Category Archives: Gun-violence

The Gun Report: January 10, 2014 – NYTimes.com

Errick Lamar Pratt, 23, was killed in an accidental shooting in a farmhouse in Brandywine, Md., early Thursday. A group of five people was playing with the gun when it discharged, and a bullet hit the victim in the head. No charges have been filed at this time.

via The Gun Report: January 10, 2014 – NYTimes.com.

Weekend Gun Report: January 3-5, 2013 – NYTimes.com

A 12-year-old boy was shot in the arm and stomach by his 22-year-old cousin as the two played with a semi-automatic pistol in Taylor, Tex., late Thursday. A 14-year-old girl accidentally shot herself in the leg at a gun range in Merritt Island, Fla., Thursday afternoon. A 15-year-old boy was shot in the head when his hunting partner’s rifle accidentally fired in Chickasaw County, Miss., Thursday afternoon.

via Weekend Gun Report: January 3-5, 2013 – NYTimes.com.

The Gun Report: January 2, 2014 – NYTimes.com

A 6-year-old girl was shot by a 12-year-old relative at a home in Springfield, Mo., Wednesday night. Deputies said they don’t know what the 12-year-old was doing with a shotgun.

—OzarksFirst.com

A 6-year-old was struck in the foot by a stray bullet in Newport News, Va., early Wednesday. “Stray bullets are nothing new,” a neighbor said. “They had a war going on out here in broad daylight.” The shooting is under investigation.

via The Gun Report: January 2, 2014 – NYTimes.com.

The Gun Report: January 2, 2014 – NYTimes.com

A 2-year-old boy was shot and wounded by his father in Camden, N.J., Tuesday night. Sergio Rivera, 38, told police he accidentally shot his son while inside a vehicle. The boy’s mother and grandmother were also in the car. A 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun was recovered from the scene, along with several Percocet pills. Police said Rivera was uncooperative with detectives.

via The Gun Report: January 2, 2014 – NYTimes.com.

Deadly car bomb strikes southern suburb of Lebanon’s capital – France – France 24

 

The Lebanese capital has been hit by a series of bombs in recent months, including one last week that killed a former minister and political adversary of Hezbollah.

In November, another 25 people were killed by suicide bombers at the Iranian embassy in southern Beirut, and explosions have also hit other nearby Hezbollah districts and Sunni mosques in the northern city of Tripoli.

Sectarian tensions in Lebanon have mounted in recent months due to the conflict in neighbouring Syria. Hezbollah has sent fighters to Syria to join the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, who is from the Alawite sect of Shiite Islam, while Sunni Muslims from Lebanon have gone to Syria to fight alongside the rebels trying to topple him.

via Deadly car bomb strikes southern suburb of Lebanon’s capital – France – France 24.

The Gun Report: December 18, 2013 – NYTimes.com

Clockwise from left: Damien Fields, Janee Hadan, Alisha Waters, ”Tonika.”

* Damien Fields, 39, who was shot six times in the chest and killed on a Jersey City, N.J., street Friday evening, was remembered by his sister-in-law as the family’s peacemaker. Which was quite a feat, as he was one of 18 children.

“He’s a calm person,” Melissa Goodwin said, still speaking of him in the present tense. “You could go to him for anything.”

Fields was sitting on the steps of a three-story home when a man opened fire with a handgun. Goodwin said Fields would not have been killed if he’d had a job, and linked his death to the area’s poverty. “Everybody out here complains about how we live our life, but by the same token, they never came to us and said ‘How may I help you with your life?’” she said. “They don’t know what people in the ghetto go through.”

* Janee Hadan, 24, a preschool teacher, was shot and killed outside a nightclub in Omaha, Neb., early Sunday. She had gone to the Passion Lounge with two girlfriends for a rare night out. Hadan was walking ahead of her friends when someone in a car started shooting, and she was struck while trying to run away. She leaves behind a 3-year-old son.

“Janee just walking into a room made you feel good,” said Jane Happe, executive director of the Educare Center of Omaha. “She had an infectious smile, and she was really committed to her kids.” A candlelight vigil was held at Educare on Monday night. Attendees were encouraged to donate school supplies.

* A woman shot twice in the back in a road rage incident on the Florida Turnpike in Fort Lauderdale last month is afraid to drive because her attacker is still out there. One of the bullets exited through her arm and another through her stomach. “It was just so random,” said the woman, who would only identify herself as Tonika. “I don’t know who it is, what the purpose was.”

Tonika was headed to a party when someone in a black car entered a toll plaza behind her and opened fire. She thinks it was because she was going slowly through the plaza so she wouldn’t lose her friend in a nearby lane, who was following her to the party.

“It’s a shame that you’re just driving down an interstate—even if you have some sort of a traffic altercation—and people resort to gunfire to solve problems,” Sergeant Mark Wysocky said.

* Alisha Waters was shot five times by her estranged husband, who then killed himself, in Florence, Ky., on Aug. 6. One of the bullets severed her spinal cord, rendering her a quadriplegic. Alisha had just arrived at work when her estranged husband, Dennis Mathis, came out of hiding with a gun in his hand.

He had called Waters repeatedly and texted her 186 times in two weeks, prompting her to file an emergency protection order. But a judge refused because cyberstalking is not grounds for a domestic violence order in Kentucky. If the order had been granted, Dennis Mathis would have been prevented from buying a gun.

Alisha and her parents are hoping to create the Alisha Waters Law, which would change domestic violence laws to include cyberstalking. “God gave me a reason to stay,” Waters said, “and I’m going to prove to others that I will start my life over.”

Here is today’s report.

—Jennifer Mascia

via The Gun Report: December 18, 2013 – NYTimes.com.

9-Year-Old Boy Shot On Way Home From School: Gothamist

A 9-year-old boy took a bullet to the foot while walking home from school with his cousins in the Bronx yesterday. One of his cousins tells NBC New York, \”I came out the store, I had my back turned. By the time I turned around, there was two shots and my cousin was on the floor. He said \”I\’m shot, I\’m shot.\’\” Witnesses say they heard at least five shots, and the unidentified boy was caught in the crossfire.

via 9-Year-Old Boy Shot On Way Home From School: Gothamist.