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AMERICAN INDIAN NEWS TICKER!!!

  Violence in a Modern Society

Children Killing Children

Parents Killing Children

Children Killing Parents

Jonesboro, Arkansas (March 24, 1998)

The tragedy began when students filed outside after someone, possibly one of the two suspects, pulled the fire alarm. That made the students easy targets. Authorities said as many as 27 shots were fired. Youngsters ran screaming back inside the school as their classmates fell bleeding, then cried as they waited for emergency workers.

Law Enforcement sources said the boys burglarized a neighbor’s house Monday and stole the guns that were used in the attack Tuesday at Westside Middle School.

Authorities identified the dead students as Natalie Brooks, Paige Ann Herring and Stephanie Johnson, all 12, and Brittany R. Varner, who was 11. Teacher Shannon Wright, 32, died Tuesday night after surgery for wounds to her chest and abdomen. Students said she stepped in front of another student as the shots rang out. Eleven others, 10 students and a teacher, were wounded.

Arkansas has no law prohibiting minors from possessing shotguns or rifles, although people younger than 21 are barred from having handguns.

Investigators said that when the two boys were apprehended running through woods near the school after the carnage, they were carrying all 10 weapons over their shoulders and in their pockets. They said the boys were also armed with more than 100 rounds of ammunition each.

The suspects, identified as Mitchell Johnson, 13, and his 11-year-old cousin Andrew Golden, appeared in court Wednesday (March 25) and were ordered to remain in custody until their next hearing, set for April 29. During the detention hearing, Golden smiled and looked at ease, but Johnson kept his head lowered and then broke into tears when talking to his father.

Suspects from Church-going Families

Investigators confirmed that Johnson's father rushed to the school after hearing of the shootings, concerned that his son might be a victim. It took him two hours to find out that his son was one of the suspects.

Gary Etter of the Craighead County Sheriff's Department said the two boys come from church-going families with a long and active tradition of game hunting.

According to family friend Terry Crider, Golden’s parents have tried to "raise their child right" and "teach him respect for life" and also how to handle guns safely. Several students told reporters that the older suspect had said Monday that "he had a lot of killing to do."

Sources:
The Associated Press
Reuter
MSNBC

12/15/97 STAMPS, Arkansas 14-year-old Joseph "Colt" Todd is arrested in the sniper shooting of two students outside their high school. The students recovered; Todd, who faces trial later this year, said he was tired of being picked on.

12/1/97 PADUCAH, Kentucky 14-year-old Michael Carneal entered his high school and headed for a prayer meeting where he shot eight students, killing three.

10/1/97 PEARL, Mississippi Luke Woodham, 16, opened fire on his classmates, killing two and wounded seven more in the school cafeteria.

2/19/97 BETHEL, Alaska After making multiple threats, 16-year-old Evan Ramsey fatally gunned down his high school principal and one of his classmates.

1/27/97 WEST PALM BEACH, Florida Tronneal Mangum, 13, shot and killed another student on the sidewalk in front of his middle school.

10/31/96 ST. LOUIS, Missouri A student with a gun critically wounded another student in a school hallway.

9/25/96 ATLANTA, Georgia David Dubose Jr., 16, shot and killed a teacher in a school hallway.

7/26/96 LOS ANGELES, California High school junior Yohao Albert Rivas, 18, shot and wounded two classmates in a stairwell on campus.

2/2/96 MOSES LAKE, Washington 14-year-old Barry Loukaitas killed his teacher, fatally wounded two teenage boys and wounded a girl.

1/18/93 GRAYSON, Kentucky Scott Pennington, 17, walked into Deanna McDavid’s seventh-period English class at East Carter High School and shot her in the head. He then shot janitor Marvin Hicks in the abdomen. Pennington was sentenced to life without parole for 25 years.

Source: MSNBC Research

Violence and Discipline Problems in US Public Schools: 1996-97

Littleton, Colorado

The following website has transcripts of CNN news transmitted during the shooting:

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP -- March 19, 1998) - Though she was 5 when she died, Tonya Daniels weighed just 23 pounds, had virtually no muscle over her bones and just one-25th the normal abdominal fat of a child her age.

Her mother, Gloria Gross, was convicted of second-degree manslaughter Wednesday, blamed for the death of the severely retarded child who in the last months of her life came to resemble a famine victim.

"We've all seen pictures of starvation victims. They look like what I saw," pathologist Douglas Shearer testified during the four-day trial.

Ms. Gross, 39, showed no emotion when jurors delivered a verdict after just 2 1/2 hours of deliberations. She could get five to 15 years in prison at sentencing on April 10.

Although authorities determined Tonya died of severe malnutrition on July 28, more than four months went by before her mother was arrested. A grand jury indicted her on charges of recklessly causing Tonya's death by failing to feed her or seek medical care.

Ms. Gross told police her daughter had been having trouble keeping her food down for the last seven weeks of her life.

She said Tonya was diagnosed at 6 months with cerebral palsy. Prosecutors alleged the child was apparently stricken as a result of her mother's drug use during pregnancy.

A pathologist also cited signs of neglect when he examined Tonya, notably cockroach bites on her arms and legs and no trace of an anti-seizure medication she was supposed to take.

Defense lawyer Clark Zimmerman said he believed Ms. Gross "did what she could" to feed her daughter and didn't realize she was in danger.

From: Herald-Journal, Spartanburg, South Carolina

The following is a transcript of Susan Smith's handwritten confession to drowning her 2-year-old son Michael and 14-month-old son Alex. Her statement was released Nov. 22, 1994.

When I left my home on Tuesday, Oct. 25, I was very emotionally distraught. I didn't want to live anymore! I felt like things could never get any worse. When I left home, I was going to ride around a little while and then go to my mom's.

As I rode and rode and rode, I felt even more anxiety coming upon me about not wanting to live. I felt I couldn't be a good mom anymore, but I didn't want my children to grow up without a mom. I felt I had to end our lives to protect us from any grief or harm.

I had never felt so lonely and so sad in my entire life. I was in love with someone very much, but he didn't love me and never would. I had a very difficult time accepting that. But I had hurt him very much, and I could see why he could never love me.

When I was at John D. Long Lake, I had never felt so scared and unsure as I did then. I wanted to end my life so bad and was in my car ready to go down that ramp into the water, and I did go part way, but I stopped. I went again and stopped. I then got out of the car and stood by the car a nervous wreck.

Why was I feeling this way? Why was everything so bad in my life? I had no answers to these questions. I dropped to the lowest point when I allowed my children to go down that ramp into the water without me.

I took off running and screaming "Oh God! Oh God, no! "What have I done? Why did you let this happen? I wanted to turn around so bad and go back, but I knew it was too late. I was an absolute mental case! I couldn't believe what I had done.

I love my children with all my (a picture of a heart). That will never change. I have prayed to them for forgiveness and hope that they will find it in their (a picture of a heart) to forgive me. I never meant to hurt them!! I am sorry for what has happened and I know that I need some help. I don't think I will ever be able to forgive myself for what I have done.

My children, Michael and Alex, are with our Heavenly Father now, and I know that they will never be hurt again. As a mom, that means more than words could ever say.

I knew from day one, the truth would prevail, but I was so scared I didn't know what to do. It was very tough emotionally to sit and watch my family hurt like they did. It was time to bring a peace of mind to everyone, including myself.

My children deserve to have the best, and now they will. I broke down on Thursday, Nov. 3, and told Sheriff Howard Wells the truth. It wasn't easy, but after the truth was out, I felt like the world was lifted off my shoulders.

I know now that it is going to be a tough and long road ahead of me. At this very moment, I don't feel I will be able to handle what's coming, but I have prayed to God that he give me the strength to survive each day and to face those times and situations in my life that will be extremely painful. I have put my total faith in God, and he will take care of me.

[Signed]Susan V. Smith

[Dated]11/3/94 5:05 p.m.

The confession was signed by a FBI agent and a State Law Enforcement Division agent.

NEW YORK (Jul 2, 1996 Nando Times) -- The Menendez brothers, who killed their parents in 1989, were sentenced Tuesday by a California court to life in prison with no chance of parole.

Lyle, 28, and Erik Menendez, 25, demonstrated little reaction when they heard Judge Stanley Weisberg accept the recommendation of the jury and pass two consecutive life terms on each at Van Nuys Superior Court, Los Angeles. Throughout the case's two murder trials, watched by a grimly fascinated America, the two showed little emotion, and Tuesday was no exception.

However, when the sentence was announced the brothers' aunt, listening from the public gallery, broke into tears and there was a gasp of dismay from Anna Eriksson, a pen pal of Lyle Menendez who in the course of writing to him in prison fell in love with the murderer. She, dressed still in bridal white, had hoped to marry Menendez in a courtroom wedding on Monday but the ceremony was stopped at the eleventh hour when a judge ruled that public funds should not be used for such a marriage.

Life imprisonment was widely expected for the brothers who shot their 45-year-old businessman father Jose Menendez and his ex-model wife Kitty at the family's Beverly Hills home. They had hoped to get their hands on their father's fortune.

They will have a chance to appeal, but initial remarks from their lawyer suggested that they will accept the sentencing rather than persist with a legal fight which comprised two murder trials. In the first trial twin juries were unable to reach verdicts, but in April the second trial ended with a single jury deciding that the brothers were guilty.

The handsome and well-educated duo maintained that they were sexually abused by their father, who had been a leading swimmer and who fled Fidel Castro's Cuba to make his fortune in the pop music recording world. They claimed to have acted out of self defence, and said that their mother had done little to help them when they were being mistreated by their father. Later, they claimed that she, too, had preyed on their sexuality.

Friends of Mr. and Mrs Menendez described, instead, a couple who simply sought to exert discipline on their two young sons.

The couple died from wounds inflicted by a 12 bore shotgun. The two young men claimed that they had returned home that evening to find their parents dead and they were initially treated as grieving sons, even reading tributes to the murdered couple at their funeral. It was only when they started to spend their father's money that they started to excite the suspicions of the police. A statement by a former mistress of Lyle Menendez's psychiatrist later proved vital in the case. While standing at the door of Dr. Jerome Oziel's treatment room she heard Lyle state that he was responsible for the murders.

Later, Erik Menendez said of the shootings: "I just fired this gun, this stupid big gun. All I can remember is firing. There was lots of smoke ... real eerie." The word "eerie" was also used by veteran police officers who worked on the case and said that they had never known killers so adept at falsifying emotions and alibi, or known a case so bitter.

David Donn, a member of the prosecution team, said Tuesday: "It is a very fair sentence and certainly one that fits the crime."

His satisfaction was in marked contrast to Leslie Abramson, the Menendez's defence lawyer, who appeared close to tears after the sentencing. She said that in the course of the case she had come to regard the brothers as "part of a large, extended family" and described them as "wonderful people." She intended to stay in close contact with Erik and Lyle, adding: "The legal part if over but the human part continues."

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