(NBC) — Two days after a student opened fire in the cafeteria of a Washington state high school, shooting dead one student and seriously wounding four others before killing himself, the answer to the question that many are asking has remained elusive: Why did he do it?
Police have not released a motive in Friday’s shooting at Marysville Pilchuck High School, in which freshman Jaylen Ray Fryberg fired a .40-caliber handgun at a table full of students just after 10:30 a.m., shooting the five victims and causing other students to flee to safety and lock themselves in classrooms.
Here’s what we know about the rampage:
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(Fox News) — Terrified Black Friday shoppers fled a crowded Nordstrom in downtown Chicago after a shooting inside the store left a man dead and a woman critically wounded.
MyFoxChicago.com said the gunfire erupted Friday evening around 8:30 p.m. in the cosmetics department on the store’s second floor. Police said the man shot his girlfriend, or ex-girlfriend, and then fatally shot himself. The station said shoppers were so scared they ran out of the store, leaving their bags and coats behind.
(Washington Post) — A gunman in Austin opened fire Friday on “multiple downtown buildings” — including a federal courthouse, the Mexican consulate and Austin Police Department headquarters — before dying of a gunshot wound, according to officials in the Texas capital. Authorities initially said the man, identified as 49-year-old Larry McQuilliams, had been shot and killed by police, but said later that they were still investigating the possibility that he died of a self-inflicted wound.
Authorities are still investigating a possible motive. But Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters Friday that, based on his own experience and the suspect’s targets, “the national debate about immigration right now…certainly comes to mind.”
(Dallas Morning News) — AUSTIN — A gunman fired more than 100 rounds at downtown buildings in Austin and tried to set the Mexican Consulate ablaze early Friday before he died during a confrontation with police, authorities said.
Some of the targeted buildings are near the popular Sixth Street entertainment district, where bars close at 2 a.m., about the same time the shootings began. Thousands of people are typically on the street at that time, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said.
“Many, many rounds were fired in downtown Austin,” Acevedo said. “With all the people on the streets, we’re very fortunate. I give thanks that no one but the suspect is injured or deceased.”
Investigators identified the shooter as 49-year-old Larry McQuilliams of Austin. Police said he had a criminal record but didn’t release details, and said they were still trying to determine a motive.
Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department issued a statement expressing “profound concern and condemnation” of the attack, but also said “there is no evidence the shots were exclusively directed at our facility.”
Other targeted buildings included Austin police headquarters and the U.S. courthouse.
Acevedo said a sergeant, while holding the reins of two police horses after his patrol, shot the gunman just outside the main entrance to police headquarters. But Acevedo said it’s not clear if the shot was fatal or if McQuilliams took his own life.
His targets were located throughout downtown Austin and officers received multiple reports of gunfire, though the entire incident lasted about 10 minutes from the first call, Acevedo said.
Officers approached McQuilliams after he had been shot, but noticed cylinders in his vehicle, which was nearby. They also discovered he was wearing a vest they thought may have been rigged to explode. Officers retreated and a bomb squad was called, but it was later determined that the items were not explosive.
The shooter’s white van was still on the street outside police headquarters several hours after the shooting. Its doors, the trunk and hood were open as investigators looked it over.
The fire at the consulate was extinguished before any significant damage was done to the building. The federal courthouse’s guard house was shot several times, as was police headquarters, which Acevedo said was “extensively damaged.”
As a precaution, a police tactical team later went to the Austin apartment complex where they believed the gunman lived. Some homes close to his apartment were evacuated.
Officers at the scene were seen removing about a dozen small tanks of propane, the type used in camping and the type police said was used in the attempt to set fire to the Mexican Consulate.
Adam Peyton, who lives in the area, said he awoke Friday to see SWAT vehicles and police officers on motorcycles in the southwest Austin neighborhood near the city’s well-known Zilker Park. He said the area was “really laid back” and close-knit, where residents know each other and are often out walking their dogs.
(Huffington Post) — A man who had made previous threats against police set his house on fire Saturday and ambushed the first sheriff’s deputy who responded, fatally shooting the deputy and wounding another before he was killed by a police officer who lives nearby, a law enforcement official said.
The man’s name and address had been entered into a law enforcement computer system because of previous threats, but the 911 dispatcher who entered the fire call put in the address of a neighbor who reported the blaze, so the alert wasn’t activated and the Leon County deputy who responded first had no warning, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.
(CNN) — Gunshots rattled a peaceful, packed Florida State University library early Thursday, with three people getting hurt as hundreds of students huddled between bookshelves before police encountered and killed the gunman outside.
“There has been a shooting in the library, stay where you are,” said a man speaking over the loudspeaker, as captured in a cell phone video posted online. “We will be coming to each floor and clearing it, and taking care of anybody.”
(Washington Post) — In a scene of terror and tears, students at Florida State University library cowered behind stacks of books and dove under desks as an assailant — identified as a graduate of the school — opened fire with a handgun early Thursday before being killed in a shootout with police, officials said.
At least three students were wounded, one critically.
Tallahassee police identified the gunman as Myron May, an FSU graduate who later attended law school at Texas Tech University.
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*FSU ALERT!* Dangerous Situation! Main Campus – Tallahassee,” read a message about 12:30 a.m. posted by FSU’s emergency alert system. “Seek shelter immediately, away from doors and windows.”
Students huddled in the rows of books. Others barricaded themselves in rooms — some leaving their cell phone video running along the way to record the scene of the latest shooting at a U.S. university.
One wounded student was seen crying out — “I’ve been shot” — and clutching his leg as blood spread over his pants.
The gunman was killed by Tallahassee police after he opened fire on officers fr0m an access ramp outside the Strozier Library, filled with at least 300 students studying for end-of-semester exams.
“He was challenged by the officers and given commands to drop his weapon, but the male fired at the officers,” said a police statement. “The officers returned fire, killing the gunman.”
One of those wounded was grazed by a bullet and treated at the scene. The others were taken to Tallahassee Memorial HeathCare hospital. One was listed in critical condition and the other was stable, the AP reported.
By 4:15 a.m., the all clear message was issued for the school, where classes were canceled Thursday and police continued with interviews and investigations. The gunman was slumped face down. A gray baseball cap lay near his head.
Tallahassee’s police chief, Michael DeLeo, described it as an “isolated incident and one person acting alone.” But he offered no additional details of the gunman or possible motives during a predawn news conference…..
(CNN) — After Tuesday’s shooting at an Oregon high school, many media outlets, including CNN, reported that there have been 74 school shootings in the past 18 months.
That’s the time period since the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were shot to death.
The statistic came from a group called Everytown for Gun Safety, an umbrella group started by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a passionate and public advocate of gun control.
Without a doubt, that number is startling.
(Washington Post) — There have been at least 44 school shootings on K-12 or college campuses in 24 states — an average of more than three a month — since the deadly 2012 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., according to a new analysis. Twenty-eight people have died and 37 have been injured.
Twenty children and six adults working at Sandy Hook were killed in the December 2012 assault in Newtown, leading to renewed calls around the nation for Congress to take action to prevent more gun violence. Legislators did nothing.
(CNN) — In Alabama, a recently fired man walks into a UPS facility he’d worked at, shoots dead two people, then takes his own life.
In Oklahoma, another man — also just after being laid off — allegedly heads to his former food processing plant, beheads the first person he sees, then attacks another.
In Illinois, police say, a man walks into his air traffic control center in the early morning, starts a destructive fire, then slices his own throat.
In all three instances, all from this week, seemingly safe workplaces transformed instantly into danger zones.
Why? How might these or other cases of workplace violence have been prevented? And are these events signs of a larger, growing possibility of death in the average Americans place of employment — where many spend more waking hours, on a given week, than inside their own homes?
