(Reuters) – A Marine shot dead two fellow service members at a base in Quantico, Virginia, then killed himself, the Marines said on Friday.
The shootings took place late on Thursday near the officer candidate school at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, and all three people who died were active-duty Marines, base commander Colonel David Maxwell said.
“The shooter, an active-duty Marine, was pronounced dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound by law enforcement at the scene,” he told a news conference carried by local media.
Maxwell gave no motive for the shooting and an investigation is under way. The two slain Marines, a man and a woman, were permanent personnel assigned to the officers school, as was the shooter, he said.
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Doctors opened a medical review Sunday on a U.S. soldier charged with killing 16 civilians, most of them women and children, near his Army post in Afghanistan in an effort to determine his state of mind at the time of the killings and ability to stand trial.
The review, known in the military as a “sanity board,” will be conducted by three doctors at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, and will be completed by May 1, according to a U.S. Army spokesman.
The hearing started on Sunday morning and is expected to continue for several days, base spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Gary Dangerfield said.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Robert Bales, a decorated veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan accused of gunning down the villagers in cold blood during two rampages through their family compounds in Kandahar province last March.
The company Law Enforcement Targets has apologized on their Facebook page for a new series of targets they were selling for law enforcement.
The targets, apparently based on the requirements of the Department of Homeland Security and other Federal law enforcement agencies, depict such “targets” as a seven-year old boy with a gun and a pregnant woman with guns pointed at the Federal shooter.
The advertisement reads, “Designed to prepare officers for the worst possible situation. Background is faded further highlighting and highlighting the threat.” The product description of the little boy reads, “…dipicting a very young boy holding a real gun.”
The targets are apparently intended to desensitize law enforcement to shooting citizens of the United States no matter what the circumstance.
The apology reads:
We apologize for the offensive nature of our “No More Hesitation” products. These products have been taken offline due to the opinions expressed by so many, including members of the law enforcement community.
This product line was originally requested and designed by the law enforcement community to train police officers for unusually complex situations where split-second decisions could lead to unnecessary loss of life.
Consistent with our company mission as a training supplier (not a training methods company), we will continue to seek input from law enforcement professionals to better serve their training objectives and qualification needs. We sincerely appreciate law enforcement professionals for the risks they take in providing safety and defending freedom.
The comments on the Facebook page show that the people are less than pleased with the apology. Some are charging that the company may have withdrawn the targets from the web site, but are still selling them to the Federal government and local law enforcement.
Marilyn Zimmermann This is surreal… but so is the reality of sharia law, and our own government and culture being slowly and stealthily infiltrated by a theocratic spirit of antichrist. enter the burka clad gorilla in the room.
Michael Ballou All the pictures that I have seen of the “No More Hesitation” targets are all White people. Do you have targets of Asian, Black, Pacific Islander, Native American, and Hispanic pregnant women, children, and old men too? I want to ensure that you are an Equal Opportunity Target Supplier. Post some pix of your products.
NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST You people are truly sick, and I sincerely hope you go bankrupt, and soon. You are a small, but apparent cog in the growing machine of totalitarianism in this country.
NRA Gifting Page I’d like to echo an earlier post: “By denying FULL responsibility for poor judgment and blaming LE and Homeland Security for the design you are confirming they asked you to produce targets of regular Americans defending themselves in their kitchens to specifically desensitize cops to the natural resistance they experience in shooting the innocent. — THAT won’t be soon forgotten.”
Donna Kaplan apparently did some research demanding that the company make a public disclosure of which agencies purchased the targets.
Donna Kaplan Law Enforcement Targets: I would like a list of all government entities who purchased, through contracts, any products from your company. To include, Agency Name, Quantity, Item Name, Item Cost and Purchase Order Number. Ten days is the legal amount of time you have to post that information in this public forum.
Since you receive government contracts (between 2000-2009, $42.3 million), according to the open records law item #3 below dictates that you are obligated to fulfill the request of a list of any and all agencies (federal, state or local) and their purchases:
Sec. 552.022. CATEGORIES OF PUBLIC INFORMATION; EXAMPLES. (a) Without limiting the amount or kind of information that is public information under this chapter, the following categories of information are public information and not excepted from required disclosure unless made confidential under this chapter or other law:
(1) a completed report, audit, evaluation, or investigation made of, for, or by a governmental body, except as provided by Section 552.108;
(2) the name, sex, ethnicity, salary, title, and dates of employment of each employee and officer of a governmental body;
(3) information in an account, voucher, or contract relating to the receipt or expenditure of public or other funds by a governmental body;
(4) the name of each official and the final record of voting on all proceedings in a governmental body;
(5) all working papers, research material, and information used to estimate the need for or expenditure of public funds or taxes by a governmental body, on completion of the estimate;
(6) the name, place of business, and the name of the municipality to which local sales and use taxes are credited, if any, for the named person, of a person reporting or paying sales and use taxes under Chapter 151, Tax Code;
(7) a description of an agency’s central and field organizations, including:
(A) the established places at which the public may obtain information, submit information or requests, or obtain decisions;
(B) the employees from whom the public may obtain information, submit information or requests, or obtain decisions;
(C) in the case of a uniformed service, the members from whom the public may obtain information, submit information or requests, or obtain decisions; and
(D) the methods by which the public may obtain information, submit information or requests, or obtain decisions;
(8) a statement of the general course and method by which an agency’s functions are channeled and determined, including the nature and requirements of all formal and informal policies and procedures;
(9) a rule of procedure, a description of forms available or the places at which forms may be obtained, and instructions relating to the scope and content of all papers, reports, or examinations;
(10) a substantive rule of general applicability adopted or issued by an agency as authorized by law, and a statement of general policy or interpretation of general applicability formulated and adopted by an agency;
(11) each amendment, revision, or repeal of information described by Subdivisions (7)-(10);
(12) final opinions, including concurring and dissenting opinions, and orders issued in the adjudication of cases;
(13) a policy statement or interpretation that has been adopted or issued by an agency;
(14) administrative staff manuals and instructions to staff that affect a member of the public;
(15) information regarded as open to the public under an agency’s policies;
(16) information that is in a bill for attorney’s fees and that is not privileged under the attorney-client privilege;
(17) information that is also contained in a public court record; and
(18) a settlement agreement to which a governmental body is a party.
(b) A court in this state may not order a governmental body or an officer for public information to withhold from public inspection any category of public information described by Subsection (a) or to not produce the category of public information for inspection or duplication, unless the category of information is confidential under this chapter or other law.
Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 268, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993. Amended by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 1035, Sec. 3, eff. Sept. 1, 1995; Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1319, Sec. 5, eff. Sept. 1, 1999.
Amended by:
Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., Ch. 1229, Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2011.
The targets are particularly eerie when considered in light of the massive amount of ammunition that the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies down to the Social Security Administration have been purchasing.
Although the company web site does not have an address, Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the company, founded in 1992, is at 8802 West 35W Service Drive NE, Saint Paul, MN 55114-1614.
ST. PETERSBURG — Calling attention to one of the closest November congressional races nationwide, the Houston-based voter integrity group True the Vote announced on Monday that it will be filing a lawsuit to force an independent review of the election which cost Republican Allen West his seat.
The complaint, filed in the Southern District Court of Florida on Sunday, aims to completely review all records and recounts in the race for the 18th Congressional district between Democrat Patrick Murphy and West.
“This dramatic recount was an extraordinary example of how our elections can suffer systematic failure,” said True the Vote president Catherine Engelbrecht. “We run the risk seeing episodes like this becoming ordinary if citizens do not demand answers and hold election officials accountable. The American people own the voting system – we have the right to ask tough questions when we witness the failure of one of America’s core functions.”
Under a bipartisan Senate framework, Democrats say, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano would have final say over whether the border is secure enough to put 11 million illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship.
If Napolitano does not provide the green light for putting illegal immigrants on a pathway to citizenship, the responsibility for judging whether the metrics for border security have been met will be given to her successor.
The early debate over immigration reform has yielded two thorny questions: What metrics will be used to determine whether the goals for border security and other safeguards against illegal immigration have been met? Who will decide whether the metrics have been achieved?
Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the lead Democratic sponsor of the bipartisan immigration reform framework unveiled this past week, said Napolitano should decide.
GLEN ROSE, Texas — A former U.S. Navy SEAL who gained recognition during the Iraq War was one of two people fatally shot southwest of Fort Worth on Saturday, KHOU 11 News has learned.
Sources close to the investigation identified the former SEAL as Chris Kyle, 39, author of the New York Times bestselling book, “American Sniper.”
Kyle was shot point-blank while helping another soldier who was recovering from post traumatic stress syndrome, officials said. The murders happened at a shooting range near the town of Glen Rose, about 53 miles southwest of Fort Worth.
The Erath County Sheriff’s Office issued an alert for the arrest of the suspect, who was later identified as Eddie Routh, 25. Officials warned that Routh was traveling in a Ford F-150 pickup with large tires and rims. They said he was believed to be highly trained with military experience.
A United States minesweeper ship that crashed into a coral reef due to inaccurate Navy maps will have to be cut into small pieces and removed in order to prevent harming the ocean’s ecosystem, according to the Navy and other reports.
The $277 million USS Guardian, a Naval warship that clears waterways of mines, crashed into a coral reef near the Philippines earlier this month.
The Navy will disassemble it piece by piece in order to avoid damaging the reef rather than tow the multi-million dollar ship off of the reef and perform necessary repairs.
“Our only supportable option is to dismantle the damaged ship and remove it in sections,” Capt. Darryn James, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, was quoted as saying Tuesday by the Military Times.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate last year to appoint three members of the National Labor Relations Board, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in a far-reaching decision that could severely limit a chief executive’s powers to make recess appointments.
The decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit marked a victory for Republicans and business groups critical of the labor board. If it stands, it could invalidate hundreds of board decisions over the past year, including some that make it easier for unions to organize.
When Obama filled the vacancies on Jan. 4, 2012, Congress was on an extended holiday break. But GOP lawmakers gaveled in for a few minutes every three days just to prevent Obama from making recess appointments. The White House argued that the pro forma sessions – some lasting less than a minute – were a sham.
A recent lawsuit filed in a federal court in California alleges that National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Richard Griffin was complicit in a scheme to cover up embezzlement at a major labor union by terminating employees who attempted to expose the effort.
The allegations appear in a lengthy complaint filed against the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE). The lawsuit alleges numerous violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, and names Griffin, IUOE’s former general counsel, as a defendant.
A recent lawsuit filed in a federal court in California alleges that National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Richard Griffin was complicit in a scheme to cover up embezzlement at a major labor union by terminating employees who attempted to expose the effort.