DETROIT, June 30, 2009
Gunmen Shoot 7 Outside Detroit School
Three Victims in Critical Condition After Masked Assailants Fire Into Crowd of Teens at Bus Stop
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Law enforcement officials look over the scene in west Detroit where gunmen in a green minivan opened fire on a group of teenagers waiting at a bus stop near a Detroit school on Tuesday, June 30, 2009. The gunmen wounded at least seven including three who were in critical condition, authorities said. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Five of the teens had just left Cody Ninth Grade Academy, where they were taking summer classes, when they were shot at the nearby bus stop.
The gunmen exited a vehicle and "asked for a person by name" before they "opened fire at the crowd," said Detroit Public Schools Police Chief Roderick Grimes.
Detroit Police were looking for two suspects in a green minivan, said spokesman Rod Liggons. Officers were interviewing some of the victims in the hospital Tuesday evening, he said.
The teenagers, four boys and three girls, range in age from 14 to 17 years old, Liggons said. Three of the teens were in critical condition, he said.
Gas station owner Steve Hakim said he saw two people with T-shirts covering their heads run across his lot toward the bus stop. Then he heard about 10 gunshots, saw a boy and a girl fall down and called 911.
"It's pretty scary," Hakim said. "Somebody's got to do something."
Police were reviewing video taken from the gas station's security cameras and took a disc containing the footage, Hakim said.
Another summer school student, 15-year-old Bria Wilson, said she was standing at the bus stop when she heard the gunfire. She said she was facing away from the shooters and ran away after the shots were fired. But she saw a 16-year-old male friend lying on the ground, bleeding.
"They were so close - it almost hit me," she said.
Schools spokesman Steve Wasko said there was "nothing that we're aware of at this time" linking the shootings with any fight or dispute at the school.
He said the shootings happened about 2:15 p.m., about 15 minutes after summer school students were dismissed for the day.
Imam Abdullah El-Amin, who co-owns the Numan Funeral Home near the intersection where the shooting took place, said drug-dealing, prostitution and "hopelessness" are common in the area, he said.
"It's terrible that these things are just laying there, festering, in society - time bombs waiting to happen," said El-Amin, a Muslim minister and candidate for Detroit City Council.
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- The chances of being murdered in this country are 10,000:1 against. I'm sure that number is higher in some areas and lower in others, but average - 10,000:1. I don't own a gun. I'm willing to take my chances on being in the other 9,999 rather than being frightened enough to have a lethal weapon in my house. OK knives are lethal as well, but if they were as easy to kill with as guns, then all you self-defence nuts would be happy with using knives, wouldn't you? One point, the reason that the chances are 10,000:1 and not 50-100,000:1 or more as they are in most other western countries is the NRA and the US's 90 guns per 100 people.
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- It is unfortunate, even the pastor encourage the people to bring loaded gun to the church. NRA encourages the people to use gun. Proud gun owners with their constitutional right killing the innocents.
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- OMG..what a bedwetter you are "Proud gun owners with their constitutional right killing the innocents". So someone breaks into my home to do harm to my family and you call THEM innocent. Where is you common sense? If someone breaks into YOUR home what are you going to do, stun them with your ability to engage in intellectual dialogue? Hey let me know how that turns out for you.
- It's sounds like a couple of disgruntled campaign staff of Norm Coleman's are "expressing" their displeasure over his long-time delayed defeat!
Not only do these idiots resort too violence, they're not even smart enough to do it in Coleman's home state of Minnesota, but venture out of state for the shootings! - Reply to this comment
- We need capital punishment in all 50 states. Also, try and punish 16 year olds and up as adults.
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- That won't help one bit.
At the moment someone takes a gun and kills someone with it, the killer is NOT thinking about the law, NOT thinking about possible punishment. He is thinking about KILLING, if he is thinking at all.
It may make you feel better to suggest more punishment for more people, but it just does NOT work.
- I agree with Fred---it won't help much! The point is, if someone has DECIDED that someone else "needs to go", that's it! You're not going to change that person's mind! The threat of capital punishment isn't going to stop him...or her!
As it stands, 16 year olds ARE now tried and punished as adults in many states, though I can't give you an exact figure on how many!
I was going to say next that the best solution is to keep society running as efficiently as possible and minimize the amount of "insults" that the average person has to take during the typical day---
But, heck! The U.S. is going to 'h*e*l*l in a hand-cart' thanks to Bush and the Republithugs, and team Obama isn't doing much better, SO, I have no great solutions to proffer on this!
- That won't help one bit.
- Ah... Proud gun owners, using their "constitutional right to 'defend' themselves"!
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- And Fred, when you take guns away from the law abiding citizens that turn them over to the government, do you think the masked men in that van would turn in their guns?
The federal government should fear a well armed population. End of story. And if you are a law abiding citizen with no histyory of spouse of child abuse or a felony, then you should be able to own ANY firearm you want. Hell I should be able to buy a fully automatic 50 cal, but the gun grabbers already ruined that.
- And Fred, when you take guns away from the law abiding citizens that turn them over to the government, do you think the masked men in that van would turn in their guns?
- I will be in detroit next week good thing I have concealed License.
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- Such idiotic statements about the NRA, OR ANYTHING TO DO WITH gUNS period shows such lack of understanding, had they ran over them all with the 'green van' would you still be squaking like an uneducated fool, and blaming the auto industry, or the state for giving this person a license to kill with a 3 thousand lb chunk of steel calling it a drivers license?
Law abiding gun owners are extremely rare to have been to blame for something like this. Illegal gun owners are to blame. They also steal cars to commit there crimes, but I dont hear anyone barking about that, nor the drugs they sell, or other violent acts they commit to climb there gang ladders by murderous initiations. Guns can not kill people, cars can not kill people, knives can not kill people.
You can not blame ANY peice of metal for causing the death of ANY one......but you CAN blame the person hiding behind the peice of metal. Maybe we should take away all over your cars, and kitchen utensis, and anything else that can be used as a weapon...... you would be sitting on the ground nakid in your own front yard...after working several yrs in a prison... AYTHING can be turned into a weapon. - Reply to this comment
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- "Law abiding gun owners are extremely rare to have been to blame for something like this. Illegal gun owners are to blame" -- Netterz
You have NO EVIDENCE to prove that statement. The NRA has worked tirelessly to make sure that cops NEVER report whether or not the shooter was a "legal" gun owner or not, just like they NEVER report whether or not the owner had a concealed carry permit (the other LIE the NRA gets you morons to mindlessly repeat is that "law abiding" gun owners with CC permits never commit crimes).
You're right, however, that it's not the "piece of metal" that is to blame for killing people. The blame lies with the NRA and all the stupid, suicidal, anarchists who insist that they, and every other effing imbecile, has a "right" to carry around a piece of metal that has only ONE purpose: to kill people... and then they want us to quit complaining when they end up killing people with those pieces of metal!
We KNOW this world is full of crazy, stupid, depressed, suicidal, criminal, and-or murderous people. WHY they h3ll should be let all those lunatics have guns? Do we all WANT to die? I, for one, do NOT.
- "Law abiding gun owners are extremely rare to have been to blame for something like this. Illegal gun owners are to blame" -- Netterz
- It's a lot easier to just blame guns or the NRA rather than to solve the real problems.
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- I agree 100%.
Poeple know the problems, but many parents don't want to stay home and raise the children right, (Male & Female). They want the 'State to raise their children and give the parents a 'free' ride while doing it. Bill Cosby isn't just speaking to Blacks, but many people say "Yeah!!! Bill, You tell them ****** how to behave". The same people point a finger at 'X' as the cause but can't see that they are pointing 'three fingers back at themselves........
- The real problem IS THE NRA!! They are an organized group of GUN SELLERS who own the US congress and have brainwashed all of you imbeciles into thinking you can "defend yourselves" with your guns when the facts prove otherwise.
The NUMBER ONE FATAL OUTCOME OF GUN OWNERSHIP IS SUICIDE. It is NOT "shooting a criminal to save your life". It is KILLING YOURSELF! If you have a gun in your home, your odds of dying from gunfire INCREASE! The odds of your wife, GF, kids, friends, and neighbors of dying by gunfire also INCREASE!
Guns don't promote "safety". They just promote DEATH!
- I agree 100%.
- When evil resides in any person, Republican or Democrat, NRA member or not, that person will always find a way to obliterate those things they hate. When the sanctity of life becomes so obscute in a persons mind, nobody is safe from him/her. What a great life, huh people. Moral of the story: If you don't cherish every minute in your life, it can be snuffed out not by what we do; but by the wants of others.
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- I seriously doubt that the shooters were members of the NRA. Too bad the teens weren't armed. They could have returned fire.
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- Then those teens likely would have killed MORE innocent people as they tried to defend themselves. Even highly trained cops can't defend themselves with guns-- they are ALWAYS carrying, yet they get killed all the time! Without very specific, very intense and stressful training, repeated at least every other month, NOBODY is very good at defending themselves with a gun when they are being attacked. Because you refuse to face up to this fact, all of you gun nutz are a serious danger to everyone else. Armed and delusional-- that's NOT a recipe for safety!
- GO NRA! The murder enablers! Woohoo!!
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