Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/542609
ByLucasL.Johnson and Kathleen Foody TheAssociatedPress CHATTANOOGA, TENN. A gunman unleashed a bar- rage of fire at a recruiting center and another U.S. military site a few miles apart in Chattanooga on Thursday, killing at least four Marines, officials said. The attacker was also killed. Federal authorities said they were investigating the possibility it was an act of terrorism. A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonym- ity identified the gunman as 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez of Hix- son, Tennessee, and said he was believed to have been born in Kuwait, though it was unclear whether he was a U.S. or Kuwaiti citizen. "Lives have been lost from some faithful peo- ple who have been serving our country, and I think I join all Tennesseans in be- ing both sickened and sad- dened by this," Gov. Bill Haslam said. Within hours of the bloodshed, law officers with guns drawn swarmed what was believed to be Ab- dulazeez's house, and two females were led away in handcuffs. A dozen law enforce- ment vehicles, including a bomb-squad truck and an open-sided Army green truck carrying armed men, rolled into the Colonial Shores neighborhood of Hixson, and police closed off streets and turned away people trying to reach their homes. The shootings took places minutes apart, with the gunman stopping his car and spraying dozens of bul- lets first at a recruiting cen- ter for all branches of the military, then apparently driving to a Navy-Marine training center 7 miles away, authorities and witnesses said. The attacks were over within a half-hour. Authorities would not say how the gunman died. FBI agent Ed Reinhold said Abdulazeez had "numerous weapons" but would not give details. The Marine Corps said four Marines were killed, all of them at the Navy- Marine training site, and a fifth Marine was wounded in the leg but not seriously hurt. Also, a police offi- cer was shot in the ankle, Mayor Andy Berke said. The names of the dead were not immediately re- leased. Reinhold said author- ities were looking into whether it was domestic or international terrorism or "a simple criminal act." In Washington, President Barack Obama pledged a prompt and thorough inves- tigation and said the White House had been in touch with the Pentagon to make sure military installations are being vigilant. "It is a heartbreaking circumstance for these in- dividuals who served our country with great valor to be killed in this fash- ion," he said. Vice President Joe Biden likewise said: "Their fam- ilies have already given a lot to the country, and now this." The shootings began at the recruiting center on Old Lee Highway, where a shot rang out around 10:30 or 10:45 a.m., followed a few seconds later by more fire, said Sgt. 1st Class Rob- ert Dodge, leader of Army recruiting at the center. He and his comrades dropped to the ground and barricaded themselves in a safe place. Dodge esti- mated there were 30 to 50 shots fired. Doors and glass were damaged at the neigh- boring Air Force, Navy and Marine offices, he said. Law enforcement offi- cials told recruiters that the gunman stopped his car in front of the recruiting sta- tion, shot at the building and drove off, said Brian Lepley, a spokesman with the U.S. Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Kentucky. DEADLY SHOOTING 4 Marines, gunman killed in attack on 2 military sites RJSANGOSTI—THEDENVERPOST James Holmes, sits in Arapahoe County District Court in Centennial, Colo., a er his arrest in 2012. By Sadie Gurman The Associated Press CENTENNIAL, COLO. Colo- rado theater shooter James Holmes was convicted Thursday in the chilling 2012 attack on defenseless moviegoers at a midnight Batman premiere after ju- rors swiftly rejected defense arguments that the former graduate student was in- sane and driven to murder by delusions. The 27-year-old Holmes, who had been working to- ward his Ph.D. in neurosci- ence, could get the death penalty for the massacre that left 12 people dead and dozens of others wounded. The initial phase of Holmes' trial took 11 weeks, but it only took jurors about 12 hours over a day and a half to decide all 165 charges. The same panel must now decide whether Holmes should pay with his life. Dressed in a blue shirt and beige khakis, Holmes stood impassively as Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. read charge after charge, each one punctuated by the word "guilty." The verdict came almost three years after Holmes, dressed head-to-toe in body armor, slipped through the emergency exit of the dark- ened theater in suburban Denver and replaced the Hollywood violence of the movie "The Dark Knight Rises" with real human car- nage. Victims His victims included two active-duty servicemen, a single mom, a man celebrat- ing his 27th birthday and an aspiring broadcaster who had survived a mall shoot- ing in Toronto. Several died shielding friends or loved ones. The trial offered a rare glimpse into the mind of a mass shooter, as most are killed by police, kill them- selves or plead guilty. Prosecutors argued that Holmes knew exactly what he was doing when he methodically gunned down strangers in the sta- dium-style theater, tak- ing aim at those who fled. They painted him as a cal- culated killer who sought to assuage his failures in school and romance with a mass murder that he be- lieved would increase his personal worth. He snapped photos of himself with fiery orange hair and scrawled his plans for the massacre in a spiral notebook he sent his univer- sity psychiatrist just hours before the attack, all in a calculated effort to be re- membered, prosecutors said. The prosecution called more than 200 witnesses over two months, more than 70 of them survivors, including some who were missing limbs and using wheelchairs. They recalled the panic to escape the black-clad gunman. The youngest to die was a 6-year-old girl whose mother also suffered a miscarriage and was par- alyzed in the attack. An- other woman who was nine months pregnant at the time described her ago- nizing decision to leave her wounded husband behind in the theater to save their baby. She later gave birth in the same hospital where he was in a coma. He can no longer walk and has trou- ble talking. That Holmes was the lone gunman was never in doubt. He was arrested in the parking lot as survi- vors were still fleeing, and he warned police he had rigged his nearby apart- ment into a potentially le- thal booby trap, which he hoped would divert first re- sponders from the theater. Defense His attorneys argued that Holmes suffers from schizo- phrenia and was in the grip of a psychotic breakdown so severe that he was unable to tell right from wrong — Col- orado's standard for insan- ity. They said he was delu- sional even as he secretively acquired the three murder weapons — a shotgun, a handgun and an AR-15 ri- fle — while concealing his plans from friends and two worried psychiatrists in the months before the shooting. Defense lawyers tried to present him as a once- promising student so crip- pled by mental illness that he couldn't reveal his struggles to anyone who might have helped. They called a pair of psychia- trists, including a nation- ally known schizophre- nia expert, who concluded Holmes was psychotic and legally insane. But two state-appointed doctors found otherwise, testifying for prosecu- tors that no matter what Holmes' mental state was that night, he knew what he was doing was wrong. Jury quickly convicts shooter of murder 2012 AURORA MASSACRE ALEX SANZ — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Law enforcement officers detain a woman as they surround the house of the suspected gunman in Hixson, Tenn., Thursday. By Darlene Superville The Associated Press EL RENO, OKLA. Peering from the back seat of his armored black limousine, President Barack rode into a razor wire-surrounded federal prison Thursday and said he met young in- mates "who made mistakes that aren't that different than the mistakes I made." Obama came to the me- dium-security El Reno Fed- eral Correctional Institu- tion near Oklahoma City to press his case that the na- tion needs to reconsider the way crime is controlled and prisoners are rehabilitated. The president met with in- mates and walked past rows of empty cells secured by large grey doors. Prison officials opened cell no. 123 for Obama and he gazed at its sparse trappings: a dou- ble bunk bed and third bed along the wall, a toilet and sink, along with a small bookcase and three lockers. "Three full-grown men in a 9-by-10 cell," he said. The White House said Obama was the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. The president said there must be a distinction be- tween young people "do- ing stupid things" and vio- lent criminals. Young people who make mistakes, he said, could be thriving if they had access to resources and sup- port structures "that would allow them to survive those mistakes." "When they describe their youth and their child- hood, these are young peo- ple who made mistakes that aren't that different than the mistakes I made," Obama said. Among the changes Obama is seeking is the re- duction or outright elimi- nation of severe manda- tory minimum sentences for non-violent offenders. Earlier this week, he used his presidential powers to shorten the prison sen- tences of 46 people con- victed on charges involv- ing drugs. The president has also called for restoring voting rights to felons who have served their sentences. Obama has expressed hope that Congress will send him legislation to ad- dress the issue before he leaves office in 18 months, given the level of interest in the issue among Repub- lican lawmakers and pres- idential candidates. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a 2016 presidential contender, is pushing to restore voting rights to nonviolent felons who have served their sen- tences. Another GOP can- didate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, was giving a speech Thursday calling for changes that in part would give nonviolent drug offend- ers a better chance at re- building their lives. PRESIDENTIAL VISIT Obama visits prison to call for fairer justice system Join Us For Saturday Summer Fun Days FREE Forchildrenwhohavecompletedthe 1st grade up thru the 7th grade. 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