Monday, October 2, 2017 - Today is
The International Day of Nonviolence
At least 58 dead, more than 500 injured
in Las Vegas shooting
A 64-year-old man armed
with more than 10 rifles rained down gunfire on a country music festival in Las
Vegas, Nev., yesterday, slaughtering at least 58 people before killing
himself in the largest mass shooting in America's history.
The barrage from a
32nd-floor window in the Mandalay Bay Hotel into a crowd of 22,000 people lasted
several minutes. Some fleeing fans trampled each other as police scrambled
to find the gunman. More than 500 people have been injured.
Police have identified the
gunman as Stephen Paddock, who lived in a retirement community in Mesquite, Nev.
The police said they have no idea what prompted his attack.
ISIS claimed
responsibility for the massacre, but U.S. officials have expressed skepticism of
that claim.
The preliminary death toll,
which officials warn could rise further, eclipsed last year's massacre of 49
people at an Orlando, Fla., night club who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic
State.
Shocked concert-goers, some with blood on their
clothing, wandered the streets where the lights of the city blended with those
of emergency vehicles.
Police said they had no
information about Paddock's motive, that he had no criminal record and was not
believed to have a connection to any militant group. Paddock killed himself
before police entered the hotel room he was firing from, Clark County Sheriff
Joseph Lombardo said. The sheriff said there were more than 10 rifles in the
room where Paddock killed himself. He had checked into the hotel on Thursday,
the sheriff said.
The shooting broke out on
the final night of the three-day Route 91 Harvest Festival, a sold-out
event featuring Eric Church, Sam Hunt and Jason Aldean.
Tillerson 'wasting his time,' President
Trump says
President Trump said in a
tweet yesterday that he told Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "he is wasting his
time trying to negotiate with the Little Rocket Man" - a reference to North
Korea's leader.
A North Korean ship was
seized after it was caught carrying a huge supply of weapons to
Egypt.
Meanwhile, two women have
pleaded not guilty to murdering Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korea's
leader, as their trial in Malaysia got under way.
Two women killed in knife attack at
Paris train station
Police investigators were
outside the main railway station in Marseille yesterday after French soldiers
shot and killed a man who had stabbed two women. According to the police, the
attacker shouted "Allahu akbar" in the attack claimed by ISIS.
Catalonia 'has won the right to
statehood,' leader says
Catalan leader Carles
Puigdemont says the Spanish region "has won the right to statehood" following a
contentious referendum that was marred by violence. Ninety percent of voters
were in favor of independence, officials say.
Police officer stabbed, pedestrians run
down in Canada
The stabbing of a police
officer and a subsequent high-speed chase where several pedestrians were run
down is being investigated as an act of terrorism, Edmonton Police Chief Rod
Knecht said early today.
The car and knife attack
outside a football game and a high-speed chase of a moving van that left four
people injured was the work of a Somali refugee who was likely working alone and
was known to police for his extremist views, the police say.
Austria's burqa ban comes into
force
A law that forbids any kind
of full-face covering, including Islamic veils such as the niqab or burqa, has
come into effect in Austria. Muslim women in Austria were forced by police to
remove their facial coverings yesterday as the anti-burka law came into
effect.
'Friendly fire' kills Afghan security
forces members
At least 10 Afghan security
forces members were killed yesterday after the Afghan Air Force mistakenly
dropped bombs on their checkpoint.
Sikh becomes first non-white leader of
Canadian political party
Jagmeet Singh was elected
leader of Canada's leftist New Democratic Party (NDP) yesterday, becoming the
country's first non-white leader of a major political party.
Bangladesh to press for Muslim
refugees' return to Myanmar
Bangladesh opened talks
with neighboring Myanmar today with the aim of securing the return of more than
half a million Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar, most of whom have arrived
since late August.
Former Pakistani prime minister's
indictment delayed to Oct. 9th
The accountability court
hearing the corruption case against former Prime Minister Mian
Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and his family today ordered the issuance of
non-bailable arrest warrants for Nawaz Sharif's sons, Hassan and Hussain Nawaz,
and his son-in-law.
Australia and New Zealand send help to
Vanuatu
Australia dispatched a
naval vessel to Vanuatu on Saturday to help the South Pacific nation evacuate
all 11,000 inhabitants from the northern island of Ambae as an erupting volcano
threatens to shower down burning ash and acid rain.
Dozens of civilians said killed in
Syria airstrikes
By Lisa Levine, News of the Force Tel
Aviv
At least 28 people,
including four children, were killed overnight Friday in airstrikes on a
rebel-held Syrian village, a monitoring group said on Saturday. Syrian
opposition activists also say the airstrikes on villages and towns held by
the Islamic State group in eastern Syria have killed and wounded
dozens.
Former National Religious
Party chairman Effie Eitam is the leading candidate for head of the Yesha
Council.
Omri Casspi, the first
Israeli to play in the U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA), missed
his preseason opener with the Golden State Warriors due to Yom
Kippur.
And a 32-year-old
Israeli, ranked No. 77 in the world, was playing in his first ATP Tour
quarterfinal in China since reaching the semifinals of the Chennai Open in
India in the first week of January, left in mid-match to celebrate Yom
Kippur.
Couzin Gym's
Thought for the Day: Too many couples marry for better or for
worse, but not for good.
U.S. Air
Force
As its critical shortage
continues, the Air Force is increasing pay for its pilots.
Engility has secured a
contract to continue providing advanced research and development (R&D)
services to the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.
The U.S. Air Force released
a final Request for Proposal for an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV)
Launch Service supporting the Air Force.
The Air Force
Academy's men's tennis team entered the third day of action at the
Lobo Invitational and the Rice Fall Invitational, yesterday.
U.S. Air Force and
FEMA-contracted aircraft continue to arrive at Dobbins Air Reserve Base,
Ga., to pick up medical equipment and relief supplies.
Oklahoma-based Air Force
Reserve airmen have returned home after a six-month long overseas
deployment.
The Illinois Air National
Guard unit stationed in Peoria is sending aircraft and service members to
help with hurricane relief in Puerto Rico.
The air traffic flow at the
San Juan Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico is back to
normal, thanks to the Air National Guard.
The Virginia Air National
Guard is contributing to hurricane relief missions in the U.S. Virgin
Islands.
The Kansas Air National
Guard's 190th Air Refueling Wing is helping with relief efforts in Puerto Rico
after Hurricane Maria.
"Everything is devastated,"
says CAP Lt. Col. Harvey Yarborough, the director of operations and a mission
pilot for the Civil Air Patrol's Alabama Wing and a mission pilot on duty in
Puerto Rico.
Airman from the Florida Air
National Guard are currently on the ground in San Juan, Puerto Rico,
directing the Joint Air Coordination Element (JACE).
Members of the Civil Air
Patrol were at the Elkhart (Indiana) Municipal Airport on Saturday
supporting the EAA's "Young Eagles" flights.
And in a statement from the
Civil Air Patrol's National Headquarters at Maxwell AFB, Ala., today, "Civil Air
Patrol members across America join the nation in grieving the shocking, horrible
and senseless loss of lives in Las Vegas. Our hearts go out to the families
affected by this massacre and to the law enforcement, medical professionals, and
fellow emergency service providers responding to this tragedy."
Pence to visit U.S. Virgin
Islands
Vice President
Mike Pence is scheduled to visit the hurricane-ravaged U.S.
Virgin Islands this Friday.
U.S. Coast
Guard
A U.S. Coast Guard report
published yesterday blamed "the captain's errors" for the sinking of the
cargo ship SS El Faro off the coast of the Bahamas during a
hurricane in October 2015. The captain underestimated the severity
of the hurricane, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The U.S. Coast Guard
has rescued a sea turtle off the coast of Cuttyhunk Island,
Mass.
Brian Burns, the acting
chief information officer of the U.S. Coast Guard, has said the service branch
is on track to meet the Defense Department's March deadline for migrating its
systems to Windows 10.
The U.S. Coast Guard has
made a near 360 mile trip one-way to rescue an injured sailor in the
Pacific Ocean from aboard a Gearbulk vessel.
Firefighters have put out a
fire on a vessel in San Diego Bay after two days. However, the owner in the U.S.
Coast Guard's records apparently sold the vessel, and the agency does not have
the current owner in its database.
Patrick Brown is the
new Coast Guard Station Merrimack, Mass.'
officer-in-charge.
Crime
stories
A 65-year-old Baxter
Springs, Kansas, woman, who along with two police officers was doused with
gasoline early Saturday at her home and set on fire, died five hours later at a
hospital burn unit. The two officers and another who was
burned while trying to extinguish the flames, and the man who authorities say
threw the gasoline and lit it, burning himself accidentally, will survive,
according to Cherokee County Sheriff David Groves. Sharon
Horn died of her injuries at a Springfield, Mo., hospital. One of the officers
was in critical condition, but is expected to recover, Groves said. The other
officer, as well as third officer who tried to put out the flames, were released
after being treated at a Joplin, Mo., hospital. Baxter
Springs is in southeast Kansas, near the Missouri border. Officers Jimmy Hamilton and Justin Butler responded to what was reported
to police as a domestic disturbance about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday less than a mile
away from the police station. When they arrived, they saw that a man, whose name
was being withheld pending the filing of charges, had entered the home and
assaulted Horn, according to Groves. The man allegedly threw
gasoline on Horn and the two officers and set them afire, Groves said, and
accidentally set himself on fire as well. Officer Darryl Nadeau, also with
the Baxter Springs Police, soon arrived and extinguished the flames,
injuring himself in the process. "The fire
was extinguished relatively quickly and then the Baxter Springs Fire
Department was on the scene," Groves said. Horn's house is
blocked off by crime scene tape and most of the damage was inside, he
said.
David Creato
Jr., the New Jersey man whose relationship with a teenage girl reportedly led
him to kill his own 3-year-old son, will face a decade behind bars for the 2015
crime. On Oct. 13, 2015, Creato called police to report his
son, Brendan, missing. About three hours
later, the boy’s dead body was found in a park a few blocks
from his home. A jury heard that the boy was wearing the
pajamas he had last been seen in, but he only had a pair of clean socks on his
feet. Prosecutors said that fact ruled out the possibility he had walked to the
wooded location on his own. During the trial, attention
focused on the defendant’s ex-girlfriend, Julia Stensky, who was 17 at
the time of the murder. As a witness, she acknowledged that while dating Creato,
his son "was an aspect of his life that she was not very happy
with."
The Facebook post
featured a candid photo of two uniformed St. Louis police officers keeping watch
from behind the hood of an SUV. "They love us. They hate us.
Depends on their particular situation at the time. But they know where the line
is when we're allowed to draw it.” The Aug. 14th post seemed
to talk directly to protesters by including the hashtag #protestseason and
another hashtag calling out a protester-given nickname for one of the
officers - #riotking. And it conveyed a complaint that policymakers do not
always let the police be as aggressive as they want to be. It wasn’t a post by the St. Louis Police Department. It was from 0311
Tactical Solutions, LLC, a private tactical training and security firm managed
by one of the officers in the picture, St. Louis Police Sgt. Brian Rossomanno.
He’s a 20-year veteran of the department and a supervisor in its civil
disobedience unit. In his private role, Rossomanno
represents the epitome of warrior-style policing. His company is named for the
U.S. Marines' MOS code for rifleman. His online bio says he had been a
Marine security guard at the presidential retreat at Camp David and the Marine
Barracks in Washington, D.C. Rossomanno’s tactical company
employs several SWAT officers from across the area, for an array of
services. His firm provides military tactical training to law enforcement,
military, private security, institutions and individuals. Its clients are
nationwide. Since early 2016, according to its Facebook posts, the
company has provided a "quick reaction force" of SWAT officers for St. Louis
Cardinals games. Earlier this year, after a terrorist attack at a concert in
England, the firm was hired to conduct a safety assessment of The Muny.
Rossomanno has been highly visible recently across the
region since the Sept. 15th
acquittal on murder charges of ex-St. Louis Police Officer Jason Stockley - even showing up to keep his eye on
protests outside the city. At least twice last week during protests downtown,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalists observed him ordering protesters to
disperse from streets because their assembly had become unlawful. In an email, the police department called Rossomanno its most qualified
team coordinator, "who plays an integral role in civil disobedience training."
Rossomanno declined to be interviewed for this story. In an
email on Friday, he said that 0311 Tactical did not bid on contracts from the
St. Louis police because it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Later that
day, his company’s website was edited to delete the St. Louis Police Department
and its SWAT team as clients. Protesters tend to single out
Rossomanno over social media and on the street for his connection to 0311
Tactical and the very thing they decry - an unflinching and combat-ready
policing style. One example of this was on Tuesday on Clark
Avenue outside the Cardinals-Cubs game, as protesters
lingered between the north side of the stadium and Ballpark Village. Over his
loudspeaker, Rossomanno ordered the protesters off the street four times because
it was "private property." Many protesters were incredulous
that he could kick them off a public street where even fans without tickets
could feel free to mill around. (A review of city ordinances shows the city
permits the Cardinals to close that stretch of Clark on game days.) The police department said Rossomanno was working for the police
department - not the Cardinals - that night. The Cardinals did not
respond. On Thursday, as a crowd
blocked Tucker Boulevard and Washington Avenue, Rossomanno drove his SUV up to
the crowd. Protesters surrounded his vehicle and started yelling at him. He
ordered them to disperse, but they didn’t move until a line of police moved in
with riot gear. Heather DeMian, a well-known live streamer,
said she thought Rossomanno "threatens chemical munitions a little too fast.
He’s a little too quick with mace sometimes. But I’ve seen him be friendly with
protesters. I think it depends on the situation. I’ve also seen him go off."
Rossomanno’s group has described itself as hoping to
"instill in our first line of defense a combat/warrior mindset complete with the
skills necessary to provide our citizenry with a level of security they can
trust." And it has written that every police department in the country needs to
recognize that riot control training is in its future.
The U.S. Marshals Service,
which transports prisoners to and from the D.C. Superior and U.S. District
courts in the District, is investigating the handling of the case of a D.C.
man who was held in jail for 77 days after his case was
dropped.
The U.S. Marshals Service
stopped a vehicle on the eastbound Interstate 94 exit ramp at Chalmers Street in
Detroit, Mich., and found a stash deadly opioids in the car.
Armed U.S. Marshals
patrolled around the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Court House in Montana
today where Benghazi suspect Ahmed Abu Khatallah is to be
arraigned.
A 32-year-old Chinese
citizen who allegedly gave two men more than 100 suspected fraudulent credit
cards to shop on Guam has backed out of a plea deal with federal
prosecutors.
And five people are dead
after a car being chased by a North Carolina sheriff's deputy slammed into a
passing car, killing everyone in both vehicles. Officials
said yesterday that the deadly collision happened when a 2003 Acura shot through
a red light in Greensboro and hit a Kia Optima with two females inside. The
Guilford County Sheriff's Office says two males and one female were killed in
the Acura shortly before midnight on Saturday. The Greensboro police say several nearby cars were damaged by flying debris.
Officials haven't said whether the crash investigation will
include whether the pursuit was lawful.
Homeland
insecurity
In contrast to dire reports
from Puerto Rico, White House Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert has sent
West Wing colleagues an unusually upbeat report.
And the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security says there are no "specific credible threats" to other public
venues in the U.S. following the Las Vegas shooting.
Page 1