approximately four months, from late 1977 to early 1978, in the Pennsylvania cities of Pittsburgh and Monroeville. Dawn of the Dead's primary filming location was the Monroeville Mall.

The history of Dawn of the Dead began in 1974, when George A. Romero was invited by friend Mark Mason of Oxford Development Company—whom Romero knew from an acquaintance at his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon—to visit the Monroeville Mall, which Mason's company managed. After showing Romero hidden parts of the mall, during which Romero noted the bliss of the consumers, Mason jokingly suggested that someone would be able to survive in the mall should an emergency ever occur. With this inspiration, Romero began to write the screenplay for the film.
Romero and his producer, Richard P. Rubinstein, were unable to procure any domestic investors for the new project. By chance, word of the sequel reached Italian horror director Dario Argento. A fan of Night of the Living Dead and an early critical proponent of the film, Argento was eager to help the horror classic receive a sequel. He met Romero and Rubinstein, helping to secure financing in exchange for international distribution rights. Argento invited Romero to Rome so he would have a change of scenery while writing the screenplay. The two could also then discuss plot developments. Romero was able to secure the availability of Monroeville Mall as well as additional financing through his connections with the mall's owners at Oxford Development. Once the casting was completed, principal shooting was scheduled to begin in Pennsylvania on November 13, 1977. Source.

Principal photography for Dawn of the Living Dead (its working title at the time) began on November 13, 1977 at the Monroeville Mall....Principal photography on Dawn of the Dead ended February 1978. Source.

Because Dawn of the Dead was filmed there, today the Monroeville Mall is a tourist stop for Zombie film fans.

Monroeville Mall is most famous as the filming location for the movie Dawn of the Dead, the 1978 cult horror classic, directed by George A. Romero. In 1977, George A. Romero began filming Dawn of the Dead on location at the Monroeville Mall. All filming inside the mall took place at night after the mall had closed, with filming often continuing until dawn. Filming in the mall began in October 1977, but had to be suspended when the mall's Christmas decorations were hung shortly after Thanksgiving. Filming resumed in January after the decorations were removed. It was during that break that much of the mall's exterior shots were filmed, as well as filming at other locations. In the film's storyline, the mall was used as a fortress to protect four human survivors from a world taken over by the walking dead. The movie went on to become a huge hit worldwide. Fans travel far and wide, sometimes from other countries, just to have a chance to visit the location. Several pictures taken during the filming are on display in a room on the upper level near Macy's. In addition, Monroeville Zombies, located on the lower level near Macy's and features an in-store museum and gift shop that is dedicated to celebrating zombies in film and pop culture. The museum's main focus is Dawn of the Dead and contains artifacts, memorabilia, scale models of the mall as depicted in the movie and a boiler room walk through with various life sized replicas of movie zombies. In 2013, The museum was relocated to Evans City, PA, home of the original Night Of The Living Dead. Source.

Other links to popular culture include,

 ~ The ice skating rink at Monroeville Mall appears in the 1983 film Flashdance as the rink on which Jeanne auditions. 

~ Some scenes from the film Zack and Miri Make a Porno, directed by Kevin Smith, were filmed in the mall. The film features a fictional recreational hockey team named the Monroeville Zombies, a reference to the Romero film. Source.

~ In the 1984 children's fantasy film The Boy Who Loved Trolls, 12-year old Paul is seen wandering through the halls of the mall as shots of many long gone storefronts such as the Candy Tree are shown. (Dawn of the Dead's Tom Savini, pictured, plays a motorcyclist in The Boy Who Loved Trolls.)

~ The Monroeville Mall marquee, overlooking U.S. Route 22, is shown in a brief scene in the Greg Mottola film Adventureland.
~ Exterior scenes of the mall annex appeared recurring on the Showtime series, Queer as Folk. Source.
~ Stephen King's 1983 novel Christine takes place in the fictional suburb of Libertyville, Pennsylvania, which is adjacent to Monroeville. The Monroeville Mall is mentioned repeatedly. Source.

H/T to Robert Schneck. 

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African Painted Dogs Kill Maddox Derkosh

The little victim.

The mass media.

 

The alleged villain.

African Painted Dog Lycaon pictus. Public Domain Image.

A medical examiner's report confirmed that the toddler who fell, after bouncing off some netting below a railing, landed in the Pittsburgh Zoo Lycaon pictus exhibit still alive. The boy, named Maddox Derkosh, was killed by the African wild dogs, not the fall, the president of the Pittsburgh Zoo said on Monday, November 5th.

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On Sunday, November 4, 2012, a two-year-old boy who was placed up on a railing by his mother lost his balance and fell into the painted hunting dog (Lycaon pictus) exhibition at the Pittsburgh zoo. The boy was mauled to death by the African painted dog pack. (The dog has many names. Lycaon pictus is a canid found only in Africa, especially in savannas and lightly wooded areas. It is variously called the African wild dog, African hunting dog, Cape hunting dog, painted dog, painted wolf, painted hunting dog, spotted dog, or ornate wolf.)

Authorities didn't release the name of the woman, but say she is 34 years old and lives in Pleasant Hills, just outside Pittsburgh. The boy's father arrived on the scene soon after the accident, police said.

Zookeepers and armed police officers tried to ward off the pack of the eleven naturally aggressive dogs but the pack succeeded in killing the child before the gathered onlookers. Initial reports were not yet clear whether the boy died from the fall or the attack, said Barbara Baker, president of the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. Zoo officials at first estimated the boy fell 14 feet, but police said it was 11.

Authorities said that zoo staff and then police responded "within minutes," but visitors described that time as being filled with screams for help. Zookeepers called off some of the dogs, and seven of them immediately went to a back building. Three more eventually were drawn away from the child, but the last dog was aggressive and police had to shoot the animal. According to witnesses on the scene, zookeepers fired darts and a police officer opened fire. The effort killed one of the African painted dogs which is considered an endangered animal. The dogs are among the most deadly predators of the Serengeti Plain.

Their hunts end in a kill 80 percent of the time while lions have a success rate of just 30 per cent.

One of the archaic names for the African wild dog or “painted wolf” (as we now call it) is “Hyaena dog.” In German, it is still called the Hyänenhund. Artist John Gerarrd Keulemans created this (now public domain) painting of his African wild dog as if it was a cross between a Lycaon pictus and a striped hyena. But hyenas aren’t dogs, and African wild dogs aren’t hyenas. Hyenas actually are more closely related to cats than any species of dog.

See also another news report video.

March Madness 2012

Sometimes the phrase "March Madness" lives up to its name.

There was a Full Moon at 04:41:42 AM EST on March 8, 2012. One of this year's more extremely high tides called Spring Tides occurs in March 2012 from Friday, March 9 through Monday, March 12, 2012. Significant "random" human events have taken place, thusfar, during this full moon-spring tide cycle.


A psychiatric person shoots up a psychiatric institute. A flight attendant disrupts a flight. A frequent court inquirer stabs a judge. An American solider kills civilians in Afghanistan.


If you step back from these incidents, you will observe the unusual irony underlining each of their roles in the sites of their actions. They all actually are extreme behavioral outbursts of people merely doing what they have routinely done, but this time, abnormally and violently.


(1) Oklahoma

Guns in the streets: Tulsa, March 7, 2012.

On Wednesday, March 7, 2012, a man shoot and wounded several people at the Tulsa, Oklahoma courthouse before he was brought down by law enforcement officers' bullets.


Authorities on March 8th were investigating whether the suspected gunman wounded in a shootout near a Tulsa courthouse was trying to commit "suicide by cop" when he drew fire from sheriff's deputies, and they confirmed his brother was shot and killed in 2005 by police officers seeking to question him about a murder.

Investigators said they still didn't know exactly why Andrew Joseph Dennehy fired a handgun into the air Wednesday afternoon in a crowded plaza outside Tulsa County District Court. Dennehy, a sheriff's deputy and a bystander were wounded in the shootout.

"Clearly `suicide by cop' may enter into it," Tulsa police spokesman Jason Willingham said. "Anytime someone goes to a location where you know law enforcement is going to be present and takes out a weapon and fires shots, you have to know you're going to garner attention."

Dennehy's brother Brian Dennehy was shot and killed in August 2005 after investigators say he fired at an officer in the parking lot of a Tulsa apartment complex, Willingham said. Police said then that he was suspected in the beating death of his grandfather, Bernard Dennehy, in Oklahoma City.

Andrew Dennehy, 23, remained in critical condition Thursday, March 8th, at a Tulsa hospital, Willingham said. Police have said he is technically in custody but hasn't been formally charged with a crime.

Authorities identified the wounded deputy as David Fortenberry and the bystander who was shot as Ricardo Manuel, 28. Willingham said both had non-life threatening injuries, but their medical conditions weren't immediately known on Thursday. According to sheriff's office, Fortenberry was shot in both hands and arms.

In the case of Dennehy's brother, Brian, Tulsa police had received a request from Oklahoma City investigators for help in finding a homicide suspect who may have been in Tulsa. An officer found the vehicle of the suspect, identified as Brian Dennehy, and was approaching it when a man who was lying down in the back seat pointed a revolver and shot at the officer.

The officer returned fire, hitting Brian Dennehy twice in the upper torso and once in the head. He died at the scene.

As for Andrew Dennehy, who would have been a teenager when his brother was killed, investigators "may never know why he did what he did," Willingham said.

With brisk winds and unseasonably warm temperatures, it didn't seem too odd that Andrew Dennehy, shoeless and clad in a short-sleeve shirt and short pants, had sauntered onto the plaza between the courthouse and the Tulsa Central Library.

A wedding had ended on the plaza, and about seven family members were still gathered when shots rang out, said Angela Reudelhuber, 36, who ministered the wedding.

"The wedding just finished, and the bride and groom headed upstairs to turn in their marriage license," Reudelhuber said.

Reudelhuber dropped to the ground when she heard the gunshots about 20 feet away and then rushed inside.

Andrew Dennehy lay wounded and bleeding from his upper body onto the patchwork of concrete tiles.

"I'm thinking this is not the downtown I remember working in," said John Fancher, a communications specialist at the regional library who photographed the incident and shared his photographs with The Associated Press and other media outlets. "I start snapping off some shots, and he sits down, just casually sits down, gun in his hand and three sheriffs (deputies) come out of the courthouse and I can't hear what they're saying."


Thanks to Andrew Griffin for the tip.

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(2) Pennsylvania

Domestic War Zone: March 8, 2012, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.

John Shick, 30, opened fire shortly after entering the lobby of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic on Thursday afternoon, March 8, 2012. The assailant walked through the psychiatric hospital's front door with a pair of semi-automatic 9mm handguns around 1:40 p.m. The gunman walked into the Pittsburgh psychiatric hospital and started shooting. Shick was shot and killed by police Thursday, but not before he killed hospital employee. Shick was killed by police officers who told the media they had trained for a Virginia Tech-style shooting.

One of the two 9mm handguns recovered was traced to New Mexico and the other was traced to Texas, the law enforcement source said. It was not known whether the weapons were legally purchased or how Shick allegedly came to have them. Investigators also recovered an extra box of ammunition. The guns generally hold about 15 rounds. It remained unclear how many rounds were fired before the suspect was killed by police.

Four people remained hospitalized on Friday, including a 46-year-old man listed in fair condition, a 64-year-old woman in serious condition, a 35-year-old man in good condition and a 49-year-old man in serious condition. A 54-year-old woman was released from the hospital Friday.

"This is a tragic day, a sad day, a senseless day," Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said after the shooting Thursday at the medical center.

Shick apparently had a history of legally changing his name. Records in Oregon, where he once lived, show he changed his name to either William Hudnpere Schols Kan or William Huhnpere Scholskan – it appears two different ways in court documents – in 2009. In early 2010, a person with that name and the same address as Shick was charged with assaulting a public safety officer. Then, in May 2010, Scholskan petitioned to change his name back to John Frederick Shick.

Calls to homes listed in the names of Shick's parents in Green Cove Springs, Florida, and San Jose, California, went unanswered Saturday.

Duquesne University spokeswoman Bridget Fare said Saturday that Shick was expelled from the school last November after harassment complaints. Shick enrolled in August as a graduate biology student, but soon numerous female students filed a formal complaint. The harassment never contained any threats or indication of violence.

"It was making them uncomfortable," Fare said of his persistent requests for dates or social contact.

Shick was relieved of his duties as a teaching assistant on October 21 and there was a hearing on the harassment charge on November 3. The school told Shick that he was prohibited from campus and from making contact with any of the women.


(3) Flight 2332, over the Midwest USA

Flashbacks of 9/11: Chaos Abroad Flight 2332.

An American Airlines flight attendant disrupted American Airlines Flight 2332, Friday morning, March 9, 2012, as it was about to take off from Dallas-Fort Worth en route to Chicago, saying over the aircraft intercom system that the plane was going to crash, alluding to 9/11 terrorist attacks and ranting about the airline's bankruptcy reorganization, passengers said.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed there was an "altercation" involving American Airlines Flight 2332, which eventually landed at Chicago O'Hare at 11:46 a.m., more than an hour late.

According to reports by passengers, the trouble began Friday morning as the plane taxied to the runway for takeoff. A flight attendant who had been giving preflight safety instructions began speaking incoherently over the intercom system, confusing and startling passengers.

American Airlines Flight 2232 had left the gate in Dallas and was taxiing when the flight attendant started a 15-minute rant over the plane's PA system.

"She said, 'I'm not responsible for this plane crashing,"' Bethany Christakos, passenger, said. "And that's when everybody started freaking out."

"She spoke in and out of Spanish. Talked about the flight crashing, that we were going to go back to the gate," Carolyn Kazmi, passenger, said.

"We were pretty frightened. We knew something was wrong. It was almost like she was talking and didn't realize the PA was on," Stephen Termunde, passenger, said.

"She had said, 'I'm the number one in charge,' something about 23 years being there, started talking about bankruptcy. But it really got everyone's attention when she said, 'There's a problem. We have to go back to the gate,'" Christakos said.

Other flight attendants interrupted and said there were no mechanical issues and that the plane was preparing for takeoff.

The upset flight attendant then said over the public-address system that it would not be her fault if the plane crashed. She began speaking in incomplete sentences, using the words "bankruptcy" and "American Airlines," passengers said. She also referred to the 9/11 terrorist attacks at one point, passengers said.

Some passengers then began using mobile phones to call 911.

Other flight attendants on the plane attempted to calm the woman, but she continued to be agitated. Three or four passengers then left their seats and went to the front of the plane to help restrain her as the plane returned to the gate, a move requested by the pilot, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed.

An airport official in Dallas said he does not expect any charges to be filed against the flight attendant.


(4) Washington State

Domestic War Zone: March 10, 2012, Washington State.

In 2008, Steven Kravetz was convicted in Lewis County, Washington State, of third degree assault and making false or misleading statements to a public servant. He served 102 days on the charges. In that incident, Kravetz was arrested after he refused to cooperate with police after being kicked out of a Centralia public library.

On Friday, March 9, 2012, Kravetz was reported to be acting strangely at the Grays Harbor District Court. Around lunchtime Friday, Deputy Polly Davin responded to a report of a suspicious person at the courthouse and confronted a man (Kravetz). During a struggle, she was stabbed with either a small knife or scissors. Judge David Edwards intervened, striking the assailant, who then stabbed him. Davin reached for her gun, but it was wrestled away by Kravetz, who shot twice, striking her in the shoulder before fleeing.

Both the judge and the sheriff's deputy were treated and released from a hospital hours after the attack. 

Kravetz fled the courthouse with the officer's .45-caliber handgun after the attack and showed up about an hour or so later at the office of his former attorney and asked to the use the phone, who didn't known anything was wrong. He got a ride from his mother, to her home, where police on Saturday, March 10, 2012, arrested the 34-year-old suspect.


(5) Afghanistan

Foreign War Zone: March 11, 2012, Afghanistan.

A United States service member (an Army staff sergeant) walked out of a military base in a rural district of southern Afghanistan on early Sunday, March 11, 2012 (local times) and opened fire on three nearby houses, killing at least 16 civilians, including several children, local villagers and provincial officials said.

Villagers in Belandi in the Panjway district of Kandahar, where the shooting took place, said the service member had attacked three houses, killing at least 16 in total. Five other villagers were wounded, they said.

The governor of Kandahar Province, Tooryalai Wesa, condemned the shooting, although he could not immediately confirm the number of people killed. A coalition spokesman in Kabul, Capt. Justin Brockhoff, said that it was not clear what had led to the incident. He said the civilians wounded in the shooting were taken to a coalition hospital where they were being treated.

One of the houses attacked in the village belonged to a tribal elder, according to a person from the village. “We don’t know why he killed people,” said the villager, Aminullah, who like many Afghans goes by a single name. Aminullah said the soldier was alone. “There was no fighting or attacks.”

The soldier has not yet been identified.