Armed Black Teenager Shot After Pulling Gun On White Officer

An 18-year-old black teenager who pulled a gun on police officers was shot and killed in the St. Louis area.  Protesters descended on the scene immediately after the shooting and proceeded to clash with police.

St. Louis County PD said that a police officer conducting a routine check on a Mobil gas station at 11:15 p.m. saw two men outside the store and approached them.  Antonio Martin pulled a gun on the officer and was shot by the officer.

The protesters that stormed the scene attacked police officers, threw some kind of explosive device at the police and also tried to burn down a QuikTrip store.  Four people were arrested in the assault on the officers.

Police say Martin had a criminal record that included three assaults, armed robbery, armed criminal action and multiple weapons violations.

The family of Antonio Martin is claiming that he wasn’t with another man but with his girlfriend and that he didn’t have a gun despite the evidence that shows otherwise.  A 9 mm handgun with the serial number filed off was found next to the body of Martin.  A video of the incident showed Martin pointing the gun at the officer.

“When he was around me, he knew to do right,” Margret Chandler, Martin’s grandmother, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Why would he pull out a gun against the police? That’s the thing I don’t get. It just doesn’t add up.”

NYPD Officers Ambushed By Protester

A man who was protesting and seeking revenge for Michael Brown and Eric Garner ambushed two police officers in their cruiser on Saturday, shooting them before killing himself after he was trapped in a subway.

Ismaaiyl Abdulla Brinsley walked up from behind the cruiser containing Officers Wenjin Liu and Raphael Ramos, dropped into a shooting stance at the passenger side window and opened fire.  The officers did not even have time to pull their weapons before they were fatally struck.

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton told reporters at a press conference that the gunman had shot his ex-girlfriend in Baltimore in the morning before driving to New York.

Brinsley had posted online that he was going to be “putting wings on pigs” today.  He added “They take 1 of ours.  Let’s take 2 of theirs. #ShootThePolice #RIPEricGardner #RIPMikeBrown”

His last post said “This may be my final post.  I’m putting pigs in a blanket.”

Baltimore police were alerted by the ex-girlfriend’s mother of the murderer’s intentions but the message did not reach the NYPD until after the killing.

Congress Declares Fort Hood Attack Terrorism

Congress is preparing to announce that the victims of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting will have been victims of a terrorist attack.

The Obama administration had been denying the incident where Major Nidal Hasan was an act of workplace violence despite the fact Hasan had indicated he was making an act of Islamist terrorism.

House Republicans worked with members of the Democrat-controlled Senate Armed Services committee to put a provision in a defense authorization bill that will acknowledge the victims of Fort Hood are terrorist victims, making them eligible for Purple Hearts and for assistance awards to victims of terrorist actions.

The new language inserted by the members of Congress states that Purple Heart medals can be awarded to “members of the armed forces killed or wounded in domestic attacks inspired by foreign terrorist organizations.”

Hasan killed 13 and wounded 32 in his terror attack.  Hasan had e-mail exchanged with Anwar al-Awlaki, a top al-Qaeda leader, who helped plan the attack.  Hasan had tried multiple times to become an official member of al-Qaeda.

Still, the Obama administration continues to deny that Hasan’s actions were terrorist in nature.

Florida State Student Says God Saved Him

A student who had been inside the main library at Florida State University when shots rang out says that God saved him.

21-year-old Jason Derfuss wrote about the incident in his Facebook page.

“The shooter targeted me first,” he wrote. “The shot I heard behind me I did not feel, nor did it hit me at all.  He was about 5 feet from me, but he hit my books.  Books one minute earlier I had checked out of the library, books that should not have stopped the bullet. But they did.”

Police killed the gunman when he refused to put down his weapon.  Three students were wounded including one that remains in critical condition.

“There is no way I should be alive,” Derfuss told NBC News. “It’s crazy: One minute I am checking out books, and the next I am crying on my bedroom floor thinking I shouldn’t be alive. Those books saved me, and God saved me.”

“The Florida State University community is extremely saddened by the shootings that took place early this morning at Strozier Library, in the very heart of campus, and our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of all those who have been affected,” university President John Thrasher wrote in a statement on Thursday. “The three students who have been injured are our highest priority followed by the needs of our greater university community. We will do everything possible to assist with their recovery.”

Three Students Shot In Florida State University Library

A gunman who was slain by police shot three students shortly after midnight Thursday at Florida State University’s main library.

Police say that hundreds of students were studying for exams at Strozier Library when the gunman began his attack.  The assailant was shot when he refused to drop his weapon.

The gunman has been identified as Myron May, a lawyer who graduated from FSU before attending Texas Tech University law school and being admitted to the Texas State Bar in 2010.  He had been working as “in-house counsel” for a children’s home in the area.

“He’s just a boy our kids grew up with that we let stay in one of our guest houses for a while,” Abigail Taunton, who runs the home, told the Associated Press. “He’s moving back home from Texas and we were trying to help him get on his feet.”

“This person just for whatever reason produced a handgun and then began shooting students in the library,” FSU Police Chief David Perry said.  Perry characterized the shooting as an “isolated incident” but did not release many details.

Two dead, four wounded after student opens fire Washington state school

A student opened fire in the cafeteria of his Washington state high school on Friday, killing a classmate and wounding at least four others before he was killed amid the chaos of students scrambling to safety, authorities said.

All of the victims were young people, and three were in critical condition with gunshot wounds to the head and in surgery, said Joanne Roberts, chief of medicine at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett.

The fourth wounded victim suffered less serious injuries in the gunfire at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, about 30 miles north of Seattle, and had been transferred to another hospital. Two of the victims were male and two female, hospital officials said.

Source: Reuters – Two dead, four wounded after student opens fire Washington state school

Seattle Pacific Professor: “This Is Not God’s Will”

A professor at Seattle Pacific University told students Thursday night that the campus shooting that left a student dead and two others seriously injured was not God’s will for their school.

“There’s no explaining it,” Professor of Biblical Studies Frank Spina told students. “‘This is not God’s plan. This is not God’s will. This is not God’s way of teaching us a lesson. Any lesson we could have learned out of this could have been learned otherwise.”

Police say the shooting would have been significantly worse if not for the heroic efforts of a student who pepper sprayed the shooter then disarmed him as he tried to reload.

Jon Meis, a 22-year-old Christian engineering student and teaching assistant, noticed the gunman reloading and made his move.  Friends say that Meis has always been “quiet and religious” and that his actions to stop the gunman showed in action his beliefs in being a “selfless, courageous man.”

Meis was taken the hospital for minor injuries after the altercation and has not spoken to the press.  His family’s answering machine has a message asking those who call to pray for the victims and their families.

Two Major Anti-Semitic Attacks In Europe

Four people are dead and two injured after a pair of anti-semitic attacks in Europe.

The deadly attack came in Brussels, Belgium, where a gunman walked into a Jewish museum and opened fire.  The gunman reportedly double parked his car outside the museum, casually strolled inside and opened fire with a Kalashnikov rifle.

The gunman had clearly been planning the attack according to police officials who saw the security footage.  The gunman walked in and out within a minute, obviously executing some kind of timed attack.  Witnesses say the gunman jogged to his car and causally pulled away.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but the terrorism alert level in Belgium has been raised because of the assault.

Hours later in Paris, two Jewish youths leaving a service at a synagogue were attacked by men on bikes.  The 21-year-old and 18-year-old brothers were beaten heavily with brass knuckles and are hospitalized in serious condition but are believed to make a full recovery.

White Supremacist Opens Fire At Jewish Facilities

A man with a long record of hatred toward Jews is under arrest after killing three people outside two Jewish facilities in the Kansas City area.

Frazier Glenn Miller, 73, is facing at least three counts of murder after the shootings at a Jewish community center and Jewish retirement center in Overland Park, KS.  Miller is a resident of Aurora, Missouri, 190 miles from the site of the shootings and police have not speculated why Miller chose these particular locations.

Two of those killed were a grandfather and his 14-year-old grandson, both of whom were Christians but not Jewish.  The two were at the community center so that the grandson could audition for “KC SuperStar”, a singing competition for students.

Miller is a former grand wizard for the KKK and ran for Congress in 2006 and 2010 on platforms of white supremacy that included many anti-Semitic claims.

Police would not confirm a hate crime motive even though Miller was yelling “Heil Hitler” as he was driven off in a police car after his arrest and the start of the Jewish Passover the following day.

Fort Hood Gunman Kills 3; Wounds 16

A gunman who was being treated for depression and anxiety and was being tested for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder opened fire with a handgun at Fort Hood in Texas Wednesday, killing 3 people and wounding 16.

Some of the wounded are in very critical condition at area hospitals and it’s possible the death toll could rise.

Spc. Ivan Lopez, 34, committed suicide when a military police officer confronted him.

Lopez opened fire inside one building, climbed in a vehicle and shot at people as he drove to a second building where he shot more victims.

Military officials say that Lopez did not see combat during his time in Iraq.  They said that he was a truck driver at the time forces were withdrawing from the country. They insisted that even though he was not in combat, it is still possible he was suffering from PTSD.

Lopez reportedly lost his mother in November and he was having trouble dealing with the loss.  He leaves behind a wife and 3-year-old daughter.