I say this week's shooting, because this is three days after the one in Seattle:Five Dead in Shooting Rampage in Las Vegas
By ASHLEY SOUTHALL and EMMA G. FITZSIMMONSJUNE 8, 2014
In a shooting rampage that left five people dead, two assailants killed two Las Vegas police officers on Sunday at a pizza restaurant and fatally shot a third person at a nearby Walmart before dying in a suicide pact, the authorities said.
The attackers, one male and one female, ambushed the two police officers as they were eating lunch at a CiCi’s Pizza around 11:20 a.m., Sheriff Douglas Gillespie of Clark County said at a news conference on Sunday afternoon.
The sheriff identified the officers as Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo, and said that one of them fired at the attackers before he died, but that it was unclear whether the officer struck either assailant.
The attackers took the officers’ weapons and ammunition before they fled across the street to a Walmart store in the same plaza. There, they fatally shot one other person inside the entrance, Sheriff Gillespie said. Officers responding to the shooting confronted the man and the woman and exchanged gunfire with them, then they heard several shots, the sheriff said.
The female suspect is believed to have shot the male suspect before killing herself, Sheriff Gillespie said. Larry Hadfield, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said earlier on Sunday that investigators believed the couple had a suicide pact.
Some witnesses reported that the couple had shouted “This is a revolution!” while firing on the officers at the pizza restaurant. But Sheriff Gillespie said he could not confirm that.
The CiCi’s Pizza is about nine miles from the Las Vegas Strip. The restaurant and the Walmart are in a shopping plaza in the Las Vegas Valley that was bustling with activity on Sunday morning.
Police officers and deputies who gathered outside the restaurant where Officer Beck and Officer Soldo were attacked stood in small clusters, many of them hugging one another. Some wept. “We have lost two officers with young families, and a family of law enforcement who cares very much about them, as well as the innocent citizen that lost their life,” Sheriff Gillespie said at a news conference. “What precipitated this incident we do not know. My officers were simply having lunch when the shooting started.”
Both of the officers who were killed were veterans of the police department. Officer Beck, 41, who had been with the department since 2001, had a wife and three children. Officer Soldo, 31, who joined the department in 2006, had a wife and a baby.
“It’s a tragic day,” Sheriff Gillespie said. “It’s a very difficult day.” The victim shot inside the Walmart has not been identified, he said. The sheriff did not identify the assailants.
Shere-e Burns, 48, said she had gone to CiCi’s after church. She said she was sitting behind the police officers, who had just finished their meals and were chatting, when a man approached who appeared to be headed for the soda fountain across the aisle.
Ms. Burns said the man had just passed the officers when he turned, pulled out a gun and shot one of them in the head. She said she ducked under her table and crawled around a wall dividing the dining room. She peeked up and saw the man reach around the officer and take his gun and ammunition.
“They didn’t have a chance,” she said in a telephone interview. “I thought I was in a bad movie. That’s how fast it went.”
Ms. Burns said she could not recall hearing a second shot or seeing a second assailant.
“I went to the floor,” she said. “I wasn’t looking for anyone else.” Ms. Burns said. After the attacker left, she said, she got up, saw one of the officers with blood running from his head and ran out of the restaurant.
Pauline Pacheco, a shopper in the Walmart, said in an interview with KLAS, a Las Vegas television station, that she saw the armed man enter the store and grabbed her father so they could escape.
“We saw when the man was walking, he was shouting, yelling bad words, and suddenly he had a gun,” Ms. Pacheco said. “It was terrible, it was terrible. That man was crazy.”
Walmart issued a statement on Sunday afternoon saying: “We express our deepest condolences to everyone who has been affected by this senseless act of violence. Our store is currently closed. This is still an active investigation and we are working with local police.”
After the shooting, businesses closed as police cordoned off the scene. About a block and a half of Nellis Boulevard, one of the main roads in Las Vegas, was closed to traffic as cones and yellow tape sealed its entrances from north of Stewart Avenue and south at Charleston Boulevard.
Only police officers and witnesses remained at the scene on Sunday evening. About a dozen police cars and a few ambulances sat in the parking lot of the Walmart. The sheriff said that officers who had been patrolling the area alone had been instructed to partner with colleagues while the police investigated the case.
“We still have a community to police and a community to protect,” Sheriff Gillespie said. “We will be out there doing it with our heads held high but an emptiness in our hearts.”
The Denver Channel
Seems even worse when they're so close together...Gunman kills 1, wounds 2 before students pepper-spray, tackle shooter at Seattle Pacific University
Police: Student monitor led charge against gunman
By:TheDenverChannel.com Team
5:00 PM, Jun 5, 2014
10:48 PM, Jun 5, 2014
SEATTLE - A gunman opened fire at Seattle Pacific University Thursday afternoon, killing one person and wounding two others before being pepper-sprayed and disarmed by students, KOMO-TV reported.
The wounded were rushed to Harborview Medical Center, where one victim, a man in his 20s, died shortly after arrival, the ABC-affiliate station reported.
A 20-year-old woman was in serious condition while another man was in satisfactory condition with minor injuries, hospital officials said. A fourth person who was not wounded but traumatized by the incident was also taken to Harborview.
The gunman walked into the Otto Miller Hall just after 3 p.m. and shot three people, Seattle Police Capt. Chris Fowler said. The gunman then began reloading when a student building monitor pepper-sprayed the shooter.
"The shooter began to reload his shotgun and the student building monitor inside the hall confronted the shooter and was able to subdue individual," Fowler said. "Once on the ground, other students jumped on top of them and they were able to pin the shooter to the ground until police arrived."
Student Chris Howard was inside Otto Miller Hall working on a design project when the shooting began. He said he saw a woman on the ground with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to her chest.
"She was in shock and thought she was going to die," Howard told KOMO-TV. "We had to reassure her several times, no she's going to get through this."
The suspect was been arrested and SWAT officers have cleared the building, police said.
Police advised students and staff to gather at Gwinn Commons, where grief counselors would be available.
Live television video from the scene showed a person being loaded into an ambulance. Medic units have lined up three more stretchers.
About 4,270 students attend the private Christian university, located in a residential neighborhood about 10 minutes from downtown Seattle.
The Seattle attack follows a spate of recent shootings on or near college campuses.
Last month, according to police, Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured seven before turning his gun on himself in a rampage in Isla Vista, California, near two universities.
Seven people were killed and three injured when a 43-year-old former student opened fire at a tiny Christian school, Oikos University, in Oakland, California, in 2012.
A gunman killed five people and injured 18 when he opened fire in a Northern Illinois University lecture hall in 2008.
In 2007, 32 people were fatally shot in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia before the gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, killed himself.
