Crime

Minutes Before School Attack, Texas Gunman Sent Online Warning

Published

2 years ago

May 26, 2022

By Derrick Bangura

The Texas gunman who murdered 19 children and two teachers posted an online message warning that he was going to shoot up an elementary school minutes before he attacked, Governor Greg Abbott said on Wednesday, as harrowing new details of the massacre emerged.
The gunman, whose rampage ended when police killed him, also had sent a message on Tuesday saying he was going to shoot his grandmother, followed by another internet post confirming he had done so, Abbott said at a news conference.
The suspect’s grandmother, shot in the face before her grandson left the home they shared and attacked the school, survived and called police.
The gunman, identified as Salvador Ramos, 18, otherwise gave no warning he was about to commit what now ranks as the deadliest U.S. school shooting in nearly a decade, authorities said.
Fleeing the shooting of his grandmother, he crashed his car near Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, about 80 miles (130 km) west of San Antonio, then managed to evade a school police officer who approached him before running inside.
No gunfire was exchanged at that point, according to police. But authorities offered few details of the encounter, likely to become a focus of investigations, except to say that the suspect dropped a bag full of ammunition and ran toward the school when he saw the officer.
Ramos then entered the school through a back door carrying an AR-15-style rifle and made his way to a fourth-grade classroom where he shot all of the people who were slain. Authorities said he had legally purchased two rifles and 375 rounds of ammunition days before the shooting.
Meanwhile, police surrounded the building, breaking windows to help children and staff escape. U.S. Border Patrol agents also responded and entered the building to confront the shooter, with one agent wounded “in the crossfire,” homeland security officials said.
Eventually, Ramos, a high school dropout with no known criminal record or history of mental illness, was shot dead by law enforcement.
Abbott said 17 people suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The wounded included “multiple children” who survived the gunfire in their classroom, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Chris Olivarez said.

The shooter’s online posts were made on Facebook, the governor said, but spokespeople for Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms (FB.O), said they were private one-to-one messages discovered after the shooting. The company declined to say who received the messages or which of Meta’s platforms, such as Messenger or Instagram, was used to send them.

Victims’ loved ones took to social media to express anguish over the loss of children who never came home from school.

“We told her we loved her and would pick her up after school,” Kimberly Mata-Rubio posted on Facebook in a remembrance of her daughter, Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, a fourth-grade honor student. “We had no idea this was goodbye.” read more

GUN CONTROL DEBATE

Investigators have not suggested a motive for the shooting, and little about the suspect’s background immediately came to light.

The suspect’s mother, Adriana Reyes, was quoted in an interview with the British-based news site DailyMail.com describing her son as someone who “kept to himself and didn’t have many friends.”

Ten days earlier an avowed white supremacist shot 13 people at a supermarket in a mostly Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, re-igniting a national debate over U.S. gun laws.

In a sign of the charged political atmosphere, Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate challenging Abbott in a November election, interrupted the news conference to confront the governorover the state’s permissive gun laws, shouting “You are doing nothing!” read more

Several officials gathered on stage around the governor yelled at O’Rourke. “You’re a sick son of a bitch who would come to a deal like this to make a political issue,” one of them said, though it was not clear who.

O’Rourke was escorted from the building and spoke to reporters outside. He said it was “insane” that an 18-year-old was legally permitted to acquire a semi-automatic rifle and vowed to pursue gun restrictions.

Abbott said stringent gun laws do not prevent violence, citing states such as New York. He said policy-makers should instead focus on mental health treatment and prevention.

U.S. President Joe Biden, calling for new gun safety restrictions in a nationally televised address on Tuesday evening, is planning a trip to Texas soon, a senior administration official said. read more

New legislation appeared unlikely to pass in Washington. Virtually all Republicans in Congress oppose tighter gun controls, and there was no sign the latest massacre would alter the equation.

The National Rifle Association’s annual meeting starts on Friday in Houston, where Republicans including Abbott, Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and former President Donald Trump were scheduled to address the gun rights group.

In a statement, the NRA expressed sympathy for the victims but said the event would go on as planned.

World leaders expressed shock and sorrow. Pope Francis on Wednesday said he was “heartbroken” and called for an end to “the indiscriminate trafficking of weapons.”

Shootings have become so commonplace in American schools that data shows a gun being fired almost every day this year on school property, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security.

The Texas rampage stands as the deadliest U.S. school shooting since a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in December 2012.

Uvalde, deep in the state’s Hill Country region, has about 16,000 residents, nearly 80% of them Hispanic or Latino, according to U.S. Census data.

By early evening, the elementary school remained cordoned off with crime-scene tape, as passers-by walked up periodically to hand off flowers and stuffed animals to a police officer who carried it over to a makeshift memorial taking shape near the building.

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Africa

Customs hands over illicit drugs worth N117.59m to NDLEA

Published

1 day ago

November 22, 2024

Matthew Eloyi

Customs hands over illicit drugs worth N117.59m to NDLEA

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Ogun Area 1 Command, has handed over illicit drugs worth N117.59 million to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

The Comptroller of the command, Mr James Ojo, disclosed this during the handing over of the drugs to Mr Olusegun Adeyeye, the Commander of NDLEA, Idiroko Special Area Command, in Abeokuta, Ogun, on Friday.

Ojo said the customs handed over the seized cannabis and tramadol tablets to the Idiroko Special Command for further investigation in line with the standard operating procedures and inter-agency collaboration.

He said the illicit drugs were seized in various strategic locations between January and November 21, 2024, in Ogun State.

He added that the illicit drugs were abandoned at various locations, including the Abeokuta axis, the Agbawo/Igankoto area of Yewa North Local Government Area, and Imeko Afton axis.

Ojo said that the seizure of the cannabis sativa and tramaling tablets, another brand of tramadol, was made possible through credible intelligence and strategic operations of the customs personnel.

“The successful interception of these dangerous substances would not have been possible without the robust collaboration and support from our intelligence units, local informants and sister agencies.

“These landmark operations are testament to the unwavering dedication of the NCS to safeguard the health and well-being of our citizens and uphold the rule of law,” he said.

He said the seizures comprised 403 sacks and 6,504 parcels, weighing 7,217.7 kg and 362 packs of tramaling tablets of 225mg each, with a total Duty Paid Value of N117,587,405,00.

He described the height of illicit drugs smuggling in the recent time as worrisome.

This, he said, underscores the severity of drug trafficking within the borders.

“Between Oct. 13 and Nov. 12 alone, operatives intercepted a total of 1,373 parcels of cannabis sativa, weighing 1,337kg and 362 packs of tramaling tablets of 225mg each,” he said.

Ojo said the seizures had disrupted the supply chain of illicit drugs, thereby mitigating the risks those substances posed to the youth, families and communities.

He lauded the synergy between its command, security agencies and other stakeholders that led to the remarkable achievements.

Ojo also commended the Comptroller General of NCS for creating an enabling environment for the command to achieve the success.

Responding, Adeyeye, applauded the customs for achieving the feat.

Adeyeye pledged to continue to collaborate with the customs to fight against illicit trade and drug trafficking in the state.

Africa

Ann-Kio Briggs Faults Tinubu for Scrapping Niger Delta Ministry

Published

1 day ago

November 22, 2024

Matthew Eloyi

Prominent Niger Delta human rights activist and environmentalist, Ann-Kio Briggs, has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s decision to scrap the Ministry of Niger Delta, describing it as ill-advised and detrimental to the oil-rich region.

Briggs expressed her concerns during an appearance on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.

“The Ministry of Niger Delta was created by the late (President Umaru) Yar’Adua. There was a reason for the creation. So, just removing it because the president was advised. I want to believe that he was advised because if he did it by himself, that would be terribly wrong,” she stated.

President Tinubu, in October, dissolved the Ministry of Niger Delta and replaced it with the Ministry of Regional Development, which is tasked with overseeing all regional development commissions, including the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), North-West Development Commission, and North-East Development Commission.

Briggs questioned the rationale behind the restructuring, expressing concerns about its feasibility and implications. “But that’s not going to be the solution because who is going to fund the commissions? Is it the regions because it is called the Regional Development Ministry? Is it the states in the regions? What are the regions because we don’t work with regions right now; we are working with geopolitical zones,” she remarked.

She added, “Are we going back to regionalism? If we are, we have to discuss it. The president can’t decide on his own to restructure Nigeria. If we are restructuring Nigeria, the president alone can’t restructure Nigeria, he has to take my opinion and your opinion into consideration.”

Briggs also decried the longstanding neglect of the Niger Delta despite its significant contributions to Nigeria’s economy since 1958. “The Niger Delta has been developing Nigeria since 1958. We want to use our resources to develop our region; let regions use their resources to develop themselves,” she asserted.

Reflecting on the various bodies established to address the region’s development, Briggs lamented their failure to deliver meaningful progress. She highlighted the Niger Delta Basin Authority, the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC), and the NDDC as examples of ineffective interventions.

“NDDC was created by Olusegun Obasanjo…There was OMPADEC before NDDC. OMPADEC was an agency. Before OMPADEC, there was the Basin Authority…These authorities were created to help us. Were we helped by those authorities? No, we were not,” she said.

Briggs further described the NDDC as an “ATM for failed politicians, disgruntled politicians, and politicians that have had their electoral wins taken away from them and given to somebody else.”

Her remarks underscore the deep-seated frustrations in the Niger Delta, where residents continue to advocate for greater control over their resources and improved governance.

Crime

Court remands 2 brothers for alleged culpable homicide, armed robbery

Published

2 weeks ago

November 12, 2024

Matthew Eloyi

A Kaduna High Court on Tuesday ordered that two brothers be remanded in a correctional centre for alleged culpable homicide and armed robbery.

The police charged Hamza Jibrin, 27 and Yusuf Jibrin 24, with conspiracy, armed robbery and culpable homicide.

Justice Aisha Shagari ordered the remand of the defendants, after they pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against them.

Shagari adjourned the matter until Dec. 12 for hearing.

Earlier, the Prosecutor, James Edward, said that the defendants and two others at large, while armed with matchete and other dangerous weapons along Airport Road, Kaduna, on Nov. 7, robbed and caused the death of a 26-year-old man, Rabiu Sani.

He said the defendants stole the deceased’s HP laptop, two cell phones, his wallet which contained two ATM cards and cash sum of N30,000.

Edward said that the offence is punishable under the Robbery and Firearms ( Special Provision) Act LFN, 2004.

The Defence counsel, Habiba Usman, had pleaded with the court to grant her clients bail.

Usman while moving her bail application, urged the court to gtant her client bail on literal terms, adding , that the defendants would be of good behaviour and would not jump bail.