Tag Archives: gun violence

crime news, local news

Allen PD officer: hero in truest sense

It happens to me every time I drive by the highway exit in Allen, Texas: I think of the shooting that occurred in May 2023 at the Allen Outlet Premium Mall.

It was a hugely tragic event that ended when an Allen police officer, who happened to be at the mall answering an unrelated call shot the madman to death. However, the end came too late for nine victims who were gunned down by the shooter.

I am casting not a single stone at the police officer. He heard the shots and sprinted full speed toward the scene. He spotted the killer and fired his weapon.

What has happened since then is equally praiseworthy. The Allen officer has chosen to remain anonymous. Only his police department colleagues and his loved ones know the identity of this hero.

I have tried to wrap my noggin around that desire to keep his ID a secret. It might be easy for him to want the attention. He could cash in on his celebrity. This hero, though, has chosen another path. He has chosen instead to go about his work each day to serve and protect the public.

I went shopping at the mall a few weeks after the event and asked the clerk how she was getting along in the wake of the tragedy that unfolded not far from the store where she worked. “We’re doing OK,” she said with a hint of uncertainty about what “OK” really meant. I took her answer to mean “just OK. Not great, but we’re getting past it.”

And they will. Eventually. As for the police officer who still suits up each day, I am sure he will, too. None of us needs to know his name. All we need is assurance that heroes are among us and they answer the call to respond as only heroes can do.

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Politics on hold … for now

Let there be no mistake that I likely will bristle, gnash my teeth, mutter a bad word or three as Republicans seek to make political hay over the event that unfolded shockingly in Butler, Pa.

But out of respect for the political process that is underway and the noble goal of choosing a presidential nominee, I will do all of that quietly.

I won’t take my frustrations out with posts on High Plains Blogger. I am going to declare a very brief moratorium on assassination-attempt political commentary. I won’t predict when it will resume. I merely want the FBI, Secret Service, Justice Department, Homeland Security Department and local police to complete their investigation into what happened over the weekend.

I am quite certain that Trump and his family as well as his cadre of cultists will test my good will with their statements about the political ramifications of those events.

I will add only this, which is my complete endorsement of the way the Secret Service acted in killing the shooter. Sharpshooters arrayed around Trump’s podium drew a bead immediately on the gunman and wasted him, These men and women are the best at what they do and in that instant, they reacted the only way that made sense, given the chaos of the moment.

I will await the right moment to shuck the gloves with regard to Donald J. Trump. Don’t ask when that moment will arrive. I’ll just have to tell you that I’ll know when it does.

crime news, local news

Tragedy recalled

One year ago, a lunatic with an AR-15 rifle opened fire at the Allen Premium Outlet mall, killing eight people.

A few moments later, an Allen Police Department officer arrived and killed the gunman. The officer ended what could have been an even more horrific incident. The officer ran full tilt toward the gunfire after counseling a woman and her young child.

The city and local media are honoring the heroism demonstrated that day. Make no mistake, the officer acted the only way a true hero could respond: he ran toward the gunfire, drew his weapon and fired.

What’s more, the officer remains anonymous to this very moment. He is still on the job with the Allen Police Department. It appears quite likely we’ll never know his name.

May the officer, though, feel the love and gratitude of a community that is giving thanks that the hero was in the right place at precisely the right time.

Indeed, his post-incident reaction — his desire to remain unknown to the rest of us — is exactly how a real hero would react.

crime news

Shooter’s parents get slammer time

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James and Jennifer Crumbley are headed to the big house after a Michigan judge today imposed a 10- to 15-year prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter.

The Crumbleys, though, are fairly unique in this regard: their son took a gun out of their house and killed four high school students. The son is serving a life term in prison after he pleaded guilty to the crime. The shooting took place at Oxford High School, about 40 miles from Detroit, Mich.

I watched on TV several parents of the victims of the shooting urge the judge to impose a maximum sentence allowed for the crime charged.

“These convictions were not about poor parenting,” said Judge Cheryl Matthews. “These convictions convey repeated acts or lack of acts that could have halted an oncoming runaway train.”

Parents of Michigan School Shooter Ethan Crumbley Sentenced to 10-15 Years in Prison (msn.com)

I get what the judge is saying. The Crumbleys no doubt love their son, but their inattention to what they might have seen in him contributed to the horrific crime that took the lives of four young people and inflicted permanent damage on the hearts of their loved ones.

The sentence is an appropriate punishment.

crime news

DOJ report: Police failed miserably in Uvalde

Words fail me at this moment as I ponder the release of a nearly 600-page report chronicling the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told the world Thursday of a systematic failure — from top to bottom — of the police response to the massacre of 19 children and two educators.

For 77 interminable minutes the cops did nothing while an 18-year-old lunatic was holed up in the school … and murdering children and the teachers who sought to protect them.

State troopers were present, along with Uvalde municipal cops, officers of the Uvalde school district, sheriff’s deputies. They were leaderless. They received no instruction to storm the school and take the shooter out.

The officers sat on their hands and allowed the carnage to continue.

I have no words of wisdom to offer. I cannot think of a way to prevent this sort of tragedy from recurring.

All I know is that the men and women who suit up as “leaders” failed to perform the essential tenet of leadership. They failed to issue orders to storm the school and do whatever it took to “neutralize” the moron who had purchased legally an AR-15 rifle and then used it to take the lives of innocent and precious children.

AG Garland took specific note that the AR-15 is intended for “the battlefield.” Its purpose is to kill people as quickly as people. It does not belong in the possession of individuals — such as the Uvalde madman — who then can rein havoc and mayhem on defenseless children.

How do we stop this madness? I have no clue on how one can do so while navigating the rough political water that so far has prevented any meaningful laws to curb such senseless violence.

Were I the King of the World, I might ponder whether there’s a way to amend the Second Amendment, the one that gun-rights advocates use as their political shield against solutions to the gun violence plague.

But I’m not. I am left only to gasp in horror at the findings of the Department of Justice and share the attorney general’s grief over the senselessness of the slaughter that no doubt will continue.

 

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Another tragedy unfolds

You won’t read “thoughts and prayers” for the loved ones of the latest mass shooting coming from this blogger.

Indeed, the expression almost has become as much a cliche as “sorry for your loss ” and “at the end of the day.”

No, instead I am going to offer my expression of utter disgust that even after the moron opened fire in Lewiston, Maine — killing at least 20 people — we likely still won’t get any legislation that seeks to end this kind of senseless slaughter.

Barack Obama once declared that “the worst day of my presidency” was when he learned of the mass killings of those second-graders and their teachers in Newtown, Conn. He pushed Congress to act, imploring them to act in the cause of preventing other such massacres.

It didn’t work. Congress did nothing but offer “thoughts and prayers.” Uvalde came along and there have been many others since the Sandy Hook tragedy of 2012.

Now this.

We are represented in Congress by cowards.

education news

A sign of the times … eek!

If ever there was a sign that exemplified the era in which we live, it well might be this one, a picture of which I snapped at Lovelady High School in Princeton, Texas.

I am 73 years of age and the message on this sign — about armed security personnel using “whatever force necessary” to protect teachers, students and staff at Princeton Independent School District — is one I never envisioned seeing when I was coming of age.

Or, for that matter, when my sons were coming of age in Beaumont, Texas.

The spasm of gun violence in schools has prompted Princeton ISD to hire armed guards at all its campuses. The security personnel all are firearms-trained; some are retired police officers. Farmersville ISD, just seven miles east of Princeton, has a full-time police force with Texas-certified police officers on duty on its campuses.

This is what we have come to in this country. We must warn visitors to our schools that armed guards are on duty and will do whatever it takes to protect human life against loons with guns.

Amazing … simply amazing.

You want a sign of these troubled times? There it is, folks.

crime news, local news

This cop is a true hero

The Allen Police Department has released a body-cam video of the tragedy that stunned the nation at the Allen Premium Outlet Mall a few weeks ago.

I watched it last night at the start of the 10 p.m. newscast and was, to put it bluntly, blown away by the heroism that unfolded in the span of about five minutes.

The officer is heard talking to a young woman and her daughter when shots rang out. He instructed them to seek shelter. Then he took off running … toward the gunshots.

He shouted at bystanders to “get out of there!” and kept running. You can hear the sound of gunfire on the video. Then the officer saw the lunatic and fired his weapon, killing him instantly.

He told police headquarters that he believed the shooter was down — and was dead — adding that he didn’t “hear any more gunfire.”

I watched the video and then tried to catch my breath. This is what effective police work looks like.

Of course, the officer couldn’t get to the shooter in time to stop the carnage that took eight lives that day. A Collin County grand jury cleared the officer of any wrongdoing; the grand jury heard the case as a standard practice.

The Allen PD officer doesn’t want his name released. He chooses to keep his ID a secret and no one on Earth could possibly dispute his decision.

I just want to take this opportunity to thank him publicly for demonstrating absolute and unqualified heroism.

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crime news

Shut up … Elon!

Elon Musk needs to stick to making lots of money, manufacturing cars, shooting rockets into space and whatever else he’s “expert” at doing.

For the zillionaire to suggest that allegations that the Allen Premium Outlet Mall shooter was not motivated by white supremacist attitudes means he is getting way ahead of himself and the investigation.

Musk refers to a website that “no one follows” that is being offered as evidence of these views. He calls it “bullsh**.”

I must mention the Nazi tattoos they found on the moron’s body after the Allen police officer shot him to death. I agree that the probe is ongoing. To say it’s all BS, though, is to draw conclusions that no one is able yet to draw.

I would bet real American money that when all is done the authorities are going to find nefarious motives — such as white supremacy — as lurking behind the madman’s motives.

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local news

Quick solution? By all means!

“People want a quick solution. The long-term solution here is to address the mental health issue.”

So said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott when a Fox Propaganda Network interviewer asked him about public opinion surveys indicating widespread support for legislative action in the wake of the Allen mall massacre that killed eight victims.

Yes, we want a “quick solution.” We are entitled to demand quick action. As for the mental health matter, which Abbott favors, we can work on that too.

So, here’s an idea: How about instituting a ban on AR-15 rifle purchases while working forthrightly on the mental health issues that drive madmen such as the Allen mall lunatic to kill innocent victims?

There must be a “quick solution” provided by government. Will it prevent all future acts of insanity from occurring? Probably not, but the public is demanding our government to take decisive action.

This is what we elect our leaders to do!

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