ONGOING ESSEX COVERAGE: TEACHER SHOT AT ESSEX ELEMENTARY

[Mr_Spock]

Published: Thursday, August 24, 2006
Free Press Staff Report


Police converged on Essex Elementary School Thursday afternoon shortly after 2 p.m. after one or more gunmen shot into the school, wounding a teacher.

According to a police scanner, police had "made contact with the bad guy and he is in the school." The scanner also reported a second suspect had fled the scene and had driven north on Vermont 128.

Police surrounded the school and a tactical unit was said to be negotiating with the suspect inside the school, according to the police scanner.

According to scanner reports, police received a call from a person inside classroom B-8, who said that there is one person in the classroom next door who has been shot in the back. Traffic was closed off by police between Bixby Hill Road and Vermont 128 and a police cruiser was used to transport the injured teacher from the school to a waiting ambulance. About 30 employees were at the school at the time of the shooting.

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http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060824/NEWS01/60824039/1009

[Green Mountain Dem]

1. Two Dead and 4 wounded.....

shooter has been apprehended and was the only shooter. He appears to have suffered a self inflicted gunshot wound. I just returned from the scene as I live only a mile away. Sad sad way to start the school year here in peaceful Vermont.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. I'm so sorry...

Living just outside of Washington, DC, we become desensitized to shootings, unless they occur in a school. In fact, many shootings never even make the newspapers.

This must be a terrible shock to your community... :hug:

[iverglas]

2. "school, other shootings"

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/08/24/school.shooting/

Two people died and at least two others were injured in shootings Thursday at three locations in Essex, Vermont, including an elementary school, police said.

... The shooter first killed someone at a home before going to Essex Elementary School, where he fatally shot another, the chief said, according to the AP. The shooter then went to a second home where he wounded a person and turned the gun on himself, Demag told the AP.

The incident began with a domestic dispute, police said.

That's how the incident that ended in two dead Mounties in Saskachewan last month started, too.

Assholes with guns. Leave the guns out of the equation and they'd still be assholes, but there'd be a few more people still breathing.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Yep but the gun nuts won that battle

unfortunately.

[Anakin Skywalker]

4. Maybe It's a Freeper

pissed off at the recent flag-burning by a teacher and decided to take it out on this poor school.

[Tesha]

15. It was a spurned boyfriend trying to reclaim his "property"/take revenge.

But she wasn't there so he shot and killed her mother instead.

Tesha

[iverglas]

5. misogyny is older than the Republican Party

http://www.alaskareport.com/wn10061.htm

Man fatally shoots ex, her mom in Essex, Vermont

A man shot and killed his ex-girlfriend and his ex-girlfriend's mother at separate locations during a Thursday shooting spree that included a stop at an Essex, Vermont, elementary school, police said.

The rampage in the rural Vermont town came to an end when the gunman turned the weapon on himself, police said.

In all, four people were wounded, including the shooter, according to police. The gunman was being treated for a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

... The shooter first shot his ex-girlfriend's mother at one location, then went to the school, where he shot his former girlfriend, the chief said. At a third location, he wounded one person before turning the gun on himself, said Demag.

Women ... and their families ... are at greatest risk of homicide at the hands of their intimate partners when they try to leave them. (Well, except for when they're pregnant.)

Access to firearms facilitates the carrying out of these murderous projects.

[hedgehog]

6. I think you'd find that women are especially at risk when pregnant.

As I recall, murder is the leading cause of death for pregnant women in this country.

[iverglas]

7. sorry, I was unclear!

I was saying "at greatest risk" except for when they're pregnant -- when they're at even greater risk, indeed.

Actually, I think we might both be wrong on that, though.

"Murder is the leading cause of death for pregnant women in this country", true, but women are at statistically greatest risk of murder when they try to leave:

- pregnant women are more likely to die of murder than of anything else.

- women who are murdered are more likely to have been leaving their partner than to have been in any other situation.

It's like, for people in general:

- multiple cat owners are more likely to trip on a cat than on anything else.

- people who trip are more likely to have been walking on a sidewalk than anywhere else.

[redqueen]

14. Is that statistic just for the US, or is it global?

Just curious...

[iverglas]

16. ya got me

I'm pretty sure that it's the case in Canada, since that's where I am and that's where I hear it talked about ... and that's where a client of mine was killed a few years ago by the husband her sister was trying to leave.

(edited to note: the deaths of people like my client and the mother in the incident under discussion here of course don't show up in the statistics for intimate-partner homicide, but they're actually part of the same phenomenon)

I'd bet it's pretty universal.

Yeah, here's the Cdn story:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060601/abused_women_shelters_060601/20060601?hub=Canada

Women fleeing abuse are at high risk for murder

Updated Thu. Jun. 1 2006 11:32 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

More than three-quarters of women coming to shelters to flee abuse are at risk of being murdered, according to a new study by YWCA Canada.

... "We knew that shelters save lives. We had no idea that women were at such high risk, though," said research professor Leslie Tutty from the University of Calgary.

The study, "Effective Practices in Sheltering Women Leaving Violence in Intimate Relationships - Phase II," is based on surveys by residents, and interviews as they entered and exited the shelters.

In Canada:

In 2003, 64 women were murdered by their male partner, according to Statistics Canada.

Between 1994 and 2003, 630 women were murdered by a spouse. Cause of death included shooting stabbing, strangulation and beating, said StatsCan.

The 64 in 2003 is out of a total of 548 homicides. When you stop and think, that's pretty appalling: nearly 1 out of 8 homicides were women killed by intimate partners.

http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/040728/d040728a.htm

[iverglas]

17. sorry, I got sidetracked

That CTV piece wasn't actually about the risks of attempting to leave abusive relationships ... but here's some US stuff:

http://www.endabuse.org/programs/display.php3?DocID=242

A batterer's unemployment, access to guns and threats of deadly violence are the strongest predictors of female homicide in abusive relationships, according to a study in this month's issue of the American Journal of Public Health (July 2003, Vol. 93, No. 7). Risk Factors for Femicide in Abusive Relationships: Results From a Multisite Case Control Study finds that a combination of factors, rather than one single factor, increases the likelihood of intimate partner homicide involving an abusive man who kills his female partner.

... Risk Factors for Femicide also explores relationship variables that can increase a woman's risk of becoming a victim of intimate partner homicide. Never having lived with an abusive partner "significantly lowered" a woman's risk of becoming a homicide victim, according to the report. Separating from an abusive partner after having lived with him, leaving the home she shares with an abusive partner or asking her abusive partner to leave the home they share were all factors that put a woman at "higher risk" of becoming a victim of homicide. Having a child in living in the home who was not the abusive partner's biological child also contributed to intimate partner homicide – more than doubling the risk, according the Risk Factors for Femicide.

An abuser's behavior also is a factor is predicting homicide. The risk of homicide "was increased nine-fold by the combination of a highly controlling abuser and the couple's separation after living together," finds Risk Factors for Femicide. An abuser's threats with a weapon or threats to kill his victim also "were associated with substantially higher risks" for her murder. But stalking and threats to harm children or other family members were not "independently associated with" homicide. The study also found that an abuser's previous arrest for domestic violence "actually decreased the risk for femicide." Risk Factors for Femicide concludes that, under certain conditions, "arrest can indeed be protective against domestic violence escalating to lethality."

[Peace Patriot]

8. How about we have a "war on terror" at home?

Guns in the hands of angry/unhinged American males are a far greater threat to the American people than all the jihadists put together.

And when you extrapolate upward to nukes and bunker-busters in the hands of angry/unhinged/GREEDY American male corporatists, the reality of our oppression comes into even better focus.

Islamic terrorists really only merit a relatively small part of our police/intel budgets--and NONE of our military budget (military action is completely counter-productive in fighting terrorist cells of any kind). Civil disorder--of the kind that occurred in Vermont--domestic murder, other kinds of murders, rape, beatings, armed robbery, etc.--take a far greater toll than terrorist cells have ever done, and merit the bulk of our attention and our security budgets. Lawlessness by our government, and by their puppetmasters, our Corporate Rulers--in perpetrating unjust war, in polluting and raping the earth, in looting our federal treasury, and in destroying our economy, worker protections, and all social programs--takes an even greater--indeed, an awesome--toll in civil injustice. But this bit of common sense--what the threats to civil order REALLY are--doesn't suit the arms dealers, and war and oil profiteers, who are running things.

STOP the weapons bizarre--at home and abroad! DISARM the fascists, and let's see what stupid cowards they really are! No guns, no nukes--make 'em compete with their wits on a fair playing field! The talented will rise; the brutes will fail--and the wisdom of humanity's democratic experiment will prevail. Democracy (in which all the votes are counted in public view) = peace, prosperity and human progress. Fascism (in which the votes are "counted" by private corporations using TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, and in which the greedy and the crazy use guns, bombs and nukes to get their way) = Armageddon. Take your pick!

[T_i_B]

9. Essex England reporting for duty!

Nowt to do with me! I'm just minding my own business in Colchester.

[iverglas]

10. howdy from a descendant of Romford and West Ham émigrés ...

That was my first thought too. ;)

[iverglas]

12. details

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/25/school.shooting.ap/

The shootings began around 2 p.m., when Williams showed up at the home he shared with ex-girlfriend Andrea Lambesis and her mother, Linda Lambesis, 57, according to Police Chief David Demag.

Williams shot the elder woman to death, then went to Essex Elementary School in search of her daughter, Demag said. ... He opened fire on two other people instead, fatally shooting teacher Mary Shanks, 56, and wounding employee Mary Snedeker, 52, Demag said.

... Jillian Schultz, 22, a resident of the condominiums, said a sweaty and disheveled Williams called out "Where's Chad? Where's Chad?" as he ran by her. Schultz was in the yard playing with her 13-month-old son and Johansen's 2-year-old son at the time.

Moments later, she heard four gunshots and saw bullets rip through bushes 10 feet away.

Fortunately, far enough away that there aren't also a dead 2-yr-old, a dead 13-mo-old and/or a dead 22-yr-old.

I'm waiting for someone to tell us how if any of those people had just had a gun stashed about her person, she could have defended herself ...

[RedSock]

13. Yikes!

I grew up in Essex Junction! Wow.