29 Killed In Two US Mass Shootings Many Hurt
DAYTON (Ohio): Two mass shootings within 24 hours put the nation’s focus back onto gun control and, given the alleged anti-immigrant views of a shooter in Texas, elevate the issue of the dangers of hate speech.
Gun control has been a mostly peripheral theme on the Democrats’ 2020 campaign trail until now. Some have written it off as a lost cause after years of violent incidents with little policy response from lawmakers or others. It’s set to dominate Sunday morning talk shows, for starters.
“It’s past time we take action and end our gun violence epidemic,” Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden said on Twitter after the first shooting.
Police on Saturday arrested a 21-year-old Texas man suspected opening fire with an assault rifle at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, killing at least 20 people. The suspect allegedly drove hundreds of miles from his near home near Dallas to carry out the attack in the heavily Hispanic city on the U.S.-Mexican border.
Dayton police tweeted that an active shooter situation began in the Oregon District at 1:22 a.m., but that officers nearby were able to “put an end to it quickly.” At least 16 others were taken to local hospitals with injuries, police said. The suspected shooter’s identity has not been released.
The shooter was also killed, police said. Oregon district, known for an active bar scene. The shooter has not been identified, and a motive was not immediately clear.The Oregon District is a historic neighborhood known for its entertainment in the city of Dayton in the Midwestern U.S. state of Ohio.
Less than 24 hours after the El Paso shooting, a gunman in body armor killed at least nine people and injured dozens of others in a popular nightlife district of Dayton, Ohio, police there said.
Among the Democratic hopefuls due to appear on Sunday talk shows were Senators Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders; former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who represented El Paso in Congress, and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Representing the administration will be acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney plus Larry Kudlow and Peter Navarro, two of Trump’s economic advisers.
In a series of tweets, Trump called the El Paso killings “an act of cowardice,” saying there are “no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people.” He was being briefed Sunday morning on the Dayton incident, the White House said.
Trump launched his presidential bid in June 2015 with a speech that slammed immigrants from Mexico as drug dealers, criminals and rapists. Since then, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and a focus on the U.S.-Mexican border, has been a centerpiece of the Trump administration.
The president has described the southern border as “a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs including meth, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl.” He’s termed gang members “animals” and sent troops to the southern border to “stop the attempted Invasion of Illegals.” He’s also said in tweets and at rallies that the U.S. is simply “full.”
The incident was resolved quickly, police said, and the FBI is providing assistance. Dayton police said on its Twitter account: “We had officers in the immediate vicinity when this shooting began and were able to respond and put an end to it quickly.”Police say the gunman, whose identity has not been released, is dead. The FBI is assisting in the case, police added.
The shooting, which began around 1 a.m. local time, in the Oregon district of the city came just hours after a mass shooting Saturday at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where 20 people were killed and 26 were wounded. Last Sunday a gunman killed three people and injured 13 at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California.
A 21-year-old white male suspect was in custody after killing at least 20 people and wounding more than two dozen in a shooting rampage at a WalMart in El Paso, Texas on Saturday. Colette Luke has more.
“Fortunately we had multiple officers in the immediate vicinity when this incident started so there was a very short timeline of violence, for that we’ve very fortunate.”It’s a very tragic incident and we’re doing everything we can to investigate it and try to identify the motivation behind this,” said Carper.
(With Agency Inputs ).
