Four killed in California mass shooting

Agencies
November 15, 2017

Los Angeles, Nov 15: Four people were killed and nearly a dozen wounded, including two children, when a gunman went on a rampage Tuesday, randomly picking his targets at a school and other locations in rural northern California.

Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston told reporters that the assailant was killed by police following the mass shooting, which began around 8:00 am (1600 GMT) at a home in Rancho Tehama Reserve and continued at several locations in the community, including the elementary school.

He said no children were among the dead and the motive for the assault was unclear, although it may be linked to a domestic dispute and a history of disagreements with neighbors.

"It was very clear at the onset that we had an individual that was randomly picking targets," Johnston said at a news conference.

"This man was very, very intent on completing what he set out to do today."

He said one child was shot and wounded at the school. Another suffered non-life-threatening injuries while riding in a car with his mother, who was severely wounded.

Johnston said the gunman, who has not been identified, went on his shooting spree after stealing a neighbor's vehicle and then tried to gain access to the school but was unsuccessful as it was on lockdown.

He said the suspect, who was wearing a military-style vest, left the school to continue on his rampage and crashed the vehicle at one point. He then stole a second vehicle and was killed in a shootout with police.

One of the four victims was a woman the gunman had previously been accused of stabbing, Johnston said.

Rancho Tehama resident Salvador Tello, who was taking his three children to school, described seeing the gunman open fire, killing a woman.

Tello "said he saw bullets strike the truck in front of him and he put his children down to protect them and put his truck to... reverse," Redding Record Searchlight newspaper reporter Jim Schultz said on Twitter.

"As he left, he saw (a) woman lying dead in the street and her... wounded husband next to her. Was told help was on its way."

Another witness, Casey Burnett, said the gunman was "driving around and shooting randomly from his car."

Area resident Brian Flint told local media that his roommate had been shot and killed by the gunman.

"He's dead. He didn't make it," Flint told KCRA, referring to his roommate. "For his family and everything, I feel bad, and we'll be there for them."

He said the gunman was a neighbor and had "been shooting a lot of bullets lately, hundreds of rounds, large magazines."

The shooting coincides with a flareup of the long-running debate on America's epidemic of gun violence and the ready accessibility of high-powered weapons, less than 10 days after a gunman shot dead 26 people at a church in Texas.

Johnston told reporters that three weapons -- a semi-automatic rifle and two handguns -- had been recovered from the scene.

He added that some 100 law enforcement officers responded to the shooting.

The Redding Record Searchlight said among the wounded was a six-year-old who suffered two gunshot wounds and another child shot in the leg.

The elementary school is located on the outskirts of Corning, an olive oil-producing town of around 8,000 people about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of the state capital Sacramento.

Jason Wandel, chief division counsel at the FBI's Sacramento field office, told AFP that agents had been sent to help with the investigation.

More than 33,000 people die annually in the United States from gun-related deaths -- two thirds of them suicides -- according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Families of victims of one of the deadliest shootings in modern US history pushed to reinstate a lawsuit to hold a gun manufacturer responsible for the tragedy.

Remington manufactured the military-style assault rifle used in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 20 children and six adults.

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News Network
November 4,2024

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Hundreds of Israeli settlers conducted a brutal attack in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

The settlers set fire to numerous homes and vehicles of Palestinians and then moved to the main road connecting Ramallah to other cities, targeting Palestinian cars passing by.

They stormed the city of al-Bireh, near Ramallah, and burned Palestinian property and vehicles.

A woman sustained injuries after the settlers hurled stones at her vehicle, according to Palestinian news outlets.

Tension has been running high across the West Bank because of Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 43,341 people, mostly women and children, since last year’s October.

The Monday settler attack came as the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas warned of Israel’s plans to annex the West Bank and drive Palestinians out.

“We warn of the grave danger posed by the plans led by the extremist occupation regime and illegal settler groups to displace the residents of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank,” Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said.

Israel's far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the full annexation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip last week.

Smotrich asserted that Israel should unequivocally declare there would be no Palestinian state.

He repeated his proposal of expanding Israeli settlements within the West Bank and other occupied territories.

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News Network
November 10,2024

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has warned that disciplinary action will be taken against those officials who change the land mutation records and serve eviction notices to farmers under the Waqf Act.

In a letter, the Revenue Department Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar Kataria reminded all regional commissioners and deputy commissioners in the districts that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recently had a meeting following complaints about certain land properties being made in favour of the Karnataka Board of Waqfs.

In the meeting it was decided that all the directions issued previously by any government office or authority to change the mutation records has been withdrawn, the letter said.

It added that all the notices served in the past have also been withdrawn and no action should be taken against the farmers who are cultivating on the said land.

On the directions of the chief minister, the previous letters and the latest reminders served on November 7 to the farmers and land owners have been withdraw, the letter said.

"The officials who served reminder-2 despite the chief minister's direction will face appropriate disciplinary action," Kataria said in his letter.

He said he has been instructed to strictly implement the chief minister's direction.

The fresh direction was issued in poll-bound Karnataka, where bypolls to three crucial assembly segments are due on November 13.

Some farmers in Honwad village in Vijayapura in north Karnataka had alleged last month that they were served eviction notices as the Waqf Board claimed rights over it.

Subsequently, complaints started in pouring in from some other parts of the state.

BJP leader Tejasvi Surya on October 25 alleged that Karnataka Waqf Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan directed the deputy commissioners and revenue officials to register lands in favour of the Waqf Board within 15 days, which resulted in confusion.

On Surya's request, the Chairman of the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Jagdambika Pal visited Karnataka on November 7 and met farmers in Hubballi, Vijayapura and Belagavi districts who had alleged that their lands were marked as Waqf properties.

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News Network
November 5,2024

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Washington: The race between Democratic leader Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump for the White House has been truly unprecedented as it saw drama, tragedy, political comebacks, fierce rhetoric and a historically razor-tight contest.

As the fight reaches its crescendo with the big election day just a few hours away, many political observers billed the unpredictable race for the 47th President of the US as the most consequential one in decades while appearing to project a grim picture for the country’s future under a Trump presidency.

In her final days of campaign, Vice President Harris focused on a message of hope, unity, optimism and women rights whereas Trump remained fiercely combative in targeting his Democratic rival and even suggested that he may not accept the election outcome in case of a defeat.

Overall, it has been a roller-coaster ride for both 60-year-old Harris and 78-year-old Trump.

Trump received his party’s nomination in March and formally at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July — in a historic comeback after remaining in political wilderness for months following several court cases.

In effect, he became the first former president to get the nomination for the top office on the planet after being convicted of a felony.

“Trump has made one of the biggest political comebacks since Richard Nixon’s in terms of the political struggles that he has had in the last four years,” Communication Strategist Anang Mittal said.

Just days ahead of the RNC, Trump was shot at during a rally in Pennsylvania. He suffered an upper ear injury. Minutes later, a bleeding Trump raised his fist in defiance, images that drew a lot of emotional support from his die-hard supporters.

For Harris too, it has been a dramatic ride after Biden ended his re-election campaign in July, nearly weeks after he came under severe scrutiny following his incoherent performance at a televised debate with Trump.

While dropping out from the race, Biden, 81, endorsed Harris to succeed him as the Democratic candidate.

Finally in August, the Democratic National Convention formally nominated Harris as the party’s candidate for the presidential election.

The presidential election will be a chance to “move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past”, she said in a powerful speech at the Convention.

If Harris wins, she will become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to become the US President.

In the overall campaign, Harris has been projecting the election as the one to protect the country’s fundamental freedoms, safeguard constitutional values and ensure women’s rights.

On his part, Trump has maintained his signature aggressive rhetoric and promising to rebuild the economy and rid the US from illegal immigrants.

However, there has been strong criticism of the Republican leader’s roadmap to repair the economy.

"Donald Trump is offering a vision of crony rentier capitalism that has enticed many captains of industry and finance,” said Joseph E Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate economist, in a column in Project Syndicate.

"In catering to their wishes for more tax cuts and less regulation, he would make most Americans’ lives poorer, harder, and shorter,” he said.

With election day just a few hours away, there is no clarity on who has a better chance of winning the race.

"The elections are very close. They (the outcome) may change on the basis of a few thousands votes here or there. I think the big issue will be voter turnout tomorrow. That will determine the outcome in certain swing states,” said Executive Director of the US chapter of Observer Research Foundation Dhruva Jaishankar.

Kapil Sharma, a non-resident senior fellow at Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programmes, also echoed similar views.

“This election is probably one of the closest elections that I can remember. I have been working in Washington for over 30 years and I don’t recall an election being this tight,” he said.

More than 78 million Americans have already cast their votes as of Sunday, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab that tracks early and mail-in voting across the US.

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