Lone gunman shoots six dead in Dutch shopping mall

A policeman in a bomb disposal suit checks the scene of the shooting.A woman is comforted after the shooting in Alphen aan den Rijn,

A lone gunman shot dead six people with an automatic weapon as he walked calmly through a Dutch shopping mall yesterday, and threatened to blow up three other shopping malls before eventually killing himself.

Panicked shoppers ran for cover or hid in shops after the gunman opened fire at random at the mall in the small town of Alphen aan den Rijn, some 46km south of Amsterdam.

Dressed in camouflage trousers and a bomber jacket, the gunman began shooting in a parking lot before moving inside the mall. Ten people were wounded, some seriously.

“I saw a woman I know walking at the other side,” Marjolein Nieuwland told the ANP news agency. “She wanted to enter a shop when a tall young man approached and shot her in cold blood.
“He walked calmly and shot through the windows of the shop where I was hiding.

“I also saw a woman in her motorised wheelchair shot in the head, and at the Albert Heijn (grocery store) there was a young man. Also dead. Later I heard that was the shooter,” she said.

Officials named the gunman as Tristan van der Vlis, 24, a local man who lived in the town with his father.

Police said gunshots were still ringing out when they arrived at the scene on receiving an emergency call shortly after midday.





“Some people were running to the exit, shouting ‘shots, shots’,” one shop owner told NOS TV. “I saw two people lying on the floor as a young man was approaching. He was white, about 25, 26 years old with curly hair.

“He was wearing camouflage pants. I saw him get a new (ammunition) case and reload his weapon.”

Public prosecutor Kitty Nooy said Van der Vlis had acted alone. He was investigated by police in 2003 on suspicion of violating weapons laws but not convicted, she said. “He had a licence for five guns and he owned three,” she told reporters.

Shooting at random

Van der Vlis left a farewell letter, found by his mother, in which he mostly talked about his suicidal feelings. But it did not give a clear motive for the killings, the town’s mayor Bas Eenhoorn told Dutch television.

The gunman left a second letter in his car in which he said there were explosives in three other shopping malls in the town, police said. Authorities evacuated them pending checks.

Mayor Eenhoorn told reporters that a number of children had been shot by the gunman, but he did not know if any had been killed.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a statement that he was “horrified” at the incident. “My thoughts are with victims, survivors, and all who have been involved in this tragedy,” he said.

Queen Beatrix sent a message of condolence at a “terrible situation”, Eenhoorn told reporters.

The shootings were the deadliest attack in the Netherlands since 2009, when a Dutch national drove his car into a crowd, killing seven people and himself in an apparent attempt to hit the queen in the town of Apeldoorn, 90km east of Amsterdam.

At least 13 dead in the shootout in a Brazilian school

A combination picture of images taken from a security camera video distributed by the Rio police shows students running from the classroom where gunman Wellington Menezes de Oliveira, 24,

Survivors of Rio school massacre seen on CCTV sprinting away from class where killer opened fire

Pupils in the Brazilian school where a gunman went on a murderous rampage can be seen fleeing for their lives in images captured on a security camera in the corridor.

Wellington de Oliveira, 24, killed 13 children and injured 20 more in yesterday's attack on Tasso de Oliveira elementary school in the Realengo suburb of Rio de Janeiro.

In one CCTV image, the former pupil can be seen holding his gun outside the classroom where he launched his bloody spree before turning the weapon on himself.

The gunman roamed the halls of the school for children aged 10 to 15, lining his victims against a wall and shooting them in the head at point blank range as he shouted 'I'm going to kill you all!'

Killing spree: 24-year-old Wellington de Oliveira shot dead 13 children at a Rio de Janeiro school and then himself

The pupils can be seen fleeing from the carnage. Eleven of their classmates were killed before the gunman turned the weapon on himself.Pupils are seen on security cameras running from the classroom in Tasso da Silveira school after the gunman opened fire.The pupils can be seen fleeing from the carnage. Eleven of their classmates were killed before the gunman turned the weapon on himself.One of the pupils exits the classroom with a bullet wound in his shoulder after the attack in the Realengo neighborhood of Rio.The security camera image shows Wellington Menezes de Oliveira, 24, walking inside a corridor of the Tasso da Silveira school with a gun in his hand

He had told school officials who approached him that he was there to deliver a speech, and then opened fire on students with two pistols.

Two boys, one with a gunshot wound, fled the school ran to two police officers on patrol two blocks away.

The officers sprinted to the school and exchanged fire with the gunman.He was hit in the leg, fell down and realising he was caught, shot himself in the head.

'He saw me and aimed a gun at me,' said officer Marcio Alves. 'I shot him in the legs, he fell down the stairs and then shot himself in the head.'

Jade Ramos, a student at the school, said the gunman repeatedly yelled 'I'm going to kill you all!'

'He had already killed a lot of children in the first floor and in the yard,' she said.

'He kept telling the kids to face the wall and was shooting at their heads. The children kept begging, 'No, please!' There was a lot of blood, children agonizing on the stairs.'

Ramos said she escaped by running into a classroom, where a teacher then locked the door and barricaded it with tables.

'He came in shooting,' said Andreia Machado, recounting what her 13-year-old daughter, Thayane, told her before going into surgery.

Thayane was hit by three bullets and lost feeling in her legs because one hit her spine, said her mother. Crying as she spoke, Machado wondered if her daughter would ever be able to return to school - or walk.

'She's such an active child,' she said. 'That's the biggest fear I have, her not being able to walk again. But we have to trust in God.'

Those killed were between the ages of 12 and 15. One of the boys died at a hospital about 12 hours after the shooting.

Oliveira left a rambling and mostly incoherent letter at the scene indicating he wanted to kill himself.

The letter also explained in detail how Oliveira wanted his corpse to be cared for - bathed and wrapped in a white sheet that he left in a bag in the first room where he said he would start shooting. The letter also states that the gunman should not be touched by anyone who is 'impure' unless they wear gloves.

'If possible I want to be buried next to my mother. A follower of God must visit my grave at least once. He must pray before my grave and ask God to forgive me for what I have done,' read the letter, portions of which were posted on the Globo television network's website.

Edmar Peixoto, the deputy mayor of western Rio, said the letter also stated the gunman had AIDS.

About 400 people were inside the school when the shooting began about 8:30 a.m. local time.

'What happened in Rio is without a doubt the worst incident of its kind to have taken place in Brazil,' said Guaracy Mingardi, a crime and public safety expert at the University of Sao Paulo.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes said life at the four-story, pastel yellow and green school was turned into a 'hellish nightmare'.

'This day would have been so much worse if it weren't for the hero policeman,' Paes told reporters at the school.

Rio Governor Sergio Cabral called the shooter a 'psychopath' and said there were no indications anyone else was involved in the shooting, but that the investigation would continue.

'We have to investigate where he got the weapons and where he learned to use them,' the governor said.

Terrified parents rushed to the school in the Realengo neighborhood. Television images showed them crying and screaming for information about their children.

Zilda Nunes, 67, lives across the street from the school and said three of her grandchildren were inside when the shooting began.

She screamed for help when she heard the gunfire, but didn't enter the building. As students fled, she offered them sugar water to help calm them down, she said.

'There were so many children shot, so much blood,' Nunes said. 'People were asking for help, but what could I do?'

Three helicopters were landing and taking off from a football field next to the school, ferrying the wounded to hospitals.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, attending an event in the capital, Brasilia, lamented the deaths of "defenseless children."

'I ask for one minute of silence for these children who were taken so early from their life,' she said, her voice cracking and eyes welling with tears. 'It's not in the nature of our nation to have these types of crimes.'

 Carnage: Firefighters carry the body of the suspect from the building after he opened fire with a handgun

 Distraught: Parents scream for information after the shooting this morning

 Motive? The gunman, believed to be a former pupil at the school, left a note stating he wanted to kill himself

 Worst nightmare: Anxious parents and relatives of pupils wait outside school desperate for news of their loved-ones

 Ready for action: Armed police arrive at the school after the alarm was raised

Survivors of Rio school massacre seen on CCTV sprinting away from class where killer opened fire

Two US Marshals and One Cop Wounded in Shootout

A US marshal is hospitalized in critical condition after receiving a gunshot wound to the head following a shootout with a suspect in St. Louis during the execution of an arrest warrant.

India court upholds death sentence for Mumbai attacker

India’s High Court today upheld the death sentence for the only surviving gunman in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people and strained ties between New Delhi and Islamabad.

Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani national, was one of ten gunmen who carried out the coordinated attacks on key landmarks in India’s financial capital, including two luxury hotels, the main train station and a Jewish centre.

In May, Kasab was found guilty of more than 80 charges, including murder and waging war on India, and was sentenced to death by hanging by an Indian court but that sentence needed approval from the High Court.

 

Special Prosecuter Ujjwal Nikam gestures outside the Mumbai High Court after the delivery of a judgement for Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, February 21, 2011. The Mumbai High Court upheld a death penalty for Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, who is the lone surviving gunman of the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people, the Hindustan Times reported today

“The High Court confirmed the lower court’s decision to sentence Kasab to death by hanging,” public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said on live television today.

Earlier this month, India and Pakistan agreed to resume formal peace talks after New Delhi broke off negotiations between the two nuclear-armed nations following the Mumbai attacks.

India had paused the talks, saying Islamabad must first act against groups operating from its soil, including Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LeT, said to be behind the attacks and of which Kasab was convicted of being a member.

Pakistan has acknowledged the attacks were plotted and partly launched from its soil, and has put on trial seven suspects linked to LeT, which has been fighting Indian forces in disputed Kashmir since the early 1990s.

Kasab was filmed walking through Mumbai’s main train station carrying an AK-47 rifle and a knapsack on his back. Nearly 60 people were gunned down in the crowded station.

Twenty Pakistani co-conspirators, including LeT founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, were also found guilty. A spokesman for LeT has denied the leader or the organisation was involved.

Islamist groups like LeT see India and the United States as foes against whom they must wage holy war. They also support independence for Kashmir, the Himalayan region claimed in full but controlled in part by both India and Pakistan.

The two countries have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two over Kashmir.

Terror on campus: Students dive for cover as gunman carrying AK47 opens fire in library of University of Texas

A man wearing a ski mask opened fire with an AK-47 inside a University of Texas library yesterday morning, then fatally shot himself, police said.

Colton Tooley, a 19-year-old maths sophomore wearing a ski mask and a dark suit, began shooting near a fountain in front of the UT Tower.

The site is infamous for being the site of one of America's deadliest shooting rampages more than four decades ago, when a gunman ascended the clock tower and fired down on dozens of people.

He then turned the gun on himself. No one else was killed or injured - despite there being many people around.

The nearly 50,000-student campus was put on lockdown while officers with bomb-sniffing dogs carried out a building-by-building manhunt for a possible second suspect.

 

Troops get into position after the shooting. Police said the gunman opened fire then fatally shot himself, but police were searching for a possible second suspect

Austin PD officers stand at the intersection of 21st and Speedway, in front of the Perry-Castaneda Library, where shots were fired Tuesday morning

However authorities have now determined that Tooley acted alone. The confusion arose because shots were fired in multiple locations, and officers received varying descriptions from witnesses, campus police Chief Robert Dahlstrom said.

There was no clue as to Tooley's motive.

Within hours of Tuesday's gunfire, the school issued an all-clear notice, but the university remained closed, and the area around the library was still considered a crime scene.

'Our campus is safe,' school President Bill Powers said.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo expected the school to be 'completely open and back to normal' by Wednesday morning.

Campus police spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon said a man fired an automatic weapon on the sixth floor of the Perry-Castaneda Library, then shot himself dead. Acevedo said the weapon was an AK-47.

Acevedo said police were investigating what he described as a second crime scene outside the library where shots also were fired.

Before reaching the library, the gunman apparently walked unheeded for several blocks wearing a mask and dark clothing and carrying the automatic weapon, witnesses said.

Within hours a Facebook page in Tooley's name had been created.

The page showed just one status update, which read: 'Today was not a good day. Colton Tooley had to use his AK.'

The profile picture simply showed the logo of the University of Texas: an orange graphic of a longhorn. Beneath it was written: 'This is exactly who you think it is.'

The only information included in the description was: 'Former 19-year-old sophomore at UT, majoring in Math.'

Two links had been added to the page - one to a news story about the shooting.

A bizarre discussion had also been started on the page under the topic 'Magic', where users began discussing how AK-47s work.

When other users accused them of being 'sick', an argument kicked off. 'How is this a joke to any of you. you guys f****** make me sick [sic],' one user wrote.

Barely an hour after the status was updated, the profile was removed - but not before 88 people had pressed the 'like' button on the page.

Randall Wilhite, an adjunct law professor at the university, said he was driving to class when he saw ‘students start scrambling behind wastebaskets, trees and monuments,’ and then a young man carrying an assault rifle sprinting along the street.

‘He was running right in front of me ... and he shot what I thought were three more shots ... not at me. In my direction, but not at me, clearly not at me,’ Wilhite said.

The professor said the gunman had the opportunity to shoot several students and Wilhite, but he did not.

The university posted a notice on its emergency information website emphasizing that the school remained closed and that the area around the Perry-Castenada Library was still an active crime scene.

Tuesday’s shooting is not the first at the school, which is one of the largest universities in the country.

On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman went to the 28th floor observation deck at the UT clock tower in the middle of campus and began shooting at people below. He killed 16 people and wounded nearly three dozen before police killed him about 90 minutes after the siege began.

The Perry-Castaneda Library is one of several on the campus and is one of the busiest undergraduate libraries.

Gunman: Colton Tooley, in an undated photo released by the Texas Department of Public Safety yesterday

Police officers escort a student to safety near the Perry-Castaneda Library, after a shooting at the University of Texas in Austin

Sick: A Facebook page set up after the shooting in Colton Tooley's name. It has since been removed from the website

Austin PD officers stand at the intersection of 21st and Speedway, in front of the Perry-Castaneda Library, where shots were fired Tuesday morning

Troops get into position after the shooting. Police said the gunman opened fire then fatally shot himself, but police were searching for a possible second suspect

University of Texas President William Powers Jr, centre, walks across the campus mall in Austin with Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, right, and an unidentified law enforcement officer

Students gather on campus after the shooting