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Tag: shooting spree

  • Dawn Nguyen Sentenced To 8 Years For Role In Shooting Spree

    It was a Christmas tragedy that has since haunted the Webster, N.Y. community.

    On Christmas Eve in 2012, a gunman named William Spengler stormed into the West Webster firehouse and went on a shooting spree.

    The 63-year-old injured firefighters Ted Scardino and Joseph Hofstetter and killed firefighters Mike Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka.

    A body found at Spengler’s home was later identified as belonging to his 67-year-old sister Cheryl.

    The man eventually took his own life on a Lake Ontario beach, leaving no hope of direct justice for the pain caused on that awful morning.

    State and federal prosecutors instead turned toward the next best possible action.

    Dawn Nguyen was arrested and charged for the role she played in allowing Spengler access to the firearms used to kill the firefighters, his sister, and then himself.

    According to prosecutors, the 25-year-old lied on paperwork that she filled out when purchasing weapons for Spengler, who as a convicted felon was not permitted by law to own those weapons at all.

    Spengler had previously served jail time for beating his 92-year-old grandmother to death with a hammer. It was a crime for which the man had served 17 years in prison.

    Nguyen pleaded guilty to federal charges in June; she had already been convicted at the state level in April.

    Her defense attorney claimed that Nguyen bought the weapons in 2010, but had no idea how Spengler intended to use them.

    Judge David Larimer informed her that she “gave [Spengler] the instruments of death” he would use on himself and five others. The weapons purchased and used include a semi automatic rifle and shotgun.

    Nguyen apologized in open court on Wednesday ahead of her sentencing. She turned to the surviving firefighters who were in attendance and shared that she took full responsibility for her actions.

    She added that her choices would haunt her for the rest of her life.

    Nguyen was sentenced to eight years by Larimer on federal charges. The federal sentence will run concurrently with the one and a half year sentence already handed down by the state of New York.

  • Texas Shooting Spree Leaves Two Dead

    Texas Shooting Spree Leaves Two Dead

    A Texas shooting spree over the weekend has left two people, including the shooter, dead.

    NBC News reports that an unnamed 23-year-old North Carolina resident went on a two-county shooting spree through central Texas over the weekend. Authorities chased the man, who was driving a pickup truck, for two hours.

    Police are just starting to piece together the events that led to the two hour chase that left five injured and two dead. The gunman first shot a woman in her car at 4:30 a.m. in Concho County. She is still at the hospital. He then shot and injured two people at a convenience store in McCulloch County, but both were quickly treated and released. He shot and injured another when he headed back to Concho County. Responding to reports of shots fired, police found Alicia Torres, the only victim to have died, in her car around 6:00 a.m. in the town of Eola.

    The police soon caught up with the shooter and engaged him in a firefight. During the shootout, the shooter was shot and killed. It was later found that the shooter had an assault rifle, a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

    No concrete details have been released just yet, but police are investigating all the events to find a cause behind the violence.

    In other news, Chicago was also the center of multiple shootings over the weekend that left six people dead.

  • Student Threatens Shooting Spree on Reddit

    Student Threatens Shooting Spree on Reddit

    University of Maryland sophomore Alexander Song, 19, was arrested on Sunday and charged with posting an Internet threat after saying he planned to go on a shooting rampage on campus, in hopes of killing as many people as possible. Song had made these claims on Reddit.

    Campus police quoted Song as saying, “I will be on a shooting rampage tomorrow on campus – Hopefully I kill enough people to make it to national news.” Song’s message also warned that people should “stay away from the mall.”

    Capt. Marc Limansky said police were informed of the threats on Reddit after a former Maryland student saw the posts, and that two more people called the university after chatting with Song on Omegle.com. Song, who was not armed when arrested, faces a misdemeanor charge of disturbing school activities. He was brought to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after being taken into custody.

    University of Maryland police chief David Mitchell added that Song was “emotionally distraught to the point of shaking and crying,” and that no weapons were found in his dorm room.

    After the incident, some students had complained that the school’s emergency alert system was never activated. University President Wallace Loh responded to these concerns in a statement on Monday, saying that law enforcement officials thought a campus-wide alert would interfere with their investigation, likely by potentially tipping Song off that they were monitoring him. Loh added, “the police are confident that any threat to our community was mitigated once the student was taken into custody.”

    Though it is evident that Song may have just been making idle threats on Reddit, this isn’t the first time the social news website possibly had a hand in saving a life. A Reddit user with a mystery illness once diagnosed himself with Cushing’s Syndrome after reading a post on the site.