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Court Affidavit: Suspect in DC quadruple murder did not act alone

More than one person likely was involved in the slayings of four people who were held captive inside a Washington, D.C., mansion until $40,000 was delivered last week, authorities revealed Friday.

Daron Dylon Wint, a welder with a criminal record of assaults who once worked for the mansion’s owner, has been charged with murder. But authorities said they believe he did not act alone: A court document made public Friday said they believe the crimes “required the presence and assistance of more than one person.”

Savvas Savopoulos, 46; his wife Amy, 47, and their housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57, died from “blunt force and sharp force trauma.” The couple’s 10-year-old son, Philip, died of “thermal and sharp force injuries.” All four bodies were found by firefighters after a flammable liquid was spread around the home and set ablaze.

“The crimes described in this affidavit required the presence and assistance of more than one person,” said a court document made public Friday.

The document also confirms that thousands of dollars were delivered to the mansion before it was set on fire. Firefighters found all four bodies inside; three of them had been stabbed or bludgeoned.

The document says authorities believe “Wint and others” held the group captive until $40,000 was delivered to the home by an employee of Savopoulos. The family was then killed and the house set on fire, the document says.


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What We Know About the Shooting at Marysville Pilchuck High School in Washington

(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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Deadly Black Friday shooting at crowded Chicago Nordstrom

(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.

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Police: Slain Austin gunman fired more than 100 rounds at Mexican consulate, other buildings

(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.”

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Florida Man Sets House On Fire, Kills Responding Deputy In Ambush

(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.

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Gunman opens fire in Florida State University library; 3 wounded

(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.”

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A closer look: How many Newtown-like school shootings since Sandy Hook?

(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.

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At least 44 school shootings since Newtown — new analysis

(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.

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Workplace violence: Know the numbers, risk factors and possible warning signs

(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?

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