Texas Primary School shooting leaves 21 dead

 Nineteen young children and two adults have died in a shooting at a primary school in south Texas.

The gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School – which teaches children aged seven to 10 – in the city of Uvalde before he was killed by law enforcement, officials said.

The 18-year-old suspect had a handgun, an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and high-capacity magazines, investigators say.

The teenager is suspected of shooting his grandmother before the rampage.

Local media report he may have been a high school student in the area.

Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Chief of Police Pete Arredondo said the shooting began at 11:32 local time on Tuesday, and that investigators believe the attacker “did act alone during this heinous crime”.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the shooter, whom he named as Salvador Ramos, abandoned a vehicle before entering the school to “horrifically, incomprehensibly” open fire.

Two children killed in the shooting have been identified by US media. Family members confirmed the deaths of 10-year-olds Xavier Lopez and Amerie Jo Garza in statements on Tuesday night.

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“My little love is now flying high with the angels above. Please don’t take a second for granted. Hug your family. Tell them you love them,” Amerie’s father Angel told ABC news.

One of the adults killed was a teacher named in US media as Eva Mireles. Her page on the school district’s website said she has a daughter in college and loved running and hiking.

Nearly 500 pupils are enrolled in the predominantly Hispanic school around 85 miles (135km) west of the city of San Antonio.

The Associated Press news agency reports that a US Border Patrol official who was nearby when the shooting began rushed into the school and shot and killed the gunman, who was behind a barricade.

Border Patrol is a federal agency that guards US ports of entry. Uvalde, which is fewer than 80 miles from the border with Mexico, is home to a Border Patrol station.

Two border agents were reportedly shot in an exchange with the gunman. One agent was shot in the head, officials say, adding that both were now in a stable condition in hospital.

According to CBS News, the attacker was wearing body armour as he carried out the attack. Another 18-year-old who is suspected of attacking a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, on 14 May was also wearing body armour and carrying a semi-automatic rifle – both of which are commercially available in the US.

The Uvalde Memorial Hospital posted on Facebook earlier that 13 children had been taken to hospital “via ambulances or buses”.

A 66-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl were in a critical condition at a hospital in San Antonio, University Health hospital officials said.

This is a profoundly shocking tragedy, yet in America it is also depressingly familiar. The grief and sympathy being expressed around the country is genuine. But no one is genuinely surprised that this could happen.

There have already been 27 school shootings this year alone. Young school children routinely rehearse what to do if a gunman enters their classroom.

It’s only 10 days since ten people were killed in a mass shooting in New York.

Politicians recognise this a problem almost unique to America, where guns have overtaken car crashes as the leading cause of death for children and teenagers. But it’s a problem that politics seem incapable of solving. Deeply entrenched views on gun control are not changed in response to events like the tragedy in Uvalde.

“Why do we keep letting this happen?” asked President Biden. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage?”

But there is no sign that Democrats will get any closer to passing tighter gun control legislation. Some Republicans are already accusing them of using this latest school shooting to cynically further their own political objectives

Robb Elementary School will join the roll call of school shootings along with Sandy Hook and the Parkland shooting. The killing of innocent schoolchildren has reignited the debate over guns in America, but has not brought it any closer to a resolution

Toyota To Cut Global Production Plan By 100,000 In June

 Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) will cut its global production plan by about 100,000 to roughly 850,000 vehicles in June due to the semiconductor shortage, it said on Tuesday.

The company did not change its estimate of producing about 9.7 million vehicles worldwide by March 2023.

The automaker also announced additional domestic factory line suspension due to supply shortage triggered by COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai. The additional suspension will be up to five days between Wednesday and June 3, affecting 16 lines at 10 factories for May and June in total.

It is planning to produce about 850,000 vehicles globally a month on average from June through August, it said, adding chips shortage and COVID-19 outbreaks and other factors “are making it difficult to look ahead.”

Source: REUTERS

DNT News

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Biden makes an emotional plea as victims of Texas shooting named

 Lamenting a uniquely American tragedy, an anguished and angry President Joe Biden delivered an urgent call for new restrictions on firearms after a gunman shot and killed at least 19 children at a Texas elementary school.

Biden spoke Tuesday night from the White House barely an hour after returning from a five-day trip to Asia that was bracketed by mass shootings in the U.S. He pleaded for action to address gun violence after years of failure — and bitterly blamed firearm manufacturers and their supporters for blocking legislation in Washington.

’“When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Biden said with emotion. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen?”

With first lady Jill Biden standing by his side in the Roosevelt Room, the president, who has suffered the loss of two of his own children — though not to gun violence — spoke in visceral terms about the grief of the loved ones of the victims and the pain that will endure for the students who survived.

“To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away,” Biden said. “There’s a hollowness in your chest. You feel like you’re being sucked into it and never going to be able to get out.”

He called on the nation to hold the victims and families in prayer — but also to work harder to prevent the next tragedy, “It’s time we turned this pain into action,” he said.

At least 19 students were killed at Robb Elementary School in the heavily Latino town of Uvalde, Texas, according to local officials. The death toll also included two adults. The gunman died after being shot by responding officers, local police said.

It was just a week earlier that Biden, on the eve of his overseas trip, traveled to Buffalo to meet with victims’ families after a racist, hate-filled shooter killed 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

The back-to-back tragedies served as sobering reminders of the frequency and brutality of an American epidemic of mass gun violence.

“These kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world,” Biden said, reflecting that other nations have people filled with hate or with mental health issues but no other industrialized nation experiences gun violence at the level of the U.S.

It was much too early to tell if the latest violent outbreak could break the political logjam around tightening the nation’s gun laws, after so many others — including the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in New town, Connecticut that killed 26, including 20 children — have failed.

“The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong,” Biden said. He has previously called for a ban on assault-style weapons, as well as tougher federal background check requirements and “red flag” laws that are meant to keep guns out of the hands of those with mental health problems.

Late Tuesday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer set in motion possible action on two House-passed bills to expand federally required background checks for gun purchases, but no votes have been scheduled.

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Tragedy on United from Accra to Washington as man dies in flight

 Daniel Toffey Jr. was days removed from his 27th birthday and two weeks removed from launching his gospel album

Tragedy struck on board United 997 while in the middle of the Atlantic when a young man of almost 27 died in what is suspected to be a case of pulmonary embolism.

What’s worse, Daniel Junior dies as his father Daniel Toffey Sr. looked on helplessly – in flight.

“He kept saying ‘Daddy I can’t breath, Daddy I can’t breath,'” the senior Toffey narrated to DNT in an interview moments ago.

After having sat for a while, the victim was said to have attempted to stand up to go and use the restroom when his movement became shaky and was soon gasping for air.

One young lady shouted “we need a doctor, we need a doctor.” At that moment, what appeared to be a sixth sense got the senior father to jump from his business class area and rushed to the scene although the flight crew instructed everyone to remain in their seats.

 

Unfortunately, with as many as seven doctors on board, and with tools with which those doctors were “impressed” for United Airlines to have on board, Daniel Toffey Junior still suffocated too death in flight.

The flight took off from the Kotoka International Airport around 11pm on Sunday and was scheduled to arrive at Washington Dulles early on Monday.

Bur as a result of the tragic incident, the flight was diverted to Bermuda where all 178 passengers were lodging at Grotto Bay Resort pending their continued travel to Washington.

Jesse Lasuer, a neighbor at business class told DNT how the deceased father was holding up in spite of the monumental loss. “Although he is holding up just fine, you can just see the pain in his eyes,” Lasuer recalled.

Daniel Toffey had come to Ghana with his wife and Gospel Artist son to attend the funeral of an in-law. The wife stayed behind while father and son took the lead home to Pataskala, Ohio – a suburb of Columbus.

The Junior Toffey was scheduled to launch his album on June 4 with Joe Mettle scheduled to attend in Columbus. But now, the mother, at the time of posting this story, was in flight heading home to prepare for the arrival of her husband and the body of their son.

The Toffeys hail from the Jomoro area of Ghana.

DNT News, with correspondence report from Grotto Bay Resort, Bermuda.

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Tedros Re-Elected As WHO Head

 Ethiopia’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been re-elected as the World Health Organization’s (WHO) head for a second five-year term.

The result of the secret vote was a formality since he was the only candidate.

Opening the 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Dr. Tedros, who has led the global response to the Covid pandemic, said coronavirus had turned the world upside down, leaving many still enduring suffering.

Fighting back tears as he spoke, he also called for an end to war, which he said “shakes and shatters the foundations on which previously stable societies stood”.

He recalled his own first-hand experience as a child of war in Ethiopia, which is again experiencing civil conflict in its northern Tigray region, where he is originally from.

The 57-year-old has been at odds with Ethiopia’s government after it accused him of supporting forces from Tigray – an accusation he has previously denied.

He had been Ethiopia’s health minister – during which he received praises for his efforts in controlling diseases like malaria and HIV/Aids – and a foreign minister before he was first elected to lead the WHO in 2017.

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Vigil, rally planned for 2nd anniversary of Floyd killing

 A candlelight vigil to honor George Floyd’s memory at the intersection where he died was among the remembrances scheduled for Wednesday’s second anniversary of the Black man’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

Activists planned the vigil, along with a rally at the governor’s residence in St. Paul, for the two-year anniversary of Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, which ignited protests in Minneapolis and around the world as bystander video quickly spread.

The intersection of 38th and Chicago streets became known informally as George Floyd Square in the wake of his death, with a large sculpture of a clenched fist as the centerpiece of memorials. The city planned to unveil a street sign officially dubbing the corner George Perry Floyd Square just ahead of the vigil, with Floyd’s brother Terrence among those attending.

Later events include a Thursday gathering of families of loved ones who have died in interactions with police and a fundraising gala Friday aimed at raising money to preserve offerings left by protesters and mourners at the intersection where Floyd was killed. An all-day festival and a concert at the intersection were also planned for Saturday.

Floyd, 46, died after Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, pinned his knee on Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes as Floyd was handcuffed and pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.

Chauvin is serving 22 1/2 years in prison after being convicted of state charges of murder and manslaughter last year. The ex-officer also pleaded guilty to violating Floyd’s civil rights in a federal case, where he now faces a sentence ranging from 20 to 25 years.

Former officers J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao are scheduled to stand trial on state charges in June. Thomas Lane pleaded guilty last week to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter for his role in Floyd’s killing, months after all three former Officers were convicted in February of federal charges of willfully violating Floyd’s rights.

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