8 Dead In N.C. Nursing Home Shooting

Gunman Kills 7 Patients, Nurse, Wounds Three Others, Including Police Officer, At North Carolina Facility; Suspect Captured

(CBS/AP)  A gunman opened fire at a North Carolina nursing home Sunday morning, killing eight people and wounding several others, police said.

The gunman was also injured before he was apprehended by police after the 10 a.m. shooting at Pinelake Health and Rehab in the town of Carthage, Carthage Police Chief Chris McKenzie told several television stations. A police officer was also hurt.

Gretchen Kelly, spokeswoman at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, said six people were brought to the hospital from the nursing home about 60 miles southwest of Raleigh. Kelly said two of the injured died at the hospital, but it wasn't clear if those two were among the six initially reported dead by police.

Kelly said two other patients had been discharged, while two were still being treated. She wouldn't release further details on the injuries or conditions of those hospitalized.

McKenzie said the gunman wasn't a patient at the nursing home, but didn't offer any further details on what the gunman's motive might have been. Police named the suspect as Robert Stewart, reported CBS News correspondent Mark Strassman.


CBS Affiliate WRAL reports that authorities at an afternoon news conference said Stewart was not believed to be related to any of the victims.

Strassman reported that seven of the deceased were patients at the facility - most of them in their 70s or 80s. One of those killed was a 98-year-old patient.

A nursing home Web site said the facility that opened in 1993 has 110 beds, including 20 for those with Alzheimer's disease.

Calls to the nursing home by The Associated Press rang unanswered Sunday, and McKenzie and several state law enforcement agencies didn't immediately return messages or declined to comment. Police planned a news conference for later Sunday afternoon.

Carthage is a small town of roughly 1,800 people in the North Carolina Sandhills, an area popular among retirees and home to several noted golf courses, including the famed Pinehurst resort and its No. 2 course that regularly hosts the U.S. Open.

Watch the latest report from CBS affiliate WRAL

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Watch the 5 p.m. ET press conference with Carthage Police Chief Chris McKenzie

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[1American]

Posted by cbswontwin
Sorry but winchester70 is right. You are posting nothing but the skewed Brady Bunch talking points on this site just like you post them on others. You are a gun hater, to you the end justifies the means. You will give up anything and anyones rights to have your way. Your problem is you are either afraid of your shadow or a bully. The majority of "gun haters" fit into those categorys, the small percentage left over are power hungry politicians. Go figure.

[winchester70]

The $100 billion figure is as mythical as trolls, the Hydra, and the bellowing herald Stentor.

[whatithink-2009]

Taxpayers pay more than 85% of medical cost for treatment of firearm related injuries.

(;The Cost of Hospitalization for Firearm Injuries; Jama vol.260 November 25,1998, Abstract Journal of Trauma February 1995)

[whatithink-2009]

"
99% of these deaths are the result of the illegal drug trade in this country. If you are not involved in drugs, you have little to worry about.

Posted by omnibus66 at 5:54 AM : Mar 30, 2009



It is very sad for you to assume that 99% of gun murders are related to people involved in drugs. Very sad. It's very sad because as a consequence you have no compassion for people who have been gun victims. You make outrageous ASSumptions, unfounded by any type of statistics.

Shame on you.

Here is something to ponder: Guns kept in the house for self-defence are 22x more likely to kill a loved one than be used to protect them!!!

[winchester70]

Schoollord: Where have you been? It has taken almost a day for you to crawl out from under the bridge and mount your soapbox.

[panhandlpete]

To all you 'TAKE AWAY GUNS" bloggers, I propose to you this scenario question..........Would you prefer to live in our current mixed up society, or would you prefer to have all the citizens disarmed of their weapons and each have a 'NANO' implanted to allow complete control by your government? Just go find yourself the safest place to live and leave the gun loving folks alone. Death will find each and every one of us at some time or some place and that is the one truth we can all live with regardless of our political position, or faith or lack of it, or our choice to pray or not to pray. I have special names for those who push gun control............too negative to print and too many.........but you get the picture.

Just think of guns, like religion, if they never existed, just how many more folks would be alive today? Talk about numbers of people KILLED in the name of religion over the ages......and they did not even use guns way back when it all began. THINK THINK THINK We must include bows and arrows, knives, axes, stones, ropes, etc. in the BAN for they can kill too.

[omnibus66]

To those of you spewing misinformation about deaths caused by guns.

99% of these deaths are the result of the illegal drug trade in this country. If you are not involved in drugs, you have little to worry about. Your next door neighbor with a hunting rifle is not going to shoot you.

Drug related shootings are mostly done by people who have no legal right to possess the weapon. More laws restricting who can own a weapon will have no effect.

Sure, there are a few crazies running around. There always have been and always will be. Be aware of your surroundings and odds are you will be OK. Of course some drunk might run a red light and kill you instantly, but that's the chance you take in life, isn't it? Maybe we should outlaw alcohol, or cars, or knives, or bad doctors, or . . . . .

[panhandlpete]

Wouldn't it be more helpful to know the WHY and WHAT that lead up to such an act by an individual? The story says the shooter was not related to any of the victims but did not say IF a relative was a patient at the NH , either currently or formerly. The whole story won't get printed if the truth would make the community(or even the gov't inactions) look negative.

Maybe this person believes in euthanasia.........but with a gun instead of a needle. The new healthcare plan of the future will most likely allow for this via 'do nothing care'.

[estewart73]

I cannot believe you mekanic 2009-How the heck do you know the staff didn't protect the nursing home residents? This a.m. CBS featured a nurse who died protecting patients who himself was shot 27 times. More than likely the staff present were helping their assigned patients and may have been in a patient room, or perhaps at a nursing station working on medical charts, talking to a doctor on the phone,etc. Maybe they actually were in the bathroom or on a dinner break. I am sure the shooting spree happened extremely quickly. Last I checked most nurses don't go to work packing a gun in their scrubs. I'm a RN at a large,teaching hospital-we have 32 beds on my unit and I have rehearsed in my head what I would do in such a scenario. Most nursing homes and hospitals have a lower staff ratio on the weekends, Sunday especially. I hope and pray if such a thing happens where I work people don't criricize me for a "lack of action to protect the patients" among other ignorant comments.

[gramto8]

You people raising a ruckus about no guard being in the nursing facility, tell me something. Would you have thought two days ago that some a$$ would go into a nursing home and start shooting old and disabled people? Would that even have crossed your mind? Did you know that most nursing homes you have to know the code to unlock the door to get into the place? You also have to know the code to get out...

It isn't like they aren't doing anything to protect these patients. They do what they can with the funds they get. Medicare doesn't pay much considering the amount of care required for some of the patients. Believe me, I know. I have a grandmother in one nursing home and a brother in another. He is there because of a massive stroke. She is there because of old age and inability to care for herself and past the point where we can care for her at home. Her costs aren't so bad, but my brother's are horrific. If we had to pay them all, I don't know what we would do.

Point being, the nursing facilities put their resources to work where they can and that is primarily patient care. The lockdowns and codes needed to get in and out are a big security factor. They cannot foresee every idiot out there that wants to kill someone anymore than you or I could.

[kds562]

A shotgun in every home should be allowed to protect your family and property. All others should be banned - This is 2009 not 1809

[Foxfire55]

Guns are not toys, they are tools. There are currently more than enough laws to restrict their use. There is a lack of enforcement because of a lack of enforcement personnel. There is also more mental illness in this country than anyone knows how to deal with and that is the root cause, not the guns. The overwhelming majority of gun owners are sane, responsponsible human beings. If you ban guns you will simply leave the decent people defenseless and the criminals the only ones with weapons which they will use to attack. England and Australia are perfect examples. They took away guns and their crime rates went way up. Open your eyes and stop being ignorant.

[yamuttya]

The US is a sinking ship.

The idiocy of Bush Cheney in Abu Graib and Guantanamo.
( The world hates the US )
Detroit is down for the count.
The Bush/ Cheney financial collapse.
The immorality and stupidity of American gun laws and a
so-called democracy that can't change them
Stick a fork in it,.

its done.

[pete_in_az]

hopefully it was a large caliber well aimed round

[mecanik-2009]

Yes I agree, why wasn't there a trained security guard on site. Why wasn't the staff trained to protect the people there. You place all these helpless people in a situation they can't defend themselves and not provide some kind of protection. We've gotten so complaicent about self protection we need to wake up here. Walking around and "feeling safe" is a myth. It's mental dry rot we get from listening to people who don't know anything about American freedom. Freedom requires courage. If you don't have it you don't belong in America enjoying the freedom others have fought and died for. We get so much criticism from the rest of the world because there so jealous of our freedoms. This dry rot has spread to the liberal democrats and caused people to think by stopping honest people from carrying concealed weapons will stop crazy people from shooting others.
Thats like thinking taking guns away from the police will make criminals stop shooting at them. Thats stupid. A coward expects the police to protect him, a brave man takes care of it himself. A nation of cowards will always fail and become an opressed society like most ot the countries of the world.

[TryTakingMyMoney]

My condolences to the families. Justice should be fast tracked. America, please allow trained ccw employees inside all facilities to prevent this from happening again.

[cbsblogger]

What is insane about US gun laws is that those who threaten and commit crimes with firearms are treated the same as those who use toys and/or no firearms. When an individual uses a firearm in the commission of a crime they need to face many years in prison, not out in bail within minutes.

[itsmeinks]

US gun laws are not insane people are! Shame on you for thinking such a thing.

[excoachken]

Another NUT with a gun. When will we have enough of this cave man attitude and restrict these deadly toys?

[yamuttya]

US gun laws are insane.
Shame on you, USA.