The Daily Blog

New York Shooting: Four Dead In Pharmacy Massacre.

MEDFORD, N.Y. — A gunman shot four people inside a pharmacy in a New York suburb Sunday morning, killing everyone inside the store in what police said looked like a robbery gone wrong.

The massacre happened at about 10:20 a.m. inside a family-owned pharmacy in a small cluster of medical offices in Medford, a middle-class hamlet on Long Island about 60 miles east of New York City.

Police rushed to the scene after getting a 911 call from someone in the pharmacy’s parking lot. When they arrived, they found two employees and two customers dead, said Suffolk County Police Department’s Chief of Detectives Dominick Varrone. No one inside the shop survived.

Suffolk County Police identified the dead employees as Raymond Ferguson, 45, of Centereach, and Jennifer Mejia, 17, of East Patchogue. Bryon Sheffield, 71, of Medford, and Jamie Taccetta, a 33-year-old woman from Farmingville, were identified as the two customers.

Rene Mejia, of Medford, said one of the victims was his daughter, Jennifer. He said she worked part-time at the pharmacy while attending Bellport High School, where she was finishing her senior year.

“I don’t know what happened,” he said. “She was supposed to graduate Thursday.”

The pharmacy, Haven Drugs, had opened for business at 10 a.m., and Varrone said investigators’ initial belief was that a single gunman was responsible for the bloodbath, and that the motive was robbery. Just how the shooting unfolded, and why, were unclear, he said.

Police said the suspect was armed with a handgun and stole prescription drugs from the pharmacy before fleeing with a black backpack. No suspects were in custody.

A call left for the man listed in state records as the pharmacy’s owner and chief pharmacist, Vinoda Kudchadkar, wasn’t immediately returned.

Police had the streets around the pharmacy blocked off with crime tape. Officers could be seen scanning the ground for evidence, and as of late afternoon the bodies had yet to be removed.

Two teens, who said they were classmates of Mejia, came to the scene after hearing about the shooting from friends on Facebook.

“She was a walking angel on earth,” said Kimberly Jimenez, 18, of Brookhaven.

“She gave me a bracelet and said God would watch out for me, Jimenez said. “Why couldn’t God watch out for her.”

Another classmate, Taylor Lee, 17, of East Patchogue, described Mejia as a “very holy girl.”

“She was truly one of God’s angels,” Lee said.

News of the shootings stunned neighbors, who said they heard the commotion after police arrived, but saw nothing of the crime.

“It’s absolutely crazy. There are no words,” said Scott Radice, who lives four houses up the street from Haven Drugs and said he has been a customer for 15 years. “I’m hoping they had cameras in the pharmacy so they can catch this guy.”

“This is a family business. Everyone goes there. It is our neighborhood pharmacy,” said neighbor Kathy Culhane. “If you had a problem with prescriptions, he’d go to bat for you,” she said of the owner, who wasn’t at the pharmacy when the shooting happened.

Bomb, Propane Tanks Found at Colorado Mall.

LITTLETON, Colo. - Investigators want to question a person of interest about a pipe bomb and propane tanks found after a fire at a Littleton mall, a discovery that raised the possibility of a connection to the Columbine massacre anniversary.

Firefighters found two propane tanks and the bomb near the Southwest Plaza Mall’s food court after a small fire broke out Wednesday that was quickly squelched. The mall was evacuated around noon. No one was injured and the bombs didn’t explode.

Wednesday was the 12th anniversary of the shooting rampage at nearby Columbine High School and officials expressed concern that the mall incident could be somehow linked.

“The fact that has happened on April 20, 12 years later, near the school and with similar devices is very disturbing,” Jefferson County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said.

A possible connection to Columbine will be explored.

“It’s something that can’t be ignored and won’t be ignored,” Kelley said.

The mall is about two miles from the school, where two student gunmen killed 13 people and themselves on April 20, 1999 in a rampage that stunned the nation.

Unexploded pipe bombs and a propane tank with explosives attached were found in the school after the shootings.

“If it’s kids, they’re crazy not to know what this means in this town,” Margie Hecht, who lives near the mall, told The Denver Post. “I remember that day and they wouldn’t think this is funny if they did.”

Through the years, students across the country have been accused of threats and incidents modeled after Columbine.

FBI spokesman Dave Joly said authorities have identified a person of interest seen on surveillance video entering a stairwell he said isn’t typically used by the public.

The man could be a witness or a suspect, Kelley said.

He is described as a white male with graying hair and a silver mustache. Photos taken from surveillance show him in a dark cap, gray and white striped shirt, dark jacket, blue jeans and dark shoes. He is seen entering a stairwell and carrying a white plastic bag.

Joly said it was too early to speculate whether the incident was an act of terrorism.

Sheriff’s officials said there are usually about 6,000 to 10,000 people in the mall around noon each day. Shoppers and about 300 mall employees left after the fire.

A daylong search didn’t turn up any other explosive devices in the mall, which was expected to be open for business Thursday.

About 25 schools were on lockout as a precaution, meaning access is restricted to one point, according to the Post. Classes had been canceled at Columbine High School in remembrance of those killed in the shootings.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold wounded several students and killed 12 and one teacher before shooting themselves.

Obama: US Will Turn Over Control of Libya Effort.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The four-day air assault in Libya will soon achieve the objectives of establishing a no-fly zone and averting a massacre of civilians by Moammar Gadhafi’s troops, President Barack Obama said Tuesday, adding that despite squabbling among allies, the United States will hand off control of the operation to other countries within days.

“When this transition takes place, it is not going to be our planes that are maintaining the no-fly zone,” the president said at a news conference in El Salvador as he neared the end of a Latin American trip overshadowed by events in Libya. “It is not going to be our ships that are necessarily enforcing the arms embargo. That’s precisely what the other nations are going to do.”Obama said he has “absolutely no doubt” that a non-U.S. command entity can run the operation, although perhaps the most obvious candidate - the NATO military alliance - has yet to sort out a political agreement to do so. The president said NATO was meeting to “work out some of the mechanisms.”Despite the cost - not only in effort, resources and potential casualties, but also in taxpayer dollars - Obama said he believes the American public is supportive of such a mission.

“This is something that we can build into our budget. And we’re confident that not only can the goals be achieved, but at the end of the day the American people are going to feel satisfied that lives were saved and people were helped,” he said.

Obama spoke as one senior American military official said the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar was expected to start flying air patrols over Libya by this weekend, becoming the first member of the Arab League to participate directly in the military mission. Obama and NATO had insisted from the start on Arab support.

The president also suggested the administration would not need to request funding from Congress for the air operations but would pay for them out of money already approved.

Administration officials briefed lawmakers during the day about costs and other details to date.

Domestic criticism of the operation has been muted so far, with the president out of the country, but is likely to increase once he flies home on Wednesday - a few hours earlier than had been scheduled.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, said the administration is getting reports - of questionable credibility - that some in Gadhafi’s inner circle may be looking for a way out of the crisis. She said some of them, allegedly acting on the Libyan leader’s behalf, have reached out to people in Europe and elsewhere to ask, in effect, “How do we get out of this?”“Some of it is theater,” Clinton said in an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer. “Some of it is, you know, kind of, shall we say game playing.” She added: “A lot of it is just the way he behaves. It’s somewhat unpredictable. But some of it we think is exploring. You know, ‘What are my options? Where could I go? What could I do?’ And we would encourage that.”

The Pentagon said two dozen more Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from U.S. and British submarines late Monday and early Tuesday against Libyan targets, raising the total to 161 aimed at disabling Gadhafi’s air defenses.Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III said Libyan ground troops will be more vulnerable as the coalition grows in size and capability, but he declined to provide details of future targeting. He spoke to reporters at the Pentagon from aboard his command ship in the Mediterranean Sea.

The president and Pentagon officials have stressed since the military campaign began that America would quickly give other countries the lead.

“I think fairly shortly we are going to be able to say that we’ve achieved the objective of a no-fly zone. We will also be able to say that we have averted immediate tragedy,” Obama said.

He told reporters he had spoken earlier with British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in hopes of quickly resolving a dispute over the transition of the military mission.

With congressional critics growing more vocal, the president defended the wisdom of the operation so far.

“It is in America’s national interests to participate … because no one has a bigger stake in making sure that there are basic rules of the road that are observed, that there is some semblance of order and justice, particularly in a volatile region that’s going through great changes,” Obama said

With longtime autocratic governments under pressure elsewhere in the Arab world, the president made clear his decision to dispatch U.S. planes and ships did not automatically signal he would do so everywhere.

“That doesn’t mean we can solve every problem in the world,” he said.

Several members of Congress, including a number from Obama’s own party, were increasingly questioning the wisdom of U.S. involvement.

“We began a military action at the same time that we don’t have a clear diplomatic policy, or a clear foreign policy when it comes to what’s going on in Libya,” said Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., adding that the Obama administration lacks a clear understanding of rebel forces trying to oust Gadhafi, who has ruled for 42 years.

“Do we know what their intentions would be? Would they be able to govern if they were to succeed? And the answer is we don’t really know,” Webb said.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said he would offer an amendment to the next budget resolution that would prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to fund U.S. military operations in Libya.

The Marine Corps, meanwhile, offered fresh details of its role in the rescue of an Air Force F-15E pilot who ejected over eastern Libya on Monday. The plane’s weapons system officer, who also ejected and made it safely back to U.S. control, was recovered in a separate operation not involving the Marines.Unconfirmed reports from Libya said a number of civilians were wounded, apparently during the pilot rescue, but the circumstances were murky.

A senior Marine Corps officer at the Pentagon, speaking on condition of anonymity because the F-15E’s crash was still under investigation, said that during the course of the rescue two 500-pound bombs were dropped by Marine AV-8B Harrier jets.

The officer said the bombs were requested by the downed pilot, who reported concern that possibly hostile forces were approaching. The officer said it was unclear what the two bombs hit.

The pilot was picked up by an MV-22 Osprey aircraft that flew - along.

Virginia Tech Survivor Is ‘Living for 32’ in War to Tighten Gun Laws.

WASHINGTON — Surviving the deadliest shooting massacre in U.S. history wasn’t enough to make Colin Goddard an advocate for stricter gun laws. Only when he watched another rampage play out on TV two years later did the Virginia Tech graduate realize he had to speak out.

“That took me back to the day like none other,” Goddard said of another troubled gunman who killed 14 at an immigration center in Binghamton, N.Y. “I was watching the body count rise and I was like, this is just the same stuff that is happening to another family now. … I was like, I’ve got to get involved. I’ve got to do something about this.”

What Goddard did was join the nation’s largest gun-control organization, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. At first, he made public-service spots, speaking for the 32 people slain by a deranged gunman on the campus of Virginia Tech. But he also spoke for the 32 people killed every day in gun violence, people whose deaths don’t conjure a million hits on Google.”Virginia Tech happening every single day is pretty powerful,” said Goddard, one of 17 wounded people to survive the massacre. He was shot four times and still carries bullet fragments in his hips and knee.

Maria Cuomo Cole and Kevin Breslin agreed. With her money and encouragement and his direction, the two scions of New York royalty — she’s the daughter and sister of two governors and the wife of fashion designer Kenneth Cole, he’s the son of legendary journalist Jimmy Breslin — convinced Goddard to let them tell the story of what happened on April 16, 2007.The result is “Living for 32.”

Chosen for next month’s Sundance Film Festival and short-listed for an Academy Award, the documentary follows Goddard back to Norris Hall, where he was sitting in French class as the gunman made his way toward the classroom. Goddard managed to call 911 on his cell phone before Seung-Hui Cho burst in and began shooting his classmates one by one, execution style.

The film later goes along with Goddard to gun shows in Ohio and Texas. There, using a hidden camera, he captures dealers and gun owners more than willing to sell him firearms without so much as asking his name, let alone running a background check.

“Living for 32” is a “great educational tool” to demonstrate why the gun show loophole that allows anyone to buy a firearm from a private seller without a background check must be closed, he said.

It also gives Goddard, now 25, a break from constantly retelling his story as a “Virginia Tech survivor.”

Mexico Launches Federal Probe of Migrant Massacre.

MEXICO CITY (Aug. 28) — Federal authorities said Saturday they will take over the investigation into the massacre of 72 migrants at a ranch in northern Mexico because evidence suggests drug traffickers were responsible.

They also said an Ecuadorean migrant who was the lone survivor has refused Mexico’s offer of a humanitarian visa and will return to his native country.
Government security spokesman Alejandro Poire said drug cartel involvement would make the killings a federal crime.

The government “will continue its frontal assault against these organizations so that terrible events like those that occurred this week will not be repeated,” Poire said. One suspect, who claimed to be 16, was captured at the scene of the massacre and is in custody. Three other suspects and a marine were killed during a raid on the ranch.Federal authorities said they will wait for survivor Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla to recover from a gunshot wound in the neck and then help him leave Mexico.

Lala, who is under heavy guard, told investigators Monday that about 10 men who identified themselves as members of the Zetas drug gang traveling in five vehicles intercepted the migrants on a highway in Tamaulipas, a Gulf coast state bordering Texas.
They tied up the migrants, took them to the ranch and demanded they work for the gang, Lala told investigators. When most refused, they were blindfolded, ordered to lie down and shot.

Immigration Commissioner Cecilia Romero said Friday that Lala had been offered a humanitarian visa to stay in Mexico, but his mother said the 18-year-old begged her to arrange him to come to the United States, where she lives. The AP is not using the woman’s name or her location to avoid putting her in potential danger.The mother said she has been in contact with the Ecuadorean consulate, but officials there said they could only help him return to Ecuador.

Investigators have so far identified 34 of the dead: 16 Hondurans, 12 Salvadorans, five Guatemalans and a Brazilian.

Only some had ID on them; investigators were collecting DNA from the rest in hopes of being able to make positive identifications.

In Honduras, worried relatives visited the Foreign Ministry seeking news on relatives believed to be in Mexico.

Maria Cruz was looking for word about her son, Denis Moreno, 34, who last contacted her from a city along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I hope he is not on the list,” she told a Honduran television station, sobbing. “I hope not.”

Fabiana Carcamo told local media she had been notified that her 40-year-old brother, Miguel Angel Carcamo, died in the massacre. She said he left Honduras Aug. 3 and after some difficulties made it to Mexico. His plan was to reach the United States.

Carcamo left behind four children between the ages of 4 and 15 in his hometown of El Guante, about 35 miles (60 kilometers) north of the capital, Tegucigalpa.”I talked with Miguel Angel on Aug. 3. He told me not to cry, that he would call me when he got there and that he would help me,” said another sister, Ana Cristina.

Migrants frequently send money to support relatives back home.

Gangs have long kidnapped migrants and demanded payment to cross their territory. But the Mexican government says the cartels are increasingly trying to force vulnerable migrants into drug trafficking, a concern also expressed by U.S. politicians demanding more security at the border.Mexican agents have rescued 2,750 migrants this year, some stranded in deserts and others held captive by criminal gangs, said Romero, the immigration commissioner.

In Tamaulipas alone, 812 migrants kidnapped by drug gangs have been rescued, she said. Many told authorities the cartels tried force them into drug trafficking.

The escalating danger has scared off many would-be migrants, resulting in a sharp drop in the number of people from Central America and elsewhere traveling through Mexico trying to reach U.S. soil, according to Romero.

The Zetas were founded by former Mexican army special forces soldiers and have become a lethal drug gang that has taken to extorting migrants.

The cartel controls much of Tamaulipas, a cattle-ranching state that is the last leg for migrants running the gauntlet up the Gulf coast to Texas.

Drug violence has spread throughout Mexico. On Saturday, police in the southern Pacific coast state of Guerrero found a man’s dismembered body on the trunk of a car and his head on the roof.

The body was found near the state capital of Chilpancingo, along with a handwritten message. The area has witnessed a turf battle between several drug gangs that often leave notes at murder scenes that threaten rivals or officials.

On Friday, police found a total of 15 bodies throughout Guerrero state.