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Central Pennsylvania, Friday: 4 deaths by gun

4 dead, including shooter, in central Pennsylvania

A man killed two men and one woman Friday in central Pennsylvania, then died in a gunfight with state troopers, authorities said. 

One woman was killed at Juniata Valley Gospel Church, one man was found dead in a residence, and another man was killed after getting into a car accident with the truck's driver, added Bivens. All three had been shot.

After these three people were killed, state troopers then shot the killer.

The first report of shots fired "at multiple locations" in Frankstown Township came in a 911 call placed around 9 a.m., Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said. As state troopers converged on the area, someone in a truck -- going the opposite direction on a two-lane road -- fired at two marked patrol cars. 

The truck's driver continued driving and then "rammed ... head-on" into a different patrol car, Bivens said. He then got out of his vehicle and began firing at officers.
State troopers returned fire, eventually killing the truck's driver. 

Three state police members were hurt in the response. One was struck in the wrist by bullet fragments and in his chest -- which was protected by body armor -- by a bullet. Another trooper got glass fragments in his eyes and bullet fragments in his forehead. The third suffered minor injuries in the car accident with the shooter's truck. 

More information from a Reuters article -

The killer's name was Jeffrey Lee Michael, 44. His victims were Kimberly Scott, 58, Kenneth Lynn, 60, and William Rhodes Jr., 38. 

In the Pennsylvania incident, the gunman in fairly rapid succession shot and killed a woman inside a church, then fatally shot two men at their respective homes - all within a short distance from each other - before trying to flee. 

He opened fire at two state police patrol cars rushing to the scene as he passed them on a two-lane road and slammed head-on into a third patrol car. The gunman was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police at the crash scene, police said.

To Live and Die in America

From Huffington Post's home page today:

TO LIVE AND DIE IN AMERICA

3 Shot And Killed In Mich... 18-Year-Old Shot Multiple Times, Dies... Man Kills Wife, Teen, Himself... Man Shoots, Kills Own Son... Cops Shoot Teen Dead... Man Gunned Down In Parking Lot... 5 Dead In Spate Of Shootings... 2 Murdered In Philly... 2 Kansas Cops Shot Dead... Shooter Killed... 4 Die In Apparent Murder-Suicide... Ga. Cop Dies From Gunshot... Argument Leads Teen To Shoot Friend...Man Shot To Death... Teen Dies After Being Tied Up, Shot... Man Shot Dead In Street... Drug Deal Leads To Shooting Death... Mother Of 2 Killed In Road Rage Shooting... Man Shoots, Kills Intruder... 1 Killed In Coney Island... Man Dies From Gunshot Wounds... Cops Investigate Gun Death... Shooting Victim's Body Found On Bike Trail... Man Charged With Shooting Own Brother Dead... Man Dies After Being Shot In Chest... Body Of Shooting Victim Found In Pickup... Teen Arrested For Robbery Shooting Death... Man Carrying 2-Year-Old Son Shot Dead... Man Fatally Shot Near Home... Parolee Dies In Shooting... 1 Killed In Buffalo Shooting... Man Shot Dead In Apartment Complex... Street Gun Battle Kills Grandma Bystander... Man, Woman Dead In Apparent Murder-Suicide... Woman Shot Dead By Intruder... 14-Year-Old Arrested Over Fatal Gun Attack... Man Found Shot Dead In Parking Lot... Woman Shot In Face By Ex-Boyfriend... 1 Woman, 3 Men Shot Dead... 2 Die In Attempted Robbery... Army Reservist Shot To Death In Alley... Man Shot To Death In Bodega... 2 Shot Dead In Burned House... Man Shot During Break-In... Man Fatally Shot... 20-Year-Old Gunned Down... Man Shoots Self During Police Pursuit... 1 Killed In Baltimore Shooting...Cops ID Shooting Victim... 60-Year-Old Man Shot Dead... Shot Man's Body Found In Vacant House.... Woman Shot And Killed Outside Her Home... Shooting Victim Was 'Trying To Turn Life Around'... Slain Shooting Victim Found In Street....Driving Altercation Leads To Shooting, 1 Dies... 3-Year-Old Dies In Accidental Shooting... Man Turns Self In After Allegedly Shooting Wife... Man Shot Dead Outside Home... 3 Slain In Separate New Orleans Shootings... Cops Investigate Shooting Death... Man Shot Dead In Ohio... Teen Shot To Death... Man Dies After Being Shot Multiple Times... Man Charged Over Son's Shooting Death... Cops Find 2 Men Shot Dead... 1 Dies In Shooting... Man Charged Over Gun Killing... 1 Shot Dead In Confrontation... Man Charged With Murder Over Shooting... Motel Owner Shot And Killed... Husband Shoots Estranged Wife Dead... Suspect Arrested Over Deputy's Shooting Death... Police Probe Fatal Shooting... Cops Kill 2 Suspects In 3 Shooting Deaths... Man Killed Fighting Back Against Robber... Man Killed In Home Invasion.... Nightclub Shooting Kills 1... Child Brain Dead After Drive By Shooting... Man Charged Over Shooting Of Ex-Wife... Body Found In Vacant House... Teen Fatally Shot...

People I know who were murdered: Barry Smotroff and Ben Blutstein

I believe I've only known two people who were murdered, in sharp contrast to Aisha Roberts, the 19 year old quoted in the previous post, who knows 13 people who were murdered just this year.

The first person I knew was Barry Smotroff, a science fiction fan who lived in New York City, who was killed on July 29, 1976, apparently in a robbery. See a link to a photo of him. Here's a link to a story about Barry. I'm not sure exactly how I met him - either during a visit to New York to meet fans, or possibly at a science fiction convention or two.

The second person I knew was Ben Blutstein, who was murdered on July 31, 2002, at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem by a terrorist who left a bomb in the Frank Sinatra cafeteria. Eight other people were killed in the same attack. I did not know any of them, but friends of mine in Jerusalem knew them. This was during the height of the second intifada.

Nine people - four Israelis and five foreign nationals - were killed and 85 injured, 14 of them seriously, when a bomb exploded in the crowded Frank Sinatra cafeteria on the Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus shortly after 13:30. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. 

The bomber left the bomb in an innocent looking bag packed with shrapnel in the cafeteria. The device was professionally prepared, possibly in one of the factories in the Nablus casbah, which the IDF has refrained from entering since Operation Defensive Shield after Passover. 

Though classes were not in session, students were taking exams at the time of the blast, and the cafeteria was crowded with diners. There were also numerous students in the building registering for classes for the coming school year. 

The cafeteria is also near the Rothberg International School, where about 80 pupils from the US and other Western countries had arrived to prepare for the fall semester.
Most of the injured were between the ages of 18 and 30. The explosion gutted the cafeteria.

The murderers in this case were caught about two weeks later. They were also responsible for the Cafe Momento attack in Jerusalem on March 9, 2002, when 11 people were killed. The man who placed the bomb in the cafeteria was Muhammad Ouda, 29, who worked as a construction worker at the university.

Who was killed by guns this week in the US?

The Huffington Post has tracked murders in the US since the Sandy Hook school massacre on December 14. They found that over a 100 people have been killed this past week. Some of those killed by guns since then are:

Aydan Perea, age 4, in Kansas City.

Adreanne Evans, 21, in Harrisburg, PA, allegedly killed by her boyfriend on December 20. He also shot another man in the head. A baby was sleeping in a crib nearby at the time of the shootings.

On December 15, a 3 year old boy shot himself in the head (accidentally), after he picked up a gun in a home owned by his uncle, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer.

Paul Sampleton Jr., a 14 year old boy, was killed in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on Wednesday.

Veronica Soto, 30 years old, was killed by Mark Trevino in a case of road rage, in Fort Bend County, Texas, on Thursday. She left behind her husband and two children, 7 and 14.

Veronica Soto and her husband went out to get food from a Jack-in-the Box when they got into a traffic altercation with two other vehicles, investigators said. The drivers were all heading to the same neighborhood and Soto's vehicle was "boxed in" by the others. 

Investigators said Mark Trevino came to a stop, ran into his home on Addicks-Clodine, grabbed a rifle and started shooting. Soto was shot in the head.
Her husband also pulled out his gun. 

“They started shooting back and forth and the bullet went through the windshield, hit her and went out the back windshield,” said Matthew Soto, the victim’s brother-in-law.

In this case, having an armed protector did not save Veronica Soto's life.

On December 17, Leroy Louderback of Georgetown, Ohio, age 71, killed his son, 41-year-old John Louderback. He called the police and told them he had killed his son, and he's being charged with voluntary manslaughter.

More cases from the Huffington Post article:

Ramona Foreman was found shot in the doorway of the Oakland, Calif., 92nd Avenue Head Start office. The 48-year-old and her sister were walking home from a store when shots rang out. Foreman had been the innocent victim of a drive-by shooting. The victim's stepdaughter told a reporter that her grandmother was the 13th person she knows killed this year.

She was the 124th person murdered in Oakland this year. The stepdaughter is named Aisha Roberts and she is 19 years old.

Deputy Sheriff Christopher Parsons, 31, worked the early-morning shift on Saturday, when he took an emergency call to assist an unconscious woman at a trailer park in Mineral Point, Mo. As he helped place the woman in the ambulance, her son came out of the mobile home and fired a rifle, killing Parsons. 

On Sunday in New Orleans, three people were shot and killed, including 18-year-old Lawrence Burt, 56-year-old Vivian Snyder, and a 56-year-old Jefferson Parish taxi driver Joseph Wilfred, who was shot behind the wheel. According to an account, he'd been on the job for about three weeks. 

That same afternoon, 25-year-old Krystal Garcia Nacoa was allegedly shot to death by her husband, Leonardo Nacoa, 26, at their Porterville, Calif., home. Police found the husband's cell phone number and called it multiple times, until the man finally picked up. He admitted that he had fled across the border to Mexico. Police were able to get Nacoa to surrender.

When the good guys with guns are killed by the bad guy with a gun

Yesterday, Wayne LaPierre, the vice president of the NRA, said that "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

David Gogian and Jeff Atherly were both armed, but they were both killed by a man with a gun. The mere possession of a gun, even wielded by someone who is trained in how to use it in a dangerous situation, is not a guarantee that the "bad guy" will be stopped. The suspect in that case fled and was subsequently killed in a shootout with police on the Monday after the officers were killed.

People are murdered every day by guns in the US

After the horrible massacre at Newtown, I think we need to become aware of all the other people in the US who are murdered every day with guns.

According to the FBI reports for 2011, "firearms were used in 67.7 percent of the nation’s murders, 41.3 percent of robberies, and 21.2 percent of aggravated assaults." In 2011 there were 14,612 "murders and non-negligent manslaughters," and the rate per 100,000 was 4.7. There were 653 justifiable homicides in 2011.


The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program "collects supplementary homicide data that provides information regarding the age, sex, and race of the murder victim and offender; the type of weapon used; the relationship of the victim to the offender; and the circumstance surrounding the incident."


The FBI figure for victims of murder for whom supplemental information is known is: 12,664. Of these, firearms were used in 8,583 of the murders (6,220 handguns), for a rate of about 67% of all murders.

Using the same figure of victims for whom supplemental information is known - victims of murder and non-negligent manslaughter in 2011 were disproportionately male - 77% of all victims were male. 50% of the victims were black, 46% were white.

Note that in the last 20 years, both the number of murders and the murder rate have gone down very significantly. In 1992 there 23,760 murders, and in 1993 there were 24,526 murders and the rate was 9.5. For the overall violent crime rate, the peak number of violent crimes was in 1992 - 1,932,274, for a rate of 757.7 per 100,000, while in 2011 it was 1,203,564, for a rate of 386.3 per 100,000.

December 16, 2012 - two police officers in Topeka, Kansas, were killed "after exchanging gunfire with a man." Their names were David Gogian and Jeff Atherly. The man suspected of killing them is David Edward Tiscareno.