Week of 2-27-2012: Arizona, Iraq, Illinois, Ohio
Thurs., 3-1-2012: PHOENIX
(Reuters) - One person has been wounded in a shooting at a high school in southeast Arizona, and a suspect is in
custody, police and sheriff's officials said on Thurs.
The Cochise County Sheriff's Department said the shooting occurred at a high
school in Willcox, about 195 miles southeast of Phoenix, at around 3:15 p.m.
"There was one injury, possibly a student, non-life threatening, and
possibly one in custody," sheriff's spokeswoman
Carol
Capas told Reuters.
The shooting came just three days after a suspected teenage gunman opened
fire in the cafeteria of an Ohio high school, fatally shooting three students
and wounding two others before a coach chased him from the scene.
In Willcox, an official at the police department said
Willcox High School remained on lock down, with police
officers on the scene.
Penny Bell said she was unable to confirm the age, gender or identities of
either the shooting victim or the person in custody. She said the person
detained was an adult.
(Reporting y Tim Gaynor; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
3-1-2012: CBS (AP) SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - The quarrel at a Christian school was at first
easily ignored by other students: a disagreement between a classmate and a
teacher that could barely be heard. But it quickly escalated into gunfire
Thursday in a murder-suicide marking the rare violent death of an American in
Iraq's most peaceful region.
Authorities in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah said 18-year-old Biyar Sarwar
shot his gym teacher, U.S. citizen Jeremiah Small, before turning the gun on
himself at a private English-speaking school during a morning sports lecture.
Sarwar died later at a nearby hospital.
Small, 33, was from Cosmopolis, a town in western Washington state near the
coast. His father, J. Dan Small, confirmed the death on his Facebook page. "Our
oldest, Jeremiah, was martyred in Kurdistan this a.m.," the elder Small
wrote.
Eyewitnesses in Iraq described a scene of chaos in the classroom, with some
students fainting in fear after gunfire shattered the morning class.
Ahmed Mohammed said he was sitting in the front of the classroom and paid
little attention to the argument when it first erupted. He said he could barely
hear what was happening because Sarwar was at the back of the room.
"Then I heard the gunshot," said Mohammed, his face pale as he recounted the
scene. "I turned my head and saw the body of the American teacher on the ground
with blood near it. All the students started to run out of the room. Seconds
later, as I was running to the reach the school gate, I heard another
gunshot."
A short time later, another student shouted that Sarwar had killed himself,
Mohammed said.
"So I rushed back to the class with other students to see the teacher on the
ground with three bullets in his head and chest, and bloody, and Biyar with a
bullet in his head."
Sulaimaniyah police spokesman Sarkawit Mohammed, no relation to Ahmed, said
the shooting appeared to be a murder-suicide, but provided no motive. He said
Sarwar hid the gun in his clothes before the lecture at the Medes School, a
private Christian academy of elementary through secondary grade level
classes.
The Medes program runs three schools in the provinces that make up Iraq's
northern Kurdish region, boasting an enrollment of about 2,000 students.
According to the schools' website, American staff often teach one or two courses
each semester. An estimated 95 percent of the students are from Kurdish Muslim
families.
Students described Small as a devout Christian who frequently praised
Christianity and prayed in the classroom. However, Sulaimaniyah Mayor Zana Hama
Saleh said Small was not a missionary and cast doubt that the killing was
motivated by sectarian issues because Sarwar "had no radical religious
tendencies."
"Maybe the student had mental problems," Saleh said.
The Nashville, Tenn.-based Servant Group International, for whom Small
worked, confirmed his identity and described him as a beloved mentor to the more
than 1,000 Iraqi students he taught since 2005.
Jeff Dokkestul, a Servant Group International board member, said Small was
one of nine American teachers at the Sulaimaniyah school, which he said is run
by Iraqi Kurds. Although Dokkestul said the groups' teachers are Christian, he
maintained that they do not proselytize their students.
"We believe this is an isolated incident, just like (what) happens in the
U.S.," Dokkestul said in an interview. He said the school operates "as a
Christian school serving the Muslim and Christian community, a mixed
community."
Sulaimaniyah is located in Iraq's comparatively peaceful Kurdish region, 160
miles northeast of Baghdad. The Kurdish region has generally been free of the
bombings and shootings that have plagued the rest of Iraq in recent years.
Foreigners, including American citizens, usually travel freely around northern
Iraq without the armed guards or armored vehicles often used in the rest of the
country.
A team from the U.S. consulate in Irbil, the Kurdish region's capital, was in
Sulaimaniyah to identify Small's body but was unable by Thursday night to do
so.
"We have heard reports regarding the shooting of a teacher in Sulaimaniyah
and are working through our consulate in Irbil and Iraqi authorities to
ascertain the details of the incident," the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said in a
statement. "At this time, we are waiting for identification to be completed and
for the family to be notified."
Medes student Neyan Kamal said Small was highly respected, and described
Sarwar as smart.
"I'll never forget these cruel moments," said Kamal, who was in the classroom
during the shooting. "I have no idea what the motive was — both were good
people."
Thurs., 3-1-2012 CHICAGO -- At least
one student has died and another is hospitalized in critical condition
following a stabbing at a school on Chicago's South Side.
The
Chicago Tribune reports that
the stabbing occurred about 7:30 a.m. in the 10200 block of
South Crandon Avenue at AMIKids Infinity Chicago, an alternative school.
The alleged killer, a 16-year-old who was a student at the
school, has been taken into police custody, the
Chicago Sun-Times
reports. Both victims were reportedly male students.
A 17-year-old who was reportedly trying to break up a fight between the teen
in custody and the deceased 16-year-old was hospitalized in critical condition,
the
Sun-Times reports.
A spokeswoman for AMIKids Infinity Chicago told the
Tribune that
the school provides services for kids that have been expelled or suspended from
Chicago Public Schools.
"They generally have severe emotional or learning disabilities and
can’t perform in the public schools system," she told the paper.
"They either stay for a period of time before returning to cps or finish
their schooling with AMI.”
A school worker told NBC Chicago that
two of the students involved "got into an
altercation" before entering the building, and the incident apparently
escalated when they got inside.
Mon., 2-27-2012: Ohio school shooting survivor
Nick Walczak is partially paralyzed with bullets
lodged in his cheek and neck, but that doctors are "cautiously
optimistic" that he will walk again, the teen's mother said today.
Walczak, 17, was one of five high school
students shot in a rampage at
Chardon High School
on Monday by accused shooter
T.J. Lane. Three
students--Demetrius Hewlin,
Russell King Jr. and
Daniel Parmertor--died from their wounds.
Another wounded student, Joy Rickers, has been released from the hospital.
Walczak remains hospitalized.
Walczak's mother
Holly Walczak told a news
conference that she believes her son was shot four times: twice in the neck,
through the arm and in the back.
Walczak's brother previously told ABC News that his brother had no feeling
below his chest.
"He has a bullet still in his cheek and his neck," Holly Walczak
said. "He's just getting feeling back in his legs. It's going to be a
really slow process, they said. He's going to need spine therapy. The surgeon
said they're cautiously optimistic."
Nick Walczak's went into spinal shock after the shooting, but doctor's hope
he will be able to walk again.
"He's strong, he's brave and his age really makes a big difference. I
know he can do it," his mother said.
She said his son has been conscious throughout the ordeal and knows that his
friends have died.
"We really try not to talk about it at this point. It's a little too
traumatic for him," she said. "It's kind of a blur, at this
point."
Holly Walczak spoke at a news conference along with the families of Hewlin
and Parmertor and mentioned the guilt she feels since her son survived the
attack.
"The families that have had the losses...it's a guilty [feeling] for me
because they lost and my son was saved. I think that's the hardest part for me.
I feel for them every minute, every hour," she said.
The mom credits teacher Joseph Ricci for saving her son's life by dragging
him into another room after he was shot and caring for him until paramedics
arrived.
"He is the person that saved my son's life. He pulled him from the
hallway into a room. He is forever our hero," Walczak said. "He's
remarkable. I can't believe it. Nick would be the fourth victim,
otherwise."
Speaking of her son's slain friends, Walczak said, "Danny, Russell and
Demetrius--they're awesome young men and their lives were ended early, but it's
not in vain. They left a mark on all of our lives and I just keep praying for
them and for Nick."
Nick Walczak's brother
Josh Walczak, 20, said
that when he heard about the shooting and that his brother had been involved,
he didn't know what to think.
"I saw him in the hospital and it was the worst day of my life,"
Josh Walczak said.
"He's my best friend. The kid is full of spirit. He's always in a good
mood," he said of his brother. "Our relationship is going to get a
million times stronger after this. I'll definitely be with him every step of
the way from here on out."
Victim
Demetrius Hewlin's mother
Phyllis Ferguson also spoke and gave an update on her
son.
"They took him this morning five minutes to eight to take his organs,
so I'm having a hard time," Ferguson said as she choked back tears.
"This was the last time I got to see him before they do what they do to
him."
Ferguson said that one of the recipients of Hewlin's organs would be a child
who was in the pediatric unit and only had a few days to live without a
transplant. She was proud that her son would be able to save lives with his
own, as he had wanted.
Ferguson also specified that her 16-year-old son was shot in the head.
She told ABC News on Wednesday that she had forgiven suspected shooter T.J.
Lane.
"I would tell him I forgive him because, a lot of times, they don't
know what they're doing. That's all I'd say," Ferguson said.
"I taught Demetrius not to live in the past, to live in today and
forgiveness is divine. You have to forgive everything. God's grace is new each
and every day," she said. "Until you've walked in another person's
shoes, you don't know what made him come to this point."
Students and parents gathered in the center of Chardon today to march back
to the school together. The school was open today a walk through and parents
and students were encouraged to come together. On Friday, school will be back
in session.
