Tag Archives: suspect in custody

Teacher, student injured in Indiana school shooting: police

Police is seen near Noblesville West Middle School in Noblesville, Indiana, U.S., May 25, 2018 in this still image obtained from social media video. COURTESY CHRISTOPHER REILY/via REUTERS

(Reuters) – A teacher and a teenage student were injured in a shooting at an Indiana middle school on Friday morning and another student was in custody, police said.

The male student, who is a suspect in the shooting, has been detained, Noblesville Police Chief Kevin Jowitt told a news conference.

The incident was the latest in a series of shootings at U.S. schools and colleges, some of which have claimed dozens of lives, stretching back decades.

The only people injured in Friday’s incident at Noblesville West Middle School were the teenage student and the teacher, according to Jowitt. Local TV station WTTV, citing a source at the scene, said the student victim suffered a fractured ankle.

The police chief said the school, attended by more than 1,350 students, has been cleared, but he did not provide details of the incident.

“The situation is contained,” he said.

The shooting occurred shortly after 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) at the school about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Indianapolis, and authorities said the school was placed on lockdown.

A student interviewed by WTTV said the shooter entered a science class and the teacher swatted a gun away from the shooter.

Danielle Sirilla, a spokeswoman for Indiana University Methodist Hospital said an adult was taken to the hospital while a teenager was taken to Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health nearby. She said no information was available on their conditions.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, flying back from Europe, said in a statement that he was monitoring the situation.

“Our thoughts are with all those affected by this horrible situation,” he said, adding that about 100 State Police officers had been made available to work with local responders.

The incident occurred a week after a 17-year-old high school student in Santa Fe, Texas, near Houston shot and killed eight classmates and two teachers.

In contrast to Florida, where the killing of 17 teens and educators in February sparked a youth-led movement calling for new restrictions on gun ownership, the Texas tragedy saw elected officials and survivors alike voicing support for gun rights.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas and Ben Klayman in Detroit; editing by Tom Brown and Jonathan Oatis)

Shooting near U.S. National Security Agency, several injuried

: An aerial view of the National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, U.S. January 29, 2010. REUTERS/Larry Downing/File Photo

By Makini Brice

FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) – Several people were injured during a Wednesday morning shooting at the U.S. National Security Agency headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, the agency said.

The incident occurred about 7 a.m. ET (1200 GMT) when a vehicle tried to enter the U.S. Army installation that houses the agency without authorization, the agency said in a statement. It said shots were fired but that none of the injuries appeared to have been caused by gunshots.

The statement did not make clear whether the shots had been fired by a suspect or by law enforcement and officials at the NSA and Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the incident, did not respond to questions about who fired weapons.

“Weapons were discharged in the course of the incident, which remains under investigation,” the agency said in a statement. “The situation is under control and there is no ongoing security of safety threat.”

It said several people were taken to hospitals from the facility about 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Washington.

Police earlier had searched a black sport utility vehicle with what appeared to bullet holes in its windshield, according to video from the scene. Items apparently removed from the vehicle were strewn on the ground and checked by a police dog.

Earlier media reports said that as many as three people had been wounded at the base, which is the home of the NSA, as well as the U.S. Cyber Command and Defense Information School.

The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is one of the U.S. government’s main spy agencies. The secretive agency focuses on using technological tools, including the monitoring of internet traffic, to monitor the government’s adversaries.

A White House spokeswoman said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the shooting.

Fort Meade is located just off a major Washington-area highway and motorists occasionally unintentionally take the exit that leads them to its gates, which are manned by armed guards.

In March 2015, two people tried to drive their sports utility vehicle through the NSA’s heavily guarded gate. Officers shot at the vehicle when they refused to stop, killing one of the occupants. The people in the vehicle may have taken a wrong turn after partying and taking drugs, according to news reports.

(Reporting by Makini Brice; Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert, Roberta Rampton and Susan Heavey in Washington and Jonathan Allen in New York; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Trott)

NY bombing suspect’s family clashed with New Jersey city over restaurant

By David Ingram and Joseph Ax

NEW YORK/ELIZABETH, N.J. (Reuters) – Long before the FBI made Ahmad Rahami notorious as a suspect in this weekend’s bombings around New York, his family was well known in Elizabeth, New Jersey, for frequent skirmishes with neighbors over its fried chicken restaurant.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation plans to question Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Afghanistan, in the bombings that wounded 29 people in New York City on Saturday, as well as other devices that exploded in New Jersey without causing injury.

Rahami was taken into custody in Linden, New Jersey, about 20 miles (32 km) outside New York, after an exchange of gunfire with police officers on Monday.

Rahami was not listed on U.S. counterterrorism databases, three U.S. officials told Reuters. But he was well known to Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage for the frequent complaints about noise at the family’s restaurant, on a commercial strip of a racially diverse, working-class neighborhood.

“The suspect was not on the radar of local law enforcement, but the fried chicken place that … the family owned, we had some code enforcement problems and noise complaints,” Bollwage told reporters.

His father, Mohammed Rahami, registered the business as Khan Fried Chicken in 2006, but four years later changed the name to First American Fried Chicken, citing “popularity,” according to state records.

The family lived above the store, which is wedged between a beauty salon and a shop advertising money transfers and computer help. On Monday authorities cordoned off an area around the building and were removing boxes. Officers were on the restaurant’s roof, going in and out of the residence, and one officer leaned out of a window, taking pictures.

The restaurant’s employees were serious and businesslike, rarely interacting with customers more than they had to, said Josh Sanchez, 24, and Jessica Casanova, 23, who called themselves frequent customers.

By 2008, Elizabeth police were battling with First American Fried Chicken over the restaurant’s 24-hour schedule. A city ordinance barred take-out stores from staying open past 10 p.m.

The restaurant was cited, and although the family appealed the decision, a New Jersey appeals court ruled against the family in 2014, according to records.

A lawyer who represented the Rahami family in the dispute could not be reached for comment on Monday.

The family filed a lawsuit around 2010, claiming they were being discriminated against, Bollwage said, adding that the city’s actions involving the restaurant were in no way related to the family’s religion or ethnic origin.

Rahami traveled to Afghanistan several years ago and afterward grew a beard and began wearing religious clothing, Flee Jones, a childhood friend, told Reuters.

The reason for the trip and its full impact on Rahami was not immediately known, but Jones said Rahami became more serious and quiet. Jones said he learned about the travel from one of Rahami’s brothers and last saw Rahami about two years ago.

“He was way more religious,” Jones said, adding, “I never knew him as the kind of person who would do anything like this.”

(Reporting by David Ingram in New York and Joseph Ax in Elizabeth, New Jersey; Additional reporting by Julia Harte, Mark Hosenball and Julia Edwards in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Alan Crosby)