Posted on 01/16/2002 10:37:35 AM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs
6 Shot at a Grundy, Virgina School. Details to follow after the Ashcroft press conference
By Melanie Lefkowitz, Bobby Cuza and Rocco Parascandola |
Newsday Staff Writers
Posted January 16, 2002, 8:31 AM EST
( N.Y. school has history of problems Jan 16, 2002 )
NEW YORK -- Two students were shot inside Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Manhattan yesterday, forcing officials to lock down the building on the nonviolent activist's birthday.
Both victims, Andrell Napper, 17, who was struck in the hip, and Andre Wilkins, who turns 17 today and was hit in the back as he tried to flee, are in stable condition at St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan and are expected to survive.
Police said yesterday that they believe the shooting was in retaliation for a fight last week. The gunman, whose connection to the school, if any, is unclear, got away yesterday.
He apparently left behind his weapon, a .380-caliber pistol, which was found on the fifth floor. Police believe he snuck in through a side entrance to avoid metal detectors.
The school, which has detectors at the main entrance and some side doors, is protected by two police officers and 19 school safety agents.
Right after the 1:55 p.m. shooting, the school's 2,614 students were told to report to their classrooms as police searched the school.
The students, most of whom were not immediately aware that there had been a shooting, were later released, one classroom at a time, the final groups not being dismissed until close to 5 p.m.
New York Schools Chancellor Harold Levy acknowledged that safety has been a problem at the school and that the Board of Education will re-examine security procedures.
"We did that after Columbine," he said, referring to the 1999 school massacre in Colorado. "We've got to tighten up our security and make sure this doesn't happen again."
But that was of little consolation to the families of the victims.
"The only thing we got to deal with now is how this [person] got into school with a gun and was able to shoot my son and one of his classmates," said Wilkins' father, Waddell Parks, 35. "I don't know how this kid got in the school with a gun. I don't know what to think right now."
Napper's aunt, Katoria Washington, said, "It's too dangerous to be in this school.
"We're going to take him out," she said.
Levy said the victims and the gunman argued a week ago about a girl. Police, however, said they weren't sure what the fight was about.
Wilkins' father, however, described the disagreement as "just things that teen-agers usually fight about, just posturing."
The violence erupted in a fourth-floor hallway as the two victims were changing classes.
"A student was shot and he's dying," a frantic teacher yelled out after running into the principal's office.
Within minutes, police in riot gear arrived and searched the school as the students remained in their classes, prohibited even from using the bathroom.
Students said officers went from classroom to classroom asking them if there was anyone in class who was not a student.
After that and a search of the building failed to turn up the suspect, school officials released the students one room at a time, with police asking witnesses to watch closely for the gunman in the event he had not immediately fled.
Three teens were later taken to St. Vincent's as possible suspects, but the victims said none of the three had shot them. One of the youths, Jovan Espinoza, 18, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon after police found a knife on him. Espinoza, who Levy described as a suspended truant, also had an outstanding warrant on an unrelated charge, though police did not provide details on that charge.
The violence took few students by surprise.
"As much as security really tries, there's a lot of ways you can get stuff into the schools, through the back doors, side doors," said sophomore Zachary Henry, 15.
The school principal is on leave for National Guard duty and could not be reached for comment.
But Randi Weingarten, head of the teachers' union, said the union has long complained about easy access to the school and that safety there has been a constant problem. It was only Monday, she said, that a teacher at the school was verbally harassed for the third time by the same student.
Napper, according to his aunt, is a senior and previously attended the Juilliard School.
"He's really bright," she said.
Harold Pierce, a friend of Wilkins' family, said Andre is "definitely a good kid.
"He's never in trouble or anything," Pierce said.
Newsday staff writer Sean Gardiner contributed to this story.
Perhaps they hope to push through one more big anti-gun measure for Sarah - as a "going away present".
School shooting injures two teens
By The Associated Press
Recommend this story to others.
NEW YORK - A teen-ager opened fire Tuesday in the hallway at a high school near Lincoln Center, wounding two fellow students in what authorities said may have been a dispute over a girl.
The shooting on Manhattan's Upper West Side occurred at Martin Luther King Jr. High School on what would have been the 73rd birthday of the apostle of nonviolence. The public school has 3,000 students.
Schools Chancellor Harold Levy said authorities believed the shooting was because of a dispute concerning a girl. He said the suspect was an 18-year-old who had not been attending school.
No arrests had been made in the case by Tuesday night, police spokesman Lt. Brian Burke said.
``We were in school and we heard two gunshots,'' said senior Romain Morrison, 17. ``They were telling everyone to get out of the hallways.''
Authorities said Andrel Napper, 17, and Andre Wilkins, 18, were shot in a fourth-floor hallway. One was wounded in the back and the other in the buttocks. Both were hospitalized Tuesday night; one was in serious condition and the other was listed as stable.
Students were kept in their classrooms as police swept the building on Amsterdam Avenue between 65th and 66th streets.
``They wanted us to be in the room, locked up until they had things under control,'' said senior Giorlys Alvarez, 17.
The school's metal detectors and X-ray machines were working Tuesday, police said.
Teacher Octavia Melian said the school had previous problems with students breaching security. The shooting was the first inside a New York City public school since September 1994, according to the teachers' union.
http://www.registerguard.com/news/20020116/5a.nat.schoolshooting4.0116.html
No grenade launcher?
Didn't we just have another school shooting yesterday? Grundy must be the "School Shooting Du Jur".
But don't worry about it; hardly anyone takes that seriously anyway. After all, what's the point of praying if it doesn't give one an air of sanctimony?
The technology for producing zombie shootings is apparently still at the 'skunk works' level.
Judging by the relatively small numbers of incidents, uneven results and time gaps between groups of events It must still be a rather difficult thing to stage.
Incredibly paranoid, vindictive slanders of the right, of course:
"This is right wing domestic terrorism"
All the signs are there. Grundy is right near the border of VA, WV and KY. The far right terrorists in this country love border regions because they can quickly escape into adjacent jurisdictions. The targets were standard for the far right -- elites (Harvard grads, law professors, liberals) engaged in promoting law for the noncontributing poor. Faculty included people from Howard University, so presumably it was fairly integrated. And they were talking about getting lawyers into the coal fields -- unions. All the hallmarks are there. This is the far right.
..."his handlers may not be pleased that he failed to kill himself. however, when he starts babbling about "voices in his head" they'll think he's crazy, so it's ok. they removed the implant last night - and triggered his "mission" this morning with a phone call and a "code word".
Can you believe these incredible Dem neanderthals???
Da Dems are so blind they can't see the truth shining on their lame brains. Geez.. (dem to dem: "the evil right wing population of those redneck states... they have all the money, er, uh, wait a minute..they steal all our money and buy guns for their evil right wing teenagers and then shoot up "our" schools...er, uh, ..yeah, that's the ticket!')
By the way, for your edification, I have read Matthew 6: 5-6. Oh dear me! Some anonymous stranger is taking issue with the fact I didn't go into my room, close the door and pray to my Father, who is unseen! I'll definitely take your instruction this coming Sunday at church since I wouldn't want to offend God by 'publicly' praying in his House. I'll make sure that all of my prayer is done in secret. Heaven forbid I pray for the families in a public forum even though I'm not standing on a street corner telling everyone to look at me to see how 'holy' I am!
A question for you, please. When you witness to others, do you not pray in front of the one's you are witnessing to? Do you not believe in prayer in school (Lord's Prayer)?
Be prepared! I'm adding you to my list! Is that secret enough for you? I wouldn't want to be called a hypocrite!
I always do when I see someone post an ridiculously-naive statement...MUD
Matthew 10:34-38 does come to mind as an example, though, unless He was being unintentionally ironic or sarcastic:
"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.
"For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me."
Matthew 10:34-38
You should give one a try. They're a bit clunky, but stout in their own way, and rather more powerful than the .380 [or *9mm short*] autopistol that the gunman likely actually used.
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