Tag: mass shootings

Army reservist testifies he warned about gunman before mass shooting in Maine

An Army reservist and acquaintance of Robert Card, the gunman responsible for a mass shooting in Maine in 2023, testified on Thursday that he warned about Card’s behavior weeks before the attack occurred, the Associated Press reported.

Sean Hodgson told members of his reserve unit of his concerns with Card six weeks before a mass shooting in Maine that left 13 people wounded and 18 people dead, according to reports. It was the deadliest mass shooting in Maine’s history.

Hodgson told investigators that he observed strange behavior in Card and was concerned he might do something violent, according to the Associated Press. He said he believed Card was suffering from mental health problems, which prompted Hodgson to inform his superior officers and request that they change the passcodes to a gate at their training facility. He also warned them to arm themselves in the event Card appeared.

Hodgson also told investigators of a time when Card became violent with him and punched him in the face. Card had also threatened multiple members of his unit, and the incidents raised his concerns that Card would try to do something harmful to others, the Associated Press reported. Hodgson was also worried because Card had gun access.  

The magnitude of Card’s threats were steadily increasing, Hodgson said. 

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FBI Turns Over Nashville, Tennessee Mass Shooter’s Manifesto To The Court

The FBI has turned over Nashville Tennessee Covenant School mass shooter Audrey Hale’s private writing and manifesto to a federal judge who will read them privately and decide how to deal with their release. 

Star News Digital Media Inc., The Tennessee Star’s parent company, sued the FBI in May 2023 after the March 2023 shooting. The news organization had claimed the FBI had violated the First Amendment by rejecting multiple Freedom of Information Act requests for Hale’s manifesto.

U.S. District Court Judge Aleta A. Trauger, who has presided over the case agreed with the Tennessee Star over a month ago that it was in the public’s interest to release the documents to determine what the motive of the mass shooting was. 

Hale killed three nine-year old children and three faculty members during her mass shooting spree before she was shot dead by law enforcement on the scene inside the school. 

Trauger will review the documents privately, before deciding whether to share the writings with the plaintiffs.

“Pursuant to this Court’s Order dated March 15, 2024, ECF No. 42, the FBI notifies the Court that today, April 17, 2024, the FBI provided the requested records to the Court for its ex parte, in camera review,” the FBI said in its formal notification.

Trauger previously said that there was “significant public interest” in the shooter’s manifesto, when a few pages were leaked by conservative commentator Steven Crowder last November. 

Those leaked pages revealed anti-white writings. 

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Massive Cover-Up of Trans Shooter’s History in Nashville Covenant School Mass Murder Case

The parents of the victims of the Covenant School in Nashville, TN, have begged Davidson County Chancery Court to withhold from the public Audrey Hale’s manifesto and all documents belonging to the shooter, which were legally gifted to the parents of the victims by the shooter’s parents.

Gifting the documents to the parents of the victims is odd. But for the parents of the victims to then assert that they hold some kind of “copyright” on those documents is twisted on its face and one cannot help but wonder what really is behind this enormous effort to withhold information about Audrey Hale.

Let’s think about it for a minute. What we know is that Audrey Hale went to elementary school at Covenant, transferred out to Isaiah T. Creswell Middle School and Nashville School of Arts then on to Nossi College of Arts. Everything was seemingly okay.

At 28 years old, the now transitioning female, was identifying as the male, Aiden and, while living at home with mom and dad, began purchasing seven firearms, including shotguns, rifles, and handguns. It was also at this time that we find Hale being “treated” for an emotional disorder.

On the morning of March 27, 2023, Hale drove to her elementary alma mater and discharged 150 rounds, killing three children and three adults. Why? Why did Hale choose Covenant School for her murderous actions? Why not Middle or High School or how about the local fast-food joint? This was a specific hit. Planned. Hale knew where she was going and why.

The problem is that the public doesn’t know why. The public doesn’t know why Hale decided to take the lives of six innocent people. But the public will have to live with any legislation that comes from her murderous behavior… legislation that may limit its right to own firearms or increases funding for mental health services that may actually be responsible for Hale’s actions.

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18-year-old female trans student charged for planning two Maryland school shootings, manifesto said she wanted to be ‘famous’

An 18-year-old high school student who identifies as transgender was arrested and charged over alleged plans to shoot up a Montgomery County, Maryland school. The suspect had a 129-page manifesto in which the student strategized how to undertake the crime.

Andrea Ye, of Rockville, who goes by Alex Ye was arrested on Wednesday by local Montgomery County Police. This follows an investigation carried out by local police in association with the FBI field office out of Baltimore. The manifesto was discovered after a search warrant was carried out. 

“Ye was taken into custody and charged with threats of mass violence. He is currently being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit where he awaits a bond hearing,” read the news release from the Montgomery County Department of Police, referring to the female student as “he.”

Parts of the manifesto were reportedly included in the application for statement of charges. It read:

“I want to shoot up my school. I’ve been preparing for it for the past few months. As I sit in front of my dad’s gun case and stare at the sleek, black gun inside, all I can think about is my finger on the trigger, taking aim, and killing people. The gun is an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle. It’s the kind of gun with a long barrel and a stock you put up against your shoulder. The gun is going to change lives tomorrow.”

“As I walk through the hallways, I cherry pick the classrooms that are the easiest targets. These ones are close to the entrance and have windows in the doors. I need to figure out how I’ll sneak the gun in. Maybe a duffel bag will work. I just hope security doesn’t stop me.”

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Why Nashville school shooting victims’ families don’t want the handwritten confession of killer Audrey Hale from ever being released

Grieving families of the Covenant Christian School shooter’s six victims have claimed they own copyright of the full handwritten confession of the killer.

They are arguing before a Nashville judge that the confession, and other documents, should never be publicly released because no good can come from it. 

The families’ claims comes as both city police and the FBI fight to stop the confession, and potentially information about mysterious notes and numbers found on Hale’s body, from being made public. 

Audrey Hale, 28, was a transgender artist, who identified as a male named Aiden, shot her way into the Tennessee elementary school in March 2023, killing three adults and three nine-year-olds, before responding officers killed her.

Following the shooting, Nashville’s Metropolitan Police Chief John Drake said his force had recovered the shooter’s manifesto, as well as hand-drawn maps in her car, and said they would eventually be made public. 

Now, both city police and the FBI say the material shouldn’t be released because the information could damage any potential  investigation.

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Did The US First Catch Wind Of The Crocus Terrorist Attack By Spying On Kiev?

This accounts for why the US only passed along vague information to Russia since it assumed that the GUR wouldn’t go through with the Crocus plot after ordering them to call it off, but Washington still wanted to discredit its rival’s government and security services, ergo its embassy’s provocative warning at the time.

The New York Times (NYT) cited unnamed sources on Thursday to report that “The adversarial relationship between Washington and Moscow prevented U.S. officials from sharing any information about the (Crocus terrorist attack) plot beyond what was necessary, out of fear Russian authorities might learn their intelligence sources or methods.” This vindicates President Putin, who the West hitherto claimed had downplayed terrorist threats in the run-up to one of the worst attacks in Russian history.

Without actionable intelligence and informed only of the US’ vague warning that large gatherings like concerts could soon be targeted, his security services were unable to stop the plotters, thus meaning that Washington is partially responsible for what happened by withholding specific information about it. Just as scandalously, this bombshell also prompted speculation about the exact sources and methods that America employed to first catch wind of this attack.

While it’s possible that the US learned about this from spying on the radical Telegram channel whose curators reportedly recruited the culprits, such as if the CIA had a mole inside that preacher’s team, the case can compellingly be made that this might have actually been brought to its attention by spying on Kiev. Last spring’s Pentagon leaks confirmed that the US has been spying on Zelensky, which Ukrainian officials told CNN was “unsurprising” but still left them “deeply frustrated”.

Those documents also confirmed that the US was spying on Ukraine’s military-intelligence service GUR as well, from whom they learned about a plot to attack the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the first anniversary of the special operation and then ordered them to stand down to avoid provoking Moscow. Seeing as how the Washington Post (WaPo) reported half a year later that the CIA rebuilt the GUR from the ground-up after 2014, it’s obvious that they embedded moles within that institution from the get-go.

They don’t always learn about terrorist plots ahead of time since their infiltration of the GUR and other Ukrainian government agencies isn’t total, but they’re still usually able to conclude sometime afterwards that Kiev was responsible whenever a serious attack happens in Russia. Such was the case last May when the NYT reported that Kiev was responsible for the Kremlin drone attack, in which piece they also reminded their reader that it was behind other attacks up until that point too.

These include the assassinations of Darya Dugina and Vladlen Tatarsky, cross-border terrorist raids into Russia’s Belgorod Region, and the Nord Stream II bombing. About that last-mentioned one, the claim of Ukrainian complicity might very well be a preplanned red herring for deflecting from American involvement after Seymour Hersh served as the conduit for dissident members of the Intelligence Community (IC) to inform the public that their country was the one that ordered that attack.

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A very curious Crocus video

On Monday I had the privilege of speaking with Steve and Chris from AM WakeUp. Our 90-minute conversation focused on the terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall.

During our chat, Steve shared a video with me that was published by Zvezda, a TV network run by the Russian Ministry of Defense. The clip purportedly captured the moment when gunmen entered the building…

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Tennessee Federal Judge Orders FBI To Turn Over Nashville Mass Shooter’s Manifesto

A federal judge in Tennessee ruled that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) surrender documents, which include the ‘manifesto’ of transgender school shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who killed three adults and three nine-year old children at the Covenant Christian School in Nashville in March 2023. 

The police shot Hale inside the school after she had murdered Mike Hill, 61, Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and three 9-year-olds, Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney.

At the time of the shooting in March 2023, Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake had told reporters that officers had recovered a “manifesto” from Hale’s car as well as other documents, including a hand-drawn map of the school, and said Hale’s manifesto would be released. It was never released.

Federal authorities had resisted releasing Hale’s manifesto, citing potential interference with enforcement proceedings. The Tennessee Star newspaper’s parent company took legal action against the FBI after denying its request for public records release laws in Tennessee under the Freedom of Information Act. 

“The public has an urgent right to know why this tragedy happened,” the newspaper’s lawyers said in the federal complaint at that time.

The parent company of the Tennessee Star, a local newspaper, sued the FBI after the bureau denied its public records request under the Freedom of Information Act.

Then the tide turned. 

“It has been long enough, and the public has an urgent right to know why this tragedy happened, how future events may be prevented, and what policies should be in place to address this and other similar tragedies,” lawyers for the newspaper wrote in a federal complaint. “[The] FBI has no right to retain a monopoly on this information,” the court ruled. 

The FBI sought to have the complaint dismissed, but Judge Aleta Trauger of the Middle District of Tennessee said the bureau had failed to support its position “with sufficient clarity or detail” and ordered it to submit the manifesto to the court, so she could review the materials.

“The FBI is ORDERED to produce ex parte all documents that are potentially responsive to the defendants’ Freedom of Information Act request for in camera review, with the exception that, based on the plaintiffs’ concessions in this litigation, the FBI need not produce any documents that could not reasonably be construed to bear on Audrey Hale’s motives,” Trauger wrote.

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US Intelligence Says It Knew ISIS-K Was Planning Terror Attack On Moscow

The initial reports that ISIS has claimed responsibility for the terror attack in Moscow appeared rumor at first, and has still been subject of widespread scrutiny and debate, however, US media and government officials are saying that the Islamic State (or ISIS-K) statement is authentic. “A branch of the Islamic State claimed responsibility on Friday for the attack in Moscow that killed at least 40 people and injured about 100 others, and U.S. officials confirmed the claim shortly afterward,” The New York Times writes late in the day. 

What’s more is that US intelligence knew there was to be an imminent attack on Moscow: “The United States collected intelligence in March that Islamic State-Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, the branch of the group based in Afghanistan, had been planning an attack on Moscow, according to officials. ISIS members have been active in Russia, one U.S. official said,” according to more from NYT.

The Kremlin had earlier in the day demanded answers of Washington explaining why the US Embassy in Moscow issued an alert earlier this month for all US nationals to avoid public venues and be extra vigilant. We previously reported on that early March embassy notification here. NY Times continues, citing US officials: “After a period of relative quiet, the Islamic State has been trying to increase its external attacks, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials. Most of those plots in Europe have been thwarted, prompting assessments that the group had diminished capabilities.”

Importantly, Russian state media and sources have been slow to report the ISIS-K claims, nor have state officials identified any culprits or group at this late hour. Russian media in general has not reflected Western press reports concerning the claims that ISIS-K was behind it, likely pending a deeper and ongoing investigation. It is possible that some of the gunmen may still be at large.

Speculation continues to run rampant, and there’s as yet been little that’s confirmed from Russian security services and authorities.

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40 Dead, Over 100 Injured in Mass Shooting at Moscow Concert Venue, FSB Says

At least three people in camouflage opened fire at the Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow on Friday, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

More than 100 people were injured in the shooting, while the concert hall caught fire, according to the correspondent.

“At least three people in camouflage burst into the ground floor of Crocus City Hall and opened fire with automatic weapons. There are definitely wounded,” the correspondent said. “After that [the gunmen] threw a grenade or an incendiary bomb, which started a fire.”

“People in the hall laid down on the ground to avoid the fire, laying there for about 15-20 minutes, after which they began to crawl out. Many managed to get out,” the correspondent said.

Law enforcement has arrived and are working at the scene. Local authorities said that “all forces and means have been directed to the scene of the incident,” and that “information about victims is being confirmed.”

The Emergencies Ministry said about a hundred people have been evacuated from the venue’s basement.

Moscow Region governor Andrei Vorobyov is on route to the scene of the emergency, and an operational headquarters has been created. Moscow Mayor has ordered authorities to provide “all necessary assistance,” and expressed “condolences to the relatives of the victims.”

The Russian Health Ministry told Sputnik that over 50 ambulances has been sent to Krasnogorsk to provide medical care to victims. This number has since been increased to 70.

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