Sunday, November 20, 2005

Home-front News, and a neaner,neaner for Potter

Hey everyone saw another article you all might be interested in there was a shooting in a mall near Ft. Lewis the Article is as follows (as reported by the Associated Press, Rachel La Corte):

TACOMA, Wash. - A gunman opened fire inside a busy shopping mall Sunday, wounding at least six people and taking three others hostage in a music store before he surrendered to a SWAT team, authorities said. Witnesses described seeing a clean-cut man walking backward through the mall, firing a rifle. At least six people were injured, one critically, as shoppers and store clerks scrambled for cover.
Dominick Maldonado, 20, of Tacoma was booked into the Pierce County Jail on six counts of assault and three counts of kidnapping, according to jail records reported by The Seattle Times and the Tacoma News Tribune. He was being held on $450,000 bail.
Court records show he has an extensive juvenile criminal history dating back to 1998. He has been convicted of burglary, theft and possession of burglary tools and he had been ordered not to possess any weapons, the Times reported.
The suspect came out of the Sam Goody music store without a gun and surrendered to the SWAT team, Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum said. He said police were interviewing the victims and the three hostages two men and a woman to determine what happened during the nearly four hours he was inside.
While the suspect was in the music store, employee Joe Hudson was able to pick up a phone call from The Associated Press and say he and others had been taken hostage. He said little more but could be heard telling others that he was talking to the AP.
Susan Serveau said she also called her daughter, Kathy Riggans, 24, a manager at Sam Goody, as soon as she heard about the shooting.
"She was upset and scared. She was crying," Serveau said, standing in a parking lot near the mall. "All she would say was that she was OK."
Authorities said they began getting calls about 12:15 p.m. that shots had been fired inside the Tacoma Mall. The first caller said a gunman "was in the mall, walking along, firing," Fulghum said.
State Patrol and police units from nearby agencies clustered around an entrance at the south end.
Inside, Stacy Wilson, 29, of Bonney Lake, heard a popping noise and turned around.
"I saw the gunman randomly shooting. I ran with a group of women to Victoria's Secret," Wilson said. She said they crouched behind a wall in the store, and when the shooting stopped, an employee ran out and closed a security gate at the front.
Wilson said she heard 15 to 20 shots.
"He was walking backward and shooting. I couldn't see his face," she said. "Everyone was running and screaming."
A man told KING-TV the gunman was smiling as he fired an assault rifle in bursts of four to five shots.
The man said he told his daughter and grandson to run and then hid in the back of a store with his wife and granddaughter. He says they helped a woman who was shot in the leg, bandaging the wound and wrapping her in blankets.
A woman who said she made eye contact with the "very clean-cut" gunman before he opened fire told Northwest Cable News, "When I heard the shooting I thought, 'This is a joke. ... I couldn't believe this was actually happening, that someone would do this."
Betz Dejarnatt, who works at the J.C. Penney store, said workers were herded into dressing rooms and offices, then police took them outside to a parking lot.
Six people were taken to hospitals, most with minor injuries, according to Tacoma Fire Department Deputy Chief Jon Lendosky. One person was in critical condition at Tacoma General Hospital, spokesman Todd Kelley said.

I don't if you all know how close to home that is but I can tell you that if
I wasn't serving over here in Iraq I could of easily been in that mall yesterday... And in that particular store (that's where I buy most of my music)... Just thought you would like to know what's going on back home. So headcount could possibly be the most boring detail I have ever been assigned since i joined the Army.... Aghhh and I still have three more meals the insanity.... So I realize that it is odd to say men are pigs while I myself am also male..But my ability to oink doesn't make the statement any less true...

Random Fact of the Day: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire opened this weekend with record 101.4 million dollars which makes it the fourth highest opening ever... wanna know who's number one???? Spider-Man opened in 2002 at 114.8 million making it the Highest opening ever... neaner neaner.

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