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View Full Version : [NEWS] Gunman Kills 8, Injures 3 at N.C. Nursing Home



Eric
30 March 2009, 02:34
A brief editorial. Could you imagine visiting a family member or friend in a nursing home and having this type of carnage unfolding in front of you, then realizing even thought you're legally entitled to carry a weapon, you failed to do so? I'm embarrassed to admit how many of my LE brothers and sisters only carry while on-duty.

Are you prepared?

Fox News Link (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511330,00.html)


CARTHAGE, North Carolina — A gunman barged into a North Carolina nursing home Sunday morning and started "shooting everything," going room to room in a terrifying rampage that killed seven residents — most in their late 80s — and a nurse who cared for them.

Authorities said Robert Stewart also wounded three others, including the Carthage police officer who confronted him in a hallway of Pinelake Health and Rehab and stopped the brutal attack. Officials said the massacre could have been bloodier if the officer had not managed to subdue Stewart.

"He acted in nothing short of a heroic way today, and but for his actions, we certainly could have had a worse tragedy," said Moore County District Attorney Maureen Krueger. "We had an officer, a well-trained officer, who performed his job the way he was supposed to and prevented this from getting even worse than it is now."

By late Sunday afternoon, Krueger had charged Stewart, 45, of Moore County, with eight counts of first-degree murder and a single charge of felony assault of a law enforcement officer. Authorities offered few other details, allowing only that Stewart was not a patient or an employee at the nursing home and isn't believed to be related to any of the victims.

Authorities said they would release more information at a news conference Monday morning.

"I don't know if the emotion entirely has set in," said Police Chief Chris McKenzie, a Carthage native who said nothing in his nearly 20-year law enforcement career compared to Sunday's slaughter. "It's a small community built on faith, and faith will get us through."

While authorities declined to comment on a possible motive, Stewart's ex-wife said he had been reaching out recently to family members, telling them he had cancer and was preparing for a long trip and to "go away." Sue Griffin said she was married to Stewart for 15 years, and while they hadn't spoken since divorcing in 2001, he had been trying to call her during the past week through her son, mother, sister and grandmother.

Griffin said Stewart had once been a painter. She said she had no idea whether her ex-husband was somehow connected to the nursing home or why he would shoot people there.

"He did have some violent tendencies from time to time," Griffin said. "I wouldn't put it past him. I hate to say it, but it is true."

Authorities said Stewart began his rampage around 10 a.m. local time at Pinelake Health and Rehab in the North Carolina Sandhills about 60 miles (96 kilometers) southwest of Raleigh, firing shots inside and outside the home. It ended when 25-year-old Officer Justin Garner traded gunfire with Stewart in a hallway, wounding the suspect.

"He just comes in and just starts shooting everything around," said Sen. Harris Blake, of Moore County, relating the story told by sheriff's officials.

Garner was wounded in his leg, and police said Stewart wounded two others. One person remained hospitalized Sunday night at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in nearby Pinehurst, and police would only say Stewart was in the custody of the Moore County Sheriff.

Krueger said the victims were Pinelake residents Tessie Garner, 88; Lillian Dunn, 89; Jessie Musser, 88; Bessie Hendrick, 78; John Goldston, 78; Margaret Johnson, 89; Louise Decker, 98; and nurse Jerry Avent, whose age wasn't immediately available.

The facility was closed after the attack as authorities worked to gather evidence inside and out. Krueger declined to say if authorities had moved the surviving residents, including patients with Alzheimer's disease, saying only, "They're safe, which is the primary thing."

Beverly McNeill said her mother, Pinelake resident Ellery Chisholm, called moments after the gunman stormed into her room and pointed his "deer gun" at her roommate. "They're up here shooting, they're up here shooting," she frantically told her 14-year-old granddaughter, Tavia, over the phone.

Chisholm told her daughter she hid her face in her shirt so she couldn't see the man or what she expected him to do, McNeill said. He didn't shoot, but left the room and began shooting down the hallway.

Friends and family of Pinelake residents and employees started to gather not long after the shooting at the First Baptist Church of Carthage. They were frustrated by the lack of immediate news about who had died, said Lea Chandler, a volunteer with the Moore County chapter of the American Red Cross.

Chandler said she saw two women and their husbands get the news that their mother had been killed.

"They were just crying out, 'Why mama?"' Chandler said. "To see people suffer is hard. To see people suffering, not knowing, trying to find information. It's a crime scene. They're not releasing things until people are notified, all next of kin. That's got to be hard. It really had to be hard."

Carthage police, Moore County sheriff's deputies and the State Bureau of Investigation conducted a search Sunday afternoon of the nursing home and its parking lot, where the windows of at least two cars were shattered and towed by authorities. Among the items they found was a camouflaged-colored rifle or shotgun, which was leaning against the side of a Jeep Cherokee.

Howard McMillian, of Lakeview, said he raced to the scene as soon as he heard about the shooting. His 56-year-old sister lives at the nursing home, and McMillian said his brother had gotten a call from officials saying she was unharmed.

"I know she's real nervous," McMillian said. "I just want to make sure she's OK."

Carthage is a small town of roughly 1,800 people in the North Carolina Sandhills, an area popular among retirees and home to several noted golf courses, including the famed Pinehurst resort and its No. 2 course that regularly hosts the U.S. Open.

Pinelake Health and Rehab was last inspected in May, and the review resulted in an overall five-star — or "much above average" — rating from federal Medicaid officials. A nursing home Web site said the facility opened in 1993 and has 110 beds, including 20 for those with Alzheimer's disease.

Sunday's rampage happened just weeks after a man killed 10 people, including his mother and several other relatives, in the worst mass shooting in Alabama's history on March 10. On March 11, a teen killed 12 people at his former high school in Germany.

zero7one
30 March 2009, 08:26
It makes me sick to think that some people actually have the mentality to target the weak and defenseless. If you want to go to war with someone, go to war with someone that can fight back, otherwise you are just a coward with a gun. This is a tragedy for all involved. How many of those nursing home residents were probably WWII or Korean War vets who survived some of the most horrible of times, only to be gunned down in the one place they should have felt safe.
Job well done by the Officer who was brave enough to face a gunman, most likely alone, and halt the slaughter of the innocent.

Incidents like this just reiterate why I take a gun just about everywhere I go off-duty.

bigcoastie
30 March 2009, 09:34
Another shooting out in the bay area today, things are getting shitty and people are loosing it, at least that's what it seems like.

(03-30) 07:10 PDT SANTA CLARA -- Six people, including three children, were shot and killed and a seventh victim is fighting for her life in what Santa Clara police are investigating as a murder-suicide, one of the deadliest such incidents in the Bay Area in recent memory.

The suspected gunman, a man, is believed to be among the dead inside a home on Headen Way in the city's upscale Rivermark community north of the Montague Expressway, said Santa Clara police Lt. Phil Cooke.

"We do believe this appears to be a family-on-family murder-suicide," Cooke said.

The identities of the victims weren't immediately released.

Police were called to the home at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday by a neighbor reporting that a woman was injured outside the home, Cooke said. Officers arrived and found five people dead inside the home, Cooke said. All had been shot.

Two of the dead were men, one of whom was believed to be the gunman, Cooke said. The other slain victims were children, including a boy, a girl and a young teenage girl or young adult woman, police said.

The woman found outside the home had also been shot, Cooke said. She was taken to a local hospital, where she was reported to be in critical condition.

An infant girl found injured at the home died early today, Cooke said.

Two handguns were found inside the residence, but police are awaiting the results of ballistics tests before determining whether one or both weapons were used, authorities said.

Police had no previous reports of problems at the home, Cooke said. Authorities would not disclose a motive or say whether any notes were found.

Santa Clara, a city of 108,000, is usually immune to the kind of gun violence that has plagued other communities.

But in November, an engineer who was fired from his job returned to the firm and shot and killed three colleagues at SiPort, a startup that makes wireless chips.

The latest tragedy has shaken the Silicon Valley city anew and is prompting city leaders to urge community members to look out for each other.

"Certainly it is a grievous tragedy, and the city's thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims," Santa Clara Mayor Patricia Mahan said today. "Words just can't describe the enormity of the tragedy."

She added, "When things get tough in life, in the world, it seems that these kinds of incidents erupt, and I would just urge all of our community to pay attention to your neighbors. So often the greatest regret is the feeling that this could have been prevented if somebody had seen something or someone could have intervened in some way."

adrenaline151
30 March 2009, 10:21
Like I've said before, none of these idiots try to stick up a police station. They are cowards, they take the path of least resistance to try to leave the most destruction behind. The best defense in these situations is the armed, trained civilian. If you think it won't, or can't happen where ever you are, you're only setting yourself up to be unprepared when it does. Thank God that there was an Officer, carrying, in that nursing home. God only knows how many lives that Officer saved.

Ryo
30 March 2009, 15:20
Unfortunately this is just fuel for the campaign to go the other way. I totally agree with the armed, trained citizen would help limit this type of destruction.

OfcPowder
30 March 2009, 19:59
Sometimes my family or friends ask why I carry everywhere I go. I carry EVERYWHERE - yes even church. You all have heard about the church shootings, so it only makes sense. Most of my family has come to accept it is just a fact of life, and I reassure them it is not only for my protection, but their protection as well should an incident arise. Even if I'm just traveling between my house and my parents house, what if something happens on the road where I would need that? It's all the what-ifs that make it impossible to leave my gun at home.

You know how the saying goes...Better to have it and not need it

Army Chief
30 March 2009, 22:10
These are often difficult topics to consider, but my perspective generally tracks along these lines: if, because of my previous training, experience or position I have a moral imperative to act in situations like these, isn't it somewhat irresponsible of me not to have the requisite tools on hand to intervene?

I'm not being sensationalist here at all, but I can't count the number of times that I've seen or read about something like this in the news, and known intuitively that in a similar situation I would feel compelled to engage. More to the point, I know that I couldn't live with myself afterward if I stood idly by -- or simply took cover -- while defenseless people were being targetted.

The lines may be blurred a bit when you are no longer a sworn peace officer, but the moral obligation seems pretty clear, and this is something I admittedly struggle with when considering when or where it may be most appropriate to carry. Trouble is, such preconceptions are often dead wrong, as by their very nature, such tragedies tend to happen when and where they are least expected.

AC

Stickman
30 March 2009, 22:21
AC,

I can sum it up with the saying of a Russian special unit.

"If not me, who?"



I believe the total and original quote came from Hillal (Hillel?), and was three part



If I am not for myself, who will be for me?

If I am only for myself, what am I?

And if not now, when?





Special thanks to John Giduk for both the quote, and for the perspective.

Army Chief
30 March 2009, 22:26
Starting my day with an infusion of Spetsnaz, I see. :)

AC

Stickman
30 March 2009, 22:38
Starting my day with an infusion of Spetsnaz, I see. :)

AC



Indeed.

Giduk had some interesting points in some of his talks, and one of them was asking when do you shoot through a child? His debrief regarding the Siege at NordOst, as well as Beslan are well worth attending.

The line is that there may be a day when we are called on to do terrible things in order to save others. There are guys that have it, and loads that don't.

I have a friend who I think of from time to time that spent a spell over in SWA border countries back in the 70s. I've got another friend who has been in much stranger places. In our talks, there is a lot of police work that transcends the LE/ MIL gap. I guess thats a sidetracked tangent.

Back on topic, how do you kill a child? It was done shooting through a terrorist in Beslan to prevent others from being killed. How many of us wake up with the same determination each and every day?

I admire the LEO who went into this scene by himself, I hope that all of our own demons are this simple, but my greatest fear is that when truly bad things start to happen on US soil, that too many of us won't be ready.

Ryo
30 March 2009, 23:12
I was surprise that the shooter got that many shot into him before he was able to return fire. Glad the LEO survive the fire fight and hope he recovers soon.

How evil can a person be to shoot defensive elderly.

Now as for carrying.. Going to have to find a good conceal holster, train to use it properly, get a smaller frame gun (which I have on order), and talk my wife in letting me carry it. She's not anti gun, but she doesn't like the idea of me carrying.

adrenaline151
1 April 2009, 11:39
I see carrying like knowing CPR. If you know how to do it, it's your responsiblity to do so. Key words being "know how".

wildcrafter
2 April 2009, 22:01
I would carry if it were legal here but where I live it probably never will be. There's no shortage of psychos here either.[crazy]

JustMatt
5 April 2009, 06:22
We had another shooting in St. Petersburg FL today. One child died, needlessly I might add. But it appears to be nothing more than a retaliation from some gangbangers. Still, more ammo for the left to hold against those who cherish there 2nd Amnd rights.

Venom
5 April 2009, 09:45
I would carry if it were legal here but where I live it probably never will be. There's no shortage of psychos here either.[crazy]

same here