Tag: mass shootings

Media Silent as Armed Woman Kills Active Shooter with AR-15 As He Opened Fire on Graduation Celebration

Within just 24 hours, two potential mass shootings unfolded — one at a school in Uvalde, Texas and another in Charleston, West Virginia. Only one of the incidents had police involved and had the shooter surrounded. Unfortunately, this was the most tragic and deadliest one at Robb Elementary.

In Charleston, however, another potential mass shooting unfolded hours later in which the shooter — armed with an AR-15 — targeted children at a graduation party outside of an apartment complex. Unlike Robb Elementary, the apartment complex hadn’t been “hardened” and police hadn’t trained two months earlier on how to deal with a mass shooter.

Also, unlike Robb Elementary, there were no school resource officers on the scene to protect the children. Fortunately, however, also unlike Robb Elementary, private individuals aren’t banned from carrying guns. This is why the only person to be killed as the Charleston mass shooting unfolded — was the shooter, 37-year-old Dennis Butler.

According to police, Butler had sped through the area earlier that day and parents of the children at the party told him to slow down. This apparently caused Butler to snap and he left only to return later with an AR-15 — which he acquired illegally — and began firing on the crowd of children and parents.

“Butler then left the complex, but later returned, parked in front of the 1300 Renaissance Circle complex and pulled an AR 15-style rifle,” said police. “Butler fired his weapon at people attending a graduation party.”

Because West Virginia is a permitless carry state, open carry and concealed carry are both legal for all U.S. citizens. One must be 18-years-old to open carry while one must be 21 or older to conceal carry. Those under 21 can still conceal carry but must apply for a Provisional Concealed Handgun License.

Luckily, a woman at the party was carrying and when Butler began firing into a crowd of children and parents, she pulled out her pistol and ended the threat, killing the would-be mass shooter before anyone was harmed.

“Instead of running from the threat, she engaged with the threat and saved several lives last night,” Charleston Police Department Chief of Detectives Tony Hazelett said.

According to police, Butler had an extensive criminal record but they did not go into detail. Chief Hazelett told reporters Thursday night that no charges will be filed against the woman who killed Butler.

She should be celebrated in her community instead.

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Chilling new footage shows Texas gunman Salvador Ramos during shirtless video call with 15-year-old German girl on social media app Yubo – days before he told her about his school massacre plans

The Texas school shooter made two FaceTime calls – one of them while topless – with a German girl he met on social media, who was told of his warped plot to murder.

Ramos, 18, was filmed posing with his shirt off in a call made to the girl, known only as CeCe, after meeting her on social media site Yubo.

Other new images obtained by CNN, show Ramos filming himself while holding the phone under his chin, and while wearing a face mask.

On the day of the massacre, Ramos messaged CeCe on Yubo to tell her he’d just shot his grandma Celia, and that ‘Ima go shoot up a elementary school rn.’

Ramos ultimately carried out the plan, killing 19 young children at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, as well as two female teachers, before being shot dead.  

Ramos threatened to rape girls he talked to on social media app Yubo and said that he would shoot up schools, just weeks before the massacre.

The three teenage users, who revealed the messages to several news outlets, said that they didn’t take Ramos’ threats seriously until the news of Tuesday’s shooting broke out. 

They also reported Ramos’ threats to the app’s support team, which included a series of messages sent by the gunman, threatening to commit sexual violence and carry out school shootings.

Yubo is a French social media app that was created in 2015 and that is designed to ‘meet new people,’ as well as create a sense of community. It was developed by  TWELVE APP in 2015 and allows users to create video livestreams with up to 10 friends. The app currently has 50 million users around the world.

Ramos was still able to keep his profile active on the platform despite reports made to safety teams about his disturbing behavior. CeCe his German Yubo friend says the shooter warned her on the app that he was going to shoot up Robb Elementary School just 15 minutes before he opened fire.  

Screenshots of the pair’s correspondence, provided by the girl to CNN, reveal they were exchanging messages just after 11:01am CT – less than half hour before the massacre had started. 

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Uvalde Gunman Threatened to Shoot up a School Four Years Ago, Rep. Claims

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) claimed that Uvalde gunman Salvador Ramos had previously threatened to shoot up a school when he was 14. The now deceased gunman allegedly threatened to carry out a school massacre when he turned 18 and was arrested for it, placing him on law enforcement’s radar.

“The shooter was arrested years ago, four years ago, for having this plan for basically saying, you know, when I’m a senior in 2022, I am going to shoot up a school,” Gonzales claimed on Fox News.

“Something fell between the cracks between then and now to allow this to happen. We need to shake out all the facts. We need to figure out what happened,” he continued.

“Where the holes and we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again. But if law enforcement, you know, identified him four years ago as a threat, we need to figure out why he wasn’t – you know, how he got removed from that,” Gonzales added.

Bill Melugin of Fox News later reported that Uvalde police officials are denying the claim. Two teens were arrested for threatening to carry out a massacre in 2014, but the department says the Uvalde gunman was not one of them. “There were two juveniles arrested on conspiracy charges for a shooting plot several years back, but the Uvalde shooter was not involved in that incident and was not arrested,” Melugin was reportedly told by Uvalde law enforcement.

Uvalde law enforcement officials have previously claimed that Ramos had no criminal record and was not on their radar. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said he isn’t sure whether he had a juvenile record, which are often sealed.

“He may have had a juvenile record, but that is yet to be determined,” Abbott said at a press conference earlier this week.

Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez reported that a 14-year-old Morales Junior High School student and a 13-year-old former Morales student planned to perform a “mass casualty event against the school,” according to KENS 5 in 2018.

The two students were reportedly inspired by the 1999 Columbine massacre while one described himself as feeling “god-like.”

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Authorities investigating if retired federal agent knew of Buffalo mass shooting plans in advance

Law enforcement officers are investigating whether a retired federal agent had about 30 minutes advance notice of a white supremacist’s plans to murder Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, two law enforcement officials told The Buffalo News. 

Authorities believe the former agent – believed to be from Texas – was one of at least six individuals who regularly communicated with accused gunman Payton Gendron in an online chat room where racist hatred was discussed, the two officials said.

The two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation stated these individuals were invited by Gendron to read about his mass shooting plans and the target location about 30 minutes before Gendron killed 10 people at Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue on May 14. 

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Officers Waited to Engage Texas School Shooter Because ‘They Could Have Been Shot’: Official

A Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) official has said officers “could have been shot” if they engaged the gunman holed up with his victims in a classroom at Robb Elementary School before a specialist tactical team arrived.

Authorities on Thursday sketched out a timeline of events from when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos crashed his vehicle to when he entered the Texas school at around 11.40 a.m. and slaughtered 19 students and two teachers.

But it wasn’t until almost 1 p.m. that Ramos had been killed and the siege was over, around 90 minutes later.

Questions have been raised amid mounting public anger and scrutiny about the response of law enforcement as more details emerge about the timeline of events.

Texas DPS spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez said the first priority for officers in an active shooter situation is to stop the killing and preserve life.

“But also one thing that, of course, the American people need to understand, is that officers are making entry into this building. They do not know where the gunman is,” Oliverez told CNN.

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